Violence and other forms of abuse against teachers: 5 questions answered
(The Conversation)
Concerns about violence and other forms of abuse in schools typically emphasize the safety of students. But teachers and other school staff also suffer acts of violence and abuse. A group of scholars on a task force organized by the American Psychological Association studying violence against teachers shine light on the extent and nature of this problem.
Interdisciplinary education as a route to promoting psychology across occupations
(Teach Psych)
Perceptions of the value of psychology as a discipline have an impact on majors and non-majors that carry into students’ personal and professional lives. Despite the popularity of the major, the incredibly large number of students taking introduction to psychology, and the seemingly endless list of possible applications of psychological concepts and skills to real-world situations, many people (majors and non-majors) continue to believe psychology is the study and treatment of mental illness.
It’s good to expose myths about neuroscience — but the debunking is getting out of hand, a world-famous psychologist says
(The Washington Post – Subscription required, free trial)
But when “debunking” gets out of hand, it needs to be called to account. And when you yourself are the target of a debunking, not surprisingly, you feel called upon to become the sheriff — the debunker of the debunkers, so to speak…The mission of neuromythology has gone too far. Obviously, all of us — researchers, teachers or members of the general public — should scrutinize statements carefully.
Children’s mental health is affected by sleep duration
(Science Daily)
Depression, anxiety, impulsive behavior and poor cognitive performance in children is affected by the amount of sleep they have, researchers have found.
What brain science teaches us about conflict resolution
(Edutopia)
When a teacher noticed her kids fighting at recess, she turned to neuroscience and mindfulness practice to help them take control of their emotions.
Improving AI’s ability to identify students who need help
(Science Daily)
“Psychology has long recognized that different questions have different values,” Geden says. “Our work here takes an interdisciplinary approach that marries this aspect of psychology with deep learning and machine learning approaches to AI.”
When teachers are tough graders, students learn more, study says
(Education Week – Subscription required, free trial)
The report, published today by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank that focuses on school choice and high expectations for students, found that this effect holds true for students across racial and ethnic groups, gender, socioeconomic makeup, and previous academic background. The study also found evidence of longer-term learning gains for students.
Learning “useless” things in school is (usually) not useless
(The Learning Scientists)
I’m not here to argue whether we should provide lessons on life skills, but what I want to talk about today is the negative message that a lot of what students are learning in school is “useless”.
Synchronization of neurons is critical for learning and forming memories
(Science Daily)
Researchers found that the neurons involved in Pavlovian learning shift their behavior during the learning process and become more synchronized when a memory is formed.
What students are saying about how much they use their phones, and whether we should be worried
(The New York Times)
New research challenges assumptions about the negative effects of social media and smartphones on children. We asked teenagers whether their parents should worry about how much time they spend on their devices.
Why you shouldn’t censor your teen’s reading (even the sex and violence)
(The Washington Post – Subscription required, free trial)
Stephen King’s “It” just because they want to? How concerned should parents be about their high school freshman reading a book about teen suicide, such as “Thirteen Reasons Why”? The long-term nature of reading means that studies on how content affects teens (or anyone else) are scarce, but Stetson University psychologist Christopher Ferguson says research does suggest that we can chill out when it comes to what our kids are reading.
Say something anonymous reporting system: new crisis center and reporting system makes impact on school safety in North Carolina
(ABC11 WTVD)
Say Something encourages users to anonymously report observed threats, behaviors, actions and harassment, including but not limited to: assault, abuse (physical and verbal), bullying, depression, hopelessness, reckless behavior, social isolation or withdrawal, substance abuse, suicide threats, theft or weapons.
Schools struggle to help students return to class after a mental health crisis
(Hechinger Report)
More kids are missing school because of anxiety and depression. A Massachusetts program is trying to disrupt that cycle.
I asked my students to tackle a problem. Their solution taught me a lot about culturally responsive teaching.
(Chalkbeat)
How do we establish a community of learners out of this linguistically and culturally diverse group? What common materials and curriculum could possibly be relevant to all these students? And what might a culturally relevant approach look like for students from so many diverse cultures?
Students often struggle after a mental health crisis. Can this support system help?
(PBS Newshour)
“Districts that are less resourced might be sharing one psychologist for the entire school district, or one psychologist who is responsible for 3,000 kids,” said Kelly Vaillancourt Strobach, policy director for the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). “When you have these shortages of these professionals, you’re really only able to serve those kids who are in extreme crisis.”
