A literature review on learned helplessness in school environments

Learned helplessness is a form of learning which develops when the subject perceives a loss of control in inescapable situations. This can lead to the development of cognitive and social deficits. Main research on this topic has been focused on clinical psychology. This TFM will explore the psychological phenomenon of learned helplessness and how this knowledge can be used in school environments and education. The main objective will be to find out if learned helplessness in school environments and education is actively researched and to ascertain the state-of-the-art of this research. We will provide a simple general diagnostic tool for teachers to detect signs of learned helplessness on their students. We will also provide simple treatment strategies to try to alleviate or minimize the effects of learned helplessness on students. These strategies do not treat mental disorders and, because of this, they can be used by any education professional: teachers and Psychopedagogy professionals. Relevant publications will be searched using five database engines. The results will be analyzed. We will then try to identify the relevant research groups and the most relevant journals on this subject. Finally, we will review and classify the most important publications and we will identify some of the diagnostic tools that researchers have developed.