Optimizing Student Success in School with the Other Three RS: Reasoning, Resilience, and Responsibility (Research in Educational Productivity)

Series Editor Herbert J. Walberg, University of Illinois at Chicago

Despite increased spending and efforts at reform since the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, wide achievement gaps persist between groups of students and these gaps increase with each year of schooling. Obstacles to student achievement can be found in schools and at home, and finding innovative solutions for students to overcome these obstacles is a motivating force behind this volume. Inside, the authors argue that The Other Three Rs,” reasoning, resilience, and responsibility can promote achievement and the realization of full academic potential, especially for students who are labeled as under performers.

“The Other Three Rs” (TOTRs) are universal learning skills available to all students. Although each of TOTRs is related to school and life success, they are most effective when they are used in combination. For example, in the course problem solving, reasoning skills offer the ability to judge which strategies best address the needs of a particular situation. Responsibility provides understanding of the consequences (for oneself and others) of employing or not employing different problem solving strategies, and taking ownership of the results. And resilience produces the patience to work through the problem solving process, by capitalizing on lessons learned, until achieving desired outcomes.

The Other Three R’s model began as an American Psychological Association (APA) initiative, sponsored by Robert J. Sternberg, IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University and Past President of the APA. For the initiative and this edited volume, Sternberg and Subotnickassembled a diverse team of experts who identified reasoning, resilience and responsibility as three learnable skills that, when taken together, have great potential for increasing academic success. The authors of this volume present in detail their evidence- based arguments for promoting TOTRs in schools as a way to optimize student success.

CONTENTS: Introduction, Rena F. Subotnik and Gregory A. White. Reasoning, Resilience, and Responsibility from the Standpoint of the WICS Theory of Higher Mental Processes, Robert J. Sternberg. Motivational Orientations that Lead Students to Show Deeper Levels of Reasoning, Greater Responsibility for their Academic Work, and Greater Resilience in the Face of Academic Difficulty, Catherine Good and Carol S. Dweck. PART I: SPECIAL FOCUS ON REASONING. The Role of Knowledge in the Development of Mathematical Reasoning, Richard E. Mayer. Promoting Deaf Children’s Mathematical Reasoning by Using their Visual Spatial Strengths, Terezinha Nunes. Performance Data and Proven Practices: Empowering Tools to Spur High Levels of Student Reasoning and Achievement. Tom Luce and Lee Thompson. PART II: RESILIENCE. Resilience and Risk in Learning: Complex Interactions and Comprehensive Interventions, Mary M. Brabeck and Mary E. Walsh. Resilience as a Factor in Overcoming Obstacles to High Academic Achievement, Edmund W. Gordon and Brenda X. Mejia. PART III:RESPONSIBILITY. Enhancing Students’ Academic Responsibility and Achievement: A Social Cognitive Self-Regulatory Account, Barry J. Zimmerman. A Motivational Perspective on School Achievement: Taking Responsibility for Learning, Teaching, and Supporting, Jacqueline S. Eccles. PART IV: MODEL. Integrating The Other Three Rs into the School Curriculum: A Model for Improving Achievement, Jeanine C. Cogan, Robert J. Sternberg, and Rena F. Subotnik. PART V: SUMMARY. The Other 3 Rs: Implications for the Design of Learning Environments, Research, and Policy, Susan Goldman.