BELIEVING YOU CAN
is the first step to
A program building life skills and teaching healthy thinking styles for students in Upper Primary
Publications
Book of program material (First Edition)
Jessica Kingsley Publishing, UK
Believing You Can is the First Step to Achieving is a fun and engaging programme for students in the upper primary years that teaches the difference between helpful and unhelpful thinking, increases self-belief and in doing so increases motivation to learn. Do you ever hear students using phrases such as "I'm not smart enough to do this?" or "I know I am going to fail?" Combining techniques from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Attribution Retraining, this programme teaches students the link between thoughts, feelings and actions, how to challenge negative thinking and how to celebrate success. The structured programme includes a photocopiable student workbook, role play games and other activity ideas, and all of the instruction and materials needed to easily implement the programme in any school. This will be an ideal resource for educational professionals looking to increase school attainment, support students who are underachieving, and encourage healthy and happy student development.
Exploring the contribution of attribution retraining to student
perceptions and the learning process
Educational Psychology in Practice, Volume 30, Issue 1, 2014
This paper looks at current research into how thinking influences learning. How
people explain to themselves why they fail and succeed inevitably impacts on
how well they learn new skills. Researchers have been developing attribution
retraining programmes targeted at improving student academic achievement and
learning experience through the promotion of positive thinking. These findings
can often be found in scientific psychological journals far removed from the educational
practitioners and learning environments they attempt to influence. This
paper introduces the educational practitioner to the principles underlying attribution
theory. The potential benefits of incorporating attribution retraining programmes
into the school curriculum are then outlined and the future of this area
for both researchers and educational psychologists alike is discussed.
Positive psychology school-based interventions:
A reflection on current success and future directions
Review of Education, 2016
An increased focus on youth development has led to an understanding of the importance of the wellbeing, resilience and mental health of children and young people. As a result there is a growing body of research, especially over the last two decades, which increasingly recognises the complexities of learning and development across the years spent at school. Alongside this trend is the rise of positive psychology, which is changing our conceptions of youth, education and development. Support for a new era of student-centric teaching practices dedicated to enhancing student wellbeing has come not only from researchers and psychologists, but also from school and education authorities, who are showing an increased appetite for integrating positive psychology-based programs into the learning curriculum. While researchers are beginning to express cautious optimism about the effectiveness of such interventions, there is a large disparity between the initiatives being researched and what is being taught in classrooms. A set of key constraints relating to limited resources, an overcrowded curriculum, accessibility of information, teacher factors and quality training all play a role in shaping the effectiveness with which an intervention is implemented. This article reflects on the recent development of positive psychology school-based programs and offers insights into how these initiatives can be enhanced to reach a wider range of young people and translated more effectively into classroom practice.
Promoting positive learning in Australian students aged 10- to 12-years-old using attribution retraining and cognitive behavioral therapy:
A pilot study
School Psychology International, Volume 37, Issue 5, 2016
This study piloted an intervention using attribution retraining and cognitive behavioral therapy techniques to promote positive learning experiences and outcomes for students. This research is an important step to revitalise the dwindling field of attribution retraining research by assessing whether these techniques effectively improve student learning in modern classrooms. Participants were 50 students from grades five and six (age 10- to 12-years-old). Findings revealed that students in the intervention group showed significantly greater average reading levels compared to their control group peers at two months following the intervention. Whilst no other areas measured (mathematics, spelling, and self-concept) reached the level of significance, a number of interesting patterns were observed regarding student selection, intervention focus, and the trajectory of treatment effects. These findings encourage future researchers to expand the range of students targeted by school-based interventions, supports the use of attribution techniques, and highlights that without follow-up data, lagged treatment effects may go undetected. This is one of only a handful of studies to combine attribution retraining with cognitive behavioral therapy, and the results of this pilot study support the need for further research in this area.