University Students Who Overcame Learned Helplessness: What Helped or Hindered?

Learned helplessness in an academic environment often affects educational performance and mental health in adverse ways (Ciarrochi et al., 2007; Hu et al., 2015). Using a modified version of the Enhanced Critical Incident Technique, this study aimed to develop a better understanding of what helps or hinders university students in overcoming learned helplessness. Analysis generated 14 categories of helping incidents and seven categories of hindering incidents, most of which were consistent with previous research. This study identified the category Being in the Spotlight, which had not been noted at all in past research. Examination of the results contributes information about reported interactions between hindering incidents and the importance of autonomy in overcoming learned helplessness, topics neglected or understudied in past research on learned helplessness in university students. Overall, the results of this study provide additional direction for counsellors working with university students who experience learned helplessness and highlight the need for further research to understand in more detail the helping and hindering factors outlined in this study.

Interaction Order and Historical Body Shaping Children’s Making Projects—A Literature Review

The importance of familiarizing children with the Maker Movement, Makerspaces and Maker mindset has been acknowledged. In this literature review, we examine the complex social action of children, aged from 7 to 17 (K-12), engaging in technology Making activities as it is seen in the extant literature. The included papers contain empirical data from actual digital Making workshops and diverse research projects with children, conducted in both formal and non-formal/informal settings, such as schools or museums, libraries, Fab Labs and other makerspaces. We utilized the theoretical lens of nexus analysis and its concepts of interaction order and historical body, and as a result of our analysis, we report best practices and helping and hindering factors. Two gaps in the current knowledge were identified: (1) the current research focuses on success stories instead of challenges in the working, and, (2) histories of the participants and interaction between them are very rarely in the focus of the existing studies or reported in detail, even though they significantly affect what happens and what is possible to happen in Making sessions.

Dramatherapy and Religion: (Un) Comfortable Bedfellows? in Honour of Dr Roger Grainger

This article was written to honour the memory of Roger Grainger, particularly his contribution to the dialogue between (drama)therapy and religion. As authors from two different faith backgrounds, who work with clients of many and no faiths, we research the impact of working with religion in therapy, its potentially helping and hindering factors. In the context of PREVENT, a government strategy aiming to protect people from terrorism ( https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-strategy-2011 ), faith can be associated with radicalisation combined with a traditional distrust of therapy towards religion. This might lead us to shy away from this area. On the other hand The British Association of Dramatherapists' Intercultural good practice guidelines advocate working within a client's cultural, thus also religious background. The following argument discusses the core concepts we are working with, outlines Roger's contribution, contextualises them within current debates and raises the challenges we face. We hope the debate will be developed by fellow dramatherapists so that our fluency in interreligious practice will continue to improve.