Promoting Grit, Tenacity, and Perseverance - U.S. Department of ...

Draft
methodology, implementation research will require multidisciplinary teams including
practitioners, as well as researchers.
Clements (2007), for example, provides a broadly-used framework for the steps necessary to
develop “research-based curricula.” He lays out a 10-phase sequence of research organized into
three categories: (1) a priori foundations, in which extant research is reviewed and implications
are drawn for curriculum development; (2) learning model, in which activities are structured in
accordance with empirically based models of children’s learning of the targeted subject matter;
and (3) evaluation, in which empirical evidence is collected to evaluate the appeal, usability, and
effectiveness of the curriculum. A related research paradigm, design-based implementation
research (Penuel, Fishman, Haugan Cheng, & Sabelli, 2011), emphasizes focusing on persistent
“problems of practice” from the perspectives of multiple stakeholders and ongoing development
of capacity to sustain change in institutional systems.
Conclusion 12: While there are many programs demonstrating impacts in particular contexts,
there is still a gap between the research and how practitioners can use the various intervention
approaches effectively across a wide variety of settings for a diversity of students.
Recommendation 12: Researchers should conduct field-based implementation research at
small and large scale to build on the extant research literature and leverage multidisciplinary
knowledge of experts in theory, practice, and research methodology. Research methodologies
should include small-scale design research grounded in the concerns of everyday practice, as
well as larger-scale efficacy studies to establish variations across settings and effectiveness
studies to establish impacts at scale.
Need to Explore the Potential Costs or Risks of Grit
In this accountability-driven climate and in communities that place extremely high expectations
on students, grit, tenacity, and perseverance may not always be in the students’ best interest. For
example, persevering in the face of challenges or setbacks to accomplish goals that are
extrinsically motivated, unimportant to the student, or in some way inappropriate for the student
can have detrimental impacts on students’ learning and psychological well-being. Little
systematic research has investigated this. Researchers need to explore the different reasons for
demonstrating grit and what potential costs may be. Theoretically, there may be important links
to the achievement orientation literature that makes distinctions between “mastery-oriented”
goals and “performance-oriented” goals. Careful research in this area will help educators learn
how to gauge and fine-tune interventions.
Conclusion 13: Little systematic research has explored the potential costs or risks of grit under
certain circumstances for academic achievement, educational attainment, and emotional well-
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