Carol On Education » Carol J. Carter

Obsessed with “Successâ€: The Cost of Emphasizing Success at the Expense of Failure

Could failing be the key to success? Can we redefine our limited idea of â€œsuccessâ€?

According to a new study by the American Psychological Association, children may perform better in school and feel more confident if told that failure is a normal part of learning. One researcher said that when students are “obsessed with success” their fear of failure keeps them from taking difficult steps necessary for mastering new material. Â When students donâ€™t have the confidence to explore, take risks, fail, and regroup in a healthy way, they arenâ€™t preparing themselves for lifeâ€™s more difficult and complex challenges.
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Start Planning for a Summer of Learning

Summer vacation will be here before we know it, and while it is an exciting time for students to take a break from academia, it is also where students experience the largest learning losses. No student is safe from summer learning losses if their brains aren’t kept active throughout the summer months. However, students in lower-income families are generally at a much higher risk to suffer from learning losses which continues to increase the achievement gap between lower and higher income youth.
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Today’s College Students Have New Demands from Institutions

What made your no. 1 college choice stand out from the rest?

Over the last 45 years, the most popular factor in choosing the right college is still the institution’s academic reputation, according to theÂ Chronicle. However, according to preliminary evidence from a new study by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, today’s college students have many changing factors and demands than students did 40 years ago.

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Students Train Teachers to Use New Technology

A new program in Baltimore aims to bring more technology to the classroom by bringing technologists, educators, and students together to become a community of technology trainers and experts, according to the article “Closing the Loop Between Students, Teachers, and Technologists.”
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Chess Helps Develop Critical Thinking Skills in K-12 Students

How do you use critical thinking in your adult life? Do you wish you would have had better critical thinking skills when you made a decision in your youth?Â How did you learn to think critically?

Critical thinking skills aren’t only for the classroom and opportunities to teach students critical thinking skills are by no means limited to classroom, either. In Oregon and Washington, students in kindergarten through high school recently played in the 46th annual Oregon Chess for Success state tournament. Chess for Success has participated in research that found chess can improve critical thinking skills, according to the article “Students learn more than checkmates with Chess for Success.”
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Students Speak-up for their Technological Rights

Some schools choose to ban technology, sayingÂ it’s not that complicatedÂ and kids will learn it later. Other classrooms fully embrace technology to open windows to new worlds,Â including their own. But for many schools, financial restraints make the choice for them. Recently a group of inner-city students from Los Angeles who were fated with a technology depleted school decided instead of accepting their circumstances, they should set out to to start a revolution and change them, according to the Mind/Shift article “Students Demand the Right to Use Technology in Schools.”

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Crucial to Build Critical Thinking Skills in K-12 for College, Career and Life

In 2011,Â an unprecedented studyÂ foundÂ forty-five percent of students made no significant improvement in their critical thinking, reasoning or writing skills during the first two years of college. Many were stunned by the number of college students entering and graduating from college without critical thinking skills, a core 21st century skill necessary for making smart personal and professional decisions.
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Priming the Brain for Deeper Learning

A few weeks ago I posted the blog “Students Take Charge of Learning in the New Classroom” where I asked which way you would rather learn how to change a tire. I gave two options.

Option 1: You attend a lecture on how to change a tire and then have to change your first tire in a real-life scenario.

Option 2: You take a hands-on class where you learn about changing the tire by actually changing a tire. Then, youâ€™re confronted with a real-life scenario.

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Steps to Overcoming Procrastination at Work and School

The average employee admits to spending two hours a day doing non-work related tasks, according to the New York Times article “Overwhelmed, And Prone to Procrastinate.”Â What are they doing? They’re watching YouTube, checking Facebook, Tweeting, Pinning, Stumbling, and doing anything else they can find that will keep them away from finishing that dreaded email, phone call, or next phase of their project.
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Student Success Efforts Not a Priority for High Achieving Students

Student achievement is high on the priority list, but as more educators focus on helping underachieving students progress, overachieving students are being forgotten.
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