Wednesday, October 30

EDUCATION

Teens Bullied In High School Can Feel Less Optimistic About The Future
No Comments
EDUCATION

Teens Bullied In High School Can Feel Less Optimistic About The Future

Being bullied in high school can make teens less optimistic about the future. The effects of bullying on teens’ mental health are well-documented. But could bullying also shape their future aspirations? Our latest research reveals that teens who are bullied in ninth grade become more pessimistic about their educational and career prospects beyond high school. Specifically, being bullied increases teens’ risk for depression, which leaves them feeling hopeless about the future. As a developmental psychologist who studies adolescent well-being, I set out to better understand the long-term effects of bullying on teens’ expectations for the future. My research team recruited 388 high schoolers who had recently started ninth grade. We asked them to complete surveys every several months for ...
Read More
When They Use AI For Teaching Strategies Teachers Feel Most Productive
No Comments
EDUCATION, TOP FOUR

When They Use AI For Teaching Strategies Teachers Feel Most Productive

Teachers feel most productive when they use AI for teaching strategies. Teachers can use generative AI in a variety of ways. They may use it to develop lesson plans and quizzes. Or teachers may rely on a generative AI tool, such as ChatGPT, for insight on how to teach a concept more effectively. In our new research, only the teachers doing both of those things reported feeling that they were getting more done. They also told us that their teaching was more effective with AI. Over the course of the 2023-2024 school year, we followed 24 teachers at K-12 schools throughout the United States as they wrestled with whether and how to use generative AI for their work. We gave them a standard training session on generative AI in the fall of 2023. We then conducted multiple observations, inter...
Read More
It Doesn’t Have To Be But For First-Generation Students College Can Be Confusing
No Comments
EDUCATION, TOP FOUR

It Doesn’t Have To Be But For First-Generation Students College Can Be Confusing

College can be confusing for first-generation students – but it doesn’t have to be. In his new book, “Degrees of Risk: Navigating Insecurity and Inequality in Public Higher Education,” sociology professor Blake R. Silver examines some of many ways that college students can slip through the cracks at public colleges and universities. In the following Q&A with The Conversation U.S., Silver expounds on what he discovered while doing research for his book – and how higher education leaders can better serve their students. How are colleges creating uncertainty? Colleges don’t set out to make life complicated for their students, but they often play a direct role in creating and amplifying uncertainty. This is one of the central findings of my new book. Following a period of compa...
Read More
Amid Backlash Fewer College Students Indicate They Are Nonbinary
No Comments
EDUCATION, LGBTQ

Amid Backlash Fewer College Students Indicate They Are Nonbinary

Fewer college students indicate they are nonbinary amid backlash. The national backlash against trans and nonbinary young people may have led fewer nonbinary students to disclose their gender identity in their applications to college for this fall. That is according to my analysis of how students who applied to college through the Common App identified their gender. The Common App is a good barometer because more than 1 million students use it annually to apply to more than 1,000 U.S. schools. For the most recent admissions cycle, 1.88% of students, or 23,620 individuals, chose a nonbinary gender term to describe themselves, down from 2.2%, or 25,959 individuals, in the last cycle. That may not seem like a large drop, but it is a huge change from the past few years, when the number o...
Read More
Running For Their Lives — School Shooting Drills — Are There Better Ways To Keep Students Safe From Shooters
No Comments
EDUCATION

Running For Their Lives — School Shooting Drills — Are There Better Ways To Keep Students Safe From Shooters

Today’s school children practice running for their lives – but there are better ways to keep students safe from shooters. A 6-year-old girl lost one of her white Adidas lace-up sneakers as she and her 21 classmates practiced fleeing for their lives after an imaginary intruder entered their school. The girl’s teacher told her to keep moving without her shoe, then grabbed it herself and gave it back to the girl when the class settled into their designated safe location. The girl recently recounted the story of losing her shoe during a morning car ride to school. It was just one of several times the girl or her siblings described what they were supposed to do – run “over to that fence,” “across that field” or “into those woods” – if an intruder enters their school building. The reason I...
Read More
Teaching Scientific Theories In US Schools Under Attack By Politicians
No Comments
EDUCATION, TOP FOUR

Teaching Scientific Theories In US Schools Under Attack By Politicians

Politicians step up attacks on the teaching of scientific theories in US schools. Scientific theory has had a rough time in America’s public schools. Almost 100 years ago, science teacher John Scopes was convicted of violating a Tennessee law that prohibited teaching the theory of evolution. Although his conviction was overturned on a technicality in 1927, laws banning classes on Darwin’s theory stuck around for another 40 years. They were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1968. Over the past few decades, conservative or religious groups that object to including the theory of evolution in science classes have tried a different approach. Now, they argue, if the “scientific” theory of evolution is taught, other views, such as “intelligent design” – a stand-in for creat...
Read More
More In-School Support Needed For Students With Mental Health Struggles
No Comments
EDUCATION

More In-School Support Needed For Students With Mental Health Struggles

Students with mental health struggles linked to absenteeism and lower grades, showing clear need for more in-school support. Parents are reporting worse mental health for their children than they did a decade ago, but different groups of children are struggling with mental health in markedly different ways. That’s what our team at the University of Southern California’s Center for Applied Research in Education found using a widely used mental health screening measure. More specifically, we found that preteen boys – the subgroup with the worst scores – struggle more in areas that include externalizing behaviors like hyperactivity, inattentiveness and conduct problems. For teen girls – the subgroup with the second-worst scores – struggles were especially pronounced in more internal pro...
Read More
Will AI Bots Ever Replace Human Teachers? Unlikely
No Comments
AI, EDUCATION, TOP FOUR

Will AI Bots Ever Replace Human Teachers? Unlikely

AI pioneers want bots to replace human teachers – here’s why that’s unlikely. OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy envisions a world in which artificial intelligence bots can be made into subject matter experts that are “deeply passionate, great at teaching, infinitely patient and fluent in all of the world’s languages.” Through this vision, the bots would be available to “personally tutor all 8 billion of us on demand.” The embodiment of that idea is his latest venture, Eureka Labs, which is merely the newest prominent example of how tech entrepreneurs are seeking to use AI to revolutionize education. Karpathy believes AI can solve a long-standing challenge: the scarcity of good teachers who are also subject experts. And he’s not alone. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Khan Academy CEO Sal Kha...
Read More
5 Tips From An Experienced School Counselor On Getting Your Kids Ready To Go Back To School Without The Stress
No Comments
EDUCATION, TOP FOUR

5 Tips From An Experienced School Counselor On Getting Your Kids Ready To Go Back To School Without The Stress

How to get your kids ready to go back to school without stress − 5 tips from an experienced school counselor. The shift from summer vacation to going back to school can be tough for children and their families. Beyond adjusting to new routines, the transition requires handling a mix of emotions. While some kids might feel excited about new teachers and classmates, others may experience anxiety, sadness or uncertainty about the upcoming school year. With 15 years of counseling school-age children, I’ve seen how common these stresses can be. I also have three school-age kids of my own. Here are five strategies to make the transition smoother that I not only share with the families I counsel, but that I also apply in my own home. 1. Listen to your child Listen to your child’s concer...
Read More
US Schools Need To Shake Up The Way They Teach Physics
No Comments
EDUCATION, TOP FOUR

US Schools Need To Shake Up The Way They Teach Physics

Why US schools need to shake up the way they teach physics. America has a physics problem. Research shows that access to physics education varies based on race, gender, sexuality and disability. Physics courses are usually standard offerings in suburban high schools, but at urban and rural schools that isn’t the case. Even in places where physics is taught, the lessons rarely highlight how physics can be applied to students’ everyday lives. This approach can hamper students’ desire to learn. In my work as a physics education researcher, I’ve encountered lessons centered on the rote memorization of formulas. This method fails to encourage critical thinking, constraining students’ ability to creatively solve problems. Teachers sometimes believe that if a student can’t grasp a physic...
Read More