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

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Effortful Control
In Angela Duckworth and colleague’s (2010) study of National Spelling Bee champions, they
summed up the findings as follows:
Deliberate practice—operationally defined in the current investigation as the solitary
study of word spellings and origins—was a better predictor of National Spelling Bee
performance than either being quizzed by others or engaging in leisure reading. With
each year of additional preparation, spellers devoted an increasing proportion of their
preparation time to deliberate practice, despite rating the experience of such activities as
more effortful and less enjoyable than the alternative preparation activities. Grittier
spellers engaged in deliberate practice more so than their less gritty counterparts, and
hours of deliberate practice fully mediated the prospective association between grit and
spelling performance (p. 178).
In essence, the most successful competitors were those whose passion for the long-term goal of
the National Spelling Bee championship led them to persist with less intrinsically rewarding, but
more effective, practice strategies (Duckworth et al., 2011).
Throughout the course of education (and in life), students are constantly faced with tasks that are
important for long-term goals but that in the short-term may not feel desirable or intrinsically
motivating, especially in comparison to other ways they could spend their time. Even the most
thoughtfully designed, inquiry-based, emotionally supportive learning environment will have its
share of homework assignments that need to supersede, for example, playing games with friends.
Duckworth and colleagues point out that as far back as 1899, William James asserted that some
school work will be “repulsive and cannot be done without voluntarily jerking back the attention
to it every now and then” (p. 179).
Duckworth has written extensively about psychological resources that enable students to persist
at such tasks and that are predictive of academic success—self-discipline and self-control. While
colloquial and research definitions of these vary widely, they can be boiled down to some key
facets. Duckworth (2009) conceptualizes self-discipline as “the ability to marshal willpower to
accomplish goals and uphold standards that one personally regards as desirable. That is, selfdiscipline
isn’t the capacity to do what other people order you to do; rather, it is the capacity to
do what you want to do. It’s knowing how to manage your emotions and thoughts, and knowing
how to plan your behavior so you can reach your goals” (p. 536). She conceptualizes self-control
in terms of executive functions—the ability to control and regulate attention in the face of
distractions, and the ability to inhibit inferior but strong impulses (e.g., surfing the Internet) to
act on superior goals (e.g., completing homework assignments) (Duckworth, 2011). Similarly,
she includes delay of gratification in the conceptualization of self-control (Duckworth & Kern,
2011).
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