There was a report recently in the local media here in Scotland about some research conducted at a school in Scotland in helping the pupils deal with stress. The report went to say that around 40% of the pupils were stressed and needed extra support. They cited the twin stresses of forthcoming exams (an age old problem) and the pressure to appear to have a perfect life on social media (a newer problem).
I think my old friend Dr Steve Peters has a lot of really useful input here and my view is that his theories should be taught to children as well as adults.
This video is a really useful starting point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6bHxhfJGIU
Cheers
Sunday, 26 February 2017
Sunday, 19 February 2017
Building Confidence in Children - Carol Dweck
Carol Dweck has completed some very interesting research into how to motivate and support individuals and children in particular.
Startlingly, she concludes that tell children they are smart and clever can be damaging to them. This is because if a child believes they are smart they are less likely to push themselves as they don't want to fail and lose their "smart" label.
Better to reward children for being determined, willing to attempt challenging tasks and showing grit. These should motivate kids to keep going even if they fail at first.
Cheers
Startlingly, she concludes that tell children they are smart and clever can be damaging to them. This is because if a child believes they are smart they are less likely to push themselves as they don't want to fail and lose their "smart" label.
Better to reward children for being determined, willing to attempt challenging tasks and showing grit. These should motivate kids to keep going even if they fail at first.
Cheers
Thursday, 9 February 2017
The point of this blog
The point of this bog is to help others (and myself) become more confident. I am fortunate that I have managed to build my confidence, slowly, over many years.
Daniel Coyle's blog is one of the many really useful resources I use. It can be found here http://thetalentcode.com/
One of the lessons I have learned is that we can all reach a high level of compentence in any skill we chose. We just have to apply ourselves to engage in purposeful practice over a sustained period of time. The videos on the improvements that can be made in table tennis and playing the violin are amazing.
I think, however, we need to be kind to ourselves. Learning and progress is messy and certainly does not move in a straight line. I think when learning a new skill we can be easily put off initially as we don't feel we are making enough immediate progress. If we view it as a process with peaks and plateaus we can become a little more relaxed about it and not expect massive improvements every day. We should only judge our progress after a sustained period.
The good news is that we can also apply this logic to the skill of building our confidence. Don't anticipate overnight success or even large improvements in a short space of time, just incremental improvements on a weekly basis.
Cheers
Daniel Coyle's blog is one of the many really useful resources I use. It can be found here http://thetalentcode.com/
One of the lessons I have learned is that we can all reach a high level of compentence in any skill we chose. We just have to apply ourselves to engage in purposeful practice over a sustained period of time. The videos on the improvements that can be made in table tennis and playing the violin are amazing.
I think, however, we need to be kind to ourselves. Learning and progress is messy and certainly does not move in a straight line. I think when learning a new skill we can be easily put off initially as we don't feel we are making enough immediate progress. If we view it as a process with peaks and plateaus we can become a little more relaxed about it and not expect massive improvements every day. We should only judge our progress after a sustained period.
The good news is that we can also apply this logic to the skill of building our confidence. Don't anticipate overnight success or even large improvements in a short space of time, just incremental improvements on a weekly basis.
Cheers
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)