How Can Schools Help Kids With Anxiety?
(KQED – Mind/Shift)
Brianna remembers an endless cycle of waking up, going to school, taking work she couldn’t bring herself to do, and coming home to hide in her room and sleep. She lost a lot of weight and didn’t even enjoy playing soccer anymore, her favorite activity.
Explain It To Me: The Beneficial Effects of Explaining for Memory
(The Learning Scientists)
When studying a text, should students pretend to explain the main ideas to someone, engage in retrieval practice, or does it not make a difference?
Brain Images Used to Tease Out How Top Teachers Connect With Students
(Education Week – Subscription Required, Free Trial)
“What we’re really trying to do is characterize for the first time, in a much deeper way, the kind of integration between social emotional and cognitive work that effective teachers do … and how this affects how students own their own thinking and engage deeply with material and become motivated,” she said.
Hey Teachers, Get To Know Your Students’ Preconceptions
(WIRED)
There was a recent discussion on Twitter about using the term “preconception” instead of “misconception” when talking about student difficulties. The debate goes back many years, but it’s still worth reviewing. So: How should teachers deal with the problems students have in introductory courses, and what should we call them?
Re: Your Recent Email to Your Professor
(Inside Higher Ed)
Students who use emojis in their emails and write “heeeeelp!” in the subject line don’t necessarily know better. Paul Corrigan and Cameron Hunt McNabb present a way for professors to help such students.
The Struggle is Real
(The Effortful Educator)
The more I learn about education and the application of cognitive psychology principles in the classroom, the more I’m finding it to be excruciatingly complicated.
Why Some Professors Welcome New Lab Members With Clear Expectations—in Writing
(Science)
Moin Syed, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, starts his 7-page lab document—which he calls his “Graduate Student Advising Statement”—with another crucial but sometimes difficult topic: career paths. The document clearly articulates that Syed will support his trainees in whatever path they choose. “We all know that the vast majority of students do not go on to research-intensive faculty careers,” he says. “It’s pretty ridiculous that faculty, I think, tend to deny [that] reality.”
What If You Could Change Your Child’s Future In One Hour Every Week?
(NPR)
An educator and entrepreneur believes he’s found an untapped resource to help more struggling students succeed in reading. The secret? Families.
A Map of the Brain Can Tell What You’re Reading About
(Science Daily)
Neuroscientists have created interactive maps that can predict where different categories of words activate the brain. Their latest map is focused on what happens in the brain when you read stories.
With New Anti-Plagiarism Tool, Google Enters Familiar Debates About Teaching Writing
(Education Week – Subscription Required, Free Trial)
Most hope Google’s new tool might help foster much-needed dialogue between teachers and students about citation, academic writing, and the sometimes-fuzzy lines between one’s own ideas and the ideas of others
Some FAQs for Educators on Children’s Trauma
(Education Week – Subscription Required, Free Trial)
While the word “trauma” has become something of a colloquial term, the chronic stress associated with severe and ongoing health and education problems is not related to low-level stressors such as watching a scary movie or getting in a fight with your best friend.
Scientists Start Building a Parts List for the Brain
(Scientific American)
A new study provides an extraordinary close-up of the menagerie of neural cell types, yielding possible leads for neurological and psychiatric treatments
Online Simulation Preps Schools for Emotional Toll of Disasters
(Education Week – Subscription Required, Free Trial)
Sudden disasters—from hurricanes to school shootings—demand schools respond to widespread trauma on the fly.
Stories Help Build a Strong Classroom Culture
(Edutopia)
Sharing narratives of real-life heroes is a simple and relatable way to teach social and emotional skills.
‘Nobody Learns It in a Day’: Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools
(Education Week – Subscription Required, Free Trial)
There’s never been a clearer scientific picture of the ways damaging experiences and intense, chronic stress can hurt a child’s ability to learn in school. But for many schools, the picture of what trauma-sensitive schooling looks like in practice is still developing.
Embracing Instagram
(Inside Higher Ed)
A long-serving psychology professor has found new joys in staying connected with students after they leave his university.
Making Writing Assignments Meaningful and Transparent
(APA Division 2’s Graduate Student Teaching Association Blog)
One of my favorite professors in college was a guy named Harry Cargas. I attended a small liberal arts school in St. Louis called Webster University. Harry was a bit of a superstar, both on campus and around the world.
Tackling Bias
(Greg Ashman’s Filling the Pail)
We all suffer from a variety of unconscious biases.
How to Help Your Child Study
(New York Times)
Regardless of a child’s age or challenges, parents can encourage sound homework routines for a successful start to the school year.
Online Class On Growth Mindset Lifts High School Grades
(Futurity.org)
A short online course that changes students’ beliefs about learning can improve their grades in core subjects, new research finds.
With Heightened Fears of School Shootings, Teachers Are Training to Respond
(Nashville Scene)
A recent exercise by the Institute for Childhood Preparedness sheds light on classroom safety and emergency response tactics.
Student learning Outcomes for Introductory Psychology
(Not for Points)
An American Psychological Association working group (the Introductory Psychology Initiative) developed a set of “student learning objectives” for college introductory psychology classes. I’m interested in this list: it’s tough to define exactly what skills students should learn during psychology classes. I admire the work this group did. Below are the skills the group defined (in italics) and a few comments from me.
At a Loss for Words
(APM Reports)
How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers.
