Ch.13 Exploring Achievement Difficulties pg By: Brendan Conway

How They Surface & Examples  Students who do not set goals, plan how to reach goals, or monitor their progress towards their goals.  Students who are low achievers and have low expectations for success.  Students who protect their self-worth by avoiding failure.  Students who procrastinate  Students who are perfectionists  Students with high anxiety  Students who are uninterested or alienated

Students Who are Low Achieving and Have Low Expectations for Success  Students like this need constant positive reinforcement, and need to know they will be given the help and support they need to succeed.  Need to be reminded that help will only be put forth if they also put forth a real effort.  Sometimes suffer from Failure Syndrome  Having low expectations for success & giving up at the first sign of difficulty.  Differentiate from low achieving students because they don’t put forth enough effort (give up quickly), where low achieving students don’t put forth their best effort.

Students Who Protect Their Self- Worth by Avoiding Failure  Some students become so obsessed with protecting their self-worth and avoiding failure that they get distracted from pursuing their goals.  This makes students engage in ineffective strategies….  Nonperformance – Ex. Not trying in the classroom (avoiding eye contact when teacher asks a question)  Procrastination – Ex. Last minute studying, taking on many responsibilities and having excuses for not doing all of them.  Setting Unreachable Goals – Ex. Setting goals that virtually anyone would fail to succeed  Can be helped by helping them set challenging but realistic goals, giving them positive beliefs about their abilities, and strengthening their link between their effort and their self- worth.

Students who Procrastinate  Regular procrastination can make students fail to reach their potential.  Linked to low-self efficacy, low conscientiousness, distractibility, and low achievement motivation.  Takes many forms:  Ignoring the task  Underestimating the work involved in the task or overestimating ones ability to and resources  Spending endless hours on the internet  Substituting for lower priority activities  Believing that minor delays won’t hurt  Not being able to choose between two alternatives  A deeper look at why we procrastinate A deeper look at why we procrastinate

Students who are Perfectionists Healthy Striver  Sets high standards, but just beyond reach  Enjoys process as well as outcome  Bounces back from failure and disappointment quickly and with energy  Keeps normal anxiety and fear of failure and disapproval within bounds and uses it to create energy  Sees mistakes as opportunities for growth and learning  Reacts positively to helpful criticism. Perfectionists  Set standards beyond reach and reason  Is never satisfied by anything less than perfection  Becomes dysfunctionally depressed when experiences failure and disappointment.  Is pre-occupied with fear of failure and disapproval which depletes energy levels.  Sees mistakes as levels as unworthiness  Becomes overly defensive when cirtisized

Students who are Perfectionists  Perfectionism can sometimes be an underlying reason for procrastination.  Perfectionists believe that mistakes are never acceptable, and have very high standards for their work.  Perfectionists are vulnerable to decreased productivity, impaired health, relationship problems, and low self- esteem.  Common outcomes to perfectionism depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.  How to help students who are perfectionists How to help students who are perfectionists

Students with High Anxiety  Anxiety- vague, A feeling of highly unpleasant fear and apprehension.  It is normal for students to have some anxiety when facing challenges like doing well on a test or presentation & successful students have moderate anxiety levels.  High anxiety levels and constant worry significantly impair students ability to achieve.  Causes:  Parents unrealistic achievement expectations and pressure  Experiences of failure  Social Comparisons  There are intervention programs to help these students with high anxiety. These programs are very effective at relieving students anxiety, but do not always improve achievement.  The most effective programs focus on changing negative harmful thoughts to positive task focused thoughts.

Uninterested or Alienated Students  The most difficult motivation problems involve students who are uninterested in learning, or alienated from school learning.  Doing well in school has no value to them.  To reach these students their must be sustained efforts to resocialize their attitudes towards school achievements.  Strategies to help these students”  Early Childhood- Praise the students for all of there efforts. This will eliminate the fear to do something wrong.  Elementary School- Incorporate the students interests into different activities. This will motivate them to participate.  Middle School- Provide challenges for students. ( giving them college work or assignments )  High School- Build relationships based on the students interests.

How our Brains Stop us From Achieving Our goals  Your brain procrastinates on big projects by visualizing the worst parts  we try to avoid the "hard work," we find ways to skate around it and trick ourselves into thinking that we're busy.  Your brain loves mindless busy work disguised as progress  Instead of diving into the difficult tasks we know we should get done, we instead float around doing semi-related tasks.  Your brain can hurt your goals by fantasizing too much  Psychologists have found that while positive thinking about the future is broadly beneficial, too much fantasy can have negative results on achieving goals

How can we Fight it?  After starting a task, your brain will be more enticed to finish it to it's "conclusion." You also tend to see that it's not as big a mountain as you initially imagined.  Instead of fantasizing with what the future may bring, we need to learn to love the work here and now.  When you look back at what you've gotten done by the end of the day, make sure you're proud of what you got accomplished, don't let your brain ruin your goals by diverting you from what needs to be done.

References  Ciotti, G. (2012, July 5). How Our Brains Stop Us From Achieving Our Goals (and How to Fight Back). Lifehacker. Retrieved April 10, 2014, from from-achieving-our-goals-and-how-to-fight-bachttp://lifehacker.com/ /how-our-brains-stop-us- from-achieving-our-goals-and-how-to-fight-bac  Dollin, A. [Ann Dolin]. (2011, November 30). Helping Perfectionist Students with Homework [Video file]. Retrieved from  Moffit, M. [ASAPscience]. (2012, September 19). The Science of Procrastination - And How To Manage It[Video file]. Retrieved from  Santrock, J. (2011). Motivation, Teaching, and Learning. Educational Psychology (5 ed., ). China: McGraw Hill.  Teaching Teachers: Professional Development To Improve Student Achievement. (n.d.). Teaching Tolerance. Retrieved, from development-improve-student-a