Building confidence among learners

Here at The Be Well Teacher & Tutor, confidence is what we believe is part of the ‘secret sauce’ of learning. As a human myself, I thought I understood what confidence was. In my mind, it is a feeling - a sureness that you know what you are doing, that you have got this no matter what, a feeling that gives off a certain vibe or way about you.

Boy, was I wrong! You see, we turn to research for so many things - medicine, education, mental health, etc. But sometimes when we think of ‘simple’ things like happiness or confidence, we don’t actually do the deep dive into what the research says. 

As adults (parents, teachers, tutors) we must first have an understanding of what confidence is before we can help our students to strengthen this muscle. I think back to when I first started my teaching career. I was intelligent, I had work experience, I possessed a bachelor's degree in Marketing and 4 years of work under my belt, but I had never taught nor was I remotely confident in my abilities working with kids. Fast forward to today, I feel extremely confident in my abilities to teach 2nd graders and teach them well, but what changed? My willingness to try and therefore my competency around elementary education has gradually increased to the point where it is now second nature.

Imposter syndrome is something we feel as adults when we begin a new role, learn a new skill, or start a new task. I would argue that imposter syndrome is a good natured discomfort that tells us we are on the track to growth. We don’t feel like imposters in areas where we are experts right? So in order to grow, to learn, to build our knowledge and improve performance, we MUST be willing to try, to fail, and to learn.

Now stay with me, this is applicable to our students in more ways than one, I promise! Confidence in school can be tough. In a post Covid world, students are experiencing many levels of success and understanding and they and their peers may differ vastly. One student may be reading words like lotus, dentist and tundra, while another is struggling to identify each sound in the word cat. As parents and educators it is imperative that no matter where our students are, we acknowledge their effort and their willingness to try. Modeling for them times when we have tried, failed and then learned is KEY. How can a student read the word 'chat' when they have not yet learned the digraph ch? They must learn, try, stumble, and continue on in order to master the science of reading. 

While this sometimes can be hard - either to watch our kids fail or to fall short ourselves, we know based on our own experiences that through perseverance and the willingness to try we WILL get better. We have seen it time and time again in our own lives. What about the first time you rode a bike? Used chopsticks? Flossed your teeth? Things that are now second nature to many were once foreign actions and activities.

So, what exactly is confidence? It is more than just a feeling but rather a mindset and a set of actions/decisions in our day to day life. Psychology Dictionary Online defines self-confidence as an individual’s trust in his or her own abilities, capacities, and judgments, or belief that he or she can successfully face day to day challenges and demands (Psychology Dictionary Online). Another source refers to it as simply believing in oneself (Bénabou & Tirole, 2002).

What does this mean for us as parents and teachers? We must ensure students understand the goal is not perfection but rather learning and that in order to learn we must be willing to take risks, to try, to fail and then to move forward with new knowledge! 

How do you build confidence in your classroom or home?

Sources:

Self-confidence [Def. 1 and 2]. (n.d.). Psychology Dictionary. Retrieved from http://psychologydictionary.org/self-confidence/

Bénabou, R., & Tirole, J. (2002). Self-confidence and personal motivation. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117, 871-915.