Self-determination can support student mental health, particularly related to internalizing behaviors, because self-determined actions enable self-motivating consequences (i.e., self-efficacy). Self-regulation--a subset of self-determination--is often utilized by interventionists to improve self-determination and student behavior. Self-regulation…

The pandemic has provoked disruptions in students' lives and studies worldwide, which has caused them to feel moderate to high levels of anxiety and stress. Universities have responded by offering online counseling and communicating self-help recommendations via their websites. Curiously, the role that professors could play to reduce this…

Given that behavioral challenges contribute to learner exclusion in schools, there is a demand for behavior support strategies and practices that (a) extend beyond punitive measures, (b) aid the development of school customs and mores, (c) are based on nonviolence, and (d) promote positive self-discipline. This column explores behavior management…

While parental involvement is often seen as a cornerstone in high school students' success, too much involvement can be problematic. Often teachers feel caught between supporting students' personal growth and parental expectations of students' academic achievement. Certain practices can be developed and implemented at a classroom and school level…

Self-regulation is the ability to adjust one's level of energy to match the situation; monitor, evaluate and modify one's emotion; shift attention or ignore various stimuli; engage in social interactions in a sustained way; and connect and empathize with other people. This research explored self-regulation among teachers as a factor in student…

Supporting students' emotional health has become indispensable considering unprecedented collective trauma and present-day stressors including the COVID-19 pandemic, gun violence, longstanding systemic inequities, and a polarized political climate impacting the educational system. In addition to navigating personal and occupational stressors,…

Achievement emotions are critical because of their impact on success and failure in important domains such as learning. These emotions may be modified via emotion regulation (ER). The dominant process model of ER (PMER) proposed by J. Gross, however, provides a domain-general account of ER strategies and has not had substantial contact with…

Social competency is a set of skills that provide children with the tools and abilities to successfully navigate the world around them. "Developing Social Competency in Young Children" looks at each of the seven Cs of social competence--communication, community building, coping, confidence, conflict resolution, control, and curiosity.…

Do teachers need to be good role models? The author presents examples of teacher behavior and discusses the difference between being a role model and an authentic professional.

Prenatal exposure to alcohol causes a pattern of brain-based deficits and is associated with behavioral challenges (Wozniak et al., 2019). Understanding the neurocognitive behaviors common among individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) can increase teachers' effectiveness (Tremblay et al., 2017). Environmental changes, such as…

When students chronically misbehave and act disengaged in school, how do we know what they're really feeling? In this article, Marc A. Brackett and Dena Simmons of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence describe how understanding the science of emotions can help both students and teachers take charge of their emotions to achieve their goals.…

Much has been written on challenging behavior in young children, and teachers know that that teaching new skills, particularly appropriate ways to communicate, is important when reducing challenging behavior. Strategies that focus on what occurs before the behavior happens are known as "antecedent strategies." Strategies that focus on…

Up to two-thirds of U.S. children have experienced at least one type of serious childhood trauma, such as abuse, neglect, natural disaster, or experiencing or witnessing violence. Trauma is possibly the largest public health issue facing our children today (CDC, 2019). Traumatized students are especially prone to difficulty in self-regulation,…

Early childhood practitioners can play a vital role in the development of early self-determination in partnership with families. Self-determination has been generally considered to be about personal agency or control that can also relate to the quality of one's life. Young children with disabilities start to develop a range of critical skills such…

Self-regulation refers to the ability to inhibit the automatic response and to do something else; more generally, it refers to the ability to control one's emotions, to control attention and other cognitive processes, and to plan and control behavior. This capacity turns out to have enormous consequences for academic and social success. And, as…