(This is the final post in a three-part series. See Part One and Part Two .)
The new question-of-the-week is:
What is resilience and how can teachers promote it in the classroom?
Adeyemi Stembridge, Becky Corr, Julie Hasson, Cindy Terebush, Dr. Cynthia 鈥淢ama J鈥� Johnson, and Kelly Wickham Hurst shared their suggestions in .
In , Debbie Silver, Gary Armida, Tamara Fyke, Douglas Reeves, and Michael D. Toth offered their thoughts.
Today, Bryan Goodwin, Dr. Laura Greenstein, Margaret Searle, and Jon Saphier wrap up the series with their commentaries.
Though I鈥檓 not hosting radio shows this summer to accompany blog posts, you can still listen to past. You can also find a list of, and links to,
Response From Bryan Goodwin
Bryan Goodwin is the CEO of Denver-based McREL International. He thrives on translating research into practice, scanning the world for new insights and best practices on teaching and leading, and helping educators everywhere adapt them to address their own challenges. A frequent conference presenter, he is the author of Simply Better: Doing What Matters Most to Change the Odds for Student Success and co-author of The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching and Balanced Leadership for Powerful Learning: Tools for Achieving Success in Your School. Before joining McREL in 1998, Bryan was a college instructor, a high school teacher, and an award-winning business journalist:
No one said getting an education was supposed to be easy. When we teach students that struggle is a normal and even desirable part of the process鈥攁nd when we respond to their struggle with praise, not punishment鈥攖hey鈥檙e more likely to persevere and to feel positive about themselves. Failure, in other words, is a step toward success, and a healthy one at that. Sometimes this goes by the now-familiar name 鈥渇ailing forward.鈥� Or as Ben Franklin put it, 鈥淒o not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.鈥�
However, simply heaping praise on students doesn鈥檛 necessarily develop their resilience. Yes, we鈥檝e probably heard about the power of feedback鈥擩ohn Hattie calls for teachers to offer 鈥渄ollops of feedback.鈥� But poorly delivered feedback鈥攅ven praise鈥攃an have negative effects on achievement as Stanford University psychologist discovered through a clever series of experiments, which found that praising students by telling them they are smart had a detrimental effect on their achievement and willingness to take on challenging tasks.
In the experiments, students were divided into two groups. Students in the first group were consistently praised for their ability. They were told, for example, 鈥淲ow. You got eight right. That鈥檚 a really good score. You must be really smart at this.鈥� Students in the second group were praised for effort; they were told, 鈥淲ow. You got eight right. That鈥檚 a really good score. You must have worked really hard at this.鈥� Students began the experiment 鈥渆xactly equal鈥� in terms of ability and motivation. Yet over time, those praised for smarts began to develop a fixed mindset, seeing their own aptitude as something innate and unchanging. Thus, they began to reject more challenging tasks, fearing that if they tried and failed at them, they鈥檇 no longer be seen as smart of special. On the other hand, 90 percent of students praised for effort were not only willing to accept challenging tasks, but they actually enjoyed doing them. In a word, they became more resilient.
So, the key is to draw attention to effort, rather than ability. Thus, 鈥淚鈥檓 proud of how hard you鈥檝e worked at this鈥� is more likely to motivate than 鈥淵ou鈥檙e good at this.鈥� In , we offer these examples to clarify what it means to communicate a growth mindset.
Yes, these are subtle distinctions, but words have power. And I鈥檒l admit it鈥檚 easy to slip back into communicating a fixed mindset, often when we鈥檙e providing praise. I do it myself sometimes with my own kids; they bring home a good grade or report card, and I find myself cooing about how smart they are. So, yes, I鈥檓 still working on it but know I鈥檒l get better at it with more effort. 馃槈
Response From Dr. Laura Greenstein
A lifelong educator, Dr. Laura Greenstein has served as a teacher and school leader, professor and professional-development specialist. Her passion for excellence in assessment is evident in her numerous books, articles, and blogs on the topic:
Empowering Resilient Learners and Assessors
Resilience is an essential element of self-regulation in that it suppresses our immediate knee-jerk response to an unreasonable request, challenge, or disappointment. However, resilience is neither a rubber band that can snap when tugged too forcefully nor is it Silly Putty that can be molded into almost anything. Resilience also requires adaptability: the capacity to adjust to changes in circumstances and conditions.
How do we know if students are resilient in adaptable ways? How can they show, both cognitively and emotionally, their ability to adapt to changing ideas, information, and events? While there are large-scale measures, designed for professional use such as the , it is in the classroom that assessing the dispositions and behaviors of resilience such as self-regulation, flexibility, perseverance, and self-efficacy can be embedded directly within teaching and learning. Resilience is bolstered by purpose, focus, and ownership. Here are some ideas to use in your setting.
Deconstructing and Gradual Release of Responsibility (Purpose)
- Reduce student overwhelm by deconstructing complex standards into achievable and assessable outcomes. Some standards are explicit such as 鈥減ersevere in solving problems.鈥� Others imply it through problem-solving, reasoning, and critical thinking. Teaching and learning begins when students can rephrase learning expectations in their own words. For the standard: 鈥渋nterpret figures of speech,鈥� start with a whole-class demonstration of 鈥淚 do, We do, You do.鈥� Then students can work collaboratively to explain and analyze Shel Silverstein鈥檚 鈥淭he Voice Inside You.鈥� In due course, they individually explain what Alicia Keys means by 鈥渉er head in the clouds.鈥� Peer and self-score learning using a rubric that includes focus, detail, clarity, and connections.
Monitoring and Tracking (Focus)
- Include resilience skills in learning trackers where students monitor their own progress. Provide opportunities for students to annotate places where they felt discouraged or overwhelmed. Ask them to explain what they did to adapt to the situation or alternatively, what opportunities the learning offered for them to practice resilience. Yona explains 鈥淲hen I got to step 4 in the experiment, I didn鈥檛 understand what to do next and was discouraged by how hard it was becoming. I wanted to pound my fists on the table but instead, put my fists in the air, so Mr. Waldrop knew I needed help. He sent me over to see how Harley did this step. Then I was ready to get back to work.鈥�
Engaging and Empowering (Ownership)
- Offer options and opportunities for students to show what they know and can do. A project may give Samantha opportunities to be creative in summarizing what she learned, but for Yustafa, an empty outline with places to insert the unit vocabulary is more structured and thus safer. Provide opportunities for students to annotate their responses, noting gaps in learning, areas of high and low confidence, along with explanations of their thinking and reasoning. Rosa says, 鈥淚 picked the word 鈥榙ime鈥� to define because in Spanish it means 鈥榯ell me.鈥� Now I realize the character was referring to the cost of bread in that era.鈥�
The world around us has so many opportunities to learn and practice resilience. In the classroom, routinely acknowledge evidence of improvement and success. Consider statements such as 鈥淩eba, you fulfilled your behavioral contract by showing adaptability when you chose a different book,鈥� 鈥淵anna, you helped your group stay on task.鈥� Ask students to offer similar affirmations to themselves and others.
Response From Margaret Searle
ASCD author Margaret Searle has been a teacher, principal, and curriculum supervisor, and she has served as an adviser for elementary and secondary education to President George H. W. Bush. She currently serves as an educational consultant to districts across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Her favorite topics are: practical ways to apply brain research in classrooms, how to diagnose and prescribe for behavior and academic problems, and ways to strengthen executive-function skills:
Resilient people are happier, build better relationships, and experience less hopelessness and anxiety than those who lack this trait. So, what causes some people to become overwhelmed and fall victim to adversity or traumatic events while others face the same types of challenges with confidence, purpose, and empathy? Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly when facing challenges or adversity. It鈥檚 the ability to shift the way you are thinking when life throws stressful situations your way.
Fortunately, resilience is a skill we can teach. Students respond more flexibly and recover from stress more quickly when teachers help students become aware of their current state (emotions or skills) and teach strategies for shifting energy and perspective.
Here are three classroom tips for building resilience based on the work of Harvard neuropsychiatrist Dr. Dan Siegel.
- Teach students how their brains work. A simple way to help kids visualize what鈥檚 going on inside their heads is to talk about the 鈥渦pstairs brain鈥� (cerebral cortex) and 鈥渄ownstairs brain鈥� (brain stem and limbic region) and how the two need to work together. The upstairs brain plans, problem solves, and calms us down. The 鈥渄ownstairs brain鈥� processes and expresses feelings and alerts us to threat. When the downstairs brain panics, it is important to be able to calm ourselves down enough for the upstairs brain to make good choices. When students have the language to describe what is happening in their brain and have learned self-calming skills, they become more confident about participating in conversations that help them respond in healthy ways.
- Connect Before You Redirect. When adults honor student feelings before suggesting solutions or demanding changes, students are more likely to respond positively. Begin by being aware of what effect your body language is having on the child. A pat on the back, a look of genuine concern as you make eye contact, a soothing tone of voice, sitting down and leaning forward so you are at their eye level are prime examples of ways to open students to communication. Start conversations with simple feeling statements like, 鈥淚 know it is sometimes hard to be a kid鈥� or 鈥淭his is a long assignment. You are looking tired and frustrated.鈥� Then pause to allow the student to verify that you 鈥済et it.鈥� Once you are connected to the student emotionally, the discussion about ways to solve the problem are more productive. Remember that the upstairs brain cannot respond positively until the downstairs brain feels safe and understood.
- Name It to Tame it. Teaching students language to describe their feelings creates a keener awareness of their emotions and helps them match their level of energy to the correct situation. For example, excited and boisterous are fine for the playground or football game but aren鈥檛 helpful in a library. In this case, self-calming strategies are helpful. Feeling tired or sluggish is great if it is time to go to sleep but doesn鈥檛 work if you should be taking notes during class. Knowing strategies for increasing energy is helpful in this situation.
Teaching students to describe what is going on in their heads and providing options for responding by raising or lowering their own energy levels give students tools they need for self-regulation and becoming more resilient.
Response From Jon Saphier
Author of (Corwin, 2017), Jon Saphier is the founder and president of Research for Better Teaching Inc., an educational consulting organization in Acton, Mass., that is dedicated to the professionalization of teaching and leadership. Since 1979, he and his RBT colleagues have taught in-depth professional-development programs centered on the knowledge base of teaching to educators in more than 200 school districts each year in the United States and other countries:
When a student is identified as resilient despite trauma or seemingly overwhelming negative life circumstances, the literature always finds one common element: There was a significant adult who believed in the student and conveyed that belief in credible ways. That significant adult may be a relative, a neighbor who takes a special interest, a parent, a club or team leader, or a teacher.
Teachers who get students to overcome odds are always 鈥渨arm demanders鈥� (Bondy & Ross, 2008). They show they care by building personal knowledge of the student and conveying interest in their lives. But beyond that, they hold them to high standards of behavior and academic work. Furthermore, they directly teach them the skills of effective effort (i.e., dealing effectively with Time, Focus, Resourcefulness, Use of Feedback, Commitment, and Persistence). And in parallel, they teach them the techniques for being skillful students. They will often use Modeling Thinking Aloud to show the student what using a technique looks and sounds like (e.g., how to solve word problems; decoding a word from context that they don鈥檛 recognize).
For teachers to get low-performing, low-confidence students to the 鈥渞esilience鈥� stage may take a surround-sound environment that communicates, 鈥淭his is important; You can do it; and I won鈥檛 give up on you.鈥� But it is regularly accomplished by committed educators. At Research for Better Teaching, we have 25 years of case studies to prove it.
Such an environment shows up in daily teacher language, in structures and routines that embed belief, and in the direct teaching of certain cognitive strategies and habits of effective effort. These are profiled in detail in High Expectations Teaching (Saphier 2017).
The underlying thread for these outstanding teachers is that they refuse to accept students鈥� stereotypes of themselves or the inevitability of color, race, or socioeconomic status as determinants of success. They reject the concept of fixed 鈥渁bility鈥� and believe in their own capacity to influence students鈥� lives.
If the commitment to get students to believe in themselves is an element of successful teaching, that is a way our work resembles the clergy more than a craft. But of course, it is both.
Thanks to Bryan, Laura, Margaret, and Jon for their contributions.
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