This is an excerpt from my
article, “When Children Fail in School: What Teachers and Parents Need to Know
about Learned Helplessness.” You can read the complete article, plus 50+
articles in psycho-education and in alternative teaching techniques to build
low academic skills on my blog, “The Psycho-Educational Teacher.”
Learned helplessness is the
belief that our own behavior does not influence what happens next, that is,
behavior does not control outcomes or results. For example, when a student
believes that she is in charge of the outcome, she may think, “If I study hard
for this test, I’ll get a good grade.” On the contrary, a learned helpless
student thinks, “No matter how hard I study for this test, I’ll always get a
bad grade.” In schools, learned helplessness relates to poor grades and
underachievement, and to behavior difficulties. Students who experience
repeated school failure are particularly prone to develop a learned helpless
response style. Because of repeated academic failure, these students begin to
doubt their own abilities, leading them to doubt that they can do anything to
overcome their school difficulties. Consequently, they decrease their
achievement efforts, particularly when faced with difficult materials, which
leads to more school failure. This pattern of giving up when facing difficult
tasks reinforces the child’s beliefs that he or she cannot overcome his or her
academic difficulties.
Learned helplessness seems to
contribute to the school failure experienced by many students with a learning
disability. In a never-ending cycle, children with learning disabilities
frequently experience school difficulties over an extended period, and across a
variety of tasks, school settings, and teachers, which in turn reinforces the
child’s feelings of being helpless.
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