Changing learners’ mindsets – achieving positive results

By Phindile Xaba

Professor Khalil Osiris has launched a programme that could improve learners’ academic performance, enhance their social and emotional skills
 and could reduce delinquent and disruptive behaviour, and the results are instant he says.

The programme Circle of Courage Mentorship Programme or COCMP as it had come to be known in the US, is specifically designed to achieve behavioural change. COCMP is based on the Native American tradition of positive youth development and concentrates on cognitive patterns that could be transformed.

COCMP has been tested in the USA schools that were generally considered hopeless in many ways – produced dismal results, had the worst and delinquent students who are seen as outcasts in society, and had been written off.

Having achieved un-paralleled success in the US, Osiris who had come to South Africa for a short while to launch the Martin Luther King Day South Africa, has relocated to introduce it here. The first train-the-trainer group is undergoing training and a couple of pilots are running in a number of schools.

“Once the trainers and mentors had been trained, they are qualified to guide students through personal growth and development exercises using the Twelve Values: Discovering Your Personal Power curriculum I developed. Youth who participate in the programme are trained to be peer leaders and are encouraged to develop positive thoughts and values;
 take responsibility for their words and actions; and apply what they learn to help others as well as themselves,” he said.

Osiris said that the results were immediate, even after taking the first lesson one can start applying these principles in their daily lives.

“I have a parent in the course who began seeing the results in her nine-year old son even before the six-week programme was completed. This programme shifts how adults talk to young people and the youngsters notice, that automatically transforms how they see themselves.

A mother of a nine year old said the teachers at her son’s school even noticed the shift in his behaviour.

“My son, who is at a special school and had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, has told me that his teacher has noticed the shift. He brings home merits every day,” she said.

“The programme can very easily be applied in any schooling environment and is most helpful to educators dealing with difficult students. It teaches trainees to be conscious and sensitive to applying the values in a positive way and giving young people tools to understand that the same values when applied negatively may harm them and those around them“, said Osiris.

Ketso Moorosi, a clinical and forensic psychologist who is testing the programme in South Africa said:
“This is a new tool, that has been tested in the US and prison systems where there are similarities with the South African situation. The programme assists in changing negative mindsets, therefore translates in positive behaviour modification. It empowers individuals to use their positive energy to rebuild their self-worth and self-love.”

Osiris said COCMP is designed to help young people to become successful students and positive role models through providing group and one-on-one sessions with mentors, who listen and talk with them about their life experiences as well as their grades and other issues that are important to them.

“The following outcomes guide our programme activities – improved academic performance, enhanced social and emotional skills
 and reduced delinquent and disruptive behaviour,” he said.

Osiris would know this, as he was one of those young people who were written off, but while incarcerated for 20 years, he completed a bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Boston University, and became a professor in education.

WANT TO BE ON THE CIRCLE OF COURAGE MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME The Circle of Courage Mentoring Programme is designed to teach youth how to think, with an emphasis on becoming successful students and positive role models and it is a six week programme.

Students who participate in the COCMP benefits

• Develop positive thoughts and values;
• Take responsibility for their words and actions;
• Apply what they learn to help others as well as themselves.

Teachers/Mentors results

The following student outcomes guide programme activities:

• Reduced expulsions and suspensions;
• Enhanced social skills and emotional development;
• Improved pro-social moral reasoning.

Parents’ role:

Parents are also equipped with tools necessary to help students with their educational and personal growth.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO BOOK FOR A CIRCLE OF COURAGE MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME CONTACT: Sharon Ries on 082 330 2917 or visit www.khalilosiris.com, also follow him on twitter or facebook @ khalilosiris.

The full version was published in The Teacher, a Mail and Guardian publication on February 2012.  Go to http://subscriptions.mg.co.za/teacher for our e-publication.