Building Classroom Success: Eliminating Academic Fear and Failure

School has the potential to be a major source of personal and academic fulfilment. However, the reality is that fear and failure pervade many students' academic lives. Rather than respond to these fears in constructive and courageous ways, many students engage in self-defeating, avoidant and helpless behaviours.

This book examines the counterproductive strategies students use in schools today, and suggests successful practices educators can adopt to eliminate fear and failure in the classroom and help students respond to their problematic behaviours in more positive and productive ways. Through building student success, educators build classroom success.

Table of Contents

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Part I: Achievement Evolution in the Classroom

1. Achievement in the twenty-first century

Part II: Success in the Classroom

2. Success seekers

Part III: Fear and failure in the classroom

3. Fear, failure, and self-esteem
4. Self-esteem protection
5. Self-handicapping
6. Defensive pessimism and defensive optimism
7. Disengagement and helplessness
8. Overstriving and perfectionism
9. Fear of success and success avoidance

Part IV: Building Classroom Success, Eliminating Academic Fear and Failure

10. Courageous and constructive views of poor performance
11. Developing broadly-based self-esteem
12. Effectively dealing with competition
13. Reducing avoidance and increasing success orientation
14. Developing healthy views of competence
15. Developing rock-solid self-esteem
16. Running your own race
17. Seizing control
18. Empowering beliefs about cause and effect
19. Teacher tip wrap-up
20. Good teacher-student relationships

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

"There has long been a need for a text aimed at teachers which explores the implications of research on academic self-concepts for classroom practices. Andrew Martin's book meets that need in the authoritative fashion that would be expected from one of the world-leading researchers in the field."
- Andrew Tolmie, Professor of Psychology and Human Development, Institute of Education, University of London, UK

"...up-to-date advice and guidance on how to deal with some of the most difficult and pervasive classroom issues facing teachers and schools today: fear, failure, disengagement, avoidance, pessimism, and helplessness - to name a few ...I highly recommend this excellent volume to teachers, teacher educators, trainee teachers, school executives, parents and education departments."
- Kit-Tai Hau, Chair Professor of Educational Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong