Activity 7.5: What makes a successful learner?

            I listened to the podcast featuring Tough’s How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character.  Tough talks about what is missing in our education system- skills that he calls non-cognitive skills and include curiosity, creativity, character, self-regulation, grit, and resiliency, among other things.  Schools often have trouble teaching these skills because they can’t be measured, like achievement and cognitive ability can be through standardized tests.  The podcast talks about children who live in poverty and the achievement gap for those children, and gives stress, rather than economic status, as the reason, to discuss how non-cognitive skills can be taught and how these skills can improve academic achievement for kids lacking in these skills.  I think Tough is correct in that schools should be focusing more on skills like character and self-regulation instead of test scores, based on my own experience in school.  I have mentioned this before, but I have terrible test anxiety, and I think the reason is because my school really emphasized our scores on high stakes state testing measures.  I also think this is the reason for my math anxiety and my low self-efficacy.

            This podcast doesn’t fit into the social cognitive theory, and yet in a way it does, also.  Individuals are viewed as self-organizing, proactive, self-reflecting, and self-regulating in the social cognitive theory.  Tough is saying that some children, mainly those who fail to develop secure attachments with an adult figure as infants, often do not have the skills (or ability, as stressful situations can decrease executive function growth) to be self-organizing, self-regulating, etc. 

            This podcast reminded me of a couple of things.  First, in the beginning they talk about the emphasis on cognitive development in schools, which reminded me of the fixed mindset talked about by Dweck in our previous activity.  Teaching non-cognitive skills to improve achievement is a new idea, and what Tough says schools should be moving towards; it also is more like Dweck’s growth mindset.  This podcast also reminded me of the nature/nurture discussions we have had in class and in our powerpoints.  Teaching non-cognitive skills rather than relying on a child’s innate ability falls within the “nurture” point of view adopted by behaviorists. 

            I think Tough would say that the role of failure in learning is a call to develop better non-cognitive skills, such as resiliency.  I also do believe there is a recipe for success.  Below is my recipe for success:

·         1 part secure attachment to an adult figure as an infant/child

·         1 part personal factors (attention, cognitive ability, memory, metacognition, etc.)

·         ½ part good observational models

·         2 parts educational instruction

·         ½ part reinforcement

·         1 part motivation (either innate or taught)

·         2 parts instruction of non-cognitive skills (self-regulation, character, resiliency, etc.)

 

As I am writing this, I am wondering, for all those who have actually worked in a teaching environment, how feasible is it to teach non-cognitive skills in the classroom?  What are some ways that you do so/do you think you could do so?  Also, do you think that the social cognitive theory can stand alone, or do you think the recipe for success must be a mixture of theories?  Do you have anything you would add/take away from my recipe?