Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Academic buoyancy

Academic buoyancy:
What is academic buoyancy, why does it matter, and how can it be enhanced?

Multimedia presentation (3 min)

Overview

This book chapter explores the foundations of academic buoyancy, how it can be promoted in students and why it's important. Although academic buoyancy is a relatively new theory, it shows promise for students and schools in assisting various students who are not from chronic or acute adversities. Academic buoyancy focuses on a positive approach to resilience and, as such, throughout the chapter readers will notice a common theme of positive emotions. Positive emotions are the salient element in all of academic buoyancy. With the contribution of psychological theories; the broaden and build theory and positive psychology, readers should gain a deeper understanding into how to attain academic buoyancy.

Focus questions: What is academic buoyancy and how is it different from academic resilience? How can academic buoyancy be enhanced? Why is academic buoyancy important?

What is academic buoyancy?

"Academic buoyancy can be viewed as a positive psychology version of resilience." (Martin & Marsh, 2008, pg. 55)

Academic buoyancy is “the ability of students to successfully deal with academic setbacks and challenges that are ‘typical’ of the ordinary course of school life (e.g. poor grades, competing deadlines, exam pressure, difficult schoolwork)” (Martin & Marsh, 2008, p. 54). Academic buoyancy is based upon positive psychology theory in conjunction with positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and achievement in correlation with academic setbacks and challenges, are at the core of how it can be attained, developed and nurtured. Academically buoyant students are described as being high in self-efficacy (confident), low in anxiety (composed), prepared (coordinated), persistent (committed) and have a high sense of ownership (control). These qualities are important in academic endeavours.

Figure 1. The symbolism of the maze can be attributed to the setbacks and challenges students face in their academic careers

How is it different from academic resilience?

Academic resilience and academic buoyancy are similar but are not the same. They both share the idea of ‘overcoming adversity’ in an academic context, yet differ in their definition of the ‘degree of adversity’ that students must overcome.

Academic resilience is “a capacity to overcome acute and/or chronic adversity that is seen as a major threat to a student’s educational development” (Martin, 2013). Examples of students who experience academic resilience can be students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, suffering from severe illnesses, have a disability, or even the impacts of having lost a loved one. The level of significance inferred with ‘academic resilience’ suggests that this type of adversity is more difficult to bounce back from, in comparison to academic buoyancy. Martin and Marsh (2008) explain the difference in degree of resilience as “academic resilience may be relevant to chronic underachievement” and it is related to overwhelming feelings of anxiety.

In contrast “academic buoyancy is relevant to more typical experience of isolated poor grades and ‘patches’ of poor performance” and relevant to “‘typical’ stress levels and daily pressures”. Academic buoyancy is directly related to the positive psychology model, whereby the framework recommends building positive relationships with learning, the educational environment, teachers and building a growth mindset to assist them in overcoming daily academic hardship. In summary, academic buoyancy is related to lower degrees of adversity and academic resilience is related to higher levels of adversity.

How is academic buoyancy measured?

The academic buoyancy scale (ABS) is a “tested, significant, sound factor structure, reliable and normally distributed scale” (Martin & Marsh, 2008) presented and tested among high school students. It is a 4 item Likert scale whereby participants self-report from seven options ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Item questions tested dimensions of; self-efficacy, teacher–student relationships, control, academic engagement and anxiety. The four items are:

1. “I'm good at dealing with setbacks (e.g., bad mark, negative feedback on my work)”.
2. “I don't let study stress get on top of me”.
3. “I think I'm good at dealing with schoolwork pressures”.
4. “I don't let a bad mark affect my confidence”.

This questionnaire is designed to measure students’ ability to overcome typical challenges and setbacks faced in an academic environment e.g. poor grades and test anxiety. The ABS was originally derived from the academic resilience scale, using 4 of the 6 items it contains. Whilst the ABS and ARS are similar, the key difference, is the assessment of degree in resiliency. Both scales are derived from the motivation and engagement scale (MES). The MES assesses students’ adaptive cognitions, adaptive behaviours, impeding/maladaptive cognitions and maladaptive behaviours in relation to their academic tendencies (Martin, 2009).

Quiz 1ː Have you been paying attention? What is the ABS designed to measure? Students ability to overcome bullying Students ability to overcome a hard day Students ability to overcome extreme adversities Students ability to overcome typical adversities

Promoting academic buoyancy

Predictors of academic buoyancy

A number of factors have been found to predict academic buoyancy. Martin and Marsh (2008) included things such as psychological factors (self-efficacy, control, sense of purpose, and motivation), school-based factors (class participation, educational aspirations, enjoyment of school, relationship with teachers, teacher responsiveness, effective teacher feedback and value placed on school) and family and peer factors (family support, positive bond with a pro-social adult, informal network of friends, peer commitment to education and authoritative and caring parenting). The one thing each of these factors share is the fact that they are proximal rather than distal factors. Proximal factors are thought to be more vulnerable and direct in order to condition academic buoyancy.

Anxiety is a commonly experienced emotion in academic settings, usually when in the face of a threat (Martin, 2012a; OECD, 2020). This is also relevant to academic buoyancy as students experience a lot of anxiety around tests and the fear of failure (OECD, 2020). Martin and Marsh (2006) uncovered anxiety was “accounting for the bulk of variance in academic resilience” and thus made the informed decision to account for anxiety as another predictor for academic buoyancy. Of the four factors provided, Martin & Marsh (2008) determined that the five salient factors for predicting AB was self-efficacy, control, student-teacher relationships, academic engagement and anxiety. These 5 factors have become known to be, ‘The 5 Cs of Academic Buoyancy’. (See table 1.)

Table 1.

Predictors of Academic Buoyancy (Martin & Marsh, 2006)

Factor	Predictor	Definition
High self-efficacy	Confidence	Students belief in their competence to complete work.
High planning	Coordination	Students ability to pursue help when necessary to better manage themselves and their tasks.
High persistence	Commitment	Students ability to remain determined and resist procrastination, throughout adversity.
Low anxiety	Composure	The extent to which students can remain calm in anxiety provoking situations.
Low uncertain control	Control	The extent to which students takes control of their own work both in failures and successes throughout their learning.

How can it be attained and enhanced?

Figure 2. Diagram of the 5-C model

Academic buoyancy could be attained and enhanced through the broaden and build theory. The broaden and build theory proposes that “positive emotions appear to broaden peoples’ momentary thought–action repertoires and build their enduring personal resources.” (Fredrickson, 2004, pg. 1369,). When students experience ‘typical’ academic adversities they experience negative emotions. These emotions are said to reduce ones thought-action repertoire by preparing to act immediately within the moment (Fredrickson, 2001). Teachers and peers can use the suggested ‘undo hypothesis’ by correcting the negative emotion with positive emotions and acts as such, as an antidote. For example, a student may receive a bad grade and feel incompetent within themselves and thus, not want to attempt the task or try again. If a teacher or peer was to react positively to the student by congratulating them on their effort, to not lose hope and encourage them to work harder, the student can attach positive meaning to the adversity and thus, broadening ones thought-action and building up their psychological repertoire. These psychological, social and emotional resources that students build up over time are important for attaining academic buoyancy. By finding positive meaning in the face of adversity attaches positive emotions to the event and in turn, enhances wellbeing and builds resilience (Fredrickson, 2001).

Feedback is another great way to enhance academic buoyancy as it is a positive way to discuss negativity. It is also an important component for ongoing development if given correctly. Bandura & Cervone, (1983) stated “negative emotions tend to have adverse effects on the capacity to learn ... positive feedback is more effective than negative feedback for motivating a person towards a goal”. Positive feedback given from both guardians and teachers that focuses on what students did well (encouragement), how they could improve (feedback) and guidance on where they could go from there (strategy) has the capability to regulate negative behaviours and give them the confidence and control necessary to overcome the challenge they face (Li et al., 2020). This in turn relays how important a strong and positive student-teacher relationship can be. Teachers can give students the confidence they need to overcome any setback, if they have a positive relationship. “A few gentle and understanding words from a teacher showing that they believe a student is able to achieve, and a smiling educator sharing their genuine happiness and excitement with a student's performance, validate the student's efforts and show that they matter” Li et al. (2020).

Quiz 2 Which theory can be used to attain academic buoyancy? Broaden & build Academic resilience Coping Self-efficacy

Significance of academic buoyancy

Why does academic buoyancy matter?

Negative experiences such as setbacks, failures and challenges are inevitable within education and all of such elicit negative emotions that can be difficult to understand and navigate. The negative emotions associated with such are the reason why academic buoyancy is so important. There are a number of reasons why academic buoyancy matters including the enhancement of student wellbeing, students ability to better overcome ‘typical’ adversities thus leading too their enjoyment at school, an increase in students grades and better management of negative emotions.

Figure 3. Academic buoyancy can enhance student wellbeing

Academic buoyancy matters because by associating positive meaning in correlation with situations that usually incur negative emotions within the academic setting can assist students to bounce back from the situation and thus, learn to perform better. By doing so, students build up over time their psychological repertoires as part of the broaden and build framework (Fredrickson, 2004) and learn to mitigate stress and anxiety in the face of tests, exams, setbacks and challenges. This in turn increases students’ wellbeing as they have learnt strategies and mechanisms to thrive in stressful situation. With many of these positive experiences, unconsciously students begin to have positive engagement, positive motivation, a healthier approach to school, adaptive factors and productive attitudes (Martin and Marsh, 2008). These students that associate positive emotions with school are more likely to succeed academically than those who associate negative emotions (Pekrun et al., 2002).

While there are many positive aspects of academic buoyancy, some researchers disagree with the concept of academic buoyancy. For example, Putwain et al. (2012) have suggested that academic buoyancy is not necessarily important and could be considered as adaptive coping. Stephens (2019), study state the two concepts show no real difference and thus academic buoyancy is not actually its own construct. However, there is value to academic buoyancy and this has been shown across many facets and growing (Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation, 2021; Anderson et al., 2020; Smith, 2015). Whilst academic buoyancy is still a growing body of research, future research could explore the correlation of a growth mindset or the theory of academic emotions with academic buoyancy.

Who benefits from academic buoyancy?

Academic buoyancy can be beneficial to both individuals, groups and educational organisations. For example, the NSW education department have reinforced AB as part of their wellbeing strategy for students throughout schools across the state. They have noted that the strategy is beneficial to building students values towards school, their self-efficacy and persistence. “Academic buoyancy can also help to mediate stress and anxiety that can result from academic pursuits at school.” (Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation, 2021).

At an individual level, students can use learnt academic buoyancy skills in their everyday school tasks. It is known that tests and exams can be stressful and anxiety provoking situation for some (Goetz et al., n.d.). If students can learn to turn those emotionally negative situations into neutral or positive ones using their academic buoyancy resources, their outcomes are better off. Teachers can also benefit from a buoyancy framework by assessing their wellbeing against the ‘workplace buoyancy scale’ as adapted from the academic buoyancy scale by Martin & Marsh (2008a). this scale assesses “‘typical’ challenges that might be considered part of the ordinary course of work or academic life (e.g., stress, poor results, negative feedback, poor performance)”.

Academic buoyancy could also be used to identify and help students who are underrepresented or falling behind in the school system, such as students with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). Students with ADHD have been found to have poorer performance, shorter attention spans, lower levels of self-efficacy, aspirations and enjoyment at school in comparison to their counterparts (Martin, 2012). These students still deal with daily school adversities such as failure, grade repetition, non-compliance at school and exclusion (Martin, 2014). In a previous study, Martin (2012) found the effects of academic buoyancy were positively and significantly related in assisting students these students in their educational outcomes. The authors argue that using the 5 Cs as intervention points in order to assist students with ADHD to attain academic buoyancy.

Another population that may benefit from an academically buoyant framework is Indigenous students. For example, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students make up 1.3% of students in tertiary education despite representing 3.3% of the Australian population (Profile of Indigenous Australians, 2021). This discrepancy is thought to be due to high dropout rates in secondary education (Biddle, 2014). Evidence suggests that 20 percent of the gap in school performance between Indigenous and non-Indigenous is due to lower school attendance (Biddle, 2014). This is likely having flow on effects to tertiary studies. Applying principles from academic buoyancy to this student population may help address this gap and improve educational outcomes.

While academic buoyancy alone does not have the power to keep Indigenous students at school, it does provide a framework to build their resilience. Academic buoyancy has resources and potential to provide these students with an opportunity to realise they can be capable, committed, coordinated, composed, controlled and confident, academically buoyant students. Martin (2013) found “the predictive effects of academic buoyancy on educational intentions are stronger for Aboriginal than non-Aboriginal senior school students. Thus, a capacity to effectively deal with academic adversity is a salient factor in Aboriginal students’ educational intentions”. Future research should consider implementing academic buoyancy strategies in various, highly populated indigenous schools. The outcomes could provide another avenue to the 'Closing the Gap’ campaign.

Quiz 3ː Have you been paying attention? Academic buoyancy can assist in mitigating stress and anxiety? True False

Conclusion

Academic buoyancy is defined as "students’ ability to successfully deal with academic setbacks and challenges that are typical of the ordinary course of school life (e.g., poor grades, competing deadlines, exam pressure, difficult schoolwork)." Martin & Marsh, (2008, pg. 54). While similar to academic resilience, it differs in the degree of adversity and academic buoyancy sits in the positive psychology framework. Academically buoyant students are described as being confident, composed, coordinated, committed, and in control. These factors are known as ‘The 5 Cs’ and are important in academic endeavours. These five factors are also the predictors for academic buoyancy and are a starting point in attaining and enhancing them.

Academic buoyancy is an important construct that is slowly being implemented into school curriculums. It gives students the ability to be resilient in their everyday adversities. It also provides students, teachers and educational institutions with the tools to overcome anxiety and stress provoking situations by equipping individuals with a positive mindset. This in turn reflects positively in their academic outcomes. Academic buoyancy has shown positive effects within students by proving to themselves they’re capable of the work. This has been shown in students with ADHD and first nations Australians, who have a tendency to get left behind. There is a growing body of literature that lives in the shadows of academic resilience but shows promise in schools and students. Future research should consider a more comprehensive update for the ABS in order to assist in defining the areas students are lacking and thus differentiating further from academic resilience.

See also

• Academic resilience (Book chapter, 2021)
• Educational Psychology (Wikipedia)
• Motivation (Wikipedia)
• Emotion (Wikipedia)

References

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Bandura, A., & Cervone, D. (1983). Self-evaluative and self-efficacy mechanisms governing the motivational effects of goal systems. Journal of personality and social psychology, 45(5), 1017.

Biddle, N. (2014). Measuring and analysing the wellbeing of Australia’s indigenous population. Social indicators research, 116(3), 713-729.

Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation. (2021). Academic buoyancy. Nsw.gov.au. https://education.nsw.gov.au/student-wellbeing/tell-them-from-me/accessing-and-using-tell-them-from-me-data/tell-them-from-me-measures/academic-buoyancy

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Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: the broaden and-build theory of positive emotions Am. Psychol. 56, 218–226.

Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). The broaden–and–build theory of positive emotions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 359(1449), 1367–1377. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2004.1512

Goetz, T., Athan, N., & Hall, C. (n.d.). 5.4 Emotion and Achievement in the Classroom. Retrieved September 29, 2021, from https://d-nb.info/1099291089/34

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Martin, A. J., Colmar, S. H., Davey, L. A., & Marsh, H. W. (2010). Longitudinal modelling of academic buoyancy and motivation: Do the 5Cs hold up over time? British Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(3), 473–496. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709910x486376

Martin, A. J. (2012). Academic buoyancy and academic outcomes: Towards a further understanding of students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), students without ADHD, and academic buoyancy itself. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 84(1), 86–107. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12007

Martin A.J. (2012a) Fear of Failure in Learning. In: Seel N.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419 1428-6_266

Martin, A. J., Ginns, P., Papworth, B., & Nejad, H. (2013). The role of academic buoyancy in Aboriginal/Indigenous students’ educational intentions. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281156249_The_role_of_academic_buoyancy_in_AboriginalIndigenous_students’_educational_intentions_Sowing_the_early_seeds_of_success_for_post-school_education_and_training

Martin, A. J. (2014). The Role of ADHD in Academic Adversity: Disentangling ADHD Effects From Other Personal and Contextual Factors. ResearchGate; American Psychological Association. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262265091_The_Role_of_ADHD_in_Academic_Adversity_Disentangling_ADHD_Effects_From_Other_Personal_and_Contextual_Factors

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OECD (2020), “Students’ self-efficacy and fear of failure”, in PISA 2018 Results (Volume III): What School Life Means for Students’ Lives, OECD Publishing, Paris.https://doi.org/10.1787/2f9d3124-en

Pekrun, R., Goetz, T., Titz, W., and Perry, R. P. (2002). Academic emotions in students’ self regulated learning and achievement: A program of qualitative and quantitative research. Educational Psychologist 37, 91–105. doi: 10.1207/s15326985ep3702_4

Profile of Indigenous Australians. (2021). Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/profile-of-indigenous-australians

Smith, M. (2015). From adversity to buoyancy. Thepsychoogist.bps.org.uk. https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-28/september-2015/adversity-buoyancy

Rodrigues, R., & Magre, S. (2018). Role of Academic Buoyancy in Enhancing Student Engagement of Secondary School Students. http://sanshodhanchetana.com/issues/sep2018/19.pdf

Stephens, K. (2017). Academic Resilience, Academic Buoyancy and the Motivation and Engagement Scale: A Construct Validity Approach. https://eprints.utas.edu.au/34778/1/Stephens_whole_thesis.pdf

Tugade, M. M., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). Resilient individuals use positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences. Journal of personality and social psychology, 86(2), 320.

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External links

• Sisu - Transforming barriers into frontiers (Ted Talk)
• Grit: The power of passion and perseverance (Ted Talk)