Reframing is a term you may be more likely to hear thrown around in psychological and mental health circles, but it is incredibly impactful in an educational setting. So, what is reframing? How do we use it to help our students grow? How does reframing impact student mindsets? Let’s jump in.
What Is Reframing?
According to an article on Verywell Mind, cognitive reframing is “a technique used to shift your mindset so you’re able to look at a situation, person or relationship from a slightly different perspective.” While many higher-education scholars have attempted to define the value reframing holds and emphasize its impact in the classroom, teachers are the ones who recognize the impact of reframing like no one else can.
An example from a recent classroom experience is a perspective shift in one student. While teachers, year after year, had communicated to this student his intellect wasn’t keeping him from learning in one particular subject area, it was not until he learned for himself that he could do it that the mindset shift took place. Essentially, the student developed confidence in an area where he previously had little.
Any parent who works with his or her child over time recognizes the value of reframing, too. You may try to influence your child’s belief system to transform from “I can’t do this” to “It is not my preference, but I can learn this” when she struggles in a specific skill. However, even as adults, we come to the table with attitudes, mindsets and beliefs about our own abilities — and sometimes, about our children’s abilities — that may need to be reframed as well.
Why Reframing Matters
Anyone with a strong-willed child understands that reframing a situation, obstacle or relationship from a negative to a positive one can enormously impact that child’s outlook. And when a student has a positive mindset, one where he or she expects to learn, grow and find joy, that student is much more likely to believe he or she can try, overcome and succeed.
Similarly, when a parent takes time to understand the reason behind a child’s lack of motivation, it has the power to radically interrupt that child’s learning mindset.
But it takes time, consistency, and a deep examination of the “why” behind the struggle.
It can also take a team. One parent alone may not fully understand why a student struggles in a core subject. But, if that parent contributes some observations and adds them to the observations of one teacher and then another teacher and another, over time, a portrait of learning — or lack thereof — becomes clear.
Barriers to Reframing: Time, Teamwork and Testing
It’s easy to see a smart student and assume he or she just isn’t applying oneself. What takes more time — and teamwork — is understanding why the student isn’t applying their best effort to a particular assignment or subject area. Barriers to reframing are time, teamwork and testing.
Time – To learn why a student does or does not learn, or excels or doesn’t, it takes time. It takes an investment of asking questions, working with the student one-on-one, and digging deeper than surface answers.
Teamwork – When a parent or educator wants to understand why a student is struggling or an accelerated student doesn’t seem to care, understanding the “why” can be difficult from one viewpoint. It may take talking to previous teachers, getting another parent’s perspective, or even chatting with student peers in a group setting to find out why there’s a delay in the learning process.
This isn’t just a delay for challenges in student learning. Adults struggle, too. To uncover what makes one team of co-workers a successful powerhouse that collaborates well together and what makes another team sink under pressure, it takes time and the willingness to explore where there are gaps in understanding, communication and motivation. It also takes a leadership team who is willing to do the work.
Testing – While testing is not always the place to start, it can be helpful to see where a student has gaps and where he or she possesses natural strengths. Every student is wired differently, so tests can almost never tell the whole story. This is why Learnwell uses testing as a tool, but it’s not built upon testing as a foundation; students are more than they can achieve on a test, and we want to support the whole child.
The Power of Not Yet
The power of reframing a student’s (or even our own) perspective is enormous. Phrases like “not yet” or “growth” and “learning” (as opposed to “learned or finished”) and “building” are efficacious for educators to use in the classroom or for homeschooling and hybrid schooling parents to use at home.
These terms emphasize the power of the unknown and remind students that they aren’t done being formed as students. Their capacity to grow, stretch, and discover is just beginning!
How does this apply to a student who is stubbornly refusing to see a subject, math problem or assignment with enthusiasm?
Parent, Teacher and Student Takeaways
Student
Students who can learn to see education (and to some extent, life in general) from a long view tend to approach learning from a growth mindset. This can be challenging for young students who are just not developmentally at the point where they can see much from a long-term vantage point.
However, even young students are beginning to understand the power of words used appropriately or inappropriately. Around age 6, children can understand the power of “no” vs. “yes” and learn how their likes/dislikes are expressed verbally. They can share about their favorite television character, tell you what their room looks like and are learning to read simple words.
Helping an elementary school student recognize that learning something may feel tough right now but become easier over time may be best approached through a story.
- Share a time or situation when a child’s favorite character had to do something difficult, learn something new or try something unfamiliar.
- Relate growth mindset to something concrete. Perhaps your child remembers the process you went through to decorate his or her room, maybe even helping you choose some of the colors, bedding or photos for the wall. Talk about how, over time, the room’s “look and feel” developed. That’s the same with people when they learn new things. Or you might relate growth to a drawing that starts out as a line and then becomes a portrait.
- Remind older elementary school students that they weren’t always able to read simple words, count to ten or tie their shoes. It took time, practice, and even failure to help them hone these skills. This is true of any challenge or problem that hasn’t been overcome … yet.
Older students can learn the power of reframing, just as adults do. Talking with middle and high school students about the importance of viewing a challenge or a problem from more than one angle is something our Life Skills classes embrace. Students get to explore the application of reframing when they work on group projects, engage with the community in career mentoring and job shadow experiences, and develop entrepreneurial skills to start their own microbusiness or organization during their senior year at Learnwell. In all of it, they get to know themselves through the lens of how God has gifted and designed them while also understanding they can always learn and grow.
Teacher
One of the hidden gems of a Learnwell education is that teachers have the advantage of collaboration. Not every school can accommodate a fourth or fifth grade teacher working with the sixth grade teacher to make a student’s transition from elementary school to middle school smoother. But at Learnwell, we can!
Our elementary school teachers collaborate, too, since they rotate who teaches social studies and geography, work together on discipleship and help each other with whole-school activities, such as read-a-thon’s, the school garden and service projects.
Middle and high school teachers work together to ensure the scope of a student’s growth and development makes sense, particularly when it comes to academic behaviors that are vital to student success as they encounter deeper learning and engage in career exploration and a variety of learning methods.
Teachers constantly apply reframing as they problem-solve, remembering that each child is an individual with his or her own wiring, family experiences, preferences, and academic history. Considering all of these is a massive job for which Learnwell teachers rely heavily on God and others, including other staff members, teachers and parents.
Parent
Parents play an integral role in the education of a student, but especially the education of a Learnwell student. Because we view parents as co-educators, their feedback is essential to make our school model the best it can be. When teachers and parents work together to find creative solutions, everyone wins.
Some parents may feel ill-equipped to teach their own children, but at Learnwell, they find the support and understanding they need. Some of the ways our parents reframe their own perspectives include the following:
- Emailing a teacher to ask for help in teaching a specific concept.
- Asking another parent in their child’s class if they can help them understand a unit that is hard to teach.
- Using resources at their disposal — through the Parent Professional Development that Learnwell offers — to approach a need or challenge from a different lens.
- Sitting at the kitchen table or living room couch with their child and truly listening. In our fast-paced culture, it’s easy to dismiss a child’s concerns by accident. We have people to see and places to go, but the advantage of being involved in your child’s education is you get to know your child better. While more time spent together doesn’t always equal peace, it does usually provide a parent with more information. You’ll learn how your child is wired, what he or she enjoys and why he is motivated or unmotivated the more you work together.
- Remembering how you are wired and believing you’re enough. It’s just as easy to dismiss our strengths, focusing on what we are not good at. We may believe old lies that seem to shout louder than the truth that we’re all designed by a Creator who loves us. You might see your weaknesses as “forever weaknesses” rather than remembering that the brain is an incredible organ that can form new neural connections. Just reframing your own perspective can help with patience, finding a new way to approach an old problem or attempting something new.
If you’ve been trying to find a school solution that lets your child be known and seen for who they are, but challenged to grow in a warm environment, welcome to Learnwell Collective. We’d love to share about how this value permeates our approach to learning.
The “Collective” in our name symbolizes the together mindset we embrace at Learnwell. We are one organization that understands no two students are the same, and it takes a partnership to help students see their potential and learn. We have two formats, one for homeschooling families called Learnwell Navigator where we help homeschooling parents spend their energy on what matters most, and Learnwell North Georgia, our hybrid school.
Students attend our hybrid school two days a week and then learn at home with a parent or tutor on the other days.
Would you like to learn more? Request information about the Learnwell Navigator Program and attend a Discover Learnwell to learn about our hybrid school.