This week’s article summary is Whether
or not You'll Be successful in School Comes Down to One Surprising Factor.
The article made me think back to when I was a student and who and
what influenced me.
In my elementary years, I politely followed the teacher
instructions. I don’t recall being asked to do much analytic, critical thinking
(it wasn’t the norm back then), so I obediently completed my school work,
mostly worksheets. School was pretty easy and I was mostly an A student
(principally for being compliant).
In 7th grade I hit a wall: new school, higher
expectations, much more homework (including learning to study), essay writing
(and coming from an elementary school that hadn’t emphasized writing, I
floundered). I was mostly a B- student.
In high school, I worked fairly hard but higher level thinking eluded
me. I took honors classes (because my parents made me) but performed in the
bottom half of those classes. Again I was mostly a B- student.
It
wasn’t until college that I finally
began to see that learning required active engagement on my part in forming
opinions about the content and concepts of the courses I took. I became a much
more assertive student in class. I asked more questions if I was confused. I
was no longer abashed to tell the professor I was lost or to add my perspective
during class discussions. I’m sure Piagetian formal operational thought played
a role, yet incrementally I began to gain much more self-confidence in myself
and in my academic abilities. Tests and writing assignments became opportunities
to show off what I thought and had learned. While I never became a
straight A student, I moved into A-/B+ range.
As you’ll see in the article below, an important key to school
success is self-belief in your abilities.
Before college I had many great teachers who definitely tried to
help me become more confident in my abilities, yet it wasn’t until college that
the key to learning hit me like an epiphany. Until I felt I could be a good
student, I couldn’t be one.
Research shows preceding years of school form the foundation for
subsequent success in school. And the belief is one’s abilities and
self-confidence to overcome challenges begins at Trinity. Like me, it may not manifest itself in our students
until long after Trinity, yet don’t underestimate the work we are doing to
develop their confidence in themselves.
As we move into the ‘normalcy’ and routine of school next week,
keep in mind our goal to build self-confidence in our kids, yet as Kelly
Gfoerer pointed out last week in our Positive Discipline sessions ‘significance
and belonging need to be built with contribution; otherwise all you have is
entitlement.’
Thanks for a wonderful first two days of school and enjoy the
weekend!
Joe
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In order to be successful, many people believe, one must be
passionate.
Passion makes challenges enjoyable. It bestows the stamina
necessary to excel. However, there are telling counter examples where passion
doesn’t seem to be a necessary ingredient for success.
One such case is academic success.
You might think that successful students should be passionate
about their schooling, and that this passion for school would account, at least
partly, for why some students succeed and why some don’t. But this isn’t right.
My research has found that there is in fact no relationship
between how well students do academically and what their attitude toward
schooling actually is. A student doesn’t need to be passionate about school to
be academically successful.
Based on the recent PISA test scores and surveys, simple and
direct correlations between students’ academic achievement and their attitudes
toward school were near zero. The near-zero result was replicated in the PISA
2003, 2009, and 2012. There were no differences with respect to students’
socio-economic backgrounds. Gender did not affect the finding, and it holds for
both developing and developed countries. This means that in most countries,
academically able students do not hold their schooling in high regard. Similarly,
academically less able students do not necessarily have low opinions about
their schooling. There’s simply no connection.
If there is no real relationship between academic achievement and
attitude, then what motivates bright students to achieve academic success? It
certainly isn’t from an abundant passion for school.
The answer is that it comes from within. Other PISA-based research
has suggested that what sets academically able and less able students apart is
self-belief about their own strengths and weaknesses. Students’ self-belief in
their own problem-solving abilities is far more important than their perception
of school itself.
This is a problem. Students’ attitude to school should matter for
a number of reasons. If students find it difficult to see the direct benefits
of their schooling, if they think that their school has failed to meet their
expectations, and if they perceive that their academic skills are learned
outside of school, it is possible that this will affect their views of formal
institutions later in life. And indeed, many people have a pessimistic view of
the role that formal institutions play – a view that very well could have
stemmed from school experiences during formative years.
What can be done? Adults responsible for making decisions about
schooling need to be more cognizant about the long-term influences that the
school experience can exert on students’ attitudes and beliefs. A stronger
emphasis must also be given to the inclusion of hands-on group activities that
emulate what they may do in life once they graduate. Whether students are able
to see the link between their present and future may have critical consequences
for society.
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