Ms Krista clews de castella

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Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar

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“Everyone experiences failure at some point in their lives, but people tend to respond to failure differently. Some people assume they’ll succeed in later tasks, while others expect to fail repeatedly.”

Krista Clews De Castella, a psychology student at the Australian National University, has won a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship to carry out research towards a PhD in the United States.

Krista will explore the way fears and false beliefs in students lead to negative self-fulfilling prophecies and educational inequalities. The aim of her research is to identify strategies and interventions aimed at breaking the cycle of failure avoidance; ultimately raising achievement, resiliency, efficacy and control beliefs.

“When students have fears about performing poorly, this can lead to maladaptive coping strategies such as procrastination, self-handicapping and learned helplessness – behaviours that in turn work as self-fulfilling prophecies that continue to bring failure about.” Krista said.

Krista believes that cross-cultural differences in students’ beliefs and study habits may help explain some of the differences in academic performance. Over the last 12 months, Krista has been living in Okinawa, Japan coordinating a large-scale research project with Japanese High Schools in Mie Ken prefecture. Her interests in cultural differences largely grew out of her experience teaching both at University in Australia, and in Japan as part of the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program.

“I believe this research has the potential to help both Australian students and those abroad build their skills and improve their academic performance. Such skills have potential to assist students not only in their academic studies but also in the development of their future personal and professional lives. On completing my research I hope to one day become a voice on these issues with the goal of bringing about real change within Australian communities and schools” Krista said.

Krista is the daughter of 1985 World Champion Triathlete, Gayelene Clews and former Australian of the Year and World Champion marathon runner Robert De Castella.

“My parents always encouraged me to focus not on natural ability, but the capacity to improve on our abilities. I think it’s through their encouragement and my own struggles with learning difficulties that I’ve become interested in the way our personal sense of self-efficacy regulates our thoughts, feelings and behaviour,” Krista said.

Krista has recently completed a Bachelor of Philosophy (Hons) in Science, Psychology at the Australian National University and holds a Bachelor of Communication in Public Relations (Psychology Minor) from the University of Canberra. Apart from her academic work, Krista also has a second-degree black belt in traditional karate and is interested in Japanese Calligraphy and Zen meditation.

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