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

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

Robert J. Sternberg is Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Psychology at Tufts University. Prior to being at Tufts, he was IBM Professor of Psychology and Education, Professor of Management in the School of Management, and Director of the Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise at Yale University. This center, now relocated to Tufts, is dedicated to the advancement of theory, research, practice, and policy advancing the notion of intelligence as developing expertise, as a construct that is modifiable and capable, to some extent, of development throughout the lifespan. The Center seeks to have an impact on science, education, and society. Sternberg was the 2003 President of the American Psychological Association and is the 2006 2007 President of the Eastern Psychological Association. He was on the Board of Directors of the American Psychological Association and the Board of Trustees of the APA Insurance Trust. He is currently on the Board of Trustees of the American Psychological Foundation and on the Board of Directors of the Eastern Psychological Association as well as of the American Association of Colleges and Universities. Sternberg received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1975 and his B.A. from Yale University. He holds honorary doctorates from eight universities. He is the author of over 1,100 journal articles, chapters, and books. He focuses his research on intelligence, creativity, and wisdom and has studied love and close relationships as well as hate. This research has been conducted on five different continents.