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Vol. 76

No. 5

Abstract

Special Dilemma

A Mirror into Teaching Practices

Applying an Equity Lens

Committing to Equity

How can educators ensure that technology-rich learning experiences aren't restricted to the most privileged students?

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Abstract

Special Dilemma

A Mirror into Teaching Practices

Applying an Equity Lens

Committing to Equity

Two major findings stand out from the past 50 years of research on educational technology. First, when teachers get access to new technologies, they typically use them to extend existing practices. Tablet computers replace notebooks, smartboards function like overhead projectors, learning management systems are used to distribute digital worksheets.

In recent years, educators have used the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition) model to describe the ideal trajectory of teachers as learners with new technology. The very same general pattern can be found in Judith Sandholtz's research from the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow project in the 1980s and the five-phase model that she defines as Entry, Adoption, Adaptation, Appropriation, and Invention (Dwyer, Ringstaff, & Sandholtz, 1991). Both models illustrate two things. First, most teachers need to go through a developmental process of professional learning to achieve more ambitious transformations of teaching through technology. Yet most teachers do not do so. I state this as an empirical observation and not necessarily as a criticism.

Second, the teachers who do develop innovative uses of technology are more commonly in learning environments that serve affluent and advantaged students. Most educators are familiar with the "digital divide" as the gap in access to new technologies found between more and less affluent students, families, or school communities. In the early 2000s, sociologist Paul Attewell (2001) proposed a second digital divide: the usage divide. In his research, Attewell used anthropological observations in schools and classrooms to document the different levels of parent support at home and content rigor in schools. Even when access gaps are closed, white and affluent students are more likely to use technology for creativity and problem solving with greater levels of mentorship from adults, while students from minority groups and low-income neighborhoods use technology more commonly for routine drills with lower levels of adult support.

The base of empirical research for this second claim is now robustly established, as my colleague Mimi Ito and I (2017) argue in a recent report, "From Good Intentions to Real Outcomes: Equity by Design in Learning Technologies." With the widespread adoption of large-scale digital learning environments over the last 20 years, we have even more granular data to investigate this phenomenon. In research that I conducted on classroom uses of wikis (Reich, Murnane, & Willett, 2012), I found that schools serving more affluent communities were more likely to have students create wikis and use them for student-led activities, whereas in schools serving low-income neighborhoods, wikis were more likely to be used as teacher-centered, content delivery tools. Similarly, when MOOCs burst onto the scene six years ago, there was great hope that they could democratize access to higher education. However, we've shown strong correlations both globally and within the United States between markers of affluence and both the likelihood of enrolling in and completing a MOOC (Hansen & Reich, 2015; Kizilcec et al., 2017).

Extending Attewell's anthropological work into the 21st century, researchers like Matt Rafalow (2018) have documented that depending on the population, adults in schools can treat kids very differently for the same behaviors. He observed that in an affluent, mostly white school, when kids played around with computers, computer games, and maker activities, they were celebrated as hackers, with adults acknowledging connections between digital play and future opportunities in a digital workforce and civic sphere. In a school serving mainly Latino students, however, kids who engaged in similar activities were viewed more negatively by adults: They were regarded as slackers, and their behavior was treated as deviant.

Attewell's cautions from 2001 ring true today: "[There is a] real possibility that computing for already-disadvantaged children may be dominated by games at home and unsupervised drill-and-practice or games at school, while affluent children enjoy educationally richer fare with more adult involvement."

Special Dilemma

Thus, school districts that serve diverse student bodies-or homogenous student bodies in poverty-impacted communities-face a special dilemma in technology adoption and integration. Technology adoption can accelerate inequalities within individual schools. During my doctoral research, I surveyed teachers and observed classrooms across the country with respect to their adoption of what were then called "Web 2.0" tools for creating content collaboratively online. I routinely heard teachers say that when they designed new units that emphasized digital learning, they deployed them more commonly in their advanced track classes, where classroom management and content pacing were less daunting challenges. Since tracking closely correlates with race and income, this suggested that in practice, teachers devoted their ed-tech planning energy toward their already (comparably) affluent and advantaged students.

That said, however, we must also remember that differences in technology adoption can accelerate inequalities between schools. The recent documentary "Without a Net" features two schools in the Philadelphia-area that are only five miles apart: one suburban high school has a fully stocked robotics lab where students program Raspberry Pi computers to steer robots through challenges. The neighboring high school closer to the city has virtually no technology and an unusably slow internet connection (watch the film at digitaldivide.com ). 1 As technology transforms civic life, the trades, professions, industries, and academic disciplines, it becomes increasingly difficult to prepare students for a networked future without equitably engaging them in networked learning in schools.

A Mirror into Teaching Practices

What strategies can school leaders and teachers use to address these barriers to equitable digital learning? I wrote the first half of this article with great confidence: The research on the challenges of educational technology and equity is well-established. The second half is much more speculative: Educational researchers can speak with less confidence on how to address the problem. There is an urgent need for researchers, technology funders, developers, and classroom educators to come together and discover how best to ensure that emerging technologies serve the students furthest from opportunity. In the meantime, here's the best advice I have, based on my own observations and experiences.

Applying an Equity Lens

Teachers' use of technology is generally reflective of other pedagogical proclivities. The recent report "The Opportunity Myth" argues that many students simply aren't given access to rigorous, on-grade-level materials (TNTP, 2018), findings that echo those in Jeannie Oakes's (2005) landmark book Keeping Track. If students aren't encouraged to engage with a challenging curriculum, it doesn't matter whether they learn from that curriculum on paper or on a computer. If teachers approach their students with a deficit mindset, the students' sense of self-efficacy withers either way.

I do not mean to argue that the problem of low expectations needs to be fixed before attending to issues of digital equity; in fact, sometimes large-scale technology adoptions can be powerful moments for educators to reflect on the larger questions around what students are capable of. But I do believe that in many schools, digital equity is inextricably linked to pedagogical and structural inequity more broadly. The first step toward digital equity is helping educators learn everything they can about equitable teaching practices in general.

Even if technology usage patterns are closely tied to larger patterns of bias in education, however, there are some distinct steps that school leaders can take to break the patterns of ed tech being primarily used for isolated, low-rigor activities.

Reframe adult thinking: In my field research, I found a striking pattern in how teachers discussed technology and equity. Nearly every teacher that I talked to was concerned with educational equity, but some were more focused on inequalities within schools ("Some of my students don't have access to technology"), whereas others were more focused on inequalities between schools ("My students in the city don't have the same opportunities as kids in the suburbs"). What I discovered, interestingly, is that the former concern typically led to more limited tech usage in classrooms: Teachers who focused on within-school inequalities tended to limit practices that couldn't be conducted equitably. For instance, they often avoided assigning projects that involved technology usage outside of class-learning experiences that are common in more affluent schools.

By contrast, when I met with the few teachers who did happen to be doing innovative work with ed tech in low-resource settings, those teachers tended to be more concerned with between-school inequalities. That perspective on inequality fueled their commitment to opening classrooms early and late and making resources available in libraries and after school, so that their students could use technology in novel ways even if access outside of the classroom was a challenge. I don't mean to suggest that my informal research findings are definitive proof of a trend, but I think school leaders can productively engage their faculty in conversations about how we as educators think about inequality, and how our framings impact our choices. One useful entry point might be two books by media scholar S. Craig Watkins- The Digital Edge (NYU Press, 2018) and Don't Knock the Hustle (Beacon Press, in press). Both books approach the creative online endeavors of low-income black and Latino youth through an asset framing, showing teachers a broader view of what's possible for all students.

Connect to students' outside interests: Matt Rafalow's research on how educators view the technology use of affluent students more favorably than that of less affluent students opens the door to conversations about bias. Kids' interests-in music, games, making, hacking, and so on-should be seen as gateways to engagement and opportunity. One approach to reframe these conversations is to explore the body of ideas called Connected Learning developed by Mimi Ito and colleagues (2013). Connected Learning advocates argue that schools undervalue the learning activities that students do outside of school, particularly when those activities don't naturally connect to traditional academic subjects. Kids who barely scratch out a few sentences to a standardized test prep question might be writing thousands of words of Warrior Cats fan fiction at home at night. How can teachers, parents, and informal educators help the young girl writing rap lyrics and remixing tracks in the afternoon see connections to careers in communications, sound engineering, or related fields? The rapidly growing eSports leagues, where schools sponsor teams to compete in online games like Overwatch and League of Legends, can provide opportunities for students to connect their interests in gaming to career opportunities in programming, marketing, communications, and other fields. Networked technologies can play a powerful role in connecting kids' interests outside of school with learning opportunities in schools, after-school programs, and other third spaces.

Engage families: Some of the most exciting research in digital equity involves engaging families. TechGoesHome in Boston is a program that provides low-income families with low-cost laptops, along with learning opportunities about how to use computers for work, leisure, and learning. Kids not only get a computer in the house, they get a more tech-savvy parent who is better equipped to support them with homework and other school projects. Similarly, Family Creative Learning is a project out of the University of Colorado that seeks to build young people's capacity around creative computing and making by engaging the whole family in multi-generational learning (Roque, 2016). If it takes a village to raise a child, then teaching whole villages is a promising strategy for digital equity.

Require opportunities for all: Schools should pay particular attention to where students get rich digital learning opportunities in their courses, and who can and does take advantage of these opportunities. In some schools, digital learning primarily takes place in computer programming or other technology classes. When these classes are electives or optional after-school activities, white and Asian boys are disproportionately more likely to opt-in, which shuts out girls and underrepresented minorities. Students have more equitable access to these learning experiences when they are required in the curriculum, either through new classes or through the integration of programming in math and science classes, with the help of programs like Bootstrap (teaching Algebra through computer game design) or Project GUTS (incorporating computer simulation in middle school science). As school leaders make plans for where digital learning happens in the curriculum, they must consider adopting pathways that engage all students and look carefully at how optional programs can functionally exclude students who are already underrepresented in technology.

Conduct an audit: Finally, educators cannot address problems that they don't understand in their local context. Conduct an audit of rich digital learning opportunities in your school: If they accrue primarily to more affluent students in advanced tracks or to boys in particular courses, consider how curriculum mapping and course planning could make those opportunities more equitably distributed. Survey parents to figure out how comfortable they feel providing support for digital learning and develop rich learning experiences to help them provide better coaching and monitoring at home. Ask teachers how much considerations of equity enter into their planning around educational technology. If the topic elicits thoughtful answers, figure out how teachers with the most considered ideas can share their practices; if the topic elicits short responses, use the salience of digital equality to start a broader conversation about equity among your faculty.

Committing to Equity

There are no silver bullets in education. There is no problem that educational technology will magically solve. The hard parts of creating equitable schools will remain hard. But the great potential of educational technology to improve teaching and learning will only be realized if our ed-tech efforts go hand in hand with a commitment to digital equity.

Guiding Questions

› How do you factor in equity, beyond access, as you plan for technology integration in your school or classroom?

› Can you think of a time that you used technology to simply extend existing practices in your classroom? How could you have approached that lesson or activity more meaningfully?

› Have you and your colleagues considered conducting an audit of digitally rich learning opportunities in your school or district? What do you think such an analysis would find in terms of possible digital divides among students?

End Notes

1 Full disclosure: I was featured in the "Without a Net" documentary, which was produced by Verizon. The consulting firm that I founded, EdTechTeacher, provides professional development for the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools Program

ASCD is a community dedicated to educators' professional growth and well-being.

Let us help you put your vision into action.

We create practical, timely, affordable professional learning to help educators and instructional leaders provide students with a modern, equitable, and quality education.

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How can educators ensure that technology-rich learning experiences aren't restricted to the most privileged students?

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By Roberto Rodríguez, Assistant Secretary, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, and Kristina Ishmael, Deputy Director, Office of Educational Technology
During the U.S. Department of Education's National Digital Equity Summit, Secretary Miguel Cardona emphasized that "interagency collaboration matters." Siloing efforts to close the digital divide between different sectors can impede the capacity for collective, sustainable impact.

Through the broadband and digital equity programs included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), led by the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), we have an opportunity to fully harness the power of partnerships between state educational agencies and broadband leaders, toward a shared vision of digital equity.

To achieve the vision articulated in the BIL for a future where all "individuals and communities have the information technology capacity that is needed for full participation in the society and economy," the Department urges state leaders to collaboratively strategize to advance digital opportunities for all learners.

As part of the first phase of implementing these programs, states will develop digital equity plans throughout 2023. Already, several states are already exemplifying such collaboration in their initial steps towards building a state digital equity plan. Broadband leaders in Georgia have invited the state's education agency to be an active member of its interagency advisory committee, while the California Department of Technology is partnering with their counterparts at the California Department of Education to develop tactics for collecting input from school communities throughout the state.

Given their experiences navigating the pandemic, identifying barriers and strategies, developing trusted relationships in communities, and building digital skills, education leaders can provide essential perspectives on how to meet the needs of " covered populations " required by the BIL. This kind of interagency dialogue at the state level can further help answer key questions such as:

What existing data and ongoing evaluations can the education sector provide to help identify the needs of different learner populations served by schools, higher education institutions, adult learning providers, and other education partners?

How can education leaders help ensure that local communities are involved in co-creating and evaluating the merits of different digital inclusion strategies? For example, how can education leaders activate learners, families, and educators to participate in surveys, community meetings, focus groups, and public comment periods announced by the state digital equity planners?

How can members of the education sector serve as trusted assets when implementing digital inclusion strategies, such as those described in OET's Advancing Digital Equity for Allresource?

How can education leaders contribute to the sustainability of strategies outlined in digital equity plans? For example, how can resources described in OET's Dear Colleague Letter be braided with funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in support of shared goals and objectives?

As the country recovers from the pandemic, education leaders continue to step up as champions of digital equity in their communities, often leading the charge to ensure that all learners can unlock opportunities through affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service and technology tools for learning. The time is now to ensure that collective expertise, capacity, and experiences across different sectors are fully leveraged to design, sustain, support, and scale digital equity solutions for all.

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Building Strong Partnerships to Advance Digital Equity for Learners - ED.gov Blog

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By Roberto Rodríguez, Assistant Secretary, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, and Kristina Ishmael, Deputy Director, Office of Educational Technology During the U.S. Department of Education's National Digital Equity Summit, Secretary Miguel Cardona emphasized that "interagency collaboration matters."

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https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2021/03/working-toward-digital-equity-k-12-education

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Technology Solutions That Drive Education

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Students Face Future Disadvantages Without Digital Equity

When a lack of digital equity exists, students' job preparedness also suffers.

According to " The Future of Jobs Report 2020," published in October by the World Economic Forum, critical thinking, problem-solving, self-management and resilience are the top skills companies will seek in applicants, looking ahead to 2025. Emerging technologies and increased automation make it necessary to learn these skills at an early age.

When students lack devices, they also lose valuable opportunities to hone the critical thinking and analytical skills that are inherent to technology use. Consequently, they are at a disadvantage when entering some of the fastest-growing job markets, such as data analytics and AI specialist fields.

This doesn't mean every student needs to major in a STEM field. However, with multiple industries adopting data science and computer science as a part of their work, students need to learn how these and other skill sets integrate across subjects. To authentically engage in these types of activities, students and teachers need to be creating with, not just consuming, technology. However, based on WEF data, even that won't be enough. Students will need to integrate information from multiple sources to innovate on existing concepts to meet the demands of increased automation, and also understand others with different backgrounds and actively engage with them.
RELATED: Technology in the classroom promotes equity in education.
For students to build this skill set, educators will need appropriate professional development. Professional development won't just help educators learn how to blend technology and instruction in a meaningful way. It will help teachers of all grades and disciplines create learning environments where students can practice and build the technology skills needed for the future.

However, professional development isn't the only component necessary to support digital equity across the nation.

Forethought Helps Districts Plan for Digital Equity

One of the most advantageous paths for achieving digital equity is strategic long-term planning. The process of purchasing technology and getting it into students' hands is a long game with a domino effect. If you give a user technology, they're going to need professional development. Once they get that professional development, they're going to need more advanced professional development. If you give a user technology and professional development, they're going to need IT staff support.

With long-term strategic planning, IT leaders can consider the additional needs that accompany new technology. Then, they can ensure their technology is sustainable and equitable. Because many schools went one-to-one overnight, district leaders are looking at ways to support, repair and replace the increased technology.
EXPLORE: Streamline one-to-one computing deployments in the era of remote learning.
Educators, instructional staff and IT staff must work together to align pedagogy and technology to the district's goals for teaching and learning. Integrating technology into a district's or school's purchasing plan can help make the systems that support teaching more effective and efficient. When this happens, it can result in more time and energy for staff to help students reach a deeper level of knowledge and build the skills they'll need in their careers, since educators will be able to anticipate what technology will be available from year to year, for example.

By thinking about it from classroom and digital learning perspectives, educators can use the technology to transform their learning environments.

Build Support for Digital Equity Through Advocacy

Having a plan to increase digital equity does not always mean the resources are available or in place to execute that plan.

Educators and IT leaders should advocate to the superintendent for the budget and resources they need to meet technology goals and achieve equity. In addition to telling community and family stories of the impact of technology on teaching and learning, it's critical to have statistics and other data to support any technology-related requests.

Because digital equity reaches into multiple facets of K-12 education, it is important to bring other stakeholders and experts into the room where decisions are being made. For example, special education departments often have valuable insights into student data privacy, because this issue is among their longstanding top priorities. Leaning on their departmental expertise can help districts create a full-fledged and sustainable digital equity plan that takes into account regulatory requirements.

District leaders can also work with companies to advocate for educational resources from their partners. Intel, for instance, has released many resources for digital learning and continues to work with its partners to help bring more to the table for school administrators.

Schools can also advocate to state and local governments. While the funding earmarked for education in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 is available to schools through 2024, districts should be thinking about what they will need in 2025, how to prepare for it now and how to maintain it for all students moving forward.

Joining organizations like CoSN can help schools advocate for funding and digital equity. Educators can be involved at the national level and guide those organizations that are planning and having serious conversations about digital equity, whether at the local, state or national level.

This article is part of the "ConnectIT: Bridging the Gap Between Education and Technology" series. Please join the discussion on Twitter by using the hashtag.
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Working Toward Digital Equity in K-12 Education

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When a lack of digital equity exists, students' job preparedness also suffers. According to " The Future of Jobs Report 2020," published in October by the World Economic Forum, critical thinking, problem-solving, self-management and resilience are the top skills companies will seek in applicants, looking ahead to 2025.

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When Idaho state education leaders pitched a social-emotional learning proposal to lawmakers this week, one member of the state's House Education Committee compared the plan to the dystopian behavior control in the futuristic novel Brave New World.

Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra told Education Week Thursday that she was puzzled by the response, especially since the budget presentation focused largely on helping teachers work with students who've been exposed to trauma.

"We want to make sure we are connecting parents and students and teachers with the right tools and the right resources to get them the help that they need," Ybarra said. "I don't think there is any other way to talk about this. It is not a blue issue. It is not a red issue."

The reception Idaho leaders faced is a slice of pushback that occasionally bubbles up around the country as interest grows in social-emotional learning efforts.

Ybarra, an elected Republican, said she's learned since the meeting that some lawmakers had circulated materials from the Massachusetts-based Pioneer Institute, which is known for its opposition to the Common Core State Standards. That organization refers to SEL as a "new-age nanny state."

At the hearing Tuesday, Idaho Rep. Tony Wisniewski, a Republican, asked his fellow committee members to remember their own childhood experiences.

"Think about the school environment that we had," Wisniewski, says in a recording of the hearing, "and the respect that we had for teachers and other students. And the discipline that was enforced not only by the teachers but by our parents, who, if they found out we were misbehaving in school, would undoubtedly support the teachers and take us to the woodshed if necessary. ... Now we jump forward to the 2020s. To me ... it appears we are trying to get the collective behavioral approach that was depicted in Brave New World."

SEL is an education approach that emphasizes direct instruction of skills like how to resolve conflicts and understand differing points of view, changing school policies to be more developmentally sensitive, and working with family and community partners to meet students' non-academic needs.

As schools become more interested in nurturing children's social and emotional skills and creating better learning environments, states have also gotten on board. They've helped vet social-emotional learning programs programs, they've charted out developmentally sensitive benchmarks that show what qualities like social awareness look like at different grade levels, and they've offered teacher professional development in "whole child" approaches to education.

Those efforts are often well-received in many areas. But they've also faced resistence reminiscent of some other contentious education policy debates over issues like state standards (one Idaho lawmaker even raised the common core in this week's discussion of SEL).

At the heart of the arguments over SEL are common questions: What is the role of education? How should schools define success? What does good character look like? Who should be allowed to define it? Those questions are often intensified by skepticism of national education movements.

Idaho's Social-Emotional Learning Plan

Ybarra and Eric Studebaker, director of student engagement and safety coordination at the Idaho education department, had pitched a budget request to the House education committee Tuesday: $1 million in new funding to help develop and deliver statewide professional development for educators and administrators in social-emotional learning. The training would start with a cohort of districts and charter schools that would be selected after a voluntary application process.

Among the things the training would address: How to identify evidence-based SEL programs, how to assess a school or district's readiness to implement those programs, and how to help teachers recognize students' emotional struggles and address misbehavior.

"This is really all about creating the best conditions in a learning environment to support students so they can be successful," Ybarra told lawmakers Tuesday. "It's a conversation that's at the forefront across the nation. And there's growing recognition that we need to make sure that students develop the self awareness, problem-solving skills, and impulse control needed to overcome the challenges so that they can thrive."

Rather than imposing a uniform training on schools, state leaders want to allow them to voluntarily select their own approaches, giving them the training necessary to select and implement programs effectively, Studebaker said.

"The environment for kids is changing," he said. "Our classrooms nationwide are seeing common behavioral issues. But how this funding request seeks to address this problem will be uniquely Idaho."

"How much time are we actually talking about [for SEL] as opposed to time for what we think education really should be? You know: reading, writing, arithmetic," Rep. Barbara Ehardt, a Republican, asked. "When we're talking social emotional, we're talking about more time spent in an area ... that really is a role that should be dealt with in the home."

But others, including committee Chairman Rep. Lance Clow, a Republican, and Rep. Steve Berch, a Democrat, defended the proposal.

"I am not interested in building a bridge to the mythical 1950s where every parent was Ward and June Cleaver," Berch said. "The experience that we on the committee had as students is not the reality in today's classroom."

He listed trends like growing rates of teen suicide and depression, concerns about the effects of social media, and other stressors.

"We're talking about disruptive behaviors that are not expellable and affect everyone else in the classroom," Berch said. "And simply wishing that some parents raise their children better is not a solution."

In a Wednesday meeting, Clow said that it would be wrong to conclude that all of the committee members who walked out of the hearing did so out of protest. Some just had other hearings and issues to attend to, he said.

Common Pushback to State Social-Emotional Learning Plans

"Some states have encountered pockets of political resistance to having schools involved in SEL at all," CASEL reports. "Opponents of SEL often say it is the primary responsibility of families. These communication challenges can be successfully weathered. Critical to success is deep listening to understand concerns of the community, as well as a clear plan for communicating with and engaging stakeholders. The plan should identify key goals and audiences, clarify key messages, and prioritize key strategies for sharing those messages."

A few common concerns:

The CASEL report also acknowledges confusing language around SEL, which is referred to by a range of names, including character education, soft skills, 21st century skills, and grit. Programs may vary significantly in focus and scope, and different educators discuss SEL differently, sometimes depending on the school context. It's sometimes billed as an intervention that reduces misbehavior, which may give the perception that it is for a small pool of students. At other times, it's billed as a way to prepare all students for jobs in a changing economy.

Some conservative critics of SEL say an emphasis on tolerance may threaten to counter messages students receive at home about issues like gender, which may be grounded in their families' religious beliefs. And some have raised questions about assessing and tracking students' SEL competancies, which not all schools do. Can such qualities be reliably measured? Will children be treated differently because of the results? Will the data affect their "permanent record" ?

While some SEL critics reject the notion that it has some sort of devious undercurrent, they question whether the programs are really effective and whether schools have the capacity to properly put SEL strategies into place. (More on that debate here.)

There are also some interesting tensions in the debates. Some lawmakers reject SEL in favor of "developing character," but some in the education field say those two concepts are often very similar in practice. The confusing language and diffuse media environment may lead some lawmakers to talk past each other in these debates.

Policymakers across the political spectrum have responded to school safety debates after shootings in places like Parkland, Fla., by calling for efforts to address isolated students, to identify potentially threatening behavior, and to respond to students' mental health needs. Proponents of SEL say their strategies can help meet those mandates, but they still face resistance, sometimes from the same lawmakers who called for that approach to safety.

As social-emotional learning efforts continue to grow and evolve, it will be interesting to see how leaders and educators take on the challenge of addressing concerns and misconceptions about the work.

Ybarra's request for SEL funding is still on the table. It will be considered by a joint appropriations committee in the coming weeks.
Photo: Getty Follow us on Twitter @PoliticsK12. And follow the Politics K-12 reporters @EvieBlad @Daarel and @AndrewUjifusa.

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There's Pushback to Social-Emotional Learning. Here's What Happened in One State

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When Idaho state education leaders pitched a social-emotional learning proposal to lawmakers this week, one member of the state's House Education Committee compared the plan to the dystopian behavior control in the futuristic novel Brave New World.

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Business Review at Berkeley - UC Berkeley's Leading Undergraduate Business Journal

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Why Has the Cost of Education Skyrocketed? - Business Review at Berkeley

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The cost of education has increased by over 100% in the last 20 years—a much higher rate compared to most other industries. This increase in the cost of education is paralleled by the increasingly widespread mentality that you need a college education in order to earn a good living. While this may g…

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Benefits of Garden-Based Learning
Research That Supports Our Work

Benefits of Garden-Based Learning

Gardening enhances the quality of life in numerous ways: providing fresh food, exercise and health benefits, opportunities for multi-generational and life-long learning, creating pleasing landscapes and improved environment, and bringing people together.

Garden-based learning programs result in increased nutrition along with environmental awareness, higher learning achievements, and increased life skills for our students. They are also an effective and engaging way to integrate curricula and meet learning standards, giving young people the chance to develop a wide range of academic and social skills.

Garden experiences foster ecological literacy and stewardship skills, enhancing an awareness of the link between plants in the landscape and our clothing, food, shelter, and well-being. They also provide children and youth with the time and space to explore the natural world-something that can occur rarely in today's era of indoor living.
Why Garden With Children?
Before beginning any new project, you often have to convince administrators that it will be a worthwhile effort. Depending on your approach, you may be able to satisfy a number of educational, community, and developmental needs. Here are some of the benefits:

Generate pride among community members

Instill a sense of ownership, pride, and responsibility among students

Enhance the appearance, image, and popularity of a school or organization

Improve the behavior and attitude of young people

Provide a wholesome activity that keeps all kids engaged

Connect children to the source of their food

Heighten children's environmental awareness and promote earth stewardship

Improve the quality of the curriculum, providing for more effective teaching

Make valuable connections between disciplines or subject matter areas such as science, math, and social studies

Foster science literacy

"Children's gardens provide boundless opportunities to connect with nature, hands-on learning, and they facilitate a sense of wonder and curiosity."--Mark Miller, Education Manager at Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Columbus, Ohio

Gardening in Schools
You may be looking for ways to share the excitement of school gardening with other teachers, or you might need to convince your administrators of the benefits of beginning a gardening program in your school. Although you are familiar with all the merits, you will need research-based justification as to why gardening is so important. Use this PowerPoint presentation Why Garden in New York State Schools? to get everyone on board. Designed as a guided presentation, or a stand alone that can run on its own, this will help you rally others and build enthusiasm for your gardening program. Learn ways to incorporate gardening into school curriculum with this helpful pdf, Integrating a Garden into the School Curriculum. Visit the Sustaining The Garden page for more information on effectively using the garden.

Learn about the Academic Benefits of Garden-Based Curriculum with these helpful resources: Physical and Biological Sciences and Sustainability and Ecology (pdfs).
Community Gardening

Interest is expanding around supporting community gardening as numerous opportunities and benefits are being realized. Two organizations who have compiled much data on the benefits of community gardening include Gardening Matters and the American Community Gardening Association. In addition, Farming Concrete offers a data collection and evaluation toolkit. For even more information, check out University of Missouri Extension's Community Gardening Toolkit.
So You Want to Start a Garden: Taking the First Step
Getting Started with Garden-Based Learning: An Introductory Guide for Program Leaders/Educators offers the basics to consider if you are starting a new program or wishing to enhance outcomes in an existing program.

Homegrown: Community Gardening on Military Installations (pdf of a tri-fold)
Why Garden With Military Families?

Helps individuals and families connect with others

Can engage the whole family

Strengthens youth and adult relationships

Reduces stress

Improves wellness through physical activity and consumption of fruits and vegetables

Leads to reductions in family food expenses

Why Garden with Military Family Members? presentation to help rally others and build enthusiasm for a gardening program with military family members. Designed as a guided presentation, or a stand alone.

Why Garden with Military Family Members? mini poster is also available to download, print, distribute and display.

Research That Supports Our Work

One of the realities of working within the world of garden-based learning is that, inevitably, you may need to write a proposal to support a program or help you initiate a new project. Fortunately, there is research that you can draw from to advocate for your efforts. The following is a summary of research findings that you can cite in proposals, share with your board of directors, and use in countless other ways to support the important work that you are carrying out. Additionally, you'll find links with more helpful information. Know of a great article that's missing? Please send it along to us!

Key Research Findings: Highlights from journal articles, fact sheets, curricula, research studies and more. Highlights includes several key benefit areas of garden-based learning including Nutrition and Environmental Awareness, Learning Achievements, Life Skills, Health, Wellness and Community Building. Research Supporting Garden-Based Learning organized on Zotero.

Collective School Garden Network Research Database: By encouraging and supporting a garden in every school, the Collective School Garden Network creates opportunities for our children to discover fresh food, make healthier food choices, and become better nourished. Visit their research database for a variety of articles.

Role of Plants and Landscape in Human Health: Useful resources to pursue a better understanding of the role of plants and landscapes in human health and well-being.

NatureRx (pdf) - A helpful list of articles Related to the Restorative Effects of Time in Nature Prepared by Dr. Don Rakow 6/2015. Visit here for the webpage version.

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Sowing the Seeds of Success- Benefits & Research

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Benefits of Garden-Based Learning Research That Supports Our Work Benefits of Garden-Based Learning Gardening enhances the quality of life in numerous ways: providing fresh food, exercise and health benefits, opportunities for multi-generational and life-long learning, creating pleasing landscapes and improved environment, and bringing people together.

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Policy and Politics in Education on JSTOR

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Wilbur J. Cohen, Policy and Politics in Education, The School Review, Vol. 82, No. 1 (Nov., 1973), pp. 127-129

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Department of Didactics in Biology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany

School gardens are part of many schools. Especially in primary schools, but also in secondary schools, they are used as a learning space and experience space for the pupils. Their importance for the development of cognitive and emotional-affective abilities of pupils is empirically well proven. It is also empirically well proven that exposure to nature has an influence on the prosocial behavior of children and adults. However, there is a lack of studies investigating the effect of the stay in the school garden on the social behavior of pupils in secondary class. To investigate whether a school garden is a good environment for social learning, a self-report study and standardized observations with sixth-grade pupils were carried out. Thus, the socially competent behavior of the pupils (communication and cooperation) and their emotions could be analyzed. In order to provide emotional access to the scientific content of biology lessons and to strengthen social learning, each pupil was responsible for their own plant and the group bed over a period of 10 weeks. The design of the lessons followed the principles of basic needs-competence, autonomy, and relatedness-of the Self Determination Theory. The observations were made during a 90-min class, in the school garden as well in the classroom. The 31 girls and 22 boys, aged 11-12 years, changed weekly between the garden and the classroom. Over 150 observations were made in the school garden (82) and in the classroom (68). In summary, pupils showed more socially competent behavior in school garden lessons than in classroom lessons. The school garden lessons, designed according to the basic needs, seem to create favorable incentives for social learning. Due to frequent social interactions, it can be assumed that learning activities in school gardens can promote emotional and social competence.

Introduction

Everyone has the need to develop themselves and to have their own experiences in interaction with others. However, there must be opportunities to develop personal skills: cognitive, psychomotor, emotional, and social skills. A natural space, such as the school garden, offers these possibilities independently of age and class level. In the school context, natural spaces on school grounds provide a personal encounter with nature and living organisms such as plants, animals, and fungi. These interactions with nature and the possibility to become active in the garden are combined with social and emotional skills. This is connected with the development of pupils' attitudes, values, beliefs, and self-perceptions.

Studies worldwide examine the psychological and physiological effects of contact with nature in the form of gardens, parks, green spaces, and forests on the human organism ( Brown et al., 2013; Haluza et al., 2014; Dadvand et al., 2016; Shanahan et al., 2016; Cox et al., 2017). There is evidence for a positive relationship between access to green or natural environments and people's social behavior ( Taylor et al., 2001; Maas et al., 2009; Faber Taylor and Kuo, 2011; Rash et al., 2011; Putra et al., 2020). School gardens are also places of encounter with each other ( Dyment and Bell, 2008; Malberg Dyg and Wistoft, 2018) in nature. Social skills learning concerns communication and cooperation, the ability to relate to others, and teamwork. The development of prosocial behavior through staying in nature is well-documented for children and adults ( Carney et al., 2012; Carrus et al., 2017; Putra et al., 2020). These studies refer to the effect of staying in public urban spaces or in the school environment on adults and children-especially in primary schools. The few empirical studies with children and adolescents predominantly refer to spending time in gardens. Students who engage in gardening have better social relationships. Gardening can also lead to better connections between neighbors in the family environment ( Wells et al., 2014).

Personal encounters with nature and with natural organisms are usually associated with positive emotions and connotations. For adult individuals, it has been demonstrated that exercise in the natural environment, as opposed to an urban environment, can lead to positive emotional states ( Berman et al., 2008; Mayer et al., 2009; Johansson et al., 2011). If the natural environment is considered a place of leisure, it can lead to restful or relaxing experiences and self-reflection ( Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989; Kaplan, 1995). For adults, it was found that green spaces that are perceived as beautiful have a positive influence on prosocial behavior ( Zhang et al., 2014). Girls and boys seem to benefit differently from green spaces. Public parks are important for boys, while girls benefit more from playgrounds and recreational areas ( Richardson et al., 2017). However, encounter with nature can also evoke negative emotions and connotations ( Bixler and Floyd, 1997; Sugiyama et al., 2021). For example, negative emotions are often associated with encounters with invertebrates such as spiders or snails ( Wilson, 1987; Retzlaff-Fürst, 2005; Wagler and Wagler, 2018).

Our exploratory study examined the extent to which biology lessons in school gardens affect the development of social and emotional behavior. Our target group consists of pupils of the sixth grade.

The first aim of the study is to record the emotions experienced by the pupils in the classroom and in the school garden. Emotions are an integral part of well-being. According to Becker (2006), the pupils' satisfaction of needs leads to an increased sense of well-being. Positive and negative emotions develop depending on the situation. The first question is: What emotions were perceived by the pupils during lessons in the classroom and in the school garden?

The second aim of the study refers to social competence. Social interactions take place in every situation and at every place. A high number of social interactions, in the sense of "socially competent behavior," suggest a high level of social learning and a high degree of social inclusion. The second question is: Which social interactions can be observed in terms of "socially competent behavior" in direct verbal communication and cooperation in the classroom and in the school garden lessons?

Materials and Methods

Design

The development of a good social learning environment in the school garden was studied applying the design-based research method ( Akker et al., 2013). Therefore, pupils of the sixth grade, between the ages of 12 and 13, of a cooperating comprehensive school were taught in the classroom and in the school garden. The location of the science lessons changed weekly from the classroom to the school garden. Learning modalities, like materials and organization, for the school garden were tested and pupils' emotions and social interactions were investigated exploratively. After the pilot phase in the year 2015, the first field study with five classes (study 1 with 124 pupils, 59 boys and 65 girls), divided into half classes, followed in 2016. In the next year 2017, a repeat study (study 2 with 53 pupils, 22 boys and 31 girls) with two classes was conducted. In every study, an analysis phase follows a trial phase. The data published here come from the repeat study (study 2, n = 53). The content of "Plants and Soil" was therefore practically and theoretically taught in the school garden and in the classroom. The independent gardening was carried out in groups, with particular emphasis on contact with nature and the satisfaction of psychological needs-basic needs according to the self-determination theory ( Deci and Ryan, 2004).

Social Interaction and Emotions

Assuming that people are born and live in a social world, interpersonal interactions are essential for their personal development and life in society. Social behavior is learned from people through appropriate interpersonal situations (socialization), e.g., also when watching other people or when interacting with people. The school institution has a significant role to play in this. According to educational guidelines, social competence is promoted among schoolchildren. In the course of school socialization, socially competent behavior is promoted and values and norms are conveyed. The term "social competence" is used at the level of education policy and school education. An executive definition of social competence is "... the availability and application of cognitive, emotional and motor behaviors that lead to certain social situations in a long-term favorable relationship of positive and negative consequences for the agent" ( Hinsch and Pfingsten, 2015, p. 18). Social competence defined in short is "effectiveness in social interaction" ( Rose-Krasnor, 1997). It is a multidimensional concept closely related to the terms "communication" and "cooperation" ( Reichenbach, 2014). There is a variety of related terms, such as social action (of sociology), social-emotional behavior, social skills, and social learning (of pedagogy), which are used depending on the relevant context and field of science. The concept of social interactions and the concept of socially competent behavior, according to Kanning (2002), are used for this work. He describes a subarea as social orientation, associated with prosociality and listening, and "socially competent behavior" as an evaluative term that concerns the person, the situation, and the local context. Accordingly, socially competent behavior is the "behavior of a person that contributes to the achievement of one's own goals in a specific situation, while at the same time maintaining the social acceptance of the behavior" ( Kanning, 2009, p. 15). In this work, we especially looked at the school and the everyday school situation as context, the pupils as the acting persons. Emotions have important functions, on biological levels (e.g., body base and emotional quality), on psychological levels (e.g., expression and development), and on social levels (e.g., communication) ( Hülshoff, 2012). According to the multidimensional perspective, emotions influence several behavior systems that shape the subjective emotional experience component ( Eder and Brosch, 2017) and are composed of different components: the physiological component, such as changes in blood pressure, skin conductivity, and respiratory rate; expressive components, such as voice, facial expressions, and posture; cognitive components, such as the accessibility of information in the memory; and motivational components, such as generating motivation and willingness to act. There is no consensus among psychologists working on emotions about what exactly emotions are. To use a "working definition" by ( Eder and Brosch, 2017, p. 188): "An emotion is an affective reaction aimed at a specific object, which is accompanied by temporary changes in experience and behavior." According to Eder and Brosch (2017), the following characteristics of emotions are affectivity (emotional character): emotional experience, for example, fear; intentionality (object orientation): reference to the object can be established; temporal dynamics; and limited duration. After evolutionary (phylogenetic) development processes, Ekman (1992) argues that there are specific emotions that represent independent systems-basic emotions. In his first research, he particularly referred to facial expressions from different cultures. The majority of cultures (over five cultures) show that facial expressions of corresponding emotions are universal. This was also shown in other cultural groups ( Izard and Murakami, 1994; Ekman et al., 2011). According to Ekman and Friesen (1971), happiness, fear, anger, sadness, surprise, and disgust can also be recognized from facial expressions (photographs). These emotions are, therefore, discrete, which meet the following characteristics ( Ekman, 1992): distinctive universal signals, presence in other primates, distinctive physiology, distinctive universals in antecedent events, coherence among emotional response, quick onset, brief duration, automatic appraisal, and unbidden occurrence. The emotion psychologist Paul Ekman is not the only representative of the theory of basic emotions. Turner (2007) compared 20 different lists of primary emotions. According to Izard, in addition to Ekman's basic emotions, embarrassment, excitement, interest, and guilt are to be named ( Izard and Murakami, 1994). It is assumed that by mixing up basic emotions, new types of emotions appear-the secondary emotions.

Teaching in the School Garden and in the Classroom

In science lessons, creatures are crucial for gaining knowledge; they stand for an original encounter, realism, and illustrative material ( Spörhase-Eichmann and Ruppert, 2010). The school garden lessons give plenty of opportunity for primary experiences, through the cultivation of and contact with plants as well as through accidental contact with animals, for example with soil organisms such as earthworms, spiders, and woodlice. Further importance of learning in the garden lies in promoting the interest of the pupils. It is known that girls and boys in the age of 15 show little interest in the topics of plants and plant growth ( Schreiner, 2006, 2012). Prokop et al. (2007) report that science lessons are becoming more and more theoretical. The interest of the pupils can be encouraged through the possibility to design and maintain their own garden bed independently and to harvest the plants ( Krapp, 2002). It is generally known that teaching with living beings promotes motivation to learn. Responsibility for their own plant bed can promote motivation and a caring attitude. Under these assumptions, all five classes of the sixth grade included in the study were taught in the school garden and in the classroom under the same conditions-following the normal science curriculum, on the topics of "soil and plants." Therefore, during a period of 10 weeks, the pupils (31 girls and 22 boys) changed weekly between the garden and classroom. The science lessons in the classroom were held as usual by the subject teachers. As an organizer and moderator, they lead the class in the classic sense. The science lessons in the school garden were held under the conditions of basic needs ( Deci and Ryan, 2004)-competence, autonomy, and relatedness-of the Self Determination Theory (SDT). The fulfilment of basic needs is seen as the basis for good teaching ( Figure 1), which focuses on motivation and well-being. The basic psychological needs are the following: competence-to experience oneself as a subject able to act, to fulfil tasks on one's own; autonomy-to experience the achievement of goals by one's own, self-determined action; and relatedness-feeling connected and accepted by a group.

Figure 1. Realization of basic needs-Self Determination Theory (SDT).

For the teaching design, this means that the pupil groups were given the responsibility for the bed, they could manage the gardening independently and on their own. Tasks in the garden, besides bed care, were documented regarding plant growth, snail observations, soil tests, and plant identification. During the gardening activity, the teacher was in the social role of advisor and time watchman-the teacher introduced the garden lesson, checked the process, and ended the lesson.

Instruments and Implementation

For data acquisition, a self-report study and an observational study were carried out during a period of 10 weeks of lessons. The instruments were developed for the purpose of this study; Figure 2 gives an overview of the instruments. The self-report "emotion diary" was distributed after each lesson in the classroom and after each lesson in the school garden. It is a kind of checklist (in the Annex), a robust test and not further validated. For this paper-and-pencil test, the pupils needed about 15 min to fill out. In this way, all sixth-grade pupils were asked weekly about their emotions during the lessons. The list of emotions was compiled on the basis of the emotion theories of basic emotion by Ekman (1992) and Izard and Murakami (1994). However, the communicative validation showed that a sufficient differentiation of emotions (basic emotions) cannot be assumed for sixth-grade students. Therefore, the emotions that apply similarly were summarized such as rage and anger, wonder and surprise, and fear and anxiety brought together in one answer category each. According to the general interpretation of Cronbach's alpha values ( Cronbach, 1951), the emotion diary can be classified as acceptable. In the piloting of the emotion diary, the test run showed Cronbach's α 760 ( n = 23) for the positive emotions and Cronbach's α 790 ( n = 22) for the negative emotions. The pupils' acceptance and willingness to provide information were ensured through informative introductory discussions and exercises on the test instruments.

Figure 2. Overview of the instruments.

For the standardized observation, seven observers were trained for the documentation of social interaction. The observations were made at two to three 10-min intervals with a break of 5 min in between. The focus of this structured observation was on prosocial communication and cooperation-the counting of the frequency of "socially competent behavior" was trained in simulation of gardenwork. The observers rotated from one group of pupils to the next, and a so-called lump sample was carried out ( Blanz, 2015). In the school garden, the pupils were equipped with colored shirts (bibs) and different symbols for group membership. An average of three observation protocols per observer was kept during one lesson.

The observation sheet (in the Annex) was developed after theoretical work on the topic of social competence. Five specific indicators of communication and cooperation were developed for the categories of prosociality, with the aim of mapping the respective categories neither too extensively nor too imprecisely. Dimensions such as empathy, conflict behavior, or extraversion were discarded for reasons of expediency (with regard to economy, practicability, and susceptibility to distortion of perception). The training of the observers included the repetition of the quality criteria, the presentation of the study, familiarization with the observation sheet, and the communication of frequent observation errors (distortions), as well as practical observation runs. Exercises in the garden with a final evaluation were essential in order to be able to distinguish the items from one another. The piloting showed an interobserver agreement of 80%, which is to be assessed as acceptable ( Wellenreuther, 2000).

Data analysis of the recorded emotions and observed social interactions was done using SPSS (from IBM SPSS Statistics, version 25), a common statistical program. The paired samples of each pupil were used for descriptive statistics of the emotions. The differences were checked for statistical significance on the basis of ordinal and nominally scaled data using the Mann-Whitney U-test (non-parametric test). The Excel software program was used to calculate the mean of social interactions. The calculated effect sizes d are interpreted according to Cohen (1988, 1992): small effect from 0.2, medium effect from 0.5, and large effect from 0.8.

Results

Emotions in the School Garden vs. Classroom

The emotions of the pupils ( n = 53, 22 boys and 31 girls) were measured by an emotion diary. The results show which emotions were perceived by the pupils during the school gardening (colored green) and in the classroom (colored gray). Moreover, they also show whether the emotions were related to what is going on and to what intensity positive and negative emotions were perceived in the school garden class and in the classroom class. All in all, the data were recorded in 223 sheets at the school gardening and in 215 sheets at the classroom teaching. Figure 3 shows that 5 out of 10 emotions were perceived significantly ( p < 0.001) more often-happiness, pride, surprise/wonder more often in the school garden and disgust, fear/anxiety more often in the classroom.

Figure 3. Emotions in school garden and in classroom (school garden n = 223; classroom n = 215). Significance p different levels (* p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001).

The computed differences (Mann-Whitney p < 0.001) show that in the school garden the emotions happiness 12%, pride 22%, and surprise/wonder 19% were perceived more often than in the classroom (according to Cohen 1988, with small effects r = 0.1 up to r = 0.2). On the other hand, emotions of disgust were reported 7% more often and fear/anxiety 6% more often after the teaching in the classroom-with small effects r = 0.1. Overall, emotions in the school garden are stated 43% more often than in the classroom. On the other side, the emotions rage/anger, sadness, frustration, embarrassment, and contempt do not show any significant difference and effects in frequency (Mann-Whitney test).

Figure 4 presents the emotions in the school garden according to their intensity levels. Regarding positive and negative emotions, the frequencies of the intensity levels (low, middle, high) show that in the school garden, positive and negative emotions are often perceived at low or middle intensities. However, positive emotions in the school garden are often intensively perceived-in contrast to the negative emotions. The emotions of happiness, pride, and surprise/wonder make up 85% of the total high intensity. The intensity of emotions in the classroom ( Figure 5) is generally often low. Happiness is the only emotion that is over 8% in average.

Figure 4. Intensity of emotions during school garden lessons ( n = 223).

Figure 5. Intensity of emotions during classroom lessons ( n = 215).

In the emotion diary, pupils informally and freely give reasons for the emotions perceived by them in brief statements about the situation. Figure 6 outlines that in the school garden joy/happiness (64), pride (46), and surprise (58) are often justified by statements about gardening, plants, and animals. On the other hand, in Figure 7, in the classroom, the pupil's comments are less about plants and animals (4) and more often about lessons in general (26) and tests or presentations (9).

Figure 6. Reasons of positive emotions (school garden n = 223; classroom n = 215).

Figure 7. Reasons of negative emotions (school garden n = 223; classroom n = 215).

Reasons for the emotions reported that pupils have noted in the emotion diary after the school gardening are as follows: happiness: "that we did something in the bed," "found earthworm," "had cool flowers," "because the plants have grown," and "we are in the garden"; pride: "bed looks good," "on the pumpkins," "my flowers," "everything has grown well," "on our harvest," and "that we did it"; and surprise and wonder: "because everything was fully grown again," "that pumpkins can get so big," "worms, snails, millipedes," "the bed was so big," and "that we work so well in a team."

For the negative emotions, the reasons are as follows: rage and anger: "because I worked alone with a mate," "when Biggi was annoying all the time," "neighbor's," and "because of the bed"; disgust: "because of a mosquito," "spiders and beetles," "disgusting spider," "soil animals," and "strange yellow-black tabby insect in the radishes"; and frustration: "sunflowers" and "because carrots unfortunately didn't really grow."

Social Interactions in the School Garden vs. Classroom

The systematic behavioral observation attempted to show the frequency of social interactions between pupils during the lessons. The focus was put on the socially competent (prosocial) behavior of communication and cooperation. Because of the quantity of contacts, the type of interaction is crucial for the promotion of social skills. Over 150 observations by seven non-participating observers were held in the school garden (82) and in the classroom (68). Two sixth-grade classes were taught alternately in the school garden and in the classroom for 10 weeks ( n = 53, 22 boys and 31 girls). The mean values of these two teaching locations are shown in Figures 8, 9. The comparison of school gardens (colored green) and classrooms (colored gray) shows small as well as large effects. Similar significant strong effects (according to Cohen, 1988, 1992) are evident for the three indicators of communication: "justifies criticism objectively" ( p < 0.001; d = 1.46), "able to defend own point of view" ( p < 0.001; d = 1.85), and "speaks clearly" ( p < 0.001; d = 2.06).

Figure 8. Social interaction - communication (school garden n = 82, classroom n = 68). Significance p different levels (* p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001).

Figure 9. Social interaction - cooperation (school garden n = 82, classroom n = 68). Significance p different levels (* p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001).

The indicators of cooperation all show highly significant differences ( p < 0.001) ( Figure 9) and large effects (up value d = 1.727) in the comparison of school gardening vs. classroom. The mean values of classroom are all below the value of one and show a standard deviation with a maximum of 0.7. The mean values for school garden are between 1.4 and 6.8, with a standard deviation maximum of 1.4. For instance, the indicator "works in the interests of the team" with a mean value of 6.8 in the school garden has a very high effect of d = 5.386 (according to Cohen, 1988, 1992).

Discussion

Discussion of Methodology

It is important to stress that this study provides a description but cannot prove the causal relationships. Emotions and social interactions were investigated in the school garden and in the classroom.

The comparison of the results of both teaching locations serves to have a value for comparison, but cannot serve as a "control group" in the narrow sense. The school garden environment and the classroom environment differ not only in terms of location and specific circumstances, but also in the teacher's personal and social role during the lessons, as well as in the organization of lessons and the proportion of content in theory and practice. Several variables are in this investigation. This fact should be accepted in order to obtain data in a real school environment.

The investigation of behavioral observations is limited by human perception. This is why counting social interactions was done as the lowest level of description ( Forgas and Frey, 1999) to document the observed interactions of the pupils in the school garden and in the classroom. The observers reported difficulties in observing the group of four pupils in the garden, when they moved away from each other. Negative behaviors were not measured in the observation because the observation would be too complex. Principally, in the sense of a mixed methods approach ( Kuckartz, 2016), a qualitative investigation method (such as interviews) is recommendable, although the subjective distortion would be problematic.

The list of emotions in the emotion diary did not cause any irritations for the pupils, with the exception of the emotion "contempt." This emotion does not seem to be known to the pupils. The acceptance of basic emotions is controversial, and there is still no clarification regarding this point. The criteria defined for basic emotions and the reducibility of secondary emotions to basic emotions are discussed ( Siemer, 1999; Reisenzein, 2000). Likewise, the reflective view of oneself can also lead to deficiencies in emotional truthfulness. Immediate writing down of the emotions (at the time of perception) would be beneficial on one hand, but it is not practical and could even be counterproductive for the teaching process. Marginal memory errors due to the maximum delay of 60 min must therefore be accepted.

Discussion of Results

The data from this study were collected as part of a repeat study with two classes of the sixth grade aged 11-12 years. The results of social interactions and perceived emotions were consistent with those of the first study ( Pollin and Retzlaff-Fürst, 2018). As expected, it shows that the school garden offers more social opportunities and positive emotions than science lessons in the classroom.

The first question-What emotions were perceived by the pupils during the lessons in the classroom and in the school garden?-can be answered. Positive emotions, especially happiness and pride, were frequently indicated and the intensity of positive emotions was on a high level. The reasons given for the perception of emotions show a strong positive link to the nature experiences that were made in the garden. A wide range of emotions was covered in the emotion diary, but with regard to the valence of positive and negative emotions, there is an unbalanced ratio of three positive emotions to seven negative emotions. The reason for this is that there are more negative emotions in language usage. An imbalance in this valence can therefore also be recorded in the emotion diary and must be taken into account when interpreting the results.

The second question-Which social interactions of "socially competent behavior" can be observed in the school garden, in communication and cooperation?-can be answered. Social interactions during the school garden lessons are often observable, and cooperative behavior is particularly significant. External observation enables direct documentation, and there is no interruption of the lesson and no distortion due to memory deficits. A limitation of the study is that interrater reliability cannot be used to assess the quality of the observation. Each observer has only ever observed one group. For reasons of time, no further observer simulations could be carried out. However, observer feedback on handling the observer sheet was consistently positive. In order to obtain a future meaningful result of the observations, a supplementary method of substantiation might be possible. For example, video recordings of social interactions could be made.

Due to frequent social interactions and positive emotions, it can be assumed that garden-based learning promotes cooperative behavior. In reverse, this means that classroom lessons have a deficit in this field and should offer more opportunities for cooperation. As influencing factors for the positive effects, the stay in the green, the gardening, and the organization of lessons according to the basic needs of SDT can be considered. As observed in this study, pupils like to go to the garden, and based on their comments, pupils expressed particular joy and pride of their plants growing. Therefore, contact with nature is significant. This supports surveys, such as those by Blair (2009) and Passy et al. (2010), which emphasize the potential for the development of pupils through their work and being in school gardens. Other studies examine in particular the potential of staying in the countryside for health. These studies refer more generally to urban greenery and the environment of people of different ages ( Hartig et al., 2014; Shanahan et al., 2016; Cox et al., 2017; Frumkin et al., 2017). Further studies on school gardens examine the effects of staying in green areas on health, such as eating behavior or mental health ( Ozer, 2007; Leuven et al., 2018). The present results show that science lessons in the school garden, if oriented toward the basic needs of SDT, have effects on social behavior in secondary school children. Presumably, this also leads to better self-esteem of pupils and then it also has effects on health. Further studies are needed here. It should be examined whether these results also apply to higher classes-high school pupils. Only pupils of the sixth grade were examined in this study. The metastudy of Williams and Dixon (2013) also notes that examinations in higher grades (10-12th grade) are rare. It can be assumed that school garden lessons are valuable for inclusive classes, because work in the school garden gives particularly social and emotional positive stimuli.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/ Supplementary Material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Ethics Statement

The investigation has been applied for and approved by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants' legal guardian/next of kin.

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.567720/full#supplementary-material

References

Ekman, P., Kuhlmann-Krieg, S., and Reiss, M. (2011). Gefühle Lesen: Wie Sie Emotionen Erkennen und Richtig Interpretieren, Vol. 2. Spektrum Akad. Verlag.

Pollin, S., and Retzlaff-Fürst, C. (2018). "Förderung von Wohlbefinden und sozialer Kompetenz bei Schüler*innen durch naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht im Schulgarten," in "Biologiedidaktik als Wissenschaft": 21. Internationale Tagung der Fachsektion Didaktik der Biologie im VBIO, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg 2017, eds M. Hammann, and M. Lindner (Innsbruck Wien Bozen: Studien Verlag), 191-206.

Reisenzein, R. (2000). "Worum geht es in der Debatte um die Basisemotionen?," in Kognitive und Motivationale Aspekte der Motivation, eds F. Försterling, J. Stiensmeier-Pelster, and L.-M. Silny (Göttingen: Hogrefe), 205-237.

Retzlaff-Fürst, C. (2005). "Modifying students'aesthetic appraisal of "creepy crawlies" through change of perspective," in Trends in Biology Education - Research in the New Biology Era, eds M. Ergazaki, J. Lewis, and V. Zogza (Patras: Patras University Press), 317-327.

Siemer, M. (1999). Stimmungen, Emotionen, und soziale Urteile. Lang.

Spörhase-Eichmann, U., and Ruppert, W., (eds.). (2010). Biologie-Didaktik: Praxishandbuch für Die Sekundarstufe I und II, Vol. 4. Berlin: Cornelsen.

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The School Garden: A Social and Emotional Place

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School gardens are part of many schools. Especially in primary schools, but also in secondary schools, they are used as a learning space and experience space for the pupils. Their importance for the development of cognitive and emotional-affective abilities of pupils is empirically well proven.

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The new question-of-the-week:
How do you incorporate movement in your lessons, and what are its advantages and disadvantages?
Lots of research shows that sitting in a desk for a full class period can hinder student learning and engagement, and just sitting in front of a computer screen during the school closure crisis isn't great, either.

In this two-part series, we'll explore ways to promote student physical movement.

Many are adaptable to distance and hybrid learning, while you might have to wait until after a coronavirus vaccine to use others.

By the way, I'll be publishing many new posts during August and September specifically about helping us all cope with distance and hybrid learning...

Today, Jenny Vo, Valentina Gonzalez, Cindy Garcia, and Bryan Harris contribute their responses. You can listen to a 10-minute conversation I had with Jenny and Valentina on my BAM! Radio Show. You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here.
Gestures and motions Jenny Vo earned her B.A. in English from Rice University and her M.Ed. in educational leadership from Lamar University. She has worked with English-learners during all of her 23 years in education and is currently an ESL ISST in Katy ISD in Katy, Texas:
Students spend seven or more hours in school a day. It is unreasonable to expect them to sit quietly throughout their lessons and classwork. Movement throughout the day helps students to re-energize their bodies and their brains, helping them to focus and concentrate better. Research has shown that movement during the school day benefits academic performance and improves behavior. In the same context, incorporating movement into your lessons keeps the students engaged and excited about learning. Movement in lessons will also help your students to retain the content more.

So what are some ways you can incorporate movement into your lessons? One of my favorite ways to incorporate movement in a lesson is to add a gesture or motion to vocabulary words or important concepts. For example, for the word "weathering," the motion would be one hand making a chopping motion, representing wind or water chipping away at a rock. For "erosion," the motion would be one hand moving like a wave, representing the movement of sediments from one place to another. Each time the students say the word, they do the gesture/motion. Having the connection between the word and the accompanying gesture helps students internalize the vocabulary.

Another way to add movement to a lesson is to have students respond to questions in different ways that require them to do something. For example, give a thumbs up or thumbs down to show agreement or disagreement. To show that you are ready to answer, put your hand on your chin, rub your hands together, or stand on one leg. When voting or answering a multiple-choice question, students can move to one of four corners. Not only does this allow the students to have movement, but teachers can easily gauge student participation and give quick assessments.

Who doesn't like to sing and dance to an upbeat song? Singing requires the movement of mouth and lips. Add a dance to the song and you have the whole body actively engaged, from the brain in your head to the toes on your feet! An ideal situation for learning to be cemented. If you can't find a song to fit your lesson, write your own!

Some may say that adding movement to lessons takes more time and makes the lesson longer. It's true. However, you can decide how much movement you want to incorporate. Make sure it is authentic and adds to your lesson. I guarantee that little extra time you use will be returned back to you in the form of active student engagement and improved student success.

Using movement to teach vocabulary
Valentina Gonzalez has served 20+ years in education as a teacher, district facilitator for English-learners, a professional-development specialist for ELs, and as an educational consultant. Valentina delivers professional development and coaches teachers on sheltered instruction strategies. She works with teachers of ELs to support language and literacy instruction. Her work can be found on Seidlitz Education and on MiddleWeb. You can reach her through her website or on Twitter @ValentinaESL:

I don't know about you, but for me, memories of elementary and secondary school consist mostly of teachers at the front of the room imparting their wisdom upon us as we sat passively taking it in. Unfortunately, we did not DO much of the moving or talking. When I became a teacher, I wanted to ensure that my students shared the classroom. That we learned from one another and that they were active participants in their learning journey. What I certainly did not want was disengaged students.

Over the years, I found that when I intentionally planned lessons that weaved in movement and talk, students were cognitively engaged with the learning, and I was able to provide them with ongoing, timely feedback as necessary. For instance, as they worked in groups or discussed with a partner, I listened in and was able to clear up misconceptions rather than waiting until a formal assessment to catch their mistakes. We filled gaps before they formed.

Incorporating movement into lessons can be a game changer. It can:

Engage students

Increase comprehension and processing

Provide formative assessment

Decrease unwanted behaviors

So why aren't more teachers incorporating movement in classrooms? Some common reasons for not implementing movement are:

Pressure from the demands of curriculum

Fear of chaos

Worry that students won't participate

Feeling a lack of control

1. Students number off 1, 2.

2. All 1s stand in a line, and 2s stand face the 1s.

3. Students use a sentence stem to discuss the question or topic posed. Explicitly assign who will share first (for example, all 1s talk first, then 2s).

Which is more important, being right or being kind? Explain .... I think being___is more important because ...

What was a leading cause of the American Revolution? One of the leading causes of the American Revolution was ...

Explain two ways to solve this problem. One way to solve this problem is ...

How did the character change from the beginning of the book to now? In the beginning of the book, the character was ... but now ... for example ...

1. When the music begins, all 2s move to the right until the music stops. (I encourage dance here! It makes it fun!!) Everyone has a new partner.

2. Repeat steps 1-4 as many times as you can.

Class examples:

The Conga Line has been successful as a warm-up activity to build background for students as well as a formative assessment toward the middle or end of a unit. It helps students express themselves in a safe, low-stress way while hearing their peers' ideas, too. Step 3 is probably the most important one of all. Providing students with the sentence stem allows them an entry point into the conversation. It helps some students if we read the stem as a class before we begin the Conga Line. I never require them to use the stem, but it's there as a scaffold. Sometimes, I give student 1 a different question from student 2. Or I give a mixture of stems, and after a few rounds, they trade with peers. Following a Conga Line, I typically have students do a quick write because they now have many ideas from speaking and listening to their classmates.

1. Students work in small groups to come up with movements that match each word from

2. a small set of vocabulary words specific to the unit of study.

3. The words and movements are practiced and reviewed repetitively.

4. Each group creates a story using the vocabulary words and movements.

5. Groups present their story to the class.

In the End...
Vocabulary can be challenging for all students. Giving students a list of words to define on Monday and a quiz on Friday just didn't work for me or the students. I found that they weren't transferring the knowledge. Even students who made a 100 on the vocabulary quiz couldn't effectively use the words a week later. To help students internalize meanings, we attached movement to the vocabulary words. This is an adaptation or variation of James Asher's Total Physical Response. (You can read more about TPR: Learning Through Action here.) It took time, but overall, this technique was worth it because students took ownership and really had to think about the words, process the meaning, and develop a movement that corresponded. Here's what we did:

Envision a classroom with a teacher at the front talking as students sit at their desks listening. Some will listen patiently and naturally absorb the words the teacher is saying. Others will strive to comprehend, while many will become bored and begin to find more interesting things to do. Perhaps they will play with their supplies, they might fidget with a toy, distract a neighbor, or even take out a cellphone.

But what if they didn't have the opportunity to get off task. What if they didn't get bored because we put them to work. We engaged them in activity. We put their mind and body into the learning. That's what movement can do in our lessons.

No matter the age or the content area, the benefits of students moving and doing definitely outweigh the disadvantages. Movement in the classroom is essential to the learning process. The Conga Line and attaching a movement to vocabulary are just two easy ways to get kids up and moving while learning. Bottom line is that when we invite students to be part of the learning process and engage them, they become connected and invested in what is happening in the classroom.
TPR Cindy Garcia has been a bilingual educator for 14 years and is currently the district instructional specialist for PK-6 bilingual/ESL mathematics in the Pasadena Independent school district (Texas). She is active onTwitter @CindyGarciaTX and on her blog:

Total Physical Response (TPR) is a great way to incorporate movement during lessons. Teachers and students use their bodies to act out or gesture the meaning of words or concepts.

For example, if the lesson is about the water cycle, then the class would be using their bodies to represent the sun, rain, and evaporation. This helps students associate a word or concept with something they are physically doing. They are putting it in their long-term memory because they will remember swirling their fingers around to form clouds. Another go-to strategy has been parallel lines. Students stand in two lines facing each other, and they share their response to a prompt or question. After they share, one line shifts to the left, and the student left without a partner moves to the head of the line. This is an effective way to get students talking and learning from multiple classmates. A third easy way to implement strategy is posting several tasks around the room and prompting students to rotate and complete each task. The students are up, moving, and energized. The students feel motivated to work as they are moving around the room rather than solving the same problems or completing the same tasks at their desk.

"Start small"
Another way to get students moving during lessons is by having them walk and talk. Students are given a prompt or question to discuss, and they have to walk around the room with a partner sharing their ideas. This is a fun activity for students because they get to spend time with a classmate, and it gives them time to think about what they want to share with the whole class. A disadvantage of these and other movement in the classroom strategies is that it could lead to classroom misbehavior because students are not concentrated in one area of the room and it can be more difficult to monitor behavior. Another disadvantage is that because the students are moving, it can be a challenge to listen in to all of the groups and check for understanding.

As a career-long educator, Bryan Harris has served in a variety of roles from classroom teacher to district-level leader. Now working full time as a trainer, his work focuses on topics ranging from student engagement to teacher resiliency. Find out more at www.bryan-harris.com:

First, the easy part of the question-what are the disadvantages? Cognitively, not many. The brain loves to move, and physical movement has a positive impact on mood, memory, motivation, and engagement. For a taste of some of the research that supports movement and learning, click here, here, or here. Still not convinced? Harvard, Oxford, and other big-time universities around the world are hosting conferences that focus solely on the link between movement and cognition. The evidence is clear: Movement supports learning, and a lack of movement can actually inhibit learnig.

The biggest challenge may be for a teacher who doesn't have effective procedures in place for managing the movement. Strategies that utilize movement may also be a challenge for educators who are not used to using them. Teachers who prefer silent, sedentary environments may find it difficult to embrace lots of student movement. But that's OK-if you are not sure how to begin to incorporate movement into your classroom, keep reading

Knowing that there are tremendous advantages (and tons of research) to getting kids out of their seats, where should we start? If you are not accustomed to classroom movement, start small. Start by having your students stand and stretch, lead a quick game of "Simon Says," or do a Gallery Walk. The idea here is that we are leading and guiding the movement. We are not just letting kids loose and allowing them to run crazy around the classroom. In fact, that image-kids running free and doing whatever they want-is one of the reasons that some teachers are hesitant to allow movement. Effective classroom movement is not chaotic nor is it necessarily unstructured.

So, start small and use effective strategies to directly lead kids in the movement. That's a great place to start, and you'll see positive outcomes for your students.

One more thing. As I train teachers, this question often comes up: "How often should I use movement strategies with my students?" As you can guess, an exact answer to that question is difficult because there are many factors to consider (age of the students, available space for movement, developmental concerns, etc). However, a good guideline is that students should move (or have the freedom to move) about every 30-40 minutes. The main idea here is that long periods of sitting still is not good for learning.

Thanks to Jenny, Valentina, Cindy, and Bryan for their contributions!
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Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

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Eight Ways to Use Movement in Teaching & Learning (Opinion)

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Four educators share ideas on how to use movement with students, including for learning vocabulary through the use of the Total Physical Response.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Education continually seeks to enhance the student learning experience. However, whether at school, college or university, most of these experiences are spent sitting down. A growing body of research points to the benefits of incorporating movement in the classroom as a way to expand students' experiences.

Being sedentary in class directly impacts mental and cognitive functions as well as students' experiences, academic performance and behaviours, research shows. After 15 to 20 minutes of sitting, attention is lost and 90 per cent of the oxygen in the brain and body becomes stale, reducing the amount of glucose available to the brain, studies suggest. Meanwhile, neurotransmitters that carry messages from one nerve cell to the next start to downregulate their production.

This reduction of usable glucose along with nerve conduction is a red flag for brain functions, resulting in potential fatigue, brain fog, attention deficit and classroom behaviour issues among students.

Teachers may witness an outward change in their students' behaviour because of these symptoms. They may see students become tired or seemingly lazy, unable to retain information, fidgeting, disengaged, disinclined to participate, disruptive, tardy and skipping lessons.

While some teachers do incorporate movement into their classrooms, evidence suggests that uncertainties and concerns prevent many others from doing the same. Therefore, two questions need answering:

What are the unknowns that prevent teachers from incorporating movement into their classrooms?

1) When should I carry out the movements?

2) How long should I carry out the movement?

3) What type of movement should I do?

4) Where should I carry out the movement?

5) What can I do if I have no experience in movement in the classroom?

What strategies can be offered to those teachers who are unsure how to incorporate movement into the classroom?

1) Every 15 to 20 minutes, all students and teachers should carry out some form of movement, irrespective of whether they have been seated or standing. This will boost the supply of fresh oxygen and glucose to the brain, allowing the nervous system to rebalance itself and prevent fatigue.

2) The amount of time to carry out movement can vary depending on the time the teacher has and the length of the lesson. However, research suggests that five minutes of physical movement - called movement breaks - is enough to support healthy brain functions.

3) The most productive physical movements are yoga postures in the form of stretching and aerobic movements in the form of walking, jumping or marching, research suggests. It is also important to identify movements that are suitable for your students. For example, do any of your students have any physical or cognitive additional needs? Knowing your students' needs can be achieved by a brief questionnaire given at different points of the academic year.

4) Movement can be carried out in any location the teacher decides, be this inside or outside the classroom; however, standing behind the student's chair is plenty of space. It is best to assess the class size and structure first, looking at the layout, chairs and tables - for example, are the chairs and table movable? This will allow you to choose physical movements that are suitable for the space you are in.

5) Further tips for those with no experience in classroom movement breaks include:

- Researching "physical movement breaks" and becoming familiar with different types that can be easily used in the classroom can make it easier for the teacher to implement. There are apps and videos offering guided movement, which teachers and students can watch and follow via a screen. To make it more game-like, there are physical movement cards, dice and PowerPoint movement wheels that can be used.

- Explain the benefits of movement in the classroom to your students, and allow them to offer input on what they would like to see and do in movement breaks.

- If concerns arise about the movement breaks distracting from instructional time, consider incorporating topic-relevant movements in the form of games. For example, when carrying out a question-and-answer section of the lesson, if a student gets the right answer, they do five squats and if they get it wrong, they do five-star jumps.

The creativity of how movement can be used is limitless. It is a simple way of giving students a great experience in the classroom. My message to all educators is to experiment with movement in the classroom, have fun and see the benefits first-hand.
Stephen Braybrook is a movement expert, author of The Evolution of Biomechanics and creator of Brain Move.

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Why and how to bring physical movement into the classroom

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Education continually seeks to enhance the student learning experience. However, whether at school, college or university, most of these experiences are spent sitting down. A growing body of research points to the benefits of incorporating movement in the classroom as a way to expand students' experiences.

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Melyssa Ferro knew she had to teach sex education soon after she began working as a middle school science teacher in Idaho's Caldwell School District. "That was a really important issue for the students in my district to have some information on because at that time, our teen pregnancy rates in the district were fairly significant," Ferro says. "I was actually pregnant with my third child at the same time as two students in my class."

Now, more than two decades later, Ferro is still passionate about creating a safe environment for students during the annual sex education week in her district. In Idaho, where the standard remains abstinence-based sex education, and parents in her district have to opt in each year to allow their kids to receive sex ed in schools, it isn't easy to carve out time or space to have broad conversations around sex education.

But the internet provides students with unfettered access to sprawling social movements like #MeToo, opening up new opportunities-and new expectations-for when, where, and how they discuss issues of consent and healthy relationships even as our society as a whole grows rapidly more conscious of gender and sexual fluidity.

"There's a lot more that goes into sex than just biology," says Ferro. "There's the physical, the intellectual, the emotional and social aspects."

This more holistic understanding of sex ed, encompassing crucial aspects of human sexuality beyond anatomy and biology, is the foundation of comprehensive sex education (CSE) in schools. Such instruction entails scientifically accurate information about human development and reproductive health, as well as information about contraception and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. A 2020 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health reviewing literature dating back to 1990 revealed that school-based CSE improved students' understanding of healthy relationships and gender norms, ultimately reducing "homophobia and homophobic-related bullying" and "dating and intimate partner violence."

We talked to science teachers and health educators across the country to better understand how sex ed has evolved to adapt to our increasingly complex sociopolitical climate.

Contested Ground

Sex ed has long been a controversial topic, but when schools do address it in their curriculum, the information given to students isn't always based on scientific facts. As of 2020, the National Conference of State Legislatures reports, public schools in 30 states and the District of Columbia were mandated to teach sex education, and just 22 states required that if provided, sex education must be "medically, factually or technically accurate."

On the other hand, 19 states, including Arizona, Utah, Louisiana, Michigan, and Texas, are still stressing that only abstinence should be taught in schools. Proponents of abstinence-focused education say that they are concerned about whether it's appropriate for students to be thinking about sex before marriage-a popular sentiment among families who disapprove of premarital sex because of their religious beliefs or moral values. Many emphasize the idea that abstinence is a simple yet effective way to prevent pregnancies as well as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and that sex ed that decenters abstinence would encourage sexual activity in young students.

This is a common mindset among skeptics who do not support comprehensive sex ed, says Meredith Byars, a media specialist at Magic Acceptance Academy in Homewood, Alabama. "So the goal of CSE that is very misunderstood-it is to provide age-appropriate, scientifically accurate information," says Byars, a trans and nonbinary health educator who has done research on the trans and intersex (those born with a sexual anatomy that doesn't fit the typical definitions of female or male) communities. "And a lot of people that oppose CSE assume that it will promote sexual activity for youth or encourage kids to become trans, and there's actually no structural or empirical evidence of that."

In fact, there's ample research showing that abstinence-only programs neither succeed in reducing rates of teen pregnancies or STDs nor help adolescents delay having intercourse. Moreover, a 2022 study that investigated the long-term impact of CSE programs in 55 U.S. counties shows that there was a decline in teen births after they received federal funding from the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) program-teen pregnancy rates dropped by an average reduction of over 3 percent during the 20-year period.

Going Beyond Biology

In Ferro's seventh-grade science classroom, sex ed fits neatly into the science curriculum: It does begin with biology. "We talk about cells, we talk about genetics and DNA, we talk about systems and how body systems function," she says. "And so it kind of made a nice capstone week for us to go in and talk about reproductive systems."

Given that inclusive sex ed is still contentious in Idaho, Ferro says she primarily sticks to the biology of sex when teaching sex ed, but she has found ways to frame conversations about the social and emotional aspects without being judgmental or trying to tell students what's right and wrong. "When you get ready to use your body parts, because you're going to use them at some point, I want you to be able to make the best decisions for you," she says. "You know your family values, you know your family morals, you know your religious convictions. Let me give you the knowledge that you need to make the best decisions possible with your body."

To educators like Deborah Roffman, who calls herself a human sexuality educator-not a sex educator-the subject has never been merely about sexual behavior, and therefore the language we use when talking about sex education is also flawed.

"What we tend to do in this culture is take this huge part of life and keep narrowing it down until we get to intercourse," says Roffman, who has taught sexuality education to young people of all ages since 1971. "It's really not just about the body parts, it's about the human being attached to the body parts. And if you think deeply enough about it, sexuality is the essential life force, you know? So why wouldn't it be connected to everything?"

Information about how sex works from an anatomical perspective will not prepare students for real-life scenarios where they need to make informed decisions about what they want or do not want to do, health educators tell us-and this is where lessons about consent come in.

"Consent education in and of itself does not have to be about hookup culture or premarital sex," says Laura McGuire, a Florida-based sexuality educator and former middle and high school teacher. And regardless of religious values, McGuire explains, students will need to know about consent because "even when they get married, right, don't you want them to have this foundation of what it means to interact with the other person intimately?"

Honoring Students' Diverse Sexualities

Human sexuality is everything "connected meaningfully to issues of sex, gender, and reproduction," says Roffman. She stresses that the common discourse around sex is still very limited because "if we think about the way we define the word sex still as penis and vagina, look what that says to gay kids: 'All right. You don't exist, you don't have sex, you don't have sexuality.'"

For teachers like McGuire and Byars who live in states like Florida and Alabama that recently passed laws that would ban discussion around sexual orientation and gender-and restrict health care for trans youth-implementing an inclusive and comprehensive sex ed curriculum is one way they say they're showing up for their marginalized students, especially trans students, to help them feel safe and included.

Geoffrey Carlisle, a middle school science teacher in Austin, Texas, says he was motivated to teach sex ed partly because of his "damaging experience" with the subject. "The first time a teacher ever acknowledged that queer people like me existed was when my eighth-grade health science teacher said that gay men are the ones who get HIV and it's fatal," says Carlisle. "Then she just moved on, and I never had another teacher talk about LGBTQ+ people until I was in college."

Failing to recognize diverse sexualities drives up rates of depression, leaves the door open to bullying and violence, and leads to higher rates of dropping out and suicide in the LGBTQ+ community, according to a 2021 survey by the Trevor Project. With those statistics in mind, Carlisle's first priority is to create a learning environment where students across gender, sex, and sexuality spectrums feel seen and valued. "A pitfall that some curriculums fall into is only presenting relationships or individuals in these curriculums as cisgender and heterosexual," he says.

In fact, behavioral and community health researchers who studied sex ed programs in 11 states found that when students had access to LGBTQ+ inclusive sex ed programs, there were fewer reports of homophobia-related bullying-and more positive mental health outcomes for all students on campus.

Today, it's more important than ever to provide sex ed that addresses diverse genders and sexualities, as this generation has the highest rates of LGBTQ+ identity, McGuire says. "Our students are smart enough with the advent of the internet that they can connect with each other and educate each other and say to educators, 'Wait a minute, this is not OK. This is not including my experience.'"

It is an enormous responsibility to teach inclusive sex ed when there's a lack of support from state legislators, but Byars hopes teachers will not give up and will continue to advocate for their students, making sure that if they're not protected elsewhere, they're safe in the classroom. "This anti-trans legislation that Alabama is facing right now [which would criminalize offering hormone treatments to trans youth]-it's worse than it was when I was growing up as a trans, nonbinary, and intersex child. And the best thing I can do from my perspective is be an advocate and an ally for them."

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Why Sex Education Isn't Just About Biology Anymore

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Melyssa Ferro knew she had to teach sex education soon after she began working as a middle school science teacher in Idaho's Caldwell School District. "That was a really important issue for the students in my district to have some information on because at that time, our teen pregnancy rates in the district were fairly significant," Ferro says.

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Pedro Noguera, the dean of the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education, and I have a podcast (Common Ground: Conversations on Schooling) in which we dig into our disagreements and seek to identify common ground on some of education's thorniest questions. We recently wrapped up the series and reflected on what we've taken from the experience. Here we offer a few closing thoughts. -Rick
Pedro: The whole common-ground exercise has been a good experience for me. Our book, our ongoing dialogue over the last year, and the presentations we've made together during a period of so much intense political polarization in the country have provided me with an outlet to vent about the current state of affairs. I feel good about what we have been doing, but I wonder who's interested in what we're trying to accomplish through our exchanges. The good news is there seems to be a lot of people who are interested, and that's why we continue to receive invitations to speak about this project. There are a lot of people who are taken by the importance of us having a dialogue like this, of talking to each other, of trying to understand-not just talk at each other about where we stand on issues.

But there are also a lot of people on the left and right who couldn't care less about dialogue. It seems that what drives them and what they care most about is winning the culture and political wars that are ravaging this country. This concerns me because I believe that the political system in this country is broken, and our society is really in trouble because we are so deeply fractured. You can't turn on the news without being inundated by commentators who do nothing to enlighten, only further polarization. And so, on the one hand, I feel good about what we've done. On the other hand, I'm forced to acknowledge that it doesn't seem to make much of a difference in the larger scheme of things. I don't know. I don't want to be a pessimist about it, but I'm not very optimistic right now.

Rick: That's a really important point, because, as we've previously noted, one of the things you hear on both the right and left today is this sense that catastrophe is just around the corner. And when you're in a hurry to save the world, you feel compelled to take action right away and by any means necessary. It also means that anyone who doesn't agree can seem like an "enemy" rather than someone who sees things differently. None of this tends to work out so well. You wind up with bitter divides, solutions that don't get adopted, and a recipe for frustration.

As unsatisfying as they may feel to those in a hurry, the work of discussion, debate, and compromise build something crucial in their own right. As I think about this whole exercise, I don't know if you or I have changed one another's minds on anything that matters. We've been talking about these issues and probing for two years and we haven't convinced each other to think, "Oh, geez, you have it right, and I'm wrong." But what we have done is found lots of points of commonality and places where we can work together.

I know that, on any number of questions, I have more understanding of and appreciation for the arguments you've made. Look, I've spent decades in higher education, in Washington, working with education. These are not "right of center" places. So I've had a lot of exposure to my friends who see things differently and their views. But the chance to really go back and forth and talk about these things at length, to really develop a relationship has been enormously helpful. The goal isn't dialogue for dialogue's sake, nor to necessarily convince those who disagree, but to get to a place where we can find points of agreement, better understand where and why we disagree, and forge the trust that can help us bridge some of our stark divides.

Pedro: One of my takeaways is really the importance of creating an atmosphere where different perspectives can flourish and we're not shutting down people who don't think like us. And, you know, I had the experience recently of speaking to my faculty here at USC about diversity in political perspectives. I told them that I believe diversity in perspectives is as important as other forms of diversity, and we must respect it. If we can't ensure that our students are reading from conservative authors who think differently and champion ideas that are different from those of our faculty, we're not serving them well. When they go out into the real world, they are going to meet people who support vouchers, who feel threatened by immigration and racial diversity, and who regard calls for equity as a challenge to their privileged positions.

When I shared this perspective, it was surprising to me there were many faculty who told me they agree with me but were afraid to say so publicly. There were also a few people who publicly said, "I disagree with you." They countered that their students can hear conservative perspectives on Fox News if they want, but they're not going to hear it in their classes. I responded by saying I respect academic freedom, and I will not tell them what to teach. However, I also said "For as long as I'm the dean, I will support people who express conservative views-whether it be students or faculty-because I think it's important to have a broad spectrum of ideas in the curriculum and among the speakers we invite to campus." One of my takeaways is that it is important for people in positions of authority to take the risk and not shut people down because they don't think like we do. I think this is important for higher education, American democracy, and our future as a society.

Rick: When I look at think tanks or universities, these are supposed to be places where folks like you and me have room to engage with a degree of seriousness and goodwill. We're not politicians, we don't have to attract votes, and we have a certain insulation from the passions of the moment.

We're immensely fortunate in that we get to spend our time talking about ideas and we have a big microphone to share what we have to say. Given all that, it seems like the least we can do is work hard to model what it looks like to engage in a way that respects people who disagree. And I get so frustrated when this doesn't happen, whether it's Fox News or MSNBC, pundits at NPR or The New York Times, or professors at major universities. Those in our shoes who can't be bothered to engage in respectful dialogue are, it seems to me, betraying the responsibilities that come with the roles we're fortunate enough to play.

Pedro: I agree. When we lose our ability to listen to each other and engage in civil debate, we not only lose the free expression of ideas, we also diminish our ability to address the common problems facing our society. When all we do is to stake out our positions, we're not really thinking through how to respond to the complexity of problems we face. This is true whether we're talking about how we educate kids or how to reduce poverty and deal with climate change. If all we're doing is fighting, we can't work together to address these and other pressing issues. Polarization leads to paralysis, and that doesn't bode well for us as a nation.

Rick: Here's a final thought, which may serve as a decent close for this little endeavor of ours. You know, when I started teaching high school in East Baton Rouge Parish all those years ago, I had a vague notion that education would be a place that would be inquisitive and curious, that we would challenge our assumptions and learn from one another. Over the years, on right and left alike, I've found that to be true far less often than I'd hoped.

But this exercise has reaffirmed my faith. It's strengthened my conviction that we can rise to the challenge. After all, through more than two centuries of anger, struggle, and strife, we've managed to do just that so very many times. Thank you, my friend, for reaffirming my faith that we can indeed summon the better angels of our nature.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. To hear the rest of the conversation, check out Episode 14 of Rick and Pedro's Common Ground Podcast, "Reflections on Common Ground."

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'Polarization Leads to Paralysis': When Debate Is No Longer Civil, What Happens? (Opinion)

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Pedro Noguera, the dean of the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education, and I have a podcast (Common Ground: Conversations on Schooling) in which we dig into our disagreements and seek to identify common ground on some of education's thorniest questions.

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School districts are headed for a fiscal cliff in the next year and a half. Their location will determine how painful the fall will be and how challenging it will be to get back up.

That's the premise of a new report from Education Resource Strategies, a nonprofit consultant that works with school districts on school finance issues.

The report identified 15 states that meet three criteria that put them at a particular disadvantage when the unprecedented surge in federal funding from pandemic relief efforts expires in the next year and a half.

Those states-Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia-have:

the highest ratios of federal relief funds to overall education spending,

the largest shares of students who attend school in high-poverty districts, and

the largest proportions of districts that have high percentages of students in poverty.

Three-quarters of states meet at least one of these criteria, but schools in the states that can check all three of those boxes are most likely to feel the effects of the fiscal cliff, the report says.

Congress passed three rounds of relief aid totaling $190 billion for school districts during the first year of the pandemic. The deadline to commit the first round of funds, colloquially known as ESSER I, to specific expenses has already passed. Districts are required to commit the second round of funds by Sept. 30, 2023, and the third round of funds by Sept. 30, 2024.

Some districts have used these one-time funds for one-time costs, like repairing HVAC systems or buying new laptops. But others have used them to pay for salaries and benefits for tutors, mental health counselors, and other workers. The fiscal cliff means they'll either have to pay those costs with other money, or cut those positions altogether.

Why these metrics matter

The three rounds of ESSER funds schools have received represent a staggering amount of money, dwarfing some of their regular annual funding streams.

Annual Title I funding from the federal government, for example, makes up between 1 percent and 4 percent of total education revenue each year depending on the state, according to the Education Resource Strategies report.

By contrast, the federal relief funds since their release have represented anywhere from 4 percent of annual education funding in New Jersey to 17 percent in Mississippi.

States where federal relief funds make up a smaller percentage will still feel the effect of an unusually large drop in funding. But states such as Mississippi and Louisiana (where ESSER funds have represented 14 percent of annual funding) are likely to face an "unprecedented drop in revenue" when the federal relief funds dry up, the report says. And that drop could be even steeper in school districts that reserved most of their federal relief spending for the last year before the deadline rather than spreading it out over more time.

Poverty will further compound those challenges.

States with a large number of high-poverty districts will struggle to provide the ideal amount of targeted fiscal support to counterbalance the federal relief fund losses, the report says. If states only have a handful of high-poverty districts, providing a financial cushion might not be as challenging.

Even so, states where high-poverty students are concentrated in a small number of districts could still face fiscal cliff challenges if those few districts are large ones, like New York City, that serve high numbers of students from low-income families.

What else is coming, and how districts can prepare

The fiscal cliff isn't a new phenomenon-district leaders who were working after the 2008 recession remember the cliff that followed the expiration of stimulus funds. But as speculation mounts about the prospects of an economic downturn and fallout from the pandemic continues to play out, districts have a lot to balance in the coming years.

States aren't powerless to help districts more smoothly transition away from federal pandemic relief funds.

They don't have the power to extend the spending deadline for the temporary funds, but they can pass laws that allow districts to carry over more of their state and local funds from one year to the next, Ventura Rodriguez and Katie Roy from Education Resource Strategies write in a companion piece to the report.

That way, districts can more easily cover expenses with federal funds before the deadline and then shift those expenses back to more reliable revenue streams in future years.

States can also play a more active accountability role to ensure federal relief funds are being spent wisely on support for students. If districts spend wisely now to mitigate learning loss, they'll also be mitigating the possibility of future high costs of instruction, according to the report.

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These 15 States Could Take the Biggest Hit as ESSER Funds Expire

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School districts are headed for a fiscal cliff in the next year and a half. Their location will determine how painful the fall will be and how challenging it will be to get back up. That's the premise of a new report from Education Resource Strategies, a nonprofit consultant that works with school districts on school finance issues.

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If you didn't answer "all of the above," then: A. You haven't been paying attention, or B. You work for a testing software company.

develop a thorough analysis in an essay; conduct a laboratory investigation; curate a portfolio of student work; or complete an original research paper.

PBA allows students to demonstrate knowledge and skill through critical-thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and the application of knowledge to real-world situations. In other words, it helps students prepare for college, career, and life.

And when they share with the class, that helps reinforces everyone's learning, she explains. None of this is possible in an individual test.

PBA also removes bias and creates more equity. For example, Holland recalls a state standardized test question about decomposition for eighth-grade science: "The question asked about grass clippings after mowing the lawn, and students got hung up on 'grass clippings,'" she says. "Some had no idea what they were because they either lived in apartments and had no lawns, or they had lawns but didn't mow them because they had landscapers."

Stronger Relationships with Students

"Students always say that working together was the best part," he says. That's the best part for the teachers, too, because it helps them build stronger relationships with students.

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Standardized Testing is Still Failing Students | NEA

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If you didn't answer "all of the above," then: A. You haven't been paying attention, or B. You work for a testing software company. develop a thorough analysis in an essay; conduct a laboratory investigation; curate a portfolio of student work; or complete an original research paper.

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Shafia Zaloom, author, "Sex, Teens and Everything in Between: The New and Necessary Conversations Today's Teenagers Need to Have about Consent, Sexual Harassment, Healthy Relationships, Love, and More;" health educator, Urban School in San Francisco

Christopher Pepper, health educator, San Francisco Unified School District

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The Future of Sex Education in a Post-Roe America - KQED

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Researchers estimate that as many as half of pregnancies in the United States were not planned and roughly one in five pregnancies ends in an abortion. With the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v.

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Teaching kids about gardening is great, but is public school the best place to do it?

A student at SEEDS - a successful after-school gardening program for children in Durham, NC. Founded in 1994, SEEDS is a two-acre urban garden and kitchen classroom in the heart of Durham. SEEDS develops the capacity of young people to respect life, the earth, and each other through growing, cooking, and sharing food.

School garden programs. It sounds like such a good idea. I mean, of course we support public school gardens, right? What kind of Grinch would you have to be to not support school garden programs? Children, nature, nutritious eating, loving the earth......you might hear birds chirping and angels strumming harps in your imagination just thinking about it. The idea of gardening programs at our public schools creates a warm and fuzzy feeling, doesn't it?
After experiencing a public school garden program myself, and doing just a little bit of research, I can tell you I am not as enthused about it as I used to be.
I'll go ahead and just say it: unless the school has a dedicated Garden Manager/Educator on staff and a budget for supplies, I don't think public schools are the right place for garden programs. Before I explain my position, gaze upon a few more photos taken while I volunteered at the after-school garden program at SEEDS in Durham, NC during 2018.

This is what we all have in mind when we think of a garden program for kids, right?

The adult in the photo is Trevor Hyde - Farm Manager and Educator. Trevor was educated at Trinity College, Yale, and UNC Chapel HIll before receiving his second Masters in Agriculture and Education at North Carolina State University.

SEEDS is an organization, not a public school. SEEDS has a two acre urban garden (two acres!) with a chicken coop and pen full of happy chickens, a kitchen classroom stocked with equipment and appliances, and a highly educated staff who are very knowledgeable in child education, public health, and farming. Additionally, they have enough gloves, rakes, hoes, shovels, spades, wheelbarrows, insect repellent, clippers, hats, etc... to equip a small army of urban farmers.

SEEDS' full-time efforts are dedicated to maintaining their vast and diverse garden, and developing and running well-thought out gardening and cooking programs for youth. Their lessons are based on what is growing in their garden. It's spectacular to see and heart-warming to experience. SEEDS is garden programming for children and adolescents at its finest.

And now, take a look at the "garden" I showed up to at a public school in Raleigh, NC on the first day of a after-school garden program I volunteered to lead.

Keep in mind I was told by the non-profit agency supposedly in charge of the garden that a fully functioning garden loaded with vegetables and herbs was at the school waiting to be used with their rather rigid, nationally developed, structured lesson plans. The lesson plans assumed a growing garden was in place with vegetables to be harvested for preparing snacks with the students and for seeds to use for the next garden.

Just a few paces away from the above pictured garden, there were the remnants of what looks like a previous, and now abandoned, gardening project on the campus. Hmmmm.
So what went wrong?
Here's my list:

1. A total lack, or at least not adequate communication between the school and the non-profit concerning the condition of the garden.

2. No plan for maintaining the garden, especially during the summer when the school was closed and gardens need daily attention.

3. It was not clear who was in charge of what, or who was responsible for what. So nobody was in charge of anything, and no one was responsible for anything.

4. No water supply for the garden. (Sadly, this is not a joke.)

5. No tools - at all - for the students or anyone to use to maintain the garden. Tools had to be gathered from another garden location run by the non-profit, each week, and carried over to the school.

6. No cooking facilities and no kitchen supplies (such as knives, plates, napkins) were made available by the school. Those items also had to be collected and carried over on a weekly basis to perform the "snack" portion of each lesson. Also, with no vegetables growing in the garden, all the food had to be collected from a donation site and carried over as well.
(Let me mention at this juncture that I drive a SMART car and could not possibly carry all these things back and forth each week on my own. So that was yet another problem.)
7. No budget for soil, mulch, plants, seeds - or anything - and no arrangements made to have these items donated, to raise funds, or to make a budget request from the school system.

Apparently the garden became an over-grown, out-of-control, weed patch of an eyesore over the summer of 2018. A lady at the school (I don't remember her position), was tasked with rounding up volunteers to clean the mess up when school resumed in the fall. She decided to clean it up by pulling it completely out. Frankly, I don't blame her. What was she supposed to do?

Why didn't she call the non-profit to come fix their little project? A project that just a year before they received a lot of positive publicity on a local news channel for? I don't know. I can only guess how I might be aggravated enough about the situation to not clue them in before ripping their mess out, too.

I tried to stay with the program, but after being directed to dig up soil and worms at one garden, load it into my car, and carry it over to the school garden to teach about composting, I decided to quit. It was week three of a 10-week program when I did. The school staff involved had a bad attitudes that were affecting the kids. The staff at the non-profit were disorganized and clueless. The whole fiasco was frustrating and disappointing and I was DONE.
The experience was invaluable because it made me rethink, or honestly think for the first time, about the realities of public school garden programs.
Our schools in NC are over-burdened as it is. They can't afford textbooks. They can't afford classroom supplies. Teachers are very clear that they don't believe they are paid enough. So who are we to think schools are able, or even willing, to establish and maintain gardens successfully on top of everything else they are doing?

Who exactly do we think is going to work the garden on a regular basis? Gardens are work, most of which is needed during the summer when the majority of schools in NC are closed. And where is the budget for all the tools and supplies needed going to come from? For storage space? For irrigation? And more than all this, is this really what we want our teachers spending their time on? I've decided I want them teaching math, reading, history, and science instead of pulling weeds and shoveling mulch with our future generation.
It turns out I am not the only one who has questioned the value of school gardens or who has realized there is a tremendous amount of organizing and planning required to make a school garden successful for more than a season or two.
Felicia Yu, a graduate student at the University of Delaware, wrote her thesis about this subject to complete her Master of Science in Public Horticulture in 2012. Her work, SCHOOL GARDEN SUSTAINABILITY: MAJOR CHALLENGES TO THE LONG-TERM MAINTENANCE AND SUCCESS OF SCHOOL GARDEN PROGRAMS details the numerous obstacles to establishing school garden programs and sustaining school gardens over time. If you are considering starting a garden at your kid's school, please read Ms. Yu's thesis.

In a nutshell, Ms. Yu explains school gardens are generally started by an enthusiastic teacher or parent, with all the best intentions. That enthusiastic teacher or parent generally puts in a great deal of effort to start the garden and keep it going, at least for a while. They may be able to get a small group of other teachers and parents to volunteer and donate supplies, at least for a while. But teachers get transferred, and parent volunteers move to new schools as their kids age, and interest in the garden is lost over time. She provides abundant statistics to back up her thesis.
School gardens are very susceptible to failure within a few years of inception if a real management plan and a reliable budget isn't established at the beginning.
Caitlin Flanagan wrote a piece questioning the value of school gardens for the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of The Atlantic, and instantly became Satan incarnate according to the Church of School Gardens. But I implore you, please join me in climbing off our high horses, swallowing a deep drink of reality, and giving her article Cultivating Failure: How school gardens are cheating our most vulnerable students an open-minded read. Basically, she argues that our schools have important subject matter to teach and that the children of farm workers are the ones who suffer the most by having limited school resources reallocated to garden projects.

I wholeheartedly believe gardening is a fun activity for kids to participate in, providing numerous valuable learning experiences. But I think there are better ways to get kids involved in gardening than establishing gardens at our public schools. SEEDS in Durham is a shining example of a better way. I also think our public school teachers should be focused on the subjects they are hired to teach. Our school system in NC is overburdened as it is.

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School Gardens Aren't Such A Great Idea After All: A Tale of Two Garden Programs

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Teaching kids about gardening is great, but is public school the best place to do it? School garden programs. It sounds like such a good idea. I mean, of course we support public school gardens, right?

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The effort to abolish standardized testing is a cheap, shabby maneuver by educational institutions to racially discriminate.

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June is Pride Month, and seeing the various LGBTQ celebrations on the news and in the community may be the perfect opportunity for you to begin conversations about sexual identity with your children. But you shouldn't limit your conversation to one month; look for opportunities throughout the year to discuss gender and identity issues with your kids. It could be a story on the news, questions from your child or an experience in your community. Use your child's questions as teachable moments to expand both your child's understanding and your own.

Starting a conversation with your kids about gender identity doesn't have to be one big TALK. In fact, it's better for kids - and parents - to have multiple conversations about gender identity throughout childhood, into adolescence and early adulthood.

First, educate yourself

If you are not sure about the origins of the Pride Parade or other events, educate yourself. Look up the Stonewall riots of 1969, learn why people were protesting and how, over the years, the protests have shifted into events that celebrate diversity and a continued push for equal rights. Learning about the whole spectrum of gender identities - gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary and queer - can help you answer questions from your kids.

Start the conversation

Once you have a basic understanding of the spectrum of LGBTQ identities, you can start the conversation with your kids. A few places to start may be while eating dinner together, watching the news, or when something related comes up in conversation. Your child may tell you a story about a classmate or a topic they are discussing in school, for example.

Ask your child open-ended questions to better understand what they know, think and feel. Let their responses guide your discussion. Talk positively about all the diversity that exists in our world - race, ethnicity, gender expression, sexual orientation - and that all these identities make us unique and wonderful people.

Lean in

Remind your kids that you'll love them forever - even if you don't know exactly who they'll be in the future. Make your home (or a specific room) a safe zone so kids know they can come talk to you about anything, ask questions, discuss feelings and more - and that you will not reject or make fun of them. If verbal communication is challenging, try creating a journal for the two of you to share.

One of the biggest fears we hear from youth is that their parents and important adults in their lives will stop loving them because they are "different." Kids are very sensitive to a lack of support - wherever it comes from. As parents, we can be a buffer to negative talk and prevent long-term negative health outcomes.

The Family Acceptance Project in California has researched the impact of family support on gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer children, teens and adults. One startling statistic is the rate of suicide attempts for LGBTQ youth who receive rejection from their families.

Youth who experienced highly rejecting behaviors from their family were eight times more likely to attempt suicide than those who experienced love and acceptance from their parents and caregivers. Even a small bit of change can make a tremendous difference in the mental health of our youth. For youth who experienced moderate rejection (some negativity, but also some positive support), the research group found those LGBTQ youth were only twice as likely to attempt suicide.

We can help our kids by making sure we are creating moments of inclusion in our families and social networks. Our kids are listening and absorbing what we do, say or not say when a gay joke is told in our presence, a transgender person is misidentified, or a person is belittled because of who they are or how they dress. We might not always know how a person identifies or what our child is going through, but creating environments where we prioritize tolerance and kindness is a great way to build a stronger foundation of trust and acceptance in your family.

Encourage acceptance

Gender roles and stereotypes begin early, and as parents, we often perpetuate them unwittingly. Baby girls are often given pink dresses and dolls; baby boys are usually given blue overalls and trucks. Often, we don't even think about it.

To better help our kids, we can encourage them at a young age to pursue their own interests - whether it be dolls or trucks, puzzles or games - and choose their own "play" clothes. The more children feel empowered to make their own choices, the more likely they will come to you later if they have questions.

As parents, you can role-model acceptance of people's differences by what you do and say - and what you don't do or say. For example, when someone makes a comment about a person's looks or sexuality, do you just laugh it off or do you say it was inappropriate? Does your answer depend on who you are with? Your kids are also dealing with these sensitive issues. Ask them what they would do or say if they were being teased. What if they witnessed a friend getting teased, or a classmate they don't know very well? It's human nature to have a range of feelings depending on how closely a situation impacts us. We can teach our kids to be compassionate, when it's appropriate to get involved, and when to ask an adult for help.

Conversations about gender and sexuality change over time, which is why this talk cannot be done only once. A conversation with a 5-year-old will be very different than that with a 15-year-old. Luckily, there are helpful resources (some listed below) to assist parents in how to navigate developmentally appropriate conversations with your children.

By building a foundation of love and acceptance with your child early in their lives, you will help them gain a strong and positive sense-of-self. Through teaching and modeling acceptance for LGBTQ identities, you also help your child become a positive agent for change in our world.
Samantha King (pronouns she/her/hers) is a Family Support and Education Specialist in the Gender & Sexuality Development Clinic at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Resources

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Talking to Kids about Gender and Sexual Orientation

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June is Pride Month, and seeing the various LGBTQ celebrations on the news and in the community may be the perfect opportunity for you to begin conversations about sexual identity with your children. But you shouldn't limit your conversation to one month; look for opportunities throughout the year to discuss gender and identity issues with your kids.

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https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/having_a_conversation_with_your_young_child

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Kittie Butcher, , and Janet Pletcher, Lansing Community College -

When you converse with your children, you are giving them opportunities to grow as well as giving yourself an enjoyable pastime.

Anytime is a great time to have a conversation with your child.

Some people say a child's conversation doesn't get interesting until they are in school. That may be because they haven't had the opportunity to converse with a child under 5 years old.

Young children have a unique perspective on their world and how it operates. They have thoughts, ideas and opinions of their own, but with some children it is hard to find out what these are. When you get involved with conversations with young children, you are giving them opportunities to grow as well as giving yourself an enjoyable pastime.

Why is it important to have conversations?

There are several reasons why it is good for children to engage in conversation with adults or other children. For one thing, it helps the child build those critical literacy skills they need to develop to be successful in school and life. After all, oral language is the basis of literacy and reading and writing proceed from talking and listening.

Conversation also builds thinking skills such as planning, remembering and organizing thoughts and experiences. By putting important concepts into words, such as alike and different or then and now, children enhance their cognitive development skills. In fact, many experts believe the language we use during conversations helps to map out how our brains are organized, according to " Brain Development and Mastery of Language in the Early Childhood Years" by Intercultural Development Research Association.

Having conversations can also build emotional development skills. When you talk to your child about how they are feeling and give them the words for their feelings, it helps them to understand themselves better. Feelings can be very confusing and overwhelming for young children. Having the words to describe their feelings can help them accept their own emotions as well as those of other people, says the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning.

Finally, having conversations builds relationships between you and your child. According to " Parental bonding=happy, stable child " by the University of Iowa, when parents talk to their children, they show they are interested and care about them. It builds trust between parent and child and contributes to bonding. The warm secure relationship that comes from talking with, not at, your child, is the foundation for all development.

How can parents start and maintain conversations with their young child?

Starting and maintaining a conversation usually works when you bring up a topic the child is interested in, such as the type of toys they like to play with or a favorite book. Michigan State University Extension suggests asking open-ended questions such as, "What toy do you want to play with now?"

In "Tips for Talking with Young Children," child development researchers Judy Jablon and Charlotte Stetson suggest these two strategies for beginners learning how to have conversations.

Both people in the conversation get a turn. Children need to understand the "back and forth" nature of conversation, so make sure you guide the conversation in a two-way process. Avoid doing all the talking or expecting your child to do all the talking.

One way to help a conversation along is to pause after you say something or ask a question. Make sure your pause is long enough to give your child time to think through an answer and put their thoughts into words. Children can get confused when they are faced with three or four questions or comments all at once.

You don't have to make formal arrangements for conversations with your young child. " Talking with Young Children: How Teachers Encourage Learning," published in Dimensions of Early Childhood, states it is better if you engage in conversation as part of your daily routines such as mealtime, preparing for bed or riding in the car.

Start talking and listening. You may hear something amazing!

Did you find this article useful?

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Having a conversation with your young child

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Kittie Butcher, , and Janet Pletcher, Lansing Community College - When you converse with your children, you are giving them opportunities to grow as well as giving yourself an enjoyable pastime. Some people say a child's conversation doesn't get interesting until they are in school.

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)

Social and emotional herb gardens offer young students a sensory learning experience and a chance to explore their feelings.

Courtesy of Hannah Liberman

There are countless benefits to gardening with young children, including spending time in nature, experiencing life cycles in real time, and improving attention.

Herb gardening is an especially joyful way to get young children involved in the garden. The plants are easy to grow, are readily available at garden centers and nurseries, and offer a rich sensory experience of smells, colors, and tastes. Thanks to the connection between our senses and our emotions, herbs can offer us an enjoyable way to delve into social and emotional learning (SEL).

I learned about social and emotional herb gardens during a seminar with sustainability consultant Koh Ming Wei, who holds a PhD in sustainability education. Her lecture inspired me to try this project with my kindergarten class.

Getting Started

My first step was to select strong-smelling herbs that I thought my students could use in a variety of ways-in art projects, sachets, and herbal teas. I opted to use herbs that were easily purchased at a local nursery and that I could also buy in dried form at my local natural foods store. This proved important, since the children use many more dried leaves and flowers than our small, newly planted herb garden could provide.

Once I selected six plants (chamomile, lavender, mint, rosemary, lemon balm, and sage), my students worked together to plant them in a small trough in front of our classroom. As they reflected on the planting experience, students were already noting the ways in which gardening and interacting with herbs were impacting their energy.

One student reflected on preparing the transplant, saying, "It felt calm squeezing the plant's roots." Another noticed the smell of a plant's leaves and how it made them feel, saying that "it felt refreshing smelling the lemon balm."

Exploring Dried Herbs

After planting the seedlings, we invited the children to explore the dried form of our new plants. Since the plants were not yet established enough to harvest, I brought in dried herbs, and the children moved through the classroom, investigating each herb's scent.
Courtesy of Lesley Chapman
We gathered and asked the children to share any feelings they noticed as they smelled the herbs. Were any calming? Energizing? Children shared how the herbs made them feel, and then were invited to make sachets using herbs that felt calming and energizing.

Interestingly, the same scent inspired different feelings in different children. For example, some found lavender energizing, while others found it relaxing. Rather than try to teach children about the botanical properties of the different plants, we celebrated their individual experiences of each herb.

After creating calming and energizing sachets, the children wrote about their special blends. They drew and painted pictures of the herbs that they included in each sachet, labeling them, and recording how the herbs affected their emotions.

Children took home their two sachets, along with the art they created to accompany them. We encouraged families to find a way to include these tools in a quiet place, such as a basket next to a child's bed or another cozy area of the home. We kept extra sachets and artwork for our classroom Peace Place, where children are invited to reset their energy during the school day.

More Ways to Explore

After our initial planting and sensory exploration of the herbs, many children were interested in continuing their exploration of our herb garden.

Some chose to write and decorate frozen-pop sticks to label the plants growing in our garden. Others decorated wooden faces to show the emotions that each herb brought up for them and "planted" their faces near the corresponding herb in the garden. And still others kneaded herbs into a batch of plain salt dough, incorporating herbs and then creating faces showing how the herb made them feel.

As our herb garden matures and (hopefully) blooms, we are all excited to harvest and dry herbs to use in next year's explorations. The children are also looking forward to using their homegrown herbs to create custom tea blends to enjoy during our classroom tea parties. There are a multitude of opportunities to explore our experiences through writing: recording recipes, journaling about experiences, writing labels for our tea blends, and more.

Just six plants have provided our class with many hours of joyful investigation and exploration. Children have gotten their hands dirty, worked hard applying their writing to a real-world context, and developed a richer vocabulary for their emotional states. As the days get longer and our plants become more established, our social and emotional herb garden is sure to provide countless more opportunities for learning.

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) Social and emotional herb gardens offer young students a sensory learning experience and a chance to explore their feelings. Courtesy of Hannah Liberman There are countless benefits to gardening with young children, including spending time in nature, experiencing life cycles in real time, and improving attention.

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Project-Based Learning: The Perfect Fit for Early Childhood Education - iLEAD Schools

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Early childhood education experts often deal with the misperception that younger learners face barriers to deeper learning or high-skilled activities. According to Wendy Ruiz, director of iLEAD’s Early Childhood Education…Read More →

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Critics are calling it the "Don't Say Period" bill.

Florida House Bill 1069, introduced this legislative session by Republican Rep. Stan McClain, aims to restrict how, what, and when health and sex education is taught in the state's public schools. Notably, it would ban Florida's public school students from receiving instruction on human sexuality, sexually transmitted diseases and related topics, including menstruation, before 6th grade-despite the fact that puberty and the life-altering changes that come with it, start for many children well before then. If signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the measure would take effect across Florida on July 1. The bill passed the state House on March 31 and remains pending in the Florida legislature.

This legislation represents a trend, often driven by politicians, of limiting how and when schools can teach sex education. There's been a 438 percent increase in proposed "divisive concept" bills such as parental rights and anti-gender affirming bills in the past 18 months, according to Michelle Slaybaugh, the director of social impact and strategic communications for the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, or SIECUS. Such legislation is driven primarily by conservative legislatures seeking to limit topics that can be explored in public school classrooms, often including human sexuality, according to Middle Tennessee State University's Free Speech Center.
Health experts caution that such proposed restrictions often contradict what research has shown to work to keep children adequately informed, protected, and prepared for healthy relationships in their personal lives.

"Without good sex health education, it's less likely that people end up in healthy relationships," said Laurie Dils, associate director for sexual health education at the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. "Unless we normalize talking about bodies, romantic relationships, I don't know how we expect people to sort of magically have those conversations within the context of a healthy relationship."

How states limit sex education

Evidence suggests that many schools are falling far short of what health educators would consider 'good' sex education.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, offers this straightforward and inclusive definition: "A quality sexual health education curriculum includes medically accurate, developmentally appropriate, and culturally relevant content and skills that target key behavioral outcomes and promote healthy sexual development...The curriculum is age-appropriate and planned across grade levels to provide information about health risk behaviors and experiences."

Despite this guidance from a national health authority, states and school districts vary widely in how, when, and to what extent they implement sex education. SIECUS compiled a report, State Profiles, that provides both an overview of the number of states' requirements around sex education. The report, available online, also features in-depth information on the mandates of each individual state. Here are some noteworthy highlights of the report:

29 states and the District of Columbia require sex education in K-12 public schools.

38 states require HIV education.

30 states require schools toemphasize the importance of abstinence when sex education or HIV/STI instruction is provided.

19 states require instruction on condoms or contraception when sex education or HIV/STI instruction is provided.

13 states do not require sex education or HIV/STI instruction to be any of the following: age-appropriate, medically accurate, culturally responsive, or evidence-based/evidence-informed.

13 states require sex education or HIV/STI instruction to include information on consent.

10 states require culturally responsive sex education and HIV/STI instruction.

9 states have policies that include affirming sexual orientation instruction on LGBTQ identities or discussion of sexual health for LGBTQ youth.

6 states explicitly require instruction that discriminates against LGBTQ people.

5 states have laws requiring comprehensive sex education, which is the broadest most in-depth form of sexuality instruction.

Currently, Florida does not mandate sex education in any grade.

What health experts recommend

Health experts, however, do offer a consensus on what's developmentally appropriate.

"We're trying to put the needs of children first," said Kathleen Ethier, the director of the division of adolescent and school health at the CDC. "It's important for young people to understand what is happening to their bodies at every age."

Using this standard as a guideline, students by grade 2 should be able to use medically accurate terms, including those for genitalia, explained Ethier.

This also would mean teaching students about relevant topics, such as puberty, well before House Bill 1069 suggests. Ethier pointed out that the age at which girls are starting puberty ranges from 8 to 13, and ranges from 9 to 14 for boys.

"Girls need to be prepared for what is going to happen to them. Otherwise, it could cause a lot of trauma and fear for them," she said.

Dils agrees. "In an effort to be protective of kids, when we keep kids ignorant, we are actually doing them a disservice," she said. "There have been decades of research showing that sex health education is effective for a lot of different reasons, especially if it starts early and happens repeatedly over time."

Dils quantifies what it means to start this education early. "When we talk about [sex education] instruction starting early, it's not just instruction about sexuality," she said. "It's about healthy relationships, communication, setting boundaries."

Balancing evidence-based instruction with what communities want

While Dils espouses starting these conversations with children as early as elementary school, she's aware that not everyone is prepared to do that. "Not all communities are open to that instruction happening early. We try to find a balance in our state," she said.

Ethier echoes the need to respect the wishes of local communities. "We [the CDC] say: Here are what the standards are. But because decisions about curriculum are made at the local level, there isn't a way to say everyone must do this," she said. "If you have a district that has an abstinence policy, that has to be taken into consideration."

Health advocates may not be in a position to mandate how schools educate children on health and sex education. But that doesn't prevent them from providing their informed perspective on the subject.

"As a psychologist who has studied adolescent health for many years, I think it is incredibly important for both boys and girls to understand the people who are going to be their friends and potentially their romantic partners," Ethier said. "The more information, the more skills that we can give young people so that they can make healthy decisions, the better they will do during adolescence and into adulthood."

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'Don't Say Period' Bill Is Latest Example of States' Efforts to Limit Sex Education

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Critics are calling it the "Don't Say Period" bill. Florida House Bill 1069 , introduced this legislative session by Republican Rep. Stan McClain, aims to restrict how, what, and when health and sex education is taught in the state's public schools.

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Note: In this exercise we are going to ask students to say words that are offensive to some people. These words are important to say and to write down, but ask participants to answer this question calmly and respectfully as possible. This activity is best facilitated by an educator or trained counselor who is comfortable with uncomfortable conversation around culture, and/or potentially personal information. If you would like assistance in facilitating these types of discussions with students, please reach out to Counseling In Schools.

Draw two boxes on the board, labeling them "Act Like a Man" and "Act Like a Lady". Participants are invited to come to the board and fill in the boxes, or you can do this as a collective brainstorm, filling in students' answers as facilitator. Participants can also do this as individuals or in pairs/small groups. Remember that this exercise seeks to look at stereotypes, not at individual behavior.

Ask if anyone has ever been told or heard someone being told to "act like a man". What does it mean to "act like a man"? What are the expectations (which may not be the reality)? Whenever answers coincide with the stereotype, write it inside the box.

1. How are men supposed to be different from women? (E.g., stronger, tougher, in control...) What feelings is a "real man" supposed to have? (E.g., anger, superiority, confidence...) How do "real men" express their feelings? (E.g., yelling, fighting, silence.) How are "real men" supposed to act sexually? eg.- aggressive, dominant, with women

2. What are names applied to persons outside the box? (E.g., wimp, queer, gay, wuss...) Write these outside and around the box.

Note: These words are important to say and to write down, but ask participants to answer this question as calmly and respectfully as possible.

3. What things happen physically to people outside the box? (E.g., Fights, beat up, harassed, teased, abused, ignored...) Write these outside and around the box.

Ask if anyone has ever been told or heard someone being told to "act like a lady". Ask what it means to "act like a lady" - what are the expectations (which may not be the reality).

1. How are women supposed to be different from men? (E.g., nicer, weaker, more gossipy...) What feelings is a "real woman" supposed to have? (E.g., fear, sadness, low self-esteem...) How do "real women" express their feelings? (E.g., crying, screaming, hysteria...)

2. How are "real women" supposed to act sexually? Should they follow a man's lead, should they not "sleep around"...?

3. What are names applied to persons outside the box? (E.g., tomboy, lesbian, easy.) Write these outside and around the box.

Note: These words are important to say and to write down, but ask participants to answer this question calmly and respectfully as possible.

3. What things happen physically to people outside the box? (E.g., harassed, abused, ignored, bad reputation...) Write these outside the box and around the box.

1. What do you notice about the influence of male and female stereotypes on sexism (and you may want to add heterosexism and transphobia)?

2. How do the stereotypes listed from the boxes effect both straight and queer people?

Key Points

These are expectations by society and are not realistic.

Men that stay inside the box are generally (though not always) safe from the harassment that occurs outside the box.

Men who leave the box are accused of being "women" or "gay".

Men who are accused of being outside the box could retaliate in an aggressive fashion and then put themselves back into the box.

Women who stay inside the box are not "safe" as promised but are raped or abused as often as women outside the box. The only benefit being that they may be believed by society more often than women outside the box.

Gender Boxes exercise originally created by the Oakland Men's Project.

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Note: In this exercise we are going to ask students to say words that are offensive to some people. These words are important to say and to write down, but ask participants to answer this question calmly and respectfully as possible.

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Project-Based Learning (PBL)

Project-based learning allows very young students to explore, research, and grow their knowledge. Presenting their work to the community validates their efforts.

Credit:FatCamera / iStock

In a project-based learning environment, students build knowledge and develop skills by working collaboratively for an extended length of time on a question or challenge from the real world. For early learners, PBL projects provide an inviting and flexible arena in which to explore, follow their curiosity, and develop different skills and strategies. Sharing their work with the community can further fortify their learning.

In Engaging Children's Minds: The Project Approach, authors Lilian G. Katz, Sylvia C. Chard, and Yvonne Kogan identify three phases in the life of a PBL project. The first phase encompasses the teacher and learners finding out how much they know about a topic and defining what they'd like to know more about regarding the topic. The learners, with the direction of the teacher, develop questions that will guide them in their research.

In the second phase, which the authors call the developmental phase, the teacher guides the learners in their research and facilitates resources.

The final stage is the concluding phase; the teacher and the learners find a conclusion to the project, and the children share the knowledge they've gained with the community: topic experts, school board members, parents, peers, and teachers. With the help of their teacher, the children explain the topic they've studied, the inquiry process, the choices they made, and their conclusions.

They can use drawings, flash cards, realia, or any other device that might give them confidence during their presentation. The main goal of the presentation is for students to share their learning journey, which will help them develop ownership of their learning and cultivate higher-order-thinking skills. The presentation also shows learners that they can make a difference in their communities and that their voice counts.

Planning a PBL presentation with young Learners

Let's say there's a group of 4-year-olds who observe that raindrops don't penetrate the leaves of a nearby plant. From this observation, they raise the question: How can we make a roof for our playground out of leaves?

It's paramount that during the different phases and steps of the project, the teacher and students collect documentation and the students learn to keep records of their work. So, for the above example, it would be appropriate to document the research process through photographs, drawings, audio and video recordings, oral reflections, questions from the learners, and observations of leaves and water. Using a magnified image of a leaf, the learners can also document how its structure prevents the water from penetrating the leaf.

It might also be helpful for a botany teacher or specialist to explain the structure of a leaf to the children and the effectiveness of leaves as essential materials for the construction of a roof. The learners and teacher may also invite a construction worker and/or an architect to guide them with finding alternatives for a roof made out of leaves.

The documentation that the children produce needs to be supplemented with audio recordings of the teacher talking about a specific observation, conclusion, or question. Photographs of the children working at different stages of the research process can also serve to document the learning process.

Organizing the presentation

It's advisable that at different intervals during the PBL project, the teacher invites learners to explain to their peers what they've done, the steps forward, new ideas, or even what they found irrelevant or useless. This exchange will give learners the scaffolding they need to be prepared to talk to a wider audience.

Additionally, it would be helpful to display the documents of the learning process in the classroom and for the teacher to refer to them on a daily basis. This will help the learners recall the process from the start of the project to the present and reflect on the ups and downs of the research path.

To organize the presentation, the learners and the teacher decide which documents best show the learning path, and then they choose how they'll display these documents on the day of the presentation to make the process clear for the audience and to make it easier for the learners to use the documents to support their talk.

The presenters

Generally, when teachers and early learners are beginning to work through PBL, teachers prefer to work with the whole group and at times organize the learners in small groups or teams for specific tasks. This allows the teacher to better lead the learners and closely monitor their progress. Once the learners and the teacher are familiar with PBL group dynamics, working in small groups will be more frequent.

If all the learners will be presenting the same project, they need to be organized so that the teacher and the learners arrange a sequence of presenters that follow the project steps in order. Rather than have the students memorize the text of the presentation, let them explain the learning process spontaneously. It's important, of course, to practice in class and check when and how to use the resources, as well as how to manage hesitation, timing, taking turns, and speaking clearly and loudly enough.

What would you have done differently if you did this project again?

What would you like to add to this project if you had the time and resources?

If given more time or resources, what would you have changed in the research/data collection process?

Did you consider other solutions to solve the problem?

What was the most difficult moment in the project? How did you solve it?

What was the most amazing moment in the project?

The audience

The role of the audience is fundamental. There needs to be interaction between the audience and the children so they see that the community members (parents, teachers, experts, peers, school board) are interested in their work, maybe even asking the presenters some questions. For this reason, it would be a good idea to give the audience a guide to the kinds of questions they may ask-for example:

As curriculum and instruction specialist Dr. Candice Wilson-McCain says, "Public showcases allow students to celebrate their work and give them the sense that their work is valuable and has meaning beyond receiving a grade."

Very young children are naturally curious and willing to inquire, find connections between objects and facts they discover in the world around them, and share their discoveries. As a result, if we invite those marvelous minds to fly high, they will unquestionably have the opportunity to shine.

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The Benefits of Presenting Preschool PBL Work

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Project-Based Learning (PBL) Project-based learning allows very young students to explore, research, and grow their knowledge. Presenting their work to the community validates their efforts. Credit:FatCamera / iStock In a project-based learning environment, students build knowledge and develop skills by working collaboratively for an extended length of time on a question or challenge from the real world.

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Authored by Authored by: Lynette Bagwell Betsy Cahill

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https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/tyc/feb2019/asking-questions-stretch-children%27s-thinking#:~:text=When%20we%20ask%20children%20questions,their%20ideas%2C%20and%20their%20reflections.

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When we ask children questions-especially big, open-ended questions-we support their language development and critical thinking. We can encourage them to tell us about themselves and talk about the materials they are using, their ideas, and their reflections.

This is the fifth and final article in this TYC series about asking questions that support rich conversations. During the past year, Conversations with Children! has documented and analyzed the many different types of questions teachers ask and the rich discussions with children that flowed from those questions. The series has explored children's interests, considered their developmental needs, respected their cultural perspectives, and highlighted their language development and thinking.

Using an adaptation of Bloom's Taxonomy to think about the types of questions teachers ask children, this article focuses on intentionally using questions that challenge children to analyze, evaluate, and create. This can increase the back-and-forth dialogues teachers have with children-stretching children's thinking!

For this article, I spent the morning in a classroom of 3- and 4-year-olds, located in a large, urban elementary school in Passaic, New Jersey. All 15 children spoke both Spanish and English (with varying levels of English proficiency), as did their teacher and assistant teacher. The teachers in this classroom stretch their conversations with children, having extended exchanges in both languages by listening to and building on children's answers.

Understanding Different Types of Questions

Bloom's Taxonomy has long been used as a way to think about the types of questions we ask students. We have adapted it for young children. Although Remember has mostly right or wrong one-word answers and Create invites use of the imagination and answers that are complex and unique to each child, these levels are just guides. It is up to you to consider which types of questions are appropriate for each child you work with. The lower levels form the foundation for the higher ones.

Remember

identify, name, count, repeat, recall

Understand

describe, discuss, explain, summarize​

Apply

explain why, dramatize, identify with/relate to

Analyze

recognize change, experiment, infer, compare, contrast

Evaluate

express opinion, judge, defend/criticize

Create

make, construct, design, author

A conversation about building with cups in the makerspace

A conversation between the teacher and two children began during planning time and continued as the children built in the makerspace.

During planning time

Teacher: I am excited to see how you will build with the cups. Do you have any idea how you will build with them? (Analyze)

Child 1: I will show you what I can do. ( He draws his plan on a piece of paper.)

Child 2: I want to work with the cups too.

Teacher: Maybe you can collaborate and share ideas.

Child 2: Yeah, we can work together.

Child 1: We can build a tower.

Later, as the first child is building

Child: I put these two and put these one at a time and then these two.

Teacher: How did you stack these differently? () (The child doesn't respond.)

Child: (He becomes excited, pointing.) I show you!

Teacher: Please demonstrate!

Child: I knew what my idea was. (He shows the teacher how he stacked the cups.)

Teacher: Can you describe what parts of the cups were touching? (Understand)

Child: I was trying and trying and trying!

Child: This one is the right way and this one is down.

Teacher: Oh, this one is right side up and this one is upside down!

A conversation about creating a zoo in the block area

The children were preparing for a visit to a local zoo. After listening to the teacher read several books about zoos, one child worked on building structures in the block area to house giraff es and elephants.

Teacher: I am excited to see how you are building the enclosures.

Child: It fell down and I'm making it different.

Child: I'm trying to make a watering place for the elephant to drink water. I have to make it strong so he can drink and the water doesn't go out.

Child: I'm gonna ask him.

A conversation about coding with robots

The children had been using the Ozobot Bit, a small robot that introduces children to coding, for many months. Because these robots are programmed to follow lines and respond to specific color patterns (e.g., coloring small segments of the line blue, red, and green will make the robot turn right), preschoolers engage in a basic form of coding just by drawing lines. In this conversation, the teacher helps a child develop his own code.

Child: (He draws as he speaks.) You have to keep going.

Child: Because have to draw it 'fore it can go. And you don't draw it, it don't go nowhere. Wanna see?

Teacher: So if it's not on the line, it won't go anywhere. It only goes on the line.

Child: Yeah.

Child: You can't stop it with your hand. . . . And if you want to make another one, first you have to turn it off and then you make another one. (He demonstrates with four markers how to code on the paper and then puts the robot on the line.) Now it going backwards.

Child: (He makes the black line on the paper thicker and retries the Ozobot, but it still stops and turns around.)

Child: I gonna do the whole thing again. (The child starts drawing the code.)

A conversation to stretch dramatic play

A child held a baby doll and a girl doll as the teacher entered the dramatic play area.

Child: This girl has a baby. We going to the doctor because we all sick.

Child: The doctor has to check my heart and then he gonna check my mouth.

Child: They go to bed back home and go to sleep.

Child: I'm going read them a book.

Teacher: Oh, that is such a good idea! Do you have a special book in mind? (Understand, )

Child: (She nods her head in affirmation and smiles broadly.) I have a special book. (She holds up My House: A Book in Two Languages/Mi Casa: Un Libro en Dos Lenguas, by Rebecca Emberley.)

Teacher: Will you read the book to me? I'll pretend that I am sick and I am in the bed and you can read the book to me. (The child gives the teacher a small blanket.) You are giving me my blankie. You read and I'll listen. (, ) (The child invents her own story as she turns the pages.)

Conclusion

As the teacher, it's up to you, the one who knows your students best in an educational setting, to decide which questions are appropriate for which children during a particular interaction. It can be challenging to develop and ask questions that engage children in analyzing, evaluating, and creating, such as, "If you could come to school any way you wanted, how would you get here? Why?" But questions that each child will answer in her own way are well worth the effort!

: Thank you, Megan (teacher), Ms. Perez (assistant teacher), and all of the wonderful students who taught me so much about coding! In addition to being the teacher, Megan King is the author of the chapter "A Makerspace in the Science Area" in the book Big Questions for Young Minds: Extending Children's Thinking. And a great big final thank-you to the five preschool classrooms that invited me into their worlds, sharing their questions and conversations with TYC readers.

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Conversations with Children! Asking Questions That Stretch Children's Thinking

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When we ask children questions-especially big, open-ended questions-we support their language development and critical thinking. We can encourage them to tell us about themselves and talk about the materials they are using, their ideas, and their reflections. This is the fifth and final article in this TYC series about asking questions that support rich conversations.

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(ABC 6 News) - According to Forbes, more than 80% of four-year colleges will not require standardized tests this fall. Leaving many with mixed feelings. But, not all are against the new rule.

The myth used to be that test scores will determine your whole future. After test-taking requirements shifted because of the pandemic, some say this way is better.

"I mean there's nothing I can do about what I had to take it," said Lydia Miller, a junior at the University of Minnesota - Rochester.

Serena Handrick, also a junior at the university, said: "I mean I'm not really mad. I'm kind of over it. But at the beginning, I was like 'I stressed so much about this and now it doesn't even matter.'"

Then there's David Reisenauer, a senior at the university: "It's always the question of what's a good measure of establishing whether a student is going to do well or not in a collegiate setting."

All three had to take the ACT. Like these three students, the university thinks your ACT score is not the only measure of success.

"We spend a good deal of our time analyzing the students' high school coursework. What classes did they take? What was their GPA?" said Terry Whittum, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management at the university.

Whittum says it's not just your high school GPA that plays a factor.

"We take the GPA directly from the high school but then we also calculate a separate STEM GPA."

Over at Winona State University, the idea to cut standardized test scores was in the works before the pandemic. As Dr. Denise McDowel, Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Life at the university told ABC 6 News:

"ACT and SAT scores became more of a barrier to access to higher education than an entrance to higher education and we're finding that to be true."

In 2018, 97% of Winona students submitted an ACT score. In 2022, only 56% submitted one.

"So you can kind of see that decline from those who were taking it pre-pandemic, and then once the pandemic hit, and then folks who just now recovered," added Dr. McDowel.

On a national level, the ACT saw a big drop in test takers. In 2022, about 1.4 million took the test. A much smaller number than the 1.9 million test takers in 2018.

Rose Babington, Senior Director of State Partnerships for ACT said, "What that different reflects to us too are the numbers of students who have the access and opportunity to have that ACT score."

Babington noted there are current seniors who will test through July to qualify for scholarships and different programs.

ABC 6 reached out to the SAT to see what testing patterns it was seeing. Its response was a look at testing score statistics rather than a look at test taker statistics.

For Related Stories: ACT SAT Standardized Testing Winona State University Sydney Zatz University of Minnesota Rochester

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Mixed feelings as some colleges no longer require standardized testing

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(ABC 6 News) - According to Forbes, more than 80% of four-year colleges will not require standardized tests this fall. Leaving many with mixed feelings. But, not all are against the new rule. The myth used to be that test scores will determine your whole future.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Legislation moving in the Florida House would ban discussion of menstrual cycles and other human sexuality topics in elementary grades.

The bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Stan McClain would restrict public school instruction on human sexuality, sexually transmitted diseases and related topics to grades 6 through 12. McClain confirmed at a recent committee meeting that discussions about menstrual cycles would also be restricted to those grades.

"So if little girls experience their menstrual cycle in 5th grade or 4th grade, will that prohibit conversations from them since they are in the grade lower than sixth grade?" asked state Rep. Ashley Gantt, a Democrat who taught in public schools and noted that girls as young as 10 can begin having periods.

"It would," McClain responded.

The GOP-backed legislation cleared the House Education Quality Subcommittee on Wednesday by a 13-5 vote mainly along party lines. It would also allow parents to object to books and other materials their children are exposed to, require schools to teach that a person's sexual identity is determined biologically at birth and set up more scrutiny of certain educational materials by the state Department of Education.

McClain said the bill's intent is to bring uniformity to sex education across all of Florida's 67 school districts and provide more pathways for parents to object to books or other materials they find inappropriate for younger children.

At the committee meeting, Gantt asked whether teachers could face punishment if they discuss menstruation with younger students.

"My concern is they won't feel safe to have those conversations with these little girls," she said.

McClain said "that would not be the intent" of the bill and that he is "amenable" to some changes to its language. The measure must be approved by another committee before it can reach the House floor; a similar bill is pending in the Senate.

An email seeking comment was sent Saturday to the office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is widely seen as a potential 2024 presidential candidate.

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Florida may ban girls' period talk in elementary grades

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Legislation moving in the Florida House would ban discussion of menstrual cycles and other human sexuality topics in elementary grades. The bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Stan McClain would restrict public school instruction on human sexuality, sexually transmitted diseases and related topics to grades 6 through 12.

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Florida Politicians Want Less Talk About Periods. We Need More of It

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Menstrual literacy has life-saving impacts, writes Jennifer Weiss-Wolf.

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Schools Are Spending Billions on Safety Measures to Stop Mass Shootings. It's Not Clear They Work

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The deadly shooting in Uvalde, Texas has reignited the discussion about whether safety measures at schools can deter or stop mass shootings.

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As local bills on gender, sexuality and diversity make their way through Florida's state legislature, new legislation would ban any discussion of menstrual cycles in school before sixth grade.

That breaks from the advice of medical providers who recommend talking to children about puberty and changes in their bodies before they occur.

First periods typically start between ages 10 and 15, but can begin as young as 9 years old. That means a student could likely be in third grade up to tenth grade, or later, when a period begins.

During a subcommittee hearing in the Florida House on Wednesday, Republican state Rep. Stan McClain said his bill would include restrictions on girls talking about their menstrual cycles.
Related: The fight for African American studies in schools isn't getting easier, even after 50 years
Bill would ban discussion of periods before sixth grade

House Bill 1069 would only permit "instruction in acquired immune deficiency syndrome, sexually transmitted diseases, or health education" only in grades 6 through 12.
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Democratic state Rep. Ashley Gantt noted that young girls could start their periods earlier than sixth grade and asked for clarification on whether the bill would ban those girls from talking about them.

"Does this bill prohibit conversations about menstrual cycles because we know that typically, the age is between 10 and 15," Gantt asked. "So if little girls experience their menstrual cycle in fifth grade or fourth grade, would that prohibit conversations from them since they are in a grade lower than sixth grade?"

McClain confirmed that the bill's language would do exactly that: "It would" McClain responded.
'Shelves have been left barren':Florida teachers sue DeSantis' government over school library regulations
Legislation against 'woke ideology'

The bill is one of the latest in a series of bills expected to be signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as he seeks to transform Florida's education system in his fight against what he calls "woke ideology."

The legislation that DeSantis has signed so far has included barring transgender student athletes from participating in school sports and new restrictions on discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in school classrooms.

It's a strategy also being used by Republicans in Congress, with the House this week expected to vote on the "Parents Bill of Rights," a legislation effort in direct response to parents who sought more authority over their children's education during the pandemic.

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Florida GOP bill would ban girls from talking about their periods in school

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As local bills on gender, sexuality and diversity make their way through Florida's state legislature, new legislation would ban any discussion of menstrual cycles in school before sixth grade. That breaks from the advice of medical providers who recommend talking to children about puberty and changes in their bodies before they occur.

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We Asked ChatGPT: Should Schools Ban You?

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The debate about the benefits and drawbacks of artificial intelligence, and more specifically ChatGPT, is heating up.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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COLLEGE STATION, TX - NOVEMBER 24: James Earl statue on the campus of theTexas A&M University on ... [+]
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National four-year public universities have, per student, increased tuition revenues by less than they have lost in state appropriations, while simultaneously keeping educational and related expenses flat over the period 2006-2020, adjusted for inflation. Put more simply, public universities are receiving less support from their states and are not relying on increases in tuition to make up for this decrease in state funding.

All universities are taking steps to reduce expenses and contain costs. Many are looking at their tuition structure and price-point. All are looking at their discount rate and how they are leveraging financial aid. But little appears to have been done to change the waning public perception and to drive the national discourse on the value of investing in public higher education.

In adjusted dollars, the costs actually have not increased over the last two decades. What has changed, however, is the level of state support to offset those costs. As state support has decreased, the effective cost to students and their families has increased. In essence, the reduction in state support is the equivalent of a tax increase on families paying for college. States are choosing this over raising taxes on the entire state population to better fund higher education (e.g.). Students and parents should be informed about all that universities are doing to reduce total costs, while protecting the value of the education and the degree, but must also understand the dynamics at play.

Public universities' efforts to reduce expenses and contain costs, while preserving and even elevating quality and value, are happening against a number of backdrops. Taken individually and together, these backdrops provide important context to the public higher education discourse. First, and most obvious: the recession brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. Families have less, worry more, and have quickly become more critical, cautious, and savvy potential customers. Financial assistance is expected, competitive bidding is part of their thinking, and cost (not quality, real or perceived) is increasingly the driver in their decision-making.

Second: changes in demographics. Not only the declining numbers of high school graduates and college-bound students in many regions (such as the Northeast and Midwest), but changes in the college-bound population itself (non-traditional students, veterans, returning students, transfers, hybrid learners, etc.) and of course the increased competition for out-of-state and out-of-region students. Today's traditional undergraduate student is more mobile, more moveable, and more likely to consider going farther away to college.

Third: increased regulation and requirements for compliance, increased oversight at the state and federal levels, and an increased expectations of even sense of entitlement (or at least "what have you done for us lately") by state legislatures and higher education coordinating boards, even as they continue to reduce support to public universities.

There is a fourth point to consider when thinking about cost, tuition, and perception - the closing gap between public and private universities. Both are increasingly dependent on tuition revenue. Both have made financial aid (scholarships) a top priority for fundraising. Public universities no longer have a monopoly on federal and state support for research in areas such as transportation, education, the environment, public policy. The growth in corporate research support and partnerships, brought on in part by the decline in federal and state-funded research, removes some of the competitive advantage once held by public research universities. State support for research, for example, was directed to the state's public universities. Corporations, on the other hand, have no such restriction. And as the public versus private distinction is becoming smaller and actual costs to families are converging, both public and private universities are hitting their "saturation point" in terms of price (when considering total costs for non-residents at many public universities).

Perception matters, now more than ever. Colleges and universities have more savvy customers, more watchful and critical state officials with increased expectations despite decreased levels of support, and a cost-weary public post-pandemic recession. They, like everyone, exist in a time of ubiquitous and varied media where information and misinformation goes viral quickly. Different target audiences get their information in different ways. And these institutions are spending more and more on crafting, delivering, and marketing their messages to these groups.

Public universities must recapture the narrative around cost, value, and impact.
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Public universities really have two distinct audiences when they think about their messaging: (1) the state (legislators and other officials), and (2) the public (tax-payers, neighbors, partners, and more importantly future students and their families). And while there is overlap in the messaging to these two audiences, the messages and the messaging strategy are not all the same. The state, for example, may or may not be focused on academic quality, rigor, and the curricular and co-curricular experiences they provide to their students. The public audience has different concerns. Parents and students don't care how much (or how little) state support a university receives per se. They do care, however, about the actual costs to them. Alumniwant to know their "stock is rising" - that the reputation of the university, and hence the perceived value of their degree, is on an upward trajectory. And corporate partners and donors want to know about impact, leverage, the supply of work-ready graduates, and ROI.

In thinking about the need to change the conversation, distinguishing reality from perception, and making clear what public higher educational institutions are and are not to their states, public universities should focus on the following (distinct) issues: (1) demystifying sticker price vs. actual cost, (2) affirming value proposition and ROI, and (3) separating educational debt vs. lifestyle debt. On the latter point, students have high (and increasing) expectations for on-campus and near-campus residential life facilities, athletics and recreational facilities, and a myriad of other amenities that have become ubiquitous among colleges and universities. Universities also are facing escalating costs associated with recruiting and retaining faculty and specialized staff, health care, and energy - to say nothing of their mounting deferred maintenance obligations to both physical and IT infrastructure. It's important that they track and separate these educational and related costs, distinguish them from other lifestyle costs, and properly message educational vs. lifestyle debt.

The truth is that the value proposition for public universities has never been stronger. The investment needed to obtain a degree from a public university has not increased over the last two decades. And while more of the costs are being passed to students and families, as state support continues to decline, the actual cost (and relative debt load) for families has been more or less unchanged. This is a testament to these universities' efforts to simultaneously reduce costs while elevating quality. Graduates of public universities quickly contribute to the state's economy, often paying back the state's investment in their education in fewer than four years of paying taxes. Over their working lifetime, they will earn more than $1M more than their peers who did not invest in a college education.

Public universities are not a drain on resources, a luxury, or models of bloated inefficiency. They are a great and critically needed investment. But now they need take ownership of a narrative that, too often neglected, has been written by others. Public research universities should be promoting and celebrating what they continue to do (year after year) for their students, their communities, and their states. It's about quality. It's about value. It's about impact. And it's about time to break through the rhetoric and change the conversation - for the public good.

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The Real Costs Of Public Higher Education: Breaking Through The Rhetoric

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National four-year public universities have, per student, increased tuition revenues by less than they have lost in state appropriations, while simultaneously keeping educational and related expenses flat over the period 2006-2020, adjusted for inflation. So why is the narrative so different?

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Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs

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Federal Accountability and Financial Pressure: A Survey of Presidents | Inside Higher Ed

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College presidents generally agree that their institutions should be reporting much more information about the career and other outcomes of their graduates -- they just don’t necessarily want the federal government doing it, Inside Higher Ed’s new survey of college presidents reveals.

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By Nancy Bailey

Why would parents and teachers, tired of high-stakes testing in their public schools, wish to sign onto more assessment that tests, tracks, and profiles their child's behavior online?

Good teachers have always built social skills into their classes. Helping children behave and work with each other is second nature to teaching. One can find nice social-emotional learning (SEL) activities.

But now states are setting up SEL standards about what children should think and feel. How does one standardize such things?

I originally noted that @SEL4MA has lovely activities for children. They do. As I look at Twitter now, I see terrific book titles for children and a lovely quote from Mister Rogers, whose upcoming movie I noted on Twitter yesterday.

But I have been informed that they have a dark side of their own. Their website describes their endorsement of Social Impact Bonds and Pay for Success. One teacher told me they are "like stalkers" with many for-profit partners and enablers. This is troubling. It is also deceptive. It's easy to see how one can be sucked into the nice activities for children, without realizing what this organization is truly advocating.
SEL is ill-defined, unproven and still connected to Common Core.
Here are the concerns about SEL in general.

There's a mish-mash of psycho-social, neuroscience talk, and programs are not always well-explained to parents, or well-understood. SEL covers so much.

"Core" is used often, because SEL is connected to Common Core.
SEL standards involve too much introspection for children.
Where's the research? The reliance of support is on a 2011 Meta-analysis of eight studies showing students do better academically with SEL activities, but there's nothing to support the pervasive dominance of SEL assessment in schools.

As part of the Every Student Succeeds Act, the Illinois SEL Standards have been praised for being the first state SEL standards. Some goals sound decent. But forcing children to reflect so much on their actions, thoughts, and feelings is obsessive.

Here's a sampling of what children are to do:

recognize and label their emotions,

identify family strengths,

record their emotional behavior changes as they transition throughout the day,

recognize how others have contributed to their achievement,

remember to use "I" when speaking,

If SEL seems like character education it's because it is.
and much more.

SEL involves grit, soft skills, or character education.

Character education has always been controversial. Both religious and non-religious parents often resent it.
SEL and psychological profiling.
Even Angela Duckworth, the "grit" queen, grew concerned about measuring character traits, calling it a "bad idea."

SEL assessments for parents, children, and teachers ask personal questions. What right do adults have to scrutinize a child's thoughts and feelings for data? These aren't merely interest inventories.

The assessments seem designed for school psychologists for when children have difficulties in school. Why do all children require such serious assessment? Most children come to school ready to learn and without major behavioral problems.

Here's a list from Edutopia of some of the assessments:
Tracking children's behavior with SEL

Devereux Early Childhood Assessment, Second Edition (For PreK).

Devereux Student Strengths Assessment

Social-Emotional Assets and Resilience Scale (SEARS)

Social Skills Improvement System Rating Scales

Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale

What happens if the student has a bad year? What if their parents divorce in 5th grade and they have problems then, but they've adjusted by 8th grade? Will their behavior from 5th grade haunt them forever? Where will that information be when the student applies for college?
SEL's emphasis on self-control.
There was a reason schools kept a student's record in a locked filing cabinet.
SEL and students with disabilities and gifted students.
SEL involves an emphasis on self-control. How much self-control is too much? Is developmental age considered? Certain behaviors are normal for young children.
SEL and student trauma.
How will learning difficulties of students with disabilities be reflected in the assessments? Students with autism and gifted students, for example, might start out with problematic behavior in school, but make great gains.
SEL and technology.
Children experiencing trauma, or problems that cause them difficulties in school, need counselors, school psychologists, and social workers to address their needs.

Many worry that in order for technology to work without teachers, children need to be better behaved and teach each other. Is that why SEL has become so important?
SEL's increasing focus on mindfulness.
Technology is also be used to monitor and teach the SEL behaviors.

Some meditation might be calming. Too much should raise concerns.

Ingrid Wickelgren, wrote in Scientific American, "How Social and Emotional Learning Could Harm Our Kids." She is critical of a Buddhist-style mindfulness program focusing on pleasurable feelings. The program is by actor Goldie Hawn.
SEL and mental health.
Non-judgmental awareness might cause a child to be unable to determine between right and wrong. They might accept life's difficulties instead of rejecting problems.

SEL is about specifically monitoring the emotional behavior of all children.
SEL is about raising test scores.
If teachers focus on an abundance of data on every child, they might miss, or have little time, to address the child who really has problems.
SEL and Social Impact Bonds and Pay for Success

Most of what SEL advocates, involves the goal of getting children to improve their behavior so they will do better on high-stakes academic testing. This seems disingenuous.

School districts are encouraged to use SIBs or Pay for Success to fund programs. Schools get money for students based on their social and emotional skills. Upon student improvement, companies get back their contribution with a profit.
SEL is a field day for nonprofits.
For example, SEL is listed in the U.S. Department of Education (DeVos) Pay for Success Feasibility Tool Kit: Considerations for State and Local Leaders to increase kindergarten readiness (p.6).

There's a glut of groups setting up unproven businesses promising to address SEL in schools. It's an unaccountable moneymaker.

Here the nonprofit Playworks (I've written about them before) jumps on the SEL bandwagon. They advertise recess. But this is not recess. It's organized play by adults. It's privatization of P.E.
SEL is insulting to parents.
Why does recess have to be outsourced anyway?

Most parents teach their children well when it comes to behavior. Children come to school curious and eager to learn and they have good behavior.
Summary
Why are scholars and politicians making it seem otherwise?

Childhood should be a carefree time, where children learn and play in ways that are developmentally appropriate.
References
Also, parents and teachers are tired of academic standards like Common Core and high-stakes testing. Trying to increase high-stakes standards involving a child's feelings seems not only ill-advised but dubious.

Cheri Kiesecker "SEL Commission Is Measuring Emotional Standards in Schools." Missouri Education Watchdog. September 22, 2016.

Cheri Kiesecker. "Is Your State or District Participating in CASEL's "Emotional Standards"? Two States Have Already Dropped Out." Missouri Education Watchdog. October 5, 2016.

Nancy Bailey. "New Social Emotional Standards to Complement Common Core." Nancy Bailey's Education Website. August 6, 2016.

Jane Robbins "The Latest Big Education Fad, Social Emotional Learning, Is As Bad As It Sounds." Townhall. August 8, 2016.

Kathleen Casper. "Danger in a Can: Why Canned Social-Emotional Skills Programs in Schools Can Harm Gifted Students More Than Help Them." Jan. 26, 2017.

Emily Talmage. "The Real Reason Your Child is being Psychologically Profiled at School." Save Maine Schools. July 14, 2017.

Larry Ferlazzo. "Let Them Eat Character." Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...." February 16, 2017.

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Social-Emotional Learning: The Dark Side

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By Nancy Bailey Why would parents and teachers, tired of high-stakes testing in their public schools, wish to sign onto more assessment that tests, tracks, and profiles their child's behavior online? Good teachers have always built social skills into their classes. Helping children behave and work with each other is second nature to teaching.

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Teachers can use the artificial intelligence tool to effectively automate some routine tasks.

ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot trained to understand typed prompts and generate content that sounds human, is the fastest-growing web platform ever. For a couple of months, I've assessed how ChatGPT handles dozens of common teacher tasks. It's not perfect, but the chatbot can reduce the 10 hours and 40 minutes a day that the average teacher works by automating the first drafts of our most time-consuming professional writing.

In the paragraphs that follow, I've divided these tasks into the following categories: planning instruction, handouts and materials, differentiation, correspondence, assessment, and writing instruction and feedback. Welcome to the revolution.

Category 1. PLANNING INSTRUCTION

Unit outline:When you align its output with the Common Core State Standards, the AI tool is able to craft a unit outline for any grade level, subject, or timeline.

Lesson plans:Ask ChatGPT to write a lesson plan on, say, Westward Expansion. The tool composes assessments, activities, scaffolding, and objectives. Want that in the form of problem-based learning or revised for a flipped classroom? ChatGPT can adjust the lesson plan according to your instructions.

Slide shows: When directed to outline a slide show for any topic and grade level, ChatGPT creates an intuitive organization and adds formative assessment questions if requested.

X-factor instruction: When I asked ChatGPT to devise a "challenging and creative approach to teaching metaphors" to students, the tool described an activity that involved integrating student-created metaphors into original stories conveyed through visual genres (e.g., a comic strip, a storyboard).

Simplify topics:Having difficulty articulating an advanced concept? Ask ChatGPT to "explain the topic to a first grader." Here's the tool's simplified explanation of chloroplasts: "Chloroplasts are little green things inside plant leaves that help the plant make its own food. They are like tiny factories that use sunlight, air, and water to make the plant's food."

Discussion questions: Use ChatGPT to write engaging, higher-order prompts for a class discussion on any topic.

With its mighty language processing and generation capabilities, ChatGPT can streamline planning when you're developing the following assets:

Category 2. HANDOUTS AND OTHER MATERIALS

Develop instructionsthatdescribe cooperative learning roles and expectations.

Generate assignment directions with a detailed overview, grading criteria, a description of the required format, and task details.

Create solved examples of math problems, chemistry equations, etc., with explanations of each step.

Build a prereading or advance organizerby extracting critical and unfamiliar vocabulary from a chapter and listing keywords with their definitions.

Provide word problems-for example,using ratios: ChatGPT gives the problem, the formula for solving it, and a full explanation of the procedure.

Compose a syllabus (boilerplate) that includes a course schedule, late-work policies, and a description of how assignments will be graded.

Make flash cards with questions and answers.

Produce posters that list classroom rules, 10 reasons why algebra is important to the students' future, or the 20 most common writing errors of high school students, with short definitions and examples included.

Perhaps ChatGPT's biggest time feature is that it can generate text for materials and handouts that target your specific instructional needs. It can do the following:

Category 3. DIFFERENTIATION

Need a choice boardfor an art activity? Boom, done. Ask ChatGPT to create a passage, chapter, or book summary for students who need support. The tool can also function as a text compactor that analyzes readings and creates more concise and condensed versions. Furthermore, the AI will generate differentiated rubrics for an assignment so that each heuristic emphasizes customized expectations and levels of challenge.

Category 4. PROFESSIONAL CORRESPONDENCE

Using ChatGPT, teachers can streamline communication with parents, colleagues, and administrators via AI-composed welcome-to-class letters, newsletter copy, volunteer and donation requests, supply lists, grant and field trip proposals, assembly programs, and permission sheets.

Category 5. ASSESSMENT

Quizzes:AskChatGPT to create tests on specific topics using any type of question format. Paste a passage into the chatbot or identify the title and chapter of a classic piece of literature, and the AI will produce a test bank and answer key.

Rubrics: ChatGPT will compose a rubric for any type of student performance. Depending on the needs of the user, examples include analytic, holistic, and developmental rubrics, as well as rating scales.

Checklists: The tool can develop an observation checklist to document students' academic, social, emotional, and physical progress.

Cloze tests: ChatGPT can create a Cloze comprehension test, where words are removed from a passage, and the reader is asked to fill in the blanks to test their understanding of the main ideas, vocabulary, and sentence structure of the passage.

With careful oversight, teachers can use ChatGPT to quickly create a variety of assessment materials.

Category 6. Writing Instruction and Feedback

Prompt generator:The tool can compose writing prompts for any genre and include a corresponding rubric.

Essay improvement: Submit sections of student writing to ChatGPT, and it will suggest enhancements.

Grammar feedback: When kids make grammar errors, teachers can direct ChatGPT to define, describe, and identify how to improve the error and also provide examples.

With ChatGPT's assistance, teachers can improve their students' writing skills through a range of tools and features.

While ChatGPT amplifies our pedagogy and automates routine tasks, it's easy to overlook its greatest weakness: The tool always sounds authoritative, even when disseminating inaccurate content. Erroneous and polished bloviation pops up in human communication as well. Nevertheless, we must check all AI-produced information for accuracy and usefulness before it reaches students.

The chatbot's prose represents another shortcoming. Without clear directions from the user, it comes off as canned, like it was written by an algorithm, when a prerequisite for uplifting, informing, and empowering students and school stakeholders is correspondence that sounds like you, not Wikipedia. Using ChatGPT responsibly means always viewing its compositions and curricula as first drafts.

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Teachers can use the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT to effectively automate some categories o routine tasks.

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Social Emotional Learning (SEL), what is it, and why does it matter to educators? As an educator, some of the worst things you can hear a student say is, "This is stupid," or "Why are we learning this?" Think back to when you were in school and the subjects that caused you the most frustration.

You'd likely find some common ground with your students in wishing you were given clear reasons why something was important and how learning a subject or skill would benefit you now, as well as years later. That frustration and finding constructive ways to deal with emotions and interact with one another in respectful ways are just a few of the guiding principles behind social emotional learning, or SEL.

Today, in an ever-diversifying world, the classroom is the place where students are often first exposed to people who hail from a range of different backgrounds, hold differing beliefs, and have unique capabilities. To account for these differences and help put all students on an equal footing to succeed, social and emotional learning (SEL) aims to help students better understand their thoughts and emotions, to become more self-aware, and to develop more empathy for others within their community and the world around them.

Developing these qualities in the classroom can help students become better, more productive, self-aware, and socially-aware citizens outside of the classroom in the years ahead. Learn more about the importance of social emotional learning, as well as its benefits both in and out of the classroom.

Table of contents

1. What is Social Emotional Learning (SEL)?

2. T he Five Social Emotional Learning Competencies

3. How Educators Approach SEL

4. The Benefits of SEL

5. What is Social Emotional Learning Theory?

6. Incorporate Social Emotional Learning in the Classroom

7. Measuring Social-Emotional Learning Impact

8. Why is SEL Important?

What is Social Emotional Learning (SEL)?

Social emotional learning (SEL) is a methodology that helps students of all ages to better comprehend their emotions, to feel those emotions fully, and demonstrate empathy for others. These learned behaviors are then used to help students make positive, responsible decisions; create frameworks to achieve their goals, and build positive relationships with others

The Five Social Emotional Learning Competencies

According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), an organization devoted to students and educators to help achieve positive outcomes for PreK-12 students, SEL involves five core competencies that can be applied in both the classroom, at home, and in students' communities. These five core competencies are:

Self-awareness

To recognize your emotions and how they impact your behavior; acknowledging your strengths and weaknesses to better gain confidence in your abilities.

Self-management

To take control and ownership of your thoughts, emotions, and actions in various situations, as well as setting and working toward goals.

Social awareness

The ability to put yourself in the shoes of another person who may be from a different background or culture from the one you grew up with. To act with empathy and in an ethical manner within your home, school, and community.

Relationship skills

The ability to build and maintain healthy relationships with people from a diverse range of backgrounds. This competency focuses on listening to and being able to communicate with others, peacefully resolving conflict, and knowing when to ask for or offer help.

Making responsible decisions

Choosing how to act or respond to a situation is based on learned behaviors such as ethics, safety, weighing consequences, and the well-being of others, as well as yourself.

How Educators Approach SEL

While SEL isn't a designated subject like history or math, it can be woven into the fabric of a school's curriculum. When educators make academic lessons more personal and relatable to students, students may be more inclined to participate and may be less likely to mentally check out during their subjects. By fostering a sense of empathy, self-awareness, and feelings of safety and inclusiveness in the classroom, SEL can have a positive impact that lasts a lifetime.

There are several different approaches to SEL. Some teachers have a more formally designated portion of the school day devoted to SEL - sometimes taught in homeroom. These lessons become a recurring theme throughout the rest of the school day to help make the core competencies of SEL more real to students.

Teachers may want to have students journal or write about their thoughts and feelings on a particular SEL lesson, or even have younger students partner with an older " buddy classroom " (or vice versa) to help students across different age levels bond or find common ground.

Other teachers work SEL-related lessons into more formal subjects, like math, history, or reading. For instance, examples of SEL-in-action can include assigning a group project where students self-delegate roles to work together for the good of the group, role playing as historical figures to understand the rationale behind a person's actions, or for students to conduct formal interviews with one another to take a pulse-check on current events.

Teachers can also work with students to set goals in areas where they may need improvement and help chart their progress, giving them a measurable way to show their achievement and feel a sense of accomplishment.

The Benefits of SEL

SEL is beneficial to both children and adults, increasing self-awareness, academic achievement, and positive behaviors both in and out of the classroom. From an academic standpoint, students who participated in SEL programs saw an 11 percentile increase in their overall grades and better attendance. On a more individual level, the skills learned within an SEL program have been shown to help students better cope with emotional stress, solve problems, and avoid peer pressure to engage in harmful activities.

Students who are equipped to deal with problems that affect them on a personal level are then better able to navigate the pressures of adult life. A report by the AEI/Brookings Working Group on Poverty and Opportunity noted that, "despite their importance to education, employment, and family life, the major educational and social reforms of the K-12 system over the last few decades have not focused sufficiently on the socio-emotional factors that are crucial to learning."

A study published by the American Journal of Public Health used data from the longitudinal, nonintervention subsample of the Fast Track Project, an intervention program designed to reduce aggression in children identified as at high risk for long-term behavioral problems and conduct disorders.

When educators are able to see which students do not grasp the core pillars of SEL, they can better work with them at an early age and help these students develop better self-control, empathy, and other positive qualities. Learning positive behaviors that extend beyond a purely academic level of achievement can help these students develop the "soft skills" required of many jobs, such as teamwork, and ability to understand others, and problem-solving. This can help set these students up for success throughout their school years and beyond.

What is Social Emotional Learning Theory?

Broadly speaking, social and emotional learning (SEL) refers to the process through which individuals learn and apply a set of social, emotional, and related skills, attitudes, behaviors, and values that help direct students. This includes thoughts, feelings, and actions in ways that enable them to succeed in school. However, SEL has been defined in a variety of ways ( Humphrey et al., 2011).

How Do You Incorporate Social Emotional Learning in the Classroom?

There are many ways to incorporate SEL in the classroom. The main idea is to provide an ongoing SEL influence throughout the day. In the beginning, you could start by checking in with students to see how they feel. Another great way is to provide students the opportunity to see how a tricky or troubling situation is being handled. This will give them some ideas on how to handle a tricky situation they may encounter. Utilizing students to role-play in front of the class would be a viable example. Make sure there is a place for students to calm down. This safe space will allow for the student to reflect.

Measuring Social-Emotional Learning Impact

Measuring the impact of implementing SEL inside the classroom goes way beyond just grades. As Dr. Christina Cipriano explains, "When students are struggling and school performance is poor, they are more likely to find school and learning as a source of anxiety, manifesting in diminished self-efficacy, motivation, engagement, and connectedness with school."

As a student is provided the tools associated with SEL, they will have more ownership of their actions, a sense of belonging, and will intrinsically care about their education. A student that has had consistent exposure to SEL is able to manage stress better and reduces the chance for that child to become depressed.

Why is SEL Important?

While SEL has been more formally stood up as a program in preschools throughout all 50 states, very few states have made SEL a designated part of school curriculum at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. To date, only three states have a fully-designed set of standards for SEL programs with benchmarks for students at every grade level from K-12, according to the AEI/Brookings report. These states are Illinois, Kansas, and Pennsylvania.

Because so few states have made SEL a part of their curriculum for K-12 students, statistical evidence showing the benefits of SEL has been anecdotal. However, preschool-age children who were able to participate in an SEL program and learned these principles early on in their school career were able to reap the intended benefits. As more states and schools consider weaving SEL into their curriculum, it can provide educators with more statistically significant evidence of the program's positive impact.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Becoming a teacher can be a rewarding experience that helps a new generation reach new heights and their full potential. If you've considered becoming a teacher, visit our program page to learn how National University's Sanford College of Education can help you achieve your goals. Learn more about our on-campus and online programs, including the Master of Arts in SEL program and the Education Specialist (EdS) in Leadership in SEL program. You can also hear more from our students and faculty.

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What is Social Emotional Learning (SEL): Why It Matters | NU

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Social emotional learning (SEL) is a methodology that helps students better comprehend their emotions & demonstrate empathy for others.

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A wise homeowner knows to deal with roof leaks right away. Otherwise, the leak will get worse, and one day a big rain will flood the house.

For colleges and universities, ChatGPT is that big rain.

And the leak is this: for some 20 years now, we really haven't known who is doing homework, and most of us haven't sufficiently revamped our classes to deal with that.

Browse all job openings "

The rise of the internet in the 1990s and 2000s led to dozens of online homework solution sites that appear at the top of web search results and have become legitimized in students' eyes. Google's phone app has "Solve homework" as the third search option just after "Shop" and "Translate," and university bookstores upsell students on those sites with offers like, "Get homework done fast!"

The internet also gave students easy, anonymous access to low-cost contractors who will write essays, code computer programs or take entire online courses. It made solutions from friends or family just an email away. And it gave students anonymous classmate access on apps like Discord or GroupMe, where solution trading occurs at a pace akin to the New York Stock Exchange trading floor.

Many professors may not be aware of how much cheating is actually happening in their classes. In an analysis I've done at professors' requests, we found one large California university's introductory computer science class had a 60 percent rate of blatant copying on at-home programming assignments. At another college, we found that every student in a 30-student computer science class was clearly copying their programs-every single one. It's not just one subject and not just homework: a student in a biology class told me that nobody was learning because the professor reuses their quizzes and the solutions are all online. High cheating rates today are common across all disciplines.

What's more, in interviews I've conducted with students, a common theme is that copying is not really "cheating" because everyone is doing it and professors don't do much to prevent it. According to many students, it's not fair for a student to get a bad grade due to the professor not preventing copying. One mentioned being put between a rock and a hard place-either you do your own work but spend 10 times more time than classmates, while also getting a lower grade, or copy but risk getting caught and penalized. Another gave a common rationalization: "If professors get to be lazy, so do we."

Many students say they view copying as simply an efficient way of getting points. It's like how most people speed a bit when driving but don't consider themselves to be committing a "crime." They're just flowing with the others, and it's basically become the normal and efficient way of getting where they're going. There's little shame in getting caught speeding or copying today when everyone's doing it.

Adding to this situation is that college students are often driven more by emotion than by reason. Those years from 18 to 25 are when the decision-making, reasoning part of the brain is really forming. Professors want to think of their students as adults, but an 18-year-old's brain is still transitioning to adulthood-something rental car companies have known for decades.

In short, our leaky roof has been getting worse every year, and now along comes ChatGPT-the big rain-and our house is about to get flooded.

ChatGPT uses powerful artificial intelligence that can write essays, solve physics problems and code computer programs. It's shockingly good at those things. It can take a page-long English description of a desired computer program, and in one minute it will generate a working program in nearly any common programming language. As one of my colleagues put it, "I've never been much impressed by AI, but oh my gosh!"

I had a student use ChatGPT to try to complete two hours' worth of programming assignments from a past term. He finished in eight minutes and scored the class average. In just another 10 minutes of telling ChatGPT what to fix, he scored 100 percent. In another experiment, a student completed an entire semester's 50 hours' worth of programming in under two hours, earning 96 percent.

AI magnifies the copying problem because it's so good. It's far easier to use than web searches and cheaper and faster than contractors-without that pesky modern risk of the contractor blackmailing you at the end of the term. And AI will only get better. Beyond OpenAI's ChatGPT, other companies are releasing their own versions, like Google's Bard.

So how do we in academe deal with the big rain and our leaky roofs?

The first step is to realize that we have a problem, and it's not a new one. ChatGPT just magnifies it.

The next step is to find a solution. Institutions and professors are trying many different approaches with some success, such as:

Putting more emphasis on high-quality proctored assessments-and ensuring solutions aren't online. But as every professor knows, proctoring has challenges, plus exams are limited in what they can assess.

Requiring students to present their work to teachers. That's great but hard to scale to large classes, and it also introduces more subjectivity in grading.

More aggressively seeking and punishing cheating, ideally to prevent it-nobody speeds right past a cop.

But those approaches take high professor effort, involving time and often money. Through research that we've conducted at the University of California, Riverside, we've found a few low-effort prevention methods can yield some success. We regularly show our cheat-detection tools to the class-in a fun way, like "Let's see if there was struggle on last week's programming labs," or "Let's see if anyone came up with similar solution approaches on the coding quiz" (with the tool in anonymous mode, or asking for volunteers).

We also have a clear discussion of what constitutes cheating and the harsh penalties if caught (in week three, since nobody on day one is planning to cheat), plus we administer a quiz on cheating with clear dos and don'ts. Those relatively simple steps have reduced cheating rates from 30 percent to 10 percent in our large computer science classes. Those low-effort techniques-showing the tools at a professors' disposal, clearly discussing cheating and administering a cheating quiz-can help reduce cheating in a variety of courses.

Those techniques help, but more is needed to revamp our classes to help ensure students are learning despite the easy availability of solutions. I mean things like ensuring that classes are carefully scaffolded, that help is readily available (via office hours, student learning assistants, discussion forums, allowed collaboration and so forth), and that students can reattempt work (within reason). Like adding more low- and medium-stakes proctored assessments, which may require more campus facilities that support such assessments. Like ensuring professors, or at least teaching assistants, actually get to know their students individually, and those students' work, which goes counter to today's increased class sizes. And like spending some reasonable percentage of teaching time seeking out and addressing cheating cases, which many professors today simply don't do.

Looking ahead, we need to develop new approaches that automatically detect whether a particular student actually did the work themselves, such as comparing their homework with their proctored exams or identifying each student's distinct patterns. How can we do that? By basically using AI to fight AI, or at least to better manage it.

The light that AI has shone on a 20-year-old weakness in academe could very well lead to great improvements in how we run classes to ensure submitted work is actually from the student. And beyond that, AI shows great promise to improve education as well. AI in the form of ChatGPT does an amazing job explaining things, finding errors in things (it can sometimes spot bugs in a student's computer programs far faster than I or my teaching assistants can) and even teaching things.

And AI will only get better. AI basically can become a private tutor who is available 24-7, provides help in seconds and never judges you. That is potentially a huge step forward in education, and I look forward to it.

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ChatGPT is a catalyst for instructors to deal with cheating (opinion)

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A wise homeowner knows to deal with roof leaks right away. Otherwise, the leak will get worse, and one day a big rain will flood the house. For colleges and universities, ChatGPT is that big rain.

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Addressing Teacher Shortages in the Short- & Long-Term - The Education Trust

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The pandemic has wreaked havoc on American lives and our nation's schools, causing disruptions that have compromised their ability...

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In the face of teacher shortages, some states are turning to unconventional strategies to fill vacancies, including relaxing certification requirements or recruiting from outside the education field or among retired educators. While the intent of these strategies is admirable, these approaches may be causing more problems than they solve. At best, most of these strategies are short-term stopgap measures that will exacerbate the disparities the current system produces.

Policymakers do not seem to understand that these teacher vacancies are neither randomly distributed nor do they impact all schools and districts equally. Multiple studies have found a disproportionate rate of teacher vacancies in districts and schools with higher percentages of students living in poverty and from historically underserved populations. These realities are not accounted for in the unconventional staffing strategies.

There are better approaches that center the needs of students by prioritizing placement of effective teachers in the classrooms where they are most needed. First, it is critical to accurately define the problem: Instead of narrowly framing teacher shortages as the need to hire teachers for every classroom, we should consider them an opportunity to do something different to address long-term systemic issues and meet the needs of those students who have been historically underserved.

The better way to address teacher shortages must begin with authentic, meaningful family and community engagement-an element missing from current stopgap strategies. In the schools that have the most difficultly filling vacancies, communities are not regularly engaged to help solve problems. This is a glaring omission: Those people who are most attuned to long-running staffing issues live and work in the community.

Some of the staffing strategies states are considering include plans to attract retired teachers, veterans, other professionals, and people who do not have bachelor's degrees. These might be effective components of a comprehensive, community-based strategy but only under certain conditions. For these plans to succeed, districts should add an additional requirement to address their cultural competency: that the people recruited for these alternative certifications are selected by the local community.

These community-led recruitment efforts might, for example, only grant provisional licenses to retired teachers, veterans, or other nontraditional teaching candidates who have lived in the same neighborhood as the school for a certain number of years. Such candidates would both be more able to relate to the school's students and be more likely to remain teaching at the school.

Another component of a comprehensive plan would be to use these alternative certification routes creatively so that schools with the students most historically underserved are more likely to be staffed with fully certified, effective teachers. Research has shown how impactful an effective teacher can be, and if fully licensed teachers are selected by the community and demonstrate cultural competency, they would be much more likely to have a positive impact on students. Examples of community schools that actively and effectively engage the local community and could be used as models for this selection process.

Some states, therefore, might consider only allowing alternatively certified teachers to work in the most highly rated schools in the state. This would free up fully licensed, experienced teachers to teach in schools where they are most needed.

Maybe you just had a negative reaction to this suggestion. But consider that, under current strategies, the overwhelming majority of new, alternatively licensed teachers will be working in historically underserved schools and communities, which are most often the state's lowest-rated schools. If you are OK with current practice, ask yourself why you have a problem with only allowing these teachers in the highest-performing schools.

Any new strategy to filling teacher shortages should carefully balance the need for greater community input in recruiting effective teachers against the need to put the most experienced teachers in the schools that need them the most. A policy could, for instance, require that new, alternative routes to teacher certification may only be used to work in the highest-rated schools in the state. But the policy could also include exceptions when the local school community-meaning the families who send their children to a particular school-specifically requests an alternative route to certification for a teacher who meets the needs of a historically underserved population.

Creating a more equitable and community-led approach to filling teacher vacancies will require additional resources. In the near term, states and districts should seize on the limited time remaining to use federal COVID relief funds to support these strategies. In doing so, they could use this window of opportunity not only to fill urgent needs today, but also to build a base of experienced, effective teachers in historically underserved schools who could serve as mentors and coaches to new, alternatively certified teachers in the future. Research shows that mentors can be an essential part of school improvement efforts. Therefore, a strategy that increased the number of high-quality mentors would have a positive impact on students.

States should keep that long-term goal in mind. If all the new teachers recruited to fill emergency vacancies were selected in a process that included authentic community engagement, it would be a step on the path to disrupting the inequities and developing a truly equitable system for all. That is a better way to approach this moment.

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A Better Plan for Addressing Teacher Shortages (Opinion)

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In the face of teacher shortages, some states are turning to unconventional strategies to fill vacancies, including relaxing certification requirements or recruiting from outside the education field or among retired educators. While the intent of these strategies is admirable, these approaches may be causing more problems than they solve.

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As educators turn their attention toward next school year, many are grappling with the challenges of supporting students through the aftershocks of this spring. The coronavirus pandemic and the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd have laid bare this country's racial inequities. Providing students with the social and emotional tools they need to navigate these complex times is paramount for the sake of their immediate well-being.

Yet, many resources designed to promote student's social and emotional learning (SEL) do not take race into account. By failing to acknowledge students' racial and cultural diversity, "colorblind" SEL programs, which are de facto grounded in the norms and expectations white culture, can imply that the differences that emerge from students' diverse backgrounds are deficits. Further, by ignoring the ways that systemic racism can affect students' development of SEL skills, these programs imply that the social and emotional challenges that students do encounter are the result of individual shortcomings, rather than the byproduct of oppression.

In contrast, an anti-racist approach to SEL takes a view that recognizes and values the diverse social and emotional skills students bring with them to the classroom. Further, it relates students' individual social and emotional struggles to their lived experience with racial injustice and social inequity.

Restorative justice (RJ) presents an opportunity to do SEL better. RJ is a model and philosophy of conflict resolution that has roots in Maori traditions. It is premised on repairing harm when one's actions disrupt the community and is often considered an alternative to punitive school discipline.

For RJ to be effective, schools must first build the community that members are accountable to. RJ does this by convening "circles"-structured conversations that aim to build empathy and connection by inviting participants to speak and listen from the heart. These community-building circles are a critical tool for anti-racist SEL. Their openness provides opportunities to discuss institutional and interpersonal racism.

When implementing RJ, racially homogenous circles can be used initially to shield students of color from wounds that White students may cause in their first explorations of race. Over time, the circles should shift toward racial integration, and structured prompts should facilitate honest discussion of how race and racism shape participants' lives within and beyond school.

For more on restorative justice, the need for an anti-racist approach to SEL, and additional information on anti-racist teaching, see the following resources:

Meg Caven's research explores the relationship between education, social inequality, and social policy. She is particularly interested in the implementation and effect of school discipline reform.

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Why We Need an Anti-Racist Approach to Social and Emotional Learning

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As educators turn their attention toward next school year, many are grappling with the challenges of supporting students through the aftershocks of this spring. The coronavirus pandemic and the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd have laid bare this country's racial inequities.

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A Racial Reckoning at Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence

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As schools across the country grapple with issues of historical discrimination, the director of a prominent SEL program argued that some inclusion efforts could get its curriculum “banned,” according to emails obtained by The 74. Updated April 7 Attending a mostly white boarding school in Connecticu…

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News of a teacher shortage across the nation has been pummeling us for years now, right up through a story yesterday in the Panama City News Herald about an "extreme" teacher shortage.

Fewer students in teacher prep programs. Thousands of unfilled teacher vacancies in state after state.

But we need to stop calling it a teacher shortage.

You can't solve a problem starting with the wrong diagnosis. If I can't buy a Porsche for $1.98, that doesn't mean there's an automobile shortage. If I can't get a fine dining meal for a buck, that doesn't mean there's a food shortage. And if appropriately skilled humans don't want to work for me under the conditions I've set, that doesn't mean there's a human shortage.

Calling the situation a "teacher shortage" suggests something like a crop failure or a hijacker grabbing truckloads before they can get to market. It suggests that there simply aren't enough people out there who could do the job.

There is no reason to believe that is true. But pretending that it is true sets up justification for a variety of bad "solutions" to the shortage. "Since there aren't enough teachers," the reasoning goes, "then we might as well just let any warm body run a classroom." So some states have adopted the idea of letting any person with any college degree take charge of a classroom. Computer-based learning systems are pitched in part as a way to "solve" the shortage of live humans to do the job. In some areas, charter schools have a particularly hard time filling positions with certified teachers, and so legislatures ( like the one in New York), instead of saying, "Well, you'd better bend to free market forces and make a better offer," offer to change the rules so that charters can hire folks who have no teaching credentials. Some folks have suggested that a single superteacher could handle an auditorium full of students or be piped into multiple distant classrooms via internet without any loss of the quality that made them super. All of these choices are less than optimal.

All of those "solutions" rest on the premise that there just aren't enough qualified human teachers in the world, that the magic teacher tree hasn't borne enough fruit. Given that premise, these all seem like ways to address the problem, even if it means settling for less than the high-quality teachers all students deserve.

But if we assume there are plenty of qualified people who could choose to enter a classroom, and stay there for a career, then we realize that we're dealing with an entirely different problem. Students who could choose to become teachers are choosing not to. People who could choose to stay in the classroom are instead engaging in a slow-motion strike, an extended exodus, and our real problem is how to attract and retain those people.

Money is obviously an issue, as witnessed by a year's worth of " teachers can't live on a single teaching salary" stories. But over the past couple of decades teachers have also suffered a steady drumbeat of disrespect, the repeated refrain that US schools are failing and terrible, an accountability movement that is more about threats than support. The rise of reforms like Common Core and high stakes testing regimens have meant a loss of professional autonomy for teachers. The rise of alternative pathways and "any warm body will do" solutions send the message that teaching is such a simple job that any shmoe with minimal training can do it. The PDK poll lays out the results -teachers think about leaving the profession and do not want their children to enter it. And that's before we even start to consider how badly underrepresented men and teachers of color are in the classroom.

The qualified people exist, but too many states and school districts want to pretend otherwise, in part because there is one other appealing aspect to viewing this as a teacher shortage. The shortage model allows state and district leaders to shrug and say, "Hey, they just aren't out there. It's not our fault."

When the dealer won't sell me my $1.98 Porsche, I can blame it on him and complain, "It's not my fault he wouldn't sell to me." Or I can suck it up, take a look in the mirror and say, "If I want that car, I need to do better."

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We Need To Stop Talking About The Teacher Shortage

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News of a teacher shortage across the nation has been pummeling us for years now, right up through a story yesterday in the Panama City News Herald about an "extreme" teacher shortage. Fewer students in teacher prep programs. Thousands of unfilled teacher vacancies in state after state.

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https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/having-big-conversations-with-little-learners

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Vol. 80

No. 7

Abstract

Critiquing Our Thinking

The Power of a Good Prompt

Naming and Noticing

Conversations and Critical Thinking: A Power Duo!

Yes, even our youngest students can think critically and deeply. Good discussions can get them started.

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Abstract

Critiquing Our Thinking

The Power of a Good Prompt

Naming and Noticing

Conversations and Critical Thinking: A Power Duo!

When I was teaching kindergartners, one of my students asked, "If Earth is always turning like you say it is, why don't we feel it?" It was a great question, but one that caught me off guard. And because we were headed to lunch in just a few minutes, I couldn't engage the class in an in-depth discussion of her question at that time, though it was something I wanted to address.

I may not have been prepared to answer her, but her classmates definitely had thoughts. Some were quick to second her question, with a look on their faces that suggested I had been misleading them when it came to Earth's rotation. Others had immediate theories they began to share. As I got my thoughts together, I asked the original student if we could write her question down on the board so that we would remember it and come back to it later. She agreed and we got ready to head to lunch. On our way and throughout lunch, the conversation about her question continued-and I could see how my students were using their critical thinking skills.

Young students ask many questions and talk quite a bit. Talking and listening are huge pieces of how young people learn, and the ways children interact with others-conversations being just one example-impact their thinking and development. This is clear when you hear a child repeat things they've heard others in their life say, even if not always completely accurately. It can also be seen when children ask questions about things they hear from others. Theorists Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky argued that learning is a social activity and "emphasized the close connection between the development of the child and the forms of interaction between the child and adults, as well as with other children" (Rubtsov, 2020).

With a few thoughtful prompts and a lot of noticing and modeling, we as educators can help young students engage in academic conversations in ways that deepen their learning.

As an educator in Virginia, I am frequently focused on the "5Cs" that our state's Department of Education has identified as important to helping our students develop the skills they need to be successful: critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creative thinking, and citizenship. Classroom conversations address all five of these Cs, though in this article I'd like to focus on their effects on critical thinking. As my kindergartener asking about Earth's rotation illustrates, an interesting question and the discussion that follows can open up paths of critical thinking for students at any age. With a few thoughtful prompts and a lot of noticing and modeling, we as educators can help young students engage in these types of academic conversations in ways that deepen their learning and develop their critical thinking skills.

Critiquing Our Thinking

What does critical thinking mean? This phrase is used frequently in education, yet rarely defined. It is difficult to teach and support students in developing a skill if we do not understand what it is. Linda Elder and Richard Paul (2008), who have done extensive work on critical thinking, write:

Good thinking is thinking that (effectively) assesses itself. As a critical thinker, I do not simply state the problem; I assess the clarity of my own statement. I do not simply gather information; I check it for its relevance and significance. I do not simply form an interpretation; I check to make sure my interpretation has adequate evidentiary support.

For young children, this is a serious challenge. (Honestly, it can be a challenge for many adults as well!) Critiquing our own thinking, questioning what we believe, backing up our ideas, and even changing our mind and revising our thinking, all take time to develop. Helping students begin to build these skills when they are young is essential. As cognitive scientist Tim van Gelder (2005) wrote, "Critical thinking is more of a lifelong journey than something picked up in a two-week module. However, just because mastery takes such a long time, it is never too early-or too late-to start working on it." Our early elementary students can definitely begin the work-but we must remember that it will be work, for them and for us. Conversations, especially about academic content, are a natural way for students to practice thinking critically.

The Power of a Good Prompt

One way to direct classroom conversations to encourage critical thinking is to make sure you are setting students up with strong prompts or questions. Whether students will be talking with one partner, in a small group, or as a whole class, the question or prompt you present to them must engage their interest, pique their curiosity, and pull them into the discussion. Questions should be open-ended-having one right answer will make for a dead-end conversation pretty quickly-with an intriguing introduction or a provoking idea to really dig into.

When considering prompts to use, here are several general ideas that can be useful:

1. Low floor, high ceiling. Prompts that have a low floor (are easy to get into and possible for all students to respond in some way) and a high ceiling (can be discussed at fairly high levels of complexity) are optimal. A "Which One Doesn't Belong?" prompt, such as Christopher Danielson illustrates in his book by the same name (Stenhouse, 2016), is a great example (see fig. 1). Students can look at four images, such as different types of pyramids, and justify why one of them does not belong with the others.

As you can see in Figure 1, which features photos I took on a recent trip to Egypt, there are obvious reasons why any of the images would not belong (one is food, one has steps, one has the sphinx, etc.). That's the low floor that is open for all students to enter. However, conversations can quickly go beyond that low floor to become more complex and interesting. In a recent conversation about these images, for example, my 3rd graders noted the differences in the tops of the pyramids and hypothesized about the building materials used in each one. They began with the obvious ideas about the rice or the pyramid with the sphinx not belonging, but then began thinking more critically and creatively. In the discussion that resulted from these pictures, students agreed and disagreed with one another, listening closely to their classmates, considering what they were hearing, and adding their thoughts. It pushed them to take their critical thinking to another level, analyzing their ideas with others.

2. Engage students' perspectives. Choose a prompt that puts your students into the question. For example, at the end of our ladybug unit, I often ask my 3rd graders, "What are four living and four nonliving things you would need and want if you were designing your own ecosystem?" That question pushes them to think about what makes up an ecosystem, but it makes it personal by asking them to create their own. Similarly, during our studies of ancient civilizations, I might ask, "Would you want to have lived in ancient China, and why do you feel that way?" Or, "Would you have rather lived in ancient China or ancient Mali and why?" By centering my students in the question, they will often think more deeply about their answer. They will also, often, jump into a conversation with a partner or group with energy because their answer is about themselves.

3. Let them argue. Showing 1st graders a square and telling them that it is a rectangle really gets them talking! If we give students prompts that allow them to argue for or against something, they will naturally become engaged.

For example, in our fractions unit in 3rd grade, I show my students a square cut into fourths with two unconnected sections shaded and ask if the two shaded sections equal ½. Students quickly have thoughts and share them. As they talk and listen to one another, students consider their prior knowledge of fractions and how this example does and does not fit into it. Students often start with statements like, "That is not ½ because there are four parts." As students agree and add their thoughts, one student will typically join in with disagreement. This shift in the conversation often stops everyone briefly, but results in lots of questions and elaborations on thinking. Not every student walks away able to accept that the image shows ½, but they do all walk away with a wider set of ideas and more to consider and build on in the future.

You can also encourage students to push their thinking by offering a question or idea that seems obvious, but not in the same way to everyone. Place two boxes of different shapes, such as a long, rectangular one and a fatter, cube-like one, in front of students. Ask them which box is larger. Many students will immediately have an opinion and some reasoning as to why. As they listen to one another, they begin to view the boxes differently. They might realize, for example, they were thinking of bigger as meaning taller while a classmate was thinking of bigger as meaning holding more. You can watch students flip back and forth in their thinking. They are thinking more flexibly based on what they are hearing.

Naming and Noticing

Another tactic to use to build critical thinking in young students is to notice and name when they do it. Even our youngest students arrive in our classrooms with some conversational and critical thinking skills. They talk with family members, peers at Sunday school, friends at the park, and more. These students have had to make choices and think through options, and they've begun developing themselves as critical thinkers. Students will, of course, vary in the strength and breadth of all these skills, but identifying them and building on them as their teacher will move them forward as conversationalists and thinkers more quickly.

Too often, in school, we focus on the things our students are not yet able to do, rather than recognizing their current abilities and using those to push them forward.

Too often, in school, we focus on the things our students are not yet able to do, the bars and benchmarks they have not yet met, rather than recognizing their current abilities and using those to push them forward. It requires a mental shift for us, as teachers, to use this lens when we see our students and to plan from this perspective. However, once we work on that shift, it is surprisingly easy to use students' strengths as a place to begin and to build from.

One way to do this is to notice and name positive things students are doing, both in their conversation skills and in the thinking they are demonstrating. To do this, you must have some idea of your end goal-what it is you want your students to be doing as conversationalists and thinkers.

At the start of each year, one of my first goals for my young learners is that they actively listen to their peers. I can tell that my students are doing that when they make eye contact and nod along with whoever is talking. When they respond to a classmate by saying, "I agree with you because . . ." or "I disagree because ...," or they ask questions or paraphrase what a classmate has said, they demonstrate that they are listening. I make sure to notice and name these behaviors to reinforce listening skills. After a conversation, or even in the midst of it, I might say, "I noticed Amelia was listening to Elise because she asked her a question about something she had heard her say."

Through noticing and naming, the student who demonstrated the skill receives reinforcement. Their peers also get the opportunity to see the skill modeled, organically, for them by a classmate. It is a significant payoff for a very easy action for me as the teacher. For many years, I have created a notice and name board in our classroom, where I display sentence strips with skills I am helping my students gain. I add sticky notes when I notice students modeling that skill (see fig. 2). Some years, students ask me to add a sticky note for their fellow classmates when they notice them demonstrating listening skills.

Noticing and naming can be done for thinking skills as well. One of the most common things I notice and name is when students revise their thinking. For example, "I noticed that Bentley started by saying that he thought the character in the book was being unkind, but throughout the conversation he revised his thinking and decided that the character was facing challenges and responding as best he could."

I deliberately use the word "revise," rather than "changing their mind," because revision is also something I encourage students to do as writers, and I want them to see revising their thinking as a growth process and not as something they do because they were wrong. Revising doesn't mean we were previously wrong. It means we have grown and have a more solid understanding.

In classroom conversations, students frequently revise their thinking. Honestly, so do I! Noticing and naming this helps students to recognize the positive outcomes from revising thinking as well as what it looks like to do so.

Conversations and Critical Thinking: A Power Duo!

Critical thinking is a skill our young students will need throughout their lives. While there are a wide variety of ways to help students grow as critical thinkers, conversations offer several benefits. To make conversations work as a powerful learning tool, we cannot just expect students to discuss content and ideas without support from us. Offering them thought-provoking prompts and questions is one vital step. Noticing and naming their strengths as conversationalists and critical thinkers is another. Fostering investigative conversation among young students is not an easy process, for our students or for us, but the ability to think critically about ideas and the world around us is a worthy goal we should be working toward for our students.

Reflect & Discuss

➛ Do the prompts and questions you use with students meet Orr's guidelines for encouraging critical thinking?

➛ How do you actively notice and incorporate students' prior knowledge into your teaching?

➛ Why is it so important for our youngest learners to develop critical thinking skills?

Demystifying Discussion

Jennifer Orr offers elementary school educators strategies for teaching K-5 learners to engage in student-led academic conversations.

References

Elder, L., & Paul, R. (2008). Critical thinking: Strategies for improving student learning. Journal of Developmental Education, 32(1), 32-33.

Orr, J. (2021). Demystifying discussion: How to teach and assess academic conversation skills, K-5. ASCD.

Rubtsov, V. V. (2020). Two approaches to the problem of development in the context of social interactions: L.S. Vygotsky vs. J. Piaget. Cultural-Historical Psychology, 16(3), 5-14.

van Gelder, T. (2005). Teaching critical thinking: Some lessons from cognitive science. College Teaching, 53(1), 41-48.

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Having Big Conversations with Little Learners

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Yes, even our youngest students can think critically and deeply. Good discussions can get them started.

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National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)

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Violence such as high profile school shootings can cause concern within school communities, even if they are not directly affected by the event(s). Adults and students struggle to understand why these events happen and, more importantly, how they can be prevented. School principals and superintendents can provide leadership by reassuring students, staff, and parents that schools are generally very safe places for children and youth, and reiterating what safety measures and student supports are already in place in their school.

Suggested Steps to Reinforce School Safety

There are a number of steps that administrators can take to reinforce the fact that schools are safe environments and increase student/adult comfort level following an event.

Write a letter to parents explaining the school safety policies and crisis prevention efforts and cite statistics that less than one percent of violent deaths are "school associated."

Be a visible, welcoming presence at school, greeting students and parents and visiting classrooms.

Issue a press release about the school district efforts to maintain safe and caring schools through clear behavioral expectations, positive behavior interventions and supports, and crisis planning and preparedness.

Conduct a formal review of all school safety policies and procedures to ensure that emerging school safety issues are adequately covered in current school crisis plans and emergency response procedures. (Such reviews should be conducted at least annually.)

Review communication systems within the school district and with community responders. This should also address how and where parents will be informed in the event of an emergency.

Connect with community partners (emergency responders, area hospitals, victim's assistance, etc.) to review emergency response plans and to discuss any short-term needs that may be obvious in response to the current crisis.

Provide crisis training and professional development for staff based upon needs assessment.

Highlight violence prevention programs and curriculum currently being taught in school. Emphasize the efforts of the school to teach students alternatives to violence including peaceful conflict resolution and positive interpersonal relationship skills. Cite specific examples such as Second Step Violence Prevention, bully proofing, or other positive interventions and behavioral supports.

School Violence Prevention Measures to Highlight

Administrators can reinforce the importance of creating a caring school community in which adults and students respect and trust each other and all students feel connected, understand expectations, and receive the behavioral and mental health support they need. Messages to the community following a violent event can reassure parents and students about the safety of their schools. Here are some possible school violence prevention strategies that reinforce school safety:

Physical Safety.

There is limited access to school building, including a designated entrance with all other access points locked from the exterior.

Campus monitors patrol the school parking lot noting people entering and leaving the campus.

Staff members monitor and supervise areas such as hallways, cafeterias, and playgrounds.

School resource officers or security guards patrol the campus.

Guests must report to main office, sign in, and wear badges; and staff members are instructed to report unfamiliar people to school office.

These strategies are augmented by security systems (metal detectors, video monitoring, exit door alarm systems).

School-community partnerships.

A variety of school-community partnerships enhance the safety measures for our students beyond school property (Block Parents, police surveillance, Community Watch programs).

Crisis plans and preparedness training.

Building level teams regularly review crisis and emergency plans.

All staff members participate in annual training and simulation drills, including intruder alerts, weather and fire emergencies.

Teachers and other staff know how to respond to students' questions and support them following a crisis. In addition, threat assessment and risk-assessment procedures are in place for teams.

Proactive school systems.

Our school provides school-wide behavioral expectations, caring school climate programs, positive interventions and supports, psychological and counseling services, and violence prevention programs such as bully-proofing, social skill development, and conflict mediation.

We promote compliance with school rules, and encourage students to report potential problems to school officials and resist peer pressure to act irresponsibly.

Participation by students.

We encourage students to take responsibility for their part in maintaining safe school environments, including student participation in safety planning. They, better than adults, know the hidden or less trafficked areas of the school that are more likely to be dangerous.

We have in place anonymous reporting systems (student hot lines, "suggestion" boxes, "tell an adult" campaigns).

What to Say to Students

Talk with students and validate their feelings. Let their questions guide what and how much information to provide, be open to opportunities to talk when they are ready, be honest about your own feelings related to violence, and emphasize the positive things that child/family/school can do to stay safe. Be patient. Children and youth do not always talk about their feelings readily. Watch for clues that they may want to talk, such as hovering around while you do the dishes or yard work. Some children prefer writing, playing music, or doing an art project as an outlet. Young children may need concrete activities (such as drawing, looking at picture books, or imaginative play) to help them identify and express their feelings.

Be aware of signs that a student might be in distress, e.g., changes in behavior, anxiety, sleep problems, acting out, problems at school or with academic work. Also be conscious of media exposure and what you say about the event. Limit television viewing (be aware if the television is on in common areas).

Following are some suggested general key points when talking to students:

Schools are safe places. Our school staff works with local police and fire departments, emergency responders, and hospitals to keep you safe.

Our school is safe because....

We all play a role in the school safety. Be observant and let an adult know if you see or hear something that makes you feel uncomfortable, nervous or frightened.

There is a difference between reporting, tattling or gossiping. You can provide important information that may prevent harm either directly or anonymously by telling a trusted adult what you know or hear.

Although there is no absolute guarantee that something bad will never happen, it is important to understand the difference between the possibility of something happening and probability that it will affect you or our school.

Senseless violence is hard for everyone to understand. Doing things that you enjoy, sticking to your normal routine, and being with friends and family help make us feel better and keep us from worrying about the event.

Sometimes people do bad things that hurt others. They may be unable to handle their anger, under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or suffering from mental illness. Adults (parents, teachers, police officers, doctors, faith leaders) work very hard to get those people help and keep them from hurting others. It is important for all of us to know how to get help if we feel really upset or angry and to stay away from drugs and alcohol.

Stay away from guns and other weapons. Tell an adult if you know someone has a gun. Access to guns is one of the leading risk factors for deadly violence.

Violence is never a solution to personal problems. Students can be part of the positive solution by participating in anti-violence programs at school, learning conflict mediation skills, and seeking help from an adult if they or a peer is struggling with anger, depression, or other emotions they cannot control.

Recommended Citation:
NASP School Safety and Crisis Response Committee. (2015). Responding to School Violence Prevention: Guidelines for School Administrators and Crisis Teams. Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

Contributor: Cathy Kennedy Paine, NCSP

© 2015, National Association of School Psychologists, 4340 East West Highway, Suite 402, Bethesda, MD 20814; (301) 657-0270, Fax (301) 657-0275; www.nasponline.org

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Responding to School Violence: Tips for Administrators

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Violence such as high profile school shootings can cause concern within school communities, even if they are not directly affected by the event(s). Adults and students struggle to understand why these events happen and, more importantly, how they can be prevented.