To help increase the exposure of the UC Santa Barbara student body to the latest research in a variety of disciplines that concern educational issues, the Gevirtz School, with support from UCSB Associated Students, has begun the new lecture series “ExpandED: Broadening the Understanding of Today’s Educational Issues.” The series features graduate students from across the country discussing their ongoing research, much of which is dedicated to improving diversity and equity in education. The third event of the series—“Social ABCs: The Role Social Attitudes, Beliefs and Cognition play in Schooling and Relationships”—will take place on May 9, from 12 pm to 1 pm in 4108 Education Building, UCSB. The event is free and open to the public; refreshments will be provided.
Speaker 1: Colin McGinnis, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Summary of Talk (30 minutes)
From perceptions of behavior and discipline practices to student achievement, relationship quality to bullying and victimization, the way we perceive the world with our unconscious mind has real classroom implications. This presentation will give a glimpse into the role of implicit social attitudes, beliefs, and cognition in education, highlighting current work on how these constructs are impacting three different aspects of a student's relationships: teacher, parental, and peer. Specifically, teacher perceptions of students, adolescent's parental attachment, and children's views of "good" and "bad" peers when considering the child's race will be discussed.
Speaker 2: Carly Robinson, Harvard University
Summary of Talk (30 minutes)
Despite the well-documented association between attendance in kindergarten and elementary school and positive student outcomes, there is little experimental research on how to reduce student absenteeism. This talk will describe a light-touch intervention used to mobilize parents to improve student attendance at scale in grades K-5 by targeting commonly held parental misbeliefs undervaluing the importance of regular K-5 attendance as well as the number of school days their child has missed. The intervention can be economically implemented by schools, costing about $10 per incremental school day generated. Furthermore, the intervention mobilizes the efforts of a costless resource for schools and students: parents. This talk suggests that schools need to empower the parent-school relationships if they can be expected to effectively intervene upon their child's education.