Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences 2016, Vol. 3(2) 211–219 © The Author(s) 2016 DOI: 10.1177/2372732216656869 bbs.sagepub.com Climate, Motivation, and Emotion Tweet Students’ interests and experiences can be powerful motiva- tors, but neuroscience suggests downtime/active reflection is needed to tap them. Key Points • Educational policy makers need to consider how poli- cies support students’ social-emotional context for learning and, hence, their investment in working hard. • New discoveries about the brain provide insights into social-emotional processing and help explain why many common educational practices undermine achievement over time. • The brain network that supports social-emotional aspects of personal memory, future-oriented thinking, and conceptual understanding deactivates during task- oriented focus. • It is not neurologically possible to simultaneously devote full attention to completing one’s current tasks while also reflecting on the broader meaning of those tasks now and into the future. • Reflecting on the broader meaning of tasks helps youth engage deeply with academic content, over- come negative stereotypes, and build purpose. • Supported opportunities for interest-driven explora- tion and constructive reflection facilitate students’ emotional investment and, hence, their hard work and achievement over time. Introduction General intelligence does not predict students’ academic and personal success as well as do students’ social-emotional characteristics and executive control capacities. These include in-the-moment regulatory abilities, such as capaci- ties to get going when success is uncertain, to consider alter- native paths when an initial course seems blocked, and to persist when tasks become difficult (Duckworth & Seligman, 2005; Oyserman & Destin, 2010). These capacities also include framing one’s current decisions and actions in terms of their broader implications for one’s life into the future. For example, students with a strong sense of purpose and a clear idea of what they are trying to accomplish, and why, fare bet- ter over time (Damon, 2008), as do students inclined to embrace new experiences as opportunities for growth (Kaufman, 2013). These social-emotional characteristics and executive capacities resemble traits, meaning that some students mea- sure consistently higher on them than others do. But, more relevant for educational policy, these capacities also depend on context: How a task is framed can shape students’ 656869BBS XX X 10.1177/2372732216656869Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain SciencesImmordino-Yang research-article 2016 1 University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA Corresponding Author: Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Associate Professor of Education, Psychology and Neuroscience, Brain and Creativity Institute, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California, 3620A McClintock Ave., Room 267, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2921, USA. Email: immordin@usc.edu Emotion, Sociality, and the Brain’s Default Mode Network: Insights for Educational Practice and Policy Mary Helen Immordino-Yang 1 Abstract Education research—for example, on character, stereotype threat, and identity-based motivation—demonstrates that social and emotional factors influence students’ cognitive abilities and academic achievement. In parallel, recent advances in social- affective and cultural neuroscience reveal the social nature of human brain development and neural processing. Neuroscience can inform educational practice and policy by uncovering the mechanisms that may produce the observed social and emotional effects on learning. One major advance shows how the brain’s Default Mode Network supports social-emotional feelings and broader thought patterns associated with self-processing, identity, meaning-making, and future-oriented thought. This article introduces policy makers to this research and its implications for educational decision making. Keywords social-emotional learning (SEL), stereotype threat, identity, achievement motivation, grit