Helping students to silence their inner critic

Chapter 8 will give concrete steps to help students experiencing impostor syndrome to silence their inner doubts and embrace academic successes. The chapter applies the evidence from academic research to explain how teachers can develop an impostor syndrome-unfriendly classroom. This involves not allowing students to opt out of challenging work; encouraging students to answer questions and teaching them how to ask for help; helping students set process and mastery goals; ensuring feedback is motivational; enabling students to understand the real origin of their success; providing reality checks; reframing students’ self-critical comments; reducing classroom competition; praising the work, rather than the individual; and addressing test anxiety. The chapter also considers how establishing support networks and mentoring schemes can also be a useful strategy in tackling impostor syndrome in schools.