The purpose of this lesson is for educators to assess their own expectations, professionally and personally. Ultimately, they will consider how to strive for excellence rather than perfection. Teachers will self-assess their thinking, explore research about educators, analyze 10 traits of perfectionism, discuss student challenges, reflect on grading practices, and practice self-compassion with practical simplifying solutions.
Teachers regularly remind their students to do their best and strive for excellence. But what does this really mean? And how is excellencedifferent from perfection?
The American Psychological Association defines perfectionism as “the tendency to demand of others or of oneself an extremely high or even flawless level of performance, in excess of what is required by the situation.” Compare that to Sharon Martin’s description of excellence:
“When we strive for excellence, we feel satisfied with a job well done. We learn from our mistakes and don’t let them define us. We enjoy the process, not just the outcome of our endeavors. And we remain flexible and can adjust our standards and goals as needed. We don’t get stuck on all-or-nothing thinking or self-criticism. And when we strive for excellence rather than perfection, we aim high, but we keep our lives in balance; we value self-care, fun, and relationships, in addition to our accomplishments.” (Sharon Martin, LCSW)
Main differences between striving for excellence and perfectionism are based on our thinking and expectations. Brene Brown explained, “When perfectionism is driving, shame is always riding shotgun, and fear is the annoying backseat driver. We struggle for perfectionism in areas where we feel most vulnerable to shame.”
In some ways excellence and perfectionism are very similar. “There’s nothing wrong with having high standards. In fact, it can be a good thing. High standards can encourage us to make improvements, solve problems and do quality work.” (Sharon Martin, LCSW from Psych Central) Although it may be tempting to aim for flawlessness while in teaching and in life, the cons outweigh the pros when it comes to perfectionism.
In a study (Stoeber & Rennert, 2008) of 118 secondary school teachers, the analysis concluded that teachers who strive for excellence rather than perfection dealt better with challenges, chose healthier coping strategies, and were less likely to become burnt out.
Activity 1: (30 minutes) SELF-ASSESSMENT
Pass out the Perfectionism & Excellence Self-Assessment handout to each teacher. Invite them to privately rate themselves on each question, using the scale provided.
Once every teacher has completed the assessment, have them look over the questions again and label each question as an indicator of perfectionism (“P”) or excellence (“E”). They can collaborate with the people around them for this task. Finally, reveal that there are only 2 questions that are labeled as “excellence”: Question 3 and Question 12. There is room for disagreement with these answers so long as it is a productive conversation about perfectionism.
Have a discussion:
Educators can use this assessment to reflect on their most and least perfectionist thinking tendencies in their personal or professional lives.
Activity 2: (30 minutes) PERFECTIONISM RESEARCH
Read the definition and quotes about perfectionism and excellence.
Post a Venn diagram and ask teachers to work with the people around them to differentiate between perfectionism and striving for excellence.
Read through and discuss some findings from research done on perfectionism.
Have a discussion:
Continue to discuss more research on perfectionism, using the information on the slides.
Invite educators to discuss how perfectionism can impact each area of well-being, using the visual on the slide: physical, social, emotional, mental, and professional.
Have a discussion:
Activity 3: (30 minutes) PERFECTIONISM IN TEACHING
Watch the video, “The Perfectionist Trap,” by The School of Life. Have a discussion:
As a group, read about 10 traits of perfectionism on the slides. Then sort teachers into 10 groups. Pass out one perfectionism trait to each group. Invite participants to discuss how they have seen this assigned trait affect people at home, at work, or in the community. If time allows, you can rotate quotes through the groups and discuss more than one trait. Have a discussion:
Activity 4: (30–45 minutes) PERFECTIONISM IN STUDENTS
Have a quick discussion about the following prompt:
Next, watch two videos about people from seemingly opposing viewpoints:
Divide up teachers into 6 groups. Pass out one of the following articles, along with a poster to each group. Have group members draw a line down the middle of their poster and label the left column “high achievers” and the right column “procrastinators.” For 10 minutes, groups will skim through their article, looking for ways to support both types of people. They can add their own thoughts as well as their brainstorm solutions.
Group Articles:
Article 1: “How to Overcome Procrastination for Improved Mental Health”
Article 2: “The Toxic Effects of Negative Self-Talk”
Article 3: “What Is Analysis Paralysis?”
Article 4: “Self-Sabotaging: Why Does It Happen”
Article 5: “What Is the Fear of Failure?”
Article 6: “The Expectations vs. Reality Trap”
After sufficient time, invite each group to summarize their ideas, presenting their poster to the whole group. Have a discussion:
Activity 5: (30 minutes) GRADING
“When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.” (Donald Miller)
Watch the video, “Are All Zeros Created Equally,” by Alexis Tamony.
Invite teachers to find an assignment that they graded recently and reflect on their grading technique. Have them decide if there is anything that they could change or try differently and what result that might have on student motivation or the reflection of student content knowledge. They could even try out the 0% vs 50% rule from the video and see how that changes students’ grades, if their school/district would allow that flexibility. Have a discussion:
Activity 6: (30 minutes) SELF-COMPASSION & SOLUTIONS
As a group, quickly list out the many responsibilities that teachers have. List these on the whiteboard. Watch the video, “The Problem With Perfectionism,” by The School of Life. As teachers watch, have them think about the list of responsibilities that were just listed and how excellence and perfection in those tasks looks different.
After the video, invite educators to describe what several teacher tasks might look like as excellentrather than perfect. Some exaggerated examples are provided. Teachers can work with a neighbor to discuss several examples. Then invite groups to share their discussions with the whole group.
Next, invite the same groups to discuss the following questions based on several of the teacher responsibilities listed on the board:
After sufficient time, gather back together and discuss each teacher responsibility listed on the board, answer the 2 questions that small groups discussed. To finalize this lesson, invite each teacher to answer this question for the group:
Have a discussion:
Copyright © 2024 In Focus Education Group
