The Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education recently released a report called Expanding Evidence Approaches for Learning in a Digital World. The OET was most interested in “the role of new types of data and analytic capabilities in supporting grit, tenacity, and perseverance.” Here is more of their explanation of their quest to promote and evaluate these three crucial, yet hard to measure, elements of education:
How can we best prepare children and adolescents to thrive in the 21st century—an era of rapidly evolving technology and new opportunities to learn, collaborative and global knowledge work, changing workforce needs, and complex economic and national security interests? Our focus on aspects of academic success such as attainment of content knowledge is necessary, however, creating opportunities to engage and develop a much richer set of skills is critical. Today, this includes exploring the potential of “noncognitive” factors—attributes, dispositions, social skills, attitudes, and intrapersonal resources, independent of intellectual ability—that high-achieving individuals draw upon to succeed.
The Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education asked SRI’s Center for Technology in Learning to take a close look at a core set of noncognitive factors—grit, tenacity, and perseverance. These are the factors that facilitate an individual’s capacity to strive for and succeed at fulfilling long-term and higher-order goals, and persist in the face of challenges and setbacks. We asked for this work to be done with an eye toward identifying the potential new roles that technology might play.
OET released Expanding Evidence Approaches for Learning in a Digital World, a report that examines the rapid evolution of new technologies to capture, organize and analyze vast quantities of data, and we were interested in the role of new types of data and analytic capabilities in supporting grit, tenacity, and perseverance.
Here are the avenues that they investigated and recommended:
1. School readiness programs that address executive functions
2. Interventions that address mindsets, learning strategies, and resilience
3. Alternative school models and school-level reform approaches
4. Informal learning programs
5. Digital learning environments, online resources, and tools for teachers
Building from a broad review of the research literature and interviews with thought leaders, this brief examines the extent to which grit, tenacity, and perseverance are malleable and teachable, how to measure these factors, and how to design learning environments that promote them. It includes key conclusions and recommendations tailored to the needs and responsibilities of educators, administrators, policymakers, technology designers, parents, and researchers.
Following is the link to the report: http://www.ed.gov/edblogs/technology/research/
