Framing the Exploration
Why Embark on this Journey?
- Heightened public interest in and research on the impact of grit and integrity on student growth and development (e.g., Angela Lee Duckworth)
- Trends in the future economy indicate a shift towards STEM careers and a gap between the number of opportunities and those who are well qualified to engage in this work;
- Our focus today, and throughout the year, is to transform Catholic education -- to innovate and collaborate as a community;
- The Catholic Schools Office is committed to developing saints and scholars who are creative, resilient, faith filled and not afraid to fail.
Framework for Building Grit, Curiosity & Innovation in the Digital Age
Our work today is anchored around the following:
- "Excellence is an attitude, not an endgame. The word excellence is derived from the Greek word Arête which is bound with the notion of fulfillment of purpose or function and is closely associated with virtue. It is far more forgiving, allowing and embracing failure and vulnerability on the ongoing quest for improvement. It allows for disappointment, and prioritizes progress over perfection. Like excellence, grit is an attitude about, to paraphrase Tennyson…seeking, striving, finding, and never yielding" (Forbes, 2013)
- "The term tinkering means different things to different people. It is not uncommon to hear the term used dismissively--just tinkering—in reference to someone working without a clear goal or purpose, or without making noticeable progress. But in our view, just and tinkering do not belong together. We see tinkering as a valid and valuable style of working, characterized by a playful, exploratory, iterative style of engaging with a problem or project. When people are tinkering, they are constantly trying out ideas, making adjustments and refinements, then experimenting with new possibilities, over and over and over. Many people think of tinkering in opposition to planning—and they often view planning as an inherently superior approach. Planning seems more organized, more direct, more efficient. Planners survey a situation, identify problems and needs, develop a clear plan, then execute it. Do it once and do it right. What could be better than that? The tinkering process is messier. Tinkerers are always exploring, experimenting, trying new things" (Source: Designing for Tinkerability, Resnick & Rosenbaum, 2013).
|