Self-Confidence and New Economy Skills for College and the Workplace

Alyssa McDonald
English 4 teacher and academic interventionist, North High School, Des Moines, Iowa

The use of consistent tracking and clear targets and success criteria has helped students who believe they can’t be good at English prove to themselves that not only can they be good at English, they can consistently be good at English and reach proficiency. That self-actualization process has been really good for my students, especially some students in subgroups who spent 11 years believing they could never be good at English and maybe were told that wasn’t their strength. I think it’s critical both for their own confidence, but also for their post-secondary success in job interviews, college, and trade schools. Kids need to be able to take their wonderful ideas and communicate them in a way that can be heard by a variety of different audiences. We’re getting our kids ready to compete in a world we can’t even imagine.

Source: Toth, M.D., & Sousa, D.A. (2019). The power of student teams: Achieving social, emotional, and cognitive learning in every classroom through academic teaming (p. 93). West Palm Beach, FL: Learning Sciences International.