Learned Helplessness

I was in Charlotte, NC this week for the High Schools that Work national conference.  Two of my presentations centered on Working with Students with Special Needs.  One of the topics we discussed was learned helplessness, or students who aren't even willing to try to do anything without help.  You probably teach one of these students; they raise their hands immediately without even attempting to answer the question or do the assignment.  Here's a seven step process to minimize learned helplessness:

Learned Helplessness:

1.            Determine if learned helplessness exists.

2.            Explicitly model the preferred academic behavior.

3.            Teach the student a strategy for displaying the preferred academic behavior.

4.            Provide practice for the strategy.

5.            Set a cue to remind the student to initiate the strategy.

6.            Allow the student to succeed.

7.            Facilitate the student’s problem-solving strategy.