Education Dive

Dive Brief:

• Teaching students about how their brains work can help them improve executive functioning and, ultimately, their academic performance — and a Pennsylvania district has focused on the C8 Sciences’ list of six core cognitive capacities.
• Malinda Mikesell, reading supervisor for Carlisle Area School District, writes for eSchool News her district helps students sharpen impulse control, sustained attention, task initiation and self-monitoring, cognitive flexibility, working memory, and organization and planning skills.
• Breathing exercises, sensory fidgets and routine-setting in the classroom can help students hone these skills in just a few minutes or through longer lessons, and Mikesell recommends teachers discuss brain functioning with students to develop a more metacognitive approach to learning.

Dive Insight:

Many districts around the country have adopted these metacognitive strategies to help students increase self-awareness. Attributing student anxiety to specific brain reactions can help students step outside of the problem and more calmly develop a resolution strategy. The faster this happens, the faster they can get back to paying attention in class.

Developing stations in a classroom for things like stress balls and TheraPutty can give students a place to go when they need a few minutes away from the lesson and lead them toward this option over a broader disruption. Teachers have found these strategies reduces the number of times students need to be sent out of the classroom for discipline problems.