Scientifically proven, evidence-based results!
Overview
Update: Dream It! Achieves a Research Publication Milestone.
We are thrilled to announce that our latest dream research study has been published in the peer-reviewed, scientific journal Child & Youth Care Forum. The paper, titled “Dream It! Preliminary Evidence for an Educational Tool to Increase Children’s Optimistic Thinking,” was written in collaboration with our research partners at the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Public Schools. It is a big stamp of approval that “Dream It!” is proven to increase social-emotional skills like optimistic thinking, and many more.
Here’s what we do in three sentences: We teach children (and adults) how to dream and how to turn those dreams into reality. Then we measure whether learning how to dream and set goals helps children, in particular, whether it increases their optimism. Finally, we take everything we learn and use it to improve our tool for teaching this method, which is our workbook, Dream It!
We have conducted 6 research studies over a 5-year period, each one improving upon the methods of the last. An analogy that we like to use is that if our ultimate goal was measuring the circumference of the Earth, we started by verifying that our rulers were accurate.
As we began our research, we realized it’s actually pretty difficult to measure a dream. We’re not talking about sleeping dreams but life dreams or passions. A dream is similar to a life goal, but perhaps without the full commitment (Yet!) to make it a reality. Since it is difficult to measure a dream, we used social-emotional skills as a proxy measure. We theorized that if students became better at dreaming they would become more optimistic about their futures (confidence). Similarly, we theorized that we could find improvements in perseverance (grit), growth mindset and hope. We also measured the differences between the quantity and quality of dreams. As you will see below, we improved in all these measures.
But, we’re not just concerned about the students improving, we also care about the teachers, whether they be parents, professionals or healthcare workers. So, we also conduct interviews with teachers and facilitators to see if they think our book and curriculum are fun and easy to implement. Spoiler alert: They do! Better yet, teachers report that our program increases the overall school climate. Wow!
Below, we are excited to share some highlights of our research with you!
Highlights of all our dream research studies
Below are some infographics and testimonials from our dream research. You can also click the links to read detailed descriptions of how we conducted each study step-by-step.
Tested in school classrooms!
Our book is proven to work in the real world. We tested “Dream It!” in about a dozen different academic environments, including public schools, private schools, after-school programs like the YMCA, and non-profit organizations. If the teachers, facilitators, parents, or kids didn’t like or understand an activity we threw it out and started over.
BIG NEWS! Dream It! Achieves a Research Publication Milestone
Once again “Dream It!” has been proven to have a statistically significant increase in Optimistic Thinking and Grit (perseverance). And we also showed improvement in Growth Mindset and Hope.
More
dreams
Better
dreams
Dream It! also had a statistically significant increase in Dreaming (quantity and quality). By quality, we mean that be the end of our study students recorded more aspirational dreams like, “Be a scientist,” rather than non-reality-based dreams, like “Go to Candyland.”
Conclusion
- Fun and easy to implement
- Students not only improved — they enjoyed the book and workshop!
- Teachers responded positively. Not only did they report that the book was fun and easy to implement, but they also said that the school climate, as a whole, improved.
- Results suggest that the “Dream It!” intervention is feasible in the real world and can be successfully integrated into classroom activities.
- More about this study.
About our first university study
The Dream Playbook was tested by the University of Cincinnati in a year-long study called “Promoting Optimistic Thinking in YMCA After-School Students” as part of a community service and outreach program. We had a Capstone Course of psychology students to help mentor YMCA after-school students on how to dream (goal setting). The UC mentors also did an assessment of the feasibility of whether this curriculum improved socio-emotional learning in the academic environment (optimistic thinking per the DESSA measure). Overall it was both an effective and fun year for both students and facilitators.
The following year a group of these UC students continued the project in an independent study and the results were published in the Pennsylvania State University Undergraduate Journal of Service Learning & Community-Based Research.
Evidence-Based Results
Tested in a 1-year university study*
The Dream It Playbook is proven statistically significant to improve optimistic thinking, grit (perseverance), hope and a growth mindset. * More about this study.
Benefits per the UC Study
The playbook had overwhelmingly positive feedback. Here are a few highlights from this year-long study in 2nd-8th grades:
Students who completed the Playbook increased in a measure of optimistic thinking by 29% in the first semester and 17% in the second semester.- After completing the Playbook, 100% of students reported that they were thinking more about their goals and future dreams. This led the researchers to conclude that the Playbook may be an effective tool to increase student achievement through increasing dreaming and goal setting.
- Nearly 90% of children reported looking forward to their weekly Playbook session. This led the researchers to conclude that the Playbook may contribute to improved school attendance by providing many students with an exciting reason to go to school.
- There were no differences in the positive influence of the Playbook by gender or grade
- The influence of the Dream Playbook on optimistic thinking did not depend on the school.
- The students who participated in this study are ethnically and socioeconomically diverse; this demonstrates the relevance and usefulness of the playbook for a diverse group of children.
- More about working with groups
Students who completed the Playbook increased in a measure of optimistic thinking by 29% in the first semester and 17% in the second semester.The study concluded that Dream It! is an effective, evidence-based tool for teaching social-emotional skills and increasing optimistic thinking that is enjoyed by all students.
You should change the title of the book to: "Live the life YOU want to live, if YOU put your mind to it!"
A comparison study
The below chart looks very boring, but it represents an important discovery. Student’s optimistic thinking improved the most when engaged in activities focused on creating dreams and exploring passion (semester one content) compared to activities focused on problem-solving and overcoming obstacles (semester two content).
In other words, it is important to build a foundation of dreaming before moving on to higher-level thinking about implementing dreams to improve optimistic thinking. An example we like to use is that if the student has the dream (passion + life goal) to be an astronaut that will fuel their motivation for science and math. Unfortunately, in most schools, math and science come first, and learning how to dream is not even a subject in school. Luckily, social-emotional learning curriculums are gaining wide acceptance.
Articles about our original research
So far, we have collaborated on 6 university-led research projects, each one using the scientific process and building on the methods of the previous studies. We have also held a lot of informal workshops at schools and non-profit organizations to test our material. And behind the scenes, we are doing ongoing research, literature reviews and consulting social-emotional professionals to make sure everything we do is evidence-based and peer-reviewed. See all our research projects below.
Dream It! Achieves a Research Publication Milestone
Great news!!! Today is an exciting day for the science of dreaming (goal setting, aspiration, passions). We are proud to announce that our latest dream research study has been published in the peer-reviewed, scientific journal Child & Youth Care Forum.
Impact and feasibility of the Dream Workshop
A summary of a research study conducted by the University of Cincinnati to test the efficacy of a Dream Workshop and whether it improved children’s self-confidence as measure of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL).
Improving social and emotional awareness using the Dream It! Playbook
Student’s using the workbook “Dream It!” had a scientifically proven, evidence-based improvement in optimistic thinking and perseverance (along with improvements in hope, growth-mindset and overall school climate) among elementary school students. Highlights from our most-important study to date, including lots of pictures and graphs.
Improving Children’s Optimistic Thinking by Teaching them to Dream about Life Goals
We were honored to attend the American Psychological Associations 2018 annual conference to present the results of our study. This is a new analysis of our data that, essentially, says that young students perform better when they are taught the basics of socioemotional skills, like passion and goal setting, first before more academic subjects, such as reading, writing and arithmetic.
The Dream Workshop Pilot Program
We tested the Dream Playbook in over a dozen schools. We called it our “Dream Workshop” but it was so much fun that the students called it “The Dream Club.”
Promoting Optimistic Thinking in YMCA After-School Students
The Dream Playbook was tested by the University of Cincinnati in a year-long study called “Promoting Optimistic Thinking in YMCA After-School Students” as part of community service and outreach program.
