Counselling
Four factors which underpin success orientation
1. Self-belief
Self belief is having the confidence to do well, to meet challenges and perform to the best of one's ability. Self belief has a generative function - it helps people try out alternative courses of action when an approach doesn't work, and results in elevated levels of effort and persistence.
Past success is the biggest predictor of self-belief. It can help to actively recall your past successes - academic and otherwise, rather than focusing on examples of poor performance. Challenge negative thinking, focus on your strengths & keep any difficulties in perspective. Attending to study skills - time management, essay writing, active reading, exam preparation and other skills can help you to develop self-belief. Working for future success will generate self-belief for the future.
2. Value of education
Value of education is the extent to which you value what you are learning and the extent to which you see it as being valuable, useful, important and relevant to you.
Don't devalue or lose sight of how important your own life experience is to your learning. As much as you can, link what you are learning in class with your life and interests. Realise that this will vary from one subject to another - don't allow yourself to be discouraged by one subject that seems to have low relevance or application value.
3. Learning Focus
A learning focus means an emphasis on solving problems & developing skills, doing a good job for its own satisfaction, not just for rewards. Students with a learning focus enjoy learning and want to learn more. For these students, achievement reflects effort; failure is seen as diagnostic feedback to guide future actions. Focus on process -gaining mastery and understanding of the subject; extending yourself - rather than on outcomes. Focus on personal bests rather than outperforming others. Be aware of whether the 'climate' of the class is consistent with a learning focus and be aware that other students may or may not have this focus, and that this may subtly influence your approach. Choose to work with those who have a learning orientation; choose to have this influence on others.
4. Control
Control refers to the connection between the time, effort and approach you take to your study on the one hand and the outcome or result on the other hand. It is the extent to which students feel they are able to achieve success (or avoid failure) through their own efforts. Knowing specifically which aspects of your study practices that work well can help you to maintain good performance.
Ideally, there will be consistency in the way your work is marked (although this is not within your control, and realistically it may not always be the case). If you receive a mark or grade and you don't understand why that mark has been given, ask the subject coordinator to help you understand why and what you can do differently. Make use of feedback on assignments.
You can make choices and decisions about your learning that will affect the outcomes. Choices include - the amount of time you spend on a task; choosing from a variety of different approaches to your study (for example, using flash cards to revise for an exam; testing your recall; speaking aloud to engage auditory as well as visual senses - the choices are endless).
This article is based on the research of Andrew Martin and Herbert Marsh of the SELF Research Centre, University of Western Sydney.
Conclusion
Hopefully this framework for looking at how students bring a success orientation or failure avoidance to their studies has sparked some ideas about how you can start to take a different approach, if you need to, or how you can choose to do things differently that may bring you success with your studies.
If you have been able to identify your approach and would like to make changes, but feel unsure about how to do so, you could contact a Student Counsellor or Learning Skills Adviser for assistance.