You. Are. Amazing.

Well hello there!

I was driving just outside Elora earlier today and passed this sign. The people there change the message frequently, and often I think I should stop for a photo, but I don’t. Until today.

Today, the words on the board made me think of my students. My wonderful families reach out to me because their learners will benefit from additional academics-based and learning-based supports. This might be because of an identified learning exceptionality, or it may be because some part of the new information is simply confusing. Both instances, which are certainly generalised here, lead to some degree of drop in the students’ self-confidence. This sometimes ends up presenting as increased stress related to school or learning, and depending on the individual, can manifest in atypical or socially unaccepted behaviours. However it manifests, young people’s self-confidence is bombarded on a regular basis, whether it’s at school, or socially, or online. As an educator, I believe it is incumbent upon me to help the youth in my life to realise and believe that they ARE. AMAZING.

What is Self-Confidence?
Johnston, Wildly, and Shand (2021) use Bandura (1986) to develop a definition for self-confidence (self-efficacy): “...students’ perceptions of their own capacity for the organisation and behaviour they need to achieve a particular effect or outcome in their learning.” Basically, a self-confident student will believe in their own ability to take the right steps in order to reach their target, whether it’s on a particular assignment or an overall learning result.

Self-confidence, though, does not have to apply only to academic learning, right? It’s a trait that expands to everyday life. So, if we can help our learners build it, they will soon realise how awesome they are.

How do we get it?
While self-confidence is an internal sense for an individual, it is directly affected by the people and situations around the individual. Fostering a growth mindset, then, is one way that we can increase self-confidence. Growth mindset is generally defined as one’s belief that their intelligence and ability to learn can change in a positive way. In contrast, a fixed mindset is one that believes that a person’s intelligence and ability to learn is unchangeable; what one has is what one has, full stop.

Encouraging students to view events in their lives as opportunities to gain knowledge for the future is one way to foster a growth mindset. For example, let’s say a young person has an interest in the dramatic arts. They love plays and musicals, but have no personal experience of being in a production. A student with a growth mindset would use self-talk like, “I don’t have any experience, but I can improve my acting ability with practice. I’ll take drama class and then audition for the play.” This mindset is realistic in that it acknowledges the current reality, but it’s also a growth mindset because rather than stopping at the lack of experience, the student finds a way to change the situation through actively practising the skill in question. Remember when you first learned how to ride a bike? Or how to swim? If you were expert at it right away, that’s incredible! If you were like most of us and struggled to stay upright or to not swallow all the water in the pool, you persevered, learned, and improved your skills because you did not stop at the first fall or the first gulp of water. You had a growth mindset.

So, when your learner is struggling, help them find a way to take that first, next baby-step. Help them build a growth mindset, and we’ll see a gradual increase in self-confidence as well.

How does Self-Confidence connect to learning?
Research shows that students are well aware of the messages they receive from their teachers (this will extrapolate to parents and other adults, too); Johnston, Wildly, & Shand (2021) found that when teachers use encouragement to express their high expectations of students, the result is an increase in student belief in their self-efficacy. This leads to an increase in the students’ desire to take an active part in their own learning (Johnston et.al. 2021).

It follows, then, that as a student’s self-confidence grows, so too does their frequency of positive risk-taking when it comes to learning. Students are more comfortable asking questions, and they are better able to consider different aspects of situations. Who doesn’t want their learner to feel engaged and even excited about learning? The greater a student’s belief in their ability to learn new things, the greater their engagement, and the greater their overall learning. Makes sense to me.


What is my role?
I really think I’m the luckiest of all. I get to make connections with students, I get to see them make connections to their learning, and I get to see the changes that take place as their self-confidence grows.

My role is to provide your learners with strategies that they can take with them to school, social occasions, and the rest of their lives. We use their current school work and grade-appropriate activities to build the skills they’ll use for success. In the summer, we review the past year’s goods and not-so-goods, and we preview the upcoming year’s content in whichever subject areas are determined to be important.

Also this summer, for the first time ever: MathVenture Camp!
MathVenture Camp is a collaboration between SEED and OneAxe Pursuits in Elora. We use their adventure activities (rappelling, or zip-lining, or Amazing Race, or Mission Impossible) as a foundation for data collection so that we can analyse everything using grade-focused mathematics. It’s fun and a terrific way to build self-confidence in both mathematics and everyday life!

I’m hoping to run the one-day pilot camp in August – dates to be determined. MathVenture Camp will be a fun and hands-on way to practise math skills and get ready for the new school year. Keep your eyes peeled for an email coming your way!

The Final Point
There is a lot that influences young learners’ brains when it comes to self-confidence in academics. How we as adults engage with them is a major factor. How they see themselves and their abilities is another. Over time, I see my students’ confidence about learning grow and their fears about learning shrink. When we are there for our youth, good things happen. They realise that they ARE. AMAZING.

Yours in learning,
L

References

Akbari, O., & Sahibzada, J. (2020). Students' Self-Confidence and Its Impact on Their Learning Process. American International Journal of Social Science Research, 5(I), 1-15. ERIC. Retrieved July 17, 2023, from https://www.cribfb.com/journal/index.php/aijssr/article/view/462/663