Part 3 of 8 | All learning requires mental effort—powering up our brains to stay focused on something long enough for new information to sink into our long-term memories. As a result, we only learn what we commit to learning, which often boils down to two simple factors, expectancy and value—that is, believing we are capable of learning something and seeing value in learning it.
Part 2 of 8 | To learn anything, our brains must pay attention to it. Hence, we really only learn what we find interesting, what makes us curious, or what seems valuable to learn. If we skip this phase and jump right into learning we are, in effect, asking students to rack their brains to come up with their own reasons for being interested in what we’re teaching them. Yet as research shows, going online is already exhausting, so it’s even more important to make remote learning interesting.
Part 1 of 8 | What have some teachers been doing to make their remote learning experiences engaging while many others are, well, unbearable? Contrary to popular perception, it has not been an abundance of digital gimmicks or gizmos, but rather, a consistent, thoughtful focus on the fundamentals of instructional design.
Teachers need a sense of efficacy to succeed. That can be a hard thing to maintain in the best of times, and during the pandemic a “subtle yet pernicious dynamic” has made matters worse, McREL’s Bryan Goodwin and Susan Shebby write in the December/January issue of ASCD’s Educational Leadership. The issue is dedicated to mental health for educators.
Outdoor learning, which has a long but little-known history, has experienced something of a renaissance thanks to COVID-19, say Tracie Corner and Bryan Goodwin from McREL in the latest Research Matters column for ASCD’s Educational Leadership magazine. Small studies of “forest schools” abroad suggest multiple behavioral and educational benefits beyond the current goal of keeping people out of stuffy rooms.
With technology playing a huge and growing role in all our lives, it’s unfortunate that many K–12 students are just now being exposed to computer science and STEM education in some parts of our country. Beyond the technical know-how that STEM classes deliver, a well-designed STEM program can also promote curiosity, lifelong growth, and the interpersonal and problem-solving skills that employers need.
Trauma—something more and more students are learning about the hard way—is the theme for this month’s Educational Leadership magazine. McREL’s Bryan Goodwin and Lisa M. Jones contributed a Research Matters column on a tool that all teachers have access to and that can address some of the effects of trauma: writing.
