I stumbled across an article on mindfulness and it made me think about reasons for students underachievement.
Article link
In particular, I believe students struggle to stay in present thought and spend too much time thinking about the past and the future. This can lead to anxiety and unproductive work habits. What in my opinion compounds this problem is the access students have to their phones and technology. Students take their issues everywhere are often dealing with multiple things all at one time. It is obvious to any teacher that many students have become addictive to their devices.
I often hear students talk about their barriers to learning. My standard comeback line is that it is your thinking and your thought processes that lead influences success, not the trauma or barriers that you perceive.
I have found mindfulness relatively easy to incorporate into a PE curriculum. At Level 1 'Self Management is an ideal way to teach and reflect on mindfulness. In Level 2 we discuss 'learning a physical skill' and the importance of staying present when involved in the learning process.
I have found that when I start discussing psychology the students immediately become engaged. It seems they are interested and what to learn. In fact, I only became interested in this topic based on off-topic conversations I was having with students. This idea of teaching psychology is something I would like to prioritise in my planning for 2020.
In beggers another thought. Should thinking and psychology be taught as a subject at high school? In my opinion yes. Understanding the mind, the power of self-talk and optimistic thinking is so vital to success and happiness and should be a priority in any curriculum
