Projects

SMAART has multiple ongoing research and teacher education projects, while looking to continually expand our collaborations. These are some current SMAART projects.                  

How Friends and Peer Relationships Affect Social Inclusion in Learning Settings: Partnering with schools in New Mexico and Europe to understand how all students’ social networks enhance their social inclusion in school. SMAART especially focuses on students with additional educational needs and ethnically and culturally diverse learners.

Students' Social Goals: Much of schooling involves students interacting with other students.  What students want from these interactions (their social goals) affects their motivation to learn, personal well-being, and performance in school.  This research examines how and why students develop social goals as well as outcomes of social goals.

Popularity, Power, and Social Well-being: How the role of social status in school (e.g., the popular students, the cool students) can support or hurt the social well-being of learners. This takes a particular emphasis on aggression, bullying, prosocial behaviors, and academic motivation.