Ross Anderson, Paul Beach, Jessica Jacovidis and Kristine Chadwick—Inflexion
Given the recent increase in attention around social and emotional learning in education, the International Baccalaureate (IB) has commissioned three policy papers focused on key interrelated social and emotional learning topics that are closely aligned to the IB’s work—academic resilience, growth mindset, and metacognition. This policy paper presents findings from a wide range of literature on academic resilience in primary and secondary education, to help shape the approach schools can take to support diverse students. Academic resilience is defined as the capacity to overcome different types of adversity that threaten educational progress and success (Cassidy 2016), and is used as a lens to understand how and why some students still reach their goals even in the face of challenging conditions in school and life (Agasisti, Avvisati, Borgonovi and Longobardi 2018). Part one of the paper outlines key insights from research on academic buoyancy and resilience. Part two presents promising practices to improve students’ academic resilience skills. Lastly, part three provides recommendations for IB stakeholders, to strengthen and reinforce the IB’s potential to develop students with academic buoyancy and resilience.
Learning to bend but not break—research on supporting student resiliency
All students face challenges of some kind, and academic resilience plays an important role in overcoming these set-backs. In this interview, researcher Ross Anderson discusses insights from research and offers recommendations for supporting student resiliency.