de stressing exams
TRANSCRIPT
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
De-StressingEducation & Exams
Pre-GCSE Support forTeens and Parents
By
Peter M C JonesOf
Blue Oyster Community Support
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Objectives
● Understand stress first to be able to tackle it
● Try to see education in a different light
● Try to see exams in a different light
● Finding ways to allow “external help”
● Knowing what school already offers
● Build an ability to de-stress in your life
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Timetable
● Different education & exam perspectives
● Your “stress perspective” today
● Some benefits from education
● How does education help after school?
● How to manage exams? Teachers? Parents?
● Is your perspective different now?
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Current Stress Levels
● What emotions cause us stress?
– Lengthy disagreement, difficulties, anger
– Avoidance – sometimes others perceive this as laziness or selfishness
– Sadness, anxiety, depression
● Straw poll of current stress “in the room” - your views
– Stress with “school study”
– Stress with “home study” and revision
– Stress from friends
– Stress from parents
– Stress on social media
● Compare educational stress vs life events
– Chronic stress is emotionally exhausting
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Our Fear of QualificationsView 1
● Parental View
– My child grows at their own pace
– Somehow our child must try to fit the system
– Parents worry about their kids' future
– The education system does work, but not 100%
● Parental Fears
– My child could struggle to support themselves
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Our Fears of QualificationsView 2
● Educational View - External
– Children must take qualifications at fixed ages
– Children must fit the education system by law
– Kids' futures can only be secured through education
– Alternative education systems are much harder
● Establishment Fears
– Teachers will be judged on their own performance
– Children leaving the system could be damaged
– Kids from outside the system are harder to manage
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
●
– Children must have a roadmap showing capability
– Children must show recognised qualifications
– Employees must show potential in their journey
– Alternative education systems are suspicious
● Employer Fears (aka Concerns)
– Children from outside the system could be difficult
– Business performance could be damaged
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Our Fears of QualificationsView 4 – Your View
● Student View
– Roadmap milestones are hyped, therefore stressful
– Choosing recognised qualifications is hard
– Exam stress overshadows the “educational journey”
– Alternative education systems are invisible
● Student Fears – What Students “Hear”
– Being outside the education system is “difficult”
– Without zillulating qualifications, employers “won't want us”
– Other students stressing is itself stressful
● Parent vs Student Role Play: Choose a Partner, Swap
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Exercise - Repetitive Stress
● How many times a week do you hear:
– GCSEs
– Future
– Education
– Knowledge
● The future is unknown, and could be scary
● Decisions we make now have future impact
● The past is known, comfortable, cannot change
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Educational Benefits
● Educators work very hard supporting diversity
● Supported learning means faster growth
● We don't have to re-invent the wheel
– We can instead stand on the shoulders of giants
– But can ourselves produce light bulb moments
● Education is a gift in Africa & Asia
● Straw Poll: How Good is UK Education?
● Straw Poll: How Do We Compare to the US?
● It's always ours, can't be taken away
● Educators can provide other helpful references
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Self-Educational Benefits
● Nothing new scares us, we grow as and when we want
● We have control of our own lives, we can accept diversity
● We can re-invent the wheel if we want to
– And we can help others, who may see us as creative giants
● We can help those less fortunate eg in Africa & Asia
● We appreciate our education system, want to make it even better
● We also want to help others self-educate
● We can use social referencing in a connected world
– Qualifications, or lack of, recede into the past
● None of the above are a given, they all take hard work
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Is Self-Education “Selfish”
● We can apply learning as we wish
– Yes, we could use it purely for our own ends
– We could help employers by taking a job
– We could help needy people in the job we choose
● Parents may not have had a good education
– At times, they may even be a tiny bit jealous
– OU Case Study: The teacher of deaf children
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Can We View Exams “Selfishly”?
● Sitting an exam can seem “judgemental”
– Other people can make decisions as a result
● It is also our marker to how well we are doing
– It is our guide to our abilities, others may try to help
– Exams can help us decide easier future paths
● eg I should drop maths after GCSEs
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
When Should We Choose Easier Paths?
● Are we lazy to choose “easier paths”?
– It's easy for others to talk about “tough decisions”
– It's less scary to take an easier path, often “more effective”
– Decision paralysis means we can't move on, get stuck
– Decisions can always be revisited, even “big ones”
– Building up to be tough is a fantastic life skill, but a hard one
– We are the only ones who can, or should, manage our lives
● Others may label us lazy or selfish
– Have they taken the time to drill down and really understand?
● How good is their “self education”? How rushed are they?
– Equally, have you taken the time with them?
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Transition to Self Education
● Plan A – At School: “Going to University”
– Fear driven, irritation with parents, no Plan B
– Works for most people, gives us tools & attitudes
● Plan B – You: Self-Led Learning
– Our Darwinian explorer instinct
– New is interesting, exciting, unknown
– Change: to be embraced if participative, scary if imposed
● Outcome: You know how to learn on your own
– Some entrepreneurs leave education early...
● Careers Advisor Role Play: Discuss Student Future, Swap
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Lifelong Self Education
● Beyond university, beyond employment, life long
– The best gift we can ever give ourselves and others
● Understanding our own preferences and interests
● Passion drives initial learning for four generic types:
– Results, Communication, People, Design
– Press stories “discover” your passion, what gets you going
– Entrepreneurs must cover all areas and disciplines
– Employees can concentrate in one area
– Myers Briggs built a model to explain, much adapted
– Richard St John analysis: Passion + 7 other factors help success
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Failure & Self-Learning: Are WeFearful, Tolerant or Adaptive?
● Failure tolerance: 80% success or 20% failure?
– WWW -> EBI? - A life skill to use with kids & adults
● We can use fear of failure to improve outcomes:
–
–
–
–
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● Mistakes can be rectified, paralysis stops progress
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
How Else Can We View Exams Positively?
● Exams (and resumes) show our historic progress
– Not where we are now, or our plan for where we are going
– Exams are one indication, often not that accurate
● More enlightened employers know that, and are more visible
● But too many still use simplistic judgemental approaches
● Take a hindsight, “roadmap” or timeline perspective
– Exams are only an early staging post in a long life
– Exams can't change our future, we can
– Self-education is more important to a successful life
– Depth of knowledge means more than qualifications
● Stress Counselling RP: Reassure Fears & Worries, Swap
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
What About Teachers? And Parents?
● Teacher are our guides and human beings
– They can help guide you through core subjects
– Core subjects allow you choice later in life
– Style can sometimes obscure rather than illuminate
● Parents want to help you achieve
– They want the best for their kids' future
– Their stress and busyness can often be transmitted to you
– Sometimes via their offspring, your friends
– They have mostly not been trained in education
– They don't know subject syllabus, or how to convey it
– They do have life and self-education skills they'd like to share
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Do Teachers & ParentsGet Stressed?
● Teachers want to do well at their job
– Meaning pupils who do well in exams
– And pupils who don't get stressed
● Parents want you to make progress
– To learn the disciplines you need to be able to learn
– To learn can do attitudes that helped them succeed
● When this doesn't happen?
– Teachers and parents get stressed
– Some cope better than others
– Support is not always available for teachers and parents
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
How to Help Teachers and Parents
● Don't assume either are “auto-numpties”
– Doing their best, often learning themselves
– Teaching experience is very hard won
– Parenting is a lifelong job, and is different again to teaching
● Don't assume all their advice is rubbish
– Do concentrate on your own self-education, the discipline you need
– What can you use? What helps you face or endure difficulties?
● Reassure them: try to tell them where their advice works
– And remind them you are growing up, they could let go a little
– And that you need to start making your own decisions
– Be willing to ask them if you don't understand something
– Most parents want to make some contribution to your life skills
● Numpty Role Play: Reassure Stressed Teacher or Parent, Swap
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Try to Access School or External Support
● Most schools offer:
– Study groups, revision classes, online resources
– One to one teaching wherever possible
– A level of internal stress counselling
– Direction to external stress or family counselling
● Most schools try to:
– Work with parents to assess progress and stress
● You may need to know what help there is
– Your self-education may need it to help cope with stress
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Keywords & “Translation” Thinking
● Education? Think of your self-education
● Exams? Think “historic”, “roadmap”, “guide” ....
● Stress? Think of their self-education, even when parents!
● Your Future? Think of your self-learning
● Study Support? Think “shoulders of giants”
● 1:2:1 Support? Think “accelerated learning”
● Employers? Think “simplification”, look for “diversity”
● Tidy Your Room? Think self-discipline & time management
● Not Listening? Think “baby, bathwater” & try to reassure
● Lazy, Selfish? They mean “I don't understand”
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Recap
● Self-education, personal development, is your true goal
● Teachers and parents are trying to help, even some employers
● Remember the different perspectives at play
● Don't throw the baby (motivation) out with the bath water (words)
● You control the elements you select, it's your future
● Keep doors open until you know what you want
● A good education precisely helps you keep doors open
● Looking back, exams are just a simplistic time-bound guide
● Enlightened employers know there is more to life and people
● Use keywords to translate rushed or thoughtless comment
Content by @innov8tor3 (c) Blue Oyster Leading Edge Solns 2015
Vote on Learning Received
● Do you feel....
– More able to look favourably on education?
– More able to have some perspective with exams?
– Clearer about your own self-education?
– More confident about asking others for help?
– More understanding about other people's stress?
– More able to de-stress dialogue using keyword replacement?
– Overall more able to be cooler in stressful situations?
● And finally....
– Thanks for your participation and support