full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Angela Lee Duckworth: Grit The power of passion and perseverance

Unscramble the Blue Letters


After several more yreas of teaching, I came to the conclusion that what we need in education is a much better understanding of students and learning from a motivational perspective, from a pyclicogsoahl perspective. In education, the one thing we know how to measure best is IQ. But what if doing well in school and in life depends on much more than your ability to learn quickly and elasiy?

So I left the classroom, and I went to graduate school to become a psychologist. I started studying kids and adults in all kinds of super challenging settings, and in every study my qoituesn was, who is successful here and why? My research team and I went to West Point mtliriay aemacdy. We tried to pdrciet which cteads would stay in military trnniiag and which would drop out. We went to the nantioal Spelling Bee and tried to predict which children would advance farthest in competition. We studied rookie teachers working in really tough neighborhoods, asking which teachers are still going to be here in teaching by the end of the school year, and of those, who will be the most effective at iripmovng learning outcomes for their students? We partnered with private companies, asking, which of these salespeople is going to keep their jobs? And who's going to earn the most mneoy? In all those very different centxots, one characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success. And it wasn't social intelligence. It wasn't good looks, pahsicyl health, and it wasn't IQ. It was grit.

Open Cloze


After several more _____ of teaching, I came to the conclusion that what we need in education is a much better understanding of students and learning from a motivational perspective, from a _____________ perspective. In education, the one thing we know how to measure best is IQ. But what if doing well in school and in life depends on much more than your ability to learn quickly and ______?

So I left the classroom, and I went to graduate school to become a psychologist. I started studying kids and adults in all kinds of super challenging settings, and in every study my ________ was, who is successful here and why? My research team and I went to West Point ________ _______. We tried to _______ which ______ would stay in military ________ and which would drop out. We went to the ________ Spelling Bee and tried to predict which children would advance farthest in competition. We studied rookie teachers working in really tough neighborhoods, asking which teachers are still going to be here in teaching by the end of the school year, and of those, who will be the most effective at _________ learning outcomes for their students? We partnered with private companies, asking, which of these salespeople is going to keep their jobs? And who's going to earn the most _____? In all those very different ________, one characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success. And it wasn't social intelligence. It wasn't good looks, ________ health, and it wasn't IQ. It was grit.

Solution


  1. easily
  2. academy
  3. question
  4. years
  5. psychological
  6. money
  7. military
  8. cadets
  9. national
  10. contexts
  11. training
  12. improving
  13. physical
  14. predict

Original Text


After several more years of teaching, I came to the conclusion that what we need in education is a much better understanding of students and learning from a motivational perspective, from a psychological perspective. In education, the one thing we know how to measure best is IQ. But what if doing well in school and in life depends on much more than your ability to learn quickly and easily?

So I left the classroom, and I went to graduate school to become a psychologist. I started studying kids and adults in all kinds of super challenging settings, and in every study my question was, who is successful here and why? My research team and I went to West Point Military Academy. We tried to predict which cadets would stay in military training and which would drop out. We went to the National Spelling Bee and tried to predict which children would advance farthest in competition. We studied rookie teachers working in really tough neighborhoods, asking which teachers are still going to be here in teaching by the end of the school year, and of those, who will be the most effective at improving learning outcomes for their students? We partnered with private companies, asking, which of these salespeople is going to keep their jobs? And who's going to earn the most money? In all those very different contexts, one characteristic emerged as a significant predictor of success. And it wasn't social intelligence. It wasn't good looks, physical health, and it wasn't IQ. It was grit.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
public schools 2
started studying 2
west point 2
national spelling 2
spelling bee 2
building grit 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
national spelling bee 2

Important Words


  1. ability
  2. academy
  3. adults
  4. advance
  5. bee
  6. cadets
  7. challenging
  8. characteristic
  9. children
  10. classroom
  11. companies
  12. competition
  13. conclusion
  14. contexts
  15. depends
  16. drop
  17. earn
  18. easily
  19. education
  20. effective
  21. emerged
  22. farthest
  23. good
  24. graduate
  25. grit
  26. health
  27. improving
  28. intelligence
  29. iq
  30. jobs
  31. kids
  32. kinds
  33. learn
  34. learning
  35. left
  36. life
  37. measure
  38. military
  39. money
  40. motivational
  41. national
  42. neighborhoods
  43. outcomes
  44. partnered
  45. perspective
  46. physical
  47. point
  48. predict
  49. predictor
  50. private
  51. psychological
  52. psychologist
  53. question
  54. quickly
  55. research
  56. rookie
  57. salespeople
  58. school
  59. settings
  60. significant
  61. social
  62. spelling
  63. started
  64. stay
  65. students
  66. studied
  67. study
  68. studying
  69. success
  70. successful
  71. super
  72. teachers
  73. teaching
  74. team
  75. tough
  76. training
  77. understanding
  78. west
  79. working
  80. year
  81. years