Academic buoyancy – a vital ingredient for resilient girls
Mrs Janet Stewart | stewartj@mbc.qld.edu.au
In the last few weeks, many of our girls across Primary and Secondary have been engaged in national exams (NAPLAN) and have entered a period of assessment as they move towards the end of the semester. Girls can often find this time challenging and thus, it was timely that I read an article from the Alliance of Girls Schools Australasia which discussed the idea of academic buoyancy and recent research undertaken in this area.
First labelled by Australian academics Andrew Martin and Herbert W. Marsh in 2008, ‘academic buoyancy’ refers to the ability of students to successfully deal with the everyday academic stresses of school life, such as failing a subject, missing an assignment deadline, catching up after an absence from school, receiving unwelcome assessment feedback, or an unexpected change of teacher.
Martin and Marsh argue that students who are academically buoyant are able to successfully handle these normal day-to-day academic challenges, difficulties and setbacks. Their research suggested that academically buoyant students demonstrate higher levels of motivation, engagement, wellbeing, and achievement. Academic buoyancy could also be called ‘academic resilience’ and is identified as a significant aspect of a student’s ability to thrive and flourish both at school and in life beyond the school gates.
Sadly, further research by Martin and Collie (University NSW) has revealed that female school students are significantly less academically buoyant than male students. As a result of this lack of academic resilience they can disengage from their studies and so underperform. The same research attributes this lack of academic buoyancy to greater levels of anxiety among adolescent girls as opposed to boys. This is certainly a trend we have seen here at MBC and is confirmed by the national and international data. In 2020, one third of Australian young people (34%) report high or very high levels of psychological distress. As was also seen in 2018 data, young women consistently report higher rates of distress than do young men. Thus, it is imperative that parents and educators work together to address anxiety experienced by some of our young women and help build academic buoyancy in our students.
Reading this recent research, it seems to me that academic buoyancy is part of the larger society wide discussion about building resilience. Our aim at MBC is to ensure every girl can fulfil her potential and become the best version of herself and our mission is to teach positive mental health strategies to help young girls become happier and more resilient.
Last year, I read the text The Resilience Project by Hugh Van Cuylenburg – a primary teacher- who is committed to sharing the lessons from his experience teaching in India and sharing the tools he believes might allow us all to live happier and more resilient lives. His book offers three key steps to finding happiness and resilience – practising gratitude, empathy and mindfulness. His text is filled with strategies which he believes might help nurture resilience because it encourages us to choose to focus on that which is good in our lives, it encourages us to focus on that which makes us happy.
Interestingly this affirms Martin and Marsh’s research published in 2020, which found that “academic buoyancy is not the outcome of exposure to adversity”. This finding runs counter to ‘inoculation’ theories which hold that exposing students to moderate levels of academic adversity will result in increased academic resilience. Perhaps resilience is an attribute we develop through focusing on that which is positive, in Van Cylenburg’s words, by choosing to be happy.
Below are some great questions and tips from Van Cuylenburg for educators and parents to promote gratitude, empathy and intentionally encourage mindfulness:
Gratitude
- What were three things that went well for you today?
- Who is someone you feel really grateful for today? Tell us why.
- What is it about our home that makes it our home/special family place?
- What is something you are looking forward to tomorrow?
Empathy
- Who is someone you know who may be experiencing some difficulty currently? What could we do for them as a family?
- Remember someone who has done something kind for you recently. What did they do for you? How did that make you feel?
- Say something kind to someone in your home or at school
Mindfulness questions
- How did you practice mindfulness today?
- What is your favourite mindfulness activity?
- How do you feel after you engage in a mindfulness activity?
Perhaps this approach, alongside living the actions of our evidence-based Hearts and Minds wellbeing framework – Connect, Give, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning - can foster a positive mindset, giving our students strategies to minimise anxiety and so build resilience and promote academic buoyancy.
Some further insights about resilience are to be shared in a series of articles over the coming weeks in The Sunday Mail (the Body and Soul section). This week Sophie Delezio (who as a 2-year-old was injured when a car crashed into her day care, and in a car accident two years later) was featured and when asked about resilience she told the reporter, “Resilience is everything – it is about not stopping because it is too hard. Without it, it’s a scary world. There are always going to be challenges and sometimes you are not given a choice in that…these [challenges] should not limit your experiences.” She concluded by stating, “I live in a wonderful location, I have wonderful people around me, and I am very happy”.
Sophie Delezio exudes gratitude; perhaps practising gratitude is a significant place for resilience to start and set girls up for academic, and life, success.
With Courage and Hope
References:
Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia Setting up girls for success: The vital role of ‘academic buoyancy’ Issue 7/2021: May 5, 2021
The Sunday Mail – 23 May 2021, Saskia Tillers