Fall Staff Development Day

By Mischa Rosenberg, Teacher
 
On Oct. 9, 2017, Bing staff gathered in the Tower House for fall staff development day. The day included presentations from Stanford researchers and Bing staff about challenging play, children’s concepts of social groups and childhood emergent stereotypes about gender and intelligence.
 
Teacher Lars Gustafson and head teachers Todd Erickson and Peckie Peters kicked off the day with their presentation, “‘Is this okay?’ Exploring the value of challenging play themes.” The talk offered insight into the incalculable benefits of individual and group play where children are able to take risks, whether scaling the dome climber for the first time or engaging in “rough-and-tumble” play fighting with classmates. The presentation emphasized the importance of establishing meaningful connections both between teachers and children and between teachers and caregivers. These relationships establish an understanding of each child as a unique, competent individual with a great capacity for physical, intellectual, social and emotional growth. Though challenging play may spark a degree of nervousness in adult observers, it is a normal part of childhood that can be foundational for resilience and confidence building. Children develop skills that are transferable to their present and future lives, including social competency, self-regulation, perspective-taking and problem-solving. Bing teachers have presented a similar talk at conferences for educators, such as the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the California Association for the Education of Young Children.
 
Lin Bian, a postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford University Department of Psychology, then presented “‘Who is really really smart?’ The early-emerging gender stereotypes about brilliance.” Bian discussed gender disparities in academia and how they are related to children’s ideas about “natural intelligence” or “brilliance.” Her research examines gender-related stereotypes about intelligence as well as how these stereotypes affect male and female children’s choices in activities. Bian has been conducting research at Bing. See this article for more information about her research and findings.
 
Steven Othello Roberts, an assistant professor of psychology at Stanford, presented his research on how children understand social groups. He focused specifically on two domains: concepts of racial stability and group norms. In the first domain, Roberts investigated when children begin to understand that race remains stable over time. In the second domain, he explored how children’s interpretations about social groups are related to descriptive norms (how things are) and prescriptive norms (how they infer things should be). Roberts is also conducting research at Bing. See this article for more information about his research and findings.