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Calling for Cognitive Kindness

Man walks along a bridge surrounded by yellow trees
Fall Campus Scenes, Photo by Madison Park

Karen Yu is a professor of cognitive psychology at Sewanee: The University of the South and wrote an opinion piece in Insight Higher Ed calling on instructors to be mindful of “cognitive kindness”. With so many challenges and devastating news presented to us and our students on the daily, “we’re surrounded by reminders that empowering everyone’s very best thinking has never mattered more” (Yu, 2023, para. 1). However, cognitive kindness is not a common aspect in college classrooms where learning, curriculum agendas, and time-constraints are at the forefront. Read the article to learn more about how to increase the focus on one of a classroom’s most precious characteristics: our students’ minds.