Helping students developing a greater capacity for self-control is an on-going effort (and challenge) in some of my classes.
I’ve written quite a bit about how I have attempted to apply recent research on the subject to my classroom practice. I’ll be including a piece on this in my upcoming third book, which is on classroom management and instructional strategies.
I thought, though, that it might be useful for readers if I collected all of my related posts in a list. I was prompted by see a new video (about one of the studies I’ve written about) on the Fast Company website. Why Change Is So Hard: Self-Control Is Exhaustible with Dan Heath is a nice, short video that I’ll be using with my students next year in a new lesson (I’ll post the lesson plan over the summer).
Be It Resolved is a useful column in the New York Times by John Tierney. It talks about strategies to use in sticking to New Year’s resolutions, but it’s helpful for any kind of increased effort towards self-control.
You might also be interested in:
My Best Posts On “Motivating” Students
My Best Posts On Students Setting Goals
Here are My Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control:
“I Like This Lesson Because It Make Me Have a Longer Temper” (Part One)
Giving Students “Reflection Cards”
“Self-Control As A Limited Energy Resource” In The Classroom
Here’s Yet Another Possible Self-Control Strategy — And I Really Like It…
Another Self-Control Strategy?
Better Self-Control = Better Grades
Another Way For Students To Strengthen Self-Control?
One Way To Help Students Who “Shut Down”?
Self-Control Can Be Contagious
More Research On Self-Control
Want To Know What’s Happened Since My “Marshmallow” & “Visualizing Success” Lessons?
Helping Students Develop Self-Control
This last one is not necessarily related to student self-control, but deserves a mention, anyway:
Would Arne Duncan Have Eaten The Marshmallow?
Great New Video on “Marshmallow” Test
“Inner Voice Plays Role in Self Control”
Everything In Moderation, Including Self-Control
Another Useful Study On Self-Control
Study Says Self-Reporting On Our Behavior Tends To Be “Positively Biased” – How I’ll Use This In The Classroom
Some Good Resources On Self-Control
Thoughts That Win talks about a new study on the use of postive self-talk. I was particularly struck about its finding that this kind of self-talk is particularly effective in when doing tasks that require endurance, which relates to self-control.
Here’s A Video On Self-Control I’m Showing My Students First Thing Next Week
“Self-control in childhood predicts future success”
Emphasizing Pride, Not Shame, In Classroom Management
Self-Control & Working Memory
Follow-Up Study To Famous “Marshmallow” Experiment Released This Week
These aren’t really “my posts” but they are new useful studies.
Think Healthy, Eat Healthy: Scientists Show Link Between Attention and Self-Control comes from Science Daily. I’m not going to explain the experiment the article describes (you can read about it there if you’d like), but it basically reinforces the strategy that the famous marshmallow experiment found — that distracting yourself with other thoughts (and in the lesson plan in my book I emphasize positive distracting thoughts, like “Instead of throwing that paper wad at John I’m going to think about how I enjoy playing basketball with him) is an effective self-control strategy.
Personality Plays Role in Body Weight: Impulsivity Strongest Predictor of Obesity is another interesting study on self-control. It says that people with little self-control “are likely to go through cycles of gaining and losing weight throughout their lives.” I could see how this would be a nice addition to my self-control lessons, and just another reason why some students might want to work on self-control now.
‘Simon Says’: Preschool-Age Kids in Different Countries Improve Academically Using Self-Regulation Game is yet another report on a self-control related study. It says that “children who regularly participated in a Simon Says-type game designed to improve self-regulation — called the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task — may have better math and early literacy scores.” I didn’t feel like paying to view the entire study, but I assume the task is the one which I have seen videotaped (links to the videos are elsewhere on this list) where children are told to, say, touch their toes when the teacher actually puts her hand on her head. I’d suggest it’s not just for young children — my high school students loved doing it again, especially when they could lead it.
A new study reinforces the strategy that many of use in the classroom to help students develop self-control: “partition the quantity of resources to be consumed into smaller units.” In other words, asking a student, for example, to see if he/she could focus on class work for the next ten minutes and then, the next day, try for twenty, etc.
High Self-Control Predicts Good Adjustment, Less Pathology, Better Grades, and Interpersonal Success
More On The Marshmallow Experiment
More On The Marshmallow Test
Does impatience make us fat? is an article in the Washington Post pointing out another negative result of not having self-control.
How can you learn to resist temptation? reports on a new study that reinforces the importance, emphasized in follow-up reports to the marshmallow experiment, for people to prepare plans on how they are going to resist specific temptations. As I’ve previously written, I have students make these kinds of plans and draw, write, and share them with classmates. I think one new aspect of this study highlights that it’s important to verbally repeat your strategy several times.
Newsweek recently ran long article on people lack of self-control in spending and saving. It provides a readable overview of research on self-control, though most of it won’t be new to readers of this blog or my books. It did share information on something that most of us in the classroom know already from our experience, but I hadn’t seen research on it before: reducing anxiety increases self-control.
Seven ways to be good: 6) Form if-then plans is from BPS Research Digest and describes a study which found having a specific pre-planned strategy to deal with how you will respond to challenges to self-control increases the odds of successfully resisting temptation. Even though that seems fairly obvious to me, a little evidence can’t hurt. It reinforces the activity I have students do when we discuss the marshmallow plan — on one side of a paper they say and draw a potential temptation, and on the side they write and draw what they will do to distract themselves from following through on taking the action that know isn’t a good one.
Be It Resolved is a useful column in the New York Times by John Tierney. It talks about strategies to use in sticking to New Year’s resolutions, but it’s helpful for any kind of increased effort towards self-control.
The Willpower Trick by Jonah Lehrer reports on a new study on self-control that seems to reinforce the conclusions by researchers in the original Marshmallow Experiment:
Mischel discovered something interesting when he studied the tiny percentage of kids who could successfully wait for the second treat. Without exception, these “high delayers” all relied on the same mental strategy: they found a way to keep themselves from thinking about the treat, directing their gaze away from the yummy marshmallow. Some covered their eyes or played hide-and-seek underneath the desk. Others sang songs, or repeatedly tied their shoelaces, or pretended to take a nap. Their desire wasn’t defeated — it was merely forgotten.
Mischel refers to this skill as the “strategic allocation of attention,” and he argues that it’s the skill underlying self-control. Too often, we assume that willpower is about having strong moral fiber or gritting our teeth and staring down the treat. But that’s wrong — willpower is really about properly directing the spotlight of attention, learning how to control that short list of thoughts in working memory. It’s about realizing that if we’re thinking about the marshmallow we’re going to eat it, which is why we need to look away.
Feedback is welcome.
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