Transcript
The brains in your
classroom and care:
stress, wellbeing and
performancewith Nicola Morgan
Information, classroom materials
and free resources:
www.nicolamorgan.com
More information
• www.nicolamorgan.com• Handouts + link to this presentation
• Many free resources, articles advice• Classroom resources – Brain Sticks,
Stress Well and Exam Attack
•
To consider today
1. How stress affects learning and performance
2. What’s special about teenage stress?
3. Screens/social media
4. Approaching solutions
The key (to everything)
is understanding
Understanding control
Aiming for
“active agency”
“Our brains are
in our hands”
Active agency comes from:
1. Understanding how we work
2. Building growth (not “fixed”) mindset
– We learn by doing – skills are acquired, more than innate/inherent
3. Learn to learn from mistakes / failure
– Need chance to fail
– What went wrong? “Metacognition”
– Replace “helicopter” parenting with “safety-net” parenting
Result: active agency AND resilience
Resilience: • Ability to bounce back after failure or problems• Can be learnt / improved• Requires practice / experience• Is compromised by:
– early difficulties – continued negative events - “learned helplessness”– over-protection
Over-protection damages resilience
I will be telling parents:
“Be a safety-net parent, not a helicopter parent”
What makes adolescence special?
A. State of Brain – internal pressures
B. Stage of Life – external pressures
Adolescence is biological, natural,
universal, TEMPORARY () and positive
Most important brain difference
Prefrontal cortex develops last (mid-20s):
“control centre” – logic/reason, decision-making, impulse control, prediction
Limbic system, with amygdala – emotion, impulse, reward, reaction, instinct
PFC
This can affect:
• Emotions (volatility / control)
• Empathy
• Impulse control
• Peer pressure behaviour
• And risk-taking
See Blame My Brain for details
Sleep changes – a triple whammy
• Biological need for more sleep – 9 ¼ hours
• “Body clock” acts differently:
– Switches melatonin ON late at night
– But switches it OFF later in the morning
• Vital for health + wellbeing performance
• See my website Resources + Wellbeing sections
Teenage stress – “stage of life”
First, what is stress?
• A positive, biological response to threat
– Adrenalin + cortisol
– To maximise performance
• So, what’s the problem?
1. Over-reaction panic (strategy on website)
2. Cortisol builds up many negative effects
3. “Preoccupation”
“Preoccupation”
• The “bandwidth” analogy
– Every conscious action uses some brain bandwidth
– If attention is occupied, we cannot perform 100%
– Over-occupation stress
– Performance suffers
• Five BIG bandwidth occupiers:
1. Intrusive thoughts and worries
2. Change and new things
3. Processing information
4. Internet/screens
5. Resisting temptationThe Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin
Consider how these
apply to young people
Different teenage stressors
• Perfect storm of change
• Exams – high stakes
• A regular school day: – Constant pressure to do better
– Friend/peer issues
– Self-consciousness
– Especially for introverts
Think of each “occupying” bandwidth +
raising cortisol
Psychology of screens and social media
Applies to all ages
Don’t be over-awed by “digital natives”!
The Internet + Social Media
Internet/www
• Knowledge, BUT….– Information overload - exhausting
–Repetition of bad news emotional effect
–And anxiety
See The Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin
My book, LIFE ONLINE, comes out early 2019
…and Social Media
• Social networking very important, but…– Highly addictive – social + curiosity
– More “friends” than we can manage (cf Robin Dunbar)
– Competition with perfect images/lives• Snapchat perfection
– Measuring self-worth by number of “likes”
– “Online disinhibition effect” cyber-bullyingIrresistible by Adam Alter
The Happiness Effect by Donna Freitas
Major negative results
• Digital overload: ‘continuous partial attention’ and mental exhaustion
• Potential for cortisol build-up
• Potential for increased anxiety
• Loss of attention and focus
• Theft of dreaming time: reacting, not thinking; absorbing, not creating
We are “programmed” to act in certain ways
For survival or success
So, we should tell them (us?) to STOP, right?
A. Social – for survival and success
B. Curious – for success
C. Distracted – for survival
Screens give us endless reward buzzes tempting addictive
Questions?
• And then some much-needed solutions
1. Teach stress management
• Educate and empower with strategies – for life
• Educate parents, too
• Teach students to recognise symptoms early and take action
A: Relaxation wellbeing performance
Manage stress
Better sleep
Betterwellbeing
Better performance
Better wellbeing
B: Empower daily relaxation
Discuss healthy activities to lower cortisol and discuss how these can easily be built into their day
1. Varied – physical and mental
2. Deliberate extra benefit
Daily relaxation ideas
bath
walk
music
read
drawstroke a
pet
make something
breathe deeply
write
mindfulness
daydream
laugh
be alone OR
social
look at nature
any exercise
SWITCH OFF!
2. Manage screen time
(See my Life Online website section)
1. Understand the biology and psychology
2. Create strong school policy based on good psychology
3. Include SOS time – Switch Off Screens
4. Model good practice ourselves
Strategies for screen-time – for parents
1. Know the score – be informed
2. Don’t demonise screens
3. Same behaviours for adults and teenagers
4. Have phones out of sight/hearing when working
5. Practise uni-tasking
6. Notice if self-esteem/stress are affected – SOS
7. Switch off screens 1.5 hours before bed
8. Do enough: exercise, non-screen relaxation, face-to-face, sleep, nothing
3. Cater for introverts
1. Understand intro/extroversion– Greater need for personal space– Often work better alone
2. Time, permission and place to be alone3. Adapt teaching if necessary – cater for all4. Give introverted students strategies:
– To get what they need– To learn extrovert skills (and vice versa)
See “Quiet Power – The Secret Strengths of Introverts” by Susan Cain
4. Enable better sleep
See my website and handouts for
advice.
Share with students and
parents.
Main sleep messages
• VERY important for health, wellbeing and learning
• Get the most you can but don’t panic when you can’t
• Start 1.5 hours before you want to feel sleepy
1. Remove daylight:A. From outside B. From screens
2. Create winding-down routine
3. Block worries from your mind:A. Distance B. Distract
5. Encourage reading for pleasure
Evidence?
Reading Agency Literature Review 2015:
• Self-esteem; greater life satisfaction
• Increased vocab and general knowledge
• Increased empathy + self-understanding
• Better mood + relationships
• Reduced stress
Readaxation
“The deliberate act of reading for the purpose of
relaxation, wellbeing and
therefore performance”
Why would reading reduce stress?
• Readers believe it’s relaxing – confirmation bias helps!
• Can direct emotions – autonomy
• Allows “engagement” / “flow”
• Chance to forget worries and shift thinking
• Facilitates sleep
Understanding control
“Active agency”
Their brains
in their hands
Information, classroom materials
and school events:
www.nicolamorgan.com
The brains in your
classroom and care:
stress, wellbeing and
performancewith Nicola Morgan
Information, classroom materials
and free resources:
www.nicolamorgan.com
Tasks for Today’s Parents
1. Understand psychology of stress2. Model:
Managing your own stress Growth mindset Healthy screen-time~ pre-bed ~ meal-times ~ when someone is talking
3. Just be there - a strong safety-net4. Don’t bring missing PE kit into school!
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