How to Promote Academic Resilience in your Student Tammy Joy Burnham Plan a Did not work How to Promote Academic Resilience in your Student Tammy Joy Burnham

Academic Resilience The heightened likelihood of educational success despite personal vulnerabilities & adversities brought about by environmental conditions & experiences. Dynamic set of interactions between the student & resources in his or her environment that work together to interrupt a negative trajectory & support academic success. NOT a personality trait or single adverse situation Wang, Haertel, & Walberg, 1997

Characteristics of Youth At-Risk Poor Self-Concept Poor Academic Achievement Performance Non-traditional family life High Absenteeism Low Parental Expectations Low SES status

Characteristics to Encourage Strong work ethic Persistence Internal Locus of Control Emotional Intelligence

Culturally Responsive Teaching Gloria Ladson –Billings: Educational Debt Start of School Year: Get to know your students Create positive classroom environment Encourage student photos, artwork, writings Ladson-Billings, 2006

Strategies to Employ Teacher- Student Rapport Classroom Climate Build positive relationships Set high expectations Focus on student’s strengths Classroom Climate Develop a meaningful, caring community Encourage personal goals Instructional Strategies Student-centered Collaborative learning groups Allow students to tutor peers Student Skills Teach life skills Encourage extracurricular activities Downey, 2008; Dunn, 2008

A Focus on Hope: The Resilience Cycle Spoke One: The student recognizes his or her major risk factors. 70% of students felt “street smarts” helped them in not feeling so marginalized. 70% of students attributed their family’s constant struggle in aiding their work ethic & persistence. Spoke Two: The student finds protective factors that have the potential to help with negative effects of risk factors. Strong emotional intelligence: Being likable, positive, & friendly were qualities that attracted assistance. Morales, 2008

A Focus on Hope Spoke Three: The student manages his or her own protective factors to work toward academic achievement. Risk Factors are complex & numerous. Need multiple sets of protective factors. Spoke Four: The student recognizes the effectiveness of the protective factors & is motivated to implement them. Students build self-efficacy: Belief student has the ability to achieve. 92% of students identified this belief as crucial to their success. Morales, 2008

A Focus on Hope Spoke Five: The constant refinement of protective factors, along with future goals & visions, sustain the student’s progress. 72% of students referred to their study habits & work ethic as habitual, automatic, & routine. Morales, 2008

The HUB At the Hub of the five spokes is the notion of emotional intelligence present in the student. Of the 50 students interviewed, 46 exhibited high degrees of emotional intelligence. Qualities that facilitated emotional intelligence: Friendly Ability to channel emotions Persistence Ability to delay gratification Morales, 2008

Emotional Intelligence: Goleman

Problem: Why study academic resilience? The Achievement Gap (Educational Debt) remains expansive between students of color and whites, urban and suburban students, and low and high- socioeconomic students. (Harris & Herrington, 2006)

Reflection Puzzles of Practice Attitudes for productive reflection: openmindedness, responsibility, & wholeheartedness Zeichner & Liston, 1996 As teachers, do we focus on failure or success? Discuss with your group the successes you have experienced in promoting academic resilience. Ask: What? So What? Now What?

Changing Lives

References Downey, J.A. (2008). Recommendations for fostering resilience in the classroom. Preventing School Failure, 53, (1), 56-64. Dunn, T. (2004). Enhancing mathematics teaching for at-risk students: Influences of a teaching experience in alternative high school. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 82, (2), 221-234. Goleman, D. (2006). Emotional Intelligence. Bantam. Harris, D.N. & Herrington, C.D. (2006). Accountability, standards, & the growing achievement gap: Lessons from the past half century. American Journal of Education, 112, 209-238. Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). From the achievement gap to the educational debt: Understanding achievement in US schools. Educational Researcher, 35, (7), 3-12. Wang, M.C., Haertal, G.D., Walberg, H.J. (1997). Fostering educational resilience in inner-city schools. The Mid-Atlantic Regional Educational Laboratory. Temple University.

References Morales, E. E. (2010). Linking strengths: identifying & exploring protective factor clusters in academically resilient low-socioeconomic urban students of color. The Roeper Review, 32, 164-175. Morales, E. E. (2008). The resilient mind: The psychology of academic resilience. The Educational Forum, 72, 152-167. Morales, E. E. & Trotman, F. (2004). Promoting academic resilience in multicultural America: Factors affecting student success. New York: Peter Lang. Zeichner, K. & Liston, D. (1996). Reflective teaching. Lawrence Erlbaum Ass.