Happier Heart, Healthier Heart: Positive Outlook May Protect Cardiovascular System

The connection between the actions we take and our cardiovascular health—what we eat and how often we exercise—is well known, but what about the impact of our thoughts?

A wide range of medical studies has concluded that an optimistic outlook—in particular the feeling that life is worth living—has a protective effect on heart health. For example, researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health found that people who exhibit optimism or “emotional vitality,” defined as maintaining a healthy interest in their lives and the world around them, have a 20-percent reduced risk of cardiovascular disease in comparison to people with a pessimistic outlook.

Several factors may account for how emotional outlook influences physical health. Martin Seligman, a pioneer in the field of positive psychology, suggests that optimists, believing they can make a difference, take action to maintain a healthy lifestyle. In addition, people with a positive outlook typically have stronger relationships with family and friends they can rely on for social support in adopting healthy habits. A third possibility is that emotional health may be linked to biological mechanisms that shield optimists from serious illness or aid in their recovery.

Try the High-Five Strategy “Treasure Hunters and Trash Collectors”

We encourage teachers and parents alike to help students to develop the habit of consistently focusing on what’s useful and positive in their lives. An effective way to do this is to use the High-Five strategy, as described in our book, 60 Strategies for Increasing Student Learning.

The first step is to introduce the concept of positive learning. Discuss the benefits such as better motivation, problem solving, and well-being. Ensure that students have a chance to participate. Ask students if they would like to learn a way to more consistently sustain positive learning states. When you get their affirmation, read aloud the following story about Treasure Hunters and Trash Collectors.

The Power of Positivity in Your School

First I would like to extend a warm welcome to all our visitors, including our friends from Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence. We are happy you’re here!

Our latest regular blog post on Edutopia is “Unleashing the Power of Positivity in Your School.” As we explain in the post, a positive community of educators within a school has a powerful effect on the students who actively learn there. Teachers help create a positive environment by exhibiting and modeling an optimistic outlook and can-do attitude.

The post builds on a previous post that we wrote, which outlines the benefits of practical optimism as a strategy for achieving one’s goals through commitment, execution and maintaining a positive outlook that success is possible. In this latest post, we outline a variety of strategies that may be useful in enhancing practical optimism, such as staying focused on the “upside,” expressing gratitude, and regularly committing small acts of kindness. Other strategies include being mindful of your emotional state, giving your brain and body a positive workout, and infusing positive feelings into your surroundings.

‘Sputnik Moment’: Urgent Need to Learn and Teach Creative Thinking Skills

by Marcus Conyers, guest blogger

“The problem is that there are only 1.2 billion full-time, formal jobs in the world. This is a potentially devastating global shortfall of about 1.8 billion good jobs. It means that global unemployment for those seeking a formal good job with a paycheck and 30+hours of steady work approaches a staggering 50%.”—Jim Clifton, The Coming Jobs War (2011, p. 2).

In That Used to Be Us, Friedman and Mandelbaum (2011) make the case that for organizations to survive and individuals to thrive, each of us must harness the power of imagination and enhance our capacity for creativity and innovation to deliver that necessary something “extra.”

We can better prepare students for that uncertain future through explicit instruction on how and when to use cognitive skills that are the everyday tools of innovators and entrepreneurs so that they may take their place in what Richard Florida (2014) calls the creative class. At the core of the creative class are people whose “chief economic function is to create new ideas, new technology, and new creative content.”

Transform Teaching With the Diffusion of Innovation

Note: This post originally appeared on Edutopia on July 22, 2015.
 
by Donna Wilson and Marcus Conyers

Effective teaching is a continual work in progress. As educators, we adapt our practice each year to a new group of students, each of whom brings a unique blend of strengths, challenges, and experiences to learning. We adopt new curricula and apply new standards and mandates. We are always on the lookout for new approaches and strategies demonstrated by educational research to work in the classroom.

But all these changes can be hard. For example, adopting a new approach may require changes to lessons, new forms of assessing and monitoring student performance, more substantial consultation with colleagues, and adaptation of strategies to make continuous improvements. As teachers, we are willing to invest the time and effort required to change our practice if we clearly foresee the benefits of that change.

Inspiring Progress Toward Learning Goals

Note: This post originally appeared on Edutopia on May 22, 2015.

by Donna Wilson and Marcus Conyers

The topic of metacognition can seem quite abstract—a complex concept for students to embrace. But it is worth the effort to develop a metacognitive mindset in setting goals for learning and in monitoring progress toward achieving those goals. For teachers empowering students to think about their thinking with the aim of improving learning, it can be truly inspiring when they see the resulting changes in students’ motivation, resilience, and learning gains.

A 2014 study by Veenman and colleagues suggests that metacognition, or “cognition about cognition,” may account for some 40 percent of the variation in learning achievement across a range of outcomes. One of the major benefits of guiding students to become more metacognitive is in the context of goal setting and the impact on their motivation when they take charge of learning goals.

Positively Smarter Launches in the U.S.

Our latest book, Positively Smarter: Science and Strategies for Increasing Happiness, Achievement, and Well-Being has launched in the U.S. and is currently available in hard cover, paperback and Kindle editions.

In this pioneering book, Marcus Conyers and I bring together brings together seven principles for connecting the science of neuroplasticity to practical strategies for enhancing the synergy of happiness, achievement, and physical well-being. Moving beyond common myths and misconceptions that these three areas of life are largely driven by innate talent, genes, and external circumstances, the text builds an evidence-based paradigm so that readers can take practical steps to improve cognitive function.