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When I (first author) look back on my own schooling, I realise that I was one of the lucky ones. I was a high achiever - a straight A student - who loved learning, was particularly good at maths, and loved new challenges teachers set for me. However, when I began working with children in the area of learning support, I realised that not all children shared my love for learning. For many, learning was a constant struggle that brought with it a lot of frustration and disappointment. As a maths tutor, I often had students, even parents, say to me 'I can't do maths' or 'I don't have a mathematical brain.' Many children and even adults completely shut down when confronted with a task that requires them to use numbers. So what was going on? What I discovered in my extensive work and research in this area is that negative perceptions of one's own abilities are a strong influencer over whether we succeed or fail. For example, a student who is struggling with his learning, who, despite trying hard, is falling behind in his work and getting low marks, begins to doubt his abilities. As soon as a student begins to doubt himself he loses motivation and ultimately disengages. 'What is the point, I am only going to fail anyway' becomes a common thought. For some children, failure in school can be endemic; it may have gone on for a long time but we have to find areas where students still feel successful and nourish these, even though the failure could be deeply buried in some. |
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