Building Hope In the Classroom

Connie Flick-Hruska: Connie.Flick-Hruska@mcckc.edu (816) 604-2252 Jim McGraw: Jim.McGraw@mcckc.edu(816) 604-2313MCC-Longview April 10, 2015 Regional Assessment Conference

Agenda • Overview Hope theory and research

Was anyone present last year at our presentation? If so, did you do any Hope interventions at your campus?• Summary of Hope interventions• Student results• Quantitative• Qualitative

• Instructor comments/feedback• Next steps• Summary and Closing

Goal-directed thinking in which people perceive that they can produce routes to desired goals (pathways thinking) and the requisite motivation to use those routes (agency thinking) (Snyder, 1995).

The Core Beliefs of Hope

1. The future will be better than the present

2. You have the power to make it so

3. There are many paths to your goals 4. None of the paths are free from obstacles

Hope and College Success

To prepare for further discussion on “Hope”, please think about something you repeatedly do on the job to foster student Hope and discuss with a person nearby.

Research shows….

•Hope predicts GPA and retention in college, and hope scores are more robust predictors of college success than high school GPA, SAT, and ACT scores.

From Hope, Academic Success, and the Gallup Student Poll by Shane J. Lopez 2009.

Additional research shows that hope:

• Leads to a 12% gain in academic performance; a 14% bump in workplace outcomes; and a 10% boost in happiness

• Propels you toward well-being and success• Underlies purpose-driven action• Is positively linked with health and longevity• Is NOT linked to income or IQ• CAN be learned and shared with others

• Pathways Score: Ability to produce routes or pathways to desired goals– I can think of many ways to get out of a jam.– There are lots of ways around any problem.– I can think of many ways to get the things in life that are most

important to me.– Even when others get discouraged, I knew I can find a way to solve

the problem

• Agency Score: Motivation to use these routes or pathways– I energetically pursue my goals.– My past experiences have prepared me well for my future.– I’ve been pretty successful in life.– I meet the goals that I set for myself

• Pathways score + Agency score = Total Hope Score

Hope Scale: 12 questions- 8 point Likert Scale

MCC- Hope Pilot Intervention Spring 2014• 14 faculty volunteers doing a series of four interventions

in some of their classes (a total of 24 class sections) in disciplines such as Biology, College Orientation, Computer Science, Engineering, English, Math, Developmental Reading, Physics, Psychology) • These brief in-class interventions intend to build hope in

students to increase their persistence and raise their grade in the class.• Pre and post assessments of Hope, and some

longitudinal follow-up will assess impact of interventions

• The interventions were timed to be at critical points in the semester• three weeks into the semester, • midterm or sooner at the discretion of the instructor, • the last day to withdraw without academic assessment and • the last week of classes.

• The interventions involve goal setting, personal reflection, self monitoring, class interaction, instructor involvement, …..

Student- Key Quantitative Findings• Pre- Hope Assessment- About week 3 in the

semester• Post-Hope Assessment- About week 15• N = 383• A broad cross section of classes and students

from diverse populations

Pre (week 3) and Post (week 15) differences (statistically significant!)

Mean Scores Pre- Intervention

• Pathway = 25.76• (using resources)

• Agency = 25.35• (self efficacy/confidence)

• Hope = 51.12• (sum of Pathways and

Agency)

Mean Scores: Post-Intervention

• Pathways = 26.36

• Agency = 26.01

• Hope = 52.37

Correlations

Significant correlations

• Positive relationship among 3 pre scores.

• Positive relationship among 3 post scores.

• Post Hope and grade in COLL 100

• Positive relationship b/w Spring GPA & post Hope

• Post agency and post Hope with credits earned*

No Significant Correlations between Hope and:

• Gender• Campus• Ethnicity• Pell eligibility• Course• Age• Post pathway and credits

earned• Credits completed*

(seems contradictory?)

Student Comments: Agency(motivation)• When I started to get good grades that pushed me to keep

getting good grades.• Told myself just one step closer!• Teachers• My grade was my motivation. I was nervous about how my

grades would work and after seeing them, it proved to me that I can do this.

• Acceptance of personal accountability forced me to understand the responsibility I have for my own successes, and placed appropriate pressure on me to keep my head above water.

• Knowing that my attitude and hope actually affects how I do I’ve been focused on staying calm and trying harder than I did my first semester. And my grades really showed this

Agency student comments cont’d• I found the motivation to stick with this class from my family

and friends. I also took a mental picture of my life and examined what I want and want I need to do to reach my goals.

Student Comments: Pathways (tools and resources)• Used my book to get through homework obstacles and I used

the girl sitting next to me for help• Talking to fellow classmates and teacher. Asking when I had a

question. Doing all projects and using practice quizzes.• I overcame obstacles in this class by being persistent. The

ability to keep trying and never giving up is key to success in the real world.

• Library, teachers, and counselors.• A scheduler calendar!• Maturing and inventive study habits and understanding and

acceptance of personal accountability helped me do well and overcome obstacles.

Pathways comments cont’d• Websites, tutoring center, textbook and my favorite instructor

who taught me what to expect and helped me develop plans and was a source of encouragement and help.

• I’m the first one in my family to make it in college so that really keeps me going.

• I used the help of my peers in this class to help.• Read then interpret then come to class with at least 3

questions.

Student Comments: Overall Hope• In future classes I will look ahead at my assignments and try to

make at least one friend in each class for help.• Don’t give up just because of one bad grade. Stick with it and

learn how you can adjust yourself to the exams and projects.• Procrastination is a very bad thing. And college requires more

effort. Basically, I learned two key elements in succeeding in college!

• Keep adapting and changing in accordance to the random changes of life, while maintaining the idea that we are in control of what we make of the mess.

• The more professors on campus understand HOPE, the more they can help students develop pathways tailored to their specific class.

Student Comments: HOPE cont’d• Other teachers don’t seem to care about how well a student is

doing. Maybe if more teachers got involved and asked for feedback instead of lecturing and assigning and never offering help or hope for the student I could be more successful in future classes.

Instructor- Qualitative feedback• Instructors have been touched by the interventions and feel they

are teaching in a different environment. One stated that “due to what has been a high touch approach there is an increase in the connectedness of the class and because the students know that I care how they are doing and want to keep them there they seem to be trying harder. One student even wrote in a comment that she comes to class because she knows that it matters to me”.

• A faculty member shared that this pilot has started her thinking “how do I change what I do to help my students? I am going to quit punishing them for the skills they don’t have and teach them how to do it”

• Another said “the students do not know what to do. We expect them to know but they don’t”.

• Faculty said they are now thinking about how to create pathways for students.

Instructor Qualitative Feedback

• The faculty agreed they are creating moments that students will remember and that the students resonate with what they are sharing. “My class is at a different level now and I sense that my students want to work hard so that I will be proud of them. The interventions made me a real person to my students”.

• Another said “we accomplish so much more when we become real people to them and not just instructors”.

• “The hope project gave me the opportunity to make connections with students and to know more about what they needed and how to make the class more productive for them. You have to help them find pathways—put it right out there for them so that they think about it and talk about it”.

Instructor Qualitative Feedback

• “In the past I saw lots of students with problems but felt like I had nothing to offer them. Now with hope theory I can help them to take ownership and take control and help them to find resources and ways to overcome problems and succeed. There is more I could give to students. I could teach them to set goals and take control over their life and overcome obstacles.”

• The hope pilot “allows the student to own their performance. They are writing down what they will do”

• As we talked about what each of them was doing it was noted that “students will have a unique and meaningful experience in each class because of what that faculty member does with the intervention. Each faculty member will tap into their own strengths to make the interventions unique and meaningful. Each faculty person has found a way to be authentic with the same content”.

• All of the faculty are using their expertise in their content area to help students create/use pathways in their specific class.

Future Plans

• The HOPE project continued for the Fall 2014 semester with 6 faculty returning from Spring 2014 and 7 new faculty participating. This data is being analyzed now.

• The Hope project continues this Spring 2015 semester with 10 Faculty using it in 21 sections with 497 students

• We plan to use StrengthsQuest terminology in the Fall 2015 Hope interventions

• We will explore embedding the Hope project into all Coll 100’s. It was a part of our Focus grant Coll 100’s in Fall 2014 and we will be looking at their data.

Closing thoughts• Please take a few movements with people nearby and discuss

how you could use Hope Theory in your own work setting?

• We will stay around after the session and brainstorm with anyone who has questions, reactions, or suggestions.

• We will share, via email, all of our intervention handouts and associated materials we have created

Primary Resources• Making Hope Happen: Creating the Future You Want for

Yourself and Others, 2013, Shane J. Lopez, Ph.D.

• Hope, Academic Success, and the Gallup Student Poll, 2009, Shane J. Lopez, Ph.D.