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In Your Corner, Thinking Frames
Five Ways to Regain Control in Life–Even Now
We want to feel as though we are in control, or at least that we can exercise some level of influence over what happens in our lives. Of course, there are always limits to our ability to control the events and circumstances we face. Yet, decades of research show that we are happier, healthier, and more productive when we feel as though we have some control over what is happening to us.
Unfortunately, over the past months we have endured the pandemic, teaching and learning disruptions, a stressed economy, political turbulence, and other forces that have left us feeling bewildered. So much of what we have experienced feels beyond our personal control. It has confined us, disrupted our routines, separated us from loved ones, and created uncertainty in our lives and futures. In short, it has left us feeling more stressed and less in control.
Yet, as difficult as the past year has been, it pales in comparison to what some people in the past have had to endure. Consider Nelson Mandela, who endured years in a South African prison. Still, he emerged from prison to lead a national movement and eventually become president of the same country that imprisoned him. Viktor Frankl spent years enduring horrible conditions in a German concentration camp. He not only survived, he used the experience to inform his philosophy and writing about the importance of purpose and hope. Frankl became a powerful international voice that influenced thinking on resilience and life success. During times when they outwardly appeared to be at the mercy of others, Mandela and Frankl maintained a sense of control in their lives that readied them for what came next. Despite their experiences and circumstances, both men claimed their personal purpose and had significant positive impacts on the world.
What can we learn from the experiences of these two people and others like them? We all have the ability to exercise some level of control, regardless of our circumstances. The question is: How can we claim our strength and use it during times like these? Here are five powerful and controllable strategies you can employ right now.
Perspective
Where we choose to focus our attention and energy matters. We can focus on what we can control rather than being preoccupied by circumstances we cannot. Remarkably, the same set of circumstances can feature both elements beyond our reach and elements over which we can exercise control. We can fret over what we cannot control, or claim control where it is available. The perspective we choose can make a significant difference, even within the same set of limits and opportunities. For example, we might focus energy on organizing our space rather than mourning having to work from home. We can schedule our day rather than allowing the day to aimlessly unfold.
Purpose
When we set goals, embrace our aspirations, and focus on what is important to us, we gain a sense of control. When our purpose extends to serving, helping, or supporting others or a cause greater than ourselves, our feelings of control and sense of purpose become even more powerful. Clarify and act on what has meaning and purpose for you and a feeling of control will follow.
Patience
Having patience can be a challenge in uncertain circumstances. Yet, patience can help us to remain engaged even when progress does not come as quickly as we would like. Setting deadlines for the end of negative circumstances over which you have no control can work against feelings of power and hope. Focusing on an outcome without setting rigid timelines usually is a better strategy. General Stockdale, a Vietnam prisoner of war, recounts that captives who focused on surviving until they were freed, regardless of when it might happen, were more likely to survive than prisoners who set deadlines for when they believed they would be freed, only to have the dates come and go without release.
Proactivity
Choosing to do what you can, even when you cannot control every aspect of a task or challenge can be empowering. Waiting to react often reduces available options. Being proactive even in difficult circumstances can increase confidence and help us to prepare for what lies ahead. Meanwhile, avoidance of difficult or uncomfortable actions can undermine our confidence and increase stress. Find something you can do now and act. Create some momentum for what lies ahead.
Persistence
Times of difficulty and challenge can tempt us to give up and abandon our hopes and goals. We can make excuses that the time was not right or the stretch was too great. Yet, the greatest opportunities often surface when we choose to act and refuse to give up on what is important to us. Disruption is often a path to opportunity, but only if we are willing to persist until we find the answers we need.
We cannot always control what happens to us or limits our ability to determine what happens around us, but we can always control how we respond. We can feel helpless and out of control, or we can choose where to focus, how to think, and what to do to reclaim control in our lives.
In Your Corner, Student Learning
Remediation Is Not the Answer to Remote Learning’s Lags and Lapses
Many educational leaders and practitioners are anticipating large scale remediation efforts when schools resume in-person learning. They point to evidence that many students have failed to benefit enough from remote learning to keep up with the expected pace of progress. Their hope is that by providing remediation services, students will catch up to classmates and grade level performance expectations.
Yet, there is ample evidence that such a strategy is unlikely to deliver the results we hope for and need. In fact, decades of research and experience have shown remediation as a “catch-up” strategy to be expensive, time consuming, and largely ineffective.
Remediation as an approach has suffered from at least four key faults. First, efforts to remediate have too often utilized the same instructional strategies and approaches that led to the problem. Repeating what did not work the first time offers little promise for a better outcome. In fact, it may reinforce for the learner that he or she is not a capable learner and lessen confidence, commitment, and effort rather than build capacity for current and future success.
Second, the time gap between the emergence of learning problems and remediation responses are typically too long. When students are confused or hold misconceptions regarding a concept or skill, the longer we wait the more difficult it is for students to “unlearn” their faulty understanding. When students are made to wait until they are assigned to a special class or given services, they face far greater challenges than if a simple, direct intervention had occurred in real time.
Third, remediation services often target a specific problem or assignment when the problem may be broader. If the real problem is lack of background knowledge or key learning skills, targeted remediation offers little help. Meanwhile, teacher and student become increasingly frustrated with the student’s lack of progress.
Fourth, remediation focuses backward to problems with previous learning challenges. Remediation asks students to stop and focus on what they did not grasp. At the same time, they are expected to be moving forward with new concepts and skills. This challenge is especially difficult when new content is dependent on understanding what should have come before.
Rather than default to traditional remediation practices, we would do better to understand why students are falling behind. There are many reasons why some students are not keeping pace. Unless we understand these underlying causes and respond to them, we can hold little hope of making a difference. Here are five of the most common causes:
- Lack of background knowledge. When confronted with the challenge of learning something new, we immediately search for what we already know that may assist us in the task. If key aspects of our knowledge and experience are missing, making sense of what we are attempting to learn and connecting with prior knowledge can be challenging, if not impossible.
- Missing universal learning skills. Organizing information, identifying key characteristics, sorting details from main concepts, and other learning skills may be missing. Absent these skills, even seemingly simple learning tasks can prove to be unachievable.
- Mismatched instruction and learning pace. For some learners, the pace of instruction may be too slow. They become distracted and frustrated and miss key elements and characteristics of what is to be learned. For other students, the pace may be too fast and they struggle to keep up. Many of these students are capable learners, but they need more time to process content and skills or may need more examples and practice to fully grasp patterns, sequences, and key characteristics.
- Lack of self-monitoring skills. Some students are not aware of when they are falling behind until they reach a crisis. They may not know when to ask questions and tap other resources, such as classmates, to carry them through and keep their learning on pace. By the time they become aware or their performance makes their lack of progress visible, they are already far behind.
- Absence of feelings of connection, community, and caring. For some students, the problem is not lack of skills, absence of background knowledge, or level of challenge. They see no reason to invest and persist with the learning. These students may feel little connection with the teacher and other members of the class. They do not experience learning as part of a community that values their contributions and offers support. Even though they are capable of learning what is presented, they feel little reason to remain connected. Learning is not their problem. It is relationships.
In Your Corner, Leadership and Change Management, Planning
In Your Corner, Student Learning
In Your Corner, Thinking Frames
In Your Corner, Leadership and Change Management
Share Your Tips & Stories
Share your story and the tips you have for getting through this challenging time. It can remind a fellow school leader of something they forgot, or your example can make a difficult task much easier and allow them to get more done in less time. We may publish your comments.
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In Your Corner, Thinking Frames
In Your Corner, Thinking Frames
In Your Corner, Student Learning
In Your Corner, Thinking Frames
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We do not have to rely on technology, take medications, or modify our genetics. By adopting and regularly practicing a few habits, we can experience significant benefits for our brain function.
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