A study was once done where teachers were told that they were teaching a class of exceptionally clever young people and taught the class believing that these children were gifted. The outcome was that the class did the best out of all the other classes in the school. The reality was that this was a class of random students and psychological study to prove the psychological concept of a self-fulfilling prophesy; a “prediction” or expectation coming true simply because the person believes or anticipates it will.
The point here is that what we believe shapes how we behave and communicate, unfortunately for children who have been through adversity we tend to believe they will achieve less than their peers. This is a problem because we communicate this belief to them, whether it’s verbally though pity, compassion or empathy, or non-verbally through body language, facial expressions or tone of voice. We can unintentionally be telling young people we don’t think they can achieve.
We have a duty to be aspirational, ignore our judgements and hold the belief that young people can achieve anything they want. Our experiences do not have to define us, we can define our own experiences.
As practitioners we have an opportunity to show young people they have agency, empower them to believe in their abilities and provide guidance and reassurance. This session helps you understand your unconscious bias, beliefs and become aware of your communication so you can learn the skills to be aspirational to young people.
Learning Outcome:
- Understand unconscious bias and how to overcome it
- Recognise how our beliefs can impact how we communicate to young people
- Learn about self-fulfilling prophecies and how young people respond to them
- Hear the lived experiences of young people who enter care
- Develop the skills to communicate aspirational to young people
- Gain an understanding of verbal and non-verbal communication
