One of the biggest changes in my thinking this year in classroom teaching lies in the use of belief changing mechanisms to alter pupils' state of confidence about how good they can be. For the past few weeks, I had allocated a good half an hour (out of the whole 3h 20min) in each of the afternoon Art classes to carry out these NLP related activities which I call 'Mental Strengthening Exercises'.
The initial results are very encouraging and this has made me even more convinced about how such methods will have a direct impact on pupils' performance in school and more importantly, raise their general sense of well-being by being a more confident person who believes more about what they can do.
Just to describe a little about what I did most recently. I carried out 2 exercises in this particular class. The first attempts to dissociate fear from the mind while the second exercise tries to associate the mind with confidence. I had successfully tried both exercises on myself prior to the lesson and was excited to find out if it would work for my pupils. After each exercise, I asked the class to pen their feedback by answering anonymously to some simple questions and I was thrilled with what I found out.
15 out of 21 pupils felt some alleviation of a particular chosen fear (pupils do not mention exactly what fear they wish to work on so as to maintain safety) after the dissociation exercise.
17 out of 22 pupils (1 boy came in late) felt better and more confident about themselves after the association exercise.
I am well aware that these changes may be temporary and may wear off in time. However, if my pupils can work these ideas into their inner voices and be convinced of their benefial effects, they can have a good amount of self control.
I have decided to factor in some mental strengthening exercise in each lesson as much as I can and I already know it will make difference.
In a recent tweet I read from the Fast Company, "Don't spend your energy solving problems, copy success..."
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