Deputy Principal's update

Resilient learners

Last week I had the absolute pleasure of welcoming our Unit 3 & 4 students back onsite. Being back at Shelford with their peers brought great joy, satisfaction and relief to a cohort of students who have completed a large part of their VCE studies in a remote learning environment. Walking back into my own Unit 3 & 4 class and being surrounded by my strong and resilient learners felt like ‘coming home’. I have greatly missed our onsite dynamic and being in a room with empowered and vocal students, who make me what I am, a teacher. This article is dedicated to all our students, who despite having faced great adversity over the last two years, continue to ‘show up’.

Resilience

Resilience is a word that is now used so often in society, it is everywhere we look; in social media, education policy, slick advertising campaigns, self-help books, TED Talks, government policy … I think you get my drift. At times, I worry society has lost the true understanding of what it means to be resilient and the power this word should convey. Yet, I am gently reminded every day that this word has not lost its meaning when I observe and converse with our Shelford girls. Our students consistently demonstrate they are able to positively adapt in the adversity that the pandemic has brought. 

Resilience refers to the ability to successfully cope with adversity, and to ‘bounce back’ and restore positive functioning. It:

• is considered a protective factor that is a strength or asset for ‘good’ mental health
• helps safeguard againstthe effects of risk factors for ‘bad’ mental health and minimises their impact
• involves behaviours, thoughts and actions that can be learned and developed in most people.

Resilience is more than merely coping or an adaptive behaviour. Some psychologists have distinguished resilience from these and other concepts such as ‘mental toughness’ or ‘invulnerability’ with reference to the key qualities of being able to:

• achieve positive results in adverse situations
• function competently in situations of stress
• the ability to recover (Shastri, 2013).

Resilient learners

Resilient learners are those who:

• achieve growth in a challenging/adverse situation, e.g. adapting to a new teacher or teaching style, attempting to understand new content or concepts, receiving a grade on an assessment task they were not expecting, developing skills that push them beyond a basic understanding, seeking assistance for the first time.
• demonstrate the ability to recover, e.g. perceiving error as a learning opportunity and adapting their behaviour as a consequence, actively listening and taking on board feedback so they may take a step closer to their independence as a learner.
• function competently in situations of stress, e.g. attempting a question on a test they were not expecting, choosing good study techniques when revising, seeking assistance from a teacher in a time of need.

Our VCE students

Every day our Unit 3 & 4 students have demonstrated what it means to be resilient, even if they don’t know it. They restore my faith that the meaning of the word resilience has not been lost. I applaud them for continuing to develop in the face of a pandemic, taking on board the extensive and well-crafted feedback their teachers have provided them with and for the fact that they continue to present and ‘show up’ each and every day!

Karen Whelan

Deputy Principal, Staff and Operations