In a longitudinal study of 140 eighth-grade students, self-discipline measured by self-report, parent report, teacher report, and monetary choice questionnaires in the fall predicted final grades, school attendance, standardized achievement-test scores, and selection into a competitive high school program the following spring. In a replication with 164 eighth graders, a behavioral delay-of-gratification task, a questionnaire on study habits, and a group-administered IQ test were added. Self-discipline measured in the fall accounted for more than twice as much variance as IQ in final grades, high school selection, school attendance, hours spent doing homework, hours spent watching television (inversely), and the time of day students began their homework. The effect of self-discipline on final grades held even when controlling for first-marking-period grades, achievement-test scores, and measured IQ. These findings suggest a major reason for students falling short of their intellectual potential: their failure to exercise self-discipline.
& Seligman, M E P (2005) Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents … there is more to discipline in educa- tion than examination, control and punishment. Discipline is not … grit and self-discipline. I argue that the work of Duckworth and others on grit and self-discipline does
Seligman, M. E. P. (2005). Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents … “The wrong answer to the right question is more important than the right answer to the wrong question … concluded that self-discipline is a better predictor of students’ proficiency than IQ (Duckworth, 2005)
Self-discipline is more important than IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005) and is therefore important in classrooms where autonomous pupils are expected to manage school demands on their own. A new type of challenge has appeared with the advent of free Internet access in the classroom.
Everything we examined (4) — 3 independent sources
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