Grammar Gazette- Issue 2, 2008

Student Care

UNCOVERING THE MASTERPIECE WITHIN

It began with the music of Jack Johnson and ended with a moving soliloquy calling us to look deeply inwards and reorient ourselves to our own uniqueness. There aren’t many people who can hold a theatre filled with teachers entertained and engaged for a full day of professional development, but Dr Andrew Fuller did just that when he visited the School in July this year with a presentation specifically tailored to our needs and delivered in his own inimitable style. In three enjoyable and edifying sessions with academic staff, Dr Fuller summarised the latest research on adolescence, learning and brain development and the implications of this research for schools and families. As a clinical psychologist who specialises in the wellbeing of young people and their families, Dr Fuller works with many schools and communities in Australia and internationally. He is a Fellow of the Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Learning and Educational Development at the University of Melbourne. Based on his research on resilience, Dr Fuller has co-authored a series of programmes for the promotion of resilience and emotional intelligence used in over 3500 schools in Australia and Britain. He describes resilience as ‘the happy knack of being able to bungy jump through the pitfalls of life—to rise above adversity and obstacles’. Fortunately for us, Dr Fuller has the happy knack of putting his finger on the pulse of the adolescent experience. He understands their minds, their insecurities The adolescent mind was the topic when clinical psychologist and author of Raising Real People— Creating a Resilient Family, Dr Andrew Fuller, visited the School recently as guest speaker at forums for both parents and teachers.

Teaching staff appreciated the many practical suggestions for enhanced learning that Dr Fuller offered in this session. The following day, ideas such as using the Venn diagram to bring ideas together and link them with past knowledge, or note taking for memory enhancement were being used by teachers in their classrooms to assist their students achieve positive learning outcomes. In our final session, Dr Fuller spoke passionately about the important role teachers play in the development of their students’ intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual selves. He encouraged teachers to foster their own resilience by caring for themselves and valuing what they do in order to be able to care for their students. Dr Fuller believes it is important that each of us reorient ourselves to what is within and re-engage with our passion and values in order to preserve our uniqueness. He urged us, as educators, to enable a spiritual transformation of the entire School community to occur by encouraging behaviour that values and promotes the development of virtues such as empathy, nobility and a good spirit. In the evening, the mood changed as Dr Fuller provided our parents with an amusing and helpful look at the vagaries of the adolescent mind with a session on ‘Raising real people— creating resilient families’ or ‘Don’t waste your breath—an introduction to the adolescent mind’. He knows how difficult it is to raise an adolescent and offered insight, reassurance

and humour to help bridge the gap between adolescent and parent. Using a disturbingly humorous video of cat herding (you had to be there) to recreate the parental experience—and the futility— of trying to manoeuvre or contain the adolescent, we came to understand that

shrug when we do it. It was most reassuring to hear that adolescents really do like their parents, that 82 per cent expect to be asked to help around the house and 57 per cent expect their parents to nag them. But perhaps the most important message he delivered was that children need our love

and capabilities, their habits and habitats, their challenges and strengths. Our first session focused on the neuroanatomy of learning with an emphasis on how girls learn. Dr Fuller wants our students to know that ‘passion’ beats ‘brains’, hands down. He reported on studies which show that successful students are not brighter, more confident or more hard working than peers who don’t do as well, but the students who achieve success use learning systems and strategies which help them to work smarter, not harder. Training, he said, beats talent, which means everyone can achieve. He likes the idea of school being a place where students come to ‘grow into’ their smartness. One of the great challenges for educators of girls, Dr Fuller said, is to assist them to develop an awareness of what they do well which will help them to become resilient learners. It will increase their motivation and pleasure in learning, build self regard and enable them to deal with setbacks much more effectively than criticism,

destructive for girls and needs to be actively challenged because it will undermine their success. He reiterated what we know so well—that students who perceive themselves to be valued and feel that they are in a positive learning environment have better intellectual, emotional, physical and social outcomes. In the second session, called the neurochemistry of student engagement, we heard how hormones and neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, adrenaline and cortisol affect learning and how parents and teachers can alter the levels of each in their students to optimise learning. For instance, a good breakfast, adequate sleep and daily exercise have been shown to influence serotonin levels, which can affect mood and learning. Puzzles, quizzes and games contain repetitive movement, challenge and novelty, which increase dopamine as well as resilience in learning. They also allow students a valuable opportunity to acquire practice at

nothing will get in the way of the adolescent who is engaged in achieving three of the ‘tasks’ of adolescence—the formation of identity, the uptake of logical rational thinking, and the ability to reproduce—and that this is as it should be.

nothing will get in the way of the adolescent who is engaged in achieving three of the ‘tasks’ of adolescence—the formation of identity, the uptake of logical rational thinking, and the ability to reproduce—and that this is as it should be. Dr Fuller did, however, have some very practical suggestions regarding what we can do to assist our young people achieve these tasks while maintaining our own sanity. He told us that during adolescence girls need turkey, lean beef and almonds as they are serotonin rich foods. We heard that dopamine decreases during adolescence which leads to a drop in motivation so it is the time to increase emotional rewards such as saying ‘I love you’—and that our children really like hearing this even if they grunt or

most when they deserve it least. He suggested that we regard our children’s behaviour during adolescence as the emergence of their personality rather than as the emergence of a problem. Michelangelo reportedly described his work as a sculptor as the process of removing excess marble which was concealing the beauty of the figure within. His job was a process of uncovering rather than creating. This is what Dr Fuller would wish for us, too. That in every interactionwe havewith the adolescents in our lives, we encourage the emerging personality so that the masterpiece within can be revealed. A noble purpose indeed.

Black and white thinking—‘I am smart’or ‘I am stupid’—can be especially destructive for girls and needs to be actively challenged because it will undermine their success.

failing, which Dr Fuller said, is more important than we realise. He believes that encouraging a culture of ‘having a go’ in a school builds resilience in students.

MS KAREN BELBIN School Counsellor

being judged, pointing out what they do wrong or focusing on their inadequacies. Black and white thinking—‘I am smart’ or ‘I am stupid’—can be especially

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grammar gazette spring 2008