This book was brought on a whim, I heard about it thanks to Bruce Hammond's weekly leading learning e-mail. It is the first book that I have brought digitally. The following is a summary, I will upload my own personal thoughts on the topics raised in another post.
It started off reading much like a scholarly text book, filled with references and dropping names I have never heard of. However a few vignettes started to appear that quickly caught my eye and grabbed my attention with the 'hit you in your face common sense' sensation. In order to retain meaning and keep a track of what i read i started ro create this summary.
I will not go into these vignettes and minor examples at the moment - but instead split the book into a few parts (the book itself is in five main chapters, however, I will split it up as I see necessary).
PART ONE
The beginning of the book looks at the single perspective that pervades our education system - and is coming more and more into the fore with the acceptance and reliance on National Standards - the single perspective being that cognitive ability is the sole purpose of schools. While we, as teachers have moved away from transmission model teaching in most instances - the focus in the media and from the government still ensures that schools are places to go and fill that pretty little head.
The second half of part one brings to the fore the role that poverty plays in affecting educational achievement. A number of blunt stats were raised, including:
A. The average number of words a 4 year old not born into poverty has heard is 40 million. The decreases to only 10 million words by 4 years for a child born into poverty.
B. The amount of stress that is faced by children born into poverty is exponentially greater than those born into more stable situations.
These facts outlined the role that stress plays in raising anxiety levels, increasing health deficiencies and decreasing the amount of time and attention that can be given to school.
Te answer that comes from Part One is the need to focus on developing character within students and families more than just academic knowledge.
PART TWO:
Part Two starts by looking at a study on rats where scientists noticed the differences in nurturing tendencies of mother rats. Mother Rats who licked and groomed their young when they returned to the nest were seen to be more attentive and caring - their young were more emotionally balanced and secure (they behaved more confidently in a number of rat situations!)
They measured parts of the rats brains and found that they had increased activity in certain areas.
This was correlated to humans with a focus on attachment theory. Children who were reassured and openly encouraged, given positive feedback by a parent or other adult with whim they had a strong relationship were more balanced and secure and More Likely To Succeed At School!!!
A second focus was on the evidence behind children who were able to delay gratification and the links between this habit and success at school and in life.
A third focus was the discussion about motivation and volition. While aspects of motivation can be taught/trained, volition is a harder beast to train. Both are needed to succeed.
A fourth focus shows the compelling link between conscientiousness and life success, more so than pure iq. From cradle to the grave people with high conscientiousness scores are healthier, wealthier and happier. Although, self control as part of conscientiousness has to be strong without behind dominant, an excess of self control creates bland sheep with limited creativity.
A list of seven characteristics were finally selected as representative of Character and predictors of success and happiness:
grit
self-control
zest
social intelligence
gratitude
optimism
curiosity
The discussion led into a split between values based character (respect, tolerance) and success based character (conscientiousness, self control). Both aspects being vital, but the second occasionally forgotten in lower years education.
There is a need for parents to encourage and foster high expectations of both types of character as well as academic success. Tough points out that many well off parents who provide pressure for their child to succeed academically will not provide the same pressure to develop any sort of character. It is a toxic mix, 'helicopter' parents who will save their child from failure (a necessary part of character learning) but expect their children to display character when in the face of academic adversity. These parents are putting the pressure on for academic success without understanding that character is an important part of success.
Whether academic or character development is the goal, people (including students) normally form one of three approaches:
1. Optimistic. See the end, enjoy the sensation of what life will be like when goal is reached. Not actually very useful in itself.
2. Pessimistic. See all the obstacles. Not very useful.
3. Mental contrasting. Both of the above combined. Also involving implementation elements- if/then statements that allow students to overcome obstacles and focus on the reward at the end. The only effective way of planning toward a goal
Identity and self efficacy obviously play a role in success. Tough discussed a number of studies that focused on students getting identity cues before sitting tests. Students who believed their cultural group was good at a task raised performance whereas students who believed that they were part of a group who were not good at a task lowered performance. This only proves to reinforce stereotypes.
The way to get around this as teachers/ parents is to constantly reinforce the idea of intelligence malleability before tests. Everyone can improve their intelligence.
PART THREE:
Part three brings in a couple of anecdotes about a charter school 'franchise' called KIPP. The state of students and their families is brought into focus and the role that character development plays in success. Parallels to the KIPP Anecdotes are given about an underprivileged Chess team. The chess team are unrivaled in their success and the teacher in charge is an unlikely guru who unknowingly utilizes many of the character aspects above when coaching her students.
Links are made between the brain analysis description early in the book and the learning that can be found in the chess anecdotes as well as in the description provided of 'One Goal' (an intervention programme run for at risk youth to help them perform at college).
“Noncognitive skills like resilience and resourcefulness and grit are highly predictive of success in college, And they can help our students compensate for some of the inequality they have faced in the education system.”
Jeff Nelson - CEO 'One Goal'
Nelson identified five skills, "Leadership Principles" that he wanted One Goal teachers to emphasise: Resourcefulness, Resilience, Ambition, Professionalism, and Integrity.
Students need to be aware that intelligence can be improved (Children who had this message alone drilled in to them prior to test taking achieved greater than peers who did not receive the same message) and likewise, character (in all of its forms) can be manipulated and developed, it is not static.
PART FOUR
- Character can and should be developed from infancy. Protect children from serious stressful trauma and provide them with at least one nurturing relationship with a parent.
- Toddlers need to develop the ability to calm down after a tantrum or scare - this occurs when a child feels safe and secure. Children on edge, are not in a position to develop their character (have their character developed?).
- All children need to be taught how to manage failure, front up to it, own it and LEARN FROM IT
- Teacher quality is important in education and child development - second only to a stable, nurturing and loving home life. The impact of quality teachers (and as a result, less quality teachers) is not to be taken lightly. In any given year, teachers can spend up to 800 hours with a child - quality teachers use the time to develop relationships, foster personal growth and master academic achievement.
- BUT... it can be a distant second to that secure, stable, nurturing home life when the home life is none of the above. Government and Society a a whole needs to address issues that are facing our young people who grow up in some families in order to both save these children and minimise the negative impacts that these children have on society when they grow up.
- The statistics of American socio economic based interventions show that the success is again largely dependent on wealth. That is, even within the band of peoples described as "poor" the more well off in this band have the desired outcomes, where the poorest of the poor seldom have success at such interventions.
- Tough acknowledges that talking about the influence of family on the success and failure of poorer children is an uncomfortable proposition but one that needs to be addressed at a societal level.
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