Teaching students how to bring courage into their day-to-day school life can improve their learning, performance, and engagement at school.
Explanation:
This is a key implication of research by Professor Andrew Martin, from the Faculty of Education and Social Work, at the University of Sydney. His research on the little-studied area of academic courage is published in the current issue of School Psychology Quarterly.
The study looks at how the role of courage in the classroom can be linked to academic performance and engagement. It examined four approaches to schoolwork in high school - courage, confidence, avoidance, and helplessness."On some important outcomes (including achievement in literacy and numeracy) courage was as effective an approach as confidence. On other outcomes, confidence was more effective, however, courage was a very close second. So, while we already knew that confidence is linked to positive educational outcomes, this study is significant because it shows that courage is also an educationally effective response - particularly in the face of fear and anxiety.
