How Can A LeaderTeacher Affect The Self Confidence of Students

1
How Can A Leader/Teacher Affect The Self
Confidence of Students? Mayowa A. Obayomi, Peer
Leader, City College of The City University of
New York.

• EXPERIMENT
• A small class (if a teacher) of approximately
  fifteen students, or a workshop group (if a peer
  leader) of six to eight students, where you can
  keep an eye and a close check on each students.
• Try to find out which student is not self
  motivated or is not self confident.
• Question Do you think you will have an A
  grade in this class
• Answer Non self confident students will answer
  to a success question with a blunt answer like
  let me just have a C and bounce off the class.
  
• These Students will want to abstain from
  answering questions because of
• fear of failing. Even if they know the
  answer, they are never sure of themselves if they
  have the right answer.
• Solution As a workshop leader, you have to first
  make note of who are these students in your group
  before you can help them out.
• Note not all students who dont answer
  questions in the class are non-self-confident
  students.
• A second option is to develop a close
  acquaintance with them. These are people who
  depend on the approval of others, who want to
  hear the opinion of people about them.
• In my workshop group, I discovered these students
  by this method and I developed a strategy to help
  them.
• Helpful Strategies
• Emphasize Strengths. Give them credit for
  everything they try.
• Whenever these Students make any good attempt
  during a class, always single them out, call them
  by their name and applaud them. Let them know
  they made an excellent attempt and it was a
  brilliant performance from them.
• Take Risks. Whenever they are wrong or you were
  able to read from their countenance their
  disappointment after getting something wrong,
• You will let them know that they have to approach
  new experiences as opportunities to learn rather
  than occasions to win or lose. Doing so will open
  them to new possibilities and can increase their
  sense of self-acceptance and not doing so turns
  every possibility into an opportunity for
  failure, and inhibits personal growth.

HYPOTHESIS How can non-confident students be
helped by their superior? My experience as a
workshop leader during the semester also
strengthened my knowledge about this topic. It is
not that these students are poor students, It is
only the mind they have about themselves. They
are students who have a negative sense of self
and the power of positive thinking can never be
overemphasized. These students can definitely be
helped in various ways, it depends on the
teacher/workshop leaders approach. Another
question is what about if a student is not
responding to different measures taken in order
to help him/her. What can be done?
EXPERIMENT, continued They have to even challenge
their own assumptions. For example, let them take
note that a) Confident-looking people have bad
moments too. b) Just because they feel
under-confident does not mean other people can
tell (except if the person has the tactics
discussed above). c) Let them also know that if
one is saying things to oneself like Im not
good at anything" then rest assured, s/he is
wrong. Everyone can compose a sentence, get
successfully to the store, eat without choking.
These students dont have to make sweeping
statements about themselves in the long run it
is this sort of thing that can really damage the
self image. Building self confidence is not just
about thinking well of oneself, it's about not
thinking bad for no reason! d) Just because they
have felt bad about themselves in the past does
not mean they are going to be feeling that way
forever. I have seen hundreds of people surprise
themselves once they have learned how to build
self confidence in a way that it stays built!
DISCUSSION Over a period of time, there will be
some transformation in the students. This is not
something that is going to happen snappily.
Students will continually responding to this
process. This is more psychological and very
practical. For a student to be able to achieve
this perfectly, she/he definitely needs the
assistance of a superior. Some will be able to
respond to this, some will show partial response
while some will show no response at all. In order
to help these students who are not showing any
response, the workshop leader has to seek help
outside the workshop.

• LITERATURE REVIEW
• Self-confidence is an attitude which allows
  individuals to have positive yet realistic views
  of themselves and their situations.
• Self-confident people
• Trust their own abilities,
• Have a general sense of control in their lives,
  and
• Believe that, within reason, they will be able
  to do what they wish, plan, and expect.
• Have expectations that are realistic. Even when
  some of their expectations are not met, they
  continue to be positive and to accept themselves.
  
• Having self-confidence does not mean that
  individuals will be able to do everything.
• Non-Self Confident people
• Depend excessively on the approval of others in
  order to feel good about themselves.
• Tend to avoid taking risks because they fear
  failure.
• Do not generally expect to be successful.
• Put themselves down and tend to discount or
  ignore compliments paid to them. By contrast,
  self-confident people are willing to risk the
  disapproval of others because they generally
  trust their own abilities. They tend to accept
  themselves they don't feel they have to conform
  in order to be accepted.
• Self-confidence is not necessarily a general
  characteristic which pervades all aspects of a
  person's life. Typically, individuals will have
  some areas of their lives where they feel quite
  confident, e.g.,Personal appearance, athletics,
  while at the same time they do not feel at all
  confident in other areas, e.g.,academics, social
  relationships.
• The question now is, How can a workshop leader
  help this set of people (the non confident )?

The picture shows a cat in front of several dogs.
Yet, the cat is not scared. It is a typical
example of Self Confidence. We can relate this to
human beings. If we are confronted with failures,
will we still be self- confident?
References Carnegie , D.(1976). How to develop
self confidence and influence people
(May). Tallis, F. (2001). How to stop worrying
(September). Hamply , K. (1990).
http//www.sheldonpress.co.uk/books/0859695638.htm
l . How to improve your confidence (June). The
book talks about the techniques people can use to
make them more self confident in all areas of
life.(date downloaded- November 22nd
2003.) Hauck,P.http//hawebpage.truepath.com/book/
more/Hauck.html . How to stand up for yourself.
This journal exposes us to the benefits of
standing up for oneself.(date downloaded-November2
2nd, 2003).