Learning and the Brain - Austin - Raw Notes for Thursday

Note: These are raw notes, taken in real time during the presentation. They have not been edited. I also have a tendency to add my own thoughts as I take notes. While I try to make note of that, I sometimes don't know the difference. If you find something offensive, don't blame the speaker because it might be my thoughts and not theirs.

Keynote I: The Science of Motivating Young People by David S. Yeager, PhD

Book 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People

DARE increased drug use in schools. Anti-bullying campaigns result in more bullying, not less. Teenagers don't change their behavior when they sit in a session where we "grown-splain" things to them. You can't expect them to think about their future. "The reward for working hard in a math class is to take a harder math class next year so that some day you can impress a stranger and get into college and maybe be able to afford a house in your 30s."

The feeling of humiliation never feels as bad as it does in adolescence. The pride of having someone take you seriously never feels quite as good as it does during that time. They have a drive for status and respect.

A person they don't know (DARE representative, outside speaker) makes them resist, but a mentor who takes them seriously is someone they will work hard for. Mindset interventions given by a trusted person can change their behavior because they believe you when you tell them that challenges can help them or that there is purpose in their learning. A trusted mentor can make them believe they can get smarter. You help them earn status, belonging, and pride. 

Some ways of framing growth mindset doesn't appeal to them at all, but reframing it can be powerful in getting them to pay attention.

Without Appropriate Growth Mindset Intervention 
        Challenging class --> I must be dumb --> Giving Up

Without Appropriate Growth Mindset Intervention 
        Challenging class --> I am getting smart at this --> Resilience and Persistence

Changing an deeply emotionally held personal belief is not helped with a higher volume of rational arguments. Your mind puts up "antibodies" to a direction confrontation of that belief. Coming in sideways will help.  (Future students might struggle with some of the things you are struggling with. Can you help us create a way to help those students? Give student testimonials of people who have "figured it out.")

Does a short message given at a critical time impact performance over time? It took four years to crunch the data of almost 13000 students in 59 school nationwide. Low achieving students were impacted 3 percentage points by intervention. High achieving students were impacted 0.5 percentage points. There was fade out from students who were initial enthusiastic but didn't get ongoing support. Those who were in higher resource schools (not only those with higher economic resources but higher social resources) didn't see the same fade out. The ongoing support has a recursive effect, but that cannot happen if there are teachers who don't support growth in their students. The teacher's mindset can amplify or quash the students' mindsets.  This feeds into the status/respect hypothesis. 

When adults turn intellectual issues into character flaws, students completely check out and become unwilling to learn from that teacher. He has interfered with their status/respect. Having a growth mindset poster won't overcome the teacher embarrassing the kid in front of his peers.

The grading and testing policies must match the rhetoric. Do they provide opportunities for recouping points after they have said, "Mistakes are your friend because they help you improve?" Do their messages match their opportunities?

Teacher PD is hard because the teacher feels like they are being unfairly blamed for something they are good at. They get defensive because of how many times they are told they are supposed to be doing something differently. 

Values-Aligned Argument for Teachers - 

1. Adolescents are developmentally primed to be hyper attuned to signals of respect or disrepect from adults.
2. Teachers' fixed mindset messages, even if unintentional pereceved as disrepectful and lead adolescents to disengage
3. Teachers' growth mindset messages and opportunities communicate respect for students' learning potential are reciprocated with enthusiastic engagement.
4. By having deeply engaged students, the teacher will gain respct and admiration of their colleagues.

Teacher interventions for those who previously held a fixed mindset resulted in 50% reduction in teacher burnout rates and a 0.25 standard deviation improvement in Satisfaction With Life.

Keynote II: Visible Teaching: A Reframing of "Visible Learning" and a Call to Arms by David Daniel, PhD and Conference Chair

Concurrent Session A: The Architecture of Motivation: Why Teachers Matter in the Age of AI by Micah Gottlieb

Note: My original plan had been to see Peps McCrae during this time. Wednesday night, he made the announcement that he was joining the Alpha Schools team. I didn't have time in the 20 hours between his announcement and his session to process my feelings of disillusionment. I haven't given up on Peps, but I couldn't make it happen by the time of his session. So, I am in this one instead.

Keynote III: Breaking Bad (Habits): Catalyzing Metacognition and Effective Strategies for Better Learning by Regan A. R. Gurung, PhD

Keynote IV: Motivation + Metacognition by Bradley K. Busch, MSc