Constance Staley’s presentation on teaching “grit” during spring Opening Conference shared a number of ways that instructors can impact students. Wanting to think more deeply about this as the new semester approaches, I looked up grit in Google’s online dictionary. The second definition as a noun refers to “courage and resolve; strength of character…”, but the first verb definition interests me more related to teaching practices: “clench (the teeth), especially in order to keep one’s resolve when faced with an unpleasant or painful duty.”
John Dewey not only taught at U of M, he was smart enough to buy a house in Key West! Field trip, anyone?
Echoing what Dr. Staley shared, I see two direct connections between student’s grit and Significant Learning Outcomes (SLO’s). First, sharing your SLO’s at the start lets students know what they are up against so they aren’t caught with their mouth hanging open at the needed rigor. Second, knowing what is expected and how the upcoming work is relevant to their future goals and how it may positively impact their lives provides an inspirational and motivational vision. Over a century ago, John Dewey wrote the following in his Pedagogic Creed, studied by educators worldwide:
“Much of present education fails because it neglects this fundamental principle of the school as a form of community life. It conceives the school as a place where certain information is to be given, where certain lessons are to be learned, or where certain habits are to be formed. The value of these is conceived as lying largely in the remote future; the child must do these things for the sake of something else he is to do; they are mere preparations. As a result they do not become a part of the life experience of the child and so are not truly educative.”
In other words, students aren’t going to grit their teeth and get it done if reality is too far in the future to see.
Give your own grit a test, and connect your students with examples of your discipline currently integrating into the workplace using one of the cool new tools shared by Dr. Staley, Haiku Deck.
Got Grit? – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires
More writings from NMC faculty related to student learning and grit:
After spending years reading and occasionally understanding Dewey in college, my new favorite quotes from Dewey center around one of my favorite places, Key West.
Although his work habits suffered greatly from his usual productivity in the big city, he was able to write four works during his stays in his winter paradise. Dewey said “The manana mood develops very easily here.” He would often write letters saying that the
climate and laid-back attitude was easy to accept and hard to ignore. While
Dewey wasn’t as productive as he might have liked to be, he often justified it
by saying he’s on a lazy vacation anyway. “The climate here is too relaxing to
be conductive to work.
His former house is now a bed and breakfast, if you need a (pricey) spring break destination.