Call for Contributions: Ideas & Articles

Become a Think Tank star! Here are some of the future issue topics we are thinking about. Would you, or anyone you know, like to write about any of these? Or is there another topic you’d like to recommend? Do you have any suggestions for lead-in, or just plain interesting, videos? How about writing a book review? Or sending us a story about your experiences? Contact us.

Using Social Testing to Brighten One of Life’s Darkest Moments

Certainly, one of the most a-social times for our students is when they are taking tests. Traditionally, they are not permitted to talk to others, exchange ideas, collaborate, help others, laugh out loud, or make a new friend … they must do it all alone! However, in normal, everyday life when we do not know something, we can ask people for help, we can be social, and not feel alone and alienated—a direction that our societies are going more and more (aka “III,” Increasing Isolation and Individualization, the reason the UK now has a Minister for Loneliness). Thus, because tests are so isolating, they are also stressful, alienating, depressing, and basically one of the lowest-ranked learning events in places that advertise themselves as learning institutions!

S2S: The Connected Classroom

Thirty minutes searching for “student relationships” on Google Scholar will show you there is an abundance of research on teacher-student relationships, and a dearth on student-student relationships. Johnson refers to student interaction as “the neglected variable in education” (1981). We intend to make up for that shortfall with this issue, but first, let’s take a quick look at what educational psychology has to tell us about student-to-student relationships.