you might think would be important, such as a teacher having past expe-
rience of teaching in a poor area, matter little when it comes to effectively
predicting success. Instead, they’ve found that a teacher having persever-
ance is key – in life in general and in relation to teaching.
This observation was supported scientifically by a study published late
in 2009 by positive psychologist Angela Duckworth and her colleagues at
the University of Pennsylvania. They followed the progress of nearly four
hundred novice teachers enrolled in the Teach for America programme
and found that it was those who’d scored highly on grit and life satisfac-
tion who tended to have the most teaching success in terms of their
pupils’ later grade-achievement. Duckworth and her colleagues specu-
lated that grittier teachers are likely to try harder and maintain effort
in the face of setbacks. Life satisfaction, meanwhile, could manifest as
energy and zest that enthuses pupils.
PRAISE
A perennial question for teachers is how much to praise pupils who
strive and excel, and how much to admonish those who misbehave or
don’t make an effort. A British study, the results of which were presented
at a conference in 2006, suggests that it’s praise that pays.
Educational psychologist Jeremy Swinson of Liverpool John Moores
University and his co-workers devised a three-hour training package