FOSTERING ACADEMIC RESILIENCE IN STUDENTS

Shoshana Zeisman-Pereyo, Ed.D

Student Learning Support Specialist/Assistant Professor

Teaching & Learning Center, OHSU

OVERVIEW

• Explore trajectory of resilience to academic resilience

• Discuss common themes of academic resilience

• How to measure academic resilience

• The importance of academic resilience, as well as resilience, and health professions

• How to foster academic resilience in our students and learners

OBJECTIVES

• Define academic resilience

• Identify at least one strategy you could incorporate into your program to help foster academic resilience

RESILIENCE

• A psychological construct

• Accounts for success despite adversity

• Reflects the ability to bounce back, to beat the odds

• Considered an asset

• Does not mean being indestructible

• Positive coping mechanisms

RESILIENCE, CONTINUED

• Richard’s (2002) theoretical work described resilience as a process of coping with adversity in a way that strengthened protective factors associated with resilience

• Abiola and Udofia (2011) suggest resilience is associated with increased quality of life, wellbeing and functional capacity in times of adversity

RESILIENCE ACADEMIC RESILIENCE

• Emerged as a context specific form of individual psychological resilience

• Created to offer greater assessment and prediction specificity to resiliency research

• Contextualizes the resilience construct and reflects an increased likelihood of educational success despite adversity

ACADEMIC RESILIENCE

• Characterized by those students that present with the capacity to reverse academic misfortune and failure and succeed while others fail

• Maintain high motivational achievement and performance even when faced with stressful events and conditions that place them at risk of poor performance

• Waxman et al. (2003) suggest that rather than being fixed, academic resilience can be promoted

MEASURING ACADEMIC RESILIENCE

• Martin and Marsh scale arguably remains the prevalent measure of academic resilience currently available

• Cassidy offers a different approach and created the Academic Resilience Scale (ARS-30)

MEASURING ACADEMIC RESILIENCE, ARS-30

• Self-efficacy, self-regulation together with a range of attributes, characteristics, and factors commonly associated with resilience

• High ARS-30 score indicated greater academic resilience

• 3 factors emerged from the study

FACTORS OF ACADEMIC RESILIENCE (FROM ARS-30)

1. Perseverancea. Hard work and tryingb. Not giving upc. Sticking to plans and goalsd. Accepting and utilizing feedbacke. Imaginative problem solvingf. Treating adversity as an opportunity to meet challenges and improve

2. Reflecting and Adaptive Help Seekinga. Reflecting on strengths and weaknessb. Altering approaches to studyc. Seeking helpd. Support and encouragemente. Monitoring effort and achievementsf. Administering rewards and punishments

3. Negative Affect and Emotional Response a. Anxietyb. Catastrophizingc. Avoiding negative emotional responses

RESILIENCY AND HEALTH PROFESSIONS

• It was found that nurses who are resilient, assess their strengths, and then partnered with patients to mange their care, had better patient outcomes

• The literature has stressed the importance of high resilience in medical students and doctors, and studies associate this with general wellbeing because it allows one to adapt to and bounce back from life’s challenges

RESILIENCE CAN BE LEARNED

• There is convincing evidence that individuals can learn or acquire resilience

qualities

FOSTERING ACADEMIC RESILIENCE

•Within the education context, evidence suggest that resilience can be improved through the provision of relevant and practical protective factors

• Caring and learner-centered education environments

• Positive and high expectations

• Strong, supportive social community

• Offer supportive peer relationships

WHAT TYPES OF ACADEMIC RESILIENCE ACTIVITIES DO YOUR

PROGRAMS OFFER?

STRATEGIES FOR FOSTERING/BUILDING ACADEMIC RESILIENCE

Curricular Strategies:

• Holistic education

• Emotional competencies within the curricula, such as teaching emotional intelligence

• Life balance and wellness

STRATEGIES FOR FOSTERING/BUILDING ACADEMIC RESILIENCE

Faculty and Mentoring Assistance:

• Identify other successes and build upon them

• Refocus and view difficult days as a challenge and as an opportunity to overcome barriers

• Faculty can help students reframe experiences, from viewing it negatively to seeing it as a learning experience.

• Ask them probing questions, such as; What did you learn? Has this experience made you more knowledgeable? Stronger?

• Mentoring relationships/Coaching relationships

STRATEGIES FOR FOSTERING/BUILDING ACADEMIC RESILIENCE

Reflection:

• The act of writing allows a student time away from the noise and busyness of practice to think

• Instructors have a window into what a student is experiencing and can navigate and support the student to build resilience – SOM Narrative Medicine

STRATEGIES FOR FOSTERING/BUILDING ACADEMIC RESILIENCE

Small Group Discussions:

• Identity building work – what does it mean to become a nurse/doctor/PA, etc?

• Coping – what do I need to know about what it takes to succeed out there?

• Capacity – what will I encounter for which I need to be prepared? (pre-clinical)

• Strength development – how can I develop critical thinking skills? A sense of humor?

RECAP: ACADEMIC RESILIENCE

3 Factors:

1. Perseverance (Most important!!!)

2. Reflecting and Adaptive Help Seeking

3. Negative Affect and Emotional Response

There is convincing evidence that individuals can learn or acquire resilience qualities.

QUESTIONS? Thank you!

REFERENCES

Cassidy S (2015) Resilience Building in Students: The Role of Academic Self-Efficacy. Front. Psychol. 6:1781. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01781

Cassidy, S. (2016). The Academic Resilience Scale (ARS-30): A New Multidimensional Construct Measure. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1787. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01787

Diann S. Eley, Helen Stallman. (2014) Where does medical education stand in nurturing the 3Rs in medical students: Responsibility, resilience and resolve?. Medical Teacher 36:10, pages 835-837.

Howe, A., Smajdor, A. and Stöckl, A. (2012), Towards an understanding of resilience and its relevance to medical training. Medical Education, 46: 349–356. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2923.2011.04188.x

Mcallister, M., & Mckinnon, J. (2009). The importance of teaching and learning resilience in the health disciplines: A critical review of the literature. Nurse Education Today, 29(4), 371-379. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2008.10.011

Tempski, P., Martins, M. A. and Paro, H. B. M. S. (2012), Teaching and learning resilience: a new agenda in medical education. Medical Education, 46: 345–346. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2923.2011.04207.x

Thomas, L. J., & Revell, S. H. (2016). Resilience in nursing students: An integrative review. Nurse Education Today, 36, 457-462. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2015.10.016