Tests. Exams. Effort. Failures. Perseverance. Resilience. The Brain. Success. Part 1

In the February 10 edition of The Age, under the heading: ‘Principals urge education authorities to scrap ATAR,’ Adam Carey, wrote: ‘Principals urge education authorities to scrap ATAR. Victorian education authorities should scrap the ATAR for a less blunt measure of year 12 achievement, say principals, who argue it leaves too many students feeling like failures.’ 

Retrieved from https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/principals-urge-education-authorities-to-scrap-atar-20230208-p5cirv.html

Is the feeling of being a failure a choice? Eleanor Roosevelt points out: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” This axiom could also be reworded as follows: “No one can make you feel [like a failure] without your consent.” To this we can also add the following: “Everything we think, do, and feel is generated by what happens inside of us.” (William Glasser). “We must become the change we want to see.” (Mahatma Gandhi). Then there is the self-fulfilling prophecy which states: “irrespective of whether you think you are a failure, or whether you think you are not a failure, either way you are right.” To which we can also add the cliché of: “Dream believe, achieve.” To dream, believe, achieve is all well and good; however, what must take place is the answers to the questions: “How are you going to achieve your dream? What are you going to do to achieve your dream?” Because inevitably – more often than not – circumstances will become exceedingly difficult, harsh and tough. At these times it is important to note the following: “When the going gets tough, the tough keep going.”

In the research undertaken by Richard Robins and Kali Trzesniewski, dealing with self-esteem, they inform that “self-esteem develops across the lifespan.” Over this lifespan there is an ongoing ebb and flow pertaining to the feelings of self-esteem. In terms of self-esteem consistency and longevity, their research found that it was the individuals who had a “relatively high self-esteem at one point in time,” which usually occurred in the early years of their life, as such, it was these individuals who then tended to “have relatively high self-esteem years later.” What this suggests, to ensure they develop their self-esteem constructively, purposefully, and with integrity, it is important, from the time children start school, the students are regularly introduced to the reality, that it is their work and their effort which advances their skills and knowledge. What this process will do it will help to develop their self-efficacy, their self-esteem, and eventually lead to the importance of the students understanding, and having an internal locus of control.

Associated with this there needs to be an understanding that there will be an ongoing emotional ebb and flow that takes place in a person’s life, which will bring with it an infinite array of never-ending life experiences. All of these experiences will play an important role in the development and the ongoing regard and strength of a person’s self-efficacy and their self-esteem. If the self-efficacy and the self-esteem of an individual can become an ongoing self-confirming constant, the research suggests that this will likely bring with it the mental and emotional capacity of the self being able to be much more resourceful and successful in dealing with most, if not all of the unpredictable events that will be likely to take place in a person’s life.

Self-evidently, these unpredictable life events, can, at times, be extremely harsh, difficult and challenging. With this being the case, one could therefore argue that life requires the individual to have a wide range of indomitable extrinsic and intrinsic set of mental and emotional skills and capacities; for the purpose of being able to successfully deal with the vast complexities that exist in the realm of life.

With this being the potential existential universal reality, when it comes to students, all of this indicates that students may need to have an education that brings with it and advances not only their required academic knowledge, but also advances their mental and emotional potential, along with their broad-based life skills and social abilities. The purpose of which is to provide the students with the means, of not only being academically well-educated and competent; but to also have the all-important life skills and concomitant experiences that will help to develop and improve the individual’s sentient capacities. Their self-motivation, discipline, their dedication, determination, perseverance and their resilience, all will have an impact on their self-efficacy, their self-esteem, and the ongoing development of their all-important internal locus of control.

It is therefore essential to note that all of these intrinsic conscious capacities do not just happen. They develop in response to the experiences and activities they are taught. What this means is that during the course of their academic, personal, social and their ‘whole-of-life’ education, students also need progress to becoming successful self-managing students. For this to take place, as part of their education, students need to have the ongoing experiences of knowing that they need to work hard, and, at the same time, learning and then knowing how to personally deal with circumstances when, not if, they become difficult. Added to this, the research informs that it will be these students, with these productive experiences, who develop and become self-managing students. It will also be these students who will be able to successfully transfer and apply their self-managing behaviour, skills and knowledge, to other locations, circumstances and teachers, which then tend to continue for the rest of their life.

Part 2 examines the inevitability of the mistakes, and why mistakes and dealing with mistakes is important.

Dr Ragnar Purje is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at CQUniversity in the School of Education and the Arts, where he works with Professor Ken Purnell specialising in classroom behaviour management strategies. Dr Purje is the author of Responsibility Theory®.

Image by Orest Sv