Teachers Are Living in a Tinderbox of Stressful Conditions. These Scientific Approaches Can Help.
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-07-01-teachers-are-living-in-a-tinderbox-of-stressful-conditions-these-scientific-approaches-can-help
Other essential elements include meditation, breathwork, yoga, cultivating and maintaining high-quality relationships, and intentional reinforcement of mindsets that promote human connection, such as gratitude, altruism and collective efficacy. What’s real in the mind is real is real in the body, and it is our perceptions—not “objective” reality—that drive our biochemistry. Accordingly, finding a silver lining—even under the most dire of circumstances—instigates a biochemical “upward spiral” which fosters constructive thinking in a demanding moment and, over the long-term, protects health and psychological well-being.
the HyFlex model for the fall… reflects a rift between administrators and professors, who are raising alarms over the health risks of teaching in person, and about the logistical, technical, and pedagogical complications of the model itself. Search HyFlex on Facebook and Twitter and you’ll come across comments like this one: “Whoever the hell thought of this is a bean counter, not an educator, and an idiot.”
Teaching experts and others familiar with hybrid teaching say that HyFlex can work, but it requires effective technology, careful planning, instructional support, and creative course design.
“If HyFlex is part of the plan, it has to be done with will faculty participation,” says Brian Beatty, an associate professor of instructional technologies at San Francisco State, who created the model. “Otherwise, if it’s top down and the administration is saying, We’re doing this, then the faculty are saying, But why are we doing this?”
Much of what bothers professors about the push for HyFlex is that so many details about its mechanics remain ill defined. And assumptions about its value seem rooted in a particular idea of teaching, one where the professor stands at the front of a classroom and lectures.
“We are the ones holding the bag if this does not work, or if it’s chaos,” says Michelle Miller, a psychology professor at Northern Arizona University and author of Minds Online: Teaching Effectively With Technology.
Miller is a fan of the original HyFlex model from San Francisco State, but says that colleges need to be mindful that the conditions under which it’s now being adapted — quickly, at scale, and without giving students much choice — will limit its effectiveness.
To work effectively, she says, hybrid teaching requires a lot of support, such as having teaching assistants help manage the complexities of working simultaneously with two different audiences. Otherwise it risks becoming a “lecture-centric, passive consumption view of learning.” That goes against years of hard work faculty members have been doing to make their classrooms more inclusive, active, and engaged.
To help think through pedagogical challenges, faculty groups are testing out teaching strategies, some departments meet weekly to discuss course design, and a student-leadership team is providing feedback and creating online tools to help their peers learn effectively online. Even so, the process has been challenging and frustrating at times for faculty members. Professors are both looking for templates and wanting to maintain control over their courses, which inevitably creates tension with the administration.
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more on hyflex in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=hyflex
Participating in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress. from r/science
Eight weeks to a better brain
a team led by Harvard-affiliated researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)
“Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day,” says study senior author Sara Lazar of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program and a Harvard Medical School instructor in psychology
“It is fascinating to see the brain’s plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life,” says Britta Hölzel, first author of the paper and a research fellow at MGH and Giessen University in Germany.
Amishi Jha, a University of Miami neuroscientist who investigates mindfulness-training’s effects on individuals in high-stress situations, says, “These results shed light on the mechanisms of action of mindfulness-based training.
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-08-05-half-of-teachers-have-seriously-considered-quitting-in-recent-years-survey-finds
A new report from Phi Delta Kappa International, a professional association for educators, finds that half of teachers have “seriously considered” leaving teaching in the last few years.
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more on mindfulness in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=mindfulness
Building Resilience
Martin E.P. Seligman FROM THE APRIL 2011 ISSUE
https://hbr.org/2011/04/building-resilience
Penn Resiliency Program, under the direction of Karen Reivich and Jane Gillham, of the University of Pennsylvania, for young adults and children.
A team led by the University of Michigan professor Christopher Peterson, author of the Values in Action signature strengths survey, created the test, called the Global Assessment Tool (GAT). It is a 20-minute questionnaire that focuses on strengths rather than weaknesses and is designed to measure four things: emotional, family, social, and spiritual fitness. All four have been credited with reducing depression and anxiety. According to research, they are the keys to PERMA.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51067861_Building_resilience
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more on mindfulness in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=mindfulness
My note: are we reaching a momentum, when contemplative and mindfulness practices will be approached institutionally?
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more on mindfulness in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=mindfulness
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-12-26-teaching-is-as-stressful-as-an-er-these-calming-strategies-can-help
researchers from Penn State say can be as stress-inducing as an emergency room. Teachers enter such an an environment every day, which sometimes feels like life-or-death.
nonprofit program Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE)
half of the students in schools across America have experienced some form of trauma, violence or chronic stress.
After collecting data on those educators’ well-being, observations of classrooms and student behavioral reports over the course of a year, we found that teachers who received emotional regulation training were more emotionally supportive, demonstrated greater sensitivity to student needs, and provided more positive and productive classroom environments. Furthermore, when assessing teachers’ stress levels, those teachers noted considerably less distress, and an improved ability to manage their emotions.
In the face of stressful situations, I instead used techniques like deep breathing and mindful walking to calm my body and mind, gaining that heightened self-awareness to thoughtfully respond to the issue at hand.
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more on stress in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=stress
Mental health of college students and Lee’s new book: “Delivering College Mental Health”
Join Bryan Alexander and Lee Keyes, executive director, Counseling Center at the University of Alabama, and author of Delivering Effective College Mental Health Services for an engaging live discussion on the future of mental health in higher education.
Bryan plans to ask Lee about unfolding trends in college student mental health and his thoughts around the rise in anxiety and stress. We will explore how universities are changing their approaches to student mental health and what roles technology may play in harming or helping psychological well-being.
What questions or thoughts do you have? Join and take part in the discussion!
Registration at:
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My notes from the webinar:
Lee about “Mobile First” – like First Aid. Often by text and email. after Bryan asked how Adjuncts can deal with such situations, if
Counseling Centers need those additions.
Mobile First apps.
most crisis situations are a form of panic. if addressed quickly, one can prevent growing and turning into a major episode.
mindfulness can be different for the different type of issues of students.
libraries as the campus community center.
can be done on
conflation of immaturity and irresponsibility with stress and panic. Latter might be expressed in a way it is immature, but one has to meet them where they are, not judgement and denial, which will make it worse. Tough love will not help. Upholding classroom expectations and rules, but can be supportive at the same time. When pressed by time
Daniel Stanford De Paul. Cohort fundamentals of good teaching. instead of “fail safely”
academic hazing hasn’t changed since medieval time. the trauma instructors starts their career with.
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