Posts

Carol Dweck Revisits the ‘Growth Mindset’

By Carol Dweck For many years, I secretly worked on my research. I say “secretly” because, once upon a time, researchers simply published their research in professional journals—and there it stayed. However, my colleagues and I learned things we thought people needed to know. We found that students’ mindsets—how they perceive their abilities—played a key […]

Nonprofit seeks to end violence by mentoring youth

by Maria Sestito The (Jacksonville) Daily News Published: Monday, August 17, 2015 at 12:30 a.m. S.O.U.L. (Support, Opportunity, Unity, Leadership) Society kicked off its first few weeks as a nonprofit by holding a peace festival. The My Brother’s Keeper Peace Festival, held July 25, was an effort by organizers to begin a dialogue about violence, […]

Does Your School or Program Really Value Relationships? Six Questions to Ask…

By: Kent Pekel, Ed.D. President, Search Institute. Post from Search Institute blog As I visit schools, youth programs, and community coalitions across the country to discuss Search Institute’s new research on developmental relationships, I have not met a single person who thinks relationships are unimportant. The people I talk with are invariably interested and sometimes downright excited to […]

Let’s build partnerships to improve evidence uptake

Post by Vivian Tseng, Vice President, Programs at the William T. Grant Foundation.  Follow her on Twitter @VivianT88. From Psychology Today. In 2006, Professor Paul Cobb of Vanderbilt University approached Michael Sorum—then the chief academic officer of Fort Worth Independent School District—to participate in a study. Sorum declined. His office was inundated with requests from […]

“Brokering:” A key strategy for supporting youths’ interests

Ching, D., Santo, R., Hoadley, C., Peppler, K. (2015). On-ramps, Lane Changes, Detours and Destinations: Building Connected Learning Pathways in Hive NYC through Brokering Future Learning Opportunities. New York, NY: Hive Research Lab. [link] Summarized by Dixie Ching and Rafi Santo, Project Leads of the Hive Research Lab. In the summer of 2014, Hive Research […]

Brief online “pep talks” can boost student learning

Brief online interventions that instill a “growth mindset” and a sense of purpose can improve learning, especially for struggling students. These interventions could potentially reach vast numbers of students at low cost. “Two interventions, each lasting about 45 minutes and delivered online, raised achievement in a large and diverse group of underperforming students over an […]

How mentoring affects academic outcomes: The role of relationship quality

Bayer, A., Grossman, J. B., & DuBois, D. L. (2015). Using volunteer mentors to improve the academic outcomes of underserved students: the role of relationships. Journal of Community Psychology, 43(4), 408-429. Summarized by Bridget Nestor Introduction: School-based mentoring (SBM) refers to mentoring relationships in which mentors meet with mentees on school grounds, either during or immediately after […]

Download a Free Chapter from Using Research Evidence in Education

  “Building the Infrastructure to Improve the Use and Usefulness of Research in Education” Vivian Tseng and Sandra Nutley point the way forward for education researchers and policymakers, summarizing the key points made throughout Using Research Evidence in Education, and concluding: “Research is not the next silver bullet for education reform, and simply mandating its use […]

Reflections on being mentored

by Noelle Hurd I recently had the opportunity to reflect on the ways in which my experiences being mentored in academia had influenced the way that I currently mentor students at my university. I was applying for an academic mentoring workshop through the William T. Grant Foundation, and (as a part of the application process) was asked […]

Findings highlight importance of quality mentor-mentee relationships

Larose, S., Chaloux, N., Monaghan, D., & Tarabulsy, G. M. (2010). Working Alliance as a Moderator of the Impact of Mentoring Relationships Among Academically At‐Risk Students. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40 (10), 2656-2686. Background In this study, Simon Larose and his colleagues explored the role of the working alliance in mentoring relationships—predicting that more positive working alliances […]