Student achievement in school is as much about self belief and confidence, as it is in academic endeavour and aptitude. Whether it involves preparation for NAPLAN testing or Years 3,5,7 and 9, or Queensland Core Skills Tests for Year 12, or assessment of any kind for each of the Year Levels, students need to believe that they can achieve well and have the confidence in their own ability, that comes from setting ‘learning’ goals rather than ‘performance’ goals. Learning goals requires students to practise and focus on improving their ability rather than setting a goal of achieving an ‘A’ result.
According to Bandura (1999) and other researchers, how people behave and achieve can often be better predicted by the beliefs they hold about their capabilities, what he calls self efficacy beliefs, than by what they are actually capable of accomplishing, because these self-perceptions help determine what individuals do with the knowledge and skills they have.
Researcher and author, Frank Pajaras (2003) has found that judgments of personal efficacy affect what students do by influencing the choices they make, the effort they expend, the persistence and perseverance they exert when obstacles arise, and the thought patterns and emotional reactions they experience.
A strong sense of confidence, for example, may serve students well when writing an essay because it engenders greater interest in and attention to writing, stronger effort, and greater perseverance and resiliency in the face of adversity. Confident students are also likely to feel less apprehensive and have stronger feelings of self-worth about their writing.
Clearly both teachers and parents should pay attention to students’ perceptions, because it is the perceptions that may more accurately predict students’ motivation and future academic outcomes. Working with students to point out their successes and achievements will help boost their confidence. Yes it sounds simple, but it does require ongoing reinforcement by both teachers and parents, of actual accomplishments. ‘Over the top praise’, contrary to some people’s beliefs, does not build self confidence in the student.
Student achievement, as well as their confidence and competence, improves with practice, and also by setting some clear and concise goals as well as by timely feedback on their work. Students respond more confidently to small progressive steps towards an end goal and will achieve at a higher level with this strategy. Difficult and daunting challenges tend to discourage students, de-motivating them and causing them to lose confidence in their own ability. So it’s important to build confidence over time with small successes in order for them to achieve at a higher level.
There is an excellent article on the topic of Supporting Students’ Confidence as Learners with more detailed advice, at the following URL address:
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=gD7_VSNmu7cC&pg=PA55&lpg=PA5&dq=achievement+and+confidence+of+students&source=bl&ots=nUUtMhtxHU&sig=bjOi-4Dpe9-JhT-dWFrdtS5GIZ8&hl=en&ei=64ipS6mhIZDc7AP_qyuBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CBkQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=achievement%20and%20confidence%20of%2students&f=false
Remember:
“Our aspirations are our possibilities."
(Samuel Johnson).
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
There was a time.....
Parenting was never meant to be easy. Effective parenting takes tons of love, understanding, patience, empathy, sympathy, care, concern and firmness. Yes, firmness. Young people need boundaries and they need parents to be specific about what they can and can’t do. As someone who has three grown adult children and with over 30 years teaching young people, I know firsthand how difficult it can be to stay firm on matters of principle, moral standards, discipline and boundaries. It’s not easy and I would be the first person to admit this!
Parents are subjected to relentless pressure to give in to their children’s demands and threats. This pressure comes not only from their own children but also from family friends, other people’s children, mass advertising on television, music video clips on Saturday morning television, movies, radio shock jocks, the internet, social networking like Facebook and msn; the list is endless. The barrage and onslaught can overwhelm even the hardiest of parents.
Don’t get me wrong, I see the positives of some of these media too, but let’s face it, somewhere over recent years, momentum has swung away from the adults and parents at home and moved more towards appealing to and satisfying the needs of youth. It’s not surprising then, that young people can have an overstated opinion of their place in the world, in the scheme of things and even in the home.
Values and standards are by no means sacrosanct, yes they do change over time, but over the last twenty years there has been a worrying trend. Some battle weary parents, or parents who don’t even try to make a stand, take the line of least resistance in dealing with issues of good behaviour, appropriate standards, and boundaries. Some parents find it difficult to simply say ‘no’ to their children – ‘anything for a quiet life’ seems to be the unwritten law of the household.
There was a time:
• When parents were in charge of what happened at home
• When denying a child some material possession or ticket to an event was seen as an opportunity to teach frugality and discrimination;
• When not having or doing what everybody else was having or doing was seen as a good thing;
• When a consequence at school was followed by a consequences at home, and the teacher was always right. (Educators tell us that it is rare when a parent thanks a school administrator for imposing discipline or punishment);
• When a child would not dare to scream and shout at a parent with impunity.
As parents at CCS, you have made a deliberate choice to send your sons and daughters here for nurturing, excellence in learning opportunities and for the values, moral and ethical standards, good manners which we believe will better prepare them for the future.
At CCS we know each child well and work with you the parents to bring about the best possible outcomes for every single student. This means that we have very fair and firm expectations for all students and we do have consequences for those students who do not meet our expectations. We need your support in ensuring that the same values and standards at our school are your expectations at home.
Please contact us if you are concerned about any pressure that your son or daughter might be expressing about ‘what everyone else is doing, and why can’t they do it too.’ We will work with all parents and support you in ensuring that your son and daughter understand fair and reasonable expectations and the right of the parent to make the decision, not the child.
I give you the commitment that we, as a school community, will work with parents to instil values of good character in your son or daughter. Yes, I agree with you, effective parenting is not easy, but I ask all parents to consider the following:
• Who makes the decisions in your household?
• Are you consistent and fair in your expectations of your son or daughter?
• Are you making decisions for the right reasons or are you being worn down by constant arguments and upsets?
• Do you discuss the reasons for your decision?
Noted psychiatrist Jung once said:
If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.
(~C.G. Jung, Integration of the Personality, 1939)
Parents are subjected to relentless pressure to give in to their children’s demands and threats. This pressure comes not only from their own children but also from family friends, other people’s children, mass advertising on television, music video clips on Saturday morning television, movies, radio shock jocks, the internet, social networking like Facebook and msn; the list is endless. The barrage and onslaught can overwhelm even the hardiest of parents.
Don’t get me wrong, I see the positives of some of these media too, but let’s face it, somewhere over recent years, momentum has swung away from the adults and parents at home and moved more towards appealing to and satisfying the needs of youth. It’s not surprising then, that young people can have an overstated opinion of their place in the world, in the scheme of things and even in the home.
Values and standards are by no means sacrosanct, yes they do change over time, but over the last twenty years there has been a worrying trend. Some battle weary parents, or parents who don’t even try to make a stand, take the line of least resistance in dealing with issues of good behaviour, appropriate standards, and boundaries. Some parents find it difficult to simply say ‘no’ to their children – ‘anything for a quiet life’ seems to be the unwritten law of the household.
There was a time:
• When parents were in charge of what happened at home
• When denying a child some material possession or ticket to an event was seen as an opportunity to teach frugality and discrimination;
• When not having or doing what everybody else was having or doing was seen as a good thing;
• When a consequence at school was followed by a consequences at home, and the teacher was always right. (Educators tell us that it is rare when a parent thanks a school administrator for imposing discipline or punishment);
• When a child would not dare to scream and shout at a parent with impunity.
As parents at CCS, you have made a deliberate choice to send your sons and daughters here for nurturing, excellence in learning opportunities and for the values, moral and ethical standards, good manners which we believe will better prepare them for the future.
At CCS we know each child well and work with you the parents to bring about the best possible outcomes for every single student. This means that we have very fair and firm expectations for all students and we do have consequences for those students who do not meet our expectations. We need your support in ensuring that the same values and standards at our school are your expectations at home.
Please contact us if you are concerned about any pressure that your son or daughter might be expressing about ‘what everyone else is doing, and why can’t they do it too.’ We will work with all parents and support you in ensuring that your son and daughter understand fair and reasonable expectations and the right of the parent to make the decision, not the child.
I give you the commitment that we, as a school community, will work with parents to instil values of good character in your son or daughter. Yes, I agree with you, effective parenting is not easy, but I ask all parents to consider the following:
• Who makes the decisions in your household?
• Are you consistent and fair in your expectations of your son or daughter?
• Are you making decisions for the right reasons or are you being worn down by constant arguments and upsets?
• Do you discuss the reasons for your decision?
Noted psychiatrist Jung once said:
If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.
(~C.G. Jung, Integration of the Personality, 1939)
Living in Harmony: Is it the Impossible Dream?
Living in harmony sounds like a wonderful concept, don’t you think? Some would say: ‘too good to be true’ while others, more optimistic, believe that ‘anything is possible’. Glendinning notes that:
If we cannot envision the world we would like to live in, we cannot work towards its creation. If we cannot place ourselves in it in our imagination, we will not believe it is possible.
Living in harmony is not a dream; rather, it is something that we can all strive to achieve. We can achieve this, not only in our own home, but at school and in the wider community too. Acting on our beliefs, in effect, becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, because deep in our subconscious we either believe that something is possible or we don’t. Every word, every action is influenced by our thinking. If we believe harmony is possible then all our communication and actions will reinforce this, and if we don’t, then it is highly unlikely that we will live harmoniously.
Breaking down prejudices, developing greater global understanding, bringing people together from different faiths, or different cultures can be a powerful way to unite people of the world but of course it doesn’t guarantee harmony. Starting in our ‘own backyard’ is perhaps the surest way to start this process of mutual understanding and empathy. What is harmony anyway, if we don’t learn to accept and value differences between people?
I once believed that I really did understand what it was like for immigrants arriving in a new country and to a new school but I was wrong. Yes, very wrong. The full appreciation of what it felt like to look and sound different hit me when I made my very first trip to China. Not only did I have people pointing at me (a combination of fair colouring and being tall), I was also at a complete loss to understand what was being said to me and couldn’t speak the language. I felt different and I was different and this was very confronting at the time and reinforced the fact that being a ‘worldly’ person and travelling the world did not mean that I felt comfortable in a different country – I felt very alien. I certainly did not feel like I was part of a global village.
The idea of a ‘global village’ is an oxymoron. An oxymoron pulls together two conflicting concepts that are at odds with one another or at the simplest level – opposites, like ‘bitter sweet’. On one hand we acknowledge that the world is shrinking. Consider the time it takes to travel from one country to another, or the nanosecond it takes for communication and images to be transmitted from one side of the globe to the other. Yet, on the other hand, there still exists an incredible diversity in culture, language and beliefs, which runs counter to the village concept which embodies like culture, like beliefs and common language. Lakhdar Brahimi makes the point:
In the globalized world that is ours, maybe we are moving towards a global village, but that global village brings in a lot of different people, a lot of different ideas, lots of different backgrounds, lots of different aspirations.
We are very fortunate to have a School which values cultural diversity and embrace the different perspectives that a multicultural community brings. Tolerance, empathy and shared understanding are the key qualities that transcend all cultural differences and leads to greater harmony amongst our students, our parents and our nation. As Robert Alan says:
Cultural differences should not separate us from each other, but rather cultural diversity brings a collective strength that can benefit all of humanity.
If we cannot envision the world we would like to live in, we cannot work towards its creation. If we cannot place ourselves in it in our imagination, we will not believe it is possible.
Living in harmony is not a dream; rather, it is something that we can all strive to achieve. We can achieve this, not only in our own home, but at school and in the wider community too. Acting on our beliefs, in effect, becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, because deep in our subconscious we either believe that something is possible or we don’t. Every word, every action is influenced by our thinking. If we believe harmony is possible then all our communication and actions will reinforce this, and if we don’t, then it is highly unlikely that we will live harmoniously.
Breaking down prejudices, developing greater global understanding, bringing people together from different faiths, or different cultures can be a powerful way to unite people of the world but of course it doesn’t guarantee harmony. Starting in our ‘own backyard’ is perhaps the surest way to start this process of mutual understanding and empathy. What is harmony anyway, if we don’t learn to accept and value differences between people?
I once believed that I really did understand what it was like for immigrants arriving in a new country and to a new school but I was wrong. Yes, very wrong. The full appreciation of what it felt like to look and sound different hit me when I made my very first trip to China. Not only did I have people pointing at me (a combination of fair colouring and being tall), I was also at a complete loss to understand what was being said to me and couldn’t speak the language. I felt different and I was different and this was very confronting at the time and reinforced the fact that being a ‘worldly’ person and travelling the world did not mean that I felt comfortable in a different country – I felt very alien. I certainly did not feel like I was part of a global village.
The idea of a ‘global village’ is an oxymoron. An oxymoron pulls together two conflicting concepts that are at odds with one another or at the simplest level – opposites, like ‘bitter sweet’. On one hand we acknowledge that the world is shrinking. Consider the time it takes to travel from one country to another, or the nanosecond it takes for communication and images to be transmitted from one side of the globe to the other. Yet, on the other hand, there still exists an incredible diversity in culture, language and beliefs, which runs counter to the village concept which embodies like culture, like beliefs and common language. Lakhdar Brahimi makes the point:
In the globalized world that is ours, maybe we are moving towards a global village, but that global village brings in a lot of different people, a lot of different ideas, lots of different backgrounds, lots of different aspirations.
We are very fortunate to have a School which values cultural diversity and embrace the different perspectives that a multicultural community brings. Tolerance, empathy and shared understanding are the key qualities that transcend all cultural differences and leads to greater harmony amongst our students, our parents and our nation. As Robert Alan says:
Cultural differences should not separate us from each other, but rather cultural diversity brings a collective strength that can benefit all of humanity.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Who was your best teacher ever? What are the Special Qualities of Effective Teachers?
Who was your favourite teacher? What made this teacher such a special person in your life?
What could be more important than to see our young people grow and develop into confident, competent, capable and knowledgeable young men and women? If we think back to our own schooling, I'm sure there are teachers who still hold a very special place in our hearts. Why do memories of these teachers stay with us during our life? Maybe because they seemed to really understand us, or relate to us. Sometimes they turned our lives around and sometimes they turned our days around because they were caring, understanding and empathetic.
One of my favourite quotes, written by a dear friend, inscribed in a book called "Hugs for Teachers" is: " A teacher affects eternity, she can never tell where her influence stops."
It's so true and sometimes I think teachers forget the powerful impact and life altering effect that they can have on the boys and girls and young women and men in their charge. It goes without saying that teacher quality matters or rather the quality of the teacher matters most!
One of the best books I've come across on teacher effectiveness is a book written by James Stronge called: Qualities of Effective Teachers (2007, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development). Stronge has also written for teachers a great practical Handbook to accompany the book.
In a nutshell when we talk about teacher effectiveness, we are talking about a teacher's capacity to improve a student's learning outcomes. At the end of the day, we are looking at ensuring students are successful after school, in work, university and further study and importantly as a citizen.
According to Stronge, the important qualities of a teacher who is effective can be distilled to the following:
An effective teacher is a person who:
Principal
Caloundra City School
What could be more important than to see our young people grow and develop into confident, competent, capable and knowledgeable young men and women? If we think back to our own schooling, I'm sure there are teachers who still hold a very special place in our hearts. Why do memories of these teachers stay with us during our life? Maybe because they seemed to really understand us, or relate to us. Sometimes they turned our lives around and sometimes they turned our days around because they were caring, understanding and empathetic.
One of my favourite quotes, written by a dear friend, inscribed in a book called "Hugs for Teachers" is: " A teacher affects eternity, she can never tell where her influence stops."
It's so true and sometimes I think teachers forget the powerful impact and life altering effect that they can have on the boys and girls and young women and men in their charge. It goes without saying that teacher quality matters or rather the quality of the teacher matters most!
One of the best books I've come across on teacher effectiveness is a book written by James Stronge called: Qualities of Effective Teachers (2007, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development). Stronge has also written for teachers a great practical Handbook to accompany the book.
In a nutshell when we talk about teacher effectiveness, we are talking about a teacher's capacity to improve a student's learning outcomes. At the end of the day, we are looking at ensuring students are successful after school, in work, university and further study and importantly as a citizen.
According to Stronge, the important qualities of a teacher who is effective can be distilled to the following:
An effective teacher is a person who:
- Is Caring - someone who brings out the best in a boy or girl through encouragement and affirmation, listens, understands and knows each student very well.
- Fair and Respectful - effective teachers establish rapport and credibility with students by emphasising: Respect, Modelling appropriate behaviours, Practising respect and fairness, someone who is consistent and shows no favouritism, no gender bias and treats students equitably.
- Interacts in and beyond the classroom with students in a friendly, personal manner maintaining appropriate teacher-student structures and norms. Someone who gets involved in sporting events, concerts, cultural events, talks to students during recess and allows students to participate in decision making.
- Is Enthusiastic and Motivating - the teacher's enthusiasm for teaching, learning and expertise in their subject matter is important in supporting positive relationships with students in encouraging student achievement. Research consistently demonstrates that high levels of motivation in teachers relates to high levels of achievement in students. High levels of enthusiasm is particularly important in motivating older students. (See research by Aaronson, Barrow and Sander (2007), Teachers and student Achievement in the Chicago public high schools. Journal of Labor Economics 25, No. 1)
- Is Passionate about students, and teaching and learning - Students are very intuitive and pick up very quickly if a teacher is not interested in them, the subject or the school. A teacher should not hide her or his light under a bushell - let students know how passionate you are about them and your work.
- Attitude is everything in teaching - effective teachers exude positive attitudes about life and teaching. They believe that extra hours spent preparing and reflecting upon teaching and learning are well worth the student outcomes. They believe that all students can learn and they can help their students learn!
When we consider that the destiny of each of our student's lives can depend on how caring we are, how helpful we can be, how enthusiastic, how fair and respectful, how encouraging we are and how expert we are in our teaching and learning, how can we be anything but the very best teachers we can be?
It doesn't matter if we have been teaching for one or twenty years, we can all improve on each of these qualities. All of us can make a difference to the young people we teach.
The principles of teaching and learning, the qualities of effective teachers, are in fact the principles by which we can all live - teacher or not - we can all affect eternity of the people we come in contact with in our day to day lives.
Mother Teresa sums up the way we can choose to live our lives:
"Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without coming away better and happier." Oh, what a better world it would be if we could live by this mantra. :)
Karon GrahamPrincipal
Caloundra City School
Monday, May 25, 2009
Beleaguered! Bedevilled and Betwixt!
To my astonishment, the League Table of Primary Schools Report appeared in the Courier Mail on Saturday, 23 May, 2009 under the misleading heading of "Educating parents on vital results". Far from educating parents ,(now there's a hypocrisy), the production of raw data with no valuable background information to parents of the Primary School's context, was far more damaging than it was informative and by no stretch of the imagination was it 'educating parents'.
This is a classic case of reporting the statistical facts, without any meaningful analysis. I'm reminded of a quote from Aaron Levenstein, "Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive but what they conceal is vital." Parents would be very wise to consider more importantly, what the League Table of Primary results does not reveal, rather than take at face value the raw statistics presented.
What conclusions could parents draw from the published results? In all honesty, very little. Yes the statistics provided a 'snapshot of students' at one point in time, but do they tell you anything about the quality of teaching and learning at the school? I don't think so. Do the figures reveal anything about the intervention programs currently in place at the school? No they do not. Do the statistics show how much students have improved upon the previous years in literacy and numeracy? No they do not.
It is not surprising that independent schools (and some state schools for that matter) in higher socioeconomic areas did significantly better than school in lower socioeconomic areas. There are many research papers showing a close positive correlation between students results and socioeconomic background. This was not groundbreaking news to any parent or educator.
Schools have enough to contend with at the moment with a "forced testing regime" without having to deal with so called League Tables with minimal information of any value to parents. I recommend to all parents to visit the schools that they are considering for their sons and daughters and investigate for themselves the values of the School, the curriculum, the student-teacher ratios, the sports and cultural programs available. This is far more revealing and informative than so called League Tables.
Remember, 'you don't fatten a pig by simply weighing it more', nor do you improve literacy and numeracy results by testing more. The real improvement in literacy and numeracy comes from employing highly skilled teachers and intervening at an early stage of your child's development to improve or to extend his or her learning. Providing a rich and engaging curriculum that challenges and supports deep learning is a surer way to improve literacy and numeracy than simply to "teach for testing" which some of our politicians are suggesting.
Yes it's not surprising that all sectors of primary and secondary education are feeling decidedly beleaguered, bedevilled and betwixt! We are following an American 'testing regime' model and an English model, which history will reveal as flawed. In all measures of improved literacy and numeracy (International literacy, numeracy and scientific test results - PISA and TIMMS), the very countries, which we seem to be following, are amongst the mediocre, at best, in terms of improvement over the last ten years. Surely our students and educators deserve better than this?
Why are we betwixt? Well between 'forced testing" (yes, funding arrangements require agreement to the NAPLAN testing), and the push by the federal government and the media for greater so called 'transparency', (which is not achieved by the publication of poorly organised raw data), many schools are feeling that they are under increasing pressure to prepare students for tests rather than preparing our children, in a meaningful way, for their future. A future which holds all the joy of a narrative, an understanding and empathy for different cultures, a capacity to work together in a team, the skills of problem solving and the ability to think and work creatively to meet the challenges of the future.
Beware of statistics, without explanation.
Our children deserve better and our schools deserve better than this "League" mentality.
Karon Graham
Principal
Caloundra City School
This is a classic case of reporting the statistical facts, without any meaningful analysis. I'm reminded of a quote from Aaron Levenstein, "Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive but what they conceal is vital." Parents would be very wise to consider more importantly, what the League Table of Primary results does not reveal, rather than take at face value the raw statistics presented.
What conclusions could parents draw from the published results? In all honesty, very little. Yes the statistics provided a 'snapshot of students' at one point in time, but do they tell you anything about the quality of teaching and learning at the school? I don't think so. Do the figures reveal anything about the intervention programs currently in place at the school? No they do not. Do the statistics show how much students have improved upon the previous years in literacy and numeracy? No they do not.
It is not surprising that independent schools (and some state schools for that matter) in higher socioeconomic areas did significantly better than school in lower socioeconomic areas. There are many research papers showing a close positive correlation between students results and socioeconomic background. This was not groundbreaking news to any parent or educator.
Schools have enough to contend with at the moment with a "forced testing regime" without having to deal with so called League Tables with minimal information of any value to parents. I recommend to all parents to visit the schools that they are considering for their sons and daughters and investigate for themselves the values of the School, the curriculum, the student-teacher ratios, the sports and cultural programs available. This is far more revealing and informative than so called League Tables.
Remember, 'you don't fatten a pig by simply weighing it more', nor do you improve literacy and numeracy results by testing more. The real improvement in literacy and numeracy comes from employing highly skilled teachers and intervening at an early stage of your child's development to improve or to extend his or her learning. Providing a rich and engaging curriculum that challenges and supports deep learning is a surer way to improve literacy and numeracy than simply to "teach for testing" which some of our politicians are suggesting.
Yes it's not surprising that all sectors of primary and secondary education are feeling decidedly beleaguered, bedevilled and betwixt! We are following an American 'testing regime' model and an English model, which history will reveal as flawed. In all measures of improved literacy and numeracy (International literacy, numeracy and scientific test results - PISA and TIMMS), the very countries, which we seem to be following, are amongst the mediocre, at best, in terms of improvement over the last ten years. Surely our students and educators deserve better than this?
Why are we betwixt? Well between 'forced testing" (yes, funding arrangements require agreement to the NAPLAN testing), and the push by the federal government and the media for greater so called 'transparency', (which is not achieved by the publication of poorly organised raw data), many schools are feeling that they are under increasing pressure to prepare students for tests rather than preparing our children, in a meaningful way, for their future. A future which holds all the joy of a narrative, an understanding and empathy for different cultures, a capacity to work together in a team, the skills of problem solving and the ability to think and work creatively to meet the challenges of the future.
Beware of statistics, without explanation.
Our children deserve better and our schools deserve better than this "League" mentality.
Karon Graham
Principal
Caloundra City School
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Do you have instant appeal?
Have you ever wondered why some people, some products and even some organisations are a hit and others seem to flounder in a sea of obscurity? (Think: Susan Boyle, Apple ipod, Dancing with the Stars, Microsoft, Google and you've got the picture.) Well I think I've found the perfect book to explain why universal appeal happens for some and seems to be out of reach for others.
Vicki Kunkel's book: Instant Appeal: The 8 Primal Factors That Create Blockbuster Success (AMACON, 2009) is an eye opener from start to finish. The first myth debunked, is the notion that we have to be perfect to have appeal. Ms Kunkel's chapter: Ducklings, Defects and Devotion: The Conspicuous Flaw Factor, blows any notion of 'picture perfect' as having instant appeal right out of the water.
The book is based on extensive research and for us 'mere mortals', it's very comforting to know that we're in with a chance of success if we can simply apply a few tried and tested strategies. I don't think Susan Boyle has read the book, because over the last two days, we have seen a new 'glamorised' Ms Boyle. If she had read the book, she may have rethought the glam makeover. Kunkel cites the #1 Universal Law, that contrary to popular belief, physical flaws create an instant appeal to others. Yes, it's true! (There's hope yet for all of us!) Believe it or not, being too perfect can be a drawback! (Phew, that's a relief!)
The book is totally absorbing and Kunkel not only explains why Agatha Christie's books are so addictive (and reality shows too), but gives some good down to earth advice on how to make simple changes to engage and increase your own personal appeal or that of your organisation. She explains how certain words trigger a strong emotional, almost primeval response in us and how we can tap into this energy. (Think: Oh yeah, don't we just love this girl?)
In each chapter, Kunkel draws on other Universal Laws that help us to better understand the human psyche. For example I found the following chapters quite reassuring:
- The Reptilian Comfort Universal Law - or as Vicki calls it, the principle of least effort or the "Garfield Rule". Ok - hands up if you're guilty of this one? It seems that we're all guilty of this! (Don't worry then!) When it comes to the KISS principle, it usually works well in a marketing sense too.
- The Sacred Cow Universal Law - it turns out that we prefer to stay with something that we're familiar with rather than experimenting with something new. Why? Researchers have found that we feel safer with what is known.
What's most appealing (sorry, I can't help it) about the book, is that it's easy to read ( there we have it, the 'reptilian comfort' factor), it deals with loads of examples that you're all familiar with(oops there's the 'sacred cow' factor), in an imperfect world, with imperfect people (yes, you've got the picture now, the 'conspicuous flaw factor').
A fabulous read with great insights, lots of wit and it goes without saying, lots of "Instant Appeal". Susan Boyle, if you read this blog, then go out and get the book, you will no doubt already be an "instant star" but you may want to keep your "universal appeal" going a little longer. Lessons for all of us in this book, check it out.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Inspirational - You're never too old!
Have you seen Susan Boyle perform on "Britain's got talent"? If not make the time to watch this inspirational clip, which just goes to show you can never really judge people by the way they look. I was moved to tears as I watched this 47 year old woman show the world what an extraordinary talent she was. Now she's wowing the world. Just click the above title to see for yourself this amazing woman perform.
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