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

Draft
literature and across all of our interviews with researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, is
that there is still much that needs to be done if grit, tenacity, and perseverance are to become a
pervasive priority in education. There are no quick fixes—making significant progress requires
the efforts of all communities of educational stakeholders and fundamental paradigm shifts in the
culture of education.
Conclusion 1: For significant and pervasive shifts in educational priorities to promote not only
content knowledge, but also the noncognitive factors of grit, tenacity, and perseverance, there is
a strong need for growing involvement and support by all educational stakeholders.
Recommendation 1: Educators, administrators, policymakers, technology designers, parents,
and researchers should consider how to give priority to grit, tenacity, and perseverance in
curriculum, teaching practices, teacher professional development, programs, technology
adoption, and out-of-school support. They should look to the research base for best practices
and programs that are mature in development and suitable to local context. Structural supports
will need to be enhanced to enable educators to enact best practices and implementation of
productive intervention models. Progress will also require outreach to parents and advocacy to
all educational stakeholders. Research will need to continue to advance theory, measurement,
and the design of technology and learning environments. The conclusions and
recommendations that follow provide more specific guidance.
Conclusions and Recommendations for Practice and Implementation
Here we discuss research-based best practices, specific approaches and interventions, and needs
for structural supports and outreach. Grit, tenacity, and perseverance can be promoted both
through structuring contextual factors in the learning environment and fostering psychological
resources within the student—academic mindsets, effortful control, and strategies and tactics.
Educators can approach promoting perseverance within the learning environment and/or as
qualities that are transferable competencies to be taken beyond the environment. While we did
not find convincing empirical evidence that these qualities can be taught as transferable skills,
we found common operating principles for designing supportive contexts and evidence that
contributing psychological resources can, to a large extent, be taught and cultivated. We also
found critical needs for structural supports at the policy and institutional level to enable these
practices and approaches to be implemented productively, as well as the need for advocacy and
parental outreach.
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