INSIGHTS • IDEAS • PRACTICE
Practical thinking, research and real-world strategies for educators who want to better understand students, respond with confidence and create learning environments where more young people can succeed.
Supporting students can be complicated. The ideas that help don’t always have to be.
EQ Insights takes some of the challenges we see every day in schools — getting started, staying focused, managing overwhelm, understanding behaviour, supporting neurodivergent learners and knowing when to adjust our approach — and breaks them down into something practical.
No jargon-heavy theory. No perfect classroom required. Just useful ideas, different ways of looking at what’s happening, and strategies you can take back to your students.
Have a browse. You might find something you can use tomorrow.
Do you have students who spend most of class time staring at an assessment, switching between tasks, or avoiding getting started altogether? Procrastination isn’t always laziness or non-compliance. Often, it’s a sign of overwhelm. When students have multiple assessments, deadlines, or competing priorities, they may genuinely not know where to
Do you have students who struggle to stay focused for long periods of time? Many students believe they need to sit and work for hours to be productive. In reality, short bursts of focused work are often more effective than forcing concentration when attention is fading. A study conducted by
Many students believe motivation comes first and action comes second. In reality, it’s often the other way around. We tend to think: Motivation → Action → Success But more often, it looks like: Action → Motivation → Success Students don’t need to feel motivated before they start. They simply need
Have you ever noticed that some students seem to work better simply because someone is sitting nearby? This strategy is known as body doubling. Body doubling involves having another person present while a student completes a task. The other person doesn’t need to teach, supervise, or help with the work;
Have you ever had a student finish an assessment… but never submit it? For some students, not submitting can feel safer than risking a fail. Students may avoid submitting because they: Many students have spent years believing that an assessment is something you submit once and receive a final grade
Sometimes there can be a concern that providing accommodations will make students reliant on them, or that they may receive support they don’t really need. In reality, accommodations are designed to remove barriers to learning, not lower expectations or give students an advantage. Accommodations might include extra time for assessments,
