Emdin to CNN: “Care, Consistency and Trust” Anchors Academic Engagement | Teachers College Columbia University

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Emdin to CNN: “Care, Consistency and Trust” Anchors Academic Engagement

Christopher Emdin, Associate Professor of Science Education
Christopher Emdin, Associate Professor of Science Education
TC’s Christopher Emdin, Associate Professor of Science Education and author of “For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood ... and the Rest of Y’all Too,” is quoted in an online story at cnn.com about the importance of affirming a child’s abilities in encouraging success. Especially for middle school students, affirmation from teachers builds a belief in their abilities and trust in the teacher, Emdin says.

“For young people, care, consistency and trust are the anchor of being engaged academically. If any of those three things are missing, then you can’t engage them,” Emdin says. “So teachers have to be able to exhibit care, and they have to be consistent in the things that they tell young people. If that happens, then young people feel like they can be trusted, and then that opens up a whole new world of possibilities.”

Yet in most middle schools, such encouragement is lacking, possibly because of the introduction of higher-stakes, standardized exams, Emdin says.

To read the online story, go here.

Published Wednesday, Feb 15, 2017