Building PERMA to achieve positive results for girls
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Dr Julie Townsend and Mrs Victoria Rennie discussed Positive Psychology and its benefits to our students during the National Coalition of Girls' Schools in New York.
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Building PERMA to achieve positive results for girls
- 1. Building PERMA to achieve positive results for girls Dr Julie Townsend Headmistress and Mrs Victoria Rennie Deputy Headmistress
- 2. Why positive psychology in schools ? • Fights anxiety and depression • Increases well being • Builds resilience: – Self-awareness – Self-regulation – Optimism – Mental agility – Strengths of character – Connection
- 3. Major components of well being-Seligman’s PERMA model Positive emotion Engagement Relationships Meaning and purpose Accomplishment
- 4. Developing our programs • Martin Seligman, Flourish. Focus on developing PERMA • John Hattie, Visible Learning • Carol Dweck, Mindsets. Focus on growth and fixed mindsets • Angela Lee Duckworth: The Key to Success? Grit (TED talk 2013)
- 5. Our Four Key Areas Of Focus BUILDING POSITIVE EMOTIONS Developing an understanding of gratitude; focusing on positive experiences.; Hunt the Good Stuff Journals BUILDING MENTAL TOUGHNESS Skills that are critical for resilient thinking, and for understanding thoughts, emotions and behaviours of others BUILDING ACADEMIC TENANCITY Developing and fostering a growth mindset; significance of grit and determination; understanding neuroplasticity BUILDING STRONG RELATIONSHIPS Skills to strengthen relationships: discussing problems assertively, praising effectively and responding constructively
- 6. Building positive emotions Research shows: Negative emotion: When people experience stress, they show increased heart rate, higher blood sugar, immunosuppression, and other adaptations optimized for immediate action. If individuals do not regulate these changes once the stress is past, they can lead to illness, such as coronary disease, and heightened mortality. Positive emotion: Longitudinal studies show that positive emotions play a role in the development of long-term resources such as psychological resilience and flourishing. Fredrickson, B. L. (2003). The value of positive emotions. American Scientist, 91, 330-335.
- 7. How do we teach this ? Hunt the good stuff journals Recording three good things each day. Next to each positive event that is listed, write a reflection of at least one sentence about: Why this good thing happened. What this good thing means to you. What you can do tomorrow to enable more of this good thing. What ways you or others contribute to this good thing.
- 8. Building mental toughness “Mental Toughness is all about improving your mind so that it’s always on your side; not sometimes helping you nor working against you as we all know it’s quite capable of doing.“ Dr Jim Loehr, Human Performance Institute
- 9. Building mental toughness ATC (Activating thought consequence) Model Method to identify thoughts about an event, and the consequences of those thoughts. Bring thoughts under control. Avoid thinking traps (TTs) TTs are patterns in thinking that stop a person seeing a situation accurately. Avoiding TTs can help avoid counterproductive patterns in thinking. Detect icebergs Detect Icebergs is used to identify and evaluate core beliefs or values that drive out-of-proportion emotions or reactions. Problem solving Developing the ability to know and understand their thoughts, emotions and the behaviors of themselves and others.
- 10. Mental toughness skills • self-awareness • Self-efficacy • Flexible and accurate thinking • Optimism wed to reality • Connectedness • Problem-solving as a process
- 11. Don’t let your thoughts trap you An example of how we teach the skills
- 12. Jumping to conclusions Mind reading Me, me, me Them, them, them Always, always , alwaysEverything, everything, everything Common thinking traps
- 13. How to avoid thinking traps
- 15. Positive Psychology and Academic Tenacity • Belong academically and socially • See school as relevant to their future • Work hard and can postpone immediate pleasures • Not derailed by intellectual or social difficulties • Seek out challenges • Remain engaged over the long haul
- 16. Growth Mindset and Academic Tenacity How can students establish a growth mindset? • Learn, learn, learn - It’s more important to learn than get good marks, focus on learning and improving and the marks will come. • Realise hard work is the key - Putting a lot of work and effort into learning and working hard is the key, seek challenges, focus on strategies, effort, struggle and persistence despite setbacks. • Use feedback- Capitalise on mistakes, confront deficiencies, reflect on different strategies that work and
- 17. Academic Tenacity How can teachers develop growth mindsets? • Challenge students with high performance standards - promotes growth mindset and learning goals • Provide cognitive and motivational support to help students reach those standards (promotes self-regulation) • Praise students for their effort or for the strategy they used – this promotes growth mindset and fosters resilience (whereas praising ability teaches fixed mindset) • Build a sense of belonging. Make students feel connected and supported –
- 18. Building strong relationships Biblical studies and chapel: Every person precious; formed in the image of God House System: bonds girls through events and competitions Service Education: service work in our local and global community PDHPE: teaches personal and social development
- 20. “I got a promotion at work!”… Presentation Name | Presenter NamePage 20 | Active Constructive ‘That’s great; I’m so proud of you. What happened? What did your boss say? Let’s celebrate!” Eye contact; smiling; touching; laughing Passive Constructive “Great. Well done” Little active emotional expression Active Destructive “That sounds like a lot more work. You’ll never be at home. You probably won’t enjoy it”. Negative emotions; frowning; Passive Destructive “Oh. What’s for dinner?” Little eye contact; little emotional expression
- 21. Building strong relationships Teaching the girls skills to strengthen their relationships through communication. Learning how to: • Discuss problems assertively • Praise effectively • Respond constructively to positive experiences • Value friendships • Work to strengthen relationships
- 22. Follow us on … St Catherine’s YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/StCSchoolWaverley Instagram @StCatherinesSyd Facebook StCatherinesSchool Twitter - Headmistress @StCatherinesHM Twitter – St Catherine’s @StCatherinesSyd
Editor's Notes
- There is much research to show that although material wellbeing has improved over the past 50 years, mental well being has declined. Increased materialism has brought with it increased depression – by some estimates ten times more than fifty years ago. People have all they want materially, but do not fell fulfilled. And we all notice this in the young people we teach. The average age of the first onset of depression has moved from 30 in the 1950s to below 15 today. Studies also indicate that over 50% of girls are dissatisfied with their body at the age of 13. We are seeing in schools more and more cases of anxiety and depression. Whereas one of the aims traditional psychological methods is to treat people with anxiety and depression to help them recover, PP aims to give people the skills and strengths that will help protect and buffer them in times of suffering and mental illness. It is proactive, rather than reactive. It is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, and want to cultivate what is best within them. About eight years ago, we made the decision to introduce PP to the school. We wanted to give girls the best education possible. And as Martin Luther King said back in a 1947 address – “we must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.” In these days, where mental health is more concerning than ever before, we are very aware of the importance of both. And very aware that resilience is one of the most important strengths for a fulfilled life. Because life isn’t perfect – things go wrong. And it is important that we have the skills to bounce back from adversity and flourish
- So, we introduced a model based on Seligman's PERMA model which he outlines in his book Flourish Positive Emotion: Joy, love, optimism Positive emotions are an essential part of our well-being. Happy people look back on the past with gladness; into the future with hope; and enjoy the present Engagement: When we focus on doing things we truly enjoy and care about, we can begin to engage completely- what the psychologist Csíkszentmihályi calls flow Relationships: Everyone needs someone. We enhance our well-being and share it with others by building strong relationships. Most important protective factor for resilience Meaning and purpose: believing you are part of, and contributing to, something larger than yourself We are all at our best when we dedicate time to something greater than our selves Accomplishment: Everyone needs to feel competent. To achieve well being and happiness, we all must be able to look back on our lives with a sense of accomplishment- “I did it, and I did it well”- much time is spent focusing on achieving this through grit and determination
- Over the years we have refined our programs and added other influential research. John Hattie: (Prof of Ed from NZ undertook meta-analysis of over 800 meta analyses looking at the effect of different factors on educational outcomes. His book, Visible Learning , is the result of this study). He found that teachers account for 30% of the variance in achievement. What they know and do, their relationships with their students is vital Dweck – growth mindset. A belief that talents and abilities can be developed through effort and persistence is the key to high achievement Angela Lee Duckworth. Most important element in success is grit Using all this research, we work specifically with our girls in four key areas in 4 key areas…
- Building positive emotions Building mental toughness Building academic tenacity Building strong relationships We have key experiences, opportunities, lessons and exercises in each area. Teach them developmentally from kindergarten to Year 12 I’ll hand over to Victoria who will give you examples of what we do in each area.
- Barbara Fredrickson – whose work research is foundational in the area of positive emotions has shown that negative emotions prompt narrow, immediate survival-oriented behaviours. (ie ANXIETY leads to the specific flight-or-flight response for immediate survival) BUT in contrast positive emotion is important for long term well being – particularly resilience and flourishing. And is a teachable skill
- One way we work on building positive emotions is by having all students writing in their hunt the good stuff on line journals-. The idea of this journal is to encourage students to notice positive experiences in order to enhance their gratitude and positive emotions- ultimately moulding a style of thinking that promotes optimism about the future This happens in academic care time and the girls will continue to do it at home- when they meet in their mentor groups (these are year group based) Once they have done these they share with the group- this is an important aspect of the activity and building the skill. One of the key benefits of this is it helps to counteract the negativity bias- our tendency to focus on bad events rather than positive. It helps build all Optimism and strengthen relationships.
- The next area we work on in order to build PERMA in our girls is what we call- building mental toughness- resilient minds. The name itself is drawn from the UPENN resiliency program that runs with the US army- I like the term as I feel it articulates clearly how we want our minds to be – tough, felexible.
- These three core skills are critical for resilient thinking/ mental toughness. ATC model –while complex and quite difficult to teach and requires time to work with the girls is so impt- its goal is teaching the girls to be able to separate an event, their thoughts about it and the consequences- and as such learn to understand and identify patterns in their thinking that make them weaker or decrease performance. As Aristotle said “Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.” so ATC is learning about this Avoid thinking traps- see slide Detecting Icebergs Iceberg- what lies underneath the surface- what you believe to be true of yourself, others and the world- they are often the explanation of why our emotions or reactions are out of proportion to your response to a situation. So by teaching the girls to detect them- they can then learn to have more control over their emotions and reactions. Critical for strong and productive rel’ships Problem Solving Skill of being able to use prob solving when confronted with a situation that requires an understanding of it’s causes
- Mental toughness results in improved… Girls who display mental toughness understand the thoughts, emotions and behaviours of themselves and others.
- The following is an example of how we teach the girls how to identify and correct counterproductive patterns of thinking Or as we call them thinking traps- each activity is of course tailored to the year group so they are age specific activities- and if anyone would like a copy of our S And S I would be more than happy to share it We explain Thinking traps- undercut resilience, decrease problem solving and create conflict in relationships Because they are “overly rigid patterns od\f thinking that cause us to miss critical information about a situation or individual. They limit what we can attend to- we often make the information fit our perspective Predispose us to interpret a situation in a habitual way
- Examples of the common TT- we then run through with the students- asking for examples the common thinking traps Believing something despite not having evidence Assuming you know what a person is thinking- or expecting someone to know what you are thinking Believing that you are the sole cause for every problem Believing others are the sole cause The final 2- are considered the toxic two- these 2 TT significantly influence or contribute to depression. 1st- Believing that negative events are unchangeable and you have little control over them- always happens to me 2nd- Believing that ones character is based on a single vent- an inability to compartmentalise the issue- everything goes wrong for me
- Having explained what they are we talk to the girls about how to avoid them. Its about teaching the skills of being able to retrain the brain! Learning to identify the pattern you fall into and asking critical questions Jumping to Conclusions Slow down and consider the evidence for and against my thoughts Mind reading Speak up – ask Did I express myself, ask for info Me, me, me Look outward- how did others contribute and conversely- them, them, attitude- look inward Toxic duo Always, always- grab control- consider What is changeable? What can I control? Everything, everything- Get specific
- The final area- and probably the newest addition to our program is building academic tenacity. Much of what we are doing here is grounded in DWECK and Duckworth's work on grit and determination and attaining a growth mindset. Looking closely at the notion of - “When people repeatedly practise an activity or access a memory, their neural networks (groups of neurons that fire together, creating electrochemical pathways) shape themselves according to that activity or memory. The more times the network is stimulated, the stronger and more efficient the neural networks become.
- Bringing academic tenacity and the research into neuroplaciticy dove tails so well with our positive psychology program because we know that students who experience high levels of well being better positioned to preform well academically Students with academic tenacity demonstrate the characteristics of perseverance, self-control, grit that enable successful learning Academically successful students … are mentally tough, have positive emotions about school
- And – a growth mindset can be learned… - see slides learning – focusing on the learning and mechanics of the subject and not the results Work hard- focus on strategies- work smart not just hard Feedback- so important – as Hattie’s work reveals – timely effective feedback and for students to use it www Wnww Wwidnt Students need to understand and believe that they can develop a growth mindset if they
- Alongside our work with students we work closely with teachers helping them to work with the girls to develop growth mindsets and inturn encourage academic tenacity. And all this happens in a environment where strong relationships are at the heart of all we do. On that note I will hand over to Dr Townsend to cover our final focus area- building strong relationships
- Research shows that belonging is vital to wellbeing. When people feel they belong they are much more likely to be engaged and successful. For students, it is one of the most important factors in determining whether they achieve in school. They need to feel included and respected by others. We have lots of structures in place to build a sense of belonging. We also teach explicitly the importance of strong relationships and how to build them. Research shows that we are good at supporting each other through bad times, but less good at supporting each other through good times. Others’ success can bring out the worst in us. We focus on how we respond to one another in social situations – and how we can improve in our interactions...
- This is an example of an activity we use with the girls – active constructive responding There are 4 ways people tend to respond when others share good news or talk about positive experiences or describe success – only one leads to stronger relationships We use role play with the girls [explain four ways]… So for example – imagine you got a promotion at work and are telling your partner. How would they reply?...
- Only one of those is really building a relationship. The others may be saying more about your feelings. If you do have worries – they will be home less; you may feel lonely – of course discuss them, but it doesn’t have to be the first thing you do. Don’t take away their joy. Discuss the issues at a later time.
- We also spend time teaching girls the other ways to build and strengthen relationships: How to be more assertive How to praise How to deal with arguments Because relationships are at the heart of everything we do. And wellbeing is vital for a fulfilled life. We want our girls to have the best academic education possible. We also want them to have the character that can unlock all their individual talents and gifts. We want them to love school, love what they do, and embrace the life that lies ahead of them. And we want to teach them strategies that can help them to do that We want to finish with a short video that we feel epitomises Show you a 1 minute video that we feel epitomises our school. Every girl took part, and it goes to the heart of what we want for every girl at St Catherine’s…
- Thank you.