1. Smartphones in Classrooms: A Blessing or a Curse?
“Smartphones are common tools in schools around the country. But are all those screens a good thing?”
2. Using Digital Tools to Promote Social and Emotional Learning
“There was just one problem: “Kids were playing together, but the game tended to foster controversy and competition—not the best SEL we were looking for, as it brings out conflict,” Santo said. The solution was to work with the most excited teens to create a Super Smash Bros. tournament that channeled that fun and competitive spirit into a more structured opportunity that pushed participants to collaborate, a component of SEL. They were empowered with tasks outside the game such as youth outreach and recruitment, project planning, timeline planning, and tournament facilitation.”
3. 2018 Education Research Highlights
“Education research continues to remind us of the powerful impact teachers have on children. This impact is overwhelmingly positive—the studies we highlight here demonstrate specific ways in which teachers can or already do help students feel a sense of belonging in school and make gains in learning.”
4. How to Develop a Greater Sense of Motivation in Students
“Remember that we all have different intrinsic motivators. A child intrinsically motivated to play sports might respond well to constructive criticism from a coach, eager for the internal sense of satisfaction from doing well. But another student might respond more to encouragement and get discouraged by criticism. Be mindful that these different motivation systems may be due to children’s genes and their life experiences, and that they might require different approaches to motivate.”
5. How to Help Teenage Girls Reframe Anxiety and Strengthen Resilience
“Having conversations with stressed-out teens about this type of downtime redirects the attention away from the stress and toward the recovery. Students can’t always control the stressors in their life, said Damour, but they can have a say over how they choose to restore themselves.”
6. How to Find Balance When Too Much Self-Doubt Gets in the Way
“According to social scientists, a self-doubting mindset leads to two common coping mechanisms: “self-handicapping”—when students underperform as a way to shield themselves from the psychic consequence of working hard and doing poorly—and “subjective overachievement,” taking heroic measures to guarantee a successful outcome, and attributing that success solely to effort. The overachieving variant of self-doubt, which afflicts Sophia, is common among high school and college students, said Patrick Carroll, an assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University who studies the problem.”
