Bad vs Good in the Brain (…you won’t like the winner)

Our brains focus on negative experiences far more easily than positive ones. What should educators do with that knowledge?

Higher (disconnect)ED

Loneliness leads to failure.  Lonely students do not persist.  Being alone makes a person far less likely to get good grades, stay in school, find a good job, and more.  And just as we know that not every measure works for every person, success can be better predicted through non-cognitive measures than academic ones for many students. 

We Treat Learning Like We Treat Weight Management (12 minutes)

Most companies never ask for a transcript, and for the few who do, it is only for those seeking their first job out of college.  (Working inside education may be an exception.)  After that, grades mean almost nothing.  What companies instead seek are the things that grades, which become so easily gamed by both students and teachers, can diminish.  After all, if the grade is all that matters, then trying new things and failing (actually promoting learning) will be negated.  Teaching to a test, jamming information into short-term memory only to be lost a few weeks later will be the norm.  Critical thinking will be lost.  Problem solving based on context will be supplanted with algorithm practice absent of context.