Yesterday, I had the wonderful good fortune to be introduced to Dr. Margaret Mbindyo of Millersville University (Thank you, Dr. Dzubak!) Her PSU doctoral thesis (2011) is entitled: Relationship Between Academic Resilience and College Success: Cross-National Experiences Of Low Income/First Generation Students investigates the question why some students are able to overcome challenges while others cannot. Her own journey from poverty in Kenya to her doctorate at PSU is a testament to her own resilience and a driving force behind the message she shares so enthusiastically with students and colleagues: namely  that with hard work, personal, social, and institutional support, and with a desire to move forward, all students can grow in their ability to be more resilient through the challenges they face.

It was a pleasure to talk about this project with her and she has graciously agreed to come to campus to speak with our students on Wednesday November 29th!

1. I’m traveling this week to Millersville University to talk with Drs. Cora Dzubak (Formerly of Penn State York) and Margaret Mbindyo on the resilience project. Stay tuned on any possible collaborations!
2. Nov 1st, I’ll be speaking to our campus Lion Ambassadors about building student resilience. Sometimes the best and brightest are more at-risk when their internal expectations are challenged by new and difficult material. Also, these student leaders can make a difference in informal conversations with other students who may be struggling at any given point in time.
3. Nov 9th, I’ll be traveling to Lehigh Valley to do several presentations for students on building resilience
4. Spring 2018, I’ll be working with our students tutors on resilience for themselves and their tutees.

 

Professor Joan Smeltzer invited me to her Math 21 and Math 4 sections last Friday to present resilience information to the students. It was a very timely talk at this point in the semester as students are getting tired and feeling especially vulnerable if math isn’t their strong suit.

I geared the presentation toward math specifically and included Dweck’s work on mindset as students often think of themselves as “not being good at math.” So we challenged those assumptions and asked them to consider changing their mindset to include the following::

From this mindset to….	To this…
1.Being good at math means doing as well as others 2.Being good at math means learning it should come easily 3.If I have to work hard at it all the time, it means I’m not good at it 4.Being good at math means getting the right answer	Struggle is a NORMAL part of learning With EFFORT and the RIGHT STRATEGIES everyone can improve beyond their CURRENT ability BELIEVING THAT MATTERS The RIGHT answer isn’t always as important as the LEARNING PROCESS You can IMPROVE from where you are now Don’t say, “I’m not good at math,” say “I’m not good at math YET.” or I’m getting better at math every day!

Found a really useful article on math resilience highlighting the challenges that even those who are math majors face!

WARD-PENNY, R., JOHNSTON-WILDER, S., & LEE, C. (2011). EXIT INTERVIEWS: UNDERGRADUATES WHO LEAVE MATHEMATICS BEHIND. For the Learning of Mathematics, 31(2), 21-26. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41319562

I also had a chance to update the presentation in terms of student engagement – added this activity(Strategies Cup) as a metaphor for the work we can do all the time to strengthen our overall inner resources and have solidified this approach which seems to make sense at this point:

For the last five years, I’ve been working on a Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL) project to help my college reading students succeed academically.  I’ve also used it as a model for other faculty who are interested in pursuing SoTL. This journey led me to research being conducted on lifelong learning and eventually to this resilience project.

In 2012, I paired my LL ED 005 College Reading strategies course with a Psych 100 section taught by Dr. Mark Casteel. The intention of the pairing was to make the learning in LL ED more concrete and lasting when applied to actual course content. Students started off strong, holding their own against a group with better academic preparation. However, they couldn’t maintain the successes over time. They simply ran out of steam.

What next? If reading strategies alone couldn’t do the trick, what was still missing?  As I explored the problem and talked with colleagues in the field, I was led to the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (ELLI) developed by researchers at the University of Bristol (Deakin Crick, Broadfoot, & Claxton, 2004). Thus began the journey towards incorporating strategies to build inner resources for students – a one-two punch as it were – giving students the academic strategies needed to DO the work of college while developing attributes to help them BE effective lifelong learners.

The following year, I integrated the use of ELLI into the LLED course which was now paired with Dr. Santiago-Blay’s BiSc 003 Environmental Science course. Students in the paired course and those only in BiSc 003 took a content pre/post test and also ELLI pre/post. The results were very interesting!

In terms of content and other academic measures, LL ED students were holding their own throughout the course and even made gains such that there was no statistically significant difference between their scores on the content post-test (non-graded) and others in the general course (p=.79). 84% of the LL ED students passed the course with at least a “C” or better. Most telling was that 84% of these students were retained fall to spring as compared to 74% of their peers with similar SAT reading scores (average 359) who had not taken LL ED.

To build lifelong learning into the course, I used this framework:

Students took ELLI pre- and post-semester and we saw statistically significant gains in all areas of lifelong learning except Learning Relationships for those taking LL ED. For those in the control group (only taking Bi Sc 003), no statistically significant gains were made pre- to post-semester in any dimension of ELLI.

These results were published in 2015 (Shaffer, Eshbach, & Santiago-Blay).

These results were promising, but obviously the small sample size was an issue, so I wanted to build up the data set to see a more complete picture. Over the next few years, I was able to pair the LL ED with an Anthropology course (Dr. Orleth-Diener) but then the administrative side of creating paired courses became too challenging, and so the campus went back to the standalone model in 2015. I incorporated ELLI into the course each year and here are the results pre- to post-semester for the LL ED group over time (n=90):

In 2015, I was also able to start some benchmarking by collecting first-year student ELLI scores (n = 176). We now had a more robust sample against which to make comparisons. A subset of these students also took ELLI post-semester to expand the control dataset as well (n=47). Finally, In academic year 2016-17, I was able to collect ELLI data on a sample of our seniors (n=66) and so we could begin to make some comparisons between groups.

Control Group ELLI Scores Pre- to Post-Semester

There were no changes in the control group pre- to post-semester which begs the question, “Do students grow in these dimensions of lifelong learning as a result of simply taking college courses?” In the short term (1 semester) it seems that not much change registers.  However, when we compare our first year student scores with our senior scores, we do start to see some changes happening.

Comparison of First Year and Senior Benchmark ELLI Scores

What began to emerge as important were the low Resilience scores across the board. Also, when looking at senior benchmark scores, Resilience is the dimension where the largest gains are made. I interpret this to mean (and the existing research seems to support this) that students become more resilient by virtue of learning to navigate challenges. So by the time students reach their senior year, they simply have been through enough challenges that they have grown more resilient. The research also emphasizes the role of support in helping students to navigate the challenges that arise. I believe that this is one of the hallmarks of a Penn State York experience! We have small class sizes that give students ample opportunities to get to know their faculty members, and we have wonderful support staff in advising, career counseling, financial aid, student services, the library, the Nittany Success Center and all other support offices,  ready and willing to help students when needed.

So with this expanded information before us, it was time to begin working more intently with resilience as an attribute that we wanted our students to acquire. Thus began the working relationship with CFRA and the current project!

Deakin Crick, R., Broadfoot, P., & Claxton, G. (2004). Developing an Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory: The ELLI project. Assessment in Education, 11(3), 247-272. doi:10.1080/0969594042000304582

Deakin Crick, R., & Yu, G. (2008). Assessing learning dispositions: Is the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory valid and reliable as a measurement tool? Educational Research, 50(4), 387-402. doi:10.1080/00131880802499886

ELLI Vital Partnerships http://www.elli.global/

Gill, S.,  Shaffer, S.C.,  Seidel, A. (Manuscript in process). Additive effects of mindfulness practice and critical reflection on lifelong learning attributes. Penn State York.

Moore, T. & Shaffer, S. C. (Accepted 10/16). Awakening the learner within: Purposeful prompts and lifelong learning measures in a first-year composition course;  Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

Shaffer, S.C., Eshbach, B.E., & Santiago-Blay, J.A.; (Fall 2015). A dual approach to fostering under-prepared student success: Focusing on doing and becoming. InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching; Vol. 10;The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) Park University. Parkville, MO.

I caught up recently with Keysha Whitaker of the Penn State Berks Campus who has been working with students on her campus in terms of resilience and other success measures for many years. Even though Berks could not formally participate in the resilience project this year (they already had a focus for their FYS that had been agreed upon before the end of the last academic year), Keysha wanted to make sure she incorporated some of the material into a recent workshop on her campus called, Keys to Academic Resilience: A Positive Mindset and Support System On the Road to Greatness. There were 60 students in attendance and she said it was well-received!

This session was part of a larger series offered at Berks called On the Road to Greatness Workshop Series. It was developed by the Office of Student Support Services to share practical ideas for academic success with first year students. These interactive workshops are meant to help students understand their individual learning styles and present information to enhance the development of skills necessary for academic success. The theme this year was developing your individual path towards academic success, helping students develop an action plan for achieving their goals in higher education. Other topics in the series include goal setting, test taking strategies, time management, the importance of making positive choices, communication skills for success, career exploration, learning styles, improvement of memory and grades, and stress management.

For the resilience workshop that Keysha gave, she used some of the slides from my IST 111 presentation and shared her handout with me to be offered for others to use. I added it to our Canvas group!!  It has been so great to meet and work with so many wonderful colleagues dedicated to student success through this project! This sharing of resources and good ideas made me nostalgic for the early days of my career where sharing seemed to be much more widespread! For me, this kind of positive contact with colleagues has been a welcome shot in the arm! Thanks Keysha!

Here are some gems from her handout

Inspiring Quotes

Some thoughts on a positive mindset . . .

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing . . . to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” – Viktor Frankl

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.”  – William James

 

4 Key Beliefs (Taken from “How Kids Learn Resilience” in The Atlantic, June 2016)

1. I belong in this academic community.
2. My ability and competence grow with my effort.
3. I can succeed at this.
4. This work has value for me.

Thanks for the good work, Keysha and for generously sharing your approach and resources in our conversation!

October 9th was the first session with students at the York campus. IST 111 is a 1-credit first-year experience for students exploring the Information Sciences and Technology major. Thirteen students participated in a session going over the basics of resilience, exploring the ways in which they normally manage life challenges, considering their strengths and weaknesses from the 10 elements from CFRA’s research, and trying out strategies to build resilience and inner resources. We are still awaiting results from the survey, so students did not have their actual data yet, but we talked about it in terms of their own perceptions of strengths and weaknesses. The session lasted about 1.25 hours and was well-received by  students and the faculty member teaching the class.

It was a good first attempt and clarified for me the approach I’ll use going forward: namely that we’re talking about this in two ways – 1) learning how to build inner resources all the time so that we are stronger internally and 2) learning effective strategies to cope and manage when difficulties arise.

As an aside, another faculty member (not in the project) came by my office the other day and shared some concerns she had about focusing on resilience. Her concern was that students might get the erroneous message that students shouldn’t feel difficult emotions. I assured her that this couldn’t be further from the truth – Life is difficult and the associated emotions are often painful and confusing. Being resilient is finding way through the difficult times – not by ignoring the difficult emotions, but by learning to recognize, honor, and manage them as best as we can – not to be derailed by them. People can grow in resilience by working their way through difficult times – sometimes with guidance and extra support when needed – and this approach also looks at ways to help people thrive in the process!

 

Human Development & Family Studies (HDFS) faculty at Altoona, Mont Alto, and York have been working with their students in various courses this semester to develop an understanding of the value of resilience for themselves as students and future professionals in the HDFS field (and for their future clients) where burnout can be an issue.

Drs. Lauren Jacobson-McConnell, Sonia Molloy, Jackie Schwab, and Robin Yaure have been using the CFRA resilience survey  with students in their HDFS classes. Students are completing activities and reflections meant to bolster resilience levels. Thanks to a grant from the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, faculty at Mont Alto and Altoona are also using the ELLI lifelong learning survey along with critical reflection assignments to help triangulate the resilience scores.

Here are a few more details on what’s happening in those classes

HDFS 420 (Schwab) – The first exercise was to promote mindfulness and support asking students to reflect on a practice shared by Brene Brown (June, 2017) called “She is doing the best she can.” While the goal of this exercise is part of our communication and conflict resolution material, it fits in well with the building resilience efforts.  This simple practice fits in both with positive psychology and mindfulness pillars of resilience and ‘self-control’ and ‘cultivating support’ factors that define resilience (Flanagan, 2017). 

HDFS 311 (Schwab) – ‘Balanced goal setting’ class activity.  I asked the class to reflect on their goal setting habits.  Then they wrote answers to the “Four Questions” (Flanagan, 2017) and kept this for future reflection.  I also had them complete the Professional Development Self-assessment I (which I use every year) and asked them to select three skills to improve.  We added those to the back of the four questions handout (from J. Kasar, N. Clark, D. Watson, & S. Pfister, 1994).

HDFS 129 (Yaure) –  I gave students a handout with the ten factors of resilience from the CFRA.  I then asked them to identify the top three elements that are most meaningful to “you in terms of how you think you would be most successful”, identify which they felt BEST at, and which they felt they needed to work on most. I did not specify how many of the elements should be identified for the last two questions, and would change that next time. I am going to follow up with a discussion/activity on grit and then focus since those came up most often for the top 3 and would therefore be good to work on, respectively.

Drs. Amber Seidel (HDFS York) and Joseph Seidel (Engineering Harrisburg) have been working on a joint project looking at study approaches and levels of resilience.

Stay tuned for more details on their projects and what they are learning!