A neurocognitive view on what makes educators 'effective' in nurturing social and personal skills

In democratic societies, education should follow a humanistic paradigm and pro-actively support the growth of social and personal skills (SPS) in learners of all ages. In this article, we present a literature review on the factors demonstrated in various educational fields as 'effective' in generating learning success – mostly conceptualized as improved academic achievement – and social and personal growth. Factors that appear across all fields are highlighted. Next, neuro-cognitive literature on how we learn with our brain and our body is evaluated and the findings merged with those of the previous subchapters. Key features to 'successful' educational endeavours are presented, namely Emotions, Action, Cooperation, Reflection, Motivation and Practice. 'Neurologically smart' teaching then means to integrate these features as smooth and appropriate as possible into the individual educational context. There is little research that focuses on educational effectiveness in regard to social and personal growth compared to (purely) academic achievement. Also, although the educator1is widely agreed upon to be one of the most crucial factors of impact on the learning outcomes, research addresses only managerial aspects of the educational process, and only marginally touches on intra-personal aspects such as emotional intelligence or leadership style in relation to the growth of SPS in learners. Further research in this area is recommended

Teaching to transgress through residential education:Nurturing pedagogical innovation to tackle the climate and nature emergencies in higher education

Universities occupy a contested space regarding their responses to the climate and nature emergencies. They are criticised for their neoliberalism, marketisation and corporatism yet they provide education to the leaders of tomorrow who are essential for the transition to a sustainable world. In this paper, residential education is explored through a three-phase Rites of Passage framework based on teaching to transgress. Dependable and trustworthy literature sources were identified to develop strands of a pedagogical framework. Autoethnographic vignettes added further novel strands based on insights into residential education from the authors’ lived experiences. Thus a residential education pedagogical web emerges to reimagine learning, teaching and research in higher education that deals directly with the climate and nature emergencies. We argue that more residential education centres should be developed to operate as semi-autonomous satellites of their parent universities because they can be more participatory, flexible and dynamic

Walking with [please insert here]: how autoethnographic walks enable us to consider the embodied relationship between people, place and planet

We learn a place and how to visualize spatial relationships, as children, on foot and with imagination. Place and the scale of place must be measured against our bodies and their capabilities (Snyder, 1990, p.98). What happens now we are adults? For many, walking is/has become a functional practice of putting one foot in front of the other, going from a place you need to leave in order to get to a place you want to be, whilst passing through places that rarely seem to matter. For some, walking has become more about seeking solace and healing, looking for joy, hope and/or fun in a challenging world (Hayes, 2021). This may include spiritual and/or religious elements, e.g. pilgrimage and/or walking with G/god(s). Who or what are we walking with when we walk? We will explore how ‘autoethnographic walks’ can follow Snyder’s lead, by incorporating Ingold’s (2000) ideas about dwelling to provide pauses in everyday walking activity to consider the embodied relationship between people, place and planet. Focusing on relations between self, others, and nature – the more-than-human world – enables us to adopt new ways of thinking, being, noticing and walking in/with nature. Thinking about/with temporal, spatial and socio-cultural connections enables us to learn from the past and then use the present to develop more sustainable ways of being (Nicol, 2020). Within this presentation, we will provide practical examples of how to incorporate autoethnographic walks into outdoor educational research and pedagogy