Brown Bag Seminar: The Pedagogy of Confidence: Transforming Teaching to Improve Urban Student Achievement

Underachieving students fall short of their potential because too much time and energy is focused on remediation, says Yvette Jackson. These students do far better and demonstrate their intellectual potential when schools use “high operational practices,” such as those that identify student strengths, target high intellectual performances, and nurture their confidence. 

In this Brown Bag Seminar, Jackson will share the research presented in her book, Pedagogy of Confidence: Inspiring High Intellectual Performance in Urban Schools, which dispels the theory that student achievement is best improved by implementing policies that focus on weaknesses (such as No Child Left Behind). Jackson will review the findings of cognitive psychologist Reuven Feuerstein, as well as current findings in neuroscience that substantiate his research, and explain how they guided the development of seven replicable "high operational practices" that can increase the intellectual performance of adolescents. The discussion will include examples of how districts around the country have applied the Pedagogy of Confidence to transform beliefs, practices, and structures to conditions that ameliorate the confidence and competence of students and the teachers upon whom they rely.

Yvette Jackson, Ed.D. is internationally recognized for her work in assessing the learning potential of disenfranchised urban students. Her research is in literacy, gifted education, and the cognitive mediation theory of Dr. Reuven Feuerstein. She has applied her research to develop an integrated process to motivate and elicit potential in underachievers. This research was the basis for her design of the New York City Gifted Programs Framework when she was the Director of Gifted Programs. As Executive Director of Instruction and Professional Development for the New York City Board of Education, she led the development and implementation of the Comprehensive Education Plan which optimizes the delivery of all core curriculum and support services in the Public Schools of New York City.

Dr. Jackson currently serves as the chief executive officer of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education, founded at The College Board and Teachers College, Columbia University. She works with school district administrators and teachers across the country to customize and deliver systemic approaches to literacy development through instructional practices that integrate culture, language and cognition to expand and accelerate student learning and achievement. She is a visiting lecturer at Harvard University, a member of ASCD’s Differentiated Instruction Cadre and a keynote presenter at national and international conferences.

Dr. Jackson received a BA from Queens College of the City University of New York with a double major in education and French. At Columbia University’s Teachers College, she was awarded an MA in curriculum, an Ed.M. in educational administration, and a doctorate in educational administration. She is the author of The Pedagogy of Confidence: Inspiring High Intellectual Performance in Urban Schools (Teachers College Press, 2011).