Emotional Literacy Online Community from Yale University Supports Certification of Educators Worldwide
NEW YORK, NY – January 9, 2013 – LearningTimes announced today that the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence is using the innovative BadgeOS learning and community platform to expand The RULER Approach curricula to include an online teacher certification process offering support and coaching for its trainees.
The RULER Approach is a research-based curricula designed to facilitate emotional literacy in school communities. Robust teacher professional development is an essential part of the success of this program. Until now the Ruler Group delivered training on site at schools and provided direct coaching. The model proved to be financially challenging for school districts to support and did not ensure sustainability.
“The BadgeOS digital certification has afforded Ruler an opportunity to coach and support its trainees in real-time and asynchronously while building a community of learners worldwide,” said Bonnie Brown, Training Manager, Ruler Group. “BadgeOS also allows us to monitor the fidelity to the RULER program, which is crucial to our ongoing success.”
Jonathan Finkelstein, President of LearningTimes and director of the BadgeOS Project added, “As the Ruler Group has found, digital credentialing can add both accountability and value to online learning programs. Certifying organizations like the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence can ensure the fidelity of their curriculum as it is rolled out in schools around the world, while learners benefit from just-in-time support and sharable, credible digital credentials that vouch for their valuable, certified expertise.”
About BadgeOS™
BadgeOS is a first-of-its-kind learning and community platform that fosters and recognizes individual learning and community involvement through digital credentials and badges. The BadgeOS approach empowers and encourages learners to master new skills and knowledge, while engaging with others in a social give-and-take that builds one’s value to the community and network of connections. Learners earn badges that they take with them for life, demonstrating to the world what they know, thus motivating others to value their contributions. BadgeStack is an ideal vehicle for building learning experiences around existing materials, subject matter expertise and open educational resources (OER), and for recognizing the informal and social learning that happens both in and out of institutional settings. For more information visit: www.badgeos.org.
About the Ruler Approach
The RULER Approach is a social and emotional learning program designed by researchers at Yale University and currently available for implementation in Pre-K to high school classrooms. RULER’S goal is to create emotionally supportive school and home environments by engaging all stakeholders – school leaders, teachers, students and parents. The RULER Approach fosters emotional literacy through teacher professional development, parent workshops, direct instruction in classrooms, and extension activities for teachers, parents, and students to practice both at school and at home. The existing program has been field-tested extensively and is designed to integrate and align with existing curricula and the Common Core Learning Standards.
