Building motivation, instilling grit: The necessity of mastery-based, digital learning

Michael Horn:

The potential of a competency-based (or mastery-based) education system powered by digital learning to customize for each individual student's needs and bolster learning excites many. A question some ask though is: What about the unmotivated students? Won't they be left behind?

Furthermore, in light of the recent publicity around the research on the importance of grit--defined as "sticking with things over the very long term until you master them"--to life success, some further suggest that although competency-based learning and blended learning are nice, unless we solve the problem of instilling grit or perseverance in all students, isn't it true that those next-generation learning things won't matter?

These questioners raise good questions. As we discussed in the Introduction to Disrupting Class, the fact that our education system does not intrinsically motivate a large percentage of students is a root cause of the country's education struggles. Solving this is imperative to improving the nation's schools.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at January 22, 2013 4:48 AM
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