Regular Ph.D. Fellow, Cohort 2017

Dissertation topic
Teaching Grit: Examining the Effects of a School-Based Intervention to Foster Grit

Dissertation abstract
Non-cognitive skills, such as grit—defined as perseverance and consistency in pursuing long-term goals—have garnered increasing attention in education research. This doctoral project explored grit’s relevance in the German educational context, addressing gaps in understanding its role, malleability, and potential to reduce achievement gaps for disadvantaged students. Using brief, web-based interventions tailored for secondary school students in Germany, the research aimed to foster grit and improve academic outcomes. Interventions targeted grit’s proposed psychological antecedents, namely academic mindsets and learning skills and strategies. Dependent variables included GPA, teacher evaluations of students’ progress, personal and school goal achievement, and educational attainment over five years. The study employed a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design, combining the strengths of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative strand, prioritized in this design, included a cross-sectional pre-intervention study to examine the relationships between grit, its correlates, and school performance, followed by a cluster-randomized controlled longitudinal field quasi-experiment to evaluate the effects of grit interventions. Findings from the cross-sectional study revealed that school-specific grit uniquely predicted GPA, particularly for students with lower socio-educational advantage (SEA) and academic ability, with behavioral school engagement fully mediating this relationship. The longitudinal study revealed significant GPA improvements in the intervention groups, primarily for socially and academically disadvantaged students. Moreover, the grit interventions positively influenced the achievement of self-selected school goals and maintained GPA levels for advantaged, high-performing students, preventing the declines seen in the control group. The follow-up qualitative strand included focus groups with students grouped by academic progress postintervention (improved vs. stagnated / declined), exploring their subjective experiences, the resonance of intervention content, and the potential behavioral mechanisms behind intervention success or failure. This integration of quantitative and qualitative findings deepened insights into grit’s impact on academic performance and intervention efficacy. This research makes significant contributions to grit theory, methodology, and practice. It advances understanding of grit’s psychological antecedents, domain specificity, and mindsets and behaviors linking grit to academic outcomes. Methodologically, it employs a user-centered design process and a comprehensive, longitudinal evaluation, offering a model for scalable interventions. Practically, it provides schools with actionable tools to support students achieve better academic outcomes. These contributions emphasize the relevance of grit-focused strategies for educational policy and practice in Germany and beyond.