Learned Helplessness: A Habit we Don't Want for Ourselves (or Our Students)
Situations exist. How we interpret situations determines our reaction to these situations. Our interpretation also determines our mood, and long-term, determines our beliefs.
Learned helplessness refers to what happens when, after countless attempts, people come to believe that their work, strategies, techniques and efforts "get them nowhere, provide no positive payoff."
If a teacher comes to believe that a situation is hopeless, and the results of their work and effort are uncontrollable, a number of outcomes (all negative) are possible.
Sidebar
This pattern exists for students, and teachers must remain alert to identifying the pattern.
This pattern can be one of the insidious side effects of the "test or crash and burn" No Child Left Behind Act policy.
The "sin of test-benchmark failure," teaches guilt and shame. Unreasonable expectations (by students, teachers, counselors, or district administrators) for unattainable test mastery targets, and the resulting sense of failure; can create (especially for new teachers) a pattern of learned helplessness.
Focusing upon Failure
The patterns of thought and behavior resulting from focusing upon failure are manipulated by:
- Unreasonable Expectations
- Over Ambitious Objectives
- Inadequate Preparation
- Substandard Tools
- Scarce Resources
- Inept Leadership
- Under Funding
- Malfunctioning Technology
- Bureaucratic Meddling
These are danger signs, so be alert to these issues and stop a "downhill slide" before it avalanches out of control.
In other words, take action to head off catastrophe.
Drowning and the Floatation Device is Just Out of Reach!
Teachers can give up hope when they interpret a situation as uncontrollable (or at least outside their control).
This can cause a teacher to stop striving, cause a teacher's energy to plummet, and cause a teacher to feel worthless and defective.
Worse still, the same events can cause similar feelings in students.
Long-term simmering in this "stew of self-dissatisfaction" can look like depression.
Some feelings and moods associated with the long-term "smackdown" of expectation and belief in a chronic deficiency in reaching goals (unrealistic or attainable, it doesn't matter) include:
- Sadness
- Frustration, Irritability, Grouchiness, Moodiness
- Tiredness, Limited Energy
- Mood Swings
- Difficulty in Keeping Thinking Focused
- Insomnia and Sleeplessness, or Oversleeping and Still Feeling Tired
- Loss of Appetite, or Overeating
- A Sense of Doom, or a Fear of Being Fired, or a Fear of Being Placed on a Growth Plan
- Anxiety, Worry, Fear or Dread
- Over Argumentative Responses to Normal Situation
- Outbursts of Anger, Retaliating against Others (even students)
- Burnout
Get Help, Now!
If notice these signs of learned helplessness, anxiety or frustration; your only immediate response is to get help for yourself (or for the student who exhibits this pattern of behavior).
Some things are more important than high-stakes test scores, and the emotional and mental health of teachers and students is one of those more important things.
To subvert a parable: "What good is gaining acclaim for 100% student mastery on the high-stakes test if by doing so you loose the students to stress, loose the students to unreliable coping mechanisms such as sex, alcohol and drugs, and loose the caring and respect of your students?" How much worse if you loose yourself to these moods and feelings.
If you need help, get help. And get that help now.
