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Mental Health & Mindset
What Doping Athletes Can Teach Your Students About Success
On May 24, 2026, the first Enhanced Games took place in Las Vegas. The media controversy surrounding the games was enormous â as was the hype. According to organisers, the games are ushering in âa new era in athletic competition that embraces scientific advancements to push the boundaries of human performance.â Thatâs PR-speak for âour…
Read MoreFitting in Versus Belonging
A young man, Rana*, approached me after I’d been speaking with his year group about Respectful Relationships at a High School in Perth. âIâm really struggling to fit in. Being at school is hard when youâre not really in a group. What can I do?â Just behind Rana stood three of his peers. The middle…
Read MoreSupport or Control
This termâs newsletters have followed a clear them: classroom learning motivation and regulation are superior when students feel autonomy-support in the learning environment. Today, two lists that show in the most practical way what supportive and controlling behaviours look like. Here are ten controlling behaviours, outlined in a 2006 paper by Johnmarshall Reeve and Hyungshim…
Read MoreSeven Autonomy-Supportive Instructional Behaviours to Transform Your Classroom
In a 2021 research paper, two academic researchers conducted a meta-analysis of over 50 high-quality research studies that investigated what autonomy-supportive instruction looked like in classrooms around the world. They found that âthe skillful enactment of seven autonomy-satisfying instructional behaviors serve[d] two purposes.â It helped to support intrinsic motivation and support internalisation of content. From…
Read MoreCreating an autonomy-supportive classroomÂ
In a recent article I wrote about motivation – or what psychology researchers more accurately call âregulationâ. A useful question to ask students is not âHow motivated are you?â. Rather, try âHow are you motivated?â If theyâre externally motivated, or introjected, youâll get lousy results. If theyâre identified, youâll see progress. If theyâre integrated or…
Read MoreThe Secret Source of Classroom Motivation
Itâs well accepted that there are two kinds of motivation. Some students are extrinsically motivated. Theyâll move if you offer a big enough bribe or threat. Carrots and sticks. Punishments and rewards. Other students are intrinsically motivated. They donât need your input to go after something. Itâs inside them. Theyâre keen. Focused. Driven. Drawn to…
Read MoreRiding the WavesÂ
Articles for the time-poor teacher who just wants⊠ANSWERS NOW Anxiety in our young people is at an all-time high. It has been rising for decades, and since COVID the numbers have exploded. Why the Huge Rise? Social media is the common scapegoat. There are good reasons to blame Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, but they are not the…
Read MoreR U OK Day â Talking About It and What Happens When They Say âNoâÂ
No. Iâm not OK. Every September our social media feeds, workplaces, and schools are overwhelmed with people asking âR U OK?â While it is a beautiful sentiment and showing care and concern for others is powerful and positive, it sometimes falls a little short. While R U OK day has led to important breakthroughs for…
Read MoreGrowth Mindset: Fact or Fiction?Â
Several years ago, Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweckâs âgrowth mindsetâ research has swept Australian education by storm. And for good reason: itâs simple, intuitive, and evidence-based. Since then, her TED talk has been viewed close to 12 million times. Here comes the âbutâ⊠The excitement about growth mindset and its application in education grew much faster than…
Read MoreThe Best Person You Have Worked WithÂ
Pause and think, for just a moment, of the most excellent person you have ever worked with. What made them so âexcellentâ? Is it possible to create an inventory of their attributes? What characteristics of excellence they embody? Aristotle said âWe are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.â…
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