DisruptED TV Magazine
The Power of Human Connection
By Don Rumsey
Across the country, schools and districts engage in ongoing discussions over how to most effectively close the achievement gap. Recent research, however, has also considered students’ social and emotional well-being as a factor in student outcomes. From this literature, we are learning that students are less likely to remember a curricular approach or instructional strategy than they are the impactful connections with teachers and staff.
Last spring I was completing a literature review assignment for my Principles of Research doctoral level course. In the process, I was fortunate to come across an article, Listening to the Voices of Young Adolescents. The researchers, Nancy Doda and Trudy Knowles, collected approximately 2700 responses to one open-ended question from middle schools located in diverse communities across the country: “What should middle school teachers know about middle school students?” The responses received from students were rooted with poignant disclosures regarding their perceptions of “the kind of schooling they wish they had, and glimpses of their struggles, hopes, fears, and even dreams” (Doda & Knowles, 2008, p. 26). Doda and Knowles’ examination of these powerfully insightful student responses revealed two major themes. Students, overwhelmingly, expressed their…
