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Social and emotional learning
The Effects of Teacher-Student Demographic Matching on Social-Emotional Learning
Topics: Student Well-BeingA growing body of research shows that students benefit when they demographically match their teachers. However, little is known about how matching affects social-emotional development. We use student-fixed effects to exploit changes over time in the proportion of teachers within a school grade… more →
Understanding Teacher Perceptions of Efficacy in Social and Emotional Learning: Toward Equity-Based Approaches to SEL in Urban Schools
Topics: Student Well-BeingResearchers have noted the importance of equity-based approaches to social and emotional learning (SEL), which emphasize the role of school environment, including adult beliefs, in student well-being. This article builds on this work by examining 129 teachers’ perceptions of efficacy in SEL.… more →
An Experimental Evaluation of Arts Field Trips
This paper presents results of a multi-visit, longitudinal experiment on the academic and social-emotional effects of arts-based field trips. We randomly assign fourth and fifth grade students to receive arts-based field trips throughout the school year or to serve as a control. Treatment… more →
Do Response Styles Affect Estimates of Growth on Social-emotional Constructs? Evidence from Four Years of Longitudinal Survey Scores
Topics: MethodsSurvey respondents use different response styles when they use the categories of the Likert scale differently despite having the same true score on the construct of interest. For example, respondents may be more likely to use the extremes of the response scale independent of their true… more →
Estimating Student Growth on Psychological and Social-emotional Constructs: A Comparison of Multiple Scoring Approaches
Topics: MethodsA huge portion of what we know about how humans develop, learn, behave, and interact is based on survey data. Researchers use longitudinal growth modeling to understand the development of students on psychological and social-emotional learning constructs across elementary and middle school. In… more →
Fostering Patience in the Classroom: Results from Randomized Educational Intervention
Topics: Student Well-BeingWe evaluate the impact of a randomized educational intervention on children’s intertemporal choices. The intervention aims to improve the ability to imagine future selves, and encourages forward-looking behavior using a structured curriculum delivered by children’s own trained teachers. We find… more →
Mitigating the Gender Gap in the Willingness to Compete: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment
Topics: Student LearningWe evaluate the impact on competitiveness of a randomized educational intervention that aims to foster grit, a skill that is highly predictive of achievement. The intervention is implemented in elementary schools, and we measure its impact using a dynamic competition task with interim… more →
Students with Growth Mindset Learn More in School: Evidence from California’s CORE School Districts
Topics: Student LearningWhile the importance of social-emotional learning for student success is well established, educators and researchers have less knowledge and agreement about which social-emotional skills are most important for students and how these skills distribute across student subgroups.
My Brother’s Keeper? The Impact of Targeted Educational Supports
Topics: Student LearningTags: Race, ethnicity, and education, Culturally responsive schooling, Social and emotional learningThe My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Challenge developed by President Obama supports communities that promote civic initiatives designed to improve the educational and economic opportunities specifically for young men of color. In Oakland, California, the MBK educational initiative features the African… more →
Self-Management Skills and Student Achievement Gains: Evidence from California’s CORE Districts
Topics: Student LearningExisting research on self-management skills shows that measures of self-management predict student success. However, these conclusions are based on small samples or narrowly defined self-management measures. Using a rich longitudinal dataset of 221,840 fourth through seventh grade students, this… more →
Nurturing Nature: How Brain Development is Inherently Social and Emotional, and What This Means for Education
Topics: Student Well-BeingNew advances in neurobiology are revealing that brain development and the learning it enables are directly dependent on social-emotional experience. Growing bodies of research reveal the importance of socially-triggered epigenetic contributions to brain development and brain network… more →
Altered Attitudes and Actions: Social-Emotional Effects of Multiple Arts Field Trips
Topics: Student Well-BeingIn recent decades, institutions, teachers, and students report a decline in field trip attendance. The impact of this decline on educational and societal outcomes such as social-emotional skill acquisition is unknown. Social-emotional learning (SEL) are skills thought to be important to life and… more →