From Phys.org, Angela Duckworth and David Scott Yeager urge caution in using current measurement criteria for evaluating programs and policies. This article reports:
“Policymakers and practitioners have grown increasingly interested in measures of personal qualities other than cognitive ability—including self-control, grit, growth mindset, gratitude, purpose, emotional intelligence, and other beneficial personal qualities—that lead to student success. However, they need to move cautiously before using existing measures to evaluate educators, programs, and policies, or diagnosing children as having “non-cognitive” deficits, according to a review by Angela L. Duckworth and David Scott Yeager published in Educational Researcher, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association.
Personal skills are generally considered to be characteristics that facilitate goal-directed effort, healthy social relationships, and sound judgment and decision making. Basic scientific research reliably shows that measures of these characteristics predict success in school, work, and life. Just a few survey questions, or one session of observing whether a child can delay gratification, can predict educational attainment, income, crime, and happiness months or years later. But these measures are generally not ready for educational use….”
Read the full story at Researchers urge caution in using measures of students’ ‘non-cognitive’ skills for teacher evaluation.
I agree, we shouldn’t necessarily judge teachers on their grit or emotional intelligence. Rather, we should judge them on their credentials and experience in the classroom. If they’re good with the students then we should keep them teaching; only then will our future generation have the best outcome.
This is an interesting way thinking about evaluation. However, I agree, I think we need to be careful what we are bringing into our educational system and I don’t think this type of evaluation (assessing personal qualities) has a place in education.
Hmm…interesting. Had not heard about this up until now!