From Newsroom to Classroom: How WSJ Tools Are Shaping the Future of Learning

How do we transform news into impactful learning experiences in the global classroom?  On November 11th, NYU SPS, in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal, hosted a workshop that brought together leading experts to explore how educators can integrate WSJ’s powerful teaching resources to connect global perspectives and foster co-creative learning environments.

Transformative Tools for Educators

The first part of the workshop featured WSJ guest speakers Cate Daniels (WSJ Marketing Associate) and Alisha Stegall (WSJ Academic Coordinator), who introduced the following suite of WSJ resources designed to help educators incorporate inclusivity and critical thinking into their teaching:

• Critical Thinking Resources: This resource provides a collection of discipline-specific news stories in the form of case studies, complete with guided questions that encourage students to engage with content from multiple perspectives.

  
  

• "Weekly Review" Newsletter: Curated by professors for professors, each weekly e-newsletter highlights 3-5 recent WSJ articles for a selected discipline with ready-to-use classroom activities and case studies. Topics include communications, ethics, finance, business law, and more.

  
  

• WSJ Assessment Tool: This practical resource helps instructors test their students’ comprehension and awareness of current events through online quizzes and WSJ article-based tests to engage students in real-world issues. Each week, customizable options of multiple-choice questions and true/false quizzes are available.

  
  

• Educational Videos: Short, compelling videos that provide visual narratives on topics such as global education and cutting-edge social trends. As a powerful visual tool, these videos help enhance and emphasize complex topics that can be discussed in the classroom.

  
  

• WSJ Context: this tool provides instructors a way of building and curating distinct “reading lists” of articles, as well as globalizing a topic, on any relevant topics from the classroom, seamlessly integrating WSJ content into lectures. 
  

• WSJ Podcasts: A curated collection of insights on trending topics in business and education, describing the latest developments within business contexts.
  

• WSJ Website and App: Educators can curate content from WSJ’s extensive archives, including a dedicated "MyWSJ" section for instructors to use that extends to news-related content for lesson planning.

  
  

This suite of resources, designed for dynamic learning environments, gives educators practical strategies for fostering transformative and inclusive spaces. 

SPS Faculty Panel Showcase: Bringing WSJ Tools to Life

The second part of the event featured an expert panel of NYU SPS faculty members—Professors Raul Sanchez, Dan Bullock, José Mendoza, and Bahriye Goren—who shared how they implement WSJ tools in global classrooms.

• Innovative Business Simulations: Professor Raul Sanchez and Professor Dan Bullock create negotiation exercises from WSJ real-world business scenarios that develop students’ intercultural and leadership skills in innovative experiential learning formats. 
  

• Data-Driven Teaching: Professor José Mendoza uses WSJ analytics tools to teach critical thinking through real-time data sets and public opinion analysis.
  

• Interactive In-Class Exercises: Professor Bahriye Goren integrates WSJ articles into group activities, helping students apply theoretical concepts to real-world scenarios.

Presenters also shared information regarding a News Literacy Project by WSJ that further provides tips and strategies for identifying credible information and ways of distinguishing between reliably sourced news and misinformation. Overall, by leveraging tools from authentic contexts such as the WSJ, educators can create dynamic, globally relevant learning environments that bridge theory to real-world applications and empower student success.