The Secretary of the NSW Department of Education pointed out recently, “We are good at assessing literacy and numeracy skills and students’ depth of content knowledge in core subjects. These will continue to be critical. But what of these broader skills and attributes, such as resilience, that idea of the growth mindset, the capacity to fail and try again, to persevere?” Read more here.
The growth mindset and the capacity to fail and try again can be summarised as ‘grit’. It even sounds onomatopoeic, you can hear yourself wanting to persevere as you say it out loud – ‘grit’.
The Secretary also asserted, “We need to teach students to find and make meaning in their learning not to simply master a list of skills.” Instead of letting education put a mark on students, we want students to put their mark on education.
This is best done by exchanging stories, finding multiple meanings in them, and applying these meanings in their everyday lives. Reflecting and talking about these experiences will best equip the student with the soft skills and grit required for the quickly changing world.
