In this activity, students practice resilience by using cognitive reframing and problem solving in challenging situations. Through realistic academic, professional, or social scenarios, they become aware of automatic thoughts and how these influence their emotions and actions. Using the ABC model as a framework, students learn to reframe their thinking and develop more constructive, solution-focused responses to difficulties.
- Activity goal
- Practice skills | Reflect
- When
- In class
- Where
- Offline
- Duration
- < 60 minutes
- Group size
- Small | Medium
Step-by-step plan
Step 1: Introduction
Explain to students that they will practice resilience strategies by using cognitive reframing and problem solving in a stressful situation. The goal is to become aware of automatic thoughts and to develop more constructive ways of responding to challenges.
Step 2: Present a scenario and explain the ABC model
Present students with a realistic and challenging academic, professional, or social scenario. For example: Your group project partner drops out two days before the deadline.
Explain the ABC model to students.
- Adversity: What happened?
- Beliefs: What are your thoughts about it?
- Consequences: How do these beliefs affect your emotions and actions?
Step 3: Individual reflection and response plan
Ask students to individually design a resilience response plan using the ABC Resilience framework. Instruct them to identify both emotional and practical strategies for dealing with the situation.
Use the following prompts to guide their reflection:
- What is the Adversity, Beliefs, and Consequences in this situation?
- What evidence supports or challenges your beliefs about the situation?
- Which thinking traps might you be falling into?
- What would you say to a friend or colleague in the same situation?
- How could you resolve this situation in a constructive way?
Step 4: Sharing resilience strategies
End with a plenary group reflection in which students share their resilience strategies and solutions. Use guiding questions such as:
- Which tools helped you stay grounded or cope with the situation?
- What concrete steps could help resolve the situation?
Tip 1
- Use scenarios that contain ambiguity or mild conflict so students must interpret rather than just describe.
Tip 2
- Let students select their own personal challenging situation to reflect upon, after using a scenario as example.
Tip 3
- Briefly model two different responses to the same scenario (one reactive, one reflective).
Tip 4
- Close the loop by asking students to briefly note where they might encounter a similar situation in the near future and how they will apply their formulated strategy.
