NIU Today

Paul Wright believes in the affirming power of promoting social and emotional learning (SEL) through sport and other physical activities to position students on better paths toward success.

Sure enough, it’s the major focus of the Physical Activity and Life Skills (PALS) Group that he leads at NIU.

And NIU’s EC Lane and MN Zimmerman Endowed Professor takes his conviction directly to the schools.

Funded by a Morgridge Chair Accelerator Grant, Wright and several PALS colleagues in Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education (KNPE) are currently delivering a year of professional development to P.E. teachers in Elgin School District U-46.

It’s just the first of what Wright hopes will grow into several flourishing partnerships with Illinois school districts interested in a deliberate, strong and best practices-oriented focus on SEL for their students.

“Physical education spans K-12 and reaches every single student in a school. It’s one of the few subject areas that is really ubiquitous, but it’s often neglected or forgotten when people are talking about ways to engage kids and to work on social and emotional issues, trauma-informed practice, diversity, equity and inclusion,” Wright says.

“Yet because it’s social, interactive and dynamic, it’s a great space and a real authentic way to work on those things,” he adds. “P.E. can be the laboratory. It’s a really rich setting for doing this kind of work, but without some direct, content-specific support, you can’t just assume that P.E. teachers are going to be able to apply these ideas based on classroom examples.”

Tracey Jakaitis, P.E./Health/Wellness coordinator for U-46, is excited for “the great opportunity” for the 185 teachers under her supervision to see SEL strategies specialized for their discipline.

“We are lucky to have NIU partner with us on this very important initiative for the students and staff in our 57 schools. Professional development opportunities around SEL do not speak to, or provide examples of, what this would look like in a non-traditional classroom,” Jakaitis says.

“Having the NIU College of Education professors provide in-person, virtual and asynchronous professional development specific to physical education will help support our teachers with implementation,” she adds. “Full implementation of SEL in our physical education classrooms will create an environment where students with a variety of skill levels, backgrounds and experiences will feel welcome and safe.”

USING THE NEWLY PUBLISHED “Teaching Social and Emotional Learning in Physical Education” as the reference material – Wright is a co-editor of the book, which features contributions from five of his KNPE teammates and is the only such resource – the program in U-46 includes self-paced, asynchronous options with online content and synchronous meetings via Zoom and in person.

Some of those face-to-face sessions will allow teachers to share with their same-level counterparts what they’re already doing in the scope of SEL, including what’s working and what’s not, and to ask for advice.

An opening event with P.E. teachers throughout the K-12 spectrum built community, created high levels of engagement and yielded positive comments afterward.

Many already are logging into the optional web content, which demonstrates their commitment to learning.

“We’re off to a good start,” Wright says.

“The teachers liked our style of making it active and interactive,” he adds, “and the training gave them chances to meet each other and share. Usually, the teachers just work with the people in their building and, certainly, at their own grade level: The elementary P.E. teachers don’t ever mix with the high school P.E. teachers, right? They were able to talk about what’s hard about their jobs, as well as what’s good and exciting about their jobs. I think they saw a lot of relevance in this.”

NIU faculty who include Jenn Jacobs, Jim Ressler and Zach Wahl-Alexander offer added relevance through their subject matter expertise, giving this professional development a specificity typically missing from providers who “by and large don’t know the P.E. environment and don’t have much to offer” to P.E. teachers.

“It’s not just going to happen automatically,” Wright says. “You just can’t keep punting, and not really giving them anything relevant to them, and expect that they’re just finally going to be in sync. I think this happens in a lot of districts – that P.E. is sort of that subculture, that sub-community, that just stays out on an island and struggles to feel connected to what the district-wide push is, even when it’s what kids really need these days.”

U-46 leaders, he adds, “saw this as a way to really bring P.E. into the fold and give it some targeted support that is completely in line with the district-wide initiatives. P.E. teachers are as happy as anyone to get involved in those and support them.”

SHANNON PENNINGTON IS ONE of them.

Pennington teaches P.E. at U-46’s DREAM Academy, the district’s alternative placement high school for students with deficiencies in their completion of academic credits.

“Our students are considered at-risk and not on track for graduation for a variety of reasons including trauma,” says Pennington, who has taught and served in leadership and instructional roles in Elgin for 23 years.

“What I hope to get out of this professional development are some practical application strategies in a variety of P.E. curricular contexts,” she adds. “The NIU team already gave us an example for a ‘combatives’ lesson, and I think teachers need to see how applicable SEL is to everything we do.”

She is committed to action.

“I expect the learning gained in these sessions will impact my practice by shifting the focus on the SEL aspects of my lessons to be more overt and intentional,” Pennington says.

“The benefits to students are clear in that kids who feel safe and seen are more apt to attend and to engage when they are here. For families, it means fewer reasons for their kids to miss school as school becomes more and more a place they want to be.”

The Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign entered the training on the same page as Wright and Co. and already is confident in the possibilities – including for her colleagues.

“My dissertation will examine teacher stress and address the social and emotional consequences of marginalization and low perceived mattering,” she says. “There is a lot of interesting overlap between what teachers are doing to meet their students’ SEL needs and what teachers need to do for themselves to manage their own social and emotional well-being.”

NIU professor Jim Ressler talks to Geneva High School students during a P.E. Leadership Summit event held in February 2020 on the NIU campus.

ALTHOUGH MUCH OF the practice promoted by the PALS Group at NIU takes place in external settings, such as after school or at community centers, P.E. also offers fertile ground.

“Our after-school programs are really high-quality and great experiences, but they reach maybe only 12 kids at a time – the 12 kids who are in the program,” Wright says. “With the smaller groups, you can really make it more Democratic, and run more like a club. You literally can say, ‘Let’s just sit around in a circle. Let’s just have a little circle talk.’ Everybody gets to say something. It’s more conversational.”

Creative P.E. teachers can accomplish something similar, he adds.

“In P.E., we have larger numbers, and if you’ve got 35 or 40 kids, you can’t just sit down and have a huge circle conversation. It would take forever to get around the circle,” Wright says.

“But we want to create chances for kids to express their opinions. A P.E. teacher might introduce a journal assignment once a in while, where kids write about, ‘How is this experience going for you? What things are you liking? What things are you not liking? Is there anything you think you could be doing better to contribute to the group?’ The point is to try to get the kids expressing their opinions, reflecting and sharing their voice.”

As the work in U-46 continues, Wright expects that P.E. teachers will appreciate the coherent content, prolonged effort and follow-through that far exceeds one School Improvement Plan day.

He also plans to invite some of the teachers to carry the momentum into the 2022-23 year and beyond.

“We’re actively trying to recruit some of the P.E. teachers who really get this, and are lit up about it, to cultivate them as ‘inside experts’ and to give them leadership opportunities and to support their own action research,” Wright says. “We’re building strong relationships and a community of practice with some champions within so that, by the end of the year, enough people have been exposed to this and taken some interest that it will be something sustainable.”

MEANWHILE, HE HOPES THAT EDUCATION ADMINISTRATORS take notice.

“If they want to lean into ideas like SEL, and want to get that happening schoolwide, they should consider a P.E.-focused training program. They can do really meaningful work because it’s so authentic and interactive,” Wright says.

“If a superintendent goes to a school and wants to see what SEL looks like in practice, the gym should be the first stop on that tour. You really see it,” he adds. “It’s active. It’s interactive. It’s emotionally charged. It’s all happening there.”

Other services available from Wright and his PALS Group team include program evaluation.

The NIU faculty, all of whom conduct research related to SEL and positive youth development through physical activity, can collect data through surveys and systematic observation to determine what is and is not working and to provide recommendations.

Altogether, the coherent and coordinated intervention will put participating schools on the forefront of best practices.

“Part of this is good timing and good fortune. This is work that I’ve been interested in for years before it became a major focus in the P.E. field. NIU was ahead of the game because we already had years of research, practical experience and comfort with this,” Wright says.

“We have such a stellar team who’s been working closely together and has established this as an expertise. There is a ton of need, a ton of interest and now there’s this great resource,” he adds. “But just buying a book, or telling your P.E. teachers to read it, isn’t going to make it happen. You need the professional development support, and some form of consulting and evaluation in many cases, to really make sure you understand what you’re doing, where your opportunities are and how to implement those.”

NIU College of Education Dean Laurie Elish-Piper and David Paige, director of the Jerry L. Johns Literacy Clinic, were honored Nov. 6 by the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers (ALER).

Elish-Piper received the A.B. Herr Award, which celebrates the distinguished service of a professional educator who has made outstanding contributions to the field of reading. Past recipients include College of Education retirees Jerry Johns (1995) and Norm Stahl (2009).

Paige was given the ALER Laureate Award, which recognizes influence on other reading professionals, longevity of membership in ALER, scholarship that involves collaboration with students, teachers and other professionals and participation in ALER conferences and activities.

“It’s truly an honor, and it really shows NIU’s strength as an institution in the area of literacy education,” Elish-Piper says.

“We have a long history of faculty who have been leaders in the profession, who have been leaders in the professional associations and who have made significant contributions to the body of knowledge and to the broader field of reading and literacy education.”

Formerly known as CRA – the College Reading Association – the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers strives:

• To stimulate the self-development and professional growth of teachers and reading specialists at all educational levels.
• To encourage the continuing improvement of college and university curricula and encourage preparation programs for teachers and reading specialists.
• To encourage the continuing improvement of administrative, clinical, diagnostic and instructional practices related to the learning process.

Journeying to South Carolina to accept the organization’s top award took Elish-Piper full circle.

“CRA was really my professional introduction to the field of literacy education in higher education, and so I really grew up in that organization,” says Elish-Piper, who eventually served a term as its president.

“The very first professional conference I ever attended as a graduate student was CRA; at that conference, I was a doctoral student, and I gave my first professional presentation,” she adds. “That was the organization where I first served on a committee for a professional association, where I first began as a proposal reviewer for the conference, and where I had an opportunity to then become a committee chair.”

She found “very much of a family feel” and “wonderful mentoring.”

“In this association, we’re all literacy teacher-educators. We’re all interested in preparing teachers, reading teachers and reading specialists. Our research focuses on the preparation of these professionals to work with children, young adults and college students in reading,” she says.

“Therefore, this award is incredibly meaningful because I received so many great opportunities in this organization and so much wonderful mentoring. Many of my colleagues and collaborators are people who I met through this association.”

Paige is one of them.

“ALER is a vibrant organization that strives to welcome and include those new to higher education, as well as those with decades of experience. ALER provides a great platform for professional growth through collaborations with those both new and experienced in research,” says Paige, who served eight years on the board of directors, including as president in 2016-17 and three years as treasurer.

“Over the years, I’ve met members who’ve become both professional and personal friends. I’ve been privileged to have conversations with many who have contributed significantly to the field and have learned from others who have graciously shared their expertise with me,” he adds. “In short, ALER has always felt like a professional home, and I’m grateful to be a part of it.”

With Paige now at NIU – he joined the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in 2020 – the Huskie connection to ALER remains a robust one.

Many former doctoral students have received ALER’s Dissertation of the Year awards, including Michael Manderino, who later became a member of the College of Education faculty.

Now, thanks to her presence at the annual meeting, Elish-Piper is feeling invigorated like she did during her doctoral years.

“As dean, it’s difficult for me to attend conferences in my own discipline, so this reminded me of the importance of continuing to invest in my own work. I’m still very engaged in scholarship. I’m still publishing,” she says, “and this reminded me just how incredibly supportive this association is, and of the amazing opportunities. I’m looking forward to bringing some of my own doctoral students to this association to help them make some of these connections.”

She also felt an impetus to position her status as a Member Dean of the national Deans for Impact organization and as someone with legislative contacts in Illinois.

“In talking with my colleagues at the conference, we talked about the changing tides in the field of literacy education, and the importance of advocacy and taking leadership in pushing on important issues or pushing against mandates that we think are counterproductive in the preparation of reading professionals or the way that we teach reading,” Elish-Piper says.

“That’s how I can contribute to this association,” she adds. “I’m already thinking about a presentation next year that would focus on taking leadership and advocacy roles, as literacy professionals, to the state level to advocate for, and get involved in, crafting policy.”

Finding skilled laborers has been an ongoing challenge for Illinois manufacturers. According to Whiteside County Economic Development (WCED) of Morrison, Illinois, the labor shortage and skills gap is expected to worsen as a boom of skilled manufacturing workers reach retirement age, leaving Illinois manufacturers with an even greater shortage of skilled labor that is expected to continue through 2025 and beyond.

However, the region’s economic development organizations and higher education institutions hope to narrow the gap. A collaboration has formed between NIU’s College of Engineering and Engineering Technology (CEET), Sauk Valley Community College (SVCC) and WECD to engage teams of senior engineering students to solve real-world challenges that manufacturers are facing.

In the CEET Senior Design Program, students form multi-disciplinary teams of three plus a graduate assistant and a faculty mentor, to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to a hands-on learning experience to construct a prototype or process for area manufacturers.

With funding provided by SVCC and WCED, Bonnell Industries of Dixon, Illinois was provided with $5,000 toward the sponsorship of a Senior Design project that will support a special short-term project for the 62-year-old local manufacturer of truck, snow removal, and road maintenance equipment.

Manufacturing Director Ray Ziganto joined CEET to work hand-in-hand with Illinois manufacturers as part of a grant from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in partnership with the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center (IMEC) to seek out small-to-mid-sized Illinois manufacturers needing additional resources to stay competitive. Ziganto’s role is to pair manufacturers with teams of enterprising senior engineering students to solve technology and engineering challenges.

“Through this partnership, that is getting rave reviews from students and manufacturers, companies get solutions to real-world challenges that help grow and improve their businesses,” said Ziganto. “We’re looking to expand the program, and attract more manufacturers.”

Throughout the Senior Design program, teams meet weekly under the mentorship of an industry-experienced faculty member whose role is to keep the teams progressing. In addition, a representative from each of the client companies is invited and encouraged to attend the weekly meetings to answer questions and ensure that the projects are on track to meet the desired objectives.

At the end of the spring semester, the teams exhibit their completed projects in an event that is open to the public called Senior Design Demonstration Day, which will be held on Friday, May 6 from noon to 4 p.m. at the NIU Convocation Center in DeKalb.

“Partnerships like these truly serve to benefit everyone involved and the state as a whole,” said Mansour Tahernezhadi, Ph.D., senior associate dean for CEET. “It’s a win-win situation where students get real-world learning experience, and manufacturers fill the skills gap in the labor force. The outcome is tremendous – a real workable solution to an engineering challenge that the manufacturer is facing.”

The Bonnell Industries team includes students Samual Brown, Kyle Dick, and Jeremy Steegmueller with Teaching Assistant Tyler Vogen and Faculty Advisor Robert Sinko, Ph.D.

For more information visit go.niu.edu/seniordesign or contact Ray Ziganto.

The topic of the day was, appropriately enough, confidence and self-efficacy.

In other words, Associate Professor Jenn Jacobs told her students in KNPE 310: Psychological Aspects of Sport and Exercise, the power of the mind. Or, she clarified, the perception of one’s ability to perform a specific task successfully.

“My favorite theory of all time,” Jacobs said. “It teaches you how to believe you can do something. What is more important than that? Nothing.”

Among the many unfamiliar faces in her classroom that Nov. 9 afternoon were a half-dozen graduate students from the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education as well as four people with no connection to NIU at all.

One wore a gray Calvin Klein long-sleeve T-shirt and distressed blue jeans. Another sported a black top with red pants. The others were non-uniformed employees of the Illinois Youth Center in Warrenville, where the first two are incarcerated.

For the two young men, the day on the NIU campus was a reward for their active participation and good conduct in Project FLEX – which are, of course, outcomes directly tied to their belief in themselves.

Launched in the fall of 2018 by Jacobs, colleague and officemate Zachary Wahl-Alexander and graduate student Tim Mack, Project FLEX (Fitness Leadership Experience) offers structured physical activity to young men within the facilities and aspirations and resources to lead more productive lives outside once their sentences are completed.

By May of 2019, three young men earned the privilege of the project’s first campus trip.

Coming to DeKalb provided this month’s pair with tours of Huskie athletic facilities, the Rec Center and the Omega Delta fraternity house. They ate endless helpings of lunch in New Hall. They played hoops in an Anderson Hall gym.

Yet their favorite part of the day, they would say in a debriefing session, came in the classroom.

Blending easily among the regulars, they learned from Jacobs about Bandura’s four states of self-efficacy: performance accomplishments, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion and emotional arousal.

Performance accomplishments are the best predictor of future behavior. Nothing breeds success like success.

Vicarious experiences – forming ideas about personal abilities by observing what others can achieve – are nearly as powerful. The feedback and encouragement of verbal persuasion are less strong, while the perceptions of feelings during emotional arousal can alter levels of confidence and are, therefore, the weakest predictor.

Students demonstrated their understanding by looking at pictures of various situations and, in consultation with partners, holding up color-coded cards to express which of the four states were in play. No answers were wrong if well-reasoned and defended, Jacobs said, and some students did indeed hold up two, three or even four cards at a time.

The professor also explained the “vicious cycle” of self-fulfilling prophesies, fed by the endless march of beliefs that fuel expectations that influence behaviors that produce results – a process likely familiar to people in correctional facilities.

Jacobs later handed off to Gabrielle Bennett, a Ph.D. student in the NIU Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, who divided the classroom into nine groups – all guests included in the random clusters – for an icebreaking activity.

Briskly answering “hot seat” questions about dream vacations, favorite foods and more uncovered connections and raised eyebrows between strangers of diverse ages and backgrounds, providing yet another glimpse of life, culture and possibilities on a college campus.

GRADUATE STUDENT TIMOTHY MAHONEY, who is pursuing an M.S. in Kinesiology and Physical Education with a specialization in Sport and Exercise Psychology, is a facilitator in Project FLEX’s Swole Patrol.

Developed as Project FLEX grew at the Illinois Youth Facility in St. Charles, Swole Patrol offers one-on-one personal training and leadership development twice weekly to six clients who qualify and remain eligible through good behavior.

Mahoney, who came from his native Deerfield to earn his B.S. in Psychology from NIU in May 2020, glimpsed the possibility during his first semester on campus. He was taking KNPE 310 when the FLEX team presented in the classroom.

“I remember trying to sneak into Project FLEX that same day,” Mahoney said.

Why?

“Just the opportunity to work with youth, and to provide them life skills they need to use outside facility once they’re done,” he said. “I’m really fortunate to have some great mentors, and people really need that, so I hope to be that for someone.”

He views the young men from a “strengths” model: “I think it’s the situation, not the person. It’s important to give people the opportunity to succeed rather than just judging them at face value.”

As an official member of FLEX team now, and as coach of the basketball squad at St. Charles, Mahoney is discovering truths about the young men, about himself and about the importance of being “genuine” with others.

“I’m learning how similar we all are,” he said. “When you work with juveniles who are incarcerated, at the end of the day, they’re just kids. They’re still just teenagers. They still love to joke around, and we have a lot of fun.”

Personally, “I’m learning how sport can influence us outside of competition,” he added. “I think I’m a pretty confident, outgoing individual, and getting to interact with the youth has really strengthened my views on myself, and also has changed some of the ways that I view leadership. Leadership and respect are earned, not given.”

Mahoney, who has played lacrosse “pretty much all my life,” including on the club level at NIU, plans a career working with athletes as an applied sport psychologist: “The mental side of sports has really been exploding the past few years,” he said. “It’s only right that the next generation of athletes is given resources to succeed on and off the field, and I think I can contribute.”

Knowledge and skills gained through FLEX will prove beneficial.

“It’s always something different each day we go into the facility, whether it’s working with someone to get over some sort of anxiety related to hitting a new personal record in the weight room, or encouraging a player who missed two free throws in a row,” he said.

“We’re always working on, ‘How can we get better at this? What can we do? What little tips and tricks can I give you mentally that will give you an edge over your opponents?’ ”

Calculating the power of the Nov. 9 campus visit toward that goal is impossible.

“Coming here gives them a great perspective on something that they might have heard about but don’t know firsthand,” Mahoney said. “As much as can talk about life at NIU, there’s nothing like bringing them to campus, giving them a taste of what it’s like to go eat at the dining hall and to experience a classroom setting. It’s a really unique opportunity. It gives them a taste of what could be.”

SEVEN HOURS AFTER THEIR ARRIVAL in DeKalb, the two young men and their chaperones from Warrenville gathered around a table in Anderson Hall to reflect on the day.

It was a time to chill, said Wahl-Alexander, an associate professor of Physical Education, and the next hour did produce smiles, laughter and posing for pictures with disposable cameras.

Questions were plentiful; answers were revealing.

For example, as both declared the 74-minute class as the best part of their visit, one called it “fun.” It had been so long since he’d been in a classroom. It also wasn’t what either had imagined of a college classroom, of an old professor lecturing students to sleep.

But, clearly, the lesson had broken through. Thinking of the self-fulfilling prophesies that Jacobs had spoken on, one connected it to his negative thoughts at night while locked up and how those emotions can determine how he approaches the coming day.

They talked about the pizza and the Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal they’d gobbled in the dining hall. They talked about whether they could see themselves as college students and, if so, their majors. Criminal Justice, one said.

They talked about the conversations they’d had with NIU students, the stories they might tell their counterparts when they returned to Warrenville and the advice they would give the visitors chosen for the next on-campus field trip in the spring: “Bring some shoes that don’t hurt your feet.” “Ask questions.”

They talked about what they would change to the day’s agenda: more classes, please. They learned about the process of applying for admission and financial aid.

They heard what their chaperones and the Project FLEX graduate assistants had enjoyed about the day. Watching them simply walking through campus. The chance to eat a meal with them. To play basketball with them. To witness their interactions with college students. To see them immersed in the moment without the walls of Warrenville literally and figuratively bearing down on them.

“Do you feel different?” Jacobs asked.

“I feel different,” one answered.

“How?”

“I feel like one of y’all.”