Building Confidence and Silencing That Inner Critic: Using Coaching Techniques in the Classroom - TESOL France Spring 2021
June 30th, 2021
Ann Collins
This article in its original form was first published in the TESOL France, 2021 Spring edition of their magazine and was based on a paper delivered at the TESOL France conference, Nov. 2020.
Ann Collins
A teacher with over 25 years of experience in various settings and leadership roles and a certified International Executive and Leadership Coach at Blue Bottle Coaching, working with individuals and in the corporate and education sector. I’m currently also the Director of the Belfort School of English in France teaching adult students where I’m able to use my coaching skills to further enhance the teaching and learning of English.
According to a recent Wall Street study, 70% of French speakers don’t feel comfortable speaking in English, saying they feel “bloqué”?.
Our traditional solution at the Belfort School of English (BSoE) has been to provide a number of complementary interventions: building confidence through reinforcing knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, providing many opportunities to speak, ensuring a friendly atmosphere where mistakes are used as learning opportunities. We have worked hard to provide a relaxed and yet focussed environment and our students have been happy!
However, whilst their levels on the A1-C2 scale were rocketing, their underlying feeling that they were not good enough remained for some. This clearly wasn’t “true” according to our assessments of their level of attainment, but we knew that we hadn’t changed their deep lack of confidence and underlying limiting belief in their capacity to learn and speak English.
Why is this an issue?
Of course, it could be argued that this isn’t our job as English teachers: if the students have improved their level of English, the job is done surely?! But at the BSoE we want to go further. We want our students to become independent and confident learners striving for excellence. To do that, they need to believe that they have the capacity to become excellent and to embrace and believe in their success.
During the first lockdown in April 2020, I had the opportunity to take an accredited coaching course and this not only changed my own way of thinking but I believe it has also started to have a positive impact on my staff and students!
Becoming a coach as an already experienced teacher has led to some interesting side-effects! It’s not an exaggeration that it has certainly changed my own perception of what we mean by “ability” and “potential”. As I have witnessed clients achieving what they truly believed to be previously impossible and to change sometimes decades of recurring behaviours that were not serving that person, I have challenged my own understanding of what is possible by any single one person and I continue to be inspired, amazed and excited by their results!
Just one example is the client who has recently started a new demanding job with a completely different mindset: less critical of oneself, able to embrace difficulties as an opportunity for growth and to enjoy the challenge and manage stress effectively. These kinds of changes are life changing and unlock the potential of all of us to go further, achieve goals and most importantly, enjoy life!
As coaches, but also as teachers, we have the key to help people (and ourselves) to go so much further. This is not about gaining more knowledge, skills; this is about changing the way we perceive ourselves, what we believe is possible and opening the doors to goals that were previously “impossible”.
Many teachers would agree that building confidence in our students is key to ensure they make progress and become independent learners. For many, confidence comes with “doing” and gaining the proof that they can do something helps to propel them towards the next challenge or learning. For example: “I was able to do fractions yesterday, so I can do them today and take the next step.” But it’s not always enough for all students. What happens when it’s difficult? When there isn’t immediate success? When you feel like you’re failing? When the voice in your head tells you that you can’t do something?
The world of education has been aware of, teaching and encouraging the development of concepts such as “growth mindset” (the ability to see difficulties as an opportunity for growth, to see failure as feedback and to lean into that) for some years, particularly in the UK. There is a lot of knowledge around what it means, what it is and how it is helpful and general agreement as to the power of it.
But how can we help students on an individual basis to put it into practice for themselves when they really need it? (As a caveat, I currently teach adults but there is much that could be taken and adapted to use with other age groups.)
In this article, I aim to bring together my experience of being both a coach and a teacher to address this. When looking to simultaneously build confidence and silence the inner critic that can sabotage our students’ best efforts and enthusiasm, I suggest focussing on three strategies with students:
1. By tapping into values and goals
2. Nurturing a growth mindset
3. Using language in the classroom to change beliefs and shift the inner voice “loop”
Tapping into values and goals
In teaching and learning, setting goals is well established, but tapping into individual values is less common. Yet it has been in this area where we have seen the most profound changes with our students at the Belfort School of English, a language school for adults in France, many of whom report not feeling confident in their ability to speak and learn English, even when we see that they are making excellent progress!
We start by asking our students what they want to achieve in English and then we encourage them to articulate exactly what that will bring them. We encourage them to make it personal to them: what will achieving this goal bring to them specifically? Why is it important? We keep asking the question until they reach a big concept. Often this is “happiness”, “satisfaction”, “friendship” or something similar. This can take time, requires rapport and trust between the teacher and student and can be quite an emotional experience for students.
Reframing the student’s original goal in terms of their values is then an important next step. An example might be: “I want to learn English so that I can travel easily with my family and share great moments with them. That will bring me great personal satisfaction.” In doing this, the learner has connected their goal to their personal values and this connection can be immediately life changing! It creates a deeper motivation and provides an emotional connection to the need to continue to learn vocabulary, master grammatical points and do the homework! We have even witnessed students whose body language changes markedly when they discover why learning English is important to them: their shoulders may relax, they often smile and laugh when they discover and articulate that personal connection!
We have seen subsequent remarkable changes in engagement and ongoing motivation as a result. The task of learning English changes often from being an obligation or a “need” to being a “want”. It is not unusual for students to say that they feel different about learning now and “empowered”
The importance of nurturing a growth mindset
The work of Carol Dweck* is key to understanding the importance of a growth mindset and also how to encourage this in the classroom. She has undertaken large-scale research, including a recent study in Chile where she and her team tracked 140,000 children looking for why certain children were “successful”.
They found that when factors for wealth, parental support, educational access and social connections were taken out of the equation, the factor that made the difference was the children’s ability to tap into a growth mindset. Interestingly, they did similar research on top athletes and CEOs and found the same result.
*Carol Dweck (2017) Mindset: Changing the way you think to fulfil your potential. 6th Edition Robinson
Carol Dweck explains the importance of this through her model of mindset. The model progresses along a sliding scale from a fixed to a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is a belief that intelligence, character, talent, creativity are all fixed, with the definition of success being perfection. A growth mindset is where these same traits can be developed, embracing failure and challenge are seen as a way of learning with success being defined by growth.
Dweck explains that we are not one or the other; it can depend on the situation and we can move quickly from one to the other. This is wonderful news! In effect, we can make the choice as to where we wish to be on this continuum, and we can also develop this all-important growth mindset.
Using language deliberately in the classroom to challenge limiting beliefs and shift the inner critic
The inner critic is unfortunately extremely effective in sabotaging our efforts to nurture our growth mindset. The inner critic reminds us , for example, that “you were never good at English at school”, or “you’ll make a mess of that presentation in English just like the last time?”.
1.Pay attention to the language being used and help students to reframe their statements that are in a fixed mindset. A powerful word is “should”. Imagine that a student says: “I should do more homework between lessons”. You can challenge them to reframe that by choosing either “I want” or “I don’t want”. You can see the difference: this creates ownership of the task or goal, it underlines the fact that there is a free choice and puts responsibility on the student to take action. Action is the fuel for developing a growth mindset!
2.”I can’t do it” or “you can’t do it” is often the inner critic becoming noisy and interfering, preventing a student from even trying. The magic word is “yet” ! Challenge and then remind the students to add the word, “yet”! For example, “I can’t speak English fluently, yet.” We are not suppressing the emotions that naturally occur when we find something difficult, merely opening up the possibility that it might not always be that way. The best way to see the results of this is to try it on yourself: “I can’t make a mille feuille, yet!” I’m still motivated to try and so my chances of success have increased!
3.Using affirmations. There are many that focus on embracing failure as feedback, but one that I find particularly useful in this context is “I already have all the resources I need or I can create them.” Asking students to reflect on these can be empowering. What do I need? Where could I find the support I need? Who could help me?
4.Remind students of the reality of “talent”. How many amazing artists, musicians, business leaders have achieved anything without having to work and face challenges or setbacks?
What we are learning at the Belfort School of English:
When talking to my students and colleagues, some of the words they have used to describe the changes they have noticed include: “empowering”, “life changing” and “I never thought I could feel this confident”! We are continuing to adapt, refine and polish our coaching approach in the classroom and certainly, the future looks bright!
How to start tomorrow in your classroom:
A change of mindset with us as teachers is where it starts. Carol Dweck’s book would be a great first investment. Watching your own language and focus on opening up the possibility of success by using the word “yet” in itself can be transformational. Tapping into values, outlined above, is a powerful step that you can use easily especially with adult and teenage learners. Coach training is the next logical step to gain a whole toolbox of techniques.
For the future, including elements of coach training in a teacher training curriculum could be an avenue well worth exploring: imagine if we could not only give students learning techniques, knowledge and skills but also a feeling of empowerment, a mindset that could allow them to fulfil potential in all areas of their lives.
It’s surely time for us in the teaching profession to aim higher than we ever thought possible!
Further information about coach training: contact Steve Payne: www.taoct.uk at the Academy of Coaching and Training for information about the coach training that I did.