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As the research done by Rutter and others indicates, schools that convey high expectations for their students have higher rates of academic success and lower rates of problematic behaviors, provided they also have a "resilience attitude," that is, they believe in the potential of their students and provide adequate support to enable them to reach that potential. Without this attitude, high expectations alone could be a setup for failure. The combination of high expectations and support, however, enables students "to believe in themselves and in their futures, " and to develop the critical resilience traits of self-esteem, self- efficacy, autonomy, and optimism" (Benard, 1994). The structure and organization of a school convey the ethos of the school and make clear its expectations. Curricula which are thematic, experiential, challenging, and comprehensive tend to engage students in the learning process, as do those which allow for a broad range of learning styles. Especially important are activities which facilitate students’ understanding of multiple perspectives. People are better able to entertain perspectives different from their own if they do not feel threatened. Therefore, building a curriculum around students’ strengths, interests, and experience enables them to feel heard and to be more receptive to other ideas. Moreover, groups which are heterogeneous, cooperative, have a sense of shared responsibility, and provide a sense of belonging create ongoing opportunities for self-reflection, critical inquiry, problem solving, and dialogue. Similarly, evaluation systems that support resilience take into account multiple intelligencies, utilize authentic assessments, and foster self- reflection (Benard, 1994). A frequent complaint of teachers is the so-called "lack of motivation " of some students. McCombs and Pope (1995) draw on Roger Mills’ theories of metacognition in discussing ways to help people learn to think about their own thought processes and to recognize how thoughts influence one’s beliefs, moods, and behaviors. "When individuals can be taught to understand and control their thinking," they say, "they can step outside the influence of negative beliefs about their abilities or fear of failure. As a result they can access higher level processes such as insight, creativity, wisdom, and common sense." They also stress that teachers must understand the way their own thought processes work and how their beliefs cause either positive or negative feelings and behaviors towards their students.
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