GRIT – the skills for success and how they are grown

I give you some tasty morsels from this very good and very well researched booklet, written by Yvonne Roberts for the Young Foundation.

“… the roots of such experimentation [now happening in schools, apprenticeships and further education] should be planted firmly in social and emotional learning, an understanding of the importance of resilience, self-discipline and grit as well as respect for the power of practical and vocational education, even for those judged academically bright.” (Introduction to GRIT)

While the popularity of practical learning has risen sharply from 35% in 1998 to 56% in 2008, many students see education as a passive ‘hands off’ even. Asked what they do most often in school, 65% of 11-16 year-olds say ‘copy from a board or a book’ (56% in 2000); 63% say ‘listen to a teacher talking for a long time’ (33% in 2007). Campaign for Learning

“We know that the ‘one size fits all’ industrialised model of education has to go. That model wasn’t built around the best way children can learn, but the best way to organise learning.” (Prof Stephen Heppell)

Around 40% of American school children have a fixed ‘mind set’. They believe they are bright or stupid or somewhere in between, and this ranking is fixed. This mind-set can paralyse potential. Those who believe they are dumb see no point in trying – while those who are deemed clever avoid stretching themselves for fear of failing.” (Prof Carol Dweck)

It is now 30 years since Pierre Bourdieu’s classic work showing why expanding education would be unlikely to increase social mobility. He argued that qualifications would act more as markers than as genuine signs of merit.

The UK Commission for Employment and Skills says in its first report (2009) that what is missing in pupils is ‘experiential action-learning’, ‘using skills rather than simply acquiring knowledge’.

The first headmaster of Stowe school, J F Roxburgh, declared that his goal was to turn out young men who would be “acceptable at a dance and invaluable in a shipwreck”.