Fall Down 7 TimesGet Up 8Teaching Kids Resilience and How to Succeed
Originally Presented at NESA Conference by Debbie Silver
Performance accomplishments
Emotional arousal
Vicarious learning
Verbal persuasion
Perceived Self-efficacy
Persistence
Performance
Choice
Bandura’s Model of Perceived Self-Efficacy (Betz, 1992, p. 23)
Need for achievement
The Marshmallow Test
• Control Group: • “Thank you for your e-mail. You have been awarded the
bonus point.”
• Self-Efficacy Group: • Dear _____, I received your e-mail message and have
awarded you the extra-credit point. Also let me take a moment and say thanks for doing such a great job on critical thinking assignment and for your thoughtful participation in class! You have exhibited good analytic skills, and you have shown that you understand and can apply the material. …Again, I would like to encourage you to study hard and work to improve your test score. I am sure you can do it! Good luck. Remember, don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions
Performance Focused/Fixed Mind-Set
• Fixed mind-set: • Intelligence = Fixed trait.
• Performance Goals: • Outcome = f (Ability).
• Convey/Transmit through: • Culture – stories, sayings, media, role models..• Praise for intelligence: “You must be very smart.”• Heighten social comparison. Normal reference, valuing
achievement…• Establish competitive academic standards. • Focus on performance instead of mastery.
Motivational Factors
1. Attention
2. Relevance
3. Reward & Reinforcement
4. Competence
Strong Empirical Support
• Robbins et al. (2004). • Meta-Analysis. • Best predictors for GPA = Academic Self-efficacy X Achievement
motivation.• (Study skills contribute to college outcome more than SES, high
school GPA).
• Brown et al. (2008). • Meta-Analysis.• f (Self-efficacy) = Academic performance and persistence.
The Scenario…
There is a 10 year old girl who just joined gymnastics a few months ago. She is very talented and all the adults in her life are telling her that she will win in a gymnastics competition. She goes first, and gets a high score, but as other girls go up it is clear that many girls are better than her. In the end she does not get first, second or third place. She does not place at all. She asks you, “Why didn’t I place?” How do you respond (Choose one of the five options on the next page.)
Do you say to her?
A) Well mommy/teacher thought you were the best.
B) You were robbed. We’ll go find another activity where you will be the best.
C) Gymnastics is not important in life anyways.
D) Practice hard and you will surely win next time.
E) You didn’t deserve to win.
What we need to teach our students…
Don’t allow for excuses! Teach students what they have power over.
No excuses!
Talent is a small part of the equation (only a starting point) Anyone can get better at anything with practice.
But teaching is not just the responsibility of one person.
Students should…
• Seek feedback• Focus on where they need help• Make goals with feedback from teacher• Give feedback to themselves or other students• Realize they don’t have to be the best to succeed• Students should have informal scales to assess effort
Teacher’s can or should consider or do…
What is best practice?
• Give wait time• Make sure students are raising hands and are not blurting out so other
students get time to think• Give verbal prompts or clues for students who are lower or don’t know
• Differentiation• Zone of Proximal Development – take to the edge of what they know
and push them further• Honor different ways of learning and being• Deliberate practice – one objective, to improve• Repetition matters• Ask students what they did better today vs yesterday
Push students forward
•Don’t give them a way out •Take kids to the edge and keep raising the bar• “If you did it once, you can do it again.”
All children have gifts and intelligences. Do your best to find them. It’s not about how smart you are, but how are you smart
Descriptive Feedback
• Is so important
• “What are you trying to do and how could you best achieve that goal?”
• Students need a growth mindset, metacognitive skills to know what they are doing well and what they need to work on and know when they are improving
Incremental feedback “I wonder where you could go from here.”
Honest feedback – reflect on where they are going
Be honest with where they need to go to reach their goal
Feedback - Things you can say to students when they are looking for an affirmation
• What would you like me to notice about your work?• What was challenging for you?• What did you push yourself to do differently?• Tell me how you came up with this.
Teachers can praise, but what do we praise?
• Praise the EFFORT rather than how smart the student is as this often leads to greater desire to try new challenges
Alternatives to saying good job
• Say Nothing
• Say What you Saw
• Talk less, ask more
Magic Words
• For Now• Yet / Not Yet• You Failed Better• Help Me Understand• Appropriate
Rewards and Consequences
• Give the minimum amount of rewards necessary for students to perform/do their work and strengthen behaviour
• Reward students AFTER they do their work and don’t bribe them
• Catch students being good• Have rules, consequences and rewards• Rewards should be success or performance contingent not
task contingent (don’t say if you do x you will receive y)• If success contingent it can be based on improvement• Don’t judge the student, judge the behaviour
Classroom Management and Planning tips
• If a task is seen as boring – validate their feelings, allow learners to complete the task as they see fit
• Non-example/example and think alouds (Robert Marzano) – as ways to get students to analyze thinking and see how they can improve
• For impulsive students use different strategies to help them manage their behaviour such as – making them aware, roleplay, community circle, token system, cueing, give jobs
• Set up groups for certain tasks – model appropriate behaviour, give jobs, put a strong reader in each group
Students must be able to persevere and develop grit
Dreams don’t work unless you do.
Remember Students are candles to be lit not something to be filled.
The Scenario…
There is a 10 year old girl who just joined gymnastics a few months ago. She is very talented and all the adults in her life are telling her that she will win in a gymnastics competition. She goes first, and gets a high score, but as other girls go up it is clear that many girls are better than her. In the end she does not get first, second or third place. She does not place at all. She asks you, “Why didn’t I place?” How do you respond (Choose one of the four options on the next page.)
Do you say to her?
A) Well mommy/teacher thought you were the best.
B) You were robbed. We’ll go find another activity where you will be the best.
C) Gymnastics is not important in life anyways.
D) Practice hard and you will surely win next time.
E) You didn’t deserve to win.
Resources by Debbie Silver
http://www.debbiesilver.com/
Resources by Other Authors
• What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink• Outliers by Malcom Gladwell• Talent is Overrated by George Calvin• How Children Succeed by Paul Tough• Mindset: How You Can Fulfill Your Potential by Carol
Dweck
There’s no reason to make excuses. Find a way!