Three of factors limiting tenacity in students are: Fatigue, Personal Expectations and Social Media.
How are you seeing a lack of tenacity and optimism impacting your students?
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Three of factors limiting tenacity in students are: Fatigue, Personal Expectations and Social Media.
How are you seeing a lack of tenacity and optimism impacting your students?
I feel Social Media is the biggest culprit. The false glamour and the need to be liked and receive instant feedback is becoming a disease. This Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) is the real cause of sleep deprivation. Even at Primary School Public Speaking contest, most students wanted to be a “You tuber” as they think life depicted on Social Media is easy. I have met students who haven’t tried their ” personal best” in anything. They just try once or twice and give up
Shaista – so true about social media – although would not blame it completely
A knife is a tool to butter bread and also a weapon to hurt or kill someone
Social media has its place in society – to be a tool – not a master
I agree social media does have its place, however I think that social media is like giving a 2 year old a scalpel – it is in my mind a tool without instructions and again it is easy to blame parent for lack of management but perhaps social media needs its own controls. Children of all age strive to fit in and social media makes this even harder.
Every day I witness exhausted students. Many then fill up their bodies with fast food and energy drinks. It impacts every part of the learning experience.
Not having a variety of food options on campus impacts on this as well. Chips, chocolate bars and energy drinks. We are not helping on any level!
Learners expect to be competent with very little effort or input and take offence when they are given feedback to improve their work. Sleep is critical to everyone including teachers
Yes, I agree, learners do not like to edit/correct their work when provided with feedback. They will often justify why their work is correct even when it is not what the expected result/outcome should be! I do believe also that sleep is critical and is one of the main reasons that satisfactory performance/evidence is not achieved.
Limited tenacity is connected to that label of ‘entitled’. If it’s too hard and they give up but still expect the outcome with no effort
The Dalai Lama says that eight hours of sleep is the beginning of world peace! I totally agree with Michael’s observations here. Sleep is crucial and most of us aren’t getting enough of it.
Yes I agree, sleep is crucial – it affects mood, concentration, the ability to succeed at tasks. It impacts every part of the learning journey.
Students attitute towards personal learning is very poor. The engagement is class despite the amount of teacher enthusiam is lacking. It is very hard to compete with distractions of the digital world let alone the general fatigue of students in the classroom. many are living their life through a phone and a can of redbull everyday. Very sad.
Agreed Melissa, it becomes very disheartening for us as teachers when we try so hard to help them learn but they don’t/won’t help themselves.
While mobile devices and social media have their place, I find that students let the devices run their lives. I certainly miss the life in the classroom with them.
Students give up too easily and have a poor attitude in class – not engaging with discussion/work and continually looking at their phones. They stop coming because it is too hard or not interesting enough or not really what they thought it would be. All perfectly valid reasons, but I think fatigue plays a big part in trying to stay engaged when all you want to do is sleep.
The learning space needs to be more engaging for the learners, its difficult to keep the content interesting and engaging for the learners
A motivated student also helps. Many of my students have told me they are because they have to be, not because they want to be.
Interesting fact that 78% of students are fatigued
Thats why the energy drink companies are doing so well.
Everybody’s tired though aren’t they. I think the structure of life, work, society is also very different to how it was before. I think the concept of tenacity also applies to how to just get on with things, even thought you are tired.
Yes, I agree. I do my best to teach the importance of taking care of yourself as part of life – good diet, exercise, rest, getting enough sleep, interests etc etc as all of this helps to achieve the best you can!
Not surprised at all.
It is impacting dramatically as they have no drive and give up when the going gets tough
A society generation that is indeed entitled and wants a qualification because they have enrolled in a course
I think everyone has been so overloaded with bad news and things that are not “usual” in the past 12 months (fires, floods, heat waves, Covid) that even the slightest change in something – usually something to do with technology – causes a great deal of angst. I have actually had a couple of teachers who had initially retired but showed an interest in teaching relief decide they were no longer interested – for them it is all just too hard now.
Yep Julia, I agree with you! Teaching students who obviously dont want to be in the classroom is possibly one of the hardest jobs to do!
Well it is pretty much as the sentence before this question – students are tired, not focused, on their phones and less engaging. They cannot seem to cope with the learning and assessments most of the time. They are then unmotivated and refuse to continue.
I agree. If they do tell you they are not coming back and you ask them what they are planning to do next there is rarely a Plan B.
Some students are tired and unable to focus. Some continually check their phones.
I fully agree, come to class yawning not doing what their supposed to do and on the mobile phone
I find by the afternoon session of training they lack energy as well due to being tired
Yes, I am seeing the same in my students – by 2 pm they are unable to concentrate, yawning and totally disinterested and disconnected from the classroom.
If students are tired, they are less likely to engage with the lesson and stay engaged. As a consequence, the work is harder and there is more chance of making a mistake or three. Some students will take this hard and give up while others will get on with things. Tenacity makes a huge difference to outcomes.
Yes I agree and some of the mistake students make when they are tired are really small but they can create huge setbacks in learning.
I agree the majority of students are fatigued from lack of sleep from addiction to smart devices, which results in them developing a pervasive lack of optimism and tenacity about not only their learning, but life in general. It is sad to see in young people with most of their lives ahead of them still, as it is very self-limiting.
I agree with your comments. Unfortunately a solution will not be quick or easy. Hopefully the rest of the course will provide some answers!
I think also the mental energy that is used up in constantly being stimulated by devices must also contribute to fatigue
Students are giving up to easily, using Covid as an excuse, they felt that going to online learning was too hard, so instead of trying harder, they just give up and drop out.
Yes, we had a number of students who never signed in to online sessions and were apathetic to even trying. The automatic mindset was to give up and drop out, which was made easier during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Yes, Covid has been used as an excuse for a lot of things. Some of our students felt that online learning was harder than in class because they would be sent the work and were expected to be prepared for the online session. This caused many to become disengaged because the answers weren’t so readily available.
Did you do your online learning XYZ?
No sir it was too hard so I left it!!!
WOW
I agree with the online learning comment that most students felt it was too hard to learn and opted not to join the online sessions.
Personal expectations really come into play with this cohort and this is exacerbated by social media.
I agree Millicent. Many young students do not expect work to be challenging at times.
Yes I agree – not willing to put time into learning – expect it happen instantaneously!
Fatigue is a major factor for students. It can be seen in the way they turn up and participate in learning and how they cope with challenges. Tired students just can’t function at their potential.
Yes, it is a major factor – you can see from the bleary, red eyes and pale faces that they are just not up to a full day of learning and often it is exacerbated by skipping breakfast and having junk food and/or energy drinks during break times.
Lack of tenacity is always found among unmotivated students.
In 2020, most students on earth suffered from fatigue seriously due to Covid 19. Though they are well equipped with IT, some of them are sick of online learning. Lots of them prefer to stay in classrooms rather than study at home with their parents.
I agree. There is value in face to face interaction. Virtual makes connections difficult and favours the outgoing and more confident learner.
I see students giving up way too quickly and not realising that only hard work will see them through. They just expect they will learn things quickly without trying.
Hard work yes but also seeing the progress in the journey. We can’t simply click a button and ask students to work hard for no goal.
I agree with your statement. Students give up to easily, they don’t understanding that with the hard work will come the achievement.
Ariane I agree with you. We have grown up with motivational phrases like
‘When the going gets tough; the tough gets going’ These students, on the other hand, seem to live in a dream world. Its true that they believe life is as easy as it seems on Facebook and even minor setbacks derail them easily. Very sad and concerning
The impact is seen in my students. the factors limiting tenacity; social media, fatigue and personal expectations are HUGE! Technology has a role to play within our lives, its not going away. We need to encourage personal boundaries and start creating more community events to support one another, to support our loneliness.
Setting personal boundaries is key. Technology isn’t the monster. Is it just our use of it that has the impact.
Lack of tenacity in students is even more pronounced this year due to Covid, online learning, social media on rise and socioeconomic circumstances (again due to Covid).
Absolutely agree!
Every is fatigued, everyone’s personal expectations have been bruised and everyone’s social media seems to be the only thing making them feel good!
I cant wait for community to rise again!
A lack of tenacity and optimism displays in various ways in the student group. Some students stay away from school compounding the their perceived situation with negative self talk, online chat sessions with peers and activities not related to class work and fall behind academically and socially. Students that yawn on arrival and admit to lack sleep, believe they can be released from commitment to learning tasks and some are backed up by their parents. Other students tend to be blocked by false beliefs about their lacking ability and dwindling social prospects , that leads to depressing thought patterns and behaviours. It’s quite alarming to see Primary and Infant children so in need of a growth mindset – at least there are programs in place to help students help themselves.
Recently a number of high school students on the Sydney’s northern beaches suicided and I guess growth mindset had not been taught when they were in Primary School – it was too late for them – hope had been extinguished.
Alison I agree with you. The fact that many high school students take “anxiety attacks” at the HSc exam time as the ‘norm’ is very concerning. I have counselled some students in year 9 and 10 trying to convince that they should pay more attention to studies, stay organised to avoid that panic attack. Yet they seem to believe their tech knowledge will be enough. Its sad to see practical life-skills are being taken for granted
I have seen fatigue and unmet expectations in students due to Covid and the challenges and changes this has meant to what was expected in terms of learning delivery (from classroom to remote) and along with this I will often see students that seem afraid to tackle tasks or activities in case they make a mistake or ‘failing’.
Georgie, I agree it’s sad to see technology savvy children afraid to tackle tasks during the period of remote learning. These children have the skills but not the internal gusto to visualise success. Maybe guided meditation on visualising success in areas that they find difficult, might help?
In the classroom at the moment their is a lot of fatigue in students due to Covid and this is certainly impacting their optimism as there has been so many challenges this year. Students are not backing their own ability they have built for tenacity and optimism to cope with these challenges.
I agree Fiona, I think this year has made it hard for students to be confident in their ability to overcome challenges as it has been such a long (ongoing) and unusual situation too.
Covid is just another issue in disengaging the students. In some cases it’s just an excuse to not attend, not submit and not be present. It something tangible they can hold on to.
I have certainly seen a decrease this year in resilience of my staff and students due to fires, floods and COVID. I can see that everyone is emotionally fatigued and they seem to react quite pessimistically to small issues and challenges. I try to remain conscious of this and act as a cheer squad and personal motivator for people who I can see are struggling. I make it clear that we are all going through this, and that the situation will improve (hopefully soon!).
I have seen this too, Meg. The past year has been emotionally draining, so the slightest change in routine at work is enough to cause very negative reactions.
Definitely fatigue. I teach 7 and 8 year olds that are just simply exhausted and do not have the energy to complete tasks. they are unmotivated and struggle to find the reason as to why they should be doing their class work. They are lacking the ability to focus and work hard on achieving something. There is no interest to do tasks that seem a little hard and it is a constant effort to encourage students to see the purpose and importance of achieving something.
Yes Jessica this is grave indeed. I have heard our Infants teachers saying the same thing. It doesn’t matter whether these children are town, city or country children, it’s the norm and society/culture has certainly alot to answer for.
Christmas is coming to town. Many states open their borders and lockdown is over.
Hopefully, the students’ fatigue has gone with the wind, like the COVID nineteen.
Pray that our students’ tenacity & optimism return to our face -to face classrooms as soon as possible.
Definitely at the moment their is a lot of fatigue in students due to Covid and this is certainly impacting their optimism as there has been so many challenges this year. Unfortunately many students haven’t built the tenacity or optimism to cope with these challenges.
It is actually quite sad to see students who are unable to deal with these challlenges and I guess it is our job, and the schools we work for, to find as many ways as possible to support these students. This year has definitly been a hard year. The majority of students just dont have the optimism to see things from a bigger picture and just focus on the negative in front of them.
Christmas is coming to town. Many states open the borders and lockdown is over Hopefully, the students’ fatigue has gone with the wind, like the COVID nineteen.
Pray that our students’ tenacity & optimism return to our face -to face classrooms as soon as possible.
I rarely see a TAFE student that actually comes to class on time, attends every session and just goes about their learning without some excuse – tired/sick/someone else needs help/couldnt be bothered – they give up so easily without seeming to put in any effort. They definitely take any resubmit as a failure. How is it affecting the teachers when we seem to be increasing to blame for not engaging them? Teaching is increasingly becoming very frustrating and depressing yet we are expected to be the motivating force.
It is a grind of the job to constantly be motivating each student just to undertake simple tasks like attend a class or focus and listen. It is hard to engage some students who just dont have the optimism or motive to want to learn or see the value in it.
I also feel students are also not being ‘held accountable’ to finishing tasks as having no ‘self worth/value’?
I agree it seems like self-direction is missing from our students. The best indicator of who will pass or fail isn’t knowledge but determination and hard work and most importantly having a growth mindset. The students that start the class with the attitude of “I have something to learn here” are more likely to succeed and complete.
Students just give up. they do not have the motivation or interest to attempt to see the task through
I agree with your statement. Teachers are expected to motivate students who lack interest. Engaging students is often difficult as they seem to be bring all of the personel issues to the learning environment.
My cohort in ESL is largely older migrants and refugees, so I don’t see these issues very much in my teaching. However, I do see it in my younger students, and it is both frustrating and a deterrent for me as their teacher. I don’t have time to chase them up, instil self-confidence, comfort them in every wrong answer, and mollycoddle them, when I have a huge class of other people and their needs to attend to. I sympathise with them, and understand a little more now having watched this recording, but I continue to struggle with their mindset and the impact it has on the rest of my class.
yes, definitely the time factor in catering to their needs makes it difficult to support them. I have better understanding now and more empathy but I cannot allow them to pass just because they turn up. Post school education can come as a shock.
I have had the same experience. They are not affected by tech issues, however self confidence and a real belief that they can improve followed by a solid demonstration of effort is generally lacking with this cohort, for a multitude of complex reasons.
some students tend to give up quickly and not want to have a go because they are afraid of failure and of making a mistake. Expectations from parents is very high for some students – nothing wrong with high expectations for all but sometimes it leads students to go in the other direction. Social media – get off the phone, have the phone on a charger out of the bedroom – some feel they need to be on it all the time or they will miss out.
yes, I find engaging them in discussions in class is very hard as they do not want to give a “wrong” response. They are not willing to give an answer without “validating” their idea by Googling it first.
I agree getting students to volunteer to speak in discussion is hard, which is why we need to pick them at random otherwise they may never contribute.
Sharon, I agree that expectations from parents are so high sometimes that student goes on to choose a subject that he/she is not even interested in just to please his/her parents.
As a TAFE teacher I am always disappointed how quickly some students give up and drop out of courses. At the beginning they see themselves at the finishing line but the moment the going gets tough or something requires effort or is difficult they quit. After listening to Michael’s explanation I understand their mindset better.
I agree Joanne, I found it enlightening for the same reason.
YES, definitely! nicely said!
Yes I agree. I think a lot of TAFE students land in our classroom with 13 years of feeling like they are good enough.
I believe that lack of tenacity is a major problem in our society especially the young generation.
feeling tired in class due to unknown reasons says a lot, mobile phone and social media is to blame.
it seems like most of the students have a personal expectation towards themselves and anything else is just a distraction. when things don’t go to their expectation they get very frustrated and annoyed and blame it on their choice .
The students I have who are ‘too tired’ and obviously from phone use usually attribute this to other factors and rarely themselves or their behaviour. It’s so frustrating. There’s a martyrdom that seems pervasive in this generation.
Fatigue seems to be a major issue with my students with them nodding off in class. And the impact of social media on fatigue and on their sense of who they are and what they can achieve can be very damaging.
As a teacher i find this lack of Tenacity becoming more of a problem. They love people who praise them for a mediocre job. they just don’t like being told it is not the best and there is room for improvement. They feel so tired when they come in for a morning class, they cannot be without their phone (always checking). also find students who have started a career and find it hard and hence choose another option. Also when student are lured for a course they have been given the wrong picture, it is always a rosy, posh, and relaxed look. Well this change has to be driven from very roots upward. In a stage where they are being prepared for the work force it becomes harder to change their mind set. Beautifully captured why and how Optimism and pessimism have an impact on Tenacity, Grit, Resilience and persistence
I agree with you Mario on that point that lack of tenacity is becoming more problematic I believe that it is even more of a problem with use of social media on rise.
I see the htree factors of tenacity every day.
Students are always tired, not sleeping enough. Their personal expections, I see sometimes are out of their reach, too hard. And Social Media….always on it. I have to remind the students that it will be there when they look at their phones in a few hours, The world will not stop.
Tha amount of times I ask to have students put their phones away , particularly industry students is amazing….instagram, FB, snap chat…
Its the too hard basket to put in the extra work and if failure happens well, thats not what they want to see….
absolutely true true it is the biggest in the classes, the phone is such a major distraction. they give up so easily and want to try something easier. Never want to put that extra effort
I couldn’t agree more, it seems the students have their phone on in class all the time, i do understand sometime they use their phones as a timer for baking things in the oven as we are in the pastry kitchen, but i do notice that they have their social media connection on and receiving massages during the class and they all know the rules but they don’t really care. and that’s when failure happens
as an educator I find tiredness a big factor in the tenacity of the student, social media plays a very important part in their beliefs that often lead to being very pessimistic that everything they do is their personal fault , they need to be constantly reminded that some times thing happen outside your control
Yes! having to remind students that when something difficult or sad happens to them that how they feel is a natural response to that and that they can do something about it e.g. self care etc.
I see many students who give up as soon as they are required to perform tasks. If they can’t keep up with the coursework, they drop out of the course, many admitting to anxiety, mental health issues.
The anxiety is brought about by their lack of self-esteem and their belief in themselves that the work is achievable.
So true Julie W, its the too hard basket. A little of perseverance and work, most students could achieve the unachievable. But the anxiety of failure…is too much
It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy almost. I am a failure, therefore I fail. And as teachers we aren’t equipped to deal with this generation’s shortcomings and particular needs – I wish we were given more tools.
The “anxiety” word is being overused so much these days – it is a very powerful word and gets immediate attention and sympathy.
Yes, indeed.
I find there is a significant increase in mental health issues among many students regardless of their age. There is a definite shift in their perceptions around failure (pessimist). Most student seem to put so much pressure on themselves to never get it wrong; they have forgotten they are there to learn and making mistakes is part of that learning process (if they knew it all then they don’t need to course).
As a teacher I try to model that ‘mistakes can be growth points’ and I admit to my own mistakes to show students how I learn from them as I have so many students afraid of attempting tasks in class in case they get it wrong.
Exactly as this is ‘real life’ teaching, we all make mistakes, we learn and grow from our mistakes.
From my personal experience with students, if you keep encouraging students that lag behind, they aren’t/don’t think they performance needs work. I occasionally let them know the facts of their performance/ feedback which requires them to critically think about their performance review
Well said, I agree that mediocre performance needs to be called as it is and not given a false praise. Teachers are now told one cannot use red ink to mark papers, cannot use the word fail, use not satisfactory. Where will this mindset of “removal of dysphoria” lead the generation of today to?
I do agree however encouraging students is something we do all the time but this happens when they don’t do well in their performance as they feel disconnected and it was not what they expected in their perception which makes it very hard for teachers to explain to students that this is a part of the learning process.
Found your TAFE pass Priscilla.
Handed in at Woolworths Alexandria
Fatigue is a big one, with students and even sometimes myself. It is true devices also take us out of our natural circadian rhythm and not letting us have that full deep sleep we need to function at full capacity.
yes I make sure I have no devices in my room when I sleep, that ping as a new message is received leaves me wanting to respond to the text but knowing I shouldn’t.
Students are tied from a combination of full time work, family life and fitting in part time online learning at night. Some find it so hard , they get despondent and pull out of course.
I agree being tired will stop a lot of students
Without the opportunity to learn from mistakes resilience and growth are hard to achieve. A lot of my students want a quick fix an easy pass – effort and personal application and a realistic appreciation of current skills and knowledge are factors affecting this approach.
Maybe we need to be looking at better ways to reward effort rather than results to encourage having a go and sticking at something when it is proving difficult.
Competing against yourself could be a way of rewarding effort- a focus on personal best, rather than always comparing yourself to others as there will always be someone better than you and always someone worse than you.
I agree with your sentiments, Kerry. Obviously, there are many students who are optimistic learners, but there are those that just seem to think there is going to be a magical transplant of knowledge from my head to theirs without any effort on their part.
I agree Kerry, we need to make mistakes, it allows us to learn and become resilliant. Soome of my students both past and present want quick fixes but its such a breath of fresh air when you have students that put the extra effort in and just get into it!
My students are adult ESL learners and many often start their course with enthusiasm and high expectations of themselves. As the study continues along with their daily lives of family and work, some students often become fatigued and their level of work in the class begins to fall. Maybe they start turning up late to class or leave early.Their concentration may start to decrease and some may even drop out. I offer flexibility at this point. Some accept it yet others don’t.
Agree, students finding it hard to maintain motivation for learning journey.
We’ve all been there – so motivated at the start of something, and then life gets in the way. It is important to make it clear at the beginning of the course what the realistic time commitment will be. I often get students to name three things that may become barriers to their studies, and to think up solutions and workarounds to minimize the barriers. Maintaining communication and rapport is vital when students start to drop off in their participation so that they feel they can come back and together we can catch them up.
Social media is invasive providing no down time to reflect and think about life. The constant updates requiring attention affects the concentration in the classroom even though it is asked not to use or respond to mobiles. Adults also needing the whereabouts and updates on their children’s activities contributes to lack of tenacity in children completing class work.
very true students these days spend so much of precious time constantly looking at updates even during demonstrations and reducing their attention span
Social media seems to a developed a short attention span in our students. If it can’t be described in a couple of short dot points then its too long. Its as if they can’t focus on information in depth, just give me enough to pass.
Agree social media does provide entertainment and distraction. it can also make it hard for students to stay focused when they are always checking what others are doing
very true , the students are often so tired they nod off missing very important parts of a lecture, even when using platforms like Teams they see to have many other web browsers open, they refer this as multitasking
Fatigue has a lot to answer for. Students who arrive tired have difficulty concentrating on anything, that alone learning a new topic. They’re unable to contribute to class discussions and can at times actually fall asleep
Some students arrive tired and late to the classroom. The fatigue sets the level of attention and tenacity to complete any work.
Joining late also disadvantages the learner as they miss important scaffolding – not to mention very frustrating for the teacher!
Students are obsessed with catching up on social media with their friends. It is a constant battle for teachers to ask them to leave their social media at a distance for class work. They are continually referring to their phones and wont allow them to be taken from them.
That’s very true. I try to get them to use their phones for other things in the classroom – googling information, participating in quizzes using online platforms such as Mentimeter etc. When they are not using their phones for classwork, the phones need to stay away. I’m at TAFE, so acknowledge that this may not be an option in a school environment.
Students expect individual catch up for instructions and interrupt other students to help them. If teachers are asked to give a lot of extended time to one student then the remainder of the class is held up and not always able to progress. It becomes very frustrating for the teacher.
Students do appear to have become very self centered, this combined with a lack of turning up on time, an expectation that they are the exception to the rule, makes delivering content to a group a very difficult.
Students don’t seem to care if they arrive late for class and miss instruction time. They continually ask questions that have been covered and if asked why they are late, it usually is because they slept in or missed the bus.
I agree,, some students arrive late and do not mind that they’ve missed most of the class. The same students do not hand in assignments on time, yet they can contribute to class discussions in a constructive manner. They clearly have an interest in the topic
As an educator and a parent I have seen many students who are fatigued and not able to concentrate during lessons. The content that student discuss is too advanced and old for them to understand and be able to question. Technology and social media can be important and powerful but unfortunately some student loose the ability to think independently and just agree with whatever the view of the media. They are not driven to make their own decisions and don’t wan to be different.
I’ve seen this too Tracey. Some kids seem to have lost the ability to be able to talk aloud or join in any conversion or state an opinion. Or perhaps they just don’t want to.