El grit en alumnos de educación primariaprograma educativo y su evaluación

Resumen

Under the term aptitude, quality or non-cognitive skill, among others, a field of study that demonstrates and defends the relevance of non-cognitive, volitional and socio-emotional elements in the educational field has been established. Far from basing teaching on a pure transmission of knowledge and focused on content, our educational system finds reasons to introduce these other factors, giving them a place in the training of future citizens, accompanying the cognitive skills. This set of elements has been shown to have a greater influence on the results and performance of students, beyond cognitive skills. Leading organizations in our field (OECD, PISA) consider that the development of skills to adapt to the changes that we have to experience as a society is essential as part of success. In relevant studies (Duckworth, 2016) where cognitive factors have not shown a direct relationship with participant’s results, some of these non-cognitive skills have been verified to be an excellent predictor of educational success. Among these skills, it is worth highlighting, in general terms, those related to mentality: effort, perseverance, interest... However, specifically, grit, the main focus of this research, seems to be one of the main elements that can guarantee the educational success of our students. Regarding the objectives of the research, the main purpose is to contribute to the development of grit as an element of educational success in students in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades of primary education in a public educational school in the Region of Murcia, before joining the secondary school, where educational failure and school dropouts are very high. This general objective is developed in the following steps: o Develop a questionnaire that allows us measuring grit through its adaptation, which considers the characteristics and dimensions of this factor. o Analyze the grit level of students in the last years of primary education in the Region of Murcia. o Design an educational program that allows the development of this non-cognitive skill among students. o Describe the evolution of grit in the students who receive the educational program. Based as a starting point on the adaptation of the Grit questionnaire by Angela Duckworth, this doctoral thesis aims to show the need for change in the current teaching situation. In addition, it provides a proposal for an educational program to work on grit, specifically designed for this research. It is approached using a quasi-experimental methodology, in which, based on the pre-test data of both groups, a control and experimental group are established to test the program itself. The results obtained in the post-test show an improvement on the grit of the experimental group, as well as a detriment in the academic performance of the students who do not work these skills. Upon the completion of this research, student's motivation will be expected to increase, the learning of these volitional aspects in the students will be improved and, as a final goal, absenteeism and early abandonment in education will be reduced.