Student mental health since COVID-19 and teachers' use of culturally relevant and emotionally supportive practices.

The rising social unrest regarding social justice issues across the nation, as well as health concerns and isolation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, brought about a time of unprecedented distress for students across the United States. As schools transitioned back to in-person instruction, teachers may have utilized different strategies in the classroom to help support student mental health during this time of crisis. In the present study, we surveyed a sample of 1,449 full-time K-12 teachers during the Spring 2022 semester to examine the relationships between their perceptions of student mental health decline and their use of emotionally supportive and culturally relevant practices.

Highlighting Prosocial Affordances of Science in Textbooks to Promote Science Interest.

The prevalent stereotype that scientific fields do not afford opportunities to fulfill goals of helping others deters student interest and participation in science. We investigated whether introductory college science textbooks that highlight the prosocial utility value of science can be used to change beliefs about the affordances of scientific work. In study 1, undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to read a science textbook chapter with added prosocial utility value expressed greater beliefs that the science topic afforded prosocial goals and increased interest in the scientific topic, compared with two control conditions.