I thought that new – and veteran – readers might find it interesting if I began sharing my best posts from the first half of this year. You can see the entire collection of best posts from the past thirteen years here.

 

 

In a new survey by Yale of 21,000 U.S. high school students, most said they were either “tired, stressed or bored” at school.

You can read about it at:

Students’ feelings about high school are mostly negative at Science Daily.

National survey: Students’ feelings about high school are mostly negative at Yale News.

The full study is behind a paywall, but is very interesting to read. You can learn about different ways to access it at The Best Tools For Academic Research.

I’m not a statistician, so I can’t comment on how accurate its polling process might be.  Gallup has found similarly depressing results, but the process they use is suspect (see Intriguing Gallup Student Poll Results, But Not Something I’d Quote A Lot).

Interestingly, the Yale group did two separate studies – one was to find out how students felt “retrospectively” (“how do you typically feel”) about school and the other asking students to let them know in real time how they felt about school at different points in the school day (“situational”).  The ones in the retrospective poll were at 75% negative, while the latter were at 60%.

The study suggest that starting school later might help, and California is doing just that (see New Law In California Says Schools Will Start Later In Morning – What Opportunities Might It Offer).  It also suggests that schools that implement Social Emotional Learning could help students better regulate their emotions (see “Best” Lists Of The Week: Social Emotional Learning Resources).  They’re less specific about how school can help students reduce their stress  – apart from later start times resulting in more sleep (though I think there are some other things schools can do – see The Best Resources For Learning About Teens & Stress).  And they also recommend more engaging teaching methods to deal with boredom though, again, don’t provide many specifics (I think teachers can start at What Tom Brady has in common with a great teacher (or what it takes to be great)).

Let me know what you think.

I’m adding this post to The Best Posts & Articles On Student Engagement.