This presentation shows the preliminary findings of a quantitative study regarding grit and problem-based learning

1. WHAT’S GRIT GOT
TO DOWITH IT?
PBL Math, Learning & Student Perceptions
Carmel Schettino, Ph.D.
PBL MathTeaching Summit 2015

2. Buzzwords of theYear(s)…thanks to
■ Angela Duckworth
■ Carol Dweck
■ Jo Boaler
2007
2011
2015

3. Grit
Grit

4. Advice on “teaching” grit
■ Talk about Grit
■ Learn about People who have Grit – Michael Jordan,Vince Lombardi,
Artur Rubenstein
https://echewcation.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/posters-with-pics1.pptx
■ Develop Growth Mindsets*
■ Give students opportunities to work on long-term goals on which they
have to persevere
Laursen, E.The Power of Grit, Perseverance andTenacity. www.reclaimingyouth.com, 23 (4) 2015

5. “so, is this supposed to make us feel bad?”
http://mindsetonline.com/testyourmindset/step1.php
or
“fixed mindset guilt”

6. “A fixed mindset is a set of conditioned
habits, and you can't change a habit just by
force of will.”
Elizabeth Statmore (@cheesemonkeysf)

7. But what about PBL?

8. Where is everyone
getting this from?

9. “..Most people do not
persevere at things because
they are good at persevering,
they persevere because they
find things that are worth
investing in.The implication
for schools is that they should
spend less time trying to boost
students’ grit, and more time
trying to think about how their
offerings could help students
develop purpose and passion.”

10. What does Problem-Based
Learning do for grit and/or
students’ attitudes towards
learning mathematics?

11. Our Study
■ Two Schools
■ 95 Students (grades ranged 9-12)
■ ThreeTeachers (experience from 4 to 25 years)
■ 7 different classes all using PBL methods with whole-
curriculum
■ Courses were Geometry, Honors Geometry and Honors
Precalculus
■ Pre- and Post- testing included Duckworth’s GritTest and
AttitudesTowards Mathematics Inventory (ATMI,Tapia, 1996)
– 40 item, Likert Scale,Validated Inventory

12. N=90
r=.390

13. Difference Between Pre-Test Grit Score
and Post-Test Grit Score
There is not enough
evidence to state that
the difference
between the Pre-Test
Grit Score and the
Post-Test Grit Score
was not equal to
zero. (p=0.389) [not a
significant change in
scores]

14. Pre- and Post-Test Differences for
Students with Pre-test Grit Score<4
There is enough
evidence to state
that the difference
between the Pre-
Test Grit Score and
the Post-Test Grit
Score was greater
than zero. (p<0.001
& >0)

15. Pre- and Post-Test Differences for
Students with Pre-test Grit Score>4
There is enough
evidence to state that
the difference
between the Pre-Test
Grit Score and the
Post-Test Grit Score
was not equal to zero
(p<0.001) but not > or
<.

16. What does this mean? In general…
■ If a student came to us already “gritty”, their grit score
increased or decreased! Couldn’t be sure – more research
needed?What affects them? In what ways?
■ If a student came to us not so “gritty”, their grit score
increased.
■ Things to remember;
– Kids are individuals and we did not control for many variables
like past math experiences, effort, grades, etc.
– We cannot determine causality through these statistical tests
only a probability of a change.

17. Some Initial Results from ATMI (n=92)
1=Strongly Disagree 2=Disagree 3=Neutral 4=Agree 5=StronglyAgree
■ I removed any slides with data in it so not to report it publicly on the
internet in case this is published in a peer-reviewed journal at any time
in the future.

18. Average Change in Response Per
Question (ATMI n=92)
I removed any slides with data in it so not to report it publicly on the
internet in case this is published in a peer-reviewed journal at any
time in the future.

19. ATMI Questions with Largest Response Change
■ I removed any slides with data in it so not to report it publicly
on the internet in case this is published in a peer-reviewed
journal at any time in the future.

20. Looking more closely…
considering 50 students in Honors Precalculus
■ I removed any slides with data in it so not to report it publicly on the
internet in case this is published in a peer-reviewed journal at any time
in the future.

21. Looking more closely…
considering 32 students in NH Geometry
■ I removed any slides with data in it so not to report it publicly on the
internet in case this is published in a peer-reviewed journal at any time
in the future.

22. Does PBL or IBL “teach grit”? (anecdotal)
■ Perseverance on novel problems exposes students to skills of
WDYDWYDKWTD on a regular basis
■ Partial solution presentation develops communication skills and on-the-
fly thought processes with others
■ Classroom environment fosters being wrong and trying again
■ Drawing Conclusions and critiquing others’ ideas
■ Students’ own sense-making trumps “telling” in learning process
But how do you know it’s working?

23. The
classroom
environment
is more
important
than we
think…we
need to help
students find
purpose and
meaning in
within the
classroom
community.

24. Take away…
Jal Mehta, Harvard GSE, 2015