The unintended results of the Self-Esteem Movement are: Apathy/Passivity, Desensitisation and Dependence.
How are you seeing the impact of the Self-Esteem Movement expressed in the students you are engaging with?
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It can result in students requiring constant feedback and validation.
All of us have been challenged by the lunacy of the covid lockdown and the effects on both our own work, and on how we teach. The result has been increased stress for students due to lack of face to contact. Zoom meetings, despite the hype, do no cut it. Research has shown that people get stressed in remote video conferencing due to the fact that they are unable to pick up on subtle facial expressions.
Moreover, the notion of the ‘digital natives’ has not, in my experience, been proven to be correct. Most young people approach technology as a tool. If they don’t need to know a programme or use a particular technology – they don’t . Adults are exactly the same. We all use technology as tools – when we actually need them – not before.
The thing that is important is that students are made aware of how to find the knowledge which they need or the technology which they need, when they need it.
This has been true of the covid lock down. Students needed to learn fast how to use the technology to complete their studies. Interestingly, it was not the technology that was the problem. Nor was it in learning how to use the technology. For the cohorts with which I worked it was the isolation and the lack of face to face teaching that proved the biggest challenge. In addition, it has transpired that many students do not have access to internet nor to they have computers at home.
Although Australia is a wealthy country, the assumption that all students have this kind of access is erroneous. Therefore, it is NOT the technology that was the problem or the challenge, it was the ignorance surrounding how people FELT about using it, if, indeed, they actually had access to it in the first place.
The experience has split my students. Some have embraced the change and love taking control of their learning. The others can’t cope outside the normal model classroom where they are checked on and motivated face to face.
I find this too. Couple this with the fact that not all have equal access or competence when it comes to online learning.
My students have been challenged by a variety of remote learning platforms, but they have embraced the opportunity to learn a huge array of new skills. They did this even though they have difficulties with English.
My students have had to learn new technology also, some have embraced this others need help to access the technology.
Yes and I’ve see this particularly in this COVID period where students and teachers have had to learn a whole new way of doing things. I think it has really stretched us all!
With COVID-19, I have found it very difficult to engage some students in the process of online learning, no matter what extra lengths are offered. These particular students all have a variety of needs – steming from self-esteem issues.
Interestingly, in a recent class survey that I saw of 16-18 year old, 86% selected face to face and in class learning as their preferred method. What does this tell you about students? It certainly challenges many of the assumptions held about younger learners.
I see students with a lack of motivation or desire to challenge themselves. Students are often very dependant wanting assistance before they undertake tasks so that they can check that they are right, scared of failure.
This seems to be the common after-effects of our schooling system. Have they been taught that there is a right and a wrong answer, rather than valid interpretations?
I agree, they are unlikely to jump in and have a go.
I agree with you. Students who are not engaged in their learning, find their learning pointless. Finding ways to constantly challenge them and teaching them to take a risk can be a challenge itself.
They are very dependent on that feedback and reassurance that they are right. They fear being brave and having a go.
As many of our students have English as a second language, it is not always easy to assess whether their reticence to participate is from lack of understanding some of the language used (which often includes technical words) and/or being embarrassed to talk in front of others and/or just feeling overwhelmed and then withdrawing.
I find the same thing Brigid. It could be a combination, and more – think trauma and even lack of prior schooling. A kind attitude goes a long way in breaking down those barriers, even if it takes a while.
Agree, I have tried to learn another language and found it to be very intimidating and I constantly felt embarrassed that I was not pronouncing my words correctly. It was a good lesson for me.
Students reach critical periods of submitting assessments and it gets ‘too much’ and they withdraw from the course.
Very true Rachel, they become too overwhelmed and withdraw. interestingly this also occurs within all aspects of their lives
This is really an issue, if we are trying to extend and challenge and build that growth mind set and resilience in learning and in life.
I see students dropping their studies once they face a challenging, long and difficult test.
It doesn’t help when even learners of English are required to get 100% in each of their 12 assessments!
Not all of my students are Gen Y so I don’t see this sort of mindset always expressed in my students. In recent ‘connected delivery’ I did find extra encouraging helped some younger students to continue in the course. So many other factors at play, but it may have also been the need for ‘external validation’ operating
Apathy without a doubt. They perceive themselves as failures from school (often early school leavers with significant literacy needs and/or disabilities) who don’t see the point of trying.
I totally agree, especially with early school leavers with literacy needs..
I find that a some of our students need to be pushed to get assessments finished as they don’t have the passion for their job (Trades Apprentices ) and are only doing the course as its a requirement for the apprenticeship. Where those who want the job have more of a passion and try harder .
True, I always try to incorporate peer mentoring into class groups, which has had a varing degree of success.
Yes Richard, I agree.
I think that this is where the face to face environment works in the student’s favour. No one wants to front class without their homework! But seriously, I believe that the teacher student relationship is what often motivates the student to continue when things do get tough.
Yes, but as they get matured they start developing the self motivation towards learning.
I often see students who require regular and sometimes constant positive feedback to finish a task. I feel that I am the cheer-squad that needs to continually encourage them to participate in their learning and skill development.
Sounds exhausting! It makes giving constructive criticism difficult too.
I do see the same attitude from my students.
Since COVID and having to do more online teaching, it has been a little easier to offer help and give encouragement on a one-to-one basis, time consuming but satisfying!
Consuming Brigid, student want more and more individual support, how do we meet the needs of all students in our classes?
Yes, it can be challenging to get some students to complete tasks without encouragement, assurance and them reassurance
It will be very limiting and creativity will be lost if we aren’t self motivated and have our own internal validation. As I have a mix of students I find that they offset each other in the discussions that we have.
I see a mix in my student cohort. I have mature learners who have more of a growth mindset… however the majority of my students are of a fixed mindset. Those who I consider products of the self esteem Movement find it difficult to take personal ownership of their work and responsibility and have difficulty seeing boundaries ( due dates). At times they can be very needy…wanting to check everything before attempting anything ( risk avoidant)
Having mature students in a class sometimes lifts the class discussions as some of the mature students aren’t afraid to ask questions and get discussions going
I have had students explain before the course has even begun that they are not very good and know they will struggle, so for me, as the teacher, to please keep this in mind.
I am finding the external validation versus the internal validation a real challenge in the learning environment. Particularly since moving to more online / connected delivery platforms due to COVID19.
Yes I agree with you it has been more difficult to have ‘good’ discussions where participation can be gauged with body language, facial expressions and voice and also engaging dialogue with interactions from all learners.
Within my role I have mix of students. My mature age students are motivated to learn more and put in effort, whilst I find with the younger generation, recently out of school, they require lots of spoon feeding or an expected amount of support to understand things. At times they will just not attempt something if it seems too hard.
I agree Donna. One of the biggest challenges I find is having a mixed cohort in the one class. How do I accommodate their needs? Assist them to learn other strategies.
Yes I agree with you – the more mature students are self motivating they want genuine feedback and yes the younger ones do not want any critique of their work they just want the pass and all positive feedback – not how can they improve.
I wonder how much of that is tied to life experience though. Older students may not even be part of a different generation per se, but have worked, maybe studied before, know more people, raised children, travelled and so on. I think that maybe part of our job as educators is to expose young students to opportunity. They are often developmentally stunted thanks to factors often beyond their control (such as family income, where they live, where they went to school, where they’ve holidayed, family friends – social circle, and so on).
Such a good comment – yes the challenges of the mixed group! It makes me think about discussions that myself and a number of the mature aged students are passionate about and enjoying and that the school leavers are disinterested in. How to keep them engaged too when I’m clearly linked to the mature aged cohort???
I agree Donna. When I have a mix of mature age and younger generation. I have noticed that some of the mature age students would a positive influence on the younger ones.
I agree Naim. This is a very good stategy I use. The mature age students encourage the less motivated, which gives the more motivated a sense of belonging and ownership within the class.
Yes I agree, some students think the teacher is there to give the answers and won’t attempt without encouragement.
Yes Donna, the self-direction of mature age students wanting to re-enter the workforce, achieve a better position is strong, motivation is high. The school leavers seem to come with pre-conceived ideas about achieving a COMPETENT/PASS without effort, or with the expectation someone is going to help them achieve if not on the first attempt then on the second attempt from the comprehensive feedback provided.
My students are mainly youth at risk, from disadvantaged backgrounds, early school leavers. They haven’t experienced much praise at school, have low levels of self-confidence, and don’t appear to have received much praise at home either. They are amazed when told they got it right or their work is good, and it clearly encourages them to try harder – I’m wondering if the era of self esteem is already over, or perhaps it is just the socio-economic gap.
Lisa, I have some experience of similar student groups — although I find they often take time to believe the positives and struggle to move past self doubt
I feel my students are of fixed mindsets with exception of a few students. I feel if we don’t make the learning easy for the student it all becomes to hard for them. Thus getting the student to complete any task or their work is extremely hard
I agree Joanne – similar experience at my end
Yes Joanne, I am finding the same. The minority of students are of growth mindsets. The challenge is finding the balance…. how do we motivate one group & yet still challenge the other to ‘have a go’.
I’ve found that there are some students who lack confidence and require me to give them a lot of direction and motivation.
Yes, I agree. As a teacher I feel responsible for the students’ self-confidence and self-esteem.
I make sure to include them in any discussions the class has. which tends to lift there confidence
I think I may have less teaching experience than many on this blog (and I teach by distance, so it’s harder for me to judge) but I don’t particularly detect a strong trend of apathy/passivity, desensitisation and dependence among young students. To be honest, I sometimes get those feelings myself, and I’m not a product of the self-esteem movement.
People who study by distance by definition are growth mindset people. You have to have a very high level of personal drive and self confidence to even enrol, let alone finish an online course. There’s a reason the completion rate for online study is low.
I am seeing the signs of apathy and passivity the most as students tend to want everything to be easy, quick and without much effort. One student once said to me that ‘she didn’t answer a particular question because the question was too long to read!’
Hi Amanda, i totally agree with you the learners today. They don’t seem to show any interest in most of the areas and looking for ready made solutions. They are not prepared to take any challenges on.
I agree. There’s a lot of learners who just want to be handed the answers.
If the task is to hard the students will just quit, make an excuse they have to leave or aren’t feeling well.
Students that I teach from this group are very needy, they require a lot of praise and feedback to complete every task. When you give positive feedback they react in a way that I would expect from winning the lottery. Often they don’t absorb the constructive feedback and will often say something like “I meant for it to look like that” or “I like it like that” rather than take on the feedback and improve on the next try.
The students I teach I have are very similar to yours, they don’t like any form of feedback, they take it as criticism.
In regards to apathy/passivity, I certainly notice plenty of students in our course who are there because they essentially ‘have to be’, not because they ‘want to be’. As for any teacher, it is very difficult to teach those who don’t want to be taught. In many of them, there is also very little ‘stickability’ or tenacity – once they perceive the going to be too tough, once they fall a little behind and the effort to catch up is too much, they quit. Completion rates are not great.
I agree with this 100%, if it’s too hard they are out of here
Hi Carinya, i totally agree with you the learners today. They don’t seem to show any interest in most of the areas and looking for ready made solutions. They are not prepared to take any challenges on.
I still find this from full fee paying students who have sought out the course they are enrolled in.
Many students are unwilling or unable to persist when facing a challenging situation. Those students require constant reassurance when completing tasks.
Absolutely agree. If they don’t get the pat on the head because they have turned in a dogs’ breakfast then they put in a complaint to say how hard it is for them to attend classes and how much effort they are making and this teacher didn’t give me a pass for the piece of crap I handed in.
Yes Brad anything that is difficult or challenging at times comes with an excuse
Yes, I agree. One almost feels responsible to modify the task if the students feel challenged by it, instead of encouraging them to step outside their comfort zone and ‘try harder’.
Lack of mindfulness and resilience
I believe that students lack resilience as they want everything to be handed to them.
A lack of organisation skills in general. Time management is sadly lacking in many young people due to their reliance on social media. I see them struggle to put aside their phone and focus on one thing only. They are dependent on their teachers to spoon feed rather than taking the initiative. There are exceptions of course. The disappointing thing is that a lot of students with ability just can’t be bothered putting it into action.
The ‘why bother’ attitude is scary in terms of our societies ability long term to be productive
I can relate to all of the above. It is frustrating as a teacher and puts a lot of pressure on us to compete with this and make lessons interesting enough for the students.
low self-esteem was the root of the problem for individuals in the workplace/Business. I believe those students can high self esteem by learning and becoming skillful.
I find that a lot of students are obsessed with social media, especially Instagram which has a huge impact on their self-confidence in a negative way.
I certainly see in my students two distinct approaches. In those who excel in their studies there is hyper-competitiveness and perfectionism. There is that constant drive to be publicly acknowledged as the best. In those who do not excel there is an apathy towards their studies. These students are happy to do the bare minimum to pass and project a very laissez-faire attitude.
I find that the gap between growth and fixed mindsets is more dependent on maturity than a person’s age, however. Those students with more life experience (whether that be due to age of the challenges overcome in their life) are more likely to find validation internally and seeking to overcome challenge.
While I see some of the negative aspects of the self-esteem movement, I disagree that these negatives are systemic. I’ve seen apathy and passivity, but I’ve also encountered students who are intrinsically motivated and have achieved at an exceptional level. The presented dichotomy between fix and growth mindset doesn’t resonate with me. There are other factors (e.g. socio-economic background) that can affect a student’s mindset to learning. Is it the self-esteem movement or technology that has had such a profound impact on our students?
Read my comment Matt. The inability to put aside their phone to focus on something else is just scary – the attachment is profound. Technology has a major impact for sure.
I was previously aware of the concept of the ‘self esteem movement’ which I tend to think of a very Americanised concept for some reason – which our culture in Australia has a tendency to follow. I am also fairly well versed in the Fixed V’s Growth Mindset concepts of recent trend and focus. Where I really found value in this section of the presentation was the link between the two (and the Self Acceptance Movement). Like so many of us have described we observe and encounter so much of the apathy and lack of drive, need for external validation in our schools, however I’ll be honest and had never really made (or had explained) the connection between these concepts. I’ve always believed to a substanital degree that we are a largely product of our environment, but I had never really been exposed to the connection of the changes in philosphies / cultures / paradigms. It is so clear and makes so much sense!
yep > Maybe I’m just Socrates, but i think students are more apathetic, with less resilience and internal motivation now
Many students fall into this category, it appears the divide between those like this and those that are the opposite is becoming more evident.
Many of them are, for sure, which is so sad to see.
Some students have no self esteem. They are worried about everything, dependent on others and not always willing to have a go – might make a mistake or not get it right. Parents want constant, on demand feedback.
There seems to have been a lot of apathy in many students for a long time. of course there have always been exemptions. More recently it is the effects of the self acceptance movement which seem to be more prevalent. it is difficult to engender motivation in students who have disengaged and claim satisfaction with the current situation or level. So often I’ve heard “Don’t worry miss, it’s OK, it’ll be alright” preceding a lack of interaction with the task at hand.
yep
So very true.
In recent times, when students were forced to participate in remote learning due to COVID-19, it became even more evident that students need constant validation and are less motivated to problem-solve or to independently solve an issue with their work. Teachers were constantly needing to reassure students (and parents) that they needed to give the work a go, give it their best and keep working on it until they ‘got it’. Without instant feedback, many of the students were reluctant to move on. Not seeing students face-to-face on a daily basis has highlighted the need for teachers to think differently about how they provide feedback, the importance of a growth mindset and the need to promote the notion with students that they need to be intrinsically motivated to really succeed.
i agree Matt, I hope(d) that the experience might teach some students the need to be more intrinsically motivated…
I once had a Yr 11 student who refused to write anything on her ‘worksheets’ until we had gone through and discussed as a class so that she could (only) have the ‘right answers’ written down eg. “tell me what I need to write”. Considering my own philosophies to learning and knowing that my chosen HSC syllabi highly value “higher order and critical thinking” it didn’t go down all that well when she told me this… This was quite early in my career and prior to me ever learning about “fixed mindsets” but to me she was the ultimate product of a system and society that ‘socialised’ people to value getting the ‘right answer’ over the learning process. She was a typical ‘people pleaser’ who absolutely seemed to place her value in her achievement. It got her so far in junior school eg. A/B student (because unfortunately that is what tends to be valued more in Juniior years eg. “Tell me what I want to hear – and I’ll validate you with an A” , but it was never going to get her far in Senior Schooling or University level learning for example. She never saw out the course with me. I think she ‘dropped it’ at the first available opportunity.
Dependency on others is something I see often in our students, taking little responsibility for their actions also stands out for me. The low self esteem movement really resonated with me, the expectation that you need praise often and everyone should get an award, is so relevant in schools.
Praise praise praise -feel like I do this all the time. Some students feel they should always be rewarded and receive something for little done.
Need mixture of both to be successful:
a) Fixed mindset
b) Growth mindset
Students are often passive and need to be given more responsibility for their own outputs. Also they are desensitised from too much gaming and need to get more real life experiences.
Yes, I do think the addiction to gaming has had a detrimental effect on many young students.
Working in the early years sector, I see a lot of students who are very dependent on their parents, especially at the beginning of the year. Most of the time I feel like I am teaching the parents how to let go and trust that their children can pack their bag independently, or unpack it and find their own belongings. By the end of the year we see huge amounts of growth from our students. I love to see how independent they are and sometimes I hear that they are now doing these things at home too. I believe their mindset is a product of their parents
Yes Alyssa, I always liked dropping my kids off for scout camps. Many parents couldn’t let them go and would hang around and fuss over them. The scout master was very clear – go and get yourself a coffee and let the kid get on with his or her job.
Yes, the “helicopter parent” phenomenon could be part of this lack of resilience.
Yes, this is very true. With recent restrictions on parents entering the school, there was increased anxiety among children to come into school without a parent helping them hang their bag on a hook and watching the children enter class. I’m not sure, however, who was more anxious, the child or parent. There is clearly levels of anxiety transferred from parent to child – giving trust and letting go seemed to be very hard for some parents.
My wife has been an early childhood and early Primary teacher for the time we have known each other. It seems to be very common practice for schools to ‘not allow’ parents / carers of kindy kids in the school gates on their first day(s) for this very reason. It is understandable that this is a challenging time for many parents and a significant time of transition in their lives and the lives of their children. Of course they are just being ‘well meaning’ and want to make sure their kids are ‘OK’. Actually now I think of it the culture of ‘junior sports parents’ probably has pretty strong links to this concept of over-parenting…
My own children were happy to be dropped at the school gate in the mornings – from kindergarten, they enjoyed getting their own school lunch ready, they were responsible for looking after their school jackets, hats. I do like to see how the children have grown over the school year and how less reliant they are on their parents.
I think another unintended consequence of the Self-Esteem Movement is that younger people can have a distrust of positive feedback… they think, well everyone gets told they are great (everyone gets a ribbon) so how can I trust you when you’re telling me I’m doing well?
And I think that this can make people more anxious.
I agree Julia, I also see that not as many students are striving to achieve because, as you have put it ‘everyone gets a ribbon’.
I think the emphasis on competitiveness and the need to be validated by winning or receiving a reward has limited a students ability to learn for learning sake. However I don’t see this solely as a result of the self esteem movement because our society very much encourages this in many other facets of our lives including , school , business and sports. Positivity has its role in the right context but like many things its real benefit can be lost in its abuse.
True Don. I don’t think prohibiting scoring in soccer games so that no one feels they aren’t a winner is a good tactic at all. We need to teach kids to be more resilient.
However Don would you not agree that so much of our society is now a result of the self esteem and self acceptance movements? it will of course permeate all facets.
hmm, that old chestnut. Cant see why learning cant be perceived and shown to be a good thing on its own while also rewarding those who typically worked hard for success…
and doesn’t a dux or 1st in year standing up on a stage send a message to say “I value learning”?
I am seeing the impact of the Self-Esteem Movement in the students that I teach through their unwillingness to learn from mistakes and their unwillingness to strive to work beyond what is expected.
I agree, there is a real mindset that students need to get everything right the first time. It’s common to see students want to move on without looking back at feedback and suggestions for improvement. It’s also common for parents and students to question why they didn’t receive a better result or higher praise for their work/assignment when they have demonstrated sound knowledge and submitted what is required. It never seems quite good enough, they want a better result or to be told they are the best, but aren’t willing to go above and beyond the expectation for fear it might be ‘wrong’.
There are a huge amount of students who need to ask questions for every step of their learning to ensure that they feel they are completing the task correctly. The level of students who are not willing to take a risk and make a mistake to learn is massive.
Yes agree Emma, risk taking is a huge issue
Risk taking is important..to be successful in business need to take risk , it is necessary to take risk rather than not take risk at all. Remember changes have cretin amount of risks attach to it.
Absolutely agree Emma. I teach in Creative Arts and this facet of student learning is so important as it develops individual direction and creativity. There is no correct way to complete a painting or perform their version of a song.
I see this too and it makes me wonder if our teaching methodology doesn’t sufficiently reward risk taking.
Many students have to constantly check in to stay motivated and on task. They very much need to know that what they have already done is good before they are willing to put in more effort.
Yes and they often just stop, waiting for someone to arrive and supply them with their next morsel of motivation. Formative assessment can be a great tool when used correctly.
Many of the students with whom I work are shocked that my teaching/grading/assessing doesn’t involve use of rewards such as stickers or Dojos etc.
I am seeing this too – so many students who need that external reward. Feeling good about what they have done doesn’t seem to be enough!
I worked a school once that didn’t allow this- stickers, awards, class points, prize boxes etc. The feedback I gave, both written and verbal improved so much and I felt it was taken on board and positively because my students knew it was authentic and meaningful
It has been a big realisation that I am a product of the 79’ers self-esteem movement. I recognise many of the techniques of constant praise and “everyone gets a certificate” from my own schooling. We as teachers should be very aware that we now teach the students whose parents were brought up in this environment, reinforcing these behaviours. It will be an education to these parents as well as their kids. We are challenging both the students and their parents to recognise this behaviour and try something new.
I agree. Young children don’t need a certificate to explore and learn. Why, when they reach school does this suddenly change?
I agree. The parents that we are encountering with the ‘everyone needs a certificate’ for participating is huge. Dealing with the amount of communications sometimes around this issue via phone calls and emails is big workload. Thy are often very irate that their child has not received a ribbon or certificate for participation.
Totally agree Sarah and I think the issue is not solely in education but also permeates other aspects of our society. We need to know the difference between praise and acknowledgement. Praise is all about having someone feel good but acknowledgement can be far more about validating what you did right as part of a formative process.
The impact of the self-esteem movement so evident in some students but not all. Michael said that flattery does not build self-esteem therefore the decade of promoting self-esteem did not build stronger more resilient and successful people than previous generations. A person’s nature as well as their early experiences of life need to also be taken into account.
I have been teaching for a long time and see so much good in all the kids I have taught. Yes there were the indulged students where mum and dad believed they could do no wrong but there have also been wonderful self-motivated students who loved learning and competing with other people. I have worked with many students who will face the challenges of the future and succeed. Sometimes it is the fixed mindset of the parents, rather than the students that has been disappointing to deal with as an educator.
Very true that life experience and personal nature also play a role in how a student handles a situation. I have been using the catch phrase for a long time…’What does not kill you, makes you stronger!’.
I agree Liz. It is often the parents who instill in their children a dependence and need for external validation.
Having spent a large part of my life working in challenging communities, I have been intrigued by the differences between the ways that kids will approach the same issue. Some will engage with the problem as a challenge and others will throw the towel in really quickly. It is always an interesting investigation to consider the childhood trauma influence on kids responses, and their ability to respond.
I agree Bianca and I think we can’t forget how important acknowledgement is in a formative process in learning, particularly if someone is learning from mistakes. Trauma impacted students can also very much benefit from knowing people care. Understanding and combining the two should never be seen as building self esteem but more so to contributing to building resilience for these students.
As a teacher of the early years I have noticed that the self-esteem movement is evident from a very young age. I assume it is a combination of nature and nurture that allows students to be able to express themselves and their needs. I have noticed an increasing number of students who require constant positive feedback and encouragement in order to continue to try new and challenging activities. Whilst other students are challenging themselves by embracing opportunities and learning from failure. As a teacher, we need to tap into these moments and explicitly demonstrate how they can deal with success and failure.
Definitely. Praise should not be abandoned, it certainly has its place. However needs to be coupled with a growth mindset technique of “try harder here…”.
As an early years educator, I see this as well! I was surprised at how many of my students depend on their parents- from unpacking to packing bags to finding their own personal belongings. I also found that they require a lot more motivation to get going and complete tricky things- I strive to teach independence in my classroom
I think for many of our non-academic students who prefer hands on pursuits, these seem to show the greater ratio of students with a fixed mindset. They have given up on academics, thinking they just can’t, rather than thinking “if I try harder or get someone to explain things in a different way I could do this”. Maybe it’s due to an overloaded curriculum, maybe it’s due to a lack of community raising children instead of parent raising child. If a parent has literacy issues, this is bound to carry across to the next generation unless support measures or interventions are in place.
If Covid-19 wasn’t an issue, I know our local library have story reading sessions weekly, but how cool would it be to have every afternoon story reading in aged care residences with mothers groups and little ones. Dimensia patients are shown to be more engaged when new things happen around them rather than being in an institution all the time. Or afternoon story reading programs in your street or neighbourhood. It has been proven that reading regularly to children improves their literacy exponentially. Just a thought.
Increasingly within the classroom we see students with a fixed mindset. These students like to be given direction every step of the way and are reluctant to work in an environment where they are challenged or where self – direction is required. In my teaching area, which is practical, all students have the opportunity to succeed however it is the students with a growth mindset who thrive and challenge/extend themselves who get the most out of the work and who can learn from experiences that d o not go as planned and adapt with the next challenge.
Raylene,
Do you know when the ‘prize for everyone’ mentality got promoted in the education system? Was it actually driven by curriculum, or just by society and osmosis?
I can answer that, Naomi. It was not a curriculum decision but a societal one as a result of the self-esteem movement in the 1990s. Parents thought it was wonderful that all students were recognised for example at Presentation Day. After a while the students in the schools that adopted this practice began to see less value in the certificates that were handed out. Students know the strengths of their peers and I believe like to recognise those achievements. It will be interesting to see how the generation with the fixed mindsets cope as parents and middle aged adults with career and personal disappointments in their lives.
I also think it’s rather convenient that we blame the kids or “millennials” for these unintended consequences of the decisions that the older generations made.
Gen Y and millennials never asked for everyone to get a ribbon. It was their parents…
This is so true, Julia. For the most part, millennials (like every generation before them) are a product of their upbringing.
There is much fear of being wrong these days as nearly all assessment of learning is a series of ‘marks’ from pen and paper tests. Perhaps if we didn’t have to teach to the test, learning would be more expansive.
I have experienced the changing mindset of my students over many years when I first started teaching students did not need constant reassurance or validation. Witnessing this change since 1979 has proved to be challenging because as a child of the earlier generation I found it difficult to see the value of continually praising mediocrity. In many ways I was dragged into this new way of building self esteem and I have often reflected on its validity. Since working at a selective high school I saw the ever increasing problem of students who lacked the resilience to take on the challenges placed in front of them often leading to serious mental health issues.