Leadership magazine Sept/Oct 2016 V46 No 1 | Page 9

knowledge;
•  managing response rates with tiered
questioning techniques;
•  reviewing content;
•  helping students practice skills, strategies and processes;
•  helping students examine similarities
and differences;
•  helping students examine their reasoning;
•  helping students revise knowledge; and
•  helping students engage in cognitively
complex tasks.
These essential strategies should be implemented at various times through the
learning progression. It is important to emphatically note that a one-time shot does not
ensure rigor.

Mastering self-efficacy
Another area that must be mastered is
that of self-efficacy – not to be confused with
self-esteem.
Stanford psychologist Albert Bandura describes self-efficacy as one’s belief in his or
her capabilities to exercise control over their
own functioning and over events that affect
their lives. This is quite a different concept
than self-esteem, which refers to an individual’s overall positive evaluation of the self.
In today’s classroom setting, with high
standards and expectations, promoting selfesteem and “feeling good” will not ensure
that students can manage the rigor we demand. Rather, we must find ways to harness
the power of self-efficacy, along with rigor.

Inside the classroom
Classroom learning communities that are
caring and inclusive are key to providing rigorous, self-efficacious environments. Establishing a nurturing classroom community
can provide students with space to develop
specific capabilities and to experience a sense
of inner balance and wholeness in a community with others (Easton, 1997).
Students’ cultures, languages, socio-economic status and special needs may present
unique challenges in the general education
setting. For inclusive environments to be
successful, teachers need to find a way to develop a learning community where the social
and emotional learning of all students are

valued, nurtured and supported alongside
their academic learning (Reicher, 2010).
In the classroom setting, rigor and selfefficacy must be harmoniously intertwined
to ensure optimal levels of teaching and
learning. Since the current academic rigor
can push even the most motivated students
to exhaustion, providing students opportunities to discover their strengths allows them
to cultivate the belief that they can succeed.
In addition, fostering the self-efficacy of
students individually, as well as the collective self-efficacy of the team, raises students
to the status of independent learner.
Keeping rigor and self-efficacy alive in the
classroom is key, especially when students
come from various demographics and enrich our schools with tremendous diversity.
English language learners, students with
disabilities, students who are disadvantaged
socio-economically, foster and homeless
youth all deserve guaranteed access to Common Core. However, there are particular
strategies that help ensure this access.

Opportunities for students
First, define everything for students.
Having a birds-eye view of students as they
are just beginning to discover who they are
and where they fit in is key in student development. One must begin by building
every students’ sense of self-efficacy early on
in the school year. Goals, tasks and accomplishments are boosted when students can
identify their own strengths. Defining clear
learning objectives and creating opportunities for students to perform tasks successfully strengthens them for the rigor.
An example of being explicit and defining
everything would be to front load students
with a lesson on “focus” before diving into
a lesson on math. This is referred to as the
“superhero focus.” This is critical, because to
encourage our students to focus and listen
without offering them strategies to do so only
leads to distraction and at times exhaustion.
Prepping students for whatever instructional lesson is about to occur is key – to offer
students support, to create a superhero focus
– and must be revisited, not simply a onetime reminder.
This superhero focus can include discussion and role playing in class. For example,

the classroom teacher might facilitate a discussion about the difference between focus
during instruction and watching TV at
home. Such conversation can help students
realize they control their own actions. That
sense of control builds upon their belief in
themselves, and they will approach learning
challenges with the goal of mastery and not
the limitations.

Controlling the climate
Happy teacher and happy students go
hand in hand. This equation can endure for
an entire year when understood by all members of the learning community.
Each day, the teacher writes “Happy
Teacher = Happy Students.” The joke goes:
“If the teacher isn’t happy, no one’s happy.”
It’s a fun phrase that breaks the ice and keeps
it light in a curriculum that can be daunting.
Since the phrase has been defined by the
teacher, it also helps set the temperature
gauge for them when it comes to class production and generally positive conduct. The
teacher serves as the climate control when
talking about the classroom, and yet the students are willing participants in maintaining
a positive tone.

The new ‘time out’
Time out has a new meaning, and is not
how we have defined it in the past. Since
students in the modern day classroom are
expected to keep up with the rigor of academically demanding curriculum, breaks
are needed, and we must redefine the concept of time out.
Clearly, all students, from the advanced to
struggling learner, need support navigating
these academic demands. Self-efficacy fosters students’ stamina and increases the need
to succeed in school.
Communicating and demonstrating to
students that the teacher has genuine empathy for their academic plight is key to risk
taking and progression. Hence there is a new
time zone: