passion makes perfect

8/10/2019 Passion Makes Perfect

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PA S S I O N M A K E SP E R F E C T

T Y L E R L O P E Z , M Y K AY L A TAY L O R , YA M I L E X Q U I R O Z ,C H R I S T O P H E R B A L L ( K I N D O F )


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P R A C T I C E M A K E S P E R F E C T I D O N T

T H I N K S O .In the 1990s K. Anders Ericsson and a colleague at Florida State Universityreported data that seemed to confirm this view: What separates the expert fromthe amateur, a first- rate musician or chess player from a wannabe, isnt talent;its thousands of hours of work. (Malcolm Gladwell, drawing from butmisrepresenting Ericssons research announced the magic number was ten

thousand hours.) Its daunting to imagine putting in that kind of commitment, but were comforted nonetheless by the idea that practice is the primarycontributor to excellence. Thats true, I think, for three reasons:
http://web.mit.edu/6.969/www/readings/expertise.pdfhttp://web.mit.edu/6.969/www/readings/expertise.pdf


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It seems obvious that the more time you spend trying toget better at something, the more proficient youll

become. Thats why so many educators continue to invokethe old phrase time on task, which, in turn, drivesdemands for longer school days or years. Common sense,however, isnt always correct. Researchers have found thatonly when achievement is defined do we discover astrong, linear relationship with time. When the focus is ondepth of understanding and sophisticated problemsolving, time on task doesnt predict outcome very well atall either in reading or math.

C O M M O N S E N S E
http://ow.ly/6PfRchttp://ow.ly/6PfRc


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P R O T E S TA N T W O R K

E T H I CMany people simply dont like the idea that someone could succeed without having paid hisor her dues or, conversely, that lots of deliberate practice might prove fruitless. Either ofthese possibilities threatens peoples belief in what social psychologists call a just world.This sensibility helps to explain why copious homework continues to be assigned despitedubious evidence that it provides any benefit (and zero evidence that its beneficial inelementary school): We just dont want those kids goofing off, darn it not in the eveningand not even during the summer ! Hence the recent enthusiasm for grit, which is basically arepackaging of age- old exhortations to stick with whatever youve been told to do.(Indeed, Ericsson collaborated with grit maven Angela Duckworth on a study of spelling beechampions .)
http://bit.ly/1lDU7Zhttp://ow.ly/cnyzVhttp://ow.ly/vsxRxhttp://www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/images/Deliberate%20Practice%20Spells%20Success.full.pdfhttp://www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/images/Deliberate%20Practice%20Spells%20Success.full.pdfhttp://www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/images/Deliberate%20Practice%20Spells%20Success.full.pdfhttp://www.sas.upenn.edu/~duckwort/images/Deliberate%20Practice%20Spells%20Success.full.pdfhttp://ow.ly/vsxRxhttp://ow.ly/cnyzVhttp://bit.ly/1lDU7Z


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Innate? Necessarily so! is what weve heard for centuries.Given the tawdry history of biological reductionism, whichusually manages to rationalize current arrangements ofpower as being due to the natural superiority of privilegedgroups, is it any wonder we remain leery of attributingsuccess to inherited talent? Its more egalitarian to declarethat geniuses are made, not born. Indeed, that skepticism is bolstered by evidence (from Carol Dweck and others)indicating that students are more likely to embrace learningif they believe their performance results from effort,

something under their control, rather than from a fixed levelof intelligence that they either possess or lack.

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passion makes perfect

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