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Cogmed as part of a Social Emotional Learning

program for schools

Introduction

• What are the social, emotional and cognitive skills that underlie good learning?

• In what ways can any school-based program support student wellbeing and improve academic outcomes?

In this webinar we will discuss the role of a program like Cogmedin helping students notice and practice good learning behaviours. While Cogmed working memory training is a program designed to improve working memory and attentional capacity, there is increasing evidence to show that this carefully structured and supported program provides additional benefits to improving capacity to learn

Why the focus on SEL?

Building Capacity to Learn

Dr Judy Willis, Neurologist and Teacher, speaks about changes to the school curriculum around the world in the last few decades.

• Information explosion = more content• Students showing a stress reaction to focus on content• Inattention, learning difficulties, anxiety on the rise

Solution:Shifting from a content led based approach to education, to one that is more focused on improving the student’s capacity to learn.

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PISA 2012 ResultsReady to Learn: Students’ Engagement, Drive and Self-Beliefs

“Students’ engagement with school, the belief that they canachieve at high levels, and their ability and willingness to dowhat it takes to reach their goals not only play a central rolein shaping students’ ability to master academic subjects, theyare also valuable attributes that will enable students to leadfull lives, meeting challenges and making the most ofavailable opportunities along the way.”

Page 30https://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-volume-III.pdf

PISA Q: When OECD uses PISA to measure certain skills, it is sending a clear message

of what's important and of what kids should be learning. How do you decide

which skills are important?

We look very carefully at the evolution of skills demanded in our society. Many of the skills that

schools have traditionally emphasized—memorizing things and then recalling them—are becoming less and less important for the success of people. In contrast, creative thinking, collaborative problem solving and social skills are becoming more important. We

look very carefully at how the world and the skills that people need are changing and then we try to reflect

that in our measure.

Why are Social & Emotional Learning skills important?

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)

A recent meta-analysis revealed adoption of SEL

programs lead to:

● 22% increase in social and emotional skills

● 11% increase in academic achievement

● 9% increase in pro-social behaviour

● 9% decrease in conduct problems

● 10% decrease in emotional distress

● 9% increase in positive attitudes.

(Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011).

Australian Curriculum

Learning Areas• English• Maths• Science• Languages• Arts• HPE

General capabilities • literacy, • numeracy, • information and communication

technology capability, • critical and creative thinking, • personal and social capability, • ethical understanding, • intercultural understanding.Cross-curriculum

priorities• Aboriginal culture, • sustainability, • engagement with Asia

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Self-assessment – thinking about your thinking and learning

Learning behaviours Teacher-student relationships Problem-solving teaching

PersonalityComposite classesHomeworkTeacher subject matter knowledge

What has the greatest influence on student learning? Hattie 2009 Meta-analysis

Brain Function

Thoughts&

Actions

Knowledge baseSkills base

e.g. phonics, vocabulary,

number concepts

e.g. focus, grit, organisation,

problem solving, communication,

emotion regulation, relationship

What are the social, emotional and cognitive skills that underlie good learning?

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ACARA – Personal and Social Capability

The capability involves students in a range of practices including: • recognising and regulating emotions, • developing empathy for and understanding of others, • establishing positive relationships, • making responsible decisions, • working effectively in teams and • handling challenging situations constructively.

ACARA – Creative and Critical Thinking

• Inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas

• Generating ideas, possibilities and actions• Reflecting on thinking and processes• Analysing, synthesising and evaluating reasoning and

procedures

What cognitive skills are needed to support SEL?

• Attention• Memory, especially working memory• Information processing• Executive function – self-regulation skills• Language skills

A system for temporary storage and manipulation of information,

necessary for wide range of cognitive tasks

The ability to keep information active in your mind for a short

period of time (seconds) and be able to use the information in your thinking

Key feature: It has a limited capacity that varies greatly between individuals

What is working memory? Our ability to control our attention

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Why is it important?

Working memory is used for:

• Controlling attention• Resisting distraction• Complex thinking• Organization• Problem solving• Remembering tasks

10-15% of all students have working memory deficits causing them to perform below average

in many areas of learning

Working memory is crucial for areas such as math, reading comprehension, complex problem solving, and test

taking

Working memory is key for academic performance

POOR WORKING MEMORY: IMPACT ANDINTERVENTIONS Holmes et al: 3 strategies

1. Change the environment2. Teach strategies for coping3. Intensive training on WM tasks to strengthen

working memory capacity

Book: Advances in Child Development and Behavior, Vol. 39 Joni Holmes, Susan Gathercole, Darren Dunning Academic Press, 2010, pp. 1-43

Motivation and Mindset are critical

Carol Dweck – Study on Praise and MindsetRewarding EFFORT (dynamic) vs rewarding SMARTS (fixed)Belief that the ability to learn is not fixed

Great job…You tried so hard!

Great job…You are so clever!

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Dr Angela Duckworth and “Grit”

• Personality trait of Self discipline predicts achievement more than IQ – Marshmallow experiment with 4 year olds. The length of time they waited predicted academic outcomes many years later (Duckworth & Seligman 2005)

• “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”

• Not the same as intensity but constancy of effort over time

• Notice and celebrate self-discipline to strengthen environmental component

What does an effective SEL program look like?

CASEL guidelines

What does a good SEL program needs to look like?

CASEL best practice standards:• linking social–emotional instruction to standard curricula without

taking time and focus away from other academic areas;

• providing differentiated instructional procedures;

• involving parents;

• training and supporting teachers and staff;

• demonstrating program quality through empirical evidence

Mindfulness Training

Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and GRE Performance While Reducing Mind Wandering1.Michael D. Mrazek2.Michael S. Franklin3.Dawa Tarchin Phillips4.Benjamin Baird5.Jonathan W. Schooler

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Presentation Title runs here l 00/00/0025

Implementation Best Practice

“The most successful implementation of SEL is through a wholeschool approach with a structured program/curriculum. Thisensures that:• Students learn skills in a systematic way• Students practise skills• Teachers model skills during their interactions with students• The teacher reinforces the skills everyday• Teachers create specific opportunities for skill practice• Teachers use natural opportunities for practice of skills• All adults in the school use the skills• The skills become part of school culture.”

Submission from Wellbeing Australia to the National Curriculum Review

Interventions Shown to Aid Executive Function Development in Children 4 to 12 years old Adele Diamond and Kathleen Lee, Science 333, 959 (2011);

• Diverse activities have been shown to improve children’s executive functions: computerized training, games, aerobics, martial arts, yoga, mindfulness, and school curricula

• All successful programs involve repeated practice and progressive increase of the challenge to executive functions.

• Children with worse executive functions benefit most from these activities –importance of early intervention

• To improve executive functions, focusing narrowly on them may not be as effective as also addressing emotional, social and physical development (shown by positive effects of aerobics, martial arts and yoga).

Brain Function and Neuroplasticity

• Use it or lose it – You have to train (or simulate). You are the product of what you DO and THINK

• Use it and improve it – It has to be challenging• Specificity – Neurons that fire together, wire together• Repetition matters – Lots of practice is needed• Intensity matters – It must be effortful, dose matters• Time matters – it takes time – related to effort• Salience matters – it must be meaningful, authentic• Age matters – we are more malleable at an early age, but

change/learning is possible at any age• Transference and Interference – Your brain is highly

interconnected, changes in one area will affect others

Kleim JA, Jones TA. Principles of experience-dependent neural plasticity: implications for rehabilitation after brain damage. J Speech Lang Hear Res 2008 Feb;51(1):S225-39.

What is Cogmed and how does it contribute to SEL

outcomes?

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Interconnected Systems Supporting Learning

Knowledge base (LTM)

*largely mediated by language

Performance‐based factors 

*working memory

An evidence-based intervention for working memory

Research-based - Cogmed emerged out of research on the plasticity of working memory and backed up by peer reviewed, published, and fully independent studies

Specific – working memory exercises, 3000 tasks, lots of practice

Adaptively Challenging – the program automatically keeps the task within the zone of proximal development

Cogmed Working Memory Training

Intensive – choose from flexible protocols 15, 25 or 35 minutes, 3, 4, 5 times a week for 5-10 weeks

Meaningful and supported – always provided through a coach, personalised goals and rewards.

Feedback - supervised by training aide, progress monitored by Coach. Weekly one-to-one review. Strategies are noticed and practiced

Highly structured, highly supported program

All the products share the same underlying design – the only difference is in the user interface >> engagement and rewards

Cogmed JM Cogmed RM Cogmed QMPreschoolers School-age Adults

Three products for Cogmed training

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Visual-spatial STM

Visual-spatial working memory

Verbal working memory

Visual-spatial working memory

Demo at mycogmed.comSchool implementation

Cogmed Coach - Key person for the user- tracking, following up and offering feedback on training with weekly feedback and reward meetings

Training Supervisor - Person who will sit next to the user during training offering support and motivation. (Can be the coach but usually learning support staff or training aide)

Selected students vs whole class training

Version 4 makes whole class training possible• New flexible protocols• New coaching tools

– automatic monitoring of training fidelity

– Group reporting tools– Reporting on rate of

improvement on trained and non-trained tasks

Variable Protocols

#Session Length

Days per

Week

Number of Sessions

Number of Exercises per

Session

TOTAL TIME

1 50 mins 5 25 8 5 weeks

2 50 mins 4 25 8 6 weeks, 1 day

3 50 mins 3 25 8 8 weeks, 1 day

4 35 mins 5 30 5 6 weeks

5 35 mins 4 30 5 7 weeks, 2 days

6 35 mins 3 30 5 10 weeks

7 25 mins 5 40 3 8 weeks

8 25 mins 4 40 3 10 weeks

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Rationale: Repeated recital of WM trials when difficulty level is not adapted typically leads to faster reaction times but not an increase in WM capacity - no generalization

Adaptively Challenging Rewarding e.g. RoboRacing: Cogmed RM

• Involves racing against other robots on different tracks

• The more you win, the more options you have

• The right and left arrows control the direction of the robot; the space bar to jump

• With the extra “energy” that the child has earned from Cogmed RM, they can get extra speed by pressing the CTRL button.

Complete Cogmed professional development - online coursework 3 hours

Track progress on the Cogmed Training Web. Weekly 1:1

Involvement in rewards –enjoyed by pupils and teachers

Supported by dedicated resources at Pearson

The educator experience Supporting Resources

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Cogmed Coaching Centre Training Details

Cogmed Progress Indicator (CPI)

• Protocol– Shape up, Listen up, Add up tasks– Embedded in program– Math challenge (auto/manual removal)– CPI has cognitive load– Best performance out of Days 1 and 2 used as Baseline

Measure – Occurs on 6 sessions (occurrence depends on

training protocol selected)

• Purpose– Provides quantitative measure of training effect– Assess with non-trained working memory tasks– Track cognitive change as it occurs

Day 1 & 2 10 15 2520

Monitoring progress: Questionnaire

Sources:- 4-17yo: DSM-IV ADHD (attention) scale- Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI)

Pre: Prior to Day 1 CPI and Training, during Start-Up Session with CoachPost: Available to complete after 80% of training has been completed;

Captures users perspective of their Attention in everyday life

Expectations for CWMT, Areas they would like to improve

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Understanding STRENGTHS Sydney Catholic School

Look beyond the behaviourCan’t vs. Won’t

Reciprocal Relationship between WM, Anxiety and Learning

• 5% of children and young people experience clinical levels of anxiety

• Negative emotional states are associated with lowered performance

• Strong association between anxiety and executive functions (i.e. inhibition, set-shifting and updating information in working memory)

The impact of working memory training in young people with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties L. Roughan, J.A. Hadwin / Learning and Individual Differences 21 (2011)

Increasing academic performance via improvements in WM may reduce feelings of negative affect.

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Mezzacappa Working Memory Training for Children with Attention Problemsor Hyperactivity: A School-Based Pilot Study - Enrico Mezzacappa • John C. Buckner Springer Science 2010

Overall, children’s behavior and working memory improved following training, compared to baseline.

Our findings suggest that school-based working memory training may be a viable means for treating children with attention problems or hyperactivity that warrants further investigation.

This approach may also overcome barriers to care delivery for economically disadvantaged children who are known to be at higher risk for poor school outcomes.

Metacognitive Strategy Training Adds to the Effects of Working Memory Training in Children with Special Educational NeedsPetri Partanen, Billy Jansson, Jan Lisspers, Örjan Sundin

Restricted Academic Situations Task (RAST)

• 5 categories of behavior associated with ADHD scored at 30 sec intervals

• Given toys to play with for 5 minutes; examiner puts toys to the side , participants asked to complete easy math packet for 15 minutes while videotaped

• Good indicator of behavioral responses to ADHD stimulant medication

• Consistent with externalizing teacher ratings and actometer measures of ADHD

• Objective measure and sensitive to moment-to-moment changes in “off-task” behavior

Will working memory training generalize to improve off-task behavior in children with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity

Disorder?Green et al. 2012

Green et al 2012Publication: Neurotherapeutics Institution: University of California, Davis Investigator(s): Chloe T. Green, Debra L. Long, David Green, Ana-Maria Iosif, J. Faye Dixon, Meghan R. Miller, Catherine Fassbender, Julie B. Schweitzer

• Randomized, placebo controlled, double-blinded study of 26 children with ADHD first known research to demonstrate the impact of WM training on an ecologically valid measure of observable ADHD-associated behaviours -RAST

• Children who trained with the standard Cogmed program (adaptive WM training) improved significantly over children in the placebo group (non-adaptive WM training) on non-trained, widely used, standardized measures of WM (Digit Span and Letter-Number Sequencing; WISC) and on measures of the Restricted Academic Setting Task (RAST) that related to attention.

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Benefits of a Working Memory TrainingProgram for Inattention in Daily Life: ASystematic Review and Meta-Analysis

"Benefits of a WM training program generalise to improvements in everyday functioning. Initial evidence shows that the Cogmed method has significant benefits for inattention in daily life with a clinically relevant effect size"

Megan Spencer-Smith, Torkel Klingberg. PLoS ONE 10(3): e0119522

• Efficacious method with meaningful results: not all WMT approaches/programs are the same.

• The Gold Standard of Research: clear information about the inclusion criteria for the study. Analyses summarizing the effects from 12 randomized controlled trials, studying the effects related to Cogmed working memory training.

• Relevant size: Cogmed WMT has a significant (i.e. moderate) effect on inattention in daily life, an important piece of far transfer. Effects were in the moderate range (0.40-0.66), considered relevant in the education domain .

• Sustained effects: Effects on everyday attention are shown to be largely sustained.

• Cogmed is good for all: (not just ADHD)

Working Memory Training is Associated with Long Term Attainments in Math and ReadingStina Söderqvist* and Sissela Bergman Nutley

Followed the academic performance of two age-matched groups during 2 years. As part of the curriculum in grade 4 (age 9–10), all students in one classroom (n = 20) completed Cogmed Working Memory Training (CWMT) whereas children in the other classroom (n = 22) received education as usual. Performance on nationally standardized tests in math and reading was used as outcome measures at baseline and two years later.

At baseline both classes were normal/high performing according to national standards.

At grade 6, reading had improved to a significantly greater extent for the training group compared to the control group (medium effect size, Cohen’s d = 0.66, p = 0.045).

For math performance the same pattern was observed with a medium effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.58) reaching statistical trend levels (p = 0.091).

Moreover, the academic attainments were found to correlate with the degree of improvements during training (p < 0.053).

>> Results suggest improved working memory boosts student’s capacity to learn

I. Adaptive Cogmed training group improved significantly over non-adaptive Cogmedtraining group from Klingberg et al., 2005 :

1) Visuo-spatial WM tasks (Span Board – backwards and forwards; WAIS –NI) (T2 & T3)

2) Verbal WM tasks (Digit Span – backwards and forwards; WISC-III) (T2)

3) Nonverbal reasoning task (Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM)) (T2)

4) Cohen’s d ranging from 0.67 to 0.98 (T2)

II. Adaptive Cogmed training group improved significantly over passive control group onreading comprehension (Reading narrative texts & answering questions) (T2 & T3) (d = 0.88and 0.99 respectively)

III. Adaptive Cogmed training group improved significantly over passive control group on ameasure of math (Basic Number Screening TEST (BNST) at T2 (d = 0.69) and for boys only, atT2 and T3 (d = 0.74 and 0.90 respectively)

Summary: Dahlin (2011) and Dahlin (2013)

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Foy and Mann – cognitive control in beginning readers International Education Research, Volume 2, Issue 2 (2014), 19-43

AbstractIn this study we examined whether children’s working memory could be enhanced by adaptive cognitive training (ACT) and whether training outcomes would relate to behavioral self-regulation, a measure of executive control (EC) and certain pre-reading outcomes (phoneme awareness and letter knowledge).

ACT significantly improved performance in near-transfer (untrained visuospatial test) and far-transfer (tests of verbal working memory and behavioral self-regulation). However, ACT had no direct effects on either measure of pre-reading skill.

Adaptive Cognitive Training may indirectly help children at risk for later reading problems to benefit from instruction opportunities by developing self-regulation and memory skills.

How does Cogmed coaching meet SEL needs?

Contributes to building capacity to learn Professional development for staff Class-wide , highly structured activity Involve parents Evidence-based

Self-management, self awareness, thinking about thinking Lots of practice Adaptively challenging Recognising and regulating emotions Sustained effort/grit Noticing progress, noticing strengths, rewards for effort

Learn more about CogmedTry the demonstration: http://mycogmed.com“Try Out Cogmed”

See: www.cogmed.com.au/schoolsDownload the Resource Kit for Schools

Learn more about becoming a Clinical Coach

Contact: Mimma Mason at Pearson info@cogmed.com.au oryour closest Cogmed Coach www.cogmed.com.au/find-a-coach