148: Social Skills

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EVIDENCE ON SOCIAL SKILLS:
  • Social skills improve academic performance in elementary, middle & high schools (most research focused on elementary school students)
  • Exact effects of social skills on academic performance is unclear
  • Social skills:
    • socially accepted learned behaviors that enable a learner to interact effectively with others and to avoid socially unacceptable responses (Gresham & Elliot)
    • cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, self control (Malecki & Elliot)
    • self-management, self-awareness, social awareness, relationships skills, responsible decision-making (CASEL)
  • Hard to isolate social skills from other non-cognitive factors that support academic achievement in the research
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL SKILLS & ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE:
  • Research shows that social skills (+ other non-cognitive factors) improve academic performance
  • One theory – effects of social skills are indirect, act through academic behaviors
    • developing social skills helps students have less behavior problems resulting in more learning engagement and better performance
    • social skills helps students actively participate in learning activities
    • social skills act as academic enablers of good academic behaviors
  • Another theory – teachers value good behavior and reward it with good grades
ARE SOCIAL SKILLS MALLEABLE?
  • Behavior skill-building approaches lead to more enduring positive changes that programs that do not emphasize skills
  • Skills such as stress management, empathy, problem-solving, and good decision making can be intentionally developed in school-based programs
ROLE OF CLASSROOMS IN DEVELOPING SOCIAL SKILLS
  • Classrooms play an important role in shaping students’ social skills
  • Interpersonal, instructional & environmental factors affect students’ social behavior including
    • norms for high expectations and high support to meet expectations
    • caring teacher-student relationships
    • proactive classroom management
    • cooperative learning
    • safe classroom environments that reinforce good behaviors
    • students feel valued
CLASSROOM STRATEGIES FOR DEVELOPING SOCIAL SKILLS
  • Teaching students to process, integrate, select and apply social-emotional skills in appropriate ways
  • Effective approaches involve
    • step-by-step approaches  that actively involve students in skills development
    • extended periods of time
    • clear and explicit goals
CAN CHANGING SOCIAL SKILLS NARROW ACHIEVEMENT GAPS
  • Research doesn’t indicate either way whether or not social skills will narrow achievement gaps in women and minority groups
  • Some troubling related research findings:
    • 57% of African American males are suspended – much more than any other race or gender (NCES)
    • Minority students may experience undue disciplinary action in school (Gregory et al.)
    • Race is strong predictor of the discipline gap
 
SUMMARY OF RESEARCH ON SOCIAL SKILLS
  • Social skills overlap extensively with other noncognitive factors
  • Without better delineation of social skills with other noncognitive factors it is hard to isolate the effects of social skills on academic performance
  • Social skills may be less (more) valued / practiced in schools that primarily focus on individual (cooperative) learning tasks
  • More research is needed that considers how classroom context affect how social skills contribute to student learning

 

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 Implementing social skills training can help students be more successful in a PBL environment that relies heavily on group work.   Social skills act as social enablers that help students better leverage learning opportunities.  Effective social skills programs tend to be administered by teachers, involve step-by-step demonstrations of skills, extend over time, and have clear and explicit goals.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Identify what social skills will help students succeed in the conditionals of your classrooms.
  • Write character learning targets that describe desirable social skills in student friend language.
  • Research scaffolding strategies that relate to targeted social that help students with social skills.  See Agency and Collaboration articles for ideas.
  • Design a program that will teach students how to develop social skills related to character learning targets over an extended period of time
  • Build a positive safe culture that values the social skills that will be promoted and taught over the course of time
Early Implementation Steps
  • Implement a program that will teach students how to develop social skills related to character learning targets over an extended period of time
  • Use student reflections and observations to see if program is working and to refine activities
  • Use student reflections to help students become more aware of whether or not social skills are improving their learning experiences
  • Be mindful of how discipline interventions may or may not be contributing to a discipline gap due to gender or race
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Use student data to identify what social skills scaffolding strategies are the most effective and incorporate these into classroom systems and routines

 

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147: Learning Strategies

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LEARNING STRATEGIES
  • Involve several processes:
    • metacognition:
      • knowing how to monitor one’s misunderstanding
    • self-regulated learning:
      • intentional use of metacognition to learn
      • selecting strategies and environments most conducive to learning
        • selecting effective strategies can become automatic as students become more expert in specific disciplines
      • monitoring learning processes to adjust effort to meet demands of those processes
      • fighting urge to give up on learning processes
      • multiple phases of self regulation:
        1. judging one’s cognitive abilities (judgment of learning or JOL)
          • seeing connections between current tasks and prior knowledge
          • assessing difficulty of tasks
          • using knowledge of what one knows and needs-to-know to apply more or less effort as needed
            • common pitfall – stopping effort too soon before knowledge is obtained
        2. assessing factors related to academic tasks and how they impact one’s learning
          • setting goals and planning to meet these
          • deciding on standards that will determine success of efforts
        3. selecting cognitive strategies that improve performance
          • changing strategies (if needed) to learn better
        4. major reconfiguration of student’s approach to future tasks based on experience
          • happens rarely
      • multiple phases are iterative in nature
      • types of self regulation processes:
        • Cognitive strategies:
          • practicing, rehearsal
          • organization and elaboration
            • organizing and elaborating on information is more effective than just remembering information
          • deep processing: applying study tactics such as
            • finding relationships between old and new material,
            • rearranging knowledge into meaningful structures (schematic)
        • Metacognitive strategies:
          • self-evaluations
          • goal setting and monitoring
        • Resource-oriented strategies:
          • information seeking
          • record keeping
          • seeking social assistance
          • creating favorable learning environments
    • goal setting
      • setting and regulating monitoring progress towards goals
      • changing approaches to better reach goals
  • Possible effects of learning strategies:
    • increase productivity of academic behaviors -> better academic performance
    • better academic performance -> better sense of self efficacy
    • better self efficacy -> more academic perseverance
    • better academic performance -> enhanced academic mindsets
  • Possible causes of learning strategies:
    • students with academic mindsets are more likely to use learning strategies
  • Possible effects of LACK OF of learning strategies:
    • poor academic behaviors -> poor academic performance
    • students are less likely to complete homework or study for tests when they lack strategies to do these tasks effectively
    • poor grades -> poor academic mindsets -> lessen academic perseverance
  • Possible causes of POOR learning strategies:
    • poor academic mindsets -> less likely to use learning strategies
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEARNING STRATEGIES AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE:
  • Students who use self regulation strategies tend to perform better in learning activities / tasks.
  • Students with high self efficacy tend to use metacognition and self regulation strategies more.
  • Self regulation is a strong predictor of academic achievement.
  • Students who perceive learning as understanding (not memorizing) tend to use more strategies to learn.
ARE LEARNING STRATEGIES MALLEABLE?
  • Metacognitive strategies can be learned.
  • Effective metacognitive strategies that can be taught:
    • awareness of textual inconsistency
    • self questioning to monitor and develop comprehension and to make one aware of problem solving steps
  • Use of several metacognitive strategies improved reading comprehension
  • Metacognitive strategies assist with learning at higher thinking levels
  • Teaching learnings strategies in context of a course makes better than teaching them in isolation
  • Transfer of learning strategies to new subjects requires:
    • basis of how strategy works
    • when / where strategy works
    • what it requires of learner
    • the farther the transfer, the more conditional knowledge is needed
  • Math cues that increased metacognition:
    • what is the problem about?
    • what steps would you use to solve this problem
    • these cues helped students draw on prior knowledge, identify problem structures, and evaluate effectiveness of problem solving processes
  • Bootstrapping approach to developing learning strategies:
    • students learn strategies through trial and error or by observing others
    • bootstrapping occurs more in students with academic mindsets
  • Limitation of research = based on self reporting of use of strategies
ROLE OF CLASSROOMS & DEVELOPMENT OF LEARNING STRATEGIES
  • Ways to improve learning
    • paying attention to their thinking as they read, write and problem solve
  • Learning strategies tend to be subject-specific -> content-area classrooms are key places to learn strategies
  • Classroom environments that foster academic mindsets make it more likely for students to apply learning strategies (not enough to simply teach strategies – need mindsets too)
CLASSROOM STRATEGIES THAT PROMOTE LEARNING STRATEGIES:
  • Timely ongoing feedback helps students monitor the effectiveness of their approaches to learning.
  • Self assessments of performance helps students practice metacognitive strategies of self-reflection and critique of learning.
  • Teach subject-specific metacognitive strategies.  See math cues above as examples.
  • Transfer of subject-specific strategies is more likely to occur when strategies are taught in context of a specific subject.
  • Reading specific metacognitive strategies that can be taught
    • recognizing when one doesn’t understand reading
    • using strategies to redirect and refocus comprehension such as
      • rereading,
      • back and forth search strategies,
      • self questioning – comparing text to prior knowledge
      • comparing main ideas of text with details of text
  • Strategies that can be taught:
    • students talk about their thinking as they plan their approach to an academic task
      • paired problem solving – one students explains how they will solve problem while another listens and asks clarifying questions
      • reciprocal teaching – dialog between teacher and students that involves text summaries, question generation, clarifications, and predictions of what till happen next
    • Thinker Tools Inquiry Curriculum
      • Physics curriculum that has students compare virtual experiments to experiments performed on actual objects
      • Encourages metacognition by having students reflect on their own processes of investigation
    • students can learn to identify challenges to academic behaviors and apply appropriate strategies to move forward
    • self regulation strategies that can be taught:
      • mental contrasting – comparing one’s vision for desired future with existing constraints / obstacles that can impede goals
      • implementation intentions – identifying steps to reach one’s goals  written in the form of if statements – if this happens, then I will do this …
      • Applying two strategies above can increase academic perseverance
    • literacy techniques:
      • previewing reading passages
      • restating main ideas in one’s own words
    • test taking strategies:
      • using note cards to quiz themselves
      • making up test questions
      • playing review games
    • goal setting strategies
      • setting aside regular time to set and monitor progress towards goals
CAN LEARNING STRATEGIES CLOSE ACHIEVEMENT GAPS?
  • Very few research studies were designed to investigate gender and race related effects
  • Lack of research is not a proof that this can work
RESEARCH SUMMARY
  • Learning strategies make academic behaviors more effective and more likely -> deeper learning and higher achievement
  • Students with academic mindsets are more likely to apply learning strategies.
  • Classrooms serve 2 key purposes – teach learning strategies and promote academic mindsets
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Teaching learning strategies can encourage students to pursue more effective academic behaviors long enough that they can help students learn.  Teaching subject-specific learning strategies helps students learn content.  Teaching students the underlying hows / whys / whens of specific learning strategies makes them more able to transfer those skills to other disciplines

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Analyze course and determine subject-specific learning strategies that are key to the success of students in the course
  • Research learning strategies.  See related articles below.
  • Select scaffolding activities that support key learning strategies for course.
  • Create classroom culture that promotes Academic mindsets
Early Implementation Steps
  • Implement scaffolding of learning strategies in the contexts where they are most useful.
  • Ask students to reflect on how learning strategies are affecting their learning.
  • Use student reflections to fine tune scaffolding of learning strategies.
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Use observations and student feedback on learning strategies to learn which strategies to incorporate into classroom routines.
  • Collect student stories of using learning strategies to overcome challenges in order to inspire future students
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146: Academic Mindsets

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Academic Mindsets:
  • Beliefs and attitudes towards learning that support academic performance
  • Simple short term interventions on mindsets have been shown to have lasting effects on student performance – may be just as important as changing the learning environment
  • Mindsets that contribute to academic performance:
    1. I belong in this academic community. (Relationships)
      • Feeling a part of part of learning community:
        • builds confidence and independence
        • feel greater sense of identify and also flexibility to support the community
        • more engagement
      • Feeling rejected by community leads to
        • feelings of incompetence and insecurity
        • lack of engagement
    2. My ability and competence grow with effort. (Growth mindset)
      • Students with growth mindsets are more likely to:
        • Use effort to build competence
        • Display academic behaviors that lead to high achievement
        • Attributing low performance to lack of effort tends toward greater efforts in the future
      • Students with fixed mindsets are more likely to:
        • Use opinions of others to discern ability
        • Less likely to be self-motivated and persistent
        • Ascribing failure to ability or conditions outside their control tends to less effort in the future
    3. I can succeed at this. (Confidence)
      • Students tend to be attracted to (repelled by) activities that make them feel competent (incompetentI
      • Feelings of self efficacy are positively related to perseverance
      • Belief in self efficacy is a prerequisite for sustained effort through challenges
    4. This work has value for me. (Relevance)
      • Being interested in topic creates intrinsic motivation for learning
      • Seeing ties to future work will make students more likely to engage in academic behaviors that lead to achievement
      • Feeling lack of relevance leads to poor academic behaviors
  • Mindsets can increase improve performance by improving perseverance.
  • Relationship between mindset and academic performance:
    • Brief treatments focused on student mindsets had lasting effects on student performance
    • Examples of treatments in experiments:
      • Watching videos to college students discussing their struggles and how their effort related to GPA growth over time (did better than students who watched video that made no mention of struggles and effort)
      • Writing letters to younger students about the malleability of ability in response to sustained effort (did better than group that wrote letters about multiple intelligences)
      • Advisory group (weekly, 25 min) that taught the malleability of intelligence
      • Writing about connection between science topics and their own lives (did better than group that just wrote summaries)
    • Caveats –
      • experiments had small sample groups
  • Are Academic Mindsets Malleable?
    • Research suggests that mindsets are malleable.  See above.
    • Racial group stigmatization creates a big challenges to feelings of belonging in specific subjects. To read why/how this effect math, read this article.
  • Role of Classroom Context in Changing Academic Mindsets:
    • Classroom conditions have major influences on all 4 mindsets that contribute to academic performance
    • Conditions that improve these attitudes include:
      • high expectations for success
      • academic challenges
      • student choice and autonomy in student work
      • clarity and relevance of learning goals
      • available of supports for learning
      • grading structure & policies
      • nature of academic tasks
      • type, usefulness and frequency of feedback on student work
      • classroom norms that create positive safe cultures
      • learning feels fun and relevant
      • reasonable expectations for learning material
    • Effects of social contexts:
      • frame what students think is possible (and not)
      • shapes sense of students’ capabilities
      • more likely to adopt the values of their social groups – can interfere with academic performance
  • School transitions:
    • Transitioning to new schools creates new challenges that can negatively impact attitudes – students are trying to:
      • reorient themselves to new academic and social demands
      • renegotiate sense of self and self efficacy
      • rebuild sense of belonging in a new community
    • Effects of growth mindset are most noticeable in transition periods because of the challenges student face in these phases
    • Effective interventions aim to:
      • normalize academic difficulty
      • bolster student sense of belonging
      • reinforce growth mindset
  • Recursive effects:
    • Good (poor) attitudes can contribute to positive (negative) feedback loops that lead to sustained success (failure)
    • Feedback loops can lead to self-validation of positive (negative) beliefs
    • Successful interventions aim to break up negative feedback loops
  • Clear Classroom Strategies for Developing Academic Mindsets:
    • Limited scope of experiments make them difficult to scale of classroom routines
    • Two approaches:
      • Change school structures to promote experiences that promote academic mindsets
      • Train students to have academic mindsets
      • 2nd approach is easier
    • Caveats:
      • Different social groups may need different interventions
      • Poor school climates may tarnish individuals’ academic mindsets
    • School Conditions that Promote Academic Mindsets:
  • Can Changing Academic Mindsets Close Achievement Gaps?
    • Mindset interventions have been shown to narrow gender and minority achievement gaps.
    • Mindset interventions can be used to combat negative effects of stereotype threat.

 

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Helpful academic mindsets have been found to improve student perseverance and achievement.  Small scale research projects have shown that modest interventions aimed at improving academic mindsets have had long term positive impacts on students.  The small scale and out-of-standard classroom contexts of these studies make it tricky to transfer their implications to classroom practices.  A lot of research has been conducted to identify classroom conditions that promote academic mindsets.  Improving classroom conditions and explicitly scaffolding student academic mindsets can have positive, long lasting affects on their performance.  Students who can benefit most from these interventions are women, minorities, and students who have just transitioned between school.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Design a pre-assessment that measures presence (or absence) of 4 academic beliefs in students.
  • Analyze pre-assessment and research strategies that promote attitudes / beliefs that are student gaps.
  • Evaluate classroom practices against the list of factors that promote academic mindsets.
  • Use analysis of classroom practices to recognize what needs to be reinforced and what needs to be improved
  • Research strategies for improving classroom practices that are gaps
Early Implementation Steps
  • Implement scaffolding activities that promote mindset that are their gaps after pre-assessment analysis)
  • Gather student reflection and academic data and analyze it to determine whether or not academic beliefs and performance are improving
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Ask students for feedback on what can be done to promote academic mindsets
  • Use list of classroom practices that promote academic mindsets to create a Likert scale questionnaire that students can use to give feedback on the presence (or absence) of key classroom conditions
  • Use feedback gathered from questionnaires to improve classroom conditions / strategies

 

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132: Mathematics & the Path to Equity

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The Elitist Structure of Mathematics
  • Elitist views place math as subject harder than other subjects that can only be accessed by a select few.
  • Math is taught as a performance subject that weeds out people with & without the math gene
  • Some people enjoy sorting mechanism of math because they have been sorted into the side of the limited Have’s
  • Some people enjoy thinking that their math ability is due to genetic superiority
  • Sometimes math teachers feel like they are superior to teachers who teach other subjects
    • these same teachers may feel justified in failing many students because they feel like they are the guardians of math success and only stars can move to higher levels
  • Some university math departments lower grades of students who display hard work habits such as attending office hours
The Myth of the Mathematically Gifted Child
  • Even math geniuses had to work hard to be able to produce relevant work
  • “Gifted” status awarded to students who can do things quickly, not necessarily kids who work hard and are persistent
    • Myth of genetic difference can make “gifted” students intellectually brittle because they may end of devoted a lot of energy to protecting their gifted identities
  • Valuing “giftedness” over hard work may cause:
    • high achievers to hide or underemphasize the effort they exerted to achieve
    • hard workers to feel like imposters because they had to work hard to achieve
  • Elitist math views + stereotypes of who can be good at math create large equity gaps in math
    • in 2014 – 73% math doctorates were male, 94% were white or Asian
    • the more a field values giftedness, the less likely are women and minorities to enter the field
  • Rushing students to higher levels of math can dilute the depth at which they understand fundamental concepts and processes
    • could lead to students who are procedurally fast, but can’t explain rationale for procedures
Equitable Strategies
  1. Offer all students high-level content.  
  2. Work to change ideas about who can do mathematics.
  3. Encourage students to think deeply about mathematics.
    • The desire to think and understand deeply is more critical to math achievement than the ability to perform procedures quickly.
    • Include experiences that are
      • hands-on
      • project-based
      • tied to real life applications
      • allow for collaboration
  4. Teach students to work together.
    • Shared struggles make challenges less intimidating
    • Discussing math helps people make sense of it
  5. Give lots of encouragement to people who are normally left out (women and minorities).
    • Do not comfort kids by buying into their “I’m just not a math person” fixed mindsets
    • Anyone can perform poorer when they are on the under-side of a stereotype of performance
  6. Eliminate (or at least change the nature of) homework.
    • Homework spreads low income equity achievement gap because low income students have less time and less resources while completing homework
      • inequities are magnified when class starts with homework review
    • Instead of practice problems, offer reflection questions such as
      • what was the main idea learned today?
      • what is something you are struggling or have questions about?
      • how could lessons from today be applied in real life?
    • Instead of practice problems, offer inquiry problems that have students seek out examples of current concepts in their lives

 

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Uncovering the elitist structures embedded into the structures of math curricula and the attitudes it promotes can help teachers be more aware of how to revise their practices to close equity gaps.  Equitable teaching practices have been shown to have a greater impact than minority role models.  This empowers any teacher to practice strategies that can close achievement gaps.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Research specific strategies related to equitable practices listed above.
  • Examine practices and attitudes critically to see if any are directly or indirectly elitist.
  • Develop strategies, visuals, and lesson plans that eliminate elitist views of math and replace them with growth mindset views of math.
Early Implementation Steps
  • Implement policies, visuals, scaffolding and assessments that combat elitist views of math and promote growth mindset views of math.
  • Teach students skills related to math achievement:
    • brainstorming
    • communicating
    • sense making
    • drawing to understand
    • reflecting
    • collaborating, etc
  • Use student feedback to fine tune policies, scaffolding and assessments
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Assess students attitudes over time to see if their views of math and their place in it is changing over time
  • Research and implement strategies that set high expectations and also offer high levels of support to all math learners
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129: Creativity & Beauty of Mathematics

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Traditional School Math & Math Misconceptions
  • Math is hated/feared because it is taught and thought of in ways that are different from other subjects.
  • Primary role of students in traditional math classrooms is to perform and get questions right.
  • Performing takes precedence over learning.
  • Testing culture promotes idea that math is about finding short answers to narrow questions under pressure.
  • Math is a subject of procedures, calculations and rules.
  • Math is a dead subject that is only present in textbook calculations.
  • Math is a series of answers to questions that nobody asks in the real world.
  • Math in classrooms focuses primary on Stage 3 of math stages (see below)
  • Student shouldn’t have to show work if their answer is right.
  • Math is done by individuals.
  • People who are good at math perform calculations QUICKLY.  Math is a speed race.
 
Real Nature of Mathematics
  • Besides getting question right, doing math involves:
    • appreciating beauty of math
    • thinking deeply
    • exploring math connections
    • applying math to different situations
    • exploring patterns
    • using math to create and analyze new technology and strategies
    • formulating questions
  • Math exists throughout nature, art, and the world.
  • Nature contains many examples of mathematics
    • spiders are experts in spirals
    • dolphins use a form of algebra to interpret echolocation signals
  • Instead of study of procedures, calculations and rules, math is
    • study of patterns (aesthetic, beauty of subject)
    • subject of visual images, creativity and connections
    • subject that is full of uncertainty – answers can be explorations, interpretations, conjectures
    • set of ideas, connections and relationships that we can use to make sense of the world
  • 4 Stages of Math Work
    1. Posing a question
    2. Going from real world to a mathematical model
    3. Performing a calculation
    4. Going from model back to real world to see if original question was answered
  • Real math is often done collaboratively
  • Speed of calculations has nothing to do with math fluency.
 
How to Align Math Schooling with Real Mathematics
  • Give students opportunities to consider situation and formulate math problems to investigate these situations
  • Give students opportunities to use all 4 math stages
  • Require students to show work because displaying logical mathematical lines of reasoning is the main part of doing math
  • Facilitate math discussions about mathematical reasoning (what it is, how to critique and justify it)
  • Pose open-end problems and allow students to develop methods and pathways to solutions
 
Workforce Implications
  • Employers need people who can ask good questions, set up models, analyze results and interpret mathematical answers.
  • Employers no longer need people to calculate; now they need people to think and reason
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Math misconceptions have crept into the design of math curricula.  These math misconceptions have made the subject appear uninteresting and unappealing to some.  Knowing the true nature of mathematics can help teachers design learning experiences for students that are engaging, challenging and relevant to the real world.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Research more methods for designing learning experiences that are more true to the math discipline.  See Mathematics articles.
  • Research strategies for 4 Phases of Math (see above).
  • Create a culture that values mistakes.  See this article for ideas.
  • Design scaffolding that includes elements such as:
    • balance of 4 phases of math
    • facilitated math discussions about mathematical reasoning
    • pattern recognition
    • students posing questions and possible solutions
    • student creating models for the real world
Early Implementation Steps
  • Implement scaffolding that provides students with many opportunities to appreciate and practice real mathematical thinking
  • Have students reflect on how their math attitudes are changing as a result of math activities that deliberately mimic the math discipline
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Provide students with opportunities to solve real world problems using math
  • Provide students with opportunities to interact with real world stakeholders in order to pose better questions, formulate better models, learn better calculation methods and compare/interpret their results to real situations
  • Try to brainstorm what math looks like when mapped unto the 6 Facets of Understanding and Bloom’s taxonomy

 

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128: The Power of Mistakes & Struggle

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Mistakes & the Brain:
  • Mistakes grown synapses.
  • Mistakes generate more brain activity than correct responses.
  • 2 brain responses to mistakes:
    1. ERN responses – increased electrical activity due to conflict between correct response and an error
    2. Pe responses – brain signal due to recognition of error
  • Brain sparks can occur even when people are unaware that mistakes were made
  • People with growth mindset show more brain activity in response to mistakes and are more likely to recognize errors
Mistakes & Life
  • More successful people make more mistakes than less successful people
  • Making mistakes is key to creative, entrepreneurial thinking
  • Successful people tend to:
    • feel comfortable being wrong
    • try wild ideas
    • are open to different experiences
    • play with ideas without judging them
    • persist through difficulties
    • willing to go against tradition
  • Practicing the attitudes above can help people learn math (or probably anything)
How Can We Change How Students View Mistakes?
  • Teach students about the positive impacts of mistakes on the brain
  • Crumble paper with mistakes, throw it against something to let out frustration.  Then open it and smooth it out and trace over crumple lines with marker to remind oneself of brain growth as result of mistake.  Then keep paper as a record of mistakes.
  • Teach and display positive brain messages.
  • Have teachers and students select and highlight “favorite mistakes”.
  • Have class discussions about mistakes.
  • Do not downgrade assignments for mistakes – upgrade assignments for mistakes.
  • Avoid over-testing and over-grading.
  • Display positive attitudes towards mistakes in group and individual settings.
  • Remind students repeatedly about brain growth that goes with mistakes and lack of brain growth that goes with correct responses
  • Teach students to appreciate & be aware of disequilibrium (Piaget) – state of disequilibrium occurs when students try to incorporate new information into existing mental maps – states of disequilibrium are uncomfortable but lead to wisdom
  • Expose students to math experiences that create disequilibrium
  • Value work with mistakes more than correct work
  • Make showing of mistakes a common occurrence in classroom and discussing how to think through the mistake

 

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Knowing about the impact of mistakes on the brain can teach students and teachers to value mistakes more and leverage them better to grow.  Knowing strategies for creating cultures that value mistakes will help students develop growth mindsets and help them to approach mistakes creatively and constructively.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Research strategies for creating classroom cultures that value mistakes.  See above.
  • Develop scaffolding activities and strategies that will be used to teach & remind students of the value of mistakes.
Early Implementation Steps
  • Implement policies, strategies, and scaffolding lessons that value student mistakes such as:
    • Presenting (teachers & students) mistakes and hold classroom discussion around them
    • Crumple paper strategy (see above)
    • Creating situations that will place students in disequilibrium and funnel students towards learning targets
    • Teaching students about the relationship between brain activity and mistakes
    • Selecting favorite mistakes and why they are so helpful
    • Reflections on how new attitudes towards mistakes impact learning
    • Using grading policies that value errors
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Create bank of problems that create disequilibrium that explore big ideas in mathematics
  • Create bank of discussion and question prompts that highlight and analyze mistakes

 

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111: Academic Perseverance

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Academic perseverance:
  • related to student effort and quality of academic behavior
  • initial and sustained momentum
  • helpful for short-term and long-term achievement
  • can be impacted by academic mindsets, academic skills, learning strategies, personality
  • grit: sticking to long-term goals despite obstacles
  • self-control: foregoing short-term temptations to prioritize higher goals
Grit & self control
  • 10 years of sustained practice to become an expert
  • grit involves working steadfastly on one goal over sustained period of time
  • Grit Scale – measures 2 dimensions of grit – consistency of interests & persistence of effort
  • self control – ability to avoid impulsive behavior and fulfill short-term obligations (e.g. reading test instructions before starting questions)
Relationship between academic perseverance and academic performance:
  • evidence that grit can make up for lack in tested achievement in standardized tests
  • measures of self control correlate to grades
Is academic perseverance malleable?
  • it’s harder to change overall grit which research shows to be a more fixed characteristic of people’s characteristics
  • more specific academic perseverance is responsive to context
Role of classroom context in shaping academic perseverance:
  • classroom contexts that support students’ success at tasks and provide students with strategies to make tasks easier tend to encourage academic perseverance
  • contexts that discourage success can decrease academic perseverance
  • strategies tied perseverance – time management, managing study environment, rehearsal, effort regulation
  • contexts can shape academic mindsets which affect perseverance
Actionable strategies for increasing strategies:
  • Direct strategies:
    • teaching behaviors associated with impulse control and persistence
    • not a lot of research on long term effects of these methods
  • Indirect strategies:
    • supporting academic mindsets
      • helping students feel greater sense of belonging, engagement and confidence can enhance persistence
    • teaching learning strategies
      • correlated to completed homework completion
Summary of research:
  • little known on how to make people grittier in many contexts
  • promoting positive academic mindsets can build specific academic persistence
  • teaching learning strategies can help students complete hard tasks
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Enhancing students’ academic perseverance can increase both the quantity and quality of their academic work.  Knowing how to create contexts and teach strategies that increase student academic persistence can help them succeed better and more at challenging academic tasks.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Research mindsets and skills that relate to academic persistence
  • Create character learning targets that describe sills related to academic persistence
  • Research and design learning activities that help students achieve character learning targets related to academic persistence
  • Use Grit Scale to pre-assess students’ persistence levels
Early Implementation Steps
  • implement activities that promote mindsets and teach academic skills related to academic persistence
  • Have students reflect on how they are progressing towards character learning targets related to academic persistence
  • Use multiple measures of Grit Scale to see scaffolding related to academic persistence is having any effects on students’ grit levels
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Have students identify the factors  strategies that are having the most positive impacts on their grit levels and incorporates these into classroom systems and routines

 

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110: Academic Behaviors

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Relationship between academic behaviors & academic performance:
  • attendance and study habits are better predictors for high grades than test scores and demographics
  • small differences in attendance can have large effects on performance
  • time spent on homework positively impacts performance
  • academic behaviors directly influence grades because grades often measure products of academic behaviors
  • indirectly, academic behaviors affect grades by improve students’ ability to understand and produce high quality work and improve rapport between students and teachers
How does classroom context shape academic behaviors?
  • can affect behaviors indirectly by enhancing other related non-congitive factors such as student confidence, student engagement, and student study skills
  • can affect behavior directly through behavioral expectations and strategies
Strategies for developing academic behaviors:
  • closely monitoring and providing support on student behaviors such as classroom attendance can positively impact them
  • school-wide initiatives can work – especially those aimed at improving student-teacher relationships
  • some other strategies (whose effects have not been researched) include:
    • requiring students to write assignments into planners
    • starting homework assignments in class to get students started
    • providing clear and explicit instructions for assignments
Summary of research:
  • academic behaviors are the most proximal non-cognitive factors related to student performance
  • there are many indirect ways to improve academic behaviors
  • academic behaviors strongly influence grades
  • academic behaviors are malleable
  • little evidence that working solely on academic behaviors can eliminate gaps related to race and gender
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Academic behaviors such as class attendance, homework completions, and active classroom participation directly and indirectly affect classroom performance.  Because 4 other non-cognitive factors realize academic success through academic behaviors, there are multiple ways (direct and indirect) to improve academic behaviors.  Implementing strategies for improving student academic behaviors can improve their performance.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Create character learning targets related to key academic behaviors
  • Create learning activities and assessments related to character learning targets
Early Implementation Steps
  • Implement learning activities and assessments related to character learning targets that relate to academic behaviors
  • Measure academic behaviors to see how they relate to strategies and student performance
  • Have students track data and reflect on patterns that relate academic behaviors to strategies and academic performance
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Use strategies like standards based grading tied to character learning targets to track and enhance skills related to key academic behaviors
  • Have students identify the strategies that most improve their academic behaviors and incorporate these into their personal routines

 

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109: 5 Non-Cognitive Factors Related to Academic Performance

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  1. Academic Behaviors:
    • “good student” behaviors
    • examples: high attendance, coming prepared to class, staying on task, completing homework, etc.
    • important for achievement
    • all other non-cognitive factors work through academic behaviors to get results
  2. Academic Perseverance:
    • completing academic tasks on task to best of one’s ability despite challenges
    • related attitudes: grit, persistence, delayed gratification, self discipline, self control
  3. Academic Mindsets:
    • beliefs that relate to academic work
    • 4 key examples:
      1. I belong in this academic community
        • relates to idea that learning is a social activity
        • feeling of belonging to a learning community improves student performance
      2. My ability and competence grow with effort
        • growth mindset
      3. I can succeed at this
        • people tend to embrace things they think they can do and avoid things they believe they can’t
      4. This work has value for me
        • attainment value: doing well on a task
        • intrinsic value: gaining enjoyment on task
        • utility value: task serves an important purpose
  4. Learning Strategies:
    • strategies that enhance thinking
    • examples:  strategies for …
      • better recall
      • monitoring comprehension
      • self correcting
      • goal setting
      • time management
  5. Social skills:
    • examples: cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy
    • behaviors that improve social interactions
Their model of how these 5 factor relate to academic behavior is shown below:

 

model

 

  • Interesting features of the model:
    • academic mindsets can give rise to social skills, academic behaviors, academic perseverance, and learning strategies
    • academic mindsets, social skills, academic perseverance, and learning strategies use academic behaviors as a vehicle for achieving academic performance
    • using learning strategies can lead to more academic perseverance and more academic behaviors that lead to academic performance
    • academic performance can influence academic mindsets

 

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Knowing the research-backed factors that improve academic performance can help teachers plan classroom management systems that build the skills, mindsets, and attitudes that support academic success.  Having a model for how these factors interact can help one understand how focusing on one factor can influence the other factors.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Conduct more research on factors related to academic success.  See Agency articles and hyperlinked articles above for ideas.
  • Create character learning targets based on key features of 5 non cognitive factors listed above
  • Research strategies and activities that can be implemented to reach character learning targets related to 5 non cognitive factors
Early Implementation Steps
  • Throughout the year, facilitate activities and strategies that help students reach character learning targets
  • Use formative assessments and related reflections related to Agency rubric to see if activities and strategies are improving students’ agency
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Use student reflections and assessment results to identify most effective strategies.  Incorporate these into classroom routines.
  • Use model (see graphic above) to help students see and reflect upon the connections between skills, attitudes, behaviors and performance
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105: Setting Goals & Giving Feedback

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Research on Goal Setting
  • Goal settting – setting a direction for learning
  • 3 Research Generalizations
    1. Instructional goals narrow what to focus on
      • need to be careful about what goals students focus on because this focusing effect can lead them to ignore important info
    2. Instructional goals should not be too specific
      • Effective objectives have 3 characteristics
        1. performance – what learning should be able to do when goal is met
        2. conditions – context for performance
        3. criterion – specific descriptions of meeting performance standards
      • Caveat – objectives that meet 3 criteria may be too specific to accommodate individual learning
    3. Students should be encouraged to personalize teacher’s goals
      • Setting goals in contractual setting – students set goals and contract grade they will get for meeting those goals
Classroom Tips related to Goal Setting:
  • Provide general learning goals and have students develop related personal goals from these
  • Classroom contracts – base grades on students’ ability to set and meet personal academic goals / timelines
Research on Providing Feedback
  1. Feedback should be corrective in nature – i.e. provide specific feedback on what’s correct (and not)
    • providing students with correct answers doesn’t seem to improve performance
    • need to provide related explanations to correct answers to improve performance
    • keeping students working on task until they get it right seems to improve achievement
  2. Feedback should be timely
    • the greater the delay in feedback, the less positive impact on performance
    • giving tests one day after learning experience seems to be optimal
    • feedback immediately after test-like activity appears to enhance performance
  3. Feedback should be specific to criterion
    • Norm-based feedback compares student performance to other students’ performance.  This is not effective
    • Criterion-based feedback compares student performance to academic criteria.  This is more effective than norm-based feedback.
  4. Students can effectively provide some feedback
    • Students can track own learning and get good results.
Classroom Tips related to Feedback:
  • Criterion referenced feedback
    • Use rubrics that show different levels of knowledge and skills
  • Feedback on specific types of knowledge and skill
    • when possible try to focus feedback on specific learning targets
    • cumulative letter grades do not provide enough information to improve performance
  • Student-led feedback
    • Student led feedback can improve achievement.  See this article for ideas on how to scaffold good descriptive feedback.

 

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Project baed learning (PBL) can offer many opportunities for students to set personal goals.  One way to achieve this is to launch projects with broad provocative essential questions (driving questions) that students can personalize for their own projects.  Another way to do this is to gives students voice and choice over the format of their products.  One extreme example of this is multigenre projects.

 

Throughout the project, timely corrective feedback is key to supporting students’ success.  Providing timely feedback on work days can help students improve their understanding and their products.  Providing timely feedback during scaffolding activities and immediately after assessments can help students improve their knowledge and skills.

 

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Preparation Steps
  • Decide what strategies and tools you will use to support student goal setting.
  • Decide what strategies and tools you will use to provide timely feedback.
  • Design rubrics with descriptive, leveled criteria that can help provide efficient, timely descriptive feedback.
  • Use technology such as Nearpod, Socrative, etc. that can be used to give students timely feedback on assessments.
Early Implementation Steps
  • Set aside class time for students to set and track their goals and reflect on the strategies they are using (or not using) to achieve their goals
  • Set aside time for team meetings during work days to give students specific feedback based on the rubric on their products.  Have students clarify and summarize feedback and plan next steps at the meetings.
Advanced Implementation Steps
  • Engage students in tracking their progress towards long term skills / academic goals.
  • Use advanced techniques such as standards based grading to give students specific feedback over time.

 

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