Some of my students seem to take easy way for their learning in the classroom, when they don't take down notes, and may not be fully attentive as they have 'false security' of relying on online resources. To make the matters worse, many of them become sulky and indifferent when asked to practice some concepts a few times. They feel that they have read once, and they have downloaded some material from the Web, it is enough! They prepare their Power point presentation, and upload it; slides look fine. But the problem starts when they start presenting their slides. They tend to read the text, and when asked to explain in their words, they stumble. When asked a question related to the projected slide, even then also, they have difficulty in giving a satisfactory answer. The root cause of this problem is lack of clear understanding or grasp on the concepts which can be attributed to their lack of grit and enough practice. This reminds me of my own experience as a student when I was returned one assignment to do it again.
I was in the first year of my honors degree in Life Sciences(somewhere in 1976), and the module was Human Embryology. My professor was very strict, with both the submission time of the assignments as well as its quality. I had been a conscientious student, and hence submitted my assignment before time, and had done my best. However, Prof called me in the next class and returned my assignment, where he had crossed it and written, "Do again". This was the first time, and may be the last time, that I had such a remark. I was totally shocked. Later when I asked my Prof what I needed to do to make it OK, he pointed some mistakes in the drawings of embryos. These were some very fine details, which I had missed as I didn't know their significance. He asked me to redraw, though he mentioned that my explanations were fine.
That reminds me of grit and deliberate practice which Dr Angela Duckworth talks about in her research papers on character development. Although drawing those finer details about the embryos looked rather tedious at that time, and I had to do that a couple of times, before it was approved, I could see the significance of that later. Those details conveyed how the development of the embryo was progressing, and what types of cells were involved in that. So it was not just a mere drawing, but an important part of the answer. That experience made me more aware of deliberate practice, and feedback from Prof was very important to make sure practice was leading to the right outcome. In that sense, I honed grit as my character strength and continued doing practice till mistakes became lesser and lesser, and I got the mastery over the concepts. In fact, by the end of the semester, I was guiding my classmates on how to draw properly!
In short, grit means determination to improve or doing better next time, which is very important character strength for learning. But without deliberate practice, grit is of not much use. We need to practice again and again, with a view to improve and come up to the expected outcome. Then we will have sense of achievement and satisfaction!
I was in the first year of my honors degree in Life Sciences(somewhere in 1976), and the module was Human Embryology. My professor was very strict, with both the submission time of the assignments as well as its quality. I had been a conscientious student, and hence submitted my assignment before time, and had done my best. However, Prof called me in the next class and returned my assignment, where he had crossed it and written, "Do again". This was the first time, and may be the last time, that I had such a remark. I was totally shocked. Later when I asked my Prof what I needed to do to make it OK, he pointed some mistakes in the drawings of embryos. These were some very fine details, which I had missed as I didn't know their significance. He asked me to redraw, though he mentioned that my explanations were fine.
That reminds me of grit and deliberate practice which Dr Angela Duckworth talks about in her research papers on character development. Although drawing those finer details about the embryos looked rather tedious at that time, and I had to do that a couple of times, before it was approved, I could see the significance of that later. Those details conveyed how the development of the embryo was progressing, and what types of cells were involved in that. So it was not just a mere drawing, but an important part of the answer. That experience made me more aware of deliberate practice, and feedback from Prof was very important to make sure practice was leading to the right outcome. In that sense, I honed grit as my character strength and continued doing practice till mistakes became lesser and lesser, and I got the mastery over the concepts. In fact, by the end of the semester, I was guiding my classmates on how to draw properly!
In short, grit means determination to improve or doing better next time, which is very important character strength for learning. But without deliberate practice, grit is of not much use. We need to practice again and again, with a view to improve and come up to the expected outcome. Then we will have sense of achievement and satisfaction!
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