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ISBN: 9780231149488

176 Pages

Format: Hardcover

List Price: $32.00 £25.00

ISBN: 9780231520409

176 Pages

Format: E-book

List Price: $31.99 £25.00

The old saying does often seem to hold true: the rich get richer while the poor get poorer, creating a widening gap between those who have more and those who have less. The sociologist Robert K. Merton called this phenomenon the Matthew effect, named after a passage in the gospel of Matthew. Yet the more closely we examine the sociological effects of this principle, the more complicated the idea becomes. Initial advantage doesn't always lead to further advantage, and disadvantage doesn't necessarily translate into failure. Does this theory need to be revisited?

Merton's arguments have significant implications for our conceptions of equality and justice, and they challenge our beliefs about culture, education, and public policy. His hypothesis has been examined across a variety of social arenas, including science, technology, politics, and schooling, to see if, in fact, advantage begets further advantage. Daniel Rigney is the first to evaluate Merton's theory of cumulative advantage extensively, considering both the conditions that uphold the Matthew effect and the circumstances that cause it to fail. He explores whether growing inequality is beyond human control or disparity is socially constructed and subject to change. Reexamining our core assumptions about society, Rigney causes us to rethink the sources of inequity.

Rigney's summary of the latest research findings should contribute to a much needed discussion between policy makers, social scientists, and the general public. Publishers Weekly

[A] cogent book. Steven Poole, Guardian

1. What Is the Matthew Effect?
2. Matthew Effects in Science and Technology
3. Matthew Effects in the Economy
4. Matthew Effects in Politics and Public Policy
5. Matthew Effects in Education and Culture
6. Implications and Conclusions
Appendix: Trends in Economic Inequality
Notes
References
Index

About the Author

Daniel Rigney, a sociologist at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, was director of the university's honors program for twenty-three years. With an interest in social theory, the sociology of religion and culture, and social justice issues, he is the author of The Metaphorical Society: An Invitation to Social Theory and is married to the historian Alida Metcalf.

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The Matthew Effect | Columbia University Press

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ISBN: 9780231149488 176 Pages Format: Hardcover List Price: $32.00 £25.00 ISBN: 9780231520409 176 Pages Format: E-book List Price: $31.99 £25.00 The old saying does often seem to hold true: the rich get richer while the poor get poorer, creating a widening gap between those who have more and those who have less.

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Change your mindset, change the game | Dr. Alia Crum | TEDxTraverseCity

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How to Enhance Performance & Learning by Applying a Growth Mindset | Huberman Lab Podcast

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‎10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher: How to Give Effective Feedback that Works on Apple Podcasts

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‎Show 10 Minute Teacher Podcast with Cool Cat Teacher, Ep How to Give Effective Feedback that Works - 1 May 2019

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Thanks for the Feedback by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen - A Visual Summary

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The secret to giving great feedback | The Way We Work, a TED series

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The importance of effective feedback is well known and recognised amongst educators. The Education Endowment Foundation reports feedback can have a "very high impact for very low cost based on extensive evidence" (EEF, 2021). There are a variety of ways teachers can give feedback to students. This includes verbal or written comments, grades and scores, whole class feedback and the use of technology. The teacher can also monitor and guide peer assessment and self-assessment. Regardless of the mode teachers use, the key aspect to any form of feedback is how the students respond and act on it.

Dylan Wiliam has stated "the main purpose of feedback is to improve the student and not the work". A piece of work can always be improved-but more importantly, the learners needs to make meaningful progress. For example, digital software can provide a spelling and grammar checker that can improve the piece of work, but not necessarily the students' literacy skills. Wiliam also adds, "The only thing that matters with feedback is the reaction of the recipient. That's it. Feedback-no matter how well designed-that the student does not act upon is a waste of time" (Wiliam & Leahy, 2015).

The Great Teaching Toolkit: Evidence Review (2020) addresses this with Dimension 4: Activating Hard Thinking. The evidence review explains that great teachers give students actionable feedback to guide their learning. It is the collective responsibility of the teacher and student to ensure no feedback opportunity is wasted.
Actionable Feedback:
Wiliam and Siobhan Leahy (2015) are credited with the detective strategy. In this strategy, the teacher will provide feedback but the students have to act as the detective to find and fix errors in their work. Instead of a teacher pointing out which answer is incorrect, they will inform the student one of the five answers are incorrect. The student might initially be frustrated with this and would probably prefer the teacher to tell them exactly which response they need to correct! However, the detective approach encourages students to self-check and correct all five questions and find the error independently. If they fail to find the mistake, they could seek the support of a peer before returning to ask the teacher. The teacher can add further cues and prompts without telling students exactly what they should do next.

Another way for students to act on feedback is to redraft or redo their work, but again the focus must be on improving the learner, not the work. Potential mistakes students can make when redrafting is to not act on feedback; therefore the second version is very similar to the original. A redrafted piece of work should demonstrate considerate and visible improvement.

The teacher could alternatively make the feedback into an actionable task. Image a situation in which students write basic responses to a prompt. The teacher could respond with generic feedback such as "add more detail," (which may or may not be acted upon in the future). To make a more actionable form of feedback, a subsequent task could be set to extend and elaborate on the original basic statement. Students might be asked to include more specific examples and supporting details, for example. Teachers can model and show examples of detailed paragraphs in contrast to generalised and brief answers.

When students complete a quiz or test it can be tempting for them to focus on the score and grade, neglecting any comments. A problem results when students may know their score, but not find out where they were successful, unsuccessful, or where knowledge gaps remain. As a result, they may continue to make the same mistakes. To avoid this, students can make a note or keep a record of incorrect answers, so they are aware of errors and less likely to repeat them again. Students can be tasked with repeating a quiz again (in class or at home) until they are able to answer all questions correctly.

We know that learning is the product of "hard thinking," and actionable feedback is no different. Feedback which does not occupy students' thinking is feedback that will not lead to learning. In order for students to attend to, engage with, and respond to feedback, time must be provided. For the learner to understand their next steps and how they can improve, the feedback from the teacher must be clear. The teacher should also monitor the progress of the learner to ensure feedback is not being ignored or neglected, but instead acted on to improve.

Effective feedback is a powerful tool that teachers hold-actionable feedback hands that tool over to students to increase their own learning.
Key questions to reflect on:

What types of feedback do you provide to your students?

Is time provided in class for students to engage with feedback?

What opportunities are provided for students to act on that feedback?

How do you make it clear that students are engaging with feedback and therefore making progress?

References:
Coe, R., Rauch, C. J., Kime, S., & Singleton, D. (2020). Great teaching toolkit: Evidence Review. Evidence Based Education. https://evidencebased.education/great teaching-toolkit/

Education Endowment Foundation. (2021). Teacher feedback to improve pupil learning: Guidance report. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/evidence-reviews/feedback-approaches

Wiliam, Dylan., & Leahy, S. (2015). Embedding formative assessment: Practical techniques for K-12 classrooms. Learning Sciences International.

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Great teachers give students actionable feedback to guide their learning. It is the collective responsibility of the teacher and student to ensure no feedback opportunity is wasted.

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Vol. 70

No. 1

Abstract

What Is Feedback, Anyway?

Feedback Essentials

Progress Toward a Goal

"But There's No Time!"

Advice, evaluation, grades-none of these provide the descriptive information that students need to reach their goals. What is true feedback-and how can it improve learning?

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Abstract

What Is Feedback, Anyway?

Feedback Essentials

Progress Toward a Goal

"But There's No Time!"

Who would dispute the idea that feedback is a good thing? Both common sense and research make it clear: Formative assessment, consisting of lots of feedback and opportunities to use that feedback, enhances performance and achievement.

Yet even John Hattie (2008), whose decades of research revealed that feedback was among the most powerful influences on achievement, acknowledges that he has "struggled to understand the concept" (p. 173). And many writings on the subject don't even attempt to define the term. To improve formative assessment practices among both teachers and assessment designers, we need to look more closely at just what feedback is-and isn't.

What Is Feedback, Anyway?

The term feedback is often used to describe all kinds of comments made after the fact, including advice, praise, and evaluation. But none of these are feedback, strictly speaking.

Basically, feedback is information about how we are doing in our efforts to reach a goal. I hit a tennis ball with the goal of keeping it in the court, and I see where it lands-in or out. I tell a joke with the goal of making people laugh, and I observe the audience's reaction-they laugh loudly or barely snicker. I teach a lesson with the goal of engaging students, and I see that some students have their eyes riveted on me while others are nodding off.

Here are some other examples of feedback:

A friend tells me, "You know, when you put it that way and speak in that softer tone of voice, it makes me feel better."

A reader comments on my short story, "The first few paragraphs kept my full attention. The scene painted was vivid and interesting. But then the dialogue became hard to follow; as a reader, I was confused about who was talking, and the sequence of actions was puzzling, so I became less engaged."

A baseball coach tells me, "Each time you swung and missed, you raised your head as you swung so you didn't really have your eye on the ball. On the one you hit hard, you kept your head down and saw the ball."

Note the difference between these three examples and the first three I cited-the tennis stroke, the joke, and the student responses to teaching. In the first group, I only had to take note of the tangible effect of my actions, keeping my goals in mind. No one volunteered feedback, but there was still plenty of feedback to get and use. The second group of examples all involved the deliberate, explicit giving of feedback by other people.

Whether the feedback was in the observable effects or from other people, in every case the information received was not advice, nor was the performance evaluated. No one told me as a performer what to do differently or how "good" or "bad" my results were. (You might think that the reader of my writing was judging my work, but look at the words used again: She simply played back the effect my writing had on her as a reader.) Nor did any of the three people tell me what to do (which is what many people erroneously think feedback is-advice). Guidance would be premature; I first need to receive feedback on what I did or didn't do that would warrant such advice.

In all six cases, information was conveyed about the effects of my actions as related to a goal. The information did not include value judgments or recommendations on how to improve. (For examples of information that is often falsely viewed as feedback, see "Feedback vs. Advice" above and "Feedback vs. Evaluation and Grades" on p. 15.)

Decades of education research support the idea that by teaching less and providing more feedback, we can produce greater learning (see Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000; Hattie, 2008; Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001). Compare the typical lecture-driven course, which often produces less-than-optimal learning, with the peer instruction model developed by Eric Mazur (2009) at Harvard. He hardly lectures at all to his 200 introductory physics students; instead, he gives them problems to think about individually and then discuss in small groups. This system, he writes, "provides frequent and continuous feedback (to both the students and the instructor) about the level of understanding of the subject being discussed" (p. 51), producing gains in both conceptual understanding of the subject and problem-solving skills. Less "teaching," more feedback equals better results.

Feedback Essentials

Whether feedback is just there to be grasped or is provided by another person, helpful feedback is goal-referenced; tangible and transparent; actionable; user-friendly (specific and personalized); timely; ongoing; and consistent.

1. Goal-Referenced

Effective feedback requires that a person has a goal, takes action to achieve the goal, and receives goal-related information about his or her actions. I told a joke-why? To make people laugh. I wrote a story to engage the reader with vivid language and believable dialogue that captures the characters' feelings. I went up to bat to get a hit. If I am not clear on my goals or if I fail to pay attention to them, I cannot get helpful feedback (nor am I likely to achieve my goals).

Information becomes feedback if, and only if, I am trying to cause something and the information tells me whether I am on track or need to change course. If some joke or aspect of my writing isn't working -a revealing, nonjudgmental phrase-I need to know.

Note that in everyday situations, goals are often implicit, although fairly obvious to everyone. I don't need to announce when telling the joke that my aim is to make you laugh. But in school, learners are often unclear about the specific goal of a task or lesson, so it is crucial to remind them about the goal and the criteria by which they should self-assess. For example, a teacher might say,

The point of this writing task is for you to make readers laugh. So, when rereading your draft or getting feedback from peers, ask, How funny is this? Where might it be funnier?

As you prepare a table poster to display the findings of your science project, remember that the aim is to interest people in your work as well as to describe the facts you discovered through your experiment. Self-assess your work against those two criteria using these rubrics. The science fair judges will do likewise.

2. Tangible and Transparent

Any useful feedback system involves not only a clear goal, but also tangible results related to the goal. People laugh, chuckle, or don't laugh at each joke; students are highly attentive, somewhat attentive, or inattentive to my teaching.

Even as little children, we learn from such tangible feedback. That's how we learn to walk; to hold a spoon; and to understand that certain words magically yield food, drink, or a change of clothes from big people. The best feedback is so tangible that anyone who has a goal can learn from it.

Alas, far too much instructional feedback is opaque, as revealed in a true story a teacher told me years ago. A student came up to her at year's end and said, "Miss Jones, you kept writing this same word on my English papers all year, and I still don't know what it means." "What's the word? " she asked. "Vag-oo," he said. (The word was vague!)

Sometimes, even when the information is tangible and transparent, the performers don't obtain it-either because they don't look for it or because they are too busy performing to focus on the effects. In sports, novice tennis players or batters often don't realize that they're taking their eyes off the ball; they often protest, in fact, when that feedback is given. (Constantly yelling "Keep your eye on the ball!" rarely works.) And we have all seen how new teachers are sometimes so busy concentrating on "teaching" that they fail to notice that few students are listening or learning.

That's why, in addition to feedback from coaches or other able observers, video or audio recordings can help us perceive things that we may not perceive as we perform; and by extension, such recordings help us learn to look for difficult-to-perceive but vital information. I recommend that all teachers videotape their own classes at least once a month. It was a transformative experience for me when I did it as a beginning teacher. Concepts that had been crystal clear to me when I was teaching seemed opaque and downright confusing on tape-captured also in the many quizzical looks of my students, which I had missed in the moment.

3. Actionable

Effective feedback is concrete, specific, and useful; it provides actionable information. Thus, "Good job!" and "You did that wrong" and B+ are not feedback at all. We can easily imagine the learners asking themselves in response to these comments, What specifically should I do more or less of next time, based on this information? No idea. They don't know what was "good" or "wrong" about what they did.

Actionable feedback must also be accepted by the performer. Many so-called feedback situations lead to arguments because the givers are not sufficiently descriptive; they jump to an inference from the data instead of simply presenting the data. For example, a supervisor may make the unfortunate but common mistake of stating that "many students were bored in class." That's a judgment, not an observation. It would have been far more useful and less debatable had the supervisor said something like, "I counted ongoing inattentive behaviors in 12 of the 25 students once the lecture was underway. The behaviors included texting under desks, passing notes, and making eye contact with other students. However, after the small-group exercise began, I saw such behavior in only one student."

Such care in offering neutral, goal-related facts is the whole point of the clinical supervision of teaching and of good coaching more generally. Effective supervisors and coaches work hard to carefully observe and comment on what they observed, based on a clear statement of goals. That's why I always ask when visiting a class, "What would you like me to look for and perhaps count?" In my experience as a teacher of teachers, I have always found such pure feedback to be accepted and welcomed. Effective coaches also know that in complex performance situations, actionable feedback about what went right is as important as feedback about what didn't work.

4. User-Friendly

Even if feedback is specific and accurate in the eyes of experts or bystanders, it is not of much value if the user cannot understand it or is overwhelmed by it. Highly technical feedback will seem odd and confusing to a novice. Describing a baseball swing to a 6-year-old in terms of torque and other physics concepts will not likely yield a better hitter. Too much feedback is also counterproductive; better to help the performer concentrate on only one or two key elements of performance than to create a buzz of information coming in from all sides.

Expert coaches uniformly avoid overloading performers with too much or too technical information. They tell the performers one important thing they noticed that, if changed, will likely yield immediate and noticeable improvement ("I was confused about who was talking in the dialogue you wrote in this paragraph"). They don't offer advice until they make sure the performer understands the importance of what they saw.

5. Timely

In most cases, the sooner I get feedback, the better. I don't want to wait for hours or days to find out whether my students were attentive and whether they learned, or which part of my written story works and which part doesn't. I say "in most cases" to allow for situations like playing a piano piece in a recital. I don't want my teacher or the audience barking out feedback as I perform. That's why it is more precise to say that good feedback is "timely" rather than "immediate."

A great problem in education, however, is untimely feedback. Vital feedback on key performances often comes days, weeks, or even months after the performance-think of writing and handing in papers or getting back results on standardized tests. As educators, we should work overtime to figure out ways to ensure that students get more timely feedback and opportunities to use it while the attempt and effects are still fresh in their minds.

Before you say that this is impossible, remember that feedback does not need to come only from the teacher, or even from people at all. Technology is one powerful tool-part of the power of computer-assisted learning is unlimited, timely feedback and opportunities to use it. Peer review is another strategy for managing the load to ensure lots of timely feedback; it's essential, however, to train students to do small-group peer review to high standards, without immature criticisms or unhelpful praise.

6. Ongoing

Adjusting our performance depends on not only receiving feedback but also having opportunities to use it. What makes any assessment in education formative is not merely that it precedes summative assessments, but that the performer has opportunities, if results are less than optimal, to reshape the performance to better achieve the goal. In summative assessment, the feedback comes too late; the performance is over.

Thus, the more feedback I can receive in real time, the better my ultimate performance will be. This is how all highly successful computer games work. If you play Angry Birds, Halo, Guitar Hero, or Tetris, you know that the key to substantial improvement is that the feedback is both timely and ongoing. When you fail, you can immediately start over-sometimes even right where you left off-to get another opportunity to receive and learn from the feedback. (This powerful feedback loop is also user-friendly. Games are built to reflect and adapt to our changing need, pace, and ability to process information.)

It is telling, too, that performers are often judged on their ability to adjust in light of feedback. The ability to quickly adapt one's performance is a mark of all great achievers and problem solvers in a wide array of fields. Or, as many little league coaches say, "The problem is not making errors; you will all miss many balls in the field, and that's part of learning. The problem is when you don't learn from the errors."

7. Consistent

To be useful, feedback must be consistent. Clearly, performers can only adjust their performance successfully if the information fed back to them is stable, accurate, and trustworthy. In education, that means teachers have to be on the same page about what high-quality work is. Teachers need to look at student work together, becoming more consistent over time and formalizing their judgments in highly descriptive rubrics supported by anchor products and performances. By extension, if we want student-to-student feedback to be more helpful, students have to be trained to be consistent the same way we train teachers, using the same exemplars and rubrics.

Progress Toward a Goal

In light of these key characteristics of helpful feedback, how can schools most effectively use feedback as part of a system of formative assessment? The key is to gear feedback to long-term goals.

Let's look at how this works in sports. My daughter runs the mile in track. At the end of each lap in races and practice races, the coaches yell out split times (the times for each lap) and bits of feedback ("You're not swinging your arms!" "You're on pace for 5:15"), followed by advice ("Pick it up-you need to take two seconds off this next lap to get in under 5:10!").

My daughter and her teammates are getting feedback (and advice) about how they are performing now compared with their final desired time. My daughter's goal is to run a 5:00 mile. She has already run 5:09. Her coach is telling her that at the pace she just ran in the first lap, she is unlikely even to meet her best time so far this season, never mind her long-term goal. Then, he tells her something descriptive about her current performance (she's not swinging her arms) and gives her a brief piece of concrete advice (take two seconds off the next lap) to make achievement of the goal more likely.

The ability to improve one's result depends on the ability to adjust one's pace in light of ongoing feedback that measures performance against a concrete, long-term goal. But this isn't what most school district "pacing guides" and grades on "formative" tests tell you. They yield a grade against recent objectives taught, not useful feedback against the final performance standards. Instead of informing teachers and students at an interim date whether they are on track to achieve a desired level of student performance by the end of the school year, the guide and the test grade just provide a schedule for the teacher to follow in delivering content and a grade on that content. It's as if at the end of the first lap of the mile race, My daughter's coach simply yelled out, " B+ on that lap!"

The advice for how to change this sad situation should be clear: Score student work in the fall and winter against spring standards, use more pre-and post-assessments to measure progress toward these standards, and do the item analysis to note what each student needs to work on for better future performance.

"But There's No Time!"

Although the universal teacher lament that there's no time for such feedback is understandable, remember that "no time to give and use feedback" actually means "no time to cause learning." As we have seen, research shows that less teaching plus more feedback is the key to achieving greater learning. And there are numerous ways-through technology, peers, and other teachers-that students can get the feedback they need.

So try it out. Less teaching, more feedback. Less feedback that comes only from you, and more tangible feedback designed into the performance itself. And, of course, send me some feedback on this article at gwiggins@authenticeducation.org.

Feedback vs. Advice

› You need more examples in your report.

› You might want to use a lighter baseball bat.

› You should have included some Essential Questions in your unit plan.

These three statements are not feedback; they're advice. Such advice out of the blue seems at best tangential and at worst unhelpful and annoying. Unless it is preceded by descriptive feedback, the natural response of the performer is to wonder, "Why are you suggesting this?"

As coaches, teachers, and parents, we too often jump right to advice without first ensuring that the learner has sought, grasped, and tentatively accepted the feedback on which the advice is based. By doing so, we often unwittingly end up unnerving learners. Students become increasingly insecure about their own judgment and dependent on the advice of experts-and therefore in a panic about what to do when varied advice comes from different people or no advice is available at all.

If your ratio of advice to feedback is too high, try asking the learner, "Given the feedback, do you have some ideas about how to improve?" This approach will build greater autonomy and confidence over the long haul. Once they are no longer rank novices, performers can often self-advise if asked to.

Feedback vs. Evaluation and Grades

› This is a weak paper.

› You got a C on your presentation.

› I'm so pleased by your poster!

These comments make a value judgment. They rate, evaluate, praise, or criticize what was done. There is little or no feedback here-no actionable information about what occurred. As performers, we only know that someone else placed a high or low value on what we did.

How might we recast these comments to be useful feedback? Tip: Always add a mental colon after each statement of value. For example,

"Good work: Your use of words was more precise in this paper than in the last one, and I saw the scenes clearly in my mind's eye."

"This is a weak paper: Almost from the first sentence, I was confused as to your initial thesis and the evidence you provide for it. In the second paragraph you propose a different thesis, and in the third paragraph you don't offer evidence, just beliefs."

You'll soon find that you can drop the evaluative language; it serves no useful function.

The most ubiquitous form of evaluation, grading, is so much a part of the school landscape that we easily overlook its utter uselessness as actionable feedback. Grades are here to stay, no doubt-but that doesn't mean we should rely on them as a major source of feedback.

References

Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Hattie, J. (2008). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. New York: Routledge.

Mazur, E. (2009, January 2). Farewell, lecture? Science, 323, 50-51.

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Advice, evaluation, grades-none of these provide the descriptive information that students need to reach their goals. What is true feedback-and how can it improve learning?

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From the earliest levels of education, students come to think of themselves as being certain subject-oriented. Children identify an affinity for interests such as reading, sports, art, or math, which develops through junior high and high school into societally informed categories such as "Art-brained" or "Math-brained." In terms of writing, this separates students from having any hold in a writer-identity. Even though we all write on a daily basis, whether it's an email, a text to your friend, a tweet, or journaling, there's a separation of perceived capability. At the college level, such as in a Tutoring-Learning-Center, acknowledging students agency in their own writing and knowledge of their language empowers them to see themselves as writers and understand their own writing processes, to better their identity as a writer as well as their writing.

In Buckley-Marudas' "Making Room for the Writers: Creating Time and Space for Secondary School Writing," Buckley-Marudas reveals that the identities a student imposes on themselves can be challenged and trigger a pivotal shift in how they view their writing. A writing festival was implemented at a high school where students were encouraged to write the whole time during workshop events organized by guest authors. They were also encouraged to share their writing with their peers and listen to each other read their works out loud. Most of the students had never shared their writing with peers or even their friends, and the festival's format allowed for personal expression to become public. The students participating in the festival were able to hear and understand different sides of their peers; students once perceived as entirely "Math-brained" were also recognized as writers alongside that existing identity. "This kind of pedagogy... created time and space for them to do so. ... it builds on the idea that students' sense of agency as writers increases by sharing their work with peers or another known audience. What this inquiry adds is that these students' audiences were rooted in authentic relationships" (49). Tutoring-Learning-Centers and Writing Labs already allows for the potential to build these authentic relationships around writing. The tutor-learner dynamic gives a student space and time to share their writing, as the festival did for those high school students. A common method employed in Writing Labs has learners read their work out loud, also similar to aspects of the festival, allowing the learner to develop their ear to their own work as well as vocally share it with another. Even though the audience is one on one in a Writing Lab, there's still a very personal shift in how the student views their writing, which empowers the student's writer-identity.

Placing more power into the student's hands also involves emphasizing the power in reflecting on their work. To be able to reflect on their decision-making in their own writing and focus on why they made certain choices is a key element to Writing Lab theory. Tutors primarily ask content questions about the learner's intentions, trusting them with the decisions they've made. In the article, "Finding Value in the Process: Student Empowerment through Self-Assessment," four teachers decided to implement different methods of writing assessment to be able to benefit the student; to better make assessment of writing for the student, rather than have assessment done to them with no real development of their writer-identity or their writing. Their methods focused on the processes of writing; composing, trying, and revising (33). The assessments were fulfilled one on one with the students' instructor, and the final grade would be based on these processes, with direct feedback by the student on how deeply they felt they engaged with the processes. The teachers stressed that the final grade was not about the product, but the effort and the growth. The Writing Lab also seems to encourage this. Learners are hitting whichever word count they need to based on the class level, but there's strong emphasis on the process of how they get there.

Unfortunately, many students become hindered in their process by the expectations of writing. A common question that learners lead with is, "Can you check my grammar?" The imposed importance of grammar throughout all education levels can hold a student back in their writing. As sharing with peers, a tutor, or instructor allows for freedom and strength of identity, giving a student more credit for their innate abilities with language allows the same empowerment. In their article "Power Play: From Grammar to Language Study," Devereaux and Crovitz argue that students' ingrained relationship with grammar has negative effects on their relationship with their writing and their writing process. In order to re-invent language discussions, Devereaux and Crovitz would like to introduce the term "language study" into the classroom over "grammar," to emphasize a wider purpose and more constructive framework for writing. The terms grammatical "correctness" vs. grammatical "fit" also come into play, suggesting that it's important to recognize the power and range of language, focusing on the writer's intentions and the contextual fit of the language within the work over the abstractions and supposed truths of grammar (19-20). Some tutors in Writing Labs have been taught not to address that grammar question immediately. Grammar has its benefits, especially if it severely hinders a writer's clarity and concept, however giving more credit to the writer allows for the writer to foster a better relationship with their own writing.

Working in a Tutoring-Learning-Center allows for the opportunity to implement better systems for learners, helping them realize their own merits and strengths within their writing. Every learner may have a drastically different background and perception of themselves, but Writing Labs can give each one of them the key elements of time and the space to develop their writing, their process, and empowers them to see how multi-faceted their identity is. A learner shouldn't feel restricted to only their "Math-brain," and be allowed the tools to recognize their agency as a writer.

Works Cited

Buckley-Marudas, Mary Frances. "Making Room for the Writers: Creating Time and Space for Secondary School Writing." English Journal, vol.107, no. 3, 2018, pp. 47-53, https://secure.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EJ/1073-jan2018/EJ1073Making.pdf_ga=2.258220425.2027431961.1583172446-24770454.1582654743.

Devereaux, Michelle D. and Darren Crovitz. "Power Play: From Grammar to Language Study." English Journal, vol. 107, no. 3, 2018, pp. 19-25, https://secure.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EJ/1073-jan2018/EJ1073Power.pdf?_ga=2.256575880.2027431961.1583172446-24770454.1582654743.

Warrington, Amber et. al. "Finding Value in the Process: Student Empowerment through Self-Assessment." English Journal, vol. 107, no. 3, 2018, pp. 32-38, https://secure.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EJ/1073jan2018/EJ1073Finding.pdf_ga=2.90835225.2027431961.1583172446-24770454.1582654743.

Author Bio:

Kala Buttke is a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and pursuing a BA in English: Editing, Writing, Publishing and a minor in Professional Writing. Kala works as a tutor and intern for UWSP's Writing Lab, a branch of the Tutoring-Learning-Center.

Keywords:

Tutoring, Consulting, Writing, Writing Identity, Capability, Empowerment

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Student Empowerment: Developing A Learner's Writer-Identity - Praxis

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Unfortunately, many students become hindered in their process by the expectations of writing. A common question that learners lead with is, "Can you check my grammar?" The imposed importance of grammar throughout all education levels can hold a student back in their writing. As sharing with peers, a

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Progression and employability are at the forefront of current conversations in higher education, with much effort invested in developing complex interventions to improve graduate outcomes. Pedagogy research indicates that factors such as a sense of belonging, impostor syndrome and a meaningful connection to campus life are contributing factors to student success. Furthermore, student outcomes correlate closely with socio-economic status and demographic data. Across all disciplines, academic teams work tirelessly to "close the gap" created by social inequalities, but it remains to be determined where efforts are best placed. For instance, many universities offer access programmes to low-participating neighbourhoods, while other institutions place great effort on the BTEC and BAME attainment gaps. Here we share guidance on effective student engagement based on our anecdotal experience and propose co-creation with and empowerment of all students as a desirable alternative pathway to success.

Provide bridging experiences

It is important to understand the life experiences of your student cohort and how this might impact their ability to capitalise on university life. Things taken for granted by many, such as a library of general interest books, travel and creative hobbies are key to influencing the intellectual breadth of an individual but remain a privilege in most parts of the UK. This can inadvertently leave a perfectly capable and intelligent graduate less able to compete at interview.

Acknowledging this and making efforts as an institution to provide enrichment experiences can help close the gap created by social inequality. This can, for example, take the form of extracurricular activities supported by academic staff in collaboration with student societies and/or the students' union. It is important to design these bridging activities carefully, so they genuinely add value. We have, for instance, supported the development of more confident expression through public speaking initiatives and the medium of art. Modest levels of funding that may be used as incentive or to make participation financially viable can be useful here. In addition, enriching programmes to include content and places that might not ordinarily form part of the curriculum are useful tools for social mobility.

Create communities

It is widely accepted that a good relationship with academics is key for student success. Pedagogy research suggests that students benefit from seeing themselves represented in faculty teams, but achieving this goal can take time. We propose that irrespective of any superficial difference between staff and students, so long as genuine effort is made to connect with people, barriers that block cohesive communities and effective learning can easily be overcome.

We find that creating inclusive, informal social opportunities to really get to know students is instrumental. Ensuring that tutorials are a safe space and that tutors are equipped to engage students is vital for success. Identifying common interests among students and offering some support or guidance on getting these off the ground, or finding them, on-campus can go a long way in developing community. This might, for instance, take the form of clubs, outreach initiatives or social activities. This can take some time and budget to develop and might require working with small groups of students in the first instance. Over time, the culture of togetherness spreads, and student community leaders are often instrumental in welcoming newly arriving students, for instance as part of inductions and open days.

The sky is the limit

Abandonthe deficit model. Students can do amazing things if inspired, empowered and mentored. Many students - in particular those from lower socio-economic backgrounds - suffer impostor syndrome, which can be misinterpreted as lack of motivation or inability. Providing an exciting array of career development opportunities embedded in programmes or delivered as ad hoc events involving successful alumni and external contacts are a powerful inspiration to students. For instance, we have a permanent repository of programme-tailored career resources hosted on the university's virtual learning environment, Blackboard. This resource is complemented by a number of highly popular career-specific mentorship sites on Microsoft Teams, overseen by academics who host bespoke career events and career-oriented development opportunities such as journal clubs and interview role plays. For larger careers events, we have found great value in close collaboration with careers services and liaisons with relevant employers.

The level of investment in employability required at each university will depend on the demographic of the student cohort. The key is to ensure that students have the relevant information to develop their careers, coupled with the bridging experiences mentioned earlier, which help develop confidence. Self-belief, ambition and drive will be natural by-products.

Students as colleagues

The idea of co-creating curriculum content and university activities with students is not new. The reality in practice is that liaising and collaborating with students is often restricted to staff-student committee meetings with a pre-set agenda, allowing little room for creativity. When working in this mode, the brilliance of students and their potential to drive change is often overlooked.

Co-creating and developing projects beyond the curriculum that shape the wider student experience can help develop on-campus learning communities and enhance student employability. For instance, here at the University of Salford, collaboration with students has led to the development of a student magazine, outreach resources used in local schools, scientific conferences, and a wide range of social events. We have found that working in this way with students leads to them becoming an integral part of the team and a driving force to engage the wider student population.
Sara Namvar is deputy programme lead for biomedical sciences and head of student experience; David Greensmith is programme lead for human biology and infectious diseases; and Niroshini Nirmalan is head of biomedicine, all at the University of Salford. Sara has been shortlisted for Most Innovative Teacher of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards 2021. A full list of shortlisted candidates can be found here; the winners will be announced at a ceremony on 25 November. Academics and university leaders from across the UK and Ireland will come together at THE Campus Live UK&IE to discuss institutional strategies, teaching and learning, the student experience and more. Join us for this two-day event in London.

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Co-creation and empowerment: pathways to better student engagement

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Effective approaches universities can take to promote equity and improve student learning outcomes and employability, shared by a team from the University of Salford

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There is a reason that "Build and cultivate rapport" is one of the core beliefs of DePaul University's Center for Writing-based Learning (UCWbL); it's an integral way in which we, as tutors, connect with writers and establish a working relationship. I have found that there are many parallels between the work which lawyers do and the work that tutors do.

In a courtroom, lawyers must build rapport with everyone from the jury to witnesses in order to best do their job. Larry Johnson, a lawyer, suggests that "if you can make a witness your friend, you have a leg up." This directly relates to the optimal tutor/writer relationship. In my experience, comfortable writers are more open to suggestion and willing to be honest about they want to improve upon.

What Building Rapport Looks Like

One key way which we can build rapport with our writers is to "[construct] and in-group including [yourself] and the jury," ( Hobbs). This quote from Pamela Hobbs, a Detroit based lawyer, who suggests creating a shared identity with the jury in order to build rapport. Creating a shared identity with your writer can help remove the evaluator/student relationship and instead suggest a peer to peer dynamic. Though as tutors we're allotted a few minutes in the beginning of our appointment to build rapport, it is something we should continue to build throughout any appointment. In an article written by psychologist Ann T. Greely and Lawyer Lindsay Eriksson, they recommend "Act like you've been there before" and definitely "make eye contact." These are simple habits we can adopt as tutors in order to strengthen our rapport with our writers.

In an ideal scenario, every student who came to the Writing Center would match our enthusiasm for writing and the peer tutoring process. Unfortunately, this is not the case and we sometimes work with hesitant, if not adversarial, writers. We can't always change a writer's attitude but in a study conducted by a group at a university in Israel, researchers found that "ratings of rapport exhibited by one partner were positively correlated with the sense of rapport experienced by the other partner," ( Bronstein et al.) Essentially, attempted efforts at creating rapport are typically apparent to the other party.

As tutors, it is our responsibility to work to build rapport no matter how hesitant the writer. Johnson explains that "most witnesses have justifiable anxieties about being deposed and resent the fear caused by [it]." In a similar way, many writers are nervous to share their writing with someone they perceive as an advanced writer. Rapport building with a more hesitant writer is a key way to change a writer's attitude, both about their experience in the Writing Center, but also about the writing process in general. This makes it an integral part of any session at the UCWbL and beyond to any peer to peer collaboration.

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There is a reason that "Build and cultivate rapport" is one of the core beliefs of DePaul University's Center for Writing-based Learning (UCWbL); it's an integral way in which we, as tutors, ...

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Advising is More Than a Yes/No Business:
How to Establish Rapport and Trust with Your Students
Authored by,Sue Ohrablo
2014
Academic advisors are relied upon to answer questions, deliver information, provide resources, and interpret policies for students. Comprehensive developmental advising goes well beyond these transactions (Ohrablo, 2010), as advisors can significantly contribute to a student's success and development by engaging students in academic planning, as well as facilitating decision-making, goal-setting, and problem resolution. In order to engage students in comprehensive developmental advising, advisors must establish trust and rapport with their students (Fox, 2008). Components to building trust and rapport include availability, responsiveness, reliability, knowledge, effectiveness, advocacy, caring, and concern.

Availability, Responsiveness, and Reliability
A key factor in establishing trust with students is to let them know you are there. Too often, advising administrators field complaints from students who claim, "My advisor is never there," or "My advisor never returns my calls or emails." While some of these claims may be an outcome of unrealistic expectations of students, many can be substantiated. Students will eventually give up and even avoid advisors who they consider to be unavailable. One strategy for conveying availability is to answer the phone when it rings. Of course, this is a simplification of an advisor's daily experience, for the advisor may be on the phone with another student, in a student appointment, in meetings, orientation, or working on a complex degree audit. However, advisors are encouraged to pick up the phone when they are able, resisting the temptation to let the call go to voicemail and address it later. It is reinforcing to an advisor when a student's voice lifts in pleasant surprise or relief when you answer the call. It also helps advisors keep up with their workload and avoid a backlog of messages. A strategy to convey both availability and responsiveness is to return phone calls and emails in a timely manner. Many advising departments have established expectations that advisors return student inquiries within 24-48 hours. During slower periods, it may be feasible to return an email within minutes of its arrival. During peak periods, 48 hours seems impossible. However, if an advisor can usually respond to emails and voicemails within the same work day, she will develop a reputation as being responsive. For those times when an advisor is delayed due to high student traffic or lack of follow-up from other departments, simply communicating the status of his inquiry to a student helps alleviate the student's anxiety and build trust. A statement such as "I have sent your request on to our registrar's office and will let you know when a decision has been made" informs the student that you have not forgotten about him or are ignoring his inquiry. Advisors who demonstrate consistency with students will develop a reputation as being reliable. Strategies for conveying reliability include establishing routines and protocols, such as monthly communications to students, registration reminders, and invitations for student appointments. Additionally, advisors who are perceived as being reliable are provided leeway from students when the advisor is delayed in responsiveness due to illness or extenuating circumstances. Comments such as "I hope you are ok. It's not like you not to respond" indicate that the student has come to trust in the advisor's reliability.

Knowledge
Students will develop trust in an advisor who demonstrates knowledge and expertise. Some effective ways to demonstrate knowledge are to provide useful resources to students, cite and interpret policies and procedures, make appropriate referrals, and anticipate issues not identified by the student (Burt, Young-Jones, Yadon, & Carr, 2013). Of course, no advisor is perfect, nor can know everything. While many advisors, especially new ones, hesitate to admit they don't know something, damage can be done by giving students inaccurate or incomplete information. Making statements such as "I want to give you the most comprehensive information I can, so I will research this issue and get back to you with my findings" will communicate to students that the advisor is committed to giving them high quality service. Advisors are encouraged to learn more about those areas, policies, departments, resources with which they are unfamiliar or inexperienced. An effective strategy is to develop a "go-to network" of colleagues who will be able to provide information and explain procedures to the advisor, as well as help advisors resolve problems on behalf of students (Goodner, 2007). When students respond with statements such as "This is the most helpful information I've gotten since I began this program," the advisor can be assured that her knowledge has been conveyed.

Effectiveness
Advisor effectiveness is evident when responsiveness and knowledge are converted into action. Some strategies to convey effectiveness include processing documents in a timely manner, proactively identifying issues with records and making necessary adjustments, resolving problems, removing barriers, and providing students with options while engaging in planning (Folsom, Joslin, & Yoder, 2005). When a student asks, "How do I request an incomplete?" an effective advisor will talk with the student about the reason for the request, the circumstances involved, the implications on financial aid eligibility and academic standing, the effect on future enrollment, and identify options other than receiving an incomplete. New advisors may struggle to develop effectiveness, as they may not have acquired the necessary information or training they need. Experienced advisors are at risk of diminishing their effectiveness as questions become routine and responses may become automated. Students will develop trust and rapport with an advisor who communicates that he can be relied on to follow through and has the best interests of the student in mind. A student response such as "I am very grateful for the many questions of mine you answer" communicates to an advisor that the student is confident in the advisor's effectiveness.

Advocacy
A critical role of advisors is to be a student advocate. Advocacy exists when an advisor has the student's best interests in mind and can take action on behalf of a student. Listening to a student and understanding her perspective is an important initial step in becoming an advocate. Helping students to strategically navigate the university with detailed information such as "Call financial aid and ask them if dropping this course will impact your Satisfactory Academic Progress," or picking up the phone to a colleague in financial aid and asking that question on the student's behalf are methods of conveying advocacy. Advocacy does not always mean trying to give the student what she wants; it is doing what is in the best interest of the student. For example, a student may demand that her tuition from a previous semester be refunded and her F grade be removed. An advocate will take the time to explore the reason for the request, as well as identify all possible outcomes of her requested action. If her request may negatively impact her financial or academic standing, the advisor is demonstrating advocacy by assisting the student in understanding the implications of her request and identifying viable options. Advisors are cautioned to avoid infusing personal feelings into the decision to advocate for a student. Promises made by an advisor in order to look like an advocate, "I will make sure your grade is changed," or avoiding advocacy due to frustration with a student, "She always misses deadlines, why should I help her?" are not student-focused decisions (Landon, 2007).

Caring and Concern
Advisors identify their role and purpose along a wide spectrum of characteristics and attributes (Kuhn, Gordon, & Webber, 2006). Some advisors prioritize the dissemination of accurate information, while others believe that it's more important to be kind and supportive. In reality, it is essential that advisors integrate a multitude of skills in order to effectively establish trust and rapport with students (Fox, 2008). Advisors must care for their students. Even during the most hectic, busy time of the year, when the advisor is inundated with emails, forms, and administrative tasks, care for the student must take center stage (Hughey, 2011). Demonstrating compassion for students, engaging in reflective listening, and following up on student life experiences (such as loss of family member or illness) are all ways to demonstrate caring and concern. Concern can also be expressed through proactive outreach and inquiry following a significant event for a student. For instance, a student who fails a course and is repeating it may appreciate a call from his advisor asking how the course is going. Advisors are challenged with balancing multiple priorities within a limited timeframe, and it can be difficult to infuse caring and concern into each interaction with students. Advisors are encouraged to resist the tendency to complete a transaction and move on to the next without taking into consideration the humanity of each student.

Conclusion
Due to the hectic nature of an academic advising, academic advisors are challenged with balancing multiple administrative duties while maintaining a student-centered approach to advising (Self, 2008). With increasing advisee loads and on-going deadlines to meet, relationship building is at risk of being minimized as a priority among busy advisors. Advisors are encouraged to incorporate these components of advising and rapport building into each interaction they have with students. Ultimately, these characteristics will positively impact the student experience, and will contribute to student satisfaction and retention.

Sue Ohrablo
Doctoral Enrollment Counselor / Program Professor
Abraham S. Fischler School of Education
Nova Southeastern University
References and Suggested Readings:
Burt, T.D., Young-Jones, A.D., Yadon, C.A. & Carr, M.T. (2013, Number 2). The advisor and instructor as a dynamic duo: Academic Motivation and Basic Psychological Needs. NACADA Journal, 33(2), 44-54.

Folsom, P.,Joslin, J., & Yoder, F. (2005). From advisor training to advisor development: Creating a blueprint for first-year advisors. Retrieved from the NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources Web site http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/Training-Blueprint-for-New-Advisors.aspx.

Fox, R. (2008). Delivering One-to-One Advising Skills and Competencies. In V. N. Gordon, W. R. Habley, & T. J. Grites (Eds.), Academic advising: A comprehensive handbook (2nd ed.) (pp. 342-355). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Goodner, M. (2007). Managing information: Institutional information. In P. Folsom & B. Chamberlain (Eds.), The new advisor guidebook: Mastering the art of advising through the first year and beyond (Monograph Series, Vol. 16, pp. 51-58). Manhattan, KS: National Academic Advising Association.

Hughey, J.K. (2011, Fall). Strategies to enhance interpersonal relations in academic advising. NACADA Journal, 31(2), 22-32.

Kuhn, T., Gordon, V.N., & Webber, J. (2006, Spring). The advising and counseling continuum: Triggers for referral. NACADA Journal, 26 (1), 24-31.

Landon, P. A. (2007). Advising ethics and decisions. Retrieved from NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources Web site http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/tabid/3318/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/581/article.aspx

Ohrablo, S. (2010). Developmental advising in an on-demand world. Retrieved from NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources website: http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/Developmental-advising-today.aspx

Self, C. (2008). Advising delivery: Professional advisors, counselors, and other staff. In V. N. Gordon, W. R. Habley, & T. J. Grites (Eds.), Academic advising: A comprehensive handbook (2nd ed.) (pp. 267-278). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Varney, J. (2009). Strategies for success in distance advising. Retrieved from the NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources website: http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/Distance-advising-strategies.aspx

Cite this using APA Style as:

Ohrablo. S. (2014). Advising is more than a yes/no business: How to establish rapport and trust with your students. Retrieved from NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources website: http://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Clearinghouse/View-Articles/Advising-is-More-Than-a-YesNo-Business--How-to-Establish-Rapport-and-Trust-with-Your-Students.aspx

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Advising is More Than a Yes/No Business: How to Establish Rapport and Trust with Your Students

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Advising is More Than a Yes/No Business: How to Establish Rapport and Trust with Your Students Authored by, Sue Ohrablo 2014 Academic advisors are relied upon to answer questions, deliver information, provide resources, and interpret policies for students. Comprehensive developmental advisin

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The current study examined how immediacy behaviors of college professors influence student participation. While these claims have been studied in the past, this investigation examined a cross-disciplinary sample and employed a more objective methodology, classroom observation. It was hypothesized that professors who showed greater immediacy would have higher levels of classroom participation. Results indicated that teachers who were more immediate had both greater frequency and breadth of classroom participation. More specifically, warmth of the professor (a composite of four immediacy behaviors) was a primary factor in explaining student participation. Limitations, pedagogical implications, and future directions in immediacy research are discussed.

Descriptors: Higher Education, College Faculty, Teacher Attitudes, Teacher Behavior, Student Participation, Nonverbal Communication, Student Attitudes, Teacher Influence, Observation, Measures (Individuals), Correlation, Reliability, Predictor Variables, Multiple Regression Analysis, Affective Behavior

International Society for Exploring Teaching and Learning. Web site: http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe

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ERIC - EJ1016418 - The Impact of Teacher Immediacy on Student Participation: An Objective Cross-Disciplinary Examination, International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 2013

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The current study examined how immediacy behaviors of college professors influence student participation. While these claims have been studied in the past, this investigation examined a cross-disciplinary sample and employed a more objective methodology, classroom observation. It was hypothesized that professors who showed greater immediacy would have higher levels of classroom participation.

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Check out the Huberman Lab episode page

Curious about Andrew Huberman's recipe for good sleep? Read more here

Can't get enough Andrew Huberman? Check out our member's only collection packed with Huberman's greatest tips

Key Takeaways

The frontal cortex allows us to take thought and move it toward action and is responsible for executive function
This region is so important, it takes up the most territory but this high energy demand is also what contributes to its decline later in life

If you deplete dopamine, working memory suffers
Pharmaceuticals like bromocriptine (dopamine agonist) can improve working memory to a point

Almost every neurological condition comes with varying degrees of sleep disruption

Aerobic exercise has been shown as effective as cognitive therapy at improving brain function

Tools to optimize brain health: dial in sleep, nutrition, exercise, read, interact socially, play games
Social media is not a cohesive plot so even if you're learning there, it doesn't require focus & memory

Introduction

Dr. Mark D'Esposito, M.D. (@mtdespo), is a neurologist and professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

In this episode of Huberman Lab, Andrew Huberman and Mark D'Esposito discuss brain mechanisms underlying cognition and the forms of memory required for focus, productivity, planning, and achieving goals and learning. Listeners will also learn about traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and ways to restore or slow cognitive decline.

Host: Andrew Huberman (@hubermanlab)

6:23 - Understanding Brain Anatomy & Physiology

Four lobes of the brain: frontal, parietal, occipital, temporal

The frontal lobe takes up the most territory and is largely responsible for executive function - the idea to plan, organize, transfer thoughts into action

The prefrontal cortex is in the frontal lobe and it primarily involved in higher-level thinking

The prefrontal cortex connects to every part of the brain and almost every part of the brain connects to it - that's how important it is

The prefrontal cortex sends top-down signals, telling the brain what it should focus on, block out, and task-switch to as necessary - it even controls heart rate and respiration through intermediate stations

Frontal lobe damage symptoms: distracted, inability to focus, inability to adapt & be flexible

Stroke, traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's disease all affect the frontal lobe

Sleep deprivation & aging negatively affect the frontal lobe

11:03 - Frontal Lobe Development

Brain mapping points to 25 being the approximate age the frontal lobe is fully developed

Because the frontal lobe is so complex, it takes the longest to fully develop
This is probably adaptive and helps us avoid rigidity that may happen if it completed development early on

The frontal lobe has about 25 different subregions, all of which develop at different times and different trajectories

14:12 - Rules, Context, Impulse Control & Focus

The brain processes & stores information

You can adapt strategies to learn rules and how to apply goals

Keeping your eye on longer-term goals is predictive of how successful we can be

30:29 - Frontal Lobe Damage & Emotional Regulation

Frontal lobe damage changes personality - there's something about the frontal cortex that allows us to be who we are

Sleep deprivation can impair frontal lobe function

37:26 - Smartphones & Social Media

Smartphones keep us task-shifting, communicating, and distracted more than previous technologies because of their accessibility

Smartphones can help give you knowledge because there's information you can quickly access without having to store it in your head - but - it doesn't generally help you make better decisions, it can't be your frontal lobe

Social media doesn't seem to help us be better people the way other things would like reading a book, playing sports, etc.
Things that happen in a sports game can translate into other things but this doesn't seem to be the case with social media - there isn't a translatable skill

44:37 - Working Memory & The Role Of Dopamine

Working memory is the ability to hold information in mind when it's no longer accessible to us

Working memory is not passive - it's the ability to do things with the information (such as finding someone in a crowd - you need to know what they look like and search for them)

For optimal working memory, you need to know rules and goals to carry out behavior

Working memory doesn't pass into long-term memory, they're two different systems in two different parts of the brain

The frontal cortex is important for working memory

If you deplete dopamine, working memory drops - if you replace it, working memory improves

1:00:03 - Bromocriptine & The Pharmacology Of Cognition

There's never been a pharmaceutical company that's developed a drug to improve cognition (Which is crazy! The pharmaceutical industry is disease-centric so this hasn't been appealing)

Study: individuals who already high working memory span did not improve after bromocriptine (dopamine agonist; increases dopamine after about 90 minutes)
Baseline dopamine is a proxy for measuring working memory - if you can remember a sequence of letters several minutes later, your baseline dopamine is probably higher

The relationship between working memory and dopamine follows an inverted U shape function:

If you have low dopamine available in the prefrontal cortex, your working memory span is short

As you increase dopamine in the prefrontal cortex, the working memory span becomes greater

If you increase the amount of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex too much, the working memory span drops below the baseline

Increasing serotonin and acetylcholine boosts cognitive processes and can indirectly improve working memory
The push is for a cocktail, not a silver bullet to improve working memory; eventually, we'll be able to map individual dopamine and serotonin levels to treat the best
The tricky part is you have to measure the balance of the neurotransmitters and there is no simple blood draw to measure the levels

Adderall & Ritalin don't give you control over how they modulate the system - they bring out the best in abilities if you have a deficit but this isn't the place to turn for cognitive improvement

Modafinil improves general abilities but it's hard to say specifically what it's doing

1:19:27 - Concussion & Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

There is more attention to orthopedic injury than brain injury but concussion is much more prevalent than we think

Concussion: tearing of axons (brain cells) which can damage communication across brain pathways
The longer you've lost consciousness, the more axons you've torn

There's a lot of old school thinking of concussion that it'll pass and you'll be fine in weeks to months - but there is a post-concussion syndrome where symptoms persist for a year and we don't have good interventions to help

Concussion symptoms: sensitivity to light, brain fog, feeling 'off', focus issues, loss of executive function to varying degrees, disrupted sleep

If you have a concussion, get up and moving as much as you can tolerate to rebuild skills

BrainHQ can improve specific cognitive functions and is a great resource, especially for TBI or concussion

1:31:57 - Aging In Relation To Executive Function & Brain Health

Is executive function a 'use it or lose it' system? Not every system declines with aging but the frontal executive system takes more of a decline than others (probably because it's biologically costly to maintain)

Preventative neurology is an emerging field, neurology is a reactionary field - it's rare to think of brain health (instead of brain/neurological damage)

There isn't a clear structure for optimal brain health yet like there is for physical fitness

We don't have a clear definition of what brain health is - the field has not provided physicians with a brain health index (it is now in development)

1:47:26 - Neurological Disorders

Alzheimer's disease genetic link: you won't necessarily get Alzheimer's just because someone else in the family has it - it's not that straightforward

Alzheimer's disease is a neurological disorder that involves plaques and tangles in the neurons of the hippocampus

Over the past 40 years, the needle hasn't moved in Alzheimer's treatment but there are behavioral tools that can help
The more socialization Alzheimer's patients get, the better off they fare

1:58:37 - The Role Of Hormones In Cognition

Men with low estrogen levels suffer cognitive and cardiovascular deficits

2:04:43 - Tools To Improve Executive Function

2:10:49 - What's On The Horizon For Cognitive Function?

Neuroscience is evolving

Exciting emerging research: thinking about the brain as a big electrical network instead of separate silos; thinking about how disease affects hubs in the brain instead of thinking about it in less specific ways

Modularity: measures how organized brain networks are; we can now measure with fMRI

This will allow us to understand and predict how people will respond to treatments (increased modularity predicts improved function)

We can now measure modularity in real time and are working on picking it up through physiology (e.g., resting heart rate, etc.)

Psilocybin increases cross-modal talk between brain networks

Transcranial magnetic stimulation is part of treatment for depression and will continue to play a greater role

Articles

Huberman Lab Episodes Mentioned

Other Resources

People Mentioned

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Dr. Mark D'Esposito: How To Optimize Cognitive Function & Brain Health | Huberman Lab * Podcast Notes

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In this episode of Huberman Lab, Andrew Huberman and Mark D'Esposito discuss brain mechanisms underlying cognition and the forms of memory required for focus, productivity, planning and achieving goals and learning. Listeners will also learn about traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and ways to restore or slow cognitive decline.

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Pollock illustrates the wide variations in the way speakers use race labels. Sometimes people use them without thinking twice; at other moments they avoid them at all costs or use them only in the description of particular situations. While a major concern of everyday race talk in schools is that racial descriptions will be inaccurate or inappropriate, Pollock demonstrates that anxiously suppressing race words (being what she terms "colormute") can also cause educators to reproduce the very racial inequities they abhor.

The book assists readers in cultivating a greater understanding of the pitfalls and possibilities of everyday race talk and clarifies previously murky discussions of "colorblindness." By bridging the gap between theory and practice, will be enormously helpful in fostering ongoing conversations about dismantling racial inequality in America.

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Colormute: Race Talk Dilemmas in an American School

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Colormute: Race Talk Dilemmas in an American School [Pollock, Mica] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Colormute: Race Talk Dilemmas in an American School

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everyday antiracism: getting real about race in school

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anti-racism; diversity; education; educator resources; social justice; race politics; professional growth; k-12; college classroom; theories and applications; equity; pedagogy; dominant culture; poc; racism; teacher resources

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education / administration / school superintendents & principals

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education / educational policy & reform / general

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education/student life & student affairs

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educational equalization - united states

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education / administration / school superintendents & principals

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education / educational policy & reform / general

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education/student life & student affairs

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Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School

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Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School [Pollock, Mica] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School

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This fascinating account details the story of two teacher-researchers-Jennifer, who is African American, and Karen, who is White-as they set out on a collaborative three year study to explore the impact of racial and cultural differences in Karen's urban middle school classroom. Not anticipating that their own differences would become a threat to their project, the two women describe how they learn to confront and deal with the challenges they face so that they can work together. Their study presents the difficulties and importance of collaborations between teachers from different racial and cultural backgrounds, as well as keen insights into how race and culture evolve in teacher-student interactions.

Of particular interest is an interview with the authors by Lisa Delpit and Dr. Delpit's analysis of their experience. Teachers and researchers will also find valuable practical advice about conducting cross-cultural collaboration and suggestions for persevering during difficult times.

"This book is an amazing story by two teachers-one Black and one White-who directly confront the boundary of race. They take readers on their joint journey through distrust, anger, and fear as they grapple with race in classroom teaching. Together, they build a bridge of trust, communication, and understanding, and in the process they teach the rest of us how to do this." , California State University, Monterey Bay
- Christine Sleeter

"Analyzing the complexities of race as it gets played out between teachers working together in an urban classroom is the centerpiece of this excellent publication. Jennifer and Karen's forthrightness and the clarity of the discussion draw the reader in, and push them to ask, 'How would I do and what would I learn if I were Karen or Jennifer?'", University of Wisconsin, Madison
- Carl Grant

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Because of the Kids : Facing Racial and Cultural Differences in Schools (Practitioner Inquiry, 18)

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Because of the Kids : Facing Racial and Cultural Differences in Schools (Practitioner Inquiry, 18) [Obidah, Jennifer E., Teel, Karen Manheim, Lytle, Susan L., Cochran-Smith, Marilyn] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Because of the Kids : Facing Racial and Cultural Differences in Schools (Practitioner Inquiry, 18)

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The amygdala is part of the limbic system, which regulates emotional and behavioral responses. An amygdala hijack is a fight-or-flight response to stress.

To better understand what an amygdala hijack is, you'll need to understand a bit about how the brain functions. You'll also need to understand two specific parts of the brain: the amygdala and the frontal lobes.

Fight or flight

The amygdalae are clusters of almond-shaped cells located in the brain's base. Everyone has two in each hemisphere. They and regulate emotions, store memories, and attach those memories to specific emotions.

The amygdala also activates the fight-or-flight response. This response can help people in immediate physical danger react quickly for their safety and security. For example, the fight-or-flight response helped early humans respond to threats to avoid injury or death.

The amygdala activates this fight-or-flight response without any initiative from you. When that part of your brain senses danger, it signals your brain to pump stress hormones, preparing your body to either fight for survival or to flee to safety.

Today, that fight-or-flight response is more likely to be triggered by emotions such as stress, fear, anxiety, aggression, and anger.

Frontal lobes

To understand what an amygdala hijack is, you need to know about a second part of the brain: the frontal lobes. These two, large areas are located at the front of your brain.

The front lobes are part of the brain's cerebral cortex. This area of the brain voluntary actions like reasoning, thinking, movement, decision-making, and planning. It is more rational than the amygdala.

The front lobes allow you to evaluate your emotions and then use your experiences and judgement to consciously respond. These reactions are not automatic, like the ones generated by the amygdala.

In the event of a physical threat, the amygdala may jump to the fight-or-flight response, but the front lobes process the information you're receiving to help you determine if the danger is real. If the danger isn't immediate, the frontal lobes help you decide what to do in response to the stress.

For mild or moderate threats, the frontal lobes can often override your amygdala so you can approach the situation rationally. But in the case of strong threats, the amygdala may trigger the fight-or-flight response.

For early humans, the fight-or-flight response was vital. The threat of physical harm was very real.

Today, however, you're more likely to experience psychological threats, such as the pressures and stress of modern life, work, and relationships. These emotions, too, can trigger the amygdala's fight-or-flight response.

Anger, aggression, fear, and stress are all common emotional triggers. They can cause sudden, illogical, and even irrational reactions.

In his 1995 book "Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ," psychologist Daniel Goleman named this emotional overreaction to stress "amygdala hijack." The amygdala hijack occurs when your amygdala responds to stress and disables your frontal lobes. That activates the fight-or-flight response and disables rational, reasoned responses. In other words, the amygdala "hijacks" control of your brain and your responses.

You can find the book for sale online.

Goleman was also responsible for popularizing the concept of emotional intelligence (EI). He explained how EI people manage their emotions and guide their behavior and thinking. Where amygdala hijack is natural and immediate, EI can help you regain control.

EI can also help you recognize the emotions of other people so that you can understand and influence them. However, Goleman's idea of EI emphasizes that individuals must first be aware of their own emotions and the feelings of people around them before they can use it for others.

The symptoms of an amygdala hijack are caused by the body's chemical response to stress. When you experience stress, your brain releases two kinds of stress hormones: cortisol and adrenaline. Both of these hormones, which are released by the adrenal glands, prepare your body to fight or to flee.

Together, these stress hormones do a number of things to your body in response to stress. They:

increase blood flow to muscles, so you have more strength and speed to fight or flee

expand your airways so you can take in and use more oxygen

increase blood sugar to provide you immediate energy

dilate pupils to improve your vision for faster responses

When these hormones are released, you may experience:

An amygdala hijack may lead to inappropriate or irrational behavior. After an amygdala hijack, you may experience other symptoms like embarrassment and regret.

An amygdala hijack is an automatic response. Your body takes action without any conscious input from you.

However, that does not mean you will be unable to stop or prevent an amygdala hijack. It just takes a conscious effort to deactivate your amygdala and activate your frontal lobes, the part of your brain responsible for rational, logical thinking.

When you feel threatened or significantly stressed, acknowledge how your body feels and what it is doing. This is your body's flight-or-fight response. Take stock of your emotions and physical symptoms, if any. (In the beginning, this evaluation may have to occur after an episode, as stopping a hijack in the moment may be difficult.

Then, when you feel this response again, acknowledge it, and work to regain control. Remind yourself this is an automatic response, but not the most logical one.

When you have calmed down or feel less stressed, you can activate your frontal cortex. Begin by thinking about what activated the response, and how you felt. Then, consider responses you can and should have. These will be more thoughtful and rational responses. If you still feel emotional in the moment, give yourself more time.

During the height of a fight-or-flight response, breathing a powerful tool. Think about the speed of your breath, and work to slow it down. Find a calm, natural rhythm. Focus on how your body feels as you inhale and exhale.

After the response has passed, review what happened. Consider the triggers that led to the fight-or-flight response. When you recognize warning signs and triggers, you may be able to more easily handle the stress that leads to the response in the first place.

The best way to prevent an amygdala hijack is to understand what things trigger the reaction so you can avoid them. Alternatively, you can use practices like mindfulness to help you better control your body's responses when you feel the reaction.

Emotional, mental, and even physical stress can trigger the amygdala's fight-or-flight response. When you begin to feel the symptoms of an amygdala hijack, pause. Take note of what you're feeling and what led you to this moment. Recognize any bodily changes you're experiencing.

Also, consider what triggered these feelings. Most people's triggers will fall into the same general categories (stress, anger, aggression), but each person's triggers will be unique to them.

These are the beginning steps of a practice called mindfulness. Mindfulness you be more present and engaged in your responses and choices.

Through mindfulness, you can take stock of things like how you're feeling and what's stimulating you. You can learn to respond rationally and logically. This is another way of saying you can take control away from your amygdala and hand it back to your frontal cortex.

Mindfulness takes practice. It's easy to wander with your thoughts when you first try to focus on your body and feelings. But as with so many things, practice makes it easier.

Plus, it's important to practice these techniques regularly, not just when you're in a highly emotional state.

One way to help focus your mind during mindfulness practice is to actively control your breathing. Focus on inhaling and exhaling. Concentrate on how the air makes you feel in the moment, and notice how your body moves in response to the air.

While you may find other ways to prevent an amygdala hijack, these two are the primary ways. Learning to avoid triggers can stop your amygdala from having a chance to overrule your emotional control. Mindfulness can help you slow and reverse the emotional responses.

Techniques to stop an amygdala hijack

Reasoning. Once you have calmed your emotional response, you can use reasoning and logic to think through your situation. This way, you have options for how you will respond, and you can pick the one that best suits the situation, not one that fulfills an emotional reaction.

Mindfulness. Use meditation or controlled breathing to focus your body's energy. This will help you respond to a threat or stress in a peaceful way. It will help you stop an amygdala hijack so you can retain control.

The amygdala's fight-or-flight response was useful to early humans. They regularly experienced real, immediate physical threats. Today, that's not the case.

The modern world is full of stress, but it's often caused by reactions to events, like natural disasters and strife, or even work, traffic, and arguments with family. The amygdala still responds to this stress as if it were a physical threat.

However, you can prevent this amygdala hijack. You can gain control over your brain's irrational emotional reactions.

You can do this by slowing down, taking deep breaths, and refocusing your thoughts. These steps allow your brain's frontal lobes to take over for the irrational amygdala. When this happens, you have control over your responses, and you won't be left feeling regret or embarrassment at your behavior.

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Amygdala Hijack: What It Is, Why It Happens & How to Make It Stop

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Amygdala hijack happens when your brain reacts to psychological stress as if it's physical danger. Learn more here.

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We frame this CEM as Culturally Relevant Education, extending the Culturally Responsive Teaching Innovation Configuration by discussing the commonalities and evolution of related terms and providing resources for conceptual understanding, content area application, and behavior support. The National Center on Education Statistics (NCES; de Brey et al., 2019) projects that by 2027, the United States' student population will be majority non-White, with Hispanic/Latinx representation increasing most significantly. Between 2000 and 2015, the numbers of students identifying Hispanic/Latinx (16-26%), Asian/Pacific Islander (4-5%), and of two or more races steadily increased; American Indian/Alaska Native (1%) remained stable; and White (61-49%) and Black (17-15%) declined. The teaching workforce remains overwhelmingly female (77%) and White (80%; NCES, 2017). Two strategies to support all learners include: (a) continuing efforts to diversify the workforce, and (b) ensuring all educators are prepared to be culturally relevant educators.
Academic Achievement Discrepancies
Standardized academic achievement measures, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), suggest that the education received by some of our nation's learners - mostly those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds - is insufficient. Academic achievement gaps between White and Black and White and Hispanic students have declined modestly, but gaps remain in almost every state across the nation with enough representation to be counted. Some states have made strides in closing the gaps between White and Black and Hispanic students while others have experienced widening gaps (Hansen, Levesque, Quintero, & Valant, 2018). However, even with gaps narrowing, underachievement for any segment of our student population is a problem.
Disproportionality in Special Education
When students experience persistent academic and behavioral difficulty, they are increasingly referred for special education services. For some, the referral process happens inappropriately and/or prematurely; for others, it is slow, allowing academic deficits to solidify. Disproportionality in special education has been examined and reported in different ways for decades. The issue remains that certain groups of students face greater risk of being referred to and receiving special education services. According to the 40th Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (U.S. Department of Education, 2018), the risk ratios for receiving special education services were as follows: American Indian/Alaska Native, 1.7; Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 1.5; Black/African American, 1.4; Hispanic/Latino, 1.0; White, 1.0; two or more races, 0.9; and Asian, 0.5. In other words, American Indian/Alaska Native students are 1.7 times as likely and Asians are half as likely as all other groups to receive special education services. These data and service delivery vary widely. Some states and districts employ Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) for instruction and intervention and attempt to individualize the educational program for all learners with a focus on the most vulnerable.
MTSS - Panacea or Restructured Problem?
MTSS is a framework designed to structure team-based decision making to support academic and behavioral learning with increasing intensity (i.e., tiers of supports) based on need. Response to Intervention (RTI) and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) are variations of this concept (Center on PBIS, n.d.). Over the years, cautions have emerged about implementing intervention without considering culture and without looking to the learning environment rather than the child for deficits. If a child fails to respond to an intervention, he or she might be considered a non-responder rather than the intervention being considered inappropriate (Garcia & Ortiz, 2008).

Instruction and intervention must consider student background, including family, culture, and community. The innovation configurations (ICs) on Culturally Responsive Teaching (Aceves & Orosco, 2014) and English Learners (Richards-Tutor, Aceves, & Reese, 2016) provide background information on these topics and serve as tools for identifying the extent to which the essential components are addressed in courses and professional learning opportunities.
Policy-Informed Practice
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) represent hallmark legislation guiding schooling for learners in the United States. Revisions and amendments over the years have intended to meet the increasingly complex needs of diverse communities.

The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA; Elementary and Secondary Education Act) non-regulatory guidance for Title II, Part A (U.S. Department of Education, 2016) includes:

Establishing outcome-oriented performance metrics to facilitate oversight by the authorizer and provide common expectations and standards for academies to include developing rigorous qualifications for teacher and/or principal candidates to successfully complete the program such as demonstration of cultural competency, classroom management skills, subject area and content-specific knowledge, and the ability to use standards-based, data-driven, and differentiated instruction (p. 6).

Providing ongoing professional development aimed at cultural competency and responsiveness and equity coaching, designed to improve conditions for all educators and students, including educators and students from underrepresented minority groups, diverse national origins, English language competencies, and varying genders and sexual orientations (p. 19)

The importance of providing culturally relevant instruction and intervention has been acknowledged in IDEA. An Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) archived document (U.S. Department of Education, 2007) outlines the following culturally relevant instructional principles:

Link assessments of student progress directly to the instructional curricula rather than to abstract norms for standardized tests.

Examine not only the individual child, but also his or her instructional environment using direct observational data.

Create classroom environments that reflect different cultural heritages and accommodate different styles of communication and learning.

Develop and implement family-friendly practices to establish collaborative partnerships with parents and other caregivers, including those who do not speak English.

The racial/ethnic mismatch between teachers and students cannot continue to be a barrier to student learning and achievement. All teachers, regardless of background, are responsible for the outcomes of students, and the accountability measures are increasing for professionals and the programs that prepare them.

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We frame this CEM as Culturally Relevant Education, extending the Culturally Responsive Teaching Innovation Configuration by discussing the commonalities and evolution of related terms and providing resources for conceptual understanding, content area application, and behavior support.

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The modules in this collection are designed to provide an initial exploration of the importance of culturally responsive teaching, specifically related to why culturally responsive-sustaining education (CRSE) is important and necessary. These modules are designed to be completed by groups of or individual educators.

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Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education (CRSE) Professional Learning Modules | WeTeachNYC

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The modules in this collection are designed to provide an initial exploration of the importance of culturally responsive teaching, specifically related to why culturally responsive-sustaining education (CRSE) is important and necessary. These modules are designed ...

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Throughout this book, author Peter Johnston provides examples of seemingly ordinary words, phrases, and uses of language that are pivotal in the orchestration of the classroom. Grounded in a study by accomplished literacy teachers, the book demonstrates how and what we say (and don't say) have surprising consequences for what children learn and for who they become as literate people. Students learn how to become strategic thinkers, not merely learning the literacy strategies, but adapting them to their lives outside of the classroom.

In addition, Johnston examines the complex learning that teachers produce in classrooms that is hard to name and thus is not recognized by tests, by policy-makers, by the general public, and often by teachers themselves, yet is vitally important. This book will be enlightening for any teacher who wishes to be more conscious of the many ways their language helps children acquire literacy skills and view the world, their peers, and themselves in new ways.

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Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children's Learning

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Amazon.com: Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children's Learning: 9781571103895: Johnston, Peter H: Books

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Finding Magic

"I uttered something about there being nothing new in human relations since the time of Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates," he recalled. "I don't even remember why."
A few minutes later, as Paul stood before the group, he noticed out of the corner of his eye a folded note being passed from person to person. As he continued speaking, the note eventually made its way to him. He unfolded it and read the ﬁrst line: "I completely disagree with you." The hand- scrawled note went on for an entire page. But it was unsigned. He looked up, searching for a nod from the note's author. But all he got were blank stares. Only after the meeting had ended and the rest of his staff had ﬁ led out of the room did Nadia walk up to Paul.
Occasionally, though, an introduction to someone new is more intense and intimate from the get- go. Maybe we share the same sense of humor or we admire the other individual's personality or passion. Or we immediately sense that we can just be ourselves around that person. Things feel right; we hit it off. There is an immediate sense of familiarity and comfort. Conversation ﬂows easily, without embarrassing pauses or self- consciousness. In essence, we click.
This book is about those mysterious moments- when we click in life. Those moments when we are fully engaged and feel a certain natural chemistry or connection with a person, place, or activity.
In its simplest terms, clicking can be deﬁned as an immediate, deep, and meaningful connection with another person or with the world around us. Typically, it takes weeks or months before most of us feel truly comfortable with a new person. We have to gain the other person's trust, and he or she needs to gain ours. We need to ﬁnd a common language, understand each other's quirks, and establish an emotional bond. But sometimes this process is greatly accelerated, and the connection seems to form almost magically and instantaneously.
But this type of immediate, deep connection isn't limited to romantic love. Clicking can be equally deep and meaningful between future friends and can strike in the most unlikely of places.
For Jim West and Gerhard Sessler, a pair of physicists who ﬁrst met at Bell Laboratories, the instant connection between them would permanently alter the course of their careers. But if you were to go back to 1959 and see the two when they ﬁrst met, you'd be struck by their apparent differences.
Jim, a tall, slender African American who grew up in Virginia during the Great Depression, learned from an early age to make do with whatever resources were available to him. "As a black man," he reﬂected, "I attended segregated schools. But I was lucky in that I had great teachers."
When we click in a relationship- whether the relationship is a romantic one or involves meeting a new friend at a party or forging a special connection with a teammate or colleague- we are affected in several signiﬁcant ways. First, clicking brings about a unique, almost euphoric state, one that we describe as "magical." Second, it permanently alters the fundamental nature of the relationship. And last, it can serve to elevate our own personal abilities.
Let's look at what actually happens when quick- set intimacy takes place. Paul remembers that the moment he met Nadia, he felt an overwhelming attraction to her. Nadia puts it slightly differently. She felt an instant sense of comfort and a surprising intensity of feeling: "The attraction was just magical." And neither Paul nor Nadia uses words such as
The two physicists at Bell Labs expressed a similar intensity. "Somehow, from the very, very start," reﬂects Gerhard, "there was always sympathy for the other person. There was always an understanding. We had such an appreciation for each other."
Most of us have had that feeling of magic at some time in our lives. But it can be difﬁcult to articulate. The next time you encounter someone whom you instantly, magically hit it off with, pay attention to what you are experiencing in that moment. There's a certain quality of infatuation; it is exciting, even thrilling. We often feel more alive, more engaged, more
Neuroscientists decided to try to take a peek into the biology behind clicking in a romantic context. The researchers scoured the community for individuals who identiﬁed themselves as being "madly in love." When they placed these people in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine to scan their brains, they observed that the parts of their brains responsible for dopamine absorption were extraordinarily active- so much so that the individuals almost looked like they were under the inﬂuence of narcotics. Dopamine is the chemical that fuels the brain's pleasure center, producing the kind of euphoria we associate with feeling fully alive. This is a noticeable and signiﬁcant high- and from a strictly biological perspective, it has an allure not unlike that of such drugs as cocaine, nicotine, and amphetamines.
Every time we feel that sense of being fully engaged and alive, whether as a result of a connection with another person, an activity such as sports- being "in the zone"-or simply feeling at one with the world around us, we experience a surge of dopamine through our brain. The magnitude of the chemical reward we get when we make these intimate connections stands in stark contrast to our complete lack of such a reward when we are feeling socially disconnected. To study this effect, a team of neuroscientists from UCLA and Australia placed participants in fMRI machines and asked them to play a virtual ball- tossing game. In the game, participants were under the impression that they were playing electronic catch with other participants in the room. But in reality they were just playing with a computer. After a few rounds, the computer deliberately ignored the participants by no longer tossing the ball to them. If being madly in love ﬂoods the brain with dopamine, feeling cut off and alone- even in the course of a simple game of virtual catch- lit up the anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain associated with physical pain.
In a very real way, psychologists' emphasis on pathology limits us to seeing only one side of the human equation. As a psychologist himself, Rom believes that previously unexplored aspects of positive emotions would illuminate just as much about human nature as do their negative counterparts: Why is it that we form close, meaningful connections? What happens to us emotionally and psychologically when we do? And why does such an experience often feel so intense and pleasurable?
To answer these questions, Rom examined the formation of such magical moments. He knew he was venturing outside the traditional realm of academic inquiry, but he was convinced that this was a signiﬁcant and powerful part of the human experience about which we understood very little.
Rom asked a diverse set of participants- psychology majors, football players, fraternity brothers, and so on- to recount a special or exciting experience in their lives that they felt had a magical quality: "a unique moment or event that was for you ﬁlled with magic." Surprisingly, every single participant was able to conjure a magical experience from his or her life. The stories were as varied and diverse as the individuals in the room. An overwhelming majority of the recollections involved a sense of connection, of clicking.
One participant described the immediate sense of intimacy she'd felt when she met her future boyfriend: "From the moment we both looked into each other's eyes we knew there was something special there. The whole night felt like a dream." Another subject, a young man, recalled rekindling the special bond with his mother: "It was the ﬁrst time I said 'I love you' to my mother as an adult. She was telling me about the things that happened to her in her life and I was telling her about things in my life. That was a beautiful day." Another woman recalled an experience she had as a teenager: "My ﬁrst kiss. It was with my ﬁrst boyfriend and longtime best friend. It was tingly/sweet/ sincere/romantic. It made my birthday magical."
There are two points that are worth noting here. First, all the individuals described these magical moments of connection using nearly identical words:
Why does the brain go to such extremes to reward us for connecting or fully engaging with the world around us and to punish us for feeling cut off and alone? To solve this mystery, we must turn to behavioral psychology. But we immediately encounter an unexpected hurdle. Traditionally, research psychologists have spent very little time trying to understand
These teachers- along with his family, friends, and neighbors- saw something special in the boy. As his brother tells it, Jim was the kind of kid who always had a screwdriver or tool of some sort in his hand. When he wasn't taking apart his grandfather's watch, he was rebuilding an old vacuum- tube radio. As a teenager, Jim decided to channel his love of tinkering into a career in physics. Concerned, his father introduced him to three black men who held Ph.D.'s in physics or chemistry. Recalls Jim, "The best jobs they could ﬁnd were at the post ofﬁce. [The point my father was making was that] I was taking the long road toward working at the post ofﬁce."
Jim persevered nonetheless, eventually landing a job at Bell Laboratories. It was the equivalent, for an engineer, of working at Disneyland. "It was the premier research institute in the country," Jim explains. "People from all over the world wanted to work there."
His ﬁrst day at Bell Labs, Jim was assigned an ofﬁce next door to another new recruit, Gerhard Sessler. Sporting short- cropped hair and a fastidious wardrobe, Gerhard had a natural, genteel warmth about him. While Jim had been raised in the American South, Gerhard had grown up in pre-World War II Germany. "I was only eight years old when the war started," recalls Gerhard. "The air raids, the atmosphere- it was a very difﬁcult time."
It was very unusual in 1959 for an African American man from the South to be working side by side with a German immigrant. But the two immediately hit it off. Even though Gerhard's thick German accent was difﬁcult for Jim's American ears to understand, from the beginning the pair launched into long discussions about physics and life. As Gerhard tells it, "From the start, I noticed Jim was intellectually curious and sharp- always exploring new things. I was immediately drawn to that."
Second, when we subsequently asked a different set of people to describe "a time in your life when you clicked" with another person- as opposed to experienced a "magical moment"-they used exactly the same emotional descriptors as the participants did in the earlier study. In terms of the emotions they engender, quick- set intimacy and magical experiences appear inextricably linked.
Now, think about the fMRI studies about emotional connections and biological rewards. When we click with someone, when we get that surge of dopamine running through our neurons, we're tapping into the very same place that we tap into when we experience a magical moment. That is one of the reasons the experience is so meaningful and powerful.
Let's return to Pasadena and Paul and Nadia as they sit by the pool. Their second evening together, Paul hinted that he was falling in love with Nadia, even though they had just met. On their third night together, he asked her to marry him. And Nadia, just as caught up in the emotion, accepted. They felt like they were being swept up by a force that was bigger than either of them. A month later, the two were married.
Given how quickly they were engaged and married, did their relationship last?
When Rom analyzed the results of his study on magical moments, he found that simply recalling magical moments, even years later, produced nearly identical levels of passion and intensity as the original experience. You might expect that with the passage of time people's memories would fade and the emotions would lose their power. But as the subjects recalled their magical moment during the study, they experienced the feeling of magic all over again. More than 90 percent of the respondents said they felt happy and excited and even reported reliving the original intensity: "It makes me smile," said one. "It brings me so much happiness and joy," said another. "I get such a wonderful feeling inside recalling the magic I felt that day." One participant remarked that it was "almost like I'm back there; I wish I was." Another said, "It ﬁlls me again with what I felt that night- puts me back into that frame of mind, calms me." Yet another participant reported, "It stirs the same feeling from when I ﬁrst realized I was in love. It's magical all over again."
What the couples in the Bareldses' study were articulating is something that we came to realize is an important principle of clicking: that the magic of quick- set intimacy continues to deﬁne the tenor of the relationship even years later.
Similarly, ﬁfty years after they ﬁrst met, Bell Lab physicists Gerhard Sessler and Jim West describe the intensity of their partnership in the same way. "There was a certain ethereal quality to our collaboration when we began, and it continued to be there even when I retired," recalls Gerhard. "I've worked with many people in my life, but the relationship with Jim was the best."
This special type of bond doesn't only alter the quality of the relationship- it can also serve to bring out the best in the abilities and attributes of those involved. For Jim and Gerhard it resulted in their being able to solve a tricky problem that had vexed audio engineers for decades.
In one of their early conversations together at Bell Labs, Jim and Gerhard started talking about microphones. The instruments used at the time were quite bulky (think of a 1950s radio announcer shouting into a big metal grille) because they relied on an external power source. This limited the wide- scale application of microphones, especially in compact and mobile devices.
"The microphone consisted of small carbon granules with an external source," explains Gerhard. "It was a crazy, outdated type of device, but it worked. People at Bell Labs told us, 'You can never beat this.' " After months of back- and- forth conversation about how to improve the device, Jim and Gerhard hit upon a simple yet ingenious solution: why not insert an electric power source (an electret, composed of a charged foil) directly into the microphone? With no reliance on external power, you could create a much smaller device.
From the get- go, Jim and Gerhard ran into resistance. Bell Labs questioned why two of its most promising scientists would occupy themselves with a seemingly impossible problem. They received a great deal of pressure to abandon the project. Time and again, the pair supported each other despite the naysayers. "Look, if I had to do it alone," explains Gerhard, "if I didn't have Jim there, I would have given up a long time ago." They relied on their bond to keep them charging ahead. In a very real way, quick- set intimacy can help to bring out the best in us, especially in facing challenges. "That same spark that initially drew us together kept us going even when everyone told us to abandon the project," Gerhard said. Their passion and drive were unwavering.
Today, the product of Jim and Gerhard's collaboration accounts for the vast majority of all microphones produced. Every time you use your cell phone, camcorder, or laptop, you're beneﬁting from the invention that they came up with because they clicked together so long ago.
As for Paul and Nadia, ﬁfteen years after they ﬁrst met, it's clear that the magic of their initial encounter still plays a key role in their relationship. Today the couple runs an emergency management company called ESi. "It wasn't easy that ﬁrst year," Nadia conﬁdes. "We've had our challenges." Nor are the two of them always on the same page. But they're never afraid to disagree. As Nadia explains, "I wouldn't have it any other way. If either one of us would cave in, it would be detrimental to our decision- making process. We absolutely need to evaluate everything from different perspectives. That's what makes us powerful." She pauses and smiles. "About the only thing that we've always agreed on is how important we are in each other's lives." That initial spark has had a lasting effect on their relationship. It's clear that these types of interactions aren't just ephemeral occurrences.
But
It has. "That same magic we had in Pasadena," reﬂected Paul, "is still at the heart of our relationship." In other words, the experience of clicking can remain a permanent part of a relationship.
For Jim and Gerhard, the way the two of them clicked manifested itself as an intense closeness; it was as if they were in their own world. Remembers Gerhard: "When we were together, we were operating on a different level. We found ourselves more willing to pursue new angles and theories." Their passion for ideas and high regard for each other, he explains, were always present.
"One time," recalls Gerhard, "we were contacted by the Philharmonic Hall of Lincoln Center in New York. They built a new fancy concert hall, but the acoustics inside were very poor. The music critics wrote about it in the newspapers; it was a big embarrassment. Our job was to ﬁgure out why the acoustics were so poor and why the sound reverberated unevenly."
The solution to this problem proved more challenging than the two initially had expected. "To ﬁgure out what was going on, you had to ﬁll the room with sound," remembers Jim. "And you had to do it in a very short burst. Most of the environments that we had interrogated up to that point were much smaller and we were able to use something like a starter pistol to excite the enclosure. But the concert hall was far too big for that."
"Of course we had loudspeakers," interjects Gerhard. "But we needed a big bang, so to speak. We spent a lot of time brainstorming for solutions, and ﬁnally Jim said, 'Hey, I have an idea.' "
"I'd been to football games down at Rutgers," Jim explained, "and I'd seen that little cannon that they rolled out during the game. They only shot it when Rutgers scored a touchdown, and it wasn't exactly the best team at the time, so they didn't shoot it much." He realized, " 'That makes a lot of noise; let me try that.' I talked to the athletics department and asked to borrow it. I had to sign my life away, but they let me use it."
Imagine two distinguished scientists rolling a cannon into Lincoln Center. Says Gerhard, "Jim prepared everything, and when it was all ready to go, he ﬁ red the cannon." The acoustic burst was exactly what they'd hoped for: a really big explosion of sound. But they got more than they bargained for. "The manager ran in when he heard the bang, and he wasn't sure what was happening. He said, 'What's going on here?' The hall was full of smoke. He gasped, 'Oh, gosh! We have a concert tonight. How are we going to get the smoke out of this room?' " It took three or four days to clear out the smoke, remembers Jim. But smoke and all, Jim and Gerhard's cannon blast revealed a small area near the ceiling that was responsible for the acoustic abnormalities.
You need a certain level of creativity, along with a sense of chutzpah, to pull off something like that. It was another quality Jim and Gerhard shared.
But can the success of Jim and Gerhard's relationship be attributed to the nature of their initial connection? Would Jim and Gerhard have formed the same kind of relationship, with the same shared passion and durability, if they hadn't clicked in the ﬁrst place?
In the Netherlands, a husband- and- wife psychology team, Dick Barelds and Pieternel Barelds- Dijkstra, set out to better understand the effects of clicking and quick- set intimacy on long- term relationships. Rather than focusing on dopamine levels, the Bareldses were interested in how an instant bond of this nature affected the relationship years after that initial spark.
The Bareldses contacted one thousand couples whom they randomly selected from the Dutch phone book. Each couple was invited to take a survey that explored the fundamental health of their relationship. Because the questions were personal and revealing, husbands and wives took the surveys separately. They were assured that their responses would remain strictly conﬁdential. This allowed the Bareldses to ask rather probing personal questions of the couples- and gain unusual insight into their marriages.
Their responses revealed that the couples tended to fall into one of three categories. The ﬁrst were those who'd been longtime friends before they started dating. These couples had known each other very well; eventually, over time, the relationship had turned from a platonic one into a romantic one.
The second group had followed a traditional courtship- the couples went on numerous dates, gradually became more serious and intimate, and eventually decided to get married.
The last group started out as strangers and- like Paul and Nadia- immediately clicked and fell headlong in love.
After an average of twenty- ﬁve years together, all three groups- at least on the surface- looked similar: They had similar levels of education, similar household incomes, and an average of 2.1 kids. And when you looked at their individual personality traits, there were no signiﬁcant differences among the groups.
But the Bareldses wondered if there were signiﬁcant differences that would emerge when they examined the underlying quality of the couples' relationships. The Bareldses predicted that the couples who had been friends ﬁrst and those who had dated for a substantial amount of time would enjoy higher- quality relationships than their counterparts who had fallen in love in an instant. They reasoned that if you take your time to really get to know the other person, you're more likely to end up with a spouse who's compatible with and similar to you, making for a better long- term match.
And indeed, the data showed that those couples who had been friends ﬁrst and those who had dated extensively were more similar to one another than those who had clicked. But when the Bareldses asked the couples to evaluate themselves with regard to statements having to do with commitment and closeness (e.g., "I could not let anything get in the way of my commitment to [my spouse]"; "I expect my love for [my spouse] to last for the rest of my life"; "I value [my spouse] greatly in my life"; "I feel that [my spouse] really understands me"), there was virtually no difference among the groups.
Some individual relationships were closer and more committed than others, but regardless of how the couples began their relationship, all three groups scored about the same in terms of commitment and closeness. In other words, although the spouses in the friends- ﬁrst couples and the dating couples shared more similarity than those who had fallen in love at ﬁrst sight, the quality of the relationships in all the groups was equal.
While similarity is indeed important in a strong, lasting relationship, when the Bareldses asked additional questions that were even more revealing and intimate, they discovered another, equally powerful factor that contributed to the health of the relationships of those who had fallen headlong in love. They asked the couples how they would respond to each of the following statements: "There is something almost 'magical' about my relationship with [my spouse]"; "When I see romantic movies and read romantic books I think of [my spouse]"; "I ﬁnd myself thinking about [my spouse] frequently during the day"; "I cannot imagine another person making me as happy as [my spouse] does"; "I melt when looking deeply into [my spouse's] eyes." These statements describe an ongoing level of intensity, even years later, that is uncommon among couples. How many of us melt, after all, when we look at our spouse?
When the Bareldses analyzed the results from this section of the survey, they found that, as a group, those who had clicked were more likely than their counterparts to agree with these statements. These people spent more time thinking about their spouses, found it difﬁcult to imagine being married to anyone else, and felt that there was a magic to the relationship. In other words, they were signiﬁcantly more likely to exhibit a higher level of passion in their relationships, even after marriage, kids, and the mortgage.
It's important to remember that those individuals who had clicked with their future spouse weren't any different from the other individuals in terms of personality. It wasn't that they were naturally more passionate. Instead,
In the course of
"We were both new," recalls Jim, "and being a member of an underrepresented minority, it was unusually lonely. But with Gerhard, I knew I could always be myself. I think it's fair to say that we clicked right off the bat."
The two spent hours discussing science and theories of the natural world, and the more they talked, the more intense the interaction became. In the course of one of these impassioned conversations, the two came up with an ingenious idea, one that would lead to one of the greatest achievements in acoustics history: the invention of the modern microphone.
Comparing Jim and Gerhard's story with Paul and Nadia's, we see two very different types of relationships emerging. But if we take a close look at the two budding relationships, we see that they follow a similar trajectory. Both began with what we call
Remembers Nadia, "Here we haven't met yet, and I just wrote him a note that said, 'I don't agree with you; what about the change in master- slave relations and relationships between men and women? There have been so many advances in society since then. How can you make such a comment? I'd like to discuss this with you.' "
Paul, instead of becoming defensive, was intrigued. "I'd like to continue the conversation with you," he told her.
"Anytime," she ﬁred back.
Twelve hours later they were sitting by the pool.
They had told themselves that they intended to use the time not just to resolve the argument but also to delve into some important work issues. Work, however, never came up during their conversation together. Toward the end of the evening, the intensity of their interaction was difficult to ignore.
"Are we going to end up getting in trouble?" Paul asked Nadia, realizing that they were letting work get away from them.
"Yes," she said simply. It was clear to her from the beginning that there was something special between them. "The moment he made that comment about Plato and Aristotle," she told us, "I knew. What we valued in life was very much the same, as were the things we thought were trivial. Who's outrageous enough to even bring up Plato and Aristotle in the middle of a strategy session? I mean, what does anybody who's in there know about Plato and the Greeks, or care about them? He had that courage to be different."
Having accomplished little of the work they had been planning to do, the pair decided to meet again the following night by the pool. And it was then that it happened. Paul looked at Nadia and asked, "What would you say if I told you that I loved you and wanted to marry you?"
Nadia retorted, "Is that a hypothetical or is that an offer?"
Paul said, "Let's see what tomorrow brings."
Let's hit the pause button here. First, it's worth noting that Paul and Nadia weren't teenagers driven by hyperactive hormones. They were seasoned business executives. Like most of us, when they met a new person, they usually spent their ﬁrst moments sizing each other up, searching for something to talk about:
Sitting by the pool at a Pasadena hotel, Paul was about to do something impulsive, even by his standards.
The Southern California evening breeze was starting to pick up. Anyone within earshot of Paul and the woman sitting across from him at the poolside table would have thought they'd known each other for years, although the pair had met only two days prior. They talked about everything from world travel to the 1970s antiwar movement to Socratic philosophy; their conversation had a casual, easy ﬂow to it. Watching the two of them- Nadia with her ﬁne Mediterranean features and striking jet- black hair and Paul with his rugged, all- American looks- one had a sense that they ﬁ t together. It was as if each was attuned to what the other was thinking. One moment they were laughing at embarrassing childhood stories and the next they were ﬁnishing each other's sentences. If there's such a thing as synergy between two people, it seemed almost palpable here.
One would never have suspected that the two were ostensibly meeting for work. At the time, Paul was in charge of the proposal for a $15 billion project to clean up a nuclear weapons facility in Colorado. To help put the proposal together, Paul had assembled experts from around the world. The team had taken over an office building in Pasadena; the work was so intense that the ofﬁce remained open 24/7. It was Paul's role to make sure all the countless moving parts worked together. But he was used to this level of intensity. A former officer in the army's special forces, Paul was trained to make split- second decisions, and he has the kind of personality people instinctively respond to- he is a natural leader. In conversation, he focuses intently on the other person's every word, making it clear he's fully present and is listening carefully.
Every morning at exactly 8:15 a.m., Paul assembled the top executives from the team to brief them about the strategy for the day. The meeting several days ago, though, had been different. From the beginning, Paul was keenly aware of the new team member, Nadia. "I immediately thought, Who is that? Where are you from? What kind of work do you do? quick- set intimacy . In other contexts, the words quick and instant magical there. positive euphoric , energizing , thrilling , and special . In fact, looking at just the emotions associated with the experience, you wouldn't know whether the participant was describing a marriage proposal or a hike with friends. And that is part of the point. Although the individuals had very different experiences and arrived at this magical moment in different ways, they experienced it identically Click because why do we click in the ﬁrst place? What are the hidden forces working to make those connections occur? To examine the ﬁrst of what we call click accelerators , we visit a police ofﬁcer embroiled in a hostage situation, where the magic of an instant connection can be the difference between life and death.

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Click: The Forces Behind How We Fully Engage with People, Work, and Everything We Do

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Click: The Forces Behind How We Fully Engage with People, Work, and Everything We Do [Brafman, Ori, Brafman, Rom] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Click: The Forces Behind How We Fully Engage with People, Work, and Everything We Do

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Amazon.com: Trust and School Life: 9789401780131: Maele: Books

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Students say the best teachers get them excited about learning, stretch their thinking, and keep them actively involved in class. But with increasingly diverse classrooms and constantly changing technology, each semester throws up new challenges for engaging students.

Discover how to keep your teaching, and your students, energized with The Skillful Teacher , a practical guide to effective techniques, approaches, and methods for today's college classrooms. Providing insights, reflections, and advice from his four decades of college teaching, Stephen Brookfield now adapts his successful methods to teaching online, working with diverse student populations, and making classrooms truly inclusive. As well as being completely revised, updated, and rewritten, this edition adds six brand new chapters on teaching critical thinking, using play and creativity in the classroom, teaching in teams, helping students take responsibility for learning, teaching about racism, and exercising teacher power responsibly.

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The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom

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Amazon.com: The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom (Audible Audio Edition): Stephen D. Brookfield, Jack de Golia, Tantor Audio: Books

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"Finally, a book that goes straight to the heart of what it means to be an educator. In HEART!: Fully Forming Your Professional Life as a Teacher and Leader , Tim Kanold reminds us that the journey to becoming a great teacher or administrator begins on the inside."

-- Robert Eaker , professor emeritus, Middle Tennessee State University

"In a time when far too many educators feel beaten down and struggle to keep their passion for teaching, Kanold has thrown a lifeline ... or perhaps he would call it a heartline."

"You will be touched, emotional, and reflective as you read Timothy Kanold's HEART! Fully Forming Your Professional Life as a Teacher and Leader . This book should be required reading for both pre-service and in-service teachers, education leaders, and also a much broader audience. Tim intersperses stories about real educators and leaders to intentionally focus readers on reflecting about their current state and what it takes to leave a lasting heartprint on those they touch either directly or tangentially. Another outstanding book by Tim Kanold, an educator and leader whose words and actions are congruent ."

-- Denise M Walston , director of mathematics, Council of the Great City Schools

"In his latest book, HEART! Fully Forming Your Professional Life as a Teacher and Leader , Timothy Kanold provides educators with a unique opportunity to reconnect with a fundamental human longing--to make a positive difference in the lives of students and colleagues. Through research, powerful stories, questions, and activities, Kanold challenges readers to examine current habits and practice, test new strategies, and reflect on the results. HEART! is not a book to read once and put on a shelf. Readers will find themselves coming back again and again on their journey to becoming fully formed professionals."

-- Rebecca DuFour , educational consultant and author

"Teaching is a giving profession, and we must pay a debt to do it well. Beyond the technical skills, educators must invest their hearts and minds into the work, which has the potential to replenish as well as consume them. With refreshing honesty and humor, Timothy Kanold challenges us to consider what it means to fully commit your life's work to learning and the service of others. It is much more than a book; it is a wonderfully reflective, interactive journey."

-- Mike Mattos , educational consultant and author

"In a profession inundated with mounds of scientific theories, research-based practices, and quantitative data, Timothy Kanold persuasively encourages us to pause, reflect, and realize that it is our emotional, spiritual, and physical status as educators that fuels and drives our work with students. His talented blend of anecdotal references, personal experiences, and quotes from an array of individuals with whom he has crossed paths over the years serves to reinvigorate and remind us why we chose a profession focused on positively impacting students in the first place."

-- Luis Cruz , president, Cruz & Associates Consulting

I wrote HEART! as my good friend and professional colleague, Richard DuFour was beginning his final journey through Stage IV lung cancer. An inspirational educational leader, he had left his Heartprint not only on me, but thousands of other educators. It was my initial intent to reveal lessons he had taught me over the years about our profession. However, along the way, despite his own pain, he challenged me to expand the book to include the wisdom of many. When you read the Epilogue, know that those words reveal my reflections on the day of his final public message. As I began to write HEART!, I realized I wanted to speak through the vehicle of story, provide insight to the reader from thought leaders inside and outside of our profession, and ultimately allow the reader to tell their own educational story - to discover or re-discover their fundamental purpose for joining our great profession. And to do so, either in self-study or group (book club style) study. Eventually, each letter of the word HEART became an important part of the book and represented chapters of ideas reflecting both the struggle and the triumph of our daily work life as teachers and leaders. How can we live a professional life, school season after school season, that does not wear us down, or cause us to lose hope? A good friend of mine and loving critic, told me during the early and painful iterative stages of the manuscript process, "Above all else, make sure you take good care of the reader". In the end, I suppose you will have to decide if I succeeded!

Timothy D. Kanold, PhD, is an award-winning educator, author, and consultant. He is former director of mathematics and science and served as superintendent of Adlai E. Stevenson High School District 125, a model professional learning community district in Lincolnshire, Illinois.

Dr. Kanold is committed to equity and excellence for students, faculty, and school administrators. He conducts highly motivational professional development leadership seminars worldwide with a focus on turning school vision into realized action that creates greater equity for students through the effective delivery of professional learning communities for faculty and administrators.

He is a past president of the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM) and coauthor of several best-selling mathematics textbooks over several decades. He also has served on writing commissions for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and has authored numerous articles and chapters on school leadership and development for education publications since 2006.

Dr. Kanold received the prestigious international 2010 Damen Award for outstanding contributions to the leadership field of education from Loyola University Chicago, 1986 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, and 1994 Outstanding Administrator Award (from the Illinois State Board of Education). He serves as an adjunct faculty member for the graduate school at Loyola University Chicago.

Dr. Kanold earned a bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in mathematics from Illinois State University. He also completed a master's degree in educational administration at the University of Illinois and received a doctorate in educational leadership and counseling psychology from Loyola University Chicago.

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HEART!: Fully Forming Your Professional Life as a Teacher and Leader (Support Your Passion for the Teaching Profession and Become a More Effective Educator)

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HEART!: Fully Forming Your Professional Life as a Teacher and Leader (Support Your Passion for the Teaching Profession and Become a More Effective Educator) [Timothy D. Kanold] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers.

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"To this musty debate, Newberg, perhaps America's leading expert on the neurological basis of religion, brings a fresh perspective. His new book summarizes several years of groundbreaking research on the biological basis of religious experience. And it offers plenty to challenge skeptics and believers alike."--Michael Gerson's editorial dedicated to the book for The Washington Post Change Your Brain, Change Your Life

"The authors present an elaborate, engaging meditation program to reduce anger and fear and increase serenity and love. They embrace faith (not necessarily religious), diversity, tolerance, and "compassionate communication. . . . A substantial advance in the self-help/spirituality genre and an excellent choice for general collections." - Library Journal The Relaxation Response
"Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman give us a magnificent, comprehensive explanation of how spiritual beliefs and experiences enhance changes in our brains and yield better health and well-being. They bring science and religion closer together."-Herbert Benson, M.D., author of How God Changes Your Brain is a highly practical, easy-to-read guide on the interface between spirituality and neuroscience, filled with useful information that can make your brain and your life better, starting today!"-Daniel G. Amen, M.D. author of The Varieties of Religious Experience has there been a work that so exquisitely integrates science and spirituality. Newberg and Waldman have written a book that is wise, up-to-date, scholarly, mature, and imaginative. At the same time it is a down-to-earth work that will surely inspire repeated readings."-George Vaillant, M.D., author of Spiritual Evolution
How God Changes Your Brain
"Not since William James's boldly explores the relationship between the structure of our brains and our ability not only to experience but to cultivate innate compassion and deep inner peace." -Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D., author of My Stroke of Insight "Stimulating and provocative. . . .The authors conclude that meditation and other spiritual practices permanently strengthen neural functioning in specific parts of the brain that aid in lowering anxiety and depression, enhancing social awareness and empathy, and improving cognitive functioning.. . . this forceful study could stir controversy among scientists and philosophers." -Publishers Weekly

"The authors present an illuminating and encouraging view of the inner and outer workings of our neurological perception of reality and how profoundly it is affected by our spiritual practices. Their practical exercises for a brain tune-up are revolutionary, and I'm enjoying immensely including them in my daily spiritual regime." -Michael Bernard Beckwith, author of

Chapter One

Who cares about God? Prelude to a Neurological and Spiritual Revolution
God.
For the past fifteen years I have investigated the neural mechanisms of spirituality with the same fervor that a minister contemplates God. Some religious rituals do nothing more than relax you, others help to keep you focused and alert, but a few appear to take practitioners into transcendent realms of mystical experience where their entire lives are changed.
Organization of this Book

In the first two sections we will explore the neural correlates of spiritual experiences that our research has uncovered. The third section is filled with practical exercises that anyone can use to enhance the physical, emotional, cognitive, and communication processes of the brain.

In Chapter 2-"Do You Even Need God when You Pray?"-we'll describe our recent study showing how spiritual practices improve memory, and how they can slow down neurological damage caused by growing old. Our memory study also demonstrates that if you remove the spiritual references, religious rituals will still have a beneficial effect on the brain. We'll also show you how to create and personalize your own "memory enhancement" meditation.

In Chapter 3-"What Does God Do to Your Brain?"-we'll explore the neural varieties of meditation and prayer, explaining how different parts of the brain create different perceptions of God. We'll tell you how God becomes neurologically real and show you how different neurochemicals and drugs alter your spiritual beliefs.

In Chapter 4-"What Does God Feel Like?"-we'll share with you the surprising findings from our online Survey of Spiritual Experiences. Our data suggests that God is more of a feeling than an idea, that nearly everyone's spiritual experience is unique, and that these experiences often generate long-lasting states of unity, peacefulness, and love. Furthermore, they have the power to change people's religious and spiritual orientations, as well as the way they interact with others.

In Chapter 5-"What Does God Look Like?"-we'll show you what we discovered when we compared adult drawings of God with pictures drawn by children. We'll explain why some atheists maintain childhood images, while others draw sophisticated renditions, and share with you how agnostics tend to react when they explore their notions of God. We will also explain why each of us may have a single "God" neuron or circuit that slowly expands the more we contemplate religious ideas.

In Chapter 6-"Does God Have a Heart?"-we'll describe how Americans project different personalities onto God, and how each of these perspectives affect the neural functioning of the brain. We will also explain how God culturally evolved from an authoritarian, punitive deity to become a force that is filled with compassion and love. This "mystical" element of God affects a very important part of the brain, called the anterior cingulate, which we need to nurture as we engage in a pluralistic world filled with different perceptions of the divine.

In Chapter 7-"What Happens when God Gets Mad?"-we'll delve more deeply into the neurological dangers of anger, fear, authoritarianism, and idealism. We will also explain why everyone-believers and nonbelievers alike-is born with a built-in fundamentalist framework that is deeply embedded in the neurological circuitry of the brain.

In Chapter 8-"Exercising Your Brain"-we'll tell you about the eight best ways to keep your brain physically, mentally, and spiritually tuned-up. Three of these techniques are directly related to the neurological principles underlying meditation, but I think several of them will surprise you, especially the one that we think may be most essential for maintaining a healthy brain. They are all relatively easy to do, and we will give you pointers on how to integrate them into your daily life. We'll even show you how you can arouse your precuneus-which may be the central circuit of human consciousness-in less than sixty seconds.

In Chapter 9-"Finding Serenity"-we have used the findings from our neurological research to create a personalized "brain enhancement" program that will help you reduce stress, become more attentive and alert, develop greater sensitivity and empathy, and generally improve the overall functioning of your brain. We'll explain the three key principles of meditation and guide you through twelve exercises that you can practice at home. Included are three simple techniques to defuse anger, the emotion most likely to interfere with the normal functioning of your brain.

In Chapter 10-"Compassionate Communication"-we integrate the techniques from the previous two chapters into a new exercise that can be done while you are engaged in conversation with someone else. In less than fifteen minutes a compassionate and intimate dialogue unfolds that undermines the normal defensive behaviors we usually employ in social situations. We are currently conducting brain-scan research to document the neurological benefits associated with this "Compassionate Communication" exercise, and we will instruct you on how to practice it with family members and friends. We'll also enumerate twenty-one strategies that you can use to effectively resolve interpersonal problems.

Our research team at the University of Pennsylvania has consistently demonstrated that God is part of our consciousness and that the more you think about God, the more you will alter the neural circuitry in specific parts of your brain. That is why I say, with the utmost confidence, that God can change your brain. And it doesn't matter if you're a Christian or a Jew, a Muslim or a Hindu, or an agnostic or an atheist. In Why God Won't Go Away, I demonstrated that the human brain is uniquely constructed to perceive and generate spiritual realities.1 Yet it has no way to ascertain the accuracy of such perceptions. Instead, our brain uses logic, reason, intuition, imagination, and emotion to integrate God and the universe into a complex system of personal values, behaviors, and beliefs.

But no matter how hard we try, the ultimate nature of the universe continues to elude our brain. So the bigger questions remain. Where does life originate, where does it end, and what ultimate purpose does it serve? Is there a spiritual reality, or is it merely a fabrication of the mind? If there is a God, does such an entity reach out to us like the hand that Michelangelo painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? Or is it the other way around: Does our mind reach out to embrace a God that may or may not be real?

Neuroscience has yet to answer such questions, but it can record the effect that religious beliefs and experiences have upon the human brain. Furthermore, it can tell us how God-as an image, feeling, thought, or fact-is interpreted, reacted to, and turned into a perception that feels meaningful and real. But neuroscience cannot tell you if God does or doesn't exist. In fact, as far as we can tell, most of the human brain does not even worry if the things we see are actually real. Instead, it only needs to know if they are useful for survival. If a belief in God provides you with a sense of comfort and security, then God will enhance your life. But if you see God as a vindictive deity who gives you justification for inflicting harm on others, such a belief can actually damage your brain as it motivates you to act in socially destructive ways.

Having an accurate perception of reality is not one of the brain's strong points. Indeed, as Mark and I pointed out in Why We Believe What We Believe,* the human brain seems to have difficulty separating fantasies from facts.2 It sees things that are not there, and it sometimes doesn't see things that are there. In fact, the brain doesn't even try to create a fully detailed map of the external world. Instead, it selects a handful of cues, then fills in the rest with conjecture, fantasy, and belief. Rather than being a hindrance, such neurological ambiguity allows us to imagine and create a world filled with utopian, utilitarian, and sometimes useless things-from eye protectors for chickens to electronic corneas for the blind.

Likewise, when it comes to thinking about God, our brain creates a vast range of utopian, utilitarian, and sometimes useless theologies-from complex moral value systems to the number of angels that can fit on the head of a pin. But no matter how comprehensive our theologies become, our brain is rarely satisfied with its concepts and images of God. The end result of this remarkable contemplation has been the creation of thousands of differing spiritual practices and creeds.

Indeed, the more one contemplates God, the more mysterious God becomes. Some embrace this emergent ambiguity, some are frightened by it, some ignore it, and others reject it in its entirety. But the fact remains that every human brain, from early childhood on, contemplates the possibility that spiritual realms exist. Believers like Isaac Newton, agnostics like Charles Darwin, and atheists like Richard Dawkins have all given serious consideration to humanity's fascination with God, because the moment God is introduced to the human brain, the neurological concept will not go away.

Recently there has been a spate of antireligious books-among them, The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins; The End of Faith, Sam Harris; and God Is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens-that argue that religious beliefs are personally and societally dangerous. But the research, as we will outline throughout this book, strongly suggests otherwise. Nor do we believe that these authors represent the views of the vast majority of scientists or atheists. For example, though I am not specifically religious, I'm open to the possibility that God may exist, whereas Mark, my colleague and co-researcher, prefers to look at the universe through a purely naturalistic and evidence-based perspective. Yet we both appreciate and encourage religious and spiritual development-as long as it does not denigrate the lives or religious beliefs of others.

For the past four years, Mark and I have been studying how different concepts of God affect the human mind. I have brain-scanned Franciscan nuns as they immersed themselves in the presence of God, and charted the neurological changes as Buddhist practitioners contemplated the universe. I have watched what happens in the brains of Pentecostal practitioners who invited the Holy Spirit to speak to them in tongues, and have seen how the brains of atheists react-and don't react-when they meditate on a concrete image of God.

Along with my research staff at the University of Pennsylvania and the Center for Spirituality and the Mind, we are currently studying Sikhs, Sufis, yoga practitioners, and advanced meditators to map the neurochemical changes caused by spiritual and religious practices. Our research has led us to the following conclusions:

1. Each part of the brain constructs a different perception of God.

2. Every human brain assembles its perceptions of God in uniquely different ways, thus giving God different qualities of meaning and value.

3. Spiritual practices, even when stripped of religious beliefs, enhance the neural functioning of the brain in ways that improve physical and emotional health.

4. Intense, long-term contemplation of God and other spiritual values appears to permanently change the structure of those parts of the brain that control our moods, give rise to our conscious notions of self, and shape our sensory perceptions of the world.

5. Contemplative practices strengthen a specific neurological circuit that generates peacefulness, social awareness, and compassion for others.

Spiritual practices also can be used to enhance cognition, communication, and creativity, and over time can even change our neurological perception of reality itself. Yet, it is a reality that we cannot objectively confirm. Instead, our research has led us to conclude that three separate realities intermingle to give us a working model of the world: the reality that actually exists outside of our brain, and two internal realities-maps that our brain constructs about the world. One of these maps is subconscious and primarily concerned with survival and the biological maintenance of the body. But this map is not the world itself; it's just a guide that helps us navigate the terrain. Human beings, however, construct a second internal reality-a map that reflects our conscious awareness of the universe. This consciousness is very different from the subconscious map formed by our sensory and emotional circuits. We know that these two internal maps exist, but we have yet to discover if, and to what degree, these two inner realities communicate with each other.

Overall, our consciousness represents a reality that is the farthest removed from the world that actually exists outside of the brain. Thus, if God does exist, there would be three separate realities to consider: the God that exists in the world, our subconscious perception of that God, and the conscious images and concepts that we construct in a very small part of our frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes. It has been my goal to show that spiritual practices may help us to bridge the chasm between these inner and outer realities, which would then bring us closer to what actually exists in the world. I still don't know if it's possible, but the health benefits associated with meditation and religious ritual cannot be denied.

In America, I cannot think of any other word that stirs up the imagination more. Even young children raised in nonreligious communities understand the concept of God, and when asked, will willingly draw you a picture-usually the proverbial old man with the long hair and a beard. As children grow into adults, their pictures of God often evolve into abstract images of clouds, spirals, sunbursts, and even mirrors, as they attempt to integrate the properties of a reality they cannot see. In fact, the more a person thinks about God, the more complex and imaginative the concept becomes, taking on unique nuances of meaning that differ from one individual to the next.

If you contemplate God long enough, something surprising happens in the brain. Neural functioning begins to change. Different circuits become activated, while others become deactivated. New dendrites are formed, new synaptic connections are made, and the brain becomes more sensitive to subtle realms of experience. Perceptions alter, beliefs begin to change, and if God has meaning for you, then God becomes neurologically real. For some, God may remain a primitive concept, limited to the way a young child interprets the world. But for most people, God is transformed into a symbol or metaphor representing a wide range of personal, ethical, social, and universal values. And, if you happen to be a neuroscientist, God can be one of the most fascinating of human experiences to explore.

Our time is distinguished by wonderful achievements in the fields of scientific understanding and the technical application of those insights. Who would not be cheered by this? But let us not forget that knowledge and skills alone cannot lead humanity to a happy and dignified life. Humanity has every reason to place the proclaimers of high moral standards and values above the discoverers of objective truth. What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the inquiring and constructive mind.-Albert Einstein, The Human Side

Religion and the human brain

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How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist

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How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist [Newberg M.D., Andrew, Waldman, Mark Robert] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist

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Dr. David A. Sousa is an international consultant in educational neuroscience and author of seven books that suggest ways that educators and parents can translate current brain research into strategies for improving learning. A member of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, he has conducted workshops in hundreds of school districts on brain research, instructional skills, and science education at the Pre-K to 12 and university levels. He has made presentations to more than 100,000 educators at national conventions of educational organizations and to regional and local school districts across the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. Dr. Sousa has a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Massachusetts State College at Bridgewater, a Master of Arts in Teaching degree in science from Harvard University, and a doctorate from Rutgers University. His teaching experience covers all levels. He has taught senior high school science, served as a K-12 director of science, a supervisor of instruction, and a district superintendent in New Jersey schools. He has been an adjunct professor of education at Seton Hall University and a visiting lecturer at Rutgers University.Prior to his career in New Jersey, Dr. Sousa taught at the American School of Paris (France), and served for five years as a Foreign Service Officer and science advisor at the USA diplomatic missions in Geneva (Switzerland) and Vienna (Austria).Dr. Sousa has edited science books and published dozens of articles in leading journals on staff development, science education, and educational research. His seven popular books for educators, all published by Corwin Press, include: How the Brain Learns, third edition; How the Special Needs Brain Learns, second edition; How the Gifted Brain Learns; How the Brain Learns to Read; How the Brain Influences Behavior; and How the Brain Learns Mathematics, which was selected by the Independent Publishers' Association as one of the best professional development books of 2008. The Leadership Brain, suggests ways for educators to lead today's schools more effectively. His books have been published in French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and several other languages. Dr. Sousa is past president of the National Staff Development Council. He has received numerous awards from professional associations, school districts, and educational foundations for his commitment to research, staff development, and science education. He recently received the Distinguished Alumni Award and an honorary doctorate from Massachusetts State College (Bridgewater), and an honorary doctorate from Gratz College in Philadelphia. Dr. Sousa has been interviewed by Matt Lauer on the NBC Today Show and by National Public Radio about his work with schools using brain research. He makes his home in south Florida.

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How the Brain Learns [Sousa, David A.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. How the Brain Learns

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How brain plasticity can change your life with Michael Merzenich at Mind & Its Potential 2014

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Zaretta Hammond: Using Neuroscience to Help Students | #PLtogether

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Faith vs Science: Can it only be one? - Ed Stetzer | Mariners Church

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Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, EdD , associate professor of education, psychology, and neuroscience at the Brain and Creativity Institute and Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California, lives in Los Angeles. Winner of the 2014 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Early Career Award. --This text refers to the edition.

"Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang has the ability to explain complex affective neurobiological research in a clear and concise way and to then translate these research findings into educational theory. . . . [T]he educator will come away from this book with a general understanding of neurobiological research, especially regarding the relationship of emotions to learning and a theoretical approach to educational interventions that should prompt him or her to develop innovations specific to individual students. I heartily recommend this book.", Mary Helen Immordino-Yang explains how our emotions help us understand didactic instruction or pedagogy and help us cement the information we are taught. The book supports the hypothesis that emotion plays a vital role in helping children apply what they have learned in school to the real world. . . . Although Immordino-Yang writes for an audience of researchers and practitioners, the book is worth reading for those who want to creatively engage adolescents." is the book we have all been waiting for: relevant, rigorous and, yes, revolutionary. It is the book every teacher and parent, every policy maker and researcher, and every citizen concerned with the future of American education should read." provides a comprehensive review of the latest research in neuroscience, which demonstrates the power of emotions in learning in every setting, from the classroom to digital environments. For decades, experimentation by psychologists has shown that emotions matter in the classroom―and matter a great deal. Immordino-Yang strengthens that evidence base with a deeper understanding of the mechanisms behind it, helping explain the critical links between emotions and learning."
― PsycCRITIQUES

"[A] well written book with a gold mine of information. . . that clinicians and teachers can use to become more effective in helping clients learn new ways to solve problems and discover paths to generate change. . . . [I]t stimulates exciting possibilities."
― The Milton H. Erickson Foundation Newsletter

"Educators have long known that students' emotional experiences greatly impact their learning. Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang offers a neurobiological account of why this may be the case. . . . Immordino-Yang is uniquely positioned to offer insights from affective neuroscience for education because of her interdisciplinary background and experiences. . . . [A] fascinating book."

"This week I hit the jackpot. I discovered the work of Mary Helen Immordino-Yang . . . [Her] research provides a powerful rationale for pedagogy that centralizes the emotional and imaginative lives of students."
―
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― Learning and the Brain ImaginEd Emotions, Learning, and the Brain: Exploring the Educational Implications of Affective Neuroscience PsychCentral

"This book is like the planning document for the revolution of affective neuroscience, which has transformed our understanding of what makes humans tick: our drives, frailties, loves, and―through Immordino-Yang's brilliant work―how we learn. Emotion and reason are not separate, as we've figured since antiquity; they are deeply intertwined, as are the mind and body. Here, Immordino-Yang and her colleagues, including the discipline's godfather, Antonio Damasio, explain it all, with reason and passion."
― Ron Suskind, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism

"Fasten your seatbelts and step into the fast lane of twenty-first century cognitive neuroscience, emotions, and learning. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang gets straight to the heart of the matter: how and why emotions matter in teaching and learning. Emotions, Learning, and the Brain
― Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco, Wasserman Dean & Distinguished Professor of Education, UCLA Grad School of Education & Information Studies Emotions, Learning, and the Brain Marc A. Brackett, PhD, Director, Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
― Kurt W. Fischer, PhD, Charles Warland Bigelow Professor and Director of the Mind, Brain, & Education Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education --This text refers to the

"Mary Helen Immordino-Yang is not only a brilliant and original researcher; she also has a gift for coming up with exceptionally creative ways of looking at child and adolescent development for teachers and the general public. From winning the Cozzarelli Prize to her latest achievement in this remarkable book on affective neuroscience for educators, Immordino-Yang provides us with new lenses for understanding how emotion shapes learning."
― edition.

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Emotions, Learning, and the Brain: Exploring the Educational Implications of Affective Neuroscience (The Norton Series on the Social Neuroscience of Education)

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Buy Emotions, Learning, and the Brain: Exploring the Educational Implications of Affective Neuroscience (The Norton Series on the Social Neuroscience of Education): Read Kindle Store Reviews - Amazon.com

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Many people perceive tension - and sometimes even hostility - between faith and science. But there's more agreement than many realize.

Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, describes the difficulty of engaging in meaningful conversation that respects both faith and science.

Along with these essays, take a few moments to hear from several of the authors and project collaborators in the following video.

As laypersons we sometimes wonder if we know enough about science or religion to ask the right questions of either.

As scientists we may welcome serious conversations but wonder if others tilt more toward controversy or more toward truth.

As pastors we often keep silent on science, because we don't know what to say or because we don't want to engage or escalate unwanted debates.

Now there's a resource to inspire and inform your evangelical voice with trusted insight as you explore the surprising discoveries of agreement.

Free PDF Download: Black & White Free PDF Download: Color

Order: Single Copy Order: Pack of 10

Meet the Authors

The NAE asked a small, but impressive group of authors to bring science and faith on the same page. The booklet does not answer all the questions, but it unites the conversation in a way that values and respects both faith and science.

The History of Science and Christianity Mark A. Noll
The Wonder of Creation Dorothy Boorse
The Competencies and Limitations of Science Katharine Hayhoe and W. Douglas Hayhoe
Questions That Faith Asks Science John Ortberg
Worshipping God Through Discovery and Science Dorothy F. Chappell
Science as Christian Calling Ian Hutchinson
Creativity and the Development of Technology Randy Isaac
Genetics, Medicine and the Image of God Jay Hollman
Tending God's Earth Christopher J. H. Wright
Reasons to Engage in Science Ed Stetzer

Foreword by: Jennifer Wiseman
Introduction by: Leith Anderson

Hear From Ian Hutchinson

In Today's Conversation podcast, Leith Anderson talks with Ian Hutchinson, contributing author of "When God and Science Meet," about his experience being a Christian and a scientist. Listen in.

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When God and Science Meet - National Association of Evangelicals

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Many people perceive tension - and sometimes even hostility - between faith and science. But there's more agreement than many realize. Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, describes the difficulty of engaging in meaningful conversation that respects both faith and science. As laypersons we sometimes wonder if we know enough about science [...]

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This research brief from the National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development explores how emotions and relationships drive learning and are a fundamental part of how our brains develop. Authors Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, a professor of education, psychology and neuroscience at the University of Southern California and a member of the Council of Distinguished Scientists, and Linda Darling-Hammond, the president and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute and a co-chair of the Commission, explain how emotionally safe and cognitively stimulating environments contribute to brain development; how brain development that supports learning depends on social experiences; and how sensitive periods in brain development align with opportunities for learning and needed supports. The brief draws from the research base to suggest basic principles for educational policymakers and practitioners.
Access Footnotes to the report here

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The Brain Basis for Integrated Social, Emotional, and Academic Development - The Aspen Institute

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This research brief from the National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development explores how emotions and relationships drive learning and are a fundamental part of how our brains develop.

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National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

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Learning Module - Implicit Bias Module Series

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Learning Module - Implicit Bias Module Series

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Implicit Bias Module Series | Kirwan Institute

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Why focus on implicit rather than explicit bias?

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Book - Bridging Cultures Between Home and School

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Book - Bridging Cultures Between Home and School

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"The book is optimistic, well written, carefully documented, and studded with appropriate examples and suggestions. Teachers working with immigrant students will find useful cultural theory as well as suggestions for improving the nature of school-to-home communications and for interacting more effectively with parents." CHOICE

"The book highlights the importance of parents and teachers working in concert to ensure that all students receive a high-quality education. The significant feature of this book is that it offers practical advice for parents and teachers to bridge the cultural divide that diminishes learning opportunities for students. This is a must read for all educators interested in ensuring culturally inclusive schools." Multicultural Perspectives

"The example of cooperation in educational research set by the Bridging Culture project is inspiring. The specificity of the book's focus on immigraant family culture is relevant to schools all around the country that are experiencing tremendous growth in numbers of students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. It would not be surprising if the training materials based on this book become widely-used by educators struggling with school improvement issues. The individualistic/collectivistic framework is accessible to teachers and easily applied, and Bridging Cultures Between Home and School has great potential value in the effort to increase school effectiveness by building stronger partnerships between families, students, and their schools." TESL-NJ

"...even if you are satisfied with the home-school relationship in your school, Bridging Cultures will challenge you to make it even better. In short, everyone concerned with making public education work with families instead of against them should read this book." educational HORIZONS

" Bridging Cultures offers an antidote to many of the problems that plague U.S. public schools. But instead of advocating a one-size-fits-all, universalistic reform, such as nationwide standards or standardized testing (both of which they caution against), the authors advocate changing teachers' ways of thinking, one teacher at a time, and how teachers relate to their constituents, one constituent at a time. After all, the authors suggest, education occurs within human relationships. Shouldn't the focus of reform be on those relationships?" educational HORIZONS

Elise Trumbull (Author) , Carrie Rothstein-Fisch (Author) , Patricia M. Greenfield (Author) , Blanca Quiroz (Author)

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Bridging Cultures Between Home and School: A Guide for Teachers

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Bridging Cultures Between Home and School: A Guide for Teachers [Trumbull, Elise, Rothstein-Fisch, Carrie, Greenfield, Patricia M., Quiroz, Blanca] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Bridging Cultures Between Home and School: A Guide for Teachers

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Book - Con Respeto: Bridging Distances Between Culturally Diverse Families and Schools

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Book - Con Respeto: Bridging Distances Between Culturally Diverse Families and Schools

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Con Respeto: Bridging the Distances Between Culturally Diverse Families and Schools-An Ethnographic Portrait presents a study of ten Mexican immigrant families, with a special focus on mothers, that describes how such families go about the business of surviving and learning to succeed in a new world. Guadalupe Valdés examines what appears to be a lack of interest in education by Mexican parents and shows, through extensive quotations and numerous anecdotes, that these families are both rich and strong in family values, and that they bring with them clear views of what constitutes success and failure. The book's conclusion questions the merit of typical family intervention programs designed to promote school success and suggests that these interventions-because they do not genuinely respect the values of diverse families-may have long-term negative consequences for children.

Con Respeto will be a valuable resource in graduate courses in foundations, ethnographic research, sociology and anthropology of education, multicultural education, and child development; and will be of particular interest to professors and researchers of multicultural education, bilingual education, ethnographic research methods, and sociology and anthropology of education.

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Con Respeto: Bridging the Distances Between Culturally Diverse Families and Schools: An Ethnographic Portrait

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Con Respeto: Bridging the Distances Between Culturally Diverse Families and Schools: An Ethnographic Portrait [Valdes, Guadalupe] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Con Respeto: Bridging the Distances Between Culturally Diverse Families and Schools: An Ethnographic Portrait

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Book - The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities

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Book - The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities

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In this 10th Anniversary Edition of her popular text, Sonia Nieto reviews where we have been and where we should be going in our pursuit of creating multicultural learning communities in our schools. With a new Introductory Chapter and a new Epilogue, Nieto addresses some of the changes we have experienced during the past decade that help explain the current sociopolitical environment―our increasing diversity, the altering conditions in schools and in society, the influence of poverty on learning, and the impact of NCLB on classrooms and schools. This updated edition of The Light in Their Eyes :

Focuses on the significant role of teachers in transforming students' lives.

Considers recent theories, policies, and practices about the variability in student learning and culturally responsive pedagogy.

Examines the importance of student and teacher voice in research and practice.

Provides an update, in their own words, on former students whose journal entries were included in the first edition.

Praise for the First Edition!

"A spirited, provocative defense of multicultural education." ― Choice

"In this important and thought-provoking book, Sonia Nieto reaffirms her reputation as one of the leading theorists in multicultural education." ― Rethinking Schools

"Perhaps once every 5 years, one is fortunate enough to read a scholarly book that is as hard to put down as a good novel, yet is brimming with profound insights on virtually every page. Nieto has written such a book." ― TESOL Quarterly

"Offers a comprehensive and convincing argument for multicultural education." ― Harvard Education Review

"For educators in a multicultural program, and for veteran and novice teachers, Nieto's book would be invaluable." ― Childhood Education

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The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities, 10th Anniversary Edition (Multicultural Education Series)

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The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities, 10th Anniversary Edition (Multicultural Education Series) [Nieto, Sonia, Banks, James A.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities, 10th Anniversary Edition (Multicultural Education Series)

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State of Science: Review of Implicit Bias Research Findings

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State of Science: Review of Implicit Bias Research Findings

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Podcast - When Implicit Bias Becomes Explicit

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Podcast - When Implicit Bias Becomes Explicit

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What is your reaction when someone calls you biased? If you are like most people, including myself, you probably immediately go on the defensive exclaiming how you are in no way a biased person. Don't worry, you are not alone.

In fact, that is exactly how I felt when I watched a TEDx of the same title of today's...

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There are over 3 million full-time teachers in the United States. Add in part-time teachers, support staff, administrators, and board members, and you have a lot of people who have dedicated their lives to educate the lives of others. We believe in providing a platform where educators can gather to share, learn, and encourage others.

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TedWomen Video - The Story We Tell About Poverty Isn't True

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TedWomen Video - The Story We Tell About Poverty Isn't True

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Mia Birdsong: The story we tell about poverty isn't true

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As a global community, we all want to end poverty. Mia Birdsong suggests a great place to start: Let's honor the skills, drive and initiative that poor people bring to the struggle every day. She asks us to look again at people in poverty: They may be broke - but they're not broken.

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Article - Good Teachers with Good Intentions: Misappropriation of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

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Article - Good Teachers with Good Intentions: Misappropriation of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

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All Students Reaching the Top: Strategies for Closing the Academic Achievement Gaps

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All Students Reaching the Top: Strategies for Closing the Academic Achievement Gaps

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4 Misconceptions About Culturally Responsive Teaching

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4 Misconceptions About Culturally Responsive Teaching

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The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast, Episode 78 Transcript

Jennifer Gonzalez, host

GONZALEZ: The term "culturally responsive teaching" has been around for decades, but it seems to have gotten more attention in recent years. That's good news: With our classrooms growing more diverse every year, teachers should be more interested in how they can best teach students who come from different backgrounds.

The not-so-good news is that in some cases, teachers think they're practicing culturally responsive teaching, when in fact, they're kind of not. Or at least they're not quite there. And that means students who might really thrive under different conditions are surviving at best. We all want to do better for these students, but how to do it still hasn't become common knowledge.

To move the needle forward a bit more, I invited Zaretta Hammond onto the podcast. I have admired Zaretta's work for a few years now; she's the author of the 2015 book Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. In the book, she provides a neuroscience-based teaching framework that goes beyond surface changes to really build cognitive capacity in our students from diverse backgrounds. When I read it, I realized that true culturally responsive teaching definitely isn't as simple as I thought it was. It's much more holistic. In fact, in most cases, it wouldn't even "look" culturally responsive to an outside observer.

And that tendency to oversimplify is part of the problem.

In this episode, Zaretta and I look carefully at four common misconceptions some educators have about culturally responsive teaching. Regardless of where you are in your own understanding of this subject, this conversation should help you refine it a bit more. When you're done, I would encourage you to come over to the site, share your thoughts in the comments, and explore some of Zaretta's other resources, because although this episode will help you understand what culturally responsive teaching is not, there's plenty more to learn about what it is. So come over to Cult of Pedagogy, click on podcast, then go to episode 78 and you'll find a summary of our conversation, a full transcript, and links to other resources.

Before we get started, I'd like to thank Raymond Geddes for sponsoring this episode. For over 90 years, this third-generation family-owned business has been making fun and affordable school supplies, stationery and toys that students love.

Whether you're looking for merchandise for your student-run store, new fundraising ideas, or awesome rewards for your classroom treasure chest, Raymond Geddes has what you need from school supplies, fidgets, scented pens, non-candy Halloween treats and much more.

Visit cultofpedagogy.com/geddes and use code COP20 when you check out to get free shipping and 20% off your first order.

I also want to thank you for the reviews you've given this podcast on iTunes. These reviews tell other teachers that it's worth their time to download and listen, so if you think more teachers would benefit from what I'm dishing out here, head over to iTunes and tell them about it. Thanks so much.

Okay, here is my interview with Zaretta Hammond.

GONZALEZ: I would like to welcome Zaretta Hammond to the podcast, welcome.

HAMMOND: Thank you. It's good to be here.

GONZALEZ: It's strange that you're on here for the first time, because we've sort of worked together several times in the past. I reviewed your book a couple years ago, and you wrote a guest post for me, but I have not actually had you on the podcast. So I'm really excited. This is a good time for it, I think.

HAMMOND: Yeah, I think so too, and I'm glad that we were able to do this.

GONZALEZ: Yeah. So just tell the listeners a little bit about who you are, what your background is, what is the work that you've been doing lately.

HAMMOND: Yeah, I am a teacher by my initial training. I was a composition teacher when I was in the classroom, so I taught expository writing at the middle school, high school, and community college levels. That was back in the day. I then transitioned out of the classroom to become a teacher educator, to literally work shoulder-to-shoulder with teachers as they were thinking about their practice around literacy and equity. So literacy training is my background, helping teachers make sure that kids are reading on grade level, that kind of thing. That's kind of what transitioned me into writing more about culturally responsive practices, because that's what I was doing in the classroom to get results. I was sharing with teachers how they can integrate that into their subject areas. Currently what I do, I work with schools that want to go deep and really change their practice, so we use an inquiry method and really look at how they can implement, successfully, culturally responsive practices.

GONZALEZ: Got it. And you also wrote a book a couple of years ago now about culturally responsive teaching. I think it's such a great book, because you actually intersect the idea of culturally responsive teaching with neuroscience.

HAMMOND: Yeah. And the intersection, I think, was necessary, because there was a lot of misconception about what culturally responsive teaching is, back then when I started this work some 20 years ago, and even now there are still misconceptions of what it is. So I'm excited that we'll get to talk about that, but I think the neuroscience helps people understand why it works.

GONZALEZ: Right.

HAMMOND: That it's not just magic.

GONZALEZ: It seems like in this past year I've seen more and more uses of the term "culturally responsive teaching," and a lot of the places where I'm seeing it, it seems to be a little off from what it really should be and if it's going to actually work. So maybe we should start with just sort of your definition of what is culturally responsive teaching, and what is the issue that you're seeing out there in terms of misconceptions?

HAMMOND: Yeah. And equally, I'd love for you to share kind of what you've been seeing that leads you to believe it's off so that we can kind of unpack some of that. But here's culturally responsive teaching: It is how do we build the capacity of diverse students to have intellectual confidence and grow their brainpower. What that means is the focus of culturally responsive teaching is raising academic success, that's what Gloria Ladson-Billings had at the center of her work when she actually coined the term and started bringing various strands of educational theory and practice together. Culturally responsive teaching is not just about building relationships or some of the other things we're going to get into, but it really is about improving the academic achievement of students.

GONZALEZ: Right.

HAMMOND: I think the misconceptions come in how it actually does that. People keeping achievement at the center is, I think, really the key thing.

GONZALEZ: Okay. Let's take a quick look at the term "diverse" too. I remember you and I kind of wrestled for a while with even what to title certain blog posts, because there's a strong reaction to the term "at-risk" because it's built on a deficit. I know that when I've put out some links to your earlier posts about diverse students, I get pushback about that also, because people say, "What do you mean 'diverse'? What does that mean exactly?" It's hard, especially in something like a tweet, to come up with quick language to really communicate what you mean by "diverse students." Could you unpack that a little bit?

HAMMOND: Yeah. I think that's a really good point. I use the word "diverse" simply because a lot of school districts are using it, not because I'm wedded to the word.

GONZALEZ: Okay.

HAMMOND: So again, trying to make sure that people understand who we're talking about, because this is how their district is labeling it. Here's a reality: We are in a majority minority school district, public education around the United States. So whether you're using the word "minority," you're using "diverse," we're talking about non-white students being the majority in most public schools.

GONZALEZ: Okay.

HAMMOND: "Diverse" is really an attempt to talk about English-language learners, immigrant students, students of color, be they African-American, Latino, Pacific Islander, Asian. Usually we are talking about lower performing students, for better or worse. It's a loaded term, but it's one folks are using to really talk about the students that they're most worried about when they look at their data, because they're disproportionately at the bottom of the achievement curve.

GONZALEZ: Right. Would it be fair to say that students of color and other students who fit the description that you're giving, who have been successful in traditional schools, have been successful despite the fact maybe that those teachers are not teaching in culturally responsive ways, or that their families have been already assimilated into sort of mainstream culture in such a way that they've just adapted to that? Does that make sense?

HAMMOND: It does. Here's the thing that I think is really important: There's nothing magical about culturally responsive teaching. It's how do you optimize learning? When I'm learning in a way that's congruent with how I learn at home, I then just continue the same system. All instruction is culturally responsive. The question is, to whose culture is it responding?

GONZALEZ: Okay, yeah.

HAMMOND: Right? So the idea is that students learn various systems, just like they learn another language. And for some students, despite the atmosphere in the classroom ... Because culturally responsive teaching also has an element around relationships that's really an integral part of the instructional piece. And being able to help people really understand how that works becomes really important. So yeah, being able to understand that successful students of color have been able to do that by being bicultural in many ways, by being able to navigate back and forth.

GONZALEZ: Right, right.

HAMMOND: So in many ways, it is despite that, and sometimes despite having a hostile environment, having lowered expectations, having folks who don't recognize their genius or even their ways of processing information.

GONZALEZ: I brought all of that up, because I know the types of pushback that I tend to get whenever I put something out into the world that says, "Maybe you should adjust your approach for diverse students," the main pushback sometimes I'll get is, "What about all the kids?" or "Why should I have to change? Why don't they adapt to the way I teach?" Or they'll hold up the one example of a student of color. It's like, "Well this student was able to succeed with the way I teach. Why can't all of the rest of the students do the same thing?" So I wanted to make sure that I kept that objection in this conversation so that we would recognize-and it may come up again later-I'm hoping that the people who have those objections are listening right now and are going to open up to what you have to share, because I think ultimately what we want is for all of our students to succeed, not that we're going to dig our heels in and say, "Well, they're just going to have to figure it out."

HAMMOND: Absolutely. I think that's why I brought in the neuroscience, because when we understand what's going on in the brain in terms of creating the right conditions, then you want to be able to minimize the cortisol stress hormones, maximize oxytocin, the bonding hormone, that allows students to be in the right frame of mind. So the idea of a school looking at the data and seeing a disproportionate number of students of color at the bottom means that something has to change. It's not the students, usually, who have to change. The idea of students being at the lower end, particularly students of color, then English learners, poor students, you're going to have to be able to think about how you get students to move out of that fight or flight state, so that they are in this relaxed openness for learning. So that data really is a symptom that teachers should be reading.

GONZALEZ: Yes. And really, if we're professionals, then we need to meet our students wherever they are and do whatever we can do to set them up for success.

HAMMOND: Absolutely. Here's a thing I want to say about that, Jenn: That's a deficit orientation around assimilation if you think your students have to adjust to you. Right? When we understand how the brain works, we understand that idea of what it means to meet the student where they are and take them to this next level. That's what a good teacher is able to do. The degree to which you are able to kind of anchor in what the student already knows and twist and take them up to a new level is what good teaching is all about. The degree to which we're not just going to teach them one particular cultural way and then expect students to kind of assimilate. Here's the reason why I think that's so important. We have inequity by design in schools. So schools were not set up to actually maximize the capacity of students of color. That's just our historical foundation as America. What we're trying to do, in many ways, is kind of reverse that trend. That's a systems piece. This is why culturally responsive teaching is not just kind of some set of magical strategies. It really is a holistic system-based process where we have to look at how are we creating a less hostile environment? How are we leveraging the ways that the students know and the bodies of knowledge that they come in with?

GONZALEZ: What you were just saying about how schools used to be, it reminds me of my first intro to education class, and they taught us that, that schools used to use the phrase "sort and separate," that it used to be to identify the kids who were going to be successful, get them on the track, and then just sort of let everybody else go.

HAMMOND: Yeah. I would love if it was "used to be," but the reality is inequity is still doing its job. For schools to be equity-minded, they have to be diligent, and they really have to focus on this. So the idea of helping students, particularly this idea of dependent learners, and this is what I write about in my book. This is not just about helping students of color because they're students of color. We're helping them because we have bred dependent learners in our classrooms, and that's been part of the inequity by design. It wasn't just sort. It was actually not teach them to read well. It was actually being able to underdevelop the cognitive resources of students of color. Now what we're being asked to do, a lot of teachers are asked to do the opposite. So if students come to them already behind in grade level, they don't know how to accelerate that. Culturally responsive teaching is about accelerating students' learning. Here's the thing I want to point out: Only the learner learns. So if you don't have the learner feeling confident in their intellectual ability and being able to leverage what he or she already knows in terms of taking in the content and making it usable knowledge, then you're not going to be able to accelerate that learning. This is not just about being magnanimous with students of color or somehow we need to support them because there were inequities in the past. This is about every learner being able to accelerate their capacity.

GONZALEZ: Right, right. So we have talked ahead of time, and we decided we're going to look at four misconceptions that people have about culturally responsive teaching. So if you're ready, let's get into the first misconception.

Misconception 1: Culturally responsive teaching is the same as multicultural or social justice education.

HAMMOND: The first misconception is a confusion between multicultural education, social justice education, and culturally responsive teaching. I think we have a tendency to use them interchangeably, and they are not interchangeable. So multicultural education is what we usually see in schools. This is the celebration of diversity, wanting to make sure that there's harmony across difference. What's important to understand there is while those are really noble things and critical to a high-functioning classroom and school climate, it doesn't have anything to do with learning capacity. Whereas culturally responsive teaching is about building the learning capacity of the individual student. That means that there is a focus on leveraging the affective and the cognitive scaffolding that students bring and being able to kind of leverage that. Social justice is about building a lens for the student, really being able to look at the world and seeing where things aren't fair or where injustice exists. What's important to understand about culturally responsive teaching and how it's different from multicultural and social justice education is those first two don't have anything to do with learning.

GONZALEZ: Right.

HAMMOND: So you can have a student have a critical lens, but if he's reading three grade levels behind, it's not going to do much to accelerate that. So culturally responsive teaching really is about instruction at the core.

GONZALEZ: This is one of the things that I actually contacted you about, because there seems to be a push right now in decorating your classroom in such a way that would cause a teacher to believe that they are teaching in a culturally responsive way. Decorating with African patterns around the room and that sort of thing, that this is supposed to be creating a more welcoming environment for diverse students. There was pushback and a lot of kerfuffle about it, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to explain why that doesn't really equate to culturally responsive teaching.

HAMMOND: Let me try to kind of unpack this a bit, because you're absolutely right, and I think it's an important piece where the neuroscience comes in, because if we actually look at the logic of this, we can better understand why it's not helpful in terms of accelerating learning. If that's at the core of culturally responsive teaching, there is something then that says that if I decorate my classroom with African patterns, somehow the student will feel more excited, connected, and then what? The two grade levels behind me are in reading will disappear? So that still does not help the student accelerate learning. It still doesn't leverage culture as a cognitive scaffold. There's not a lot of relationship between what we call surface culture, the observable things about culture, what you eat, what you read, how you dress, those are what we call surface culture, and the relationship between learning.

GONZALEZ: Right.

HAMMOND: This is where the confusion is. That would be in the multicultural realm. So decorating your classroom, that's more multiculturalism, especially if you're decorating it to have a little bit of everybody's culture. I call that the "It's a Small World" approach.

GONZALEZ: Right.

HAMMOND: Again, if you think about it, that's more of the social harmony, getting along across difference, everybody feeling included. That does not have anything to do with instruction, and there is an attempt to make culturally responsive teaching kind of easy to do and sometimes that's the thing that we see happen.

GONZALEZ: And the thing is you can sort of see where this has come from, because the push toward multicultural education has been around since the '70s, I remember it being in school. If a teacher is sort of heading down that path and is being told that's not the right thing to do, what should that teacher be doing instead, which I know is a huge question. There's a bunch of things. But maybe just give one example of the type of thing that would make a much bigger difference.

HAMMOND: Yeah. It does require more time for us to unpack, because this is the biggest challenge. Culturally responsive teaching is not plug and play. This is not a list of student behaviors or magical strategies I could give you. That's another misconception. "If we just have the right strategies, then we could do culturally responsive teaching." Culturally responsive teaching is, how do you show up so that you're building a relationship with this student? How are you having a high trust, low stress environment? And the cultural aspect to bring in has to do with shallow culture, right? Not surface culture. In my book I talk about the three levels of culture, and the shallow culture is intermediate. It's right below the surface. If I stay in a place three weeks, I see the unspoken rules of how close do you stand to a person? What kind of eye contact do you make? What kind of communication patterns tell you we're in sync? Right? There are things we can do to build trust. What I suggest teachers do is learn more about collectivism and bring more elements of collectivism as the cultural orientation into the classroom. So right now, most schools are centered around an individualistic orientation, right? Keep your eyes in your own work. Pull yourself up by the bootstrap. Whereas collectivism is, "I am because we are." It's interdependency. And it doesn't mean that students of color and other diverse students like to be in a group all the time. What it means is the orientation is toward being part of the group and succeeding for the group so that even my individual effort is going to reflect that. It's not so much what's on the walls, it's how you interact. You can have stuff on the walls, but know that that's not actually going to be the determining factor whether a student actually feels connected or has a sense of belonging in the classroom. But I think bringing in more collectivist practices, understanding what that is, is going to be kind of the path.

Misconception 2: Culturally responsive teaching must start with addressing implicit bias.

HAMMOND: Another misconception is we have to talk about implicit bias all the time. Right? So the degree to which culturally responsive teaching either swings between this kind of "It's a Small World" multiculturalism, or we always have to be having hard conversations about implicit bias. Neither of those gets you to instruction. That's the biggest problem. So teachers just keep doing instruction the way they've done it, and that's the place where you actually want to leverage students' collectivism, their ability to process information in a different way. And if you don't understand those areas, then all of this other stuff may seem like it's not working. So then teachers say, "culturally responsive teaching doesn't work." They've oversimplified it.

GONZALEZ: Yeah. Can you give me an example? Because I know that one of the things I'm going to make sure I do in the blog post that I put together for this is that I link people to my review of your book, because you really lay it out in much more detail there what teachers should be doing. But could you give an example of maybe a typical way that a teacher might teach something and then how would that be changed so that it's a more collective way of teaching it that appeals to that sense of collectivism?

HAMMOND: Yeah. That's hard in five minutes, because what I share with teachers is that it's not so much that you're teaching in a collectivist way, but when we get to instruction, there are four cultural learning tools that I share with teachers and show them how to utilize. One is puzzles and patterns. Another is talk and word play. So how do you incorporate puzzles and patterns into processing information when students are taking on a new lesson or a new unit? So sometimes this is through gamification. Now what's really important about that is you're not mentioning anything to do with race or ethnicity or anything. You're talking brain to brain, so that the brain recognizes, "Oh, in a collectivist culture, I actually am learning by doing, and I might be talking to my partner." Vygotsky talks about sociocultural learning theory, which means people learn better when they talk to each other about what they're doing. Being able to set that up, it doesn't always have to be in a group setting, it could be partners playing a game together, that's an educational game, and I show teachers how to make these games so that they're leveraging the puzzle and patterns as a way that the brain talks to and processes information and that's utilized in a collectivist culture, because most collectivist cultures have a strong oral tradition.

GONZALEZ: Right.

HAMMOND: That oral tradition is leveraged, because students are coming with that already. That's quick and dirty, but it's, again, a way that I think teachers can start to bring in more gamification, recognizing that's actually going to be more consistent with collectivist information processing.

GONZALEZ: Right. I want to underscore what I hear you saying too, because I know that you resist giving something that's just one simple strategy, because it's really important that teachers have a more comprehensive understanding of what culturally responsive teaching is, and not just say, "Oh, just do this from now on." So that was just one example of the kind of thing that might be a shift.

HAMMOND: Yeah. I think being able to think about, holistically, how you build a different relationship with students so that you can build trust, how do you actually leverage the fact that the student is the only one who learns, only the learner learns, restoring that natural confidence by leveraging collectivism? There are various parts to that in terms of understanding what goes into it, and that's one of the things that I try to share with teachers when I do professional development with them so that they then look at their own practice. So it is, it's really a challenge to try to say, "This is it in a nutshell," but I do see that's what's happening, and teachers need to interrogate their practice a little more robustly, because it's not an off-the-shelf program, it's not two or three strategies. Because you'll go back to doing what you've been doing, and that sends the signal to students that, "my ways of knowing and learning are not honored." And so it's less about the African print on the wall, and more about how can you learn about how students are processing information in a more collectivist way.

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Okay. Let's continue our conversation with Zaretta.

GONZALEZ: The first two misconceptions we covered right now is that there's a confusion between culturally responsive teaching and multicultural and social justice education. That was one. Number 2 has to do with putting maybe too much focus on tackling implicit bias, not that that's not an impossible piece of it, but there seems to be too much emphasis to swing in that direction. What's the third misconception?

HAMMOND: Here's the last thing I'll say about misconception No. 2: You do need to at some point get to implicit bias, it's just not the starting point. If you start there, you can't pivot to instruction. Whereas when you understand inequity by design, you can actually talk about instruction but also come back to talk about microaggressions. The sequencing of that is really important.

Misconception 3: Culturally responsive teaching is about raising the self-esteem of our students.

HAMMOND: The third one is this thing that we kind of touched on which is CRT is about raising the self esteem of students of color or just having a good relationship with them. So if I work on being friendly with them and having this good relationship, that's going to change their learning ability. There's a big effort afoot in terms of social emotional learning programs, people are developing these, they're trying to help students gain self regulation, but also build positive relationships with students, restorative circles are happening as a way of getting these positive relationships. Here's what the schools are finding that do surveys. They find that after a few years of this kind of work, that their positive climate has gone up; satisfaction surveys among adults as well as kids are really high, but the achievement doesn't move.

GONZALEZ: Got it, yep.

HAMMOND: Relationship setting is just the first stage. You're doing that because part of culturally responsive teaching is helping the learner get into his zone of proximal development, stay there and be able to process the information. And for students who have been marginalized and don't feel welcome, the brain tells us they may be in more of kind of the stress area, and you're wanting to help them. So that relationship becomes important, because you want them to actually do the heavy lifting of the cognitive work. But that's not going to happen if you can't get the student to be in a trusting relationship. So trusting relationship is just one part, and not the part, it is the on-ramp to the kind of cognitive high-level problem-solving and higher-order thinking we want students to do. So CRT with the cultural learning tools allow students to do that, build their capacity, but those relationships are simply the on-ramp. I see a lot of people just doing the relationship piece.

GONZALEZ: Right. So the kids feel it's a safe space, and they feel that their teacher sort of sees them for who they are, and all the groundwork has been laid, but then cognitively, they're still not necessarily achieving, because of the way that the instruction is being delivered.

HAMMOND: That's right. And the teacher doesn't know how to make the instruction more culturally responsive. And so again, what I try to teach people is there are principles of how to make instruction more responsive, and that when you're able to do that, it doesn't matter who the students are who walk across your path, across your classroom door, you will always be able to make your lesson and your instruction more responsive. If I were just simply to give people strategies, there's no one-size-fits-all strategy.

And here's the thing that I think is most important, and it goes to the folks that give you pushback in terms of, "Isn't this good for all students?" or "What about all students?" What we know is this kind of teaching is good for all brains. So what you're doing to actually reach your lowest performing students is going to be good for your highest performing students. It's actually going to allow you to differentiate more. A lot of teachers haven't kind of perfected the ability to differentiate, so they're teaching to the middle, which leaves the lower-performing students kind of down at the bottom and the higher performing students bored at the top. When you're teaching a more culturally responsive way, you'll be able to actually have more differentiation in the classroom, and therefore it meets everybody's needs. But it is a process. When I work with schools, I do an inquiry process. We take a year. We do lesson study. We do inquiry. We're actually trying things, collecting data, coming back and talking about it, because it's not just kind of a PD, "Here's some strategies. Go try them." It is much more complicated than that, and I feel like one of our biggest challenges is we've oversimplified and reduced it to these misconceptions.

GONZALEZ: That leads us into the fourth misconception, which at this point, we've kind of covered it. But do you have anything...Let's just review it.

Misconception 4: Culturally responsive teaching is about choosing the right strategies.

HAMMOND: I think that's, again, the fourth misconception is having the right strategies. I do see that we need to be able to create the spaces for teachers to take more of an inquiry stance, to say, "Who are my students?" Right? Grade level, background, all of these things. "Who am I? What are my teaching strengths? What are the instructional strategies I know how to use?" And be able to craft those in a way that works for the students, and the teacher can actually see progress.

One of the things that I ask teachers to do, if you want to talk about a strategy, is to bring formative assessment in. Kids don't get enough feedback where they can become the leaders of their own learning, so teaching them how to do that is critical. Being able to create the structures in your classroom, over strategy that allows students to actually say, "Oh. I have an opportunity for conferencing. I have an opportunity to get feedback. I actually have an opportunity to meet with a few of my peers where we're actually doing some type of review of our lesson." Right? "How did that go? We're tracking our data." So that's a structure versus a strategy, and if those structures aren't in place, the student doesn't know where he is. The student actually can't take control of his or her own learning.

GONZALEZ: So when a teacher is listening to all of this, what we've told them for the most part is what not to do, and so I'm going to make sure that they see your book. If they wanted to learn more from you, how would they be able to find you online?

HAMMOND: Yeah, they can go to my website, Ready4Rigor.com. It's usually where I have my blog. It's undergoing a little change right now, so I haven't updated my blog for a while, but changes are coming, but there's still a place where they can actually sign up for my newsletter, and that comes out, the fall edition will be coming out in September, and they'll know kind of what's going on, and upcoming trainings, I do webinars. There are a variety of ways to get connected with me so that they can learn more. Yeah. I think that's the easiest thing. If they want to get a copy of the chart that I referenced before in terms of the differences between multicultural, social justice, and culturally responsive, there's a quick and easy way for them to do that, and it will also put them on my mailing list, and that is if they just text to the number 44222 and type in the message "ready4rigor" and then they'll get a prompt and they can go from there.

GONZALEZ: And that'll send them to a place where they can basically get the download and get right on your mailing list too.

HAMMOND: Absolutely. And I'll have a new book study guide coming out. I'm doing a series of videos that go with that, because I think some of the concepts are still new to folks, so I'm really excited about supporting teachers to build their capacity around culturally responsive practices.

GONZALEZ: I really appreciate the work you're doing so much. Thank you so much too for coming on here and exploring some of these issues with us.

HAMMOND: Well thank you for all you do in terms of creating the platform. I appreciate it. And like you said, we'll continue to talk, because I think you're right. I think this is a really important issue, and it's so multi-layered that I'm really wanting teachers to build their understanding and then to commit to building their practice. So let's definitely continue to think about ways that we can collaborate on getting that done.

For links to all the resources mentioned in this episode, including links to Zaretta's resources, visit cultofpedagogy.com/pod and click on Episode 78. To get weekly updates on all my newest blog posts, podcast episodes, and products, sign up for my mailing list at cultofpedagogy.com/subscribe. Thanks so much for listening, and have a great day.

This podcast is a proud member of the Education Podcast Network: podcasts for educators, podcasts by educators. To learn more, visit edupodcastnetwork.com.

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Episode 78: Four Misconceptions About Culturally Responsive Teaching

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The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast, Episode 78 Transcript Jennifer Gonzalez, host GONZALEZ: The term "culturally responsive teaching" has been around for decades, but it seems to have gotten more attention in recent years. That's good news: With our classrooms growing more diverse every year, teachers should be more interested in how they can best teach ...

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Zaretta Hammond: Culturally Responsive Teaching 101 | #PLtogether

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Culturally Responsive Teaching Puts Rigor at the Center

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Culturally Responsive Teaching Puts Rigor at the Center