Tutor Manual 5: Change, Thrive, Achieve2 hour workshopTopic Overview:The Change, Thrive, Achieve topic is designed to teach students how to embrace feedback for academic success. The big picture lecture gives an overview of the idea of a growth mindset, what is meant by neuroplasticity and self-efficacy and provides an introduction to the idea of grit, self-control and the hierarchical goal framework. Students will be drawing their own hierarchical goal framework and then discussing where they need to show self-control, and overcome setbacks to achieve their study goals.

Workshop LengthThis workshop has been designed to be delivered in two hours (1 hour, 50 minutes). There is a one hour workshop for this topic available (60 minutes) if required.

Resources RequiredWorkshop Slides: The Workshop Slides for Change, Thrive, Achieve are used on a screen or projector so that the instructions for each activity are outlined clearly for the students. The slides correspond with the activities in the student workbook.

Student Workbook: supply each student with a printed and digital copy of the student workbook Change, Thrive, Achieve. Both formats are required so that they can follow along with the activities which are web based using a desktop or laptop computer (such as online self-assessment), or they can write notes and answer questions by hand (such as for readings and class discussions).

Lecture Recording: This workshop includes the lecture recording Change, Thrive, Achieve. You will need to have this recording ready to go, either downloaded or streamed from the website.

Instructions: Workshop Slides The following information provides instructions and suggested time spent for each slide in the workshop slide deck.

Slide 2: We will focus on… 2 minutesTake students through the two key topics for Change, Thrive, Achieve to give them an overview of what they will learn:

The limits we might be placing on ourselves and how these limits may be preventing us getting the grades we’re truly capable of.

Thinking differently and reaching our potential. Succeeding at university and beyond.

1

2

Slide 3: Did you know?2 minutes

Emphasise the importance of this topic by outlining the following information:

“If you reach for the stars, you may find yourself touching the sky” Heather Dorff

If you develop a growth mindset – the belief that your academic capacity can be nurtured and grow – then you are more likely to succeed at university.

In order to succeed, we need to know what our long term goals are and work towards them with tenacity and grit.

Slide 4: Our Plan: Change, Thrive, Achieve2 minutes

Summarise the nine activities in the following categories to give the students an idea of the day’s plan:

1. The Big Picture: developing a growth mindset and the importance of grit.2. Focus on you: do you have a growth mindset?3. Finding the answers: developing a growth mindset.4. Be Inspired: Grit: the power of passion and perseverance, Angela Lee Duckworth 5. Focus on you: what is your grit score?6. Finding the answers: 5 research-backed ways to increase grit 7. Practicing what we’ve learned: your goal hierarchy 8. Talk it through: when do we need to show self-control?9. Talk it through: how do we overcome setbacks

Slide 5: 1) The Big Picture: Change, Thrive, Achieve15 minutes

Play for the class the Introductory Lecture on the topic Change, Thrive, Achieve. Remind the students that the lecture slide content is included in their workbooks and there is

space to take notes to help them to retain key information. To listen to the narrated lecture in the PowerPoint slides, launch the PowerPoint presentation

by clicking the ‘Slide Show’ tab, and then clicking ‘From Beginning’. The slides and narration will play automatically.

3

Slide 6: 2) Focus on you: do you have a growth mindset?10 minutes

Ask students to follow the link in their workbooks to complete the short mindset quiz. This gives them an indication of where they are on the continuum from fixed to growth mindset:

Link: http://blog.mindsetworks.com/what-s-my-mindset?view=quiz

There is space in their workbook for them to write some brief notes about what the self-assessment showed them about their growth mindset.

Slide 7: 3) Finding the answers: developing a growth mindset10 minutes

Students now have a chance to learn a bit more about how to improve their growth mindset. This links to the lecture material on neuroplasticity – that is that our brains are not fixed; we can take actions to improve how our brains respond to the world. Remind them that if the mindset quiz indicates they have a fixed mindset, they don’t need to worry; this just means they have work to do.

Ask students to complete the short reading in their workbook: What you can do to develop a growth mindset and reach your potential.

There are four questions students should answer. Below are the questions and some notes about what they might respond.

1. Using your own words, what do you think is meant by the idea that in the brain, ‘neurons that fire together - wire together’? The more we have particular thoughts, the more likely our brains will automatically have those thoughts again.

2. What might this mean for us if we automatically have negative thoughts about our ability to succeed? If we constantly have negative thoughts, we can talk ourselves into thinking everything is negative and that we will never succeed. This can influence our success.

3. Write down some of the comments your ‘fixed mindset voice’ says to you in your head.You are going to stuff this up. This is just like the last time you did this type of thing – it wasn’t successful. You’re not very good at this.

4. What will you say to yourself next time your ‘fixed mindset voice’ pipes up with negative thoughts?I can always improve. The more I practice this task, the better I will get. I might have done badly at this last time but I have more experience now so I can make improvements on my results.

If there is time, ask some students to provide feedback about their answers.

Slide 8: 4) Be Inspired: Grit: the power of passion and perseverance, Angela Lee Duckworth7 minutes

The definition of Grit is: ‘Perseverance and passion for long-term goals’ (Duckworth 2014)

4

As a class, watch the following video of Angela Lee Duckworth explaining the importance of showing Grit to academic success:

Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H14bBuluwB8

Slide 9: 5) Focus on you: what is your grit score?5 minutes

Ask students to use the link below to complete the short Grit quiz to find out their Grit Score:

http://angeladuckworth.com/grit-scale/

They should write down their Grit Score in the space provided in their workbook and keep this score in mind for the next activity – a reading about how to improve this score. Remind them once again that if their score wasn’t very high, the point of today’s workshop is to help them find strategies to improve their grit.

Slide 10: 6) Finding the answers: 5 research-backed ways to increase grit15 minutes

Ask students to complete the reading in their workbooks: Article from The Week (theweek.com), titled: ‘5 research-backed ways to increase grit’, by Eric Barker. Published May 16 2016.

There are five tips from this reading. The questions ask students to write down their thoughts and ideas about what you might do differently to embrace each tip.

Remind the students that their answers for this activity won’t be shared with the class as they might be writing very private thoughts in response to their grit score.

Included below are prompts about what the students might write for each question:

1. Pursue what interests you: You're not going to stick it out if you don't care. Prompt: are they passionate about their future study and/or career goals? Can they see that it is important to be passionate about your future in order to motivate themselves to reach these goals?

2. Practice, practice, practice: It's not just how you get to Carnegie Hall. We love doing things we're good at. Prompt: how hard are they willing to work to reach their goals? No one is successful the first time they try something – everything we are good at takes practice. How can they improve their mindset to motivate themselves to keep working at improving their performance in relation to academic success?

3. Find purpose: How does what you do help others? That's what makes a job into a calling. Think about what really motivates them about their future goals. What is their purpose in undertaking this career? Identifying this can be very motivating.

4. Have hope: No "wishing on a star" here, pal. Have hope because you are going to make it happen. This links to self-efficacy, which was included in the lecture content. Students need to believe that they can reach their goals – they must have hope – in order to reach them.

5. Join a gritty group: Mom was right; spend time with slackers and you'll be a slacker. Are the students surrounding themselves with people who support them to reach their goals?

5

Slide 11-13: 7) Practicing what we’ve learned: your goal hierarchy20 minutes

Link this activity to what the students have learned about Grit, which is ‘perseverance and passion for long-term goals’ (Duckworth 2014). This activity will ask students to identify their long-term goals and apply the theory of Grit to understand how they plan to reach these goals.

According to Duckworth and Gross (2014), we each have a ‘hierarchical goal framework’ that looks like this:

Ask students to use the blank page in their workbook to draw their hierarchical goal framework. This framework should include the following:

Super-ordinate goal. This is the most long term goal the students currently have, such as finishing Foundation Studies program or completing a Bachelor Degree, or perhaps a longer-term career goal. Remind them that each student may be working to different time scales to reach their long term goal – the end of this year, the next 5 years or perhaps the next 15 years. Once we reach our super-ordinate goals, we put in place a new goal hierarchy to work towards.

Lower-order goals need to be completed to reach the super-ordinate goal. These are the goals students need to complete in order to reach your ultimate goal. For instance, these might be the courses they need to complete, and below those, the assessments that relate to that course.

Actions required to complete the goals. Actions are short-term tasks which relate to the completion of goals. So these might be actions such as attending class, completing readings and submitting assignments.

The following example is included on slide 13 to show them what their goal hierarchy might look like. Note, the goal hierarchy doesn’t just include study – it should also include other goals that are required to be fulfilled alongside study, such as paid work or family commitments. Remind them that there is always a conflict between how they spend their time when they have multiple goals at the same level of the hierarchy. In a practical sense, they might want to spend their time studying (working towards this

6

goal), but have to earn money, so need to spend time working towards this goal at the same time. This is what makes reaching our goals tricky!

Slide 14: 8) Talk it through: when do we need to show self-control?10 minutes

This activity is designed to use the theory of self-control to explain the every-day conflicts students have between doing something they want to do (such as going out with friends, playing computer games, watching movies) and doing the actions on their goal hierarchy which are needed to reach their goals.

In a theoretical sense, Duckworth and Gross (2014) explain that in order to complete the actions required to meet our goals, and to move up the goal hierarchy, we need to resist hourly temptations through self-control.

Self-control is our ability to regulate attention, emotion, and behaviour.

As a class, discuss the following questions to exemplify the types of behaviours and activities that get in the way of the actions we need to complete our goals and to help share strategies to control our impulse not to complete these required actions:

1. Using the actions on your goal hierarchy as an example, what activities do you find yourself doing that distract you from completing these tasks?

2. Do you have any examples of self-control strategies you use to overcome these distractions, to regulate your attention, emotion and behaviour so that your actions are completed successfully?

Slide 15: 9) Talk it through: how do we overcome setbacks10 minutes

This activity explains the key concept behind Grit, which is that in the long term, we all face setbacks in achieving our goals, but we need to find strategies to get past these set-backs (or road blocks) in order to eventually get there.

Duckworth and Gross (2014) say that as well as showing self-control, in order to move up our goal hierarchy, we also need to be ‘tenacious in our pursuit of a dominant superordinate goal despite setbacks’.

7

As a class, discuss what actions students might take to overcome the following set-backs in meeting their goals. An answer example/prompt is included for each question below:

1. You wake up with the flu the day before an assignment is due and you haven’t completed it yet. Ideas: contact their tutor. Go see a doctor. Get a medical certificate. Request an extension. Look after yourself – get better! Then catch up on the assignment and submit it by the extension due date.

2. You receive your results for your final exam and find you haven’t managed to pass the course. This can be a really difficult set back. But there is no need to give up! You can always repeat a course – you will find it easier the second time around! Assess why you might have failed – what feedback have you received from your tutor about your performance throughout this course. Is there anything that got in the way of your success in this course – family commitments, paid work, too much on your plate? It takes guts and determination to repeat a course, but this is required if we are going to reach our goals and not give up.

3. Your boss calls you on the day of a class presentation and says you are needed urgently at work.This is very much ‘it depends on the circumstances’ type question. If you feel you need to go into work (because you don’t have the option to say no), contact your tutor and advise them of the problem. Alternative arrangements might be able to be made for the class presentation, such as an extension. If you can say no to your boss, explain that you have an important commitment which makes it difficult for you to do as they request. Is there anyone else you can suggest they call to come into work instead of you?

Slide 16: Bringing it all together2 minutes

Take students through the final slide to summarise how the information from the workshop comes together into practical changes to their behaviour, for the betterment of their academic success:

You have learned about the growth mindset and grit – perseverance and passion for long term goals.

You have learned what self-efficacy is and the importance of believing in yourself. You have defined your goal hierarchy and actions for achieving your goals. You have talked about the self-control needed to complete the actions related to your goals. You have also discussed strategies for dealing with set-backs so that you can continue to move

up your goal hierarchy to achieve your ultimate goals.

Slide 17: ResourcesDuckworth, A & Gross, JJ 2014, 'Self-control and grit: related but separable determinants of success', Current directions in psychological science, vol 23, Issue 5, pp. 319 – 325.

Hochanadel, A. & Finamore, D. 2015, "Fixed And Growth Mindset In Education And How Grit Helps Students Persist In The Face Of Adversity", Journal of International Education Research, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 47-n/a.

8

If students need help…Students have been provided with the following information at the back of their workbooks. If a student comes to you seeking help, you should put them in contact with your university’s relevant support services.

In you need help…If this workshop has brought up any difficult emotions or feeling of distress which you feel you would like to speak to someone about, please talk to your tutor and access your university’s support services, which are there to help.

Other useful contacts:

Lifeline For distress or other mental health issues. Telephone: 13 11 14 24 hours, 7 days www.lifeline.org.au

Kids Helpline Telephone, web and email counselling for students up to 25 years old. Telephone: 1800 551 800 24 hours, 7 days www.kidshelpline.com.au/teens/

9