Research
article
December 2009
A matter of effort and
perseverance
The importance of effort and ability differs across cultures; the
notion that ability is a direct precursor to performance appears
to be a Western construct.
The expression ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ is meant to remind us that achieving
results takes time and effort. However, we often forget this and blame a lack of
‘ability’ when we can’t solve a mathematical problem, draw a geometric shape or
paint a scenic picture.
Think of Mozart, who at the age of three started playing music under the tutelage
of his father, and only after studying composition and practising for over a decade,
composed his greatest symphonies. The effort and perseverance required to
achieve such proficiency is often overlooked as we are rarely witness to the years
of hard work that takes place behind the scenes. In the classroom, attributing
success or failure to ability over the value of hard work and perseverance could have
negative implications for student motivation and performance.
Research by Nicholls in the late 1970s found that children’s understanding of
effort and ability changes dramatically with age. The research revealed that young
students believe that smart students work hard. On the contrary, older students
tend to believe that smart students do not work hard and view working hard as an
indication of not being ‘smart enough’. As students get older and progress through
school, there may be an increased tendency to attribute performance to an innate
ability that is fixed, and therefore beyond an individual’s control.
Recent findings that further Nicholls’ original work indicate that older students are
‘more likely to attribute a negative outcome following high effort to ability-related
causes’ than their young peers (Folmer et al. 2008). Attributing failure to a lack
of ability can lead to what Abramson, Metalsky and Alloy (1989) term ‘learned
helplessness’ and feeling disempowered to improve. On the contrary, attributing
poor performance to low effort has been linked with maintenance of motivation and
an ability to recover more quickly from a negative outcome.
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The importance of effort and ability differs across cultures and the notion that
ability is a direct precursor to performance appears to be a Western construct.
International research conducted by Stevenson in the early 1990s examining effort
and ability in schools in America, China and Japan found that teachers and students
in China and Japan regard mistakes as an ‘index of what still needs to be learned’,
and expect that with effort and persistence, an individual will eventually overcome
making errors and develop the required skills.
The research further highlighted that Chinese and Japanese societies regard high
scores on a test as a sign of diligence and low scores not as a lack of ability, but
that the student has not yet learned what will eventually be possible through
perseverance. This does not mean that there is a belief that people are all born with
the same endowments, but ‘more important was the degree to which a person was
willing to maximise these abilities through hard work’ (Stevenson 1992).
The valuing of effort over ability is based in Confucian philosophy and contrasts
with a Western mindset. Stevenson uses the example of someone stating that
‘I can’t draw’, as being countered in China with ‘That’s a shame that nobody
taught you’.
Dweck (2000) advocates turning the focus from a ‘fixed mindset’ to one of potential
and infinite growth, in which achievement is connected with effort. This can be both
encouraging and empowering for learners. In her research, Dweck also found that
directly challenging a student’s ‘fixed mindset’, in which they ascribe their mistakes
to a lack of ability, can encourage them to become more persistent and improve
achievement.
In attempting to assess whether Japanese students would persevere for longer on
an impossible mathematical problem compared to their American counterparts,
Stevenson and his team faced a problem in that the Japanese students refused to
give up long after the researchers had anticipated. Facing such a difficult task, the
Japanese students’ value of effort over ability, a belief that if they tried hard enough
they would succeed, provided them with the drive to persevere.
Encouraging students to work hard and not give up when faced with challenges is
no simple matter. Skill development is incremental and is not something that can
be reached rapidly. Further, students should understand that this process often
involves initial failure and errors, but this should be regarded as a natural part of
the learning process and an indication that the challenge is worth pursuing.
Teachers can help students to understand the value of perseverance by modelling
such behaviour in class. When talking through examples, support students to
be confident that they will succeed if they persist and not to lose patience when
success is not achieved easily. It is also important to encourage students to try
different strategies or to look for some error in their application of a strategy when
tackling a task (Brophy 2004). Encourage vulnerable students to see that hard work
is not a sign of a lack of ability, but an acknowledgement there is more to be learnt.
How to encourage perseverance
•Feedback to students should encourage
persistence and patience to allow time to
develop skills
•When scoring students, emphasise their
accomplishments and progress made
so far (and if they have performed below
expectations that there is still learning to
be done)
•Avoid attributing performance to ability
only, and acknowledge the hard work
required (e.g. ‘You did well on the spelling
test, how much time did you spend
practising?’)
•Encourage students not to lose patience
when success is not instant
•Reassure vulnerable students that
persistence (possibly with additional help)
will eventually pay off
•Make students aware that learning
may involve confusion or mistakes, but
persistence and effort will eventually
produce results and lead to skills
development
•Support students to become risk takers
in their learning and equip students with
problem solving strategies specific to
different challenges
•Present difficult work not so much
as requiring strenuous effort, but as
a challenge to stay goal orientated
and persist in using adaptive learning
strategies
•Encourage students to see that giving
up means they will miss an opportunity
to learn
•Invite ‘experts’ from different fields such
as the arts, sciences, sport and business
to share their experiences
Adapted from Brophy 2004, Motivating
students to learn
Study in certain domains has been linked with increasing students’ perseverance.
Learning in the arts and particularly intensive arts experiences for example, can
help develop students’ task persistence (Catterall 2002). The practice required to
perfect playing an instrument or performing a dance routine, or the concentrated
effort to animate a short film, could have relevance and application to other
domains.
Encouraging students to persist requires helping them to see hard work as a natural
part of learning, and failure not as a lack of ability, but as a sign that there is yet
more to be learned - and hopefully in the process instilling a belief in students that
they can achieve anything.
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Bibliography
Abramson, L., Metalsky, G. & Alloy, L. 1989, ‘Hopelessness depression: a theorybased subtype of depression’, Psychological Review, vol. 96, no. 2, pp. 358–372.
Brophy, J. 2004, Motivating students to learn, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,
New Jersey.
Burton, B., Horowitz, R. & Abeles, H. 1999, ‘Learning in and through the arts’,
in E. Fiske (Ed) Champions of change: the impact of the arts on learning, Arts
Education Partnership, Washington.
Catterall, J. 2002, ‘The arts and the transfer of learning’, in R. Deasy (Ed) Critical
links, Arts Education Partnership, Washington.
Colvin, G. 2008, Talent is overrated, Penguin, New York.
Dweck, C. 2000, Self-theories: their role in motivation, personality and development,
Taylor & Francis, Philadelphia.
Folmer, A.S., Cole, D.A., Sigal, A.B., Benbow, L.D., Satterwhite, L.F., Swygert,
K.E. & Ciesla, J.A. 2008, ‘Age-related changes in children’s understanding of
effort and ability: implications for attribution theory and motivation’, Journal of
Experimental Child Psychology, vol. 99, no. 2, pp. 114-134.
General Teaching Council for England 2007, Research for teachers: promoting
students’ persistence in meeting challenges, General Teaching Council for England,
London.
Nicholls, J. 1978, ‘The development of the concepts of effort and ability, perception
of academic attainment, and the understanding that difficult tasks require more
ability’, Child Development, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 800–814.
Stevenson, H. 1992, The learning gap, Touchstone, New York.
This article was developed by the Research
Branch, Department of Education and
Early Childhood Development.
Further information about the Research
Branch is available at: http://www.
education.vic.gov.au/researchinnovation/
default.htm
To contact the Research Branch email:
[email protected]
An earlier version of this article appeared in
Shine (December 2009; Issue 11).
Authorised by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, 2 Treasury Place, East Melbourne, Victoria 3002
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