Screen Time No More Harmful to Teenage Mental Health Than Eating Potatoes, Study Shows
(Independent)
Researchers from the University of Oxford examined data on more than 300,000 adolescents in both America and the UK to ascertain what impact various factors had on wellbeing.
Better Sleep Habits Lead to Better College Grades
(Science Daily)
Two professors have found a strong relationship between students’ grades and how much sleep they’re getting. What time students go to bed and the consistency of their sleep habits also make a big difference. And no, getting a good night’s sleep just before a big test is not good enough — it takes several nights in a row of good sleep to make a difference.
Manipulating Specific Brain Waves in Sleep Shifts Balance Between Learning or Forgetting a New Skill
(Science Daily)
Distinct patterns of electrical activity in the sleeping brain may influence whether we remember or forget what we learned the previous day, according to a new study. The scientists were able to influence how well rats learned a new skill by tweaking these brainwaves while animals slept, suggesting potential future applications in boosting human memory or forgetting traumatic experiences, the researchers say.
This Is What a Cognitive Scientist Looks Like
(Retrieval Practice)
In this update, I have a simple goal: To share the research and initiatives by women in cognitive science. They are leading the charge in communicating the science of learning for educators and the public around the world.
How Do Kids Learn to Read? What the Science Says
(Education Week – Subscription Required, Free Trial)
For almost a century, researchers have argued over the question. Most of the disagreement has centered on the very beginning stages of the reading process, when young children are first starting to figure out how to decipher words on a page.
How to Stop Bullying in Schools: What Works, What Doesn’t
(NBC’s Today)
Some common school approaches to bullying actually make the problem worse.
7 Ways We Judge Too Harshly in Education
(Education Week – Subscription Required, Free Trial)
Whatever the reason, we seem to judge ourselves pretty harshly, and we continue to judge others pretty harshly as well. Not to be too judgy of the situation, but that’s a problem.
How To Know When It’s ‘Bad Enough’ To Get Help
(Study Breaks)
Too many college students are afraid to take the necessary steps to care for their mental health.
Digest #139: What Comes After School? Career Tips and Advise
(The Learning Scientists)
Here at The Learning Scientists we talk a lot about how to improve learning, particularly in schools. But what happens after graduation? How do you take the first steps from school to career? In this digest we’ve gathered several resources to help students think about future careers in teaching, psychology, and how to gain relevant work experience.
New York Sues Student Loan Company Over Debt Forgiveness for Those in Public Service
(The Washington Post)
“Despite a decade of honorable public service to our state and this nation, hard-working New Yorkers have been left with nothing but the runaround and broken promises,” James said in a statement Thursday. The company’s “abuses have not only denied these dedicated public servants the benefits they have earned, but have undermined the goals of the loan forgiveness program.”
Bite Marks, Bruises and Dislocated Shoulders: How America’s Teachers Are Battling Classroom Violence*
(Yahoo Lifestyle)
Although reports of teachers becoming violent against students permeate the news, there’s another epidemic of violence happening in the classroom — this one, in which the teachers become the victims.
*check out the APA’s A Silent National Crisis: Violence Against Teachers
D.C. Schools Are Trying to Help Students Cope After a Violent Start to the Academic Year
(The Washington Post)
Some neighborhoods, like the one where Ballou sits, have seen more than their share of students who have died in violent circumstances. But kids still must go to school, and administrators and teachers must provide them with a sense of normalcy after tragedy.
Intensive Care: What Makes a ‘Good’ Parent?
(The New York Times)
The experts who study parenting are interested in how we spend those moments. “If you really look in time diary data, on average parents are not spending hours a day doing these kinds of developmentally stimulating things with their kids”
Depression, Anxiety and Suicidal Thoughts: How Teachers’ Stress Affects Their Mental Health
(Yahoo Lifestyle)
After 24 years of teaching at public schools in Louisiana, Holly Beth says she often felt “defeated” before she entered the school doors. Nonetheless, like clockwork, she would eat, sleep and repeat — until she felt the emotional shift that changed everything.
Tennessee Teen’s Suicide Highlights Dangers of Anti-LGBTQ Bullying
(NBC News)
Channing Smith’s death by suicide after being cyberbullied highlights the decade-old movement to stop bullying online, where it flourishes.
Maintaining Students’ Motivation for Learning as the Year Goes On
(Edutopia)
Neuroscience can suggest ways to keep students working toward their learning goals after their initial excitement wears off.
Teach Us How to Look After Our Mental Health, Say University Students
(The Guardian)
Survey shows students want wellbeing modules similar to those planned for schools.
‘Classroom Management Is About Being Proactive’
(Education Week – Subscription Required, Free Trial)
When I am teaching my graduate students about effective classroom-management techniques, I begin with the notion of Belongingness (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). I remind them that every student they teach “belongs” in their classroom. Sending troublesome and troubled students to the office or out of their classroom is both nontherapeutic and unprofessional and contravenes the notion of classroom as “community” (Kohn, 1996).
Youngest Kids in Class More Likely to Struggle With Depression and ADHD, New Study Suggests
(CBS News)
“So what we have to remember is development unfolds on its own time. You can’t force development forward. So that means that if a child is relatively immature in the class, maybe because of age, they will not necessarily have the skills for attention that the older kids will have. So they may be more likely to show up with questions about whether or not they have ADHD.”
Psychological Science: Full of Surprises?
(David Meyers Blog)
At a recent Teaching of Psychology in Secondary Schools workshop hosted by Oregon State University, I celebrated and illustrated three sets of big ideas from psychological science. Without further explanation, here is a quick synopsis.
*APA/APF/Oregon State University Psychological Science Workshop for High School Psychology Teachers mentioned
Virtual Reality May Help Foster Learning and Collaboration Across Health Professions
(Science Daily)
One of the biggest challenges to implementing interprofessional education for health professions students is scheduling. Could virtual reality education help? A small new study focused on palliative care, says yes.
How to Handle Difficult Student Issues as a Midlevel Academic Administrator (Opinion)
(Inside Higher Ed)
My transition from faculty member to associate dean came with myriad of surprises. Some of those changes were practices that I felt prepared to handle and that I easily adapted to without the need for a great deal of specified training. But I could certainly have benefited from formal training in the art of dealing with student issues.
How to Prime Preschoolers for Success
(Scientific American)
Clancy Blair, a developmental psychology professor at New York University, was one of the first researchers to design experiments to understand how executive function works in young kids. “I began by looking at what is influencing the development of executive function,” Blair says. “Could we cultivate it? Could we develop it?”
