The Persistence Triangle

Here's an article that addresses the complexities of teaching Persisting by providing a cognitive models to help students internalize persistent behavior. The author underscores a valid point: persistence does not necessarily pay off when students continue to use a single strategy. Trying the same thing over and over can sometimes only lead to failure and frustration. Instead, students need to behave intelligently enough to know when to change strategies. The Persistence Triangle proposed here represents a set of questions that will prompt more focused thinking. You may want to use the Persistence Triangle to help students define and analyze problems, and to generate possible solution strategies....in other words, to persist intelligently.

Life=Risk

Two Habits of Mind--Persisting and Taking Responsible Risks--are evident in this inspirational video.

Persisting through Trial and Error

New research indicates that students learn more effectively through trial and error. This article in Scientific American reports the findings of a recent study by researchers at UCLA, who discovered that trying and failing to retrieve an answer is actually helpful to learning. By practicing the Habit of Mind of persisting through the process of trial and error, students may, in fact learn better.

Finding Humor

Teacher: How do you spell "dog"?
Pupil: d, o, g, enter.

Looking for ways to find humor on the classroom? Check out the teacher page on Museum of Humor, a web site specifically designed to make you laugh and help teachers find and promote humor. Have fun with this one!

Grit = Persisting?

In this article published in the Boston Globe (8/2/09), scientific research and historical antedotes suggest that habits of mind, like persisting, contibute more to success in life than more easily measured cognitive traits, like IQ. Psychologists have termed the ability to set long-term goals and to persist in the face of obstacles as "grit," which sounds exactly like the first Habit of Mind, Persisting. The article suggests that MCAS and other tests administered by schools don't really measure what's truly important in predicting achievement.

Do you have grit? Try the Grit Scale, created by researchers at the University of Pennsylvannia.