Unlearning Helplessness

By Bobbi Waters & Dr. J. Bruce Overmier, compiled by Heather Lyke

Teaching in a pandemic is far from simple. That’s unquestionable. Yet, there are aspects of this challenge that have benefits.  For example, it has shed light on issues that previously were able to hide in shadows: one of which is how many of our students get stuck in a cycle of learned helplessness.
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Recently, one of Dover-Eyota Public School’s teaching teams wanted to find a solution for helping students break the cycle. In search for an answer, they reached out to Dr. J. Bruce Overmier—a man with fifty years of experience in psychological research, with hundreds of publications to his name and who is also cited in thousands of others, and currently a professor at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Overmier’s research has often focused on the subject of learned helplessness, and he shared some advice for helping our students and teachers unlearn helplessness. 

In many ways, Dover-Eyota, has already been trying to live by Overmier’s ideals, and as such, we share Dr. Overmier’s thoughts intertwined with Dover-Eyota examples.​

N. Somsuk. Getty Images. iStockphoto.

The Importance of Celebrating Small Wins in Preventing Learned Helplessness

When Overmier replied to the teacher-group’s request, he began with, “How good of you to try to find ways to help your students and give them some resilience in these trying times...” He started with a “small win”—he began by celebrating our teachers’ finding time and momentum, despite a pandemic, to reach out to him in the first place. This aligns tightly with his first suggestion: a need to create success experiences.  

Overmier’s suggestion:

Incorporate activities that immunize the students before helplessness inducing traumas.
These would include having experienced many "success experiences" and "acknowledgement and reward earning activities" before the trauma.  These come from things like teachers acknowledging the students' contributions in class or the students' attempts at meeting challenges (both small and large).  Little successes followed by bigger successes is a good recipe for building resilience.

Waters’ Dover-Eyota examples:

Celebrate the Word of the Week what students put it into action
At Dover-Eyota Elementary School, the culture is one of celebrating our successes and learning from our mistakes.  Students have many opportunities to be recognized for working hard and being kind, caring classmates.  Staff recognize student successes, big and small, through their words—both spoken and written.  The school focuses on a word each week that describes a characteristic of a good citizen of our school and community.  Students putting those words into action have a chance to have their class picture taken and posted on the bulletin board as the word of the week winner.  

​Teach students how to celebrate the successes of their peers
Another example of how Dover-Eyota provides “success experiences” is by teaching kids to recognize good in others and fill their buckets.  Bucket-filling is based on a children’s story written by David Messing and Carol McCloud: Have You Filled a Bucket Today?  In the story, filling a bucket is showing kindness to another person by saying or doing something kind.  After hearing the story, each class houses their very own bucket for the school year.  Students fill out slips of paper, recognizing other students for filling their bucket.  Not only does this promote kindness throughout the school, but it teaches students that even the little things they do have a big impact on those around them, adults and peers alike.

Celebration of Little Wins & Scaffolding Help to Unlearn Helplessness

Martin E. P. Seligman, author Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life
and Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment, once noted that “learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn’t matter.” With that at the helm, it becomes clear that students need to draw connections between their actions to their outcomes and why it is those outcomes matter. ​

​Overmier’s suggestion:

The best therapy for helplessness is exactly the same as prevention
​Do not expect big changes quickly and do not begin by putting big challenges before them.  Start with "little" things or challenges that you are pretty sure they can succeed at. Recognize and reward those small successes with explicit good words and even small (or large) prizes (stars on public scoreboard or points towards or other earned prizes).  Then move on to the next problem/challenge level.  Have each one of them keep a record of their particular successes and achievements. Build the record of successes and rewards so that they can come to believe and expect to succeed.

Waters’ Dover-Eyota example:

Scaffold & celebrate through goal setting & student self-reflection
​One of the strategies used at Dover-Eyota that encompasses this is that of goal setting.  Students set goals for themselves in their classes based on where they are currently and what they want to achieve.  Teachers guide students through the process of setting a goal that means something to them.  In some classes this is taken a step further with students participating in specific self-monitoring activities that allow them to celebrate success along the path to achieving their goals.  When students participate in the goal setting process they see value in their progress every step of the way.

Embracing Complexities: Being Intentional

Bobbi Waters noted, “When we give our students purpose and help them see value in their voices, their ideas, their accomplishments, we instill a true compass.  We teach them to be their own source of feedback, provide their own guidance by modeling how to do this at a young age.” This gets at the heart of the issue: there are layers, and those layers have to work together for learned helplessness to be prevented/unlearned. ​

Overmier’s suggestion:

While what I describe sounds simple, it is not. 
​It requires individualized attention, planning, and programming. It is hard work for a teacher.  But the successes of the students are the rewards and successes of the teacher and build the teachers' confidence and resilience, as well.

Lyke’s Dover-Eyota example:

Layer in scaffolds and plan for routine feedback
Our English team at our secondary school has been digging into how to help students get out of the habit of learned helplessness. In doing so, they are participating in a Jugyou Lesson Study (a concept covered extensively in Elizabeth Green’s Building a Better Teacher and briefly in the Third Eye Education article “Refuse to Go Backward”).

First, the team identified the process: learned helplessness. 

Then, our Director of Teaching and Learning, Nick Truxal, read through research on the subject and reached out to experts, one of whom was Dr. Overmier.

​Next, the team looked at the research based best practices and identified strategies to try: the team settled on scaffolding and providing feedback at each scaffolded level. 

Finally, two team members volunteered to take the lead on applying the strategies and co-planned with me, Dover-Eyota’s Teaching and Learning Specialist. (A) Becca Rudquist adjusted her research project cover page (on which each step is scaffolded) to have a designated spot for teacher feedback (celebration of small wins) next to each scaffolded step. (B) Brooke Hasleiet adjusted her approach to her instruction of the demonstration speech by breaking it into smaller pieces (scaffolding) and committing to checking in with each student during each step of the speech writing process (celebration of small wins). 

Eventually, in a few weeks time, Rudquist and Hasleiet will reconnect with their English team to share successes and refine practices for moving forward.

Perhaps, as the world slowly emerges (fingers crossed) from this pandemic, we can apply Overmier’s ideas to the educational changes that will inevitably occur moving forward. One, we celebrate each win, small as they may be, as we find our footing once again. Two, we take small steps so as not to overwhelm, and draw connections between our actions, our outcomes, and our purpose. Finally, we ensure intentionality in our planning and we understand that successful change can take time.

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• Bobbi Waters is the Behavior Interventionist for Dover-Eyota Schools and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst with years of experience working with at-risk students and people with disabilities.   
• Dr. J. Bruce Overmier has written over 200 articles, chapters, and books focusing on Learning, Psychobiology, and Behavioral Neuroscience. He currently is a professor at the University of Minnesota. 
• ​Heather M. F. Lyke is the Teaching & Learning Specialist for Dover-Eyota Schools and author of numerous articles focusing on quality education.

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