Ch.13 Exploring Achievement
Difficulties
pg. 463-467
By: Brendan Conway
How They Surface & Examples
 Students who do not set goals, plan how to reach goals,
or monitor their progress towards their goals.
 Students who are low achievers and have low
expectations for success.
 Students who protect their self-worth by avoiding
failure.
 Students who procrastinate
 Students who are perfectionists
 Students with high anxiety
 Students who are uninterested or alienated
Students Who are Low Achieving and Have
Low Expectations for Success
 Students like this need constant positive reinforcement,
and need to know they will be given the help and
support they need to succeed.
 Need to be reminded that help will only be put forth if
they also put forth a real effort.
 Sometimes suffer from Failure Syndrome
 Having low expectations for success & giving up at the first
sign of difficulty.
 Differentiate from low achieving students because they
don’t put forth enough effort (give up quickly), where low
achieving students don’t put forth their best effort.
Students Who Protect Their SelfWorth by Avoiding Failure
 Some students become so obsessed with protecting their
self-worth and avoiding failure that they get distracted from
pursuing their goals.
 This makes students engage in ineffective strategies….
 Nonperformance – Ex. Not trying in the classroom (avoiding eye
contact when teacher asks a question)
 Procrastination – Ex. Last minute studying, taking on many
responsibilities and having excuses for not doing all of them.
 Setting Unreachable Goals – Ex. Setting goals that virtually
anyone would fail to succeed
 Can be helped by helping them set challenging but realistic
goals, giving them positive beliefs about their abilities, and
strengthening their link between their effort and their selfworth.
Students who Procrastinate
 Regular procrastination can make students fail to reach
their potential.
 Linked to low-self efficacy, low conscientiousness,
distractibility, and low achievement motivation.
 Takes many forms:
 Ignoring the task
 Underestimating the work involved in the task or overestimating
ones ability to and resources
 Spending endless hours on the internet
 Substituting for lower priority activities
 Believing that minor delays won’t hurt
 Not being able to choose between two alternatives
 A deeper look at why we procrastinate
Students who are Perfectionists
Healthy Striver
 Sets high standards, but just
beyond reach
 Enjoys process as well as
outcome
 Bounces back from failure and
disappointment quickly and
with energy

Keeps normal anxiety and
fear of failure and disapproval
within bounds and uses it to
create energy
 Sees mistakes as
opportunities for growth and
learning
 Reacts positively to helpful
criticism.
Perfectionists
 Set standards beyond reach
and reason
 Is never satisfied by anything
less than perfection
 Becomes dysfunctionally
depressed when experiences
failure and disappointment.
 Is pre-occupied with fear of
failure and disapproval which
depletes energy levels.
 Sees mistakes as levels as
unworthiness
 Becomes overly defensive
when cirtisized
Students who are Perfectionists
 Perfectionism can sometimes be an underlying reason
for procrastination.
 Perfectionists believe that mistakes are never
acceptable, and have very high standards for their work.
 Perfectionists are vulnerable to decreased productivity,
impaired health, relationship problems, and low selfesteem.
 Common outcomes to perfectionism depression, anxiety,
and eating disorders.
 How to help students who are perfectionists
Students with High Anxiety
 Anxiety- vague, A feeling of highly unpleasant fear and
apprehension.
 It is normal for students to have some anxiety when facing
challenges like doing well on a test or presentation & successful
students have moderate anxiety levels.
 High anxiety levels and constant worry significantly impair students
ability to achieve.
 Causes:
 Parents unrealistic achievement expectations and pressure
 Experiences of failure
 Social Comparisons
 There are intervention programs to help these students with high
anxiety. These programs are very effective at relieving students
anxiety, but do not always improve achievement.
 The most effective programs focus on changing negative harmful
thoughts to positive task focused thoughts.
Uninterested or Alienated Students
 The most difficult motivation problems involve students who
are uninterested in learning, or alienated from school
learning.
 Doing well in school has no value to them.
 To reach these students their must be sustained efforts to
resocialize their attitudes towards school achievements.
 Strategies to help these students”
 Early Childhood- Praise the students for all of there efforts.
This will eliminate the fear to do something wrong.
 Elementary School- Incorporate the students interests into
different activities. This will motivate them to participate.
 Middle School- Provide challenges for students. ( giving them
college work or assignments )
 High School- Build relationships based on the students
interests.
How our Brains Stop us From
Achieving Our goals
 Your brain procrastinates on big projects by visualizing
the worst parts
 we try to avoid the "hard work," we find ways to skate
around it and trick ourselves into thinking that we're busy.
 Your brain loves mindless busy work disguised as
progress
 Instead of diving into the difficult tasks we know we should
get done, we instead float around doing semi-related tasks.
 Your brain can hurt your goals by fantasizing too much
 Psychologists have found that while positive thinking about
the future is broadly beneficial, too much fantasy can have
negative results on achieving goals
How can we Fight it?
 After starting a task, your brain will be more enticed to
finish it to it's "conclusion." You also tend to see that it's
not as big a mountain as you initially imagined.
 Instead of fantasizing with what the future may bring,
we need to learn to love the work here and now.
 When you look back at what you've gotten done by the
end of the day, make sure you're proud of what you got
accomplished, don't let your brain ruin your goals by
diverting you from what needs to be done.
References
 Ciotti, G. (2012, July 5). How Our Brains Stop Us From Achieving
Our Goals (and How to Fight Back). Lifehacker. Retrieved April 10,
2014, from http://lifehacker.com/5928698/how-our-brains-stop-usfrom-achieving-our-goals-and-how-to-fight-bac
 Dollin, A. [Ann Dolin]. (2011, November 30). Helping Perfectionist
Students with Homework [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVpUVV48OWk
 Moffit, M. [ASAPscience]. (2012, September 19). The Science of
Procrastination - And How To Manage It[Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nBwfZZvjKo
 Santrock, J. (2011). Motivation, Teaching, and Learning. Educational
Psychology (5 ed., ). China: McGraw Hill.
 Teaching Teachers: Professional Development To Improve Student
Achievement. (n.d.). Teaching Tolerance. Retrieved , from
http://www.tolerance.org/article/teaching-teachers-professionaldevelopment-improve-student-a