I was coaching with a teacher recently about how I can support her in teaching students with learning disabilities. I asked to see her class roster, and as I was going over it, I recognized a name. I asked her how this particular student was doing. She said, "At the beginning, he was doing well, low B's to high C's. But lately, he is failing. He doesn't do his work, he is missing assignments, and he is starting to skip class".
I wish I was surprised, but I wasn't. Sadly, it was bound to be happening. You see, when I had my first interaction with this students about two months ago, I asked him to fill out a belief survey. I always do this, because it is a foundational step in the work I do. I MUST know what the student believes about themselves as a person, as a student, about school, etc. I remembered one of his responses in particular. He believed he was dumb, and a poor student.
Now the really sad part is, according to the teacher, he had the capability. He showed it. To him, though, that didn't matter. His "thermostat" was set to dumb. So once he saw the good grades coming, his thermostat kicked on. "I can't be doing this well, after all, I'm dumb!". So the self-sabotage begins, as the teacher described its manifestation.
Beliefs, motivation strategies, and the like are the foundation of my work for one very important reason, they are fundamentally VITAL! This is where the rubber meets the road, right here. The number of peer-reviewed research regarding beliefs and academic performance is growing. Students such as this HAVE to have those negative beliefs changed, and the sooner the better.
In my private work, I use tools such as Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) to address this because they are extremely effective and rapid. Only once such negative beliefs as what this student is experiencing are eliminated, only then can tutoring and other academic interventions have any chance of succeeding.
More next time....
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