Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I want to recognize the blessings in disguise that brought me to this moment. The life changing event that temporarily disabled me and forced me out of my job. The awakening I had to recommit my life to education led me to the Weber State Prime Program with it‘s amazing and supportive faculty paved the way to my success. I am forever grateful for the guidance and support of the WSU Special Education faculty that empowered me to embrace the career of a ―speducator‖ and transcend it as Master of Education. Secondly, I am grateful for my amazing sons Ryan, Colin and Jonny. For without their commitment to being good boys so mommy can get her homework done it could have been a lot harder. Lastly, without the grace of humility I am grateful for my own perseverance and dedication. Christy, you have no one to thank but yourself for achieving this. You did this while raising 3 sons literally by yourself. You worked so hard to model for your boys that hard work and perseverance pays off. You and only you made this and all the beauty that is the life you live happen. Be grateful and proud for all that you believe in and have achieved. You are worth it, keep striving for excellence! Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ 5 NATURE OF THE PROBLEM.......................................................................................... 6 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................. 10 What Core Standards Are Missing .......................................................................... 10 Demand for Noncognitive Skills ............................................................................. 12 What do we call this stuff? Soft-Skill Characteristics and the Domains of Wisdom ................................................................................................................... 14 Common Domains of Wisdom ................................................................................ 16 Measuring Wisdom ................................................................................................ 17 Measurements of Child Wisdom ............................................................................. 19 Teaching to Wisdom & Existing Soft-Skills Curriculum ....................................... 20 Problems with Teaching Beyond the Core .............................................................. 21 SUMMARY ...................................................................................................................... 23 PURPOSE ......................................................................................................................... 25 METHOD ......................................................................................................................... 27 Operationally Define Wisdom & Instrument Design .............................................. 27 Table 1 Rubric for Question Feedback .......................................................... 29 Developing Wisdom Curriculum ............................................................................ 30 RESULTS ......................................................................................................................... 31 Data Analysis .......................................................................................................... 33 Table 2 Data Analysis ................................................................................... 33 General Knowledge and Social Advising Domain ................................................. 33 Decisiveness Domain .............................................................................................. 34 Emotional Regulation Domain ................................................................................ 34 Pro -Social Behavior Domain ................................................................................. 35 Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 4 Insight Domain ........................................................................................................ 35 Tolerance for Divergent Values Domain ................................................................ 35 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................... 37 Limitations ............................................................................................................ 39 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 42 APPENDIX A Version 1 Youth Wisdom Scale with Feedback and Ratings ................... 48 APPENDIX B Revised Youth Wisdom Scale .................................................................. 52 Table B1 Revised Youth Wisdom Scale Questionnaire .......................................... 52 Table B2 Revised Youth Wisdom Scale Score Sheet ............................................. 54 APPENDIX C Wisdom Unit Plan .................................................................................... 56 Lesson 1 Tolerance for Divergent Values ............................................................... 57 Lesson 2 Decisiveness ............................................................................................. 61 Lesson 3 Social Advising ........................................................................................ 63 Lesson 4 Emotional Regulation ............................................................................. 66 Lesson 5 Pro-Social Behaviors ............................................................................... 69 Lesson 6 Insight ...................................................................................................... 71 Wisdom Lesson Plan Template ............................................................................... 76 Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 5 ABSTRACT Wisdom is a widely understood construct with a variety of definitions that involve different personality constructs, but generally there is agreement that these traits are used towards a purpose of creating a common good. Empirical research has found that the six most common referred to domains of wisdom are general knowledge and social advising, emotional regulation, decisiveness, pro-social behavior, tolerance for divergent values and insight when combined to serve the common good can considered wisdom. Wisdom can be measured, and it can be taught however there are no measures of wisdom designed for children. The purpose of the project is to develop an initial version of a Wisdom Scale for students 8-12 old by defining wisdom constructs and establishing content validity and to create a pedagogically diverse and core-content rich unit of study to teach students through the constructs of the domains to use wise thinking towards creating a common good. Feedback from educators and wisdom scholars were used to design this Youth Wisdom Scale and scoring sheet and to inform the direction of the unit of study and associated lesson plans. The measurement tool and unit of study have the potential to be used to assess and inform strengths and weaknesses, measure intervention efficacy as well as help guide further instruction and make instructional decisions that transcend academics. The measure can also inform differentiation in the classroom and can lead to a better understanding of the learning needs of students. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 6 NATURE OF THE PROBLEM Traditional schooling is failing to prepare students beyond smarts, intelligence, and academic achievement while society is lacking wise leadership (Sternberg, 2013) and the economy is demanding more non-cognitive and soft skills (Deming, 2017). It is imparting students with academic knowledge from an antiquated design in an ever-changing world, ―our schools are educating children for a world that no longer exists; our Industrial Revolution curriculum and teaching methodologies are so obsolete‖ (Wolk, 2017, p. 47). Education policy is failing to pay attention to non-cognitive skills even though parents and teachers agree that they are an essential part of developing individuals in society (Garcia, 2016). Many educators believe that there is more to education than just academic achievement, that ―children can pursue their deepest interests and develop as autonomous individuals when they are freed from the confines of traditional schooling‖ (Wheatley, 2009, p. 27). Karl Wheatley reflected on his experience as an educator and as a non-traditional schooling parent, stating ―we pay much more attention to ‗missing standards‘ such as positive emotions, love of learning, initiative, creativity, and persistence‖ (Wheatley, 2009, p. 27). If students fail to develop these missing standards, also described as non-cognitive, 21st century or soft skills, then they may be less prepared to adapt to an unknown future and address issues dealing with social differences and societal changes. When considering society, and the most important issues facing the world, teaching methodologies can prioritize some of these missing standards in addition to the core curriculum and evolve education for the benefit of the common good of all human beings. One way to support students beyond academics while fostering missing standards is to look at and teach to the domains of wisdom. Wisdom can be defined in many ways but is Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 7 primarily the ability to seek the common good for all human beings. For wisdom ―what matters is not only how much knowledge you have, but how you use that knowledge‖ (Sternberg, Reznitskaya, & Jarvin, 2007, p. 144). Like the missing standards, measurable domains of wisdom include but are not limited to social and personal dispositions and experience as opposed to academic knowledge. The six most cited and agreed upon domains of wisdom include social advising, emotional regulation, pro-social behaviors, insight, tolerance for divergent values and decisiveness (Thomas et al., 2019). The benefit of looking to the domains of wisdom as another layer of essential skills that should be included in education is that these domains map out human personality traits that the world is demanding (Deming, 2017; Heckman & Kautz, 2012). They are measurable (Bangen, Meeks, & Jeste, 2013) and teachable (Bruya & Ardelt, 2018; Sternberg et al., 2007). Teaching methodologies can bridge knowledge and wisdom by building upon what already exists in the core curriculum and educate more holistically, beyond academics. Education inclusive of wisdom and developing wise thinking strategies based on the domains is a way to address the skills needed to try to solve the most important issues facing society. Wisdom among adults ―is a uniquely human but rare personal quality which can be learned and measured and increases with age through advance cognitive and [emphasis in original] emotional development that is experience-driven‖ (Jeste et al., 2010, p. 678). Assessment tools have been designed to measure specific ways of thinking and behaving that result in a wisdom score. Three measures which have areas or domains of wisdom in common are the Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS) developed by Jeffrey Webster (2003), San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD-WISE) (Thomas et al., 2019), and the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS) developed by Ardelt (2003). The areas that are measured within these three Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 8 assessments include social advising, emotional regulation, pro-social behaviors, insight, tolerance for divergent values, decisiveness, critical life experience, openness, reminiscence, and reflectiveness, cognitive and affective (Ardelt, 2003; Thomas et al., 2019; Webster 2003). These domains of wisdom are aligned with what Wheatley (2009) described as the ―missing standards‖ in education and essential personality traits that the economy and society are demanding (Heckman & Kautz, 2012). There are some barriers to educating students beyond academics with a wisdom-based curriculum. Many teachers have difficulty finding the time to integrate these soft skills into their instruction of strictly regulated curriculum (Education systems not arming students with 21st-century skills, 2015). Educators may consider these wisdom domains as essential skills that are important for students to acquire but the academic rigor is such that they are not consistently present in instruction. The core standards as they are presently written take up a lot of instruction time and there is little room to add more (Prensky, 2014). If teachers were to add more what would it be? There is a variety of popular soft-skills curriculum that teachers have access to, both designed for the general education class and intervention, including Mindfulness (Schonert- Reichl & Roeser, 2016), Grit (Duckworth, 2016) and Growth Mindset (Dweck, 2008) among others. Of these various curricula, there are limited ways to determine their efficacy by way assessments to show instructional integrity and transfer of skills to primary aged students. Also, these interventions are limited in scope, they focus on one or two of the domains of wisdom, so the assessments that do exist only reflect the limited focus of wise thinking. Teachers make time to teach to what the students are being assessed on, and with no known assessments for wisdom for school-age children (Bangen et al., 2013) how could a teacher make instructional decisions based on students‘ present levels. Without a measure it's Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 9 difficult to determine if the instruction is effective, therefore this project will develop a wisdom measure that would be appropriate for assessing growth and development of wisdom among children. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 10 LITERATURE REVIEW The problem with traditional curriculum is that it only addresses academic (cognitive) knowledge as measured by standardized tests, not essential character traits. Implicitly, non-cognitive skills are an important part of education both in traditional school outcomes and the development of individuals in society (Garcia, 2016). There is a need for wisdom-based curriculum spiraled into the core curriculum and supplemented throughout teaching methodologies, presently few strategies exist to explicitly nurture soft-skills within school or education policy (Garcia, 2016). Is cognitive ability alone enough to prepare students for meaningful life outcomes? According to Flynn (1998), Intelligence Quotients (I.Q.) have been rising at a rate of 9 points per generation or every 30 years. This ability to impart academic knowledge and increase areas of intelligence including cognitive processing, memory, and analytical skills is important and should not be dismissed; however, "increases in intelligence— at least as measured by I.Q.—have not been matched by obvious comparable increases in wisdom‖ (Sternberg, et al., 2007, p. 147). As educators, through data-driven quality instruction, we are in part responsible for this increase of intelligence, we can also be responsible for the increased wisdom that benefits the greater society through the same type of quality instruction. Domains of wisdom encompass both skills and disposition while our traditional schooling focuses fundamentally on academic knowledge. Incorporating wisdom in traditional education can provide a more holistic approach to promoting socially responsible global citizens. What Core Standards Are Missing Established by the Board of Education, a core standard is a statement of what a student enrolled in public school is expected to know and be able to do at a specific grade level or following completion of an identified course (National Governors Association Center for Best Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 11 Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010) and includes knowledge acquisition and academic achievement in reading, math, science and social studies. Students who are successful at scholastic achievement are not necessarily prepared to tackle the most important issues facing society. Research reveals that academic achievement is not the only predictor of success (Schanzenbach et al., 2016) and that intellectual ability needs to be matched by the subcomponents of wisdom, ―the rise in IQs among the socioeconomic elite does not seem to have created a happier or more harmonious society, and one only has to read the daily newspapers to see examples of the poor uses to which high IQ can be put. Judging by the amount, seriousness, and sheer scale of global conflict, perhaps not much of the increase in IQ is going towards creating a common good‖ (Sternberg et al., 2007, p. 144). However, education policy is neglecting and overlooking the importance of non-cognitive skills in education and the lives of our students (Garcia, 2016) and not explicitly providing the strategies to respond to the most important issues facing society. The most important non-economic issues facing the United States today is poor leadership and immigration (Gallop Poll, 2019). Today‘s core curriculum does not explicitly designate standards about developing leadership skills or how to understand and address immigration concerns (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010), but instead uses core standards of reading, math, science and social studies "as "proxies," or "vehicles" for teaching and acquiring many of the truly needed skills" (Prensky, 2014, p. 2). To meet the demands of society, the core needs to be inclusive of these essential skills not just as proxies but make the space in education to teach beyond academics. Simply acquiring the knowledge about such essential human development traits through proxies is not enough; "teaching for social responsibility is about providing children Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 12 with the skills, knowledge, and dispositions to critique today's society and to work for a better world" (Wolk, 2017, p. 654). Domains of wisdom encompass both skills and disposition while our traditional schooling focuses primarily on academic knowledge and neglects non-cognitive skills in favor of test preparation (Garcia, 2016). However, ―standardized achievement tests do not adequately capture many skills that matter in life‖ (Heckman & Kautz, 2012). Incorporating wisdom in traditional education as core standards that students are expected to know can provide a more holistic approach to promoting socially responsible citizens. Demand for Noncognitive Skills The U.S. Economy is demanding more non-cognitive skills (Schanzenbach, Nunn, Bauer, Mumford, & Breitwieser, 2016) with ―evidence of strong relative employment and wage growth for social skill-intensive occupations‖ (Deming, 2017, p.29). Jobs that require both social skills and cognitive skills fare much better in employment opportunities and wage growth in comparison to cognitive skills only, such as high math skills but low social skills (Deming, 2017). If students fail to develop these soft skills, there are not only economic disadvantages but also social, emotional and educational disadvantages. Most students spend 18 years of their life following the rules of their school and not contributing to the decisions that influence those rules, with no say in the place where they spend most of their days (Littky & Grabelle, 2004). In the 720 days and 5400 hours of sitting in high school classes little is taught about financial literacy, pitching a tent or fixing a bike, all practical life skills, ―rather, nearly all of [the student‘s] high school experience involved the study of academic content that would be needed mainly to pass a test or a class and not allowed to learn about what brings meaning and joy to our everyday lives‖ (Wolk, 2017, p. 48). Accountability to the core standards has been associated with increased Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 13 stress and mental health issues for students (Hirsch-Pasek, Golinkoff & Eyer 2004) and the test-driven curriculum is contrary to the developmental needs of children including ―fun, freedom, competence, and genuine relatedness‖ (Wolk, 2007, p.30). Teacher effects on behavior predict larger impacts on graduation rates; teachers can influence both cognitive and non-cognitive skills and effects on both behavior and test scores more than doubles the predictability of graduation and longer-run outcomes (Jackson, 2018). Research compiled by the Hamilton Project (Schanzenbach et al., 2016) found that in addition to cognitive skills, noncognitive skills are integral to educational performance and the labor market, both are indicators and predictors of success. In addition to demanding more noncognitive skills, jobs are rewarding these skills and those with fewer noncognitive skills are being left behind (Schanzenbach et al., 2016). Noncognitive development can directly improve student achievement and behavior-related problems thereby reducing chronic absenteeism and disinterest (Jackson, 2018). Teachers are in the unique position to support noncognitive development among students, ―a teacher‘s ability to improve noncognitive skills has more effect on graduation rates than does her ability to raise test scores‖ (Schanzenbach et al., 2016, p. 9). Traditional education is failing to provide our students with meaningful and applicable life skills, ―the educational system may not be focused on the skills that are in demand now and are likely to be in demand in the future‖ (Schanzenbach et al., 2016). Noncognitive skill interventions such as mindfulness (Schonert-Reichl & Roeser, 2016) result in improved academic achievement, positive social behaviors, reduction in conduct problems and emotional distress (Schanzenbach et al., 2016). As we learn more about how both cognitive and soft-skills have significant roles in supporting the flourishing of young people in the labor market and beyond it is critical that policies are prioritized and adjusted toward the development of soft-skills and Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 14 make the best possible use of the evidence demonstrating its importance . The overemphasis of academic achievement policies is depleting schools‘ capacities to nurture the personal and social development of their students (Garcia, 2016). What do we call this stuff? Soft-Skill Characteristics and the Domains of Wisdom Economist refers to them as non-cognitive skills, employers may call them 21st-century skills and soft skills among educators but in general, they are speaking to those essential character traits that predict and produce success such as persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit, and self-confidence (Tough, 2012). One way to categorize these essential traits is to look at the domains of wisdom. Wisdom, in general, is the ability to apply knowledge and experience to seek the common good for all human beings. Wisdom can be taught (Bruya & Ardelt et al., 2018; Sternberg et al., 2007) and its characteristics can be measured (Bangen et al., 2013). Wisdom has been defined by a variety of sources including Aristotle and Buddhist philosophers and more recently among empirical research designed to operationalize and assess wisdom. There are some overlap and common subcomponents that emerge in the research including knowledge of life, pro-social values, self-understanding, acknowledgment of uncertainty, emotional homeostasis, tolerance, openness, spirituality, and sense of humor (Bangen et al., 2013). While definitions and subcomponents vary, they do not include academic knowledge but the application of knowledge to situational awareness and deep interconnectedness to benefit others, enhance common humanity and matters of the human condition (Bassett, 2011; McClain, Ylimaki, & Ford, 2010). Overall, wisdom defined is most commonly considered as one's efforts to enhance the greater good of humanity. Domains of wisdom encompass both skills and disposition while our traditional schooling focuses primarily Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 15 on academic knowledge. Incorporating wisdom in traditional education can provide a more holistic approach to promoting socially responsible citizens. According to economic predictors, soft skills are important and should be prioritized in public policy as they can lead to life achievement and success (Heckman & Kautz, 2012) and economic advantage (Deming, 2017). Soft skills, like wisdom, are personality traits that are not well captured by measures of academic knowledge but are represented by ―conscientiousness, perseverance, sociability, and curiosity matter‖ (Heckman & Kautz, 2012, p. 452). In further describing these soft-skills, personality psychologists ―have arrived at a relatively well-accepted taxonomy of traits called the ‗big five‘, which includes openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (Heckman & Kautz, 2012, p. 454). The term traits refer to possibly inherited or permanent personality features, but they can also be learned (Heckman & Kautz, 2012, p. 452). Heritability studies have found that the personality traits are 40-60% heritable but that ―interventions, education and parenting can effect traits in lasting ways‖ (Heckman & Kautz, 2012, p. 452). Personality traits can predict outcomes, they are not solely dependent on heredity, ―interventions that promote beneficial changes in personality have an important place in a portfolio of public policies to foster human development‖ (Heckman & Kautz, 2012, p. 462). This means that if as educators we can influence positive personality development then public policy should make it a priority alongside academics. The ‗big five‘ are variations of wisdom subcomponents (Bangen et al., 2013) and measurements of wisdom can help to inform the development of these and other traits. Overall, the development of wisdom is more than simply learning a soft skill but is inclusive of personality traits and ways of thinking and behaving towards the greater good. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 16 Common Domains of Wisdom After researching various definitions of wisdom, Bangen et al. (2013) found these to be the most commonly cited subcomponents of wisdom: ―(1) social decision making and pragmatic knowledge of life, which relates to social reasoning, ability to give good advice, life knowledge, and life skills; (2) pro-social attitudes and behaviors, which include empathy, compassion, warmth, altruism, and a sense of fairness; (3) reflection and self-understanding, which relates to introspection, insight, intuition, and self-knowledge and awareness; (4) acknowledgement of and coping effectively with uncertainty; and (5) emotional homeostasis, which relates to affect regulation and self-control‖ (Bangen et al., 2013. p. 3). Wisdom is greater than the sum of its parts, behavior, and action is essential to wisdom as a construct (Bangen et al., 2013). These measurable subcomponents of wisdom coincide with the soft skills that are lacking within our society and are not captured by academic measures (Heckman & Kautz, 2012). In general, wisdom subcomponents are personality traits that are observable and measurable across a lifespan. The various empirically designed wisdom measurements, however, have only been used to assess adults and older adolescents; many were created from research in gerontology, the scientific study of old age and the aging process (Bangen et al., 2013). None have been designed to assess the unique developmental differences of school-age children. Questions on some assessments contain sensitive topics such as suicide, intimacy, and death (Gluck, 2018) and vocabulary and concepts that may be unfamiliar for younger participants. More research is needed for measuring wisdom for school-aged children, existing instruments are only designed and used for ages 14 and above (Bangen et al., 2013) and may not be developmentally appropriate. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 17 Measuring Wisdom Commonalities among measures of wisdom include three types of wisdom: personal, general, and other-related wisdom (Gluck et al., 2013). Personal wisdom is introspective, reflective and considers an individual‘s knowledge of themselves, others and the world around them (Gluck et al., 2013). Similarly, other-related wisdom is related to compassion and concern for others (Gluck et al., 2013). General wisdom pertains to cognition or the way of thinking and is not concerned with self-interest, but deeply considers complex problems beyond the obvious (Gluck et al., 2013). These three wisdom types include measurable subcomponents that vary among the scales designed to assess wisdom, some are more effective at measuring specific wisdom types than others (Gluck et al., 2013). Of the nine published Wisdom Scales (Bangen et al., 2013) two measures with significant strengths are the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS) (Ardelt, 2003), and The Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS) (Webster, 2003). These two scales are moderately correlated (Taylor, Bates, & Webster 2011) but focus on different subcomponents of wisdom with some overlap. Both the SAWS and the 3D-WS scales informed the development of The San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD-WISE), a new Wisdom Scale with psychological and neurobiological models of the trait (Thomas et al., 2019). Existing scales are either in a questionnaire or interview format, one a hybrid of both. Limitations inherent to these instruments, in general, include the "time consuming nature of transcribing and rating qualitative interviews, susceptibility of self-report measures to response bias and concerns about ecological validity (Bangen et al., 2013. p.6), but given the nature of its construct, wisdom can be measured by a variety of sources (Bangen et al., 2013). Neurobiological studies of wisdom also suggest further research in characterization, assessment and interventions related to wisdom (Meeks & Jeste, 2009). Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 18 The 3D-WS is a questionnaire developed and validated with adults 52 to 87 years old and contains 39 statements where wisdom is inferred through responses related to three dimensions including cognitive, reflective, and affective domains (Ardelt, 2003). The cognitive domain asks questions about the person‘s ―understanding of life or the desire to know truth‖ (Ardelt, 2003, p. 293). The reflective domain is concerned with a person's ability to not blame others and to be able to consider different perspectives; while the affective domain measures the person's positive emotions and how they treat others (Ardelt, 2003). The 3D-WS is designed to assess five subcomponents including decision making/knowledge, pro-social values, self-reflection, acknowledgment of uncertainty, and emotional homeostasis. The scale is rigorous and shown to be both reliable and valid, and its limitation is that it is associated with questionnaires in general (Bangen et al., 2013). The Self-Assessed Wisdom Scale (SAWS) is a 40-item questionnaire self-report measure of wisdom based on five subcomponents including critical life experience, openness, emotional regulation, reminiscence and reflectiveness, and humor (Webster, 2003). This measure was designed to assess individuals as young 17 years old up to 92 years across the lifespan; limitations associated with this assessment are that of questionnaires in general (Bangen et al., 2013). The San Diego Wisdom Scale (SD-WISE) narrows down the empirically-based definitions of wisdom into six commonly-cited content domains with psychological and neurobiological models of the trait, including social advising, emotional regulation, pro-social behaviors, insight, tolerance for divergent values, and decisiveness (Thomas et al., 2019). This scale is still being developed but could potentially offer a measurement that is both comprehensive and performance-based. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 19 Measurements of Child Wisdom A task battery designed for grade school students can allow for benchmarking comparisons across schools and individuals over time (Duckworth & Yeager, 2015). Based upon existing interventions and curriculum for teaching soft skills some measurements have emerged which are specific to those programs. Bestselling author of Grit (Duckworth & Duckworth, 2016) and pioneering psychologist, Angela Duckworth developed child-friendly scales of grit and self-control, they can be accessed on her website (http://angeladuckworth.com/research/) but warns that these scales were designed to assess individual differences and not differences within-individual changes in behavior over time. The Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure (CAMM) (Greco, Baer & Smith, 2011) could be a useful measure of overall mindfulness skills as ―CAMM scores were positively correlated with quality of life, academic competence, and social skills and negatively correlated with somatic complaints, internalizing symptoms, and externalizing behavior problems‖ (Greco, Baer & Smith, 2011, p. 606). The narrow scope of these measures only accounts for some domains of wisdom including emotional regulation and pro-social behaviors. The assessments that are currently available for students are associated with specific curriculum and sub-components of their content which may create bias limitations, they fail to provide the scope of the various domains of wisdom ―scalable batteries of performance tasks to assess various personal qualities would be of great value for program evaluation‖ (Duckworth & Yeager, 2015 p. 243). Benchmark measures of wisdom among adults are inclusive of a variety of subcomponents, but there is yet to be designed an all-inclusive measure of wisdom among children. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 20 Teaching to Wisdom & Existing Soft-Skills Curriculum Generally, success in life depends on the big five personality traits (Heckman & Kautz, 2012) and among behavioral scientists, there is a consensus that school and life success depend on much more than cognitive ability (Duckworth & Yeager, 2015). Wise thinking can be taught in the context of any curriculum content (Sternberg, 2013). As some curriculum uses core standards as vehicles for indirectly teaching some underlying wisdom subcomponents, ―we do not teach those things directly to our students, nor do those things compose our curriculum‖ (Prensky, 2014). Also, it is inherently a way of experiencing, participating and performing in certain situations involving wise decision making (Webster,2003), but developing wisdom cannot be ―accomplished through a didactic method of ‗imparting‘ information about wisdom and subsequently assessing students with multiple-choice questions‖ (Sternberg et al., 2007, p. 151). Some popular soft-skills curriculum support certain domains of wisdom including goal-directed effort and emotional regulation such as Grit (Duckworth, 2016), mindfulness (Greco, Baer & Smith, 2011), and growth mindset (Dweck, 2008). Other domains of wisdom can be addressed through innovative pedagogical practices such as project-based, experiential and social learning as they inherently have positive effects on wisdom domains such as pro-social behaviors, collaboration, relativism, insight and problem-solving (Bell, 2010). Instructional practices inclusive of wisdom rich curricula is shown to improve wisdom scores as measured by tools such as SAWS or the SD-WISE (Bruya & Ardelt, 2018). Educators can teach soft skills and develop wisdom among students but there is no policy or accountability to do so even despite the findings that ―longitudinal research has confirmed such qualities powerfully predict academic, economic, social, psychological, and physical well-being‖ (Duckworth & Yeager, 2015 p. 237). There are differing opinions on whose Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 21 responsibility it is to teach soft skills, and they are indeed difficult to teach because of factors such as large classes and limited time (Taylor et al., 2016). There is also some confusion about what to teach and how to measure personal qualities other than cognitive ability, but ―only measurement makes it possible to observe patterns and experiment‖ (Duckworth & Yeager, 2015 p. 237). Curriculum and instructional supports exist that can foster the domains of wisdom (Duckworth & Yeager, 2015), but without policy, accountability and a way to effectively evaluate program implementation why would our teachers be motivated to teach soft skills? Problems with Teaching Beyond the Core Although there is a considerable amount of concern about how teachers view common core standards they do, overall, have a positive view of the standards and their implementation (Matlock et al., 2016). Many teachers are not prepared to or even want to teach soft skills, ―many don‘t consider them as important as the math, language arts, science and/or social studies they were trained to teach‖ (Prensky, 2014, p.10). Additionally, teachers‘ workloads are changing and increasing and there is more pressure for assessments and data collection, analyzing and posting (Bridges & Searle, 2011). It‘s not just increased hours on the job however, several factors result in increasing teacher pressure including ―various reform agendas, particularly the consequences of inclusion policies, increased accountability procedures, increased parental expectations and the decline in student behaviour [spelling in original]" (Galton, 2008, p. 21). Many teachers have such a strictly regulated curriculum they don't have the flexibility or time to address other content (Education systems not arming students with 21st-century skills 2015; Prensky, 2014). Instruction time in the elementary classroom is limited after teaching English language arts (ELA), math core and test preparation current policy agenda leaves very Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 22 little room left for new science standards instruction (Marx & Harris, 2006), and we lack effective ways to merge soft-skills with our current math, language arts, science, and social studies teaching (Prensky, 2014). If the time is so limited with the existing required standards, how can teachers add more? Prensky (2014) states that ―there is no room to add, unless we delete‖ (p.10). The core is outdated, digital tools and social media are changing reading and writing, videos are becoming a more effective communication tool while literacy is taking on a new meaning (Prensky, 2014). There are different needs now that require different mixes of skills. Are ELA, math, science and social studies the core subjects‘ students need or are those evolving and changing with the times (Prensky, 2014). It may be uncomfortable to think about deleting some of the core, but as times change and research emerges about the importance of other skill development during the school years it is time to take a closer look at what parts of the core standards are truly essential (Prensky, 2014). Where it is possible to find room for wisdom instruction, there continue to be ineffective ways to measure its efficacy among students (Duckworth & Yeager, 2015). Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 23 SUMMARY Personality traits such as openness, Grit, perseverance, decisiveness and tolerance predict positive economic, social, psychological, and physical well-being outcomes (Heckman, 2013; Duckworth & Yeager, 2015). Wisdom involves the application of these personality traits and their qualities to seek the common good for all human beings. Research shows that instruction inclusive of wisdom rich curricula does improve wisdom scores as measured by tools such as SAWS or the SD-WISE (Bruya & Ardelt, 2018). Whether by proxy, through a standards-based vehicle such as social studies or direct instruction and experience, accountability to wisdom development is possible through these measures. Teachers should be encouraged, either by policy or curriculum reform, to implement effective wisdom instruction. However, there are no valid measures that exist for K-12 students, ―a potentially solvable engineering problem, in the medium term, is to create a suite of brief, scalable, age-specific performance tasks designed for group administration.‖ (Duckworth & Yeager, 2015 p. 243). Creating a developmentally appropriate way to measure performance tasks related to wisdom domains could not only provide direction towards individualizing intervention and instruction but also give teachers a way to evaluate the efficacy, especially when schools have limited funds, they need to ensure that their curriculum is used wisely (Duckworth & Yeager, 2015). If wisdom achievement is valued and seen as a desired outcome for how to live, an intellectual virtue that enables a person to make reliably good decisions and is a lofty and important ideal to strive for, it too should be reflected in education policy and core standards. This project proposes the development of a standardized measure of wisdom for children as a lens into students‘ wisdom development, ―existing questionnaire and performance task measures are rarely sufficiently reliable to use for diagnosis‖ (Duckworth & Yeager, 2015 p. 245). This measure can shed a light on areas a child Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 24 may be struggling, succeeding or excelling in overall wisdom development and be used for program evaluation and instructional practice improvement. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 25 PURPOSE The purpose of the project is to develop an initial version of a Youth Wisdom Scale for students 8-12 old by defining wisdom constructs and establishing content validity and to create a pedagogically diverse and core-content rich unit of study to teach students through the constructs of the domains to use wise thinking towards creating a common good. There is evidence wisdom can be taught (Bruya & Ardelt, 2018; Sternberg, 2013) and that the world is demanding the non-cognitive skills involved in developing wisdom (Deming, 2017; Heckman & Kautz, 2012; Schanzenbach et al., 2016). There are various instructional strategies to teach to and improve upon the domains of wisdom (Bruya & Ardelt, 2018; Sternberg, 2013), but there are not any known measures designed for school-aged students that can assess the efficacy of instruction (Bangen et al., 2013) and this is why I chose the 8-12 year old age range, to fill that need. Teachers are lacking the time and the resources for wisdom-based instruction and are not being held accountable for using such a curriculum (―Education systems not arming students with 21st-century skills, 2015; Prensky, 2014). Often schools have limited funds and resources, should they include wisdom-based instruction they need a way to know if their curriculum is effective (Duckworth & Yeager, 2015) and that is why this project proposes to create an instructional unit and assessment tool for wisdom development among school-aged students between 8-12 years old. This age range was chosen because there are existing measures of wisdom for students older than 12 years of age. Additionally, instructional material and assessment tools will be designed to meet developmental appropriateness of students within this age range. The objectives of this project are to: 1. Operationally define the 6 most referred to and agreed upon domains of wisdom for 8-12 year-old students. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 26 2. Design a developmentally appropriate and scalable battery of performance for domains of wisdom among school-aged students between 8-12 years old. 3. Create a unit of study inclusive of lesson plans for each of the six domains of wisdom designed to teach school-aged students between 8-12 years old. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 27 METHOD Wisdom can be taught and measured (Bangen et al., 2013; Bruya & Ardelt et al., 2018; Sternberg et al., 2007), but the lack of assessment measures for children 8-12 years old‘s is a barrier to the inclusion of these skills in educational curriculum (Duckworth & Yeager, 2015). This project includes wisdom curriculum and an instrument designed to measure wisdom among students age 8-12 years old. The instrument is a questionnaire assessing six of the most referred to wisdom domains including emotional regulation, pro-social behaviors, tolerance for divergent values, general knowledge and social advising, insight, and decisiveness (Thomas et al., 2019) by eliciting responses to related questions developed for children. The questions are carefully designed using age-appropriate and socially familiar language and scenarios with content designed with consideration of developmental stages, vocabulary, culture and gender. When presented the battery of questions, students will be able to rate their response using a Likert scale, rating their response from 0-5. The responses to the questions will report on present levels in the five domains of wisdom. Operationally Defining Wisdom and Instrument Design The first version of the battery (see Appendix A) was reviewed by a panel of three education professionals and five wisdom experts. The educational reviewers were an elementary special educator, a fourth-grade general education teacher and an elementary school psychologist. The special education teacher was chosen because of her unique ability to understand exceptionalities. The questionnaire needs to elicit a response and it is important that question content is clear and simple enough for most learners within 8-12 years old, despite their academic abilities. Additionally, special education teachers have a more advanced understanding of how various domains of wisdom may influence behavior. Her knowledge and Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 28 background on social and emotional aspects of wisdom is a strength in determining question design. The general education teacher was able to inform question content appropriateness for age and diverse learners as they are engrossed in developing curriculum and instruction that reaches the developmental needs of students daily. They also are familiar with pedagogical methods that are common and familiar to a classroom setting that can inform socially appropriate scenarios for question content. A school psychologist has the important role of formally assessing students' abilities based on age and administering assessments that inform many areas of development. They routinely elicit responses from students to help inform a deeper understanding of a student's unique abilities. The school psychologist is familiar with the format of the assessment and will be able to provide essential feedback as to question design quality and formation. The wisdom scholars had knowledge of the empirical studies of wisdom and are familiar with the latest research on the topic and provided essential feedback as to the relatedness of the question content to the construct of wisdom. A rubric for the experts was generated as a guideline for feedback that informed the measure and the lessons. The developmentally appropriateness and further refining the construct of wisdom in terms of their domains guided the revised measure, the essential question and the learning objectives of the unit of study. The professional and scholarly reviewers were provided a rubric as shown in Table 1. The criteria addressed in the rubric for education professionals was the appropriateness of question vocabulary for 8-12 year old‘s, across social settings, culture and gender specific factors. The rubric for the wisdom scholars was focused on the face validity for the question content and how well the it captures or represents the construct. For those questions that reviewers rated above a 2.3 average, only those with suggestions or comments for revision Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 29 were considered. Those with ratings below 2.3 average were generally not included, with one exception as shown in Table 1. Table 1 Rubric for Question Feedback Reviewer & Feedback Type Rating 3 Good Question Rating 2 Right Direction Rating 1 Not Effective Wisdom Scholar: Domain specific content The question content is appropriate for eliciting a response related to the domain The question content is somewhat appropriate for eliciting a response related to the domain The question content in not adequately related to the domain Education Professional: Uses tier 1 vocabulary The question uses easy to understand language and vocabulary for a typical 8-12 year old The question uses somewhat complicated language that may be difficult for a typical child 8-12 years old to understand The question vocabulary in unlikely to be understood by a typical 8-12 year old child Education Professional: Uses age appropriate and relevance The question is designed with familiar and everyday scenarios of typical 8-12 year olds The question uses somewhat immature or mature scenarios that a 8-12 year old would not find relevant The question is not appropriate for 8-12 year olds Education Professional: Uses culturally appropriate scenarios The question is relevant across cultures and does not have any implicit bias that would impact a genuine response The question is somewhat relevant across cultures or doesn't have any cultural relevance The question is implicitly or explicitly biased and/or favors a narrow cultural perspective Uses gender neutral scenarios The question is relevant across sex/gender/identity The question is somewhat gender biased The question favors one gender over another The reviewers were invited to respond to each question construct and appropriateness on an online form or emailed PDF if they preferred. With the rubric as a guideline, reviewers rated and commented on the first version of the Youth Wisdom Scale (see appendix A). Wisdom reviewers rated questions on a scale of 1-3 where a rating of 1 is not effective and the question content is not adequately related to the wisdom domain, rating of 2 is the right direction where the question content is somewhat appropriate for eliciting a response related to the domain and a rating of 3 is considered a good question and the question content is appropriate for eliciting a response related to the domain. Reviewers also had the opportunity for each question to leave Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 30 open ended comments and suggestions. The feedback collected was used to refine the instrument to its revised version (see Table B1) and scoring rubric (see Table B2). Additionally, reviewer feedback informed a unit of study including lesson plans teaching to the domains of wisdom to accompany the battery (see Appendix C). Developing a Wisdom Curriculum The lesson plans were designed to teach the domains of wisdom through experiencing and participating in wise decision making (Webster, 2003; Bell, 2010), where all decisions are with awareness towards the common good. This contrasts with teaching these constructs in a didactic method of imparting knowledge about the construct which is not effective (Sternberg et al., 2007). The unit plan and lesson framework included an essential question, learning objectives, success criteria, materials list and assessments ensure transfer of understanding. The lessons included a variety of pedagogical approached including collaborative and hands on , experiential learning, explicit and differentiated instruction and multidimensional engagement including kinesthetic, visual, acting and artistic expression. Additionally, lessons were designed to address core content when possible. Core content areas included in the lessons are vocabulary, cultural diversity, writing, reading, social studies, literacy, science, art, social emotional learning, and world history. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 31 RESULTS Professionals and scholars in the fields of wisdom and education provided feedback on questions designed to elicit a response related to the six domains of wisdom including general knowledge and advising, decisiveness, insight, emotional regulation, tolerance for divergent values, and pro-social behaviors. The education professionals rated the questions as to their developmental appropriateness and the scholars rated the appropriateness of the questions in eliciting a response related to wisdom. As shown in table 1, both the scholars and the education professionals were provided a rubric with associated rating scales for each question and opportunities for comments and specific feedback. Six education professionals were invited to participate by providing feedback to the questions in the original version of the Youth Wisdom Scale on a online form. Three accepted and provided feedback on the developmental appropriateness of the original 43 questions in accordance to the rubric shown in Table 1. The three educational reviewers included a School Psychologist with 25 years‘ experience working in K-12 Public Schools across the country, including Title I schools. One General Education Teacher, presently teaching 4th grade. She has been teaching in at a charter school focusing on Waldorf Education in various lower elementary grades for over 5 years. The Special Education teacher has been teaching upper elementary for 2 years and previously she was a special education para-educator for 3 years in public and charter school setting. For clarification purposes, I would like to state that I am also a special education teacher, however I was not a reviewer for the questions. Nine scholars in the field or wisdom research were invited to participate in the project by reviewing the original 43 questions on an online form. Five individuals responded to the form and provided feedback based on the wisdom construct rubric (see Table 1) that helped to shape Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 32 the revised version of the scale and the associated lesson plans. The wisdom scholars included a Senior Lecturer and a researcher from the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago Center for Practical Wisdom. Two researchers were developers of two of the most used wisdom scales and one was a publisher of wisdom instruction research and literature. Of the 43 original questions, 19 were revised based on feedback and were included in the refined version of the battery (see Table B1), this achieved the standard of three, but no more than five questions related to each domain. As shown in Table 2, of the questions rated below 2.3, all but one was eliminated from the refined instrument because their content was not found to be strong enough to elicit a response for the domain construct and did not have reasonable suggestions for improvement. Much of the feedback about the questions were related to value statements and epistemic humility. For epistemic humility a wise person would possibly be too humble to rate themselves high on this scale, this is a problem with self-reporting scales in general because of the susceptibility to response bias (Bangen et al., 2013). Careful consideration was made to question wording to reduce the effects of epistemic humility. Also, some of the original questions were framed as value statements such as ‗It‘s okay to make mistakes‘. When considering refinement these questions were restated as personal statements such as ‗it upsets me to make mistakes‘, this example has also been reverse coded. Some of the questions were specifically suggested to be reverse coded to yield a stronger construct related response. Overall feedback suggested a mix of reverse coded responses in the measure to reduce repeated question pattern recognition. Based on the feedback the refined version of the battery included six questions that were revised to include reverse coding (see Table B1 and B2). Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 33 Data Analysis The researchers provided feedback based on the rubric and open-ended comments for the six domains of wisdom. As shown in Table 2, the feedback was compiled in a spreadsheet where common patterns and different perspectives were identified. Table 2 Data Analysis The feedback was synthesized and provided the following results for each domain: General Knowledge & Social Advising Domain The domain of General Knowledge and Social Advising was described to wisdom reviewers as the knowledge regarding ways of dealing with life‘s problems. The notion of dealing effectively with the constant complex social situations with which humans are confronted. The ability to give good advice, life knowledge, and life skills. The questions related to General Knowledge were not retained in the final version because of the lack of relatedness to the construct of wisdom. Two questions were retained from the original version from this section. Question 5 scored a 3 by the wisdom reviewers but comments to strengthen epistemic humility resulted in a Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 34 word changing from ―good‖ to ‖pay attention to‖. Question 2 scored a 2.2 by the wisdom reviewers but suggestions for revision to reduce epistemic humility and to rewrite as a statement of recognizing the difficulty of advising was suggested. These changes were made, and the question was retained. Also, feedback suggested that the social advising and decisiveness should be combined in a separate category. Due to this suggestion, combined with lack of good questions for this domain this suggestion was accepted, and the revised Youth Wisdom Scale combined Social Advising and Decisiveness resulting in 5 domains. It also should be noted that questions that were related to the general knowledge construct were heavily dependent on life experience which is much more related to age and more difficult to assess among young people. Decisiveness Domain The domain of Decisiveness was defined to wisdom construct reviewers as the ability to make quick and effective decisions. Two of the original questions were retained for the revised version. Based on the feedback one question rating 2.6 was split into two separate questions because it appeared to be measuring two aspects of the domain as it relates to wisdom. Those two aspects were rewritten as two separate questions (Questions 3 and 4). Question 4 was randomly selected to be reverse coded as per suggestions from the reviewers to add reverse coded questions to the instrument. Question 1 in the Revised Scale was score 2.6 by the wisdom reviewers and 3 by the education professionals. It was retained in it‘s original form because four of the five reviewers rated it a 3, good question. Emotional Regulation Domain The domain of Emotional Regulation was defined to wisdom construct reviewers as emotional homeostasis, inhibiting prolonged negative emotions and impulse control. Scoring an average Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 35 rating of 2.4 or higher, four questions were retained and revised for this domain. The revisions included reverse coding, more descriptive wording for question clarity and change from value statements to I statements. All revisions were based on direct feedback from reviewer as noted in Appendix A. Pro-Social Values Domain The domain of Pro-Social Behaviors was defined to wisdom construct reviewers as empathy, compassion, altruism, and a sense of fairness. The five questions that were retained for this domain were all rated 2.4 or above by the wisdom reviewers and averaged a 3 rating from the education professionals. As noted in Appendix A the revisions primarily were based on wording and value statements. Several of the questions were rephrased as ―I strive‖ or similar ―I‖ statements. Six questions were originally retained but due to restricting the questionnaire questions to 3-5 per domain each one was eliminated. Insight Domain The domain of Insight was defined to wisdom construct reviewers as the ability and desire to understand oneself and one's actions at a deep level. Three items were retained for this domain. Question 15 in the revised version (Table B2) was rated 3 by both the wisdom reviewers and the education scholars and was retained with no revisions. The remaining 2 were rated over 2.4 average and has enough suggestions for improvement such as reverse coding and language clarity. Tolerance for Divergent Values Domain The domain of Tolerance for Divergent Values was defined to wisdom construct reviewers as value relativism -being nonjudgmental and accepting of other value systems. Five questions Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 36 were retained from this section. Questions 19 and 22 in the revised version (Table B2) were rated 3 by both the wisdom and educational reviewers and were retained unchanged. The average rating of the remaining retained questions was 2.8. These questions were slightly modified to reflect ―I‖ statements, and synonymous word changes were made for more age appropriate vocabulary. Of the original 43 questions, those which scored 2.3 or below were generally not included in the refined version of the youth Wisdom Scale (see Appendix A). This is because of feedback indicting the lack of relatedness to the construct of wisdom (see Appendix A) therefore not meeting enough criteria based on the definition of the construct to measure the domain. The feedback collected from the reviewers was used to refine the instrument producing three to five content-specific, age, culturally, gender and language-appropriate questions related to five of the domains (see Table B1). Totaling to 22 questions, the revised version of the battery measures five domains of wisdom (see Table B1) resulting in a sub-score in the domains and contributes to an overall composite score (see Table B2). Wisdom Scholar feedback was used to further refine the domains of wisdom as they relate to students. The revised measurement tool created questions to elicit a response related to the associated domain in the construct of wisdom. Those questions informed the direction of the lessons, whereby using a variety of instructional methodologies the lessons sought to instruct students in experiencing wise thinking towards creating a common good. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 37 DISCUSSION This project sought to bring attention to wisdom for young children by designing instruction and measurement of the construct. Feedback from experts in the field of wisdom and education was synthesized to contribute to the formulation of educating beyond academics. Education has made many important strides towards acknowledging and supporting soft-skills among students and this project further reinforces these efforts by framing wisdom based instruction, practice and assessment. The project objectives were to operationally define the six most referred to and agreed upon domains of wisdom, use feedback to questions designed to elicit responses related to the domain constructs to create a developmentally appropriate and scalable measure for wisdom and to construct a unit of study inclusive of lesson plans for each of the six domains of wisdom designed to teach wise thinking to school-aged students between 8-12 years old. A discussion of these objectives is as follows: 1. Operationally define the six most referred to and agreed upon domains of wisdom so the construct can be taught and measured. By eliciting feedback from the wisdom scholars who further helped to shape the domains and the questions that would elicit a domain specific response. Based on feedback from the reviewers five of the six domains were found to be constructs where questions to elicit responses from children based on the construct could be achieved. The general knowledge domain was difficult to measure. The questions related to this construct were challenging to formulate and were related more to gaining skills through life experience (Thomas et al., 2019). The key contributions of the feedback were used to shape the measurement tool and the learning objectives of the projects wisdom curriculum. 2. Design a developmentally appropriate and scalable battery of performance for domains of wisdom among school-aged students between 8-12 years old. For this objective the Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 38 findings of the project are that questions that elicit responses to specific domains of wisdom among children can be developed. Careful consideration of epistemic humility should be considered when designing questions because most wise people would be too humble to rate themselves too highly. Reverse coding and careful word choices need to not be too prone to positive self-image. 3. Create wisdom curriculum inclusive of lesson plans for each of the six domains of wisdom designed to teach school-aged students between 8-12 years old. Teachers find it difficult to make the time and space in their instruction to allow for space for adding more (Education systems not arming students with 21st-century skills, 2015; Prensky, 2014). If there were room, they lack the direction and effective ways to merge soft-skills into their instruction (Prensky, 2014). This project provides the framework for thinking about the soft-skills that align with wisdom. The unit plan‘s essential question of ‗how can I use wise thinking towards creating a common good?‘ can be integrated in all aspects of curriculum. The question of common good is relevant to content areas, behavior management, social development and communication. The wisdom lesson plans (see Appendix C) are suggestions for explicitly teaching these 5 domains of wisdom. These domains can be taught in a variety of ways, but the overarching objective is wise thinking towards the common good. Imparting the wisdom construct through instruction cannot be accomplished (Sternberg et al., 2007), however teaching and strengthening each domain may have the effect of overall wisdom. And with lasting and enduring reinforcement of wise thinking in learning students can reach objectives beyond academics, towards the common good. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 39 Limitations Some limitations of the study included the lack of student feedback. A field test involving a rubric and feedback from students assessing their understanding of the questions and the lesson plans would have been warranted since they are the ones the project was developed for. However, due to time constraints this was not possible. Feedback from curriculum designers for aspects like Grit or other character education programs would have been useful and could also be a limitation. Review and feedback as to the lesson design and content would have been prudent, although great effort was put into the lesson content based on the domains some wisdom scholars have stated that wisdom cannot be taught in a didactic manner nor by proxy (Bangen et al., 2013), and these lesson plans (Appendix C) are designed to explicitly teach to the five constructs of wisdom. Also, the Likert scale used in the revised version of the Youth Wisdom Scale was not rated as to its efficacy in soliciting a response, could the smiles be too suggestive for eliciting an accurate and unbiased response, are they necessary at all for that age group? Another limitation with the Youth Wisdom Scale is the nature of self-reporting in general given that ―there is difficulties using self-report to assess one‘s wisdom given that a key component of wisdom relates to recognizing one‘s own limitations‖ (Bangen et al., 2013 p. 6), however this limitation was greatly minimized by the solicited feedback on key items from the experts in the field. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 40 CONCLUSION In conclusion I am satisfied with the results and the overall collaborative efforts of this project. Some practical uses for the tool and curriculum are to assess and inform strengths and weaknesses, measure intervention efficacy as well as help guide instructional decisions that transcend academics. The measure was designed to isolate personality traits that can support informing differentiation in the classroom and can lead to a better understanding of the learning needs of students. This is important to me as a special education teacher as my role is greatly dependent on incorporating a variety of strengths to boost learning. Many of my students struggle with accessing traditional curriculum and they may feel inadequate or insecure about their abilities. Often what follows is low self-image, anxiety and social isolation. I feel that with these types of lessons and measurements all students can find ways to support one another and the common good despite their abilities, disabilities, hardships or marginalization‘s. And, when harnessed, the wisdom learned and applied during one‘s youth can continue to develop and evolve over time and become a pervasive part of creating towards the common good of all mankind. The construct of wisdom is inclusive of so many critical areas of healthy social development. As I reflect on the implications of the project, they directly relate to the students who I have worked with in the past including those who have experienced generational poverty, war, death, abuse, trauma and many other mental health afflictions. Or to students in the news who are filled with so much anger and hate they are triggered into extreme acts of violence. I wonder how I as an educator can teach beyond the scope of academics to access these students‘ basic human needs. I alone cannot, but if I can support and instruct to wisdom then I can recruit students and teachers in my mission towards creating a common good for all mankind. By developing a scale, we can see where students have strengths and weaknesses and plan Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 41 interventions for addressing those weaknesses. With collaborative and experiential learning students of all abilities can come together in discovering and growing towards creating a common good that transcends the scope of academic achievement. Future work could include the development of a more robust unit of study inclusive of more lesson plans and a spiraled curriculum which would continue to reintroduce and reinforce the domains of wisdom over time. The revised version of the Youth Wisdom Scale could be sent back out to the researchers for further revision and collaboration. Wisdom as a construct is gaining much traction and education could benefit from paying attention to the directions and implications of the research. Especially as so much of the construct of wisdom overlaps with the social-emotional and developmental needs of our students. Incorporating collaborative efforts with existing data driven curriculum that ties to the construct of wisdom such as Grit and Growth Mindset and culturally rich curricula can increase the availability of instruction and intervention within the wisdom construct framework. Possibilities are emerging and wisdom in education is a new, exciting and important work that I am excited to be a part of. Moving forward the impact of this work can continue to strengthen public opinion and policy as to the importance of wise thinking towards creating a common good. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 42 REFERENCES Ardelt, M. (2003). Empirical assessment of a three-dimensional wisdom scale. Research on Aging, 25(3), 275-323. doi:10.1177/0164027503251764 Baltes, P. B. & Staudinger, U. M. (2003). The search for a psychology of wisdom. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2(3), 75-81. doi:10.1111/1467- 8721.ep10770914 Bangen, K. J., Meeks, T. W., & Jeste, D. V. (2013). 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Measuring the character strength of wisdom. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 65(2), 163–183. doi:10.2190/AG.65.2.d Wheatley, K. F. (2009). Unschooling: An Oasis for Development and Democracy. Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice, 22(2), 27–32. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 47 Wolk, S. (2007). Why go to school? Phi Delta Kappan, 88(9), 648-658. Wolk, S. (2017). Educating students for an outdated world. Phi Delta Kappan, 99(2), 46-52. doi:10.1177/0031721717734190 Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 48 Appendix A Version 1 Youth Wisdom Scale with Feedback and Ratings V1 Questions for General Knowledge and Social Advising Average Content Rating (1-3) Average Developmentally Appropriate Rating (1-3) Keep/Revise/Remove V2 Revised Question I am good at noticing how others are feeling 3 3 Keep with suggested word change to reduce epistemic humility I pay attention to notice how others are feeling. I have made the best out of some very tough times in my life 2.2 2.9 Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A I have seen a lot of bad choices in my life, like dishonesty and stealing 1.6 2.9 Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A My life has been filled with many difficult changes 1.2 2.9 Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A I give people good advice 2.2 3 Revise due to adequate suggestion for improvement reducing epistemic humility If asked for advice I consider the other person‘s perspective. I learn a lot about life from others around me 2.4 3 Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A V1 Questions for Emotional Regulation Average Content Rating (1-3) Average Developmentally Appropriate Rating (1-3) Keep/Revise/Remove V2 Revised Question When I am upset I feel like I can think clearly 2.4 3 Revise based on suggestions: reverse code and wording clarity When I am upset I cannot think clearly (Reverse Code) I can stay calm when I am worried 3 3 Revise based on wording suggestions When I am worried I try to think about things that help me stay calm I never get so angry that I would want to hurt or destroy things 2.6 3 Remove due to lack of suggestions for improvement and a low rating for meeting the criteria for the construct N/A I am rarely too shy to express my wants and needs 2.25 2.9 Vocabulary Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A I am comfortable speaking about my feelings 2.4 3 Revise based on the wording suggestions I am comfortable thinking about my feelings Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 49 When I score poorly on a test I see it as a chance to improve 2.4 3 Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A It‘s okay to make mistakes 2.4 3 Revise based on suggestions of value statement and reverse code It upsets me when I make mistakes (Reverse Code) I notice when my feelings are changing 2.4 3 Remove due to no adequate suggestions for improvement N/A I can tell how others around me are feeling 2 3 Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A V1 Questions for Pro-social Behaviors Average Content Rating (1-3) Average Developmentally Appropriate Rating (1-3) Keep/Revise/Remove V2 Revised Question I go out of my way to help others 2.6 3 Revise based on the wording suggestions I make an effort to help others It‘s okay to not always be in charge 2 3 Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A Being fair is always important 2.6 3 Revise based on the suggestion of value statement I try to be fair whenever possible When I see someone who is hurt I help right away 2.6 3 Revise based on suggestions of wording and epistemic humility When I see someone who is hurt if I am able to I will help right away When I see someone drop cash by accident I would let them know right away 2.8 3 Not revised based on inadequate suggestions for improvement -removed due to too many questions and questionable relatability of wording N/A It‘s important to treat others the way I want to be treated 2.4 3 Revise based on suggestions of value statement and wording I strive to treat others the way they want to be treated Being kind is always important 2.4 3 Revise based on suggestions of value statement I strive to be kind V1 Questions for Insight Average Content Rating (1-3) Average Developmentally Appropriate Rating (1-3) Keep/Revise/Remove V2 Revised Question It is important for me to think about my actions 3 3 No revision based on meeting content criteria It is important for me to think about my actions I often think about my thinking 2.6 2.9 Vocabulary Revise based on suggestions of understanding and wording I cannot tell how my thinking affects my actions (reverse Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 50 code) I usually match my feelings to my actions 1.6 2.9 Vocabulary Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A I can explain the reason for my actions 2.4 3 Revise based on suggestions to reverse code I do not understand the reasons for my actions (reverse code) I can think outside of the box 1.8 2.9 Culturally Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A When I look at works of art I usually find a deeper meaning than if I like it or not. 1.5 3 Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A V1 Questions for Tolerance Average Content Rating (1-3) Average Developmentally Appropriate Rating (1-3) Keep/Revise/Remove V2 Revised Question I am curious about other cultures 2.8 2.8 Age Revise based on suggestions I am willing to accept ideas and values from other cultures I am curious about other religions 2.2 3 Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct and repetitive N/A I like listening to ideas that are different than mine 3 3 No revision based on meeting content criteria I like listening to ideas that are different than mine I like to try new things 2.2 3 Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A I like a lot of different music styles 1.4 3 Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A I respect other people‘s ideas and beliefs when they are different than my own 2.8 3 Revise based on wording suggestions I strive to respect other peoples‘ ideas and beliefs when they are different than my own It‘s okay when my friends have different ideas than mine 2.8 3 Revise based on wording and value statement suggestions I‘m okay with it when my friends have different ideas than mine I am interested in learning about other cultures 2.8 2.9 Vocabulary No revision suggested, remove due to repetitive question N/A I like to listen to ideas other than my own, even when they are different 3 3 No revision based on meeting content criteria -reverse code I don‘t like to listen to ideas that are different than mine Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 51 V1 Questions for Decisiveness Average Content Rating (1-3) Average Developmentally Appropriate Rating (1-3) Keep/Revise/Remove V2 Revised Question I can easily pick between 2 choices 1.5 2.8 Vocabulary & Culture Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A I usually stick to my decisions 1.8 3 Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A I know what is best for me 2.2 3 Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A I can quickly make choices that benefit every one involved 2.6 2.8 Vocabulary & Age Revise due to suggestion to separate into 2 questions and wording I try to make decisions that benefit everyone involved. I have a hard time making decisions. (Reverse Code) I consider others needs when making decisions 2.6 3 No revision suggested, meets adequate criteria with ⅘ reviewers rating it a 3 I consider others needs when making decisions When someone needs to make a choice they often look to me for help. 1.8 3 Remove due to not meeting the criteria for the construct N/A Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 52 Appendix B Table B1 Revised Youth Wisdom Scale Questionnaire Question Number Question Rating 1 I consider others needs when making decisions 2 If asked for advice I consider the other person‘s perspective 3 I try to make decisions that benefit everyone involved. 4 I have a hard time making decisions. 5 I pay attention to noticing how others may be feeling 6 When I am upset I cannot think clearly 7 When I am worried I try to think about things that help me stay calm 8 I am comfortable thinking about my feelings 9 It upsets me when I make mistake 10 I make an effort to help others Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 53 11 I try to be fair whenever possible 12 When I see someone who is hurt if I am able to I will help right away 13 I strive to treat others the way they want to be treated 14 I strive to be kind 15 It is important for me to think about my actions 16 I cannot tell how my thinking affects my actions 17 I do not understand the reasons for my actions 18 I am willing to accept ideas and values from other cultures 19 I like listening to ideas that are different than mine 20 I strive to respect other peoples‘ ideas and beliefs when they are different than my own 21 I‘m okay with it when my friends have different ideas than mine 22 I don‘t like to listen to ideas that are different than mine Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 54 Table B2 Youth Wisdom Scale Score Sheet Question Number Revised Version Question High Score Domain 1 I consider others needs when making decisions 5 Social Advising & Decision Making 2 If asked for advice I consider the other person‘s perspective 5 Social Advising & Decision Making 3 I try to make decisions that benefit everyone involved. 5 Social Advising & Decision Making 4 I have a hard time making decisions. 1 Social Advising & Decision Making 5 I pay attention to noticing how others may be feeling 5 Social Advising & Decision Making 6 When I am upset I cannot think clearly 1 Emotional Regulation 7 When I am worried I try to think about things that help me stay calm 5 Emotional Regulation 8 I am comfortable thinking about my feelings 5 Emotional Regulation 9 It upsets me when I make mistakes (Reverse Code) 1 Emotional Regulation 10 I make an effort to help others 5 Pro-Social Behaviors 11 I try to be fair whenever possible 5 Pro-Social Behaviors 12 When I see someone who is hurt if I am able to I will help right away 5 Pro-Social Behaviors 13 I strive to treat others the way they want to be treated 5 Pro-Social Behaviors 14 I strive to be kind 5 Pro-Social Behaviors 15 It is important for me to think about my actions 5 Insight 16 I cannot tell how my thinking affects my actions 1 Insight 17 I do not understand the reasons for my actions 1 Insight 18 I am willing to accept ideas and values from other cultures 5 Tolerance for Divergent Values 19 I like listening to ideas that are different than mine 5 Tolerance for Divergent Values 20 I strive to respect other peoples‘ ideas and beliefs when they are different than my own 5 Tolerance for Divergent Values 21 I‘m okay with it when my friends have different ideas than mine 5 Tolerance for Divergent Values 22 I don‘t like to listen to ideas that are different than mine 1 Tolerance for Divergent Values Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 55 For each rating the high score listed equals the value of 5. For reverse coded (high score 1) the values are as follows: Response of 1 = value 5 Response of 2 = value 4 Response of 3 = value 3 Response of 4 = value 2 Response of 5 = value 1 Scoring: Social Advising and Decision Making Add the value of each response ___/5 = _______ Sub-score for domain Emotional Regulation Add the value of each response ___/4 = _______ Sub-score for domain Pro-social Behavior Add the value of each response ___/ 5= _______ Sub-score for domain Insight Add the value of each response ___/ 3= _______ Sub-score for domain Tolerance for Divergent Values Add the value of each response ___/ 5= _______ Sub-score for domain Add the value of all responses ___/ 22= _______ Total Youth Wisdom Score Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 56 Appendix C Wisdom Unit Plan Essential question: How can we use wise thinking towards creating a common good? Learning Objective Goals: By the end of this unit, students will be able to demonstrate wise thinking towards creating a common good through: 1. Recognizing emotional regulation and apply calming skills to manage emotions and impulses. 2. Demonstrate tolerance of other ideas and values by understanding how other value systems can be useful for wise problem solving 3. Wise decision making and advise giving that benefits everyone involved 4. Being empathetic, show compassion and fairness to others 5. Use these skills towards wise decision making and problem solving List of Lessons: Lesson 1 Tolerance for Divergent Values Lesson 2 Decisiveness Lesson 3 Social Advising Lesson 4 Emotional Regulation Lesson 5 Pro-social Behaviors Lesson 6 Insight Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 57 Lesson 1 Tolerance for Divergent Values Age group 8-12 years Wisdom Domain: Tolerance for divergent values - being nonjudgmental and accepting of other value systems. Essential question: How can we use wise thinking towards creating a common good? Learning Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to demonstrate tolerance of other ideas and values by understanding how other value systems can be useful for wise problem solving. Task Description: Define values and tolerance using examples and develop strategies to be non-judgmental and accepting of others‘ values towards creating a common good. Product/Performance: Assessment Criteria: Student can describe something he/she values and why and can describe something he/she doesn‘t value and explain why that different value can be useful and accepted. Plan for Learning Materials: Written definition of values (below) on transparency/whiteboard/smartboard Written definition of tolerance (below) on transparency/whiteboard/smartboard Magazines Scissors Glue Sticks Print out of images below Post-its Teacher instructions: Tell students we are going to work on developing wise thinking Review the Essential Question: How can we use wise thinking towards creating a common good? Teacher: When developing wise thinking one thing we must consider is how we tolerate the values of others. Part 1: Write the word value on the board. Have the students work in pairs to come up with their own definition of the word value. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 58 Collect the student‘s definitions and read some of the examples. Then read and show the definition of values: values are the standards and beliefs that people personally consider worthwhile and desirable. Values are related to our sense of what is right or wrong. Examples of values include qualities such as honesty, kindness, generosity, and responsibility Teacher: Looking at this picture I see qualities that I think this person values such as kindness, helping and generosity. Teacher: Looking at this picture what qualities do you think this person values? Students response may list qualities such as adventure, exploring, playing Independent Practice: Using scraps from a magazine make a collage that represents some qualities which you value. Match words of qualities that you identify as your own values related to the pictures you choose. Teacher may model their own college with 3-5 qualities listed Part 2 Tolerance: Write the word tolerance on the board. Have the students work in pairs to come up with their own definition of the word tolerance. Collect the student‘s definitions and read some of the examples. Then read and show the definition of tolerance: the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with. Examples of demonstrating tolerance is being non-judgmental by appreciating and accepting differences in people by being understanding and patient. “I can tolerate listening to my baby brother cry, but I do wish it would stop! Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 59 Teacher: Looking at this picture I see a baby crying, I tolerate the behavior of crying, I try to understand why and appreciate that this baby has different needs. Teacher: Looking at this picture how do you think these animals are demonstrating tolerance? Students response may include they are different, but they are able to get along. Group Activity: Provide each student post it notes. Have them do a gallery walk of all the value collages (these can be on display on desks or walls). Students should write the values that they agree with on the post-it and put it next to the collage. Discussion Prompt the students with the following discussion points: Did students agree with all the class‘s values? Some? None? How did they feel about the values that they saw? Why should we tolerate these differences? Follow up questions with ―what makes you say that‖. Why is tolerance for divergent values wise thinking? Insert towards a common good (the essential question) into the discussion. Assessment: Write a summary of how you can tolerate different values. Writing prompt (suggested prompt for sentences): I qualities I value are___________. Other students value things that are different than mine such as___________________. I tolerate these differences and different values because_______________. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 60 How is tolerance for different values creating towards a common good? Answer‘s will vary, identified values should align with collage and classroom discussion and should include a description about how it relates to wise thinking and the common good. Additional Resources: https://www.the-best-childrens-books.org/teaching-tolerance.html https://www.tolerance.org/classroom-resources/lessons Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 61 Lesson # 2 Decisiveness Age group 8-12 years Wisdom Domain: Decisiveness- the ability to make quick and effective decisions Essential question: How can we use wise thinking towards creating a common good? Learning Objectives: Students will be able to demonstrate wise decision making that benefit everyone involved, towards creating a common good. Task Description: Students will engage in a collaborative task to engage thinking about considering others needs when making decisions. Product/Performance: Participation in engagement in meaningful responses and discussion. Assessment Criteria: Reflective writing* Plan for Learning Materials:  Blank poster paper (4)  Blank paper  Sticky notes Teacher instructions: State the objective of the lesson and the restate the essential question Teacher: Making decisions can sometime be easy and sometimes it can be hard. It’s even harder when you are making decisions that benefit everyone, not just yourself. Wise decision making involves considering the needs of everyone to formulate a decision that is towards creating a common good. Being decisive is to have the ability to make quick and effective decisions. When using wise thinking decisiveness can be applied to making a tough choice by what will achieve the greatest common good. Activity: Compass Points is a routine that uses a compass and its directions to denote specific thought prompts. Write the titles for each direction, one on each large piece of paper. For E or East represents Excitement, what are the students excited about. W or west represents worries, what are students worried about. N or North represents needs, what else do the students need to be better prepared to investigate the idea and S for South represents stance, steps and suggestions. It could be most effective when exploring issues with different perspectives. Students who may have a need for power and control or attention seeking are given an opportunity to voice their opinions or stance and express, possibly consider other perspectives that would help develop their opinion further. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 62 Teacher: Today we are going to make a wise decision about our class party. Usually, we may take a vote. But this time we are doing to try to plan for the common good of our class. We all have different ideas; can we make a decision that reflects the common good? Teacher: Identify student Excitement about wise decision making. What excites you about whole decisiveness. What might others be excited about? Invite students to write sentences, words or pictures on a sticky note and add to poster marked ―E‖. If students have difficulty spelling invite the picture and document their thoughts and words. Teacher: Identify Worries, what worries do you have about whole wise decision making? What concerns you? Is there a downside to this plan?” Invite students to write sentences, words or pictures on a sticky note and add to poster marked ―W‖. If students have difficulty spelling invite the picture and document their thoughts and words. Teacher: Identify Needs, Ask What do we need to know? Is there more information we need to gather so we can understand or prepare for decisiveness? Invite students to write sentences, words or pictures on a sticky note and add to poster marked “N”. If students have difficulty spelling invite the picture and document their thoughts and words. Teacher: Identify Stance, Steps, Suggestions: Probe students, how do you feel about wise decision making? Do you agree or disagree? Do you see an upside or a downside? Do you have any suggestions about decisiveness? Invite students to write sentences, words or pictures on a sticky note and add to poster marked “S”. If students have difficulty spelling invite the picture and document their thoughts and words. For each compass point give a genuine example and add it to the poster board along with theirs, as a culture of thinking it‘s important that all individuals are represented, including teachers, paras, aids and students. Share your thinking (can occur after each compass point or after all have been addressed. Review common ideas in each compass point, especially during needs since this is an area where the lesson can get some new energy and evolve. Stance, steps and suggestions is also a great place to do a solid review of ideas, this is where the class decides if there is buy in and commitment to this idea and if there needs to be any adjustments to make it work for that class culture. Discussion: Reflect with the students on weather this was a difficult task and how they felt about making decisions that benefit everyone involved. Assessment: Students write an individual reflection about the activity and how it made them feel. Some points to look at are if they are able to identify the struggle and the rewards of collaborative decision making. *Activity Continued: This lesson has a second part. The assessment reflective writing will be used for lesson 3, social advising. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 63 Lesson 3: Social Advising Age group 8-12 years Wisdom Domain: Social Advising -the ability to give good advice. Essential question: How can we use wise thinking towards creating a common good? Learning Objectives: Students will be able to advise others and deal with problems and apply life knowledge and skills to complex social situations. Students will be able to apply what they have learned from difficult situations to complex social situations, valuing all perspectives towards creating a common good. Task Description: Students will create a short skit about a complex social situation and the class will engage and respond with the presenters by giving good advice. Product/Performance: Responses in group activity will be reflective of giving good advice Assessment Criteria: Participation and responses are related to the giving good advice. Independent practice follows the steps of giving good advice. Plan for Learning Materials: Teacher instructions: State the objective of the lesson and the restate the essential question Teacher: Read a collection of reflections from Lesson 2. Point out some struggles from the decision-making activity that the students identified. List some of the struggles that the students may have identified. Post the steps for giving good advice and go through each step as we work through the list of struggles: 1. Ask permission to give advice you can say ―can I give you some advice‖ 2. Give them a chance to express their feelings and share their perspective, even if they need to rant. 3. Be honest and empathetic 4. Avoid judging, show tolerance for their different ideas and values 5. Give advice with consideration of their perspective, collaborate your ideas and theirs 6. Offer support and compassion 7. Don‘t make promised 8. Speak from your heart Group Activity: In a small group student will come together and plan and act out a difficult social situation they have encountered. After students have come up with a social situation that they found difficult they will share it and act it out with the class. Each group will present their complex social situation. Class will respond, call on students in the class to model each step and engage with the presenting group for each giving good advice steps. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 64 Independent Practice: Worksheet attached. Teacher: In order to demonstrate your understanding of giving good advice read this story and use the steps below to give good advice to the main character. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 65 Lesson 3 Social Advising Practice Sheet Directions: Demonstrate your understanding of giving good advice read this story and use the steps below to give good advice to the main character in this story. Write it in narrative format, use quotations to mark when the character is speaking. There once was a girl known as Little Red Riding Hood, and she always wore a red riding cape wherever she went. One day, she decided to go visit her dear grandmother, who lived deep in the woods. When her mother packed a basket of treats, she warned her not to talk to strangers along the way. As Little Red Riding Hood happily strolled through the woods, she did not notice the sneaky wolf stalking her through the trees. The wolf, pretending to be lost, asked Little Red Riding Hood for directions. The wolf seemed harmless enough, so Little Red Riding Hood not only spoke to him, she also revealed Having locked her grandmother in the closet, the wolf waited for Little Red Riding Hood to arrive. When she knocked on her grandmother‘s door, she was greeted by a strange voice. ―Come in dear,‖ said the wolf. As the wolf lay in bed, wearing one of her grandmother‘s nightgowns, Little Red Riding Hood thought her grandmother sounded and looked strange. ―What big ears you have,‖ she said. ―Better to hear you with my dear,‖ replied the wolf. ―What big eyes you have,‖ said Little Red Riding Hood. ―Better to see you with my darling,‖ the wolf replied. ―Your teeth, your teeth are large and as sharp as knives!‖ Little Red Riding Hood exclaimed. ―The better to eat you with!‖ growled the wolf as he jumped up and lunged at the girl. Luckily Little Red Riding Hood had practiced self-defense and grabbed with his tail between his legs. Little Red Riding Hood freed her grandmother from the closet, and her grandmother made Little Red Riding Hood promise not to talk to strangers ever again. Steps for giving good advice: 1. Ask permission to give advice you can say ―can I give you some advice‖ 2. Give them a chance to express their feelings and share their perspective, even if they need to rant. 3. Be honest and empathetic 4. Avoid judging, show tolerance for their different ideas and values 5. Give advice with consideration of their perspective, collaborate your ideas and theirs 6. Offer support and compassion 7. Don‘t make promised 8. Speak from your heart Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 66 Lesson 4: Emotional Regulation Age group 8-12 years Wisdom Domain: Emotional Regulation - affect regulation and self-control Essential question: How can we use wise thinking towards creating a common good? Learning Objectives: Students will be able to describe calming strategies and appropriate behaviors when they have big feelings. Students will be able to demonstrate emotional regulation. Task Description: Students will engage in a hands-on activity where they will build a model of a triune brain out of playdough and experience calming strategies Product/Performance: Students should be able to demonstrate 2-3 calming strategies and explain when they would use them. Assessment Criteria: Write a brief exit ticket describing 2-3 calming technique and a time when it would be useful to use. Plan for Learning Materials: Playdough Triune Brain Handout Teacher instructions: State the objective of the lesson and the restate the essential question. Today we are going to explore our brains and discover how our brain in responsible for our big feelings and actions. Begin with a group activity. Give students brain handout Teacher: The watchdog part of your brain has an extra special job. It sends messages to the other parts of your brain about how you are feeling. The watchdog tells our brain how we are feeling, and we can react with our reptilian brain or use thinking brain to find solutions. Begin playdough activity as described on handout. Students will build the triune brain out of playdough Teacher: It’s up to that watchdog to make the best decision and this is how we react. The watchdog part of our brain is where we regulate our emotions, before the t-rex or the wise owl begins their job we need to learn how to keep our watchdog calm so it can send the right messages to the rest of your brain.. Discussion Teacher: Sometimes when people have big feelings, or their watchdog is reacting in a big way to something that is going on it helps to use familiar calming strategies. Think about a time when your watchdog was reacting and share ways you have or could have calmed your watchdog. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 67 Write Calm down strategies on a whiteboard and brainstorm with the group ways they use to stay calm. Some ideas include count to ten, take several deep breaths, belly breathing, meditate, take a walk, get a drink of water, draw. Teacher: Is it okay to get upset or excited, yes. But we need to be able to regulate our emotions so that these big feelings don’t get in the way of wise thinking and creating towards a common good. Independent Practice: Students will choose 5 calming strategy listed from the discussion brainstorming activity. They will practice each strategy and pick 2-3 that they like best. Assessment: Students will write a brief exit ticket describing 2-3 calming technique and a time when it would be useful to use. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 68 Create your own model of the brain using the image below to guide you. Make sure to include the survival brain, emotional brain and thinking brain (in three different colors). Have fun making your own play dough brain. Survival Brain -reptilian  Fight, flight, flee  Arousal heartbeat  Respiration  Sleeping & Eating  Reactive Emotional Brain -limbic  Affect regulation  Empathy  Affiliations & Connections  Tolerance Thinking Brain -neocortex  Abstract reasoning  Problem solving  Creativity  Respect  Cause and effect thinking  Anticipate consequences Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 69 Lesson 5 Pro-Social Behaviors Age group 8-12 years Wisdom Domain: Pro-Social Behaviors e.g., empathy, compassion, altruism, and a sense of fairness. Essential question: How can we use wise thinking towards creating a common good? Learning Objectives: When confronted with adversity, students will be able to demonstrate a sense of fairness and kindness by helping others in need. Task Description: Brainstorm ideas of creating fairness and compassion, create prayer flags based on students‘ ideas. Product/Performance: Engagement with the activity. Assessment Criteria: Creating a prayer flag that represents compassionate, fair, empathetic or altruistic thinking. Plan for Learning Materials: 9" x 12" or smaller piece of smooth fabric (or old sheets) in blue, white, red, green, or yellow (see below for symbolism behind each color) Fabric paint or fabric markers (or sharpies in various colors) Safety pins Fishing line or other hanging string Large poster board/ craft paper Teacher instructions: State the objective of the lesson and the restate the essential question Teacher: Compassion for others in our class and community can open hearts towards creating a common good. When one demonstrates compassion, they show sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. They go out of their way to be kind and fair whenever possible. In this lesson, first we will brainstorm ways we can like to build community compassion then we will make classroom community prayer flags. 1. Think-pair share brainstorm ways you show sharing and caring with compassion and fairness in your home, classroom and community. Using a large poster board/ craft paper each group will list their ideas. 2. Post the group brainstorms around the classroom 3. Students will do a gallery walk to discover different ideas of all the students 4. Using examples of compassion, empathy and fairness students will create their own prayer flags Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 70 Tibetan Prayer Flags Activity Teacher: Traditionally, prayer flags carry messages of peace, compassion, prosperity, or happiness. Prayer flags are a rich part of Tibetan Buddhist culture, they are colorful panels or rectangular piece of cloth often hung along mountain ridges in the Himalayan mountains to bless the countryside or send out a message of goodwill. Prayer flags are thought to have originated in Tibet, and later became associated with Tibetan Buddhism. According to the Tibetan culture there are importance and significance of prayer flags (show examples). Prayer flags traditionally come in sets of five, using five different colors that represent the elements, arranged in a specific order: Blue for sky/space White for air/wind Red for fire Green for water Yellow for earth A horse, symbolizing speed or transformation, is usually placed in the center of a prayer flag, with four other animals at the corners: dragon, garuda (similar to an eagle), tiger, and snow lion. You can draw these or any other image that you would like on your flags. Directions for the activity: Think of a "prayer" or a wish to write on your flag from the examples of compassion, empathy and fairness provided by our class community (brainstorm activity). Think of a goodwill message that you would like to spread to our class, school, community and the world. Teacher: When the flags are finished, we will hang them up (find a place where air flows freely and hang the prayer flag between them with fishing line or string, pinning the string to the flag using safety pins). Tibetans believe that when the wind blows on a prayer flag, its message is caught and carried on the wind and spread to the rest of the world. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 71 Lesson 6 Insight Age group 8-12 years Wisdom Domain: Insight - the ability and desire to understand oneself and one's actions at a deep level. Essential question: How can we use wise thinking towards creating a common good? Learning Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will be able to demonstrate the wise thinking skill of insight and express the importance of understanding oneself and one‘s actions towards creating a common good. Task Description: Student‘s will explore the meaning of insight and what it means to be insightful. They will then use the wise thinking skill of insight toward addressing scenarios in creating a common good. Product/Performance: Students will use key words to prompt their thinking such as “understanding” or “awareness” of one’s own thinking. Students will be able to demonstrate metacognition with the support of a template to organize their thoughts. Assessment Criteria: Student can describe something he/she values and why and can describe something he/she doesn‘t value and explain why that different value can be useful and accepted. Plan for Learning Materials: Reflective Thinking Handout (below) Video of Tsunami: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z81Wtbhj0M Images of actions Teacher instructions: State and post the learning objective and restate the essential question. Read the following quote: “Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think. ~Dr. Martin Luther King Ask students: what thoughts come to mind when you hear these words. Guide students to reflect on what it means to think for yourself, awareness of one‘s own thinking, intuition and perception. Teacher: To have insight is to have the ability and desire to understand oneself and one's actions at a deep level. To do this we must be able to think or be aware of your own thinking. As Dr. Martin Luther King recognized having to think can be hard, but how about how your own thinking affects everything you do? This is to have insight. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 72 Handout: Using this reflective thinking template I am going to walk through a scenario where I may need to use insight towards creating the a common good. I will use awareness, understanding and perception of my own thinking. Here is a video of a problem, pretend I am the person in this video: Play 3 minute video of tsunami Reflective Thinking Self-Monitoring What is the problem or task at hand? The problem is I see a Tsunami coming What resources do I need to solve the problem?  Time?  Materials?  Help?  More information I think to myself, ―this is dangerous, this is a problem, I need to warn others and get to safety‖ How can I use my awareness to make sense of this problem? I am aware that I need to get to safety and I need warn others so that they can get to safety What is the best strategy for solving the problem or task? I will yell for others to get up quickly that there is a tsunami coming and use my body to show them to run for safety. Self-check: Does this make sense? Am I on the right track? Did I solve the problem? If not, what can I fix or do differently? Are people responding? If yes are we all safe, if not I can find others to help draw attention to the inherent danger Teacher: Using this video I was able to demonstrate how I can use reflective thinking when solving a very scary and intense situation. Usually we don’t need to be in danger to use insight to solve problems. In this example I used my thinking to drive my actions. Group Activity: Teacher: Looking at this picture here is the problem. We are having an ice cream party but we can only pick one flavor. Which one will we pick? Using the self-monitoring template begin a class discussion about possible ways to solve this problem towards a common good. Follow up questions with what makes you say that to model understanding the reasons behind the thinking and why they would choose that action. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 73 Reflective Thinking Self-Monitoring What is the problem or task at hand? Brainstorm what is the problem based on everyone‘s thinking. What resources do I need to solve the problem?  Time?  Materials?  Help?  More information List ideas of what we need to solve the problem How can I use my awareness to make sense of this problem? Discuss What is the best strategy for solving the problem or task? List student ideas Self-check: Does this make sense? Am I on the right track? Did I solve the problem? If not, what can I fix or do differently? List student ideas Independent Practice: Your turn to use your thinking to explain your actions. Using this self-monitoring handout pick a problem or task from the pictures, pretend you are acting the way the picture is showing and explain your thinking for your actions in solving it. Assessment: Can students demonstrate the wise thinking skill of insight and express the themselves and the reason for their actions? This can be done by reviewing the independent practice responses or asking students to tell about their thinking using the reflective thinking self-monitoring strategy. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 74 Reflective Thinking Self-Monitoring What is the problem or task at hand? What resources do I need to solve the problem?  Time?  Materials?  Help?  More information How can I use my awareness to make sense of this problem? What is the best strategy for solving the problem or task? Self-check: Does this make sense? Am I on the right track? Did I solve the problem? If not, what can I fix or do differently? Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 75 Pictures for independent practice Use own pictures demonstrate actions related to frustration, anger, sadness or annoyance. Teaching and Measuring Wisdom 76 Lesson Plan Template Lesson # Lesson Title Age Group: Wisdom Domain: Describe the domain and its definition as it relates to wisdom Essential question: How can we use wise thinking towards creating a common good? Or a question that provokes inquiry and understanding. This question should frame the lessons and the goals of the lesson should guide the students closer to answering the essential question. Learning Objectives: What skills, knowledge or understandings will the students be able to demonstrate to show proficiency on the domain. Task Description: Overall performance that the students will show engagement with learning to demonstrate progress towards understanding the domain. Product/Performance: What evidence will the student provide to demonstrate understanding. Assessment Criteria: How will the evidence of learning be evaluated? Plan for Learning Materials: Teacher instructions: State the objective of the lesson and the restate the essential question Independent Practice: Group Activity: Discussion: Assessment: Additional Resources: