BGSU Classroom Technology E-Mag Summer 2020 | Page 25

Children with gifts and talents may excel in specific academic areas of their schooling, however many gifted children need social and emotional learning programs to assist with peer relationships, perfectionism, asynchronous development, and stressful situations that they may experience. Social and emotional learning programs typically are integrated into Gifted and Talented programs for like-minded peers who are also gifted to learn together in a resource room. This service is usually provided in a school setting with a Gifted Intervention Specialist or other qualified professional. Programs range in variation from school district to school district, and because of state requirements, some districts may not even have a gifted program for their young achievers. To help children with gifts and talents manage their social and emotional learning, podcasting is a solution to assist students who may be in need of coping strategies when they are not with their teachers in school, or may not have programs to help them learn.

Podcasting, among many other digital tools are quickly becoming more and more popular not only among adults, but also among children. Podcasting for the classroom is easily becoming the next form of technology-integration for our students. Using podcasts in the classroom is simple for educators and students to access, and is just as easy for students and parents to access outside of the classroom. The vision for this research project is that podcasts could be a continuation of a gifted child’s social and emotional learning in a digital atmosphere so that they can continue to learn and develop strategies outside of the classroom whenever they may feel overwhelmed or in need. Additionally, these podcasts can be quite useful for educators or districts trying to start up a gifted program, and for parents who may be struggling to help their gifted child at home.

The research that I conducted was to find out if practicing social and emotional learning and coping skills in a digital atmosphere help gifted students develop strategies to deal with perfectionism, anxiety, stress, and social situations. My hypothesis is that listening to social and emotional podcasts will help gifted students develop and practice social and emotional learning and coping skills in situations outside of the classroom. The purpose for this research is to determine if digital podcasting is a helpful way for students to practice their social and emotional learning outside of the classroom and feel relief with the developed strategies that are suggested in the podcasts.

Before the research initially began, thirty 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade gifted students from the classrooms that I teach were asked to answer a questionnaire to get accurate information of their social and emotional levels of behavior before listening to the podcasts. After this pre-survey data was collected, the children were asked to listen to a series of social and emotional podcasts for a period of four weeks. After the four-week period ended, students answered a follow up questionnaire to determine the effects of social and emotional podcasting for gifted children and its usefulness.

The final results of the questionnaire state that 90% of students felt that the social and emotional lessons in the podcasts were helpful and 93% of students found at least some usefulness in the podcasts with 80% of students most likely to continue to use the podcasts for coping strategies after the research has been completed. With percentages this high, I have concluded that podcasting is effective for gifted learners to continue their social and emotional learning outside of the classroom. Important steps to take for the future would be to further survey students to determine specifically what kind of social and emotional learning they are most in need of or most drawn to. For example they may need more stress management scenarios and techniques, they might feel drawn to situations dealing more with perfectionism, or they may enjoy discovering and practicing more appropriate social behavior so that they can make friends easier. This will most definitely vary from student to student, class to class, and year to year, but in order to keep the podcasts effective and keep the interest for students to use them alive, the content in the podcasts must be relevant to the situations that they are dealing with and must be updated frequently to allow for new content.

26 Best Podcasts for Students in Elem, Middle & HS

The Grow Kinder Podcast

Social-emotional Learning Podcast

Read Aloud