A recent meta-analysis by Fishstrom and colleagues examined the effects of academic interventions on academic achievement and academic anxiety in students in kindergarten to Grade 6. The meta-analysis of 11 studies included 34 effect sizes, of which 17 were for academic achievement outcomes, and 17 were for academic anxiety outcomes. The results revealed statistically significant differences favoring academic treatments (g = 0.63, k = 11), consistent with existing research. In contrast, no statistically significant differences were found for academic anxiety outcomes (g = -0.06, k = 11). Despite the limitation of the small number of studies with elementary school students that met the criteria, and the difficulties in measuring academic anxiety, the study suggested that academic anxiety is not necessarily relieved by academic interventions.   Source: Fishstrom, S., Wang, H.-H., Bhat, B. H., Daniel, J., Dille, J., Capin, P., & Vaughn, S. (2022). A meta-analysis of the effects of academic...

School-based social emotional learning (SEL) programmes first emerged in North America and have gradually become an important component of early childhood education across the globe. In view of the nature of social-emotional competencies being inherently embodied and culturally responsive, the authors have proposed a bioecological and embodied framework for the development and implementation of a SEL curriculum, as shown in the figure below. (Adopted from Figure 1 in Hayashi et al., 2022) Following CASEL’s Framework for Systemic Social and Emotional Learning, they emphasized that the design of any SEL curriculum or program should consider the culture and adopt situated and embodied learning in order to allow children to be able to develop SEL competencies that are transferrable to or applied in other contexts, such as at home or in the community. As different cultures have differences in values, beliefs, and norms or customs, the interactions, behaviours, and engagements considered to...

Many researchers and educators advocate for inquiry-based learning and argue that inquiry-based activities can boost students’ learning and develop students’ problem-solving skills. However, little research has compared the effects of inquiry-based instruction with traditional teacher-directed instruction on a large scale. Using data from PISA 2015 – an international comparative student assessment — Oliver and colleagues explored the association between students’ science performance and three types of instruction in science classrooms: inquiry-based, teacher-directed, and adaptive instruction. The sample includes 15-year-old students (N = 64,718) in 6 countries: Canada, New Zealand, Australia, UK, Ireland, and the USA. After controlling for student socioeconomic status in the multivariate regression analysis, the authors found that, common to all 6 countries, students’ scientific literacy was negatively associated with inquiry-based instruction, so that increases in inquiry-based instruction were associated with lower scores. Teacher-directed and adaptive teaching were both positively correlated with students’ science achievement. Additionally, the authors...

Recently, Bratlie et al. conducted a study of a second-grade Norwegian morphology program. Even though this digital game-based program was not used specifically with Language Minority (LM) students, the researchers sought to examine the differences between LM students and Language Majority (LMA) students’ performances in the program as well as the initial language literacy and context’s influences on students’ performance. To understand the differences and relationships, researchers studied 717 second-grade students from 12 schools across 3 municipalities in Norway via three data collection points: before the training, within 3 weeks after the training, and approximately 6 months after the training. Among the studied population, 26% of the participants had a LM background, while the majority of students (61%) had both parents as native Scandinavian language speakers. In general, the 8-week long morphology program significantly influenced students’ morphological word learning no matter their language background. In addition, the influence of the...

In modern China, and also around the world, there is a wave of educational policies mandating an early start on learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in order to better prepare children for the globalized world. What makes China different in this wave is that, while the government encourages an earlier start on EFL, it also sets a ban on public elementary schools going too early in order to “protect” children’s development of their native language and prohibits English being taught before third grade. The general public think otherwise, however, which has created an unprecedented passion in society to have children starting EFL very early on at private institutions:   'Earlier is better’. Chinese parents believe early exposure to English will help children learn the language better, and want their children to master the language before hitting the critical period;Instrumental motivation. Competence in English is considered to be a vital...

A recent meta-analysis evaluated the effectiveness of interventions for elementary students with math difficulties. To be included in the review, studies had to use randomized or quasi-experimental designs and evaluate word-problem solving interventions. A total of 52 studies were included in the review. Overall, results showed a significant positive effect for mathematics outcomes (ES = +1.01), with a high variability suggesting the presence of factors influencing the effect. By analyzing these factors, the results showed a larger effect when the students involved had only math difficulties (ES = +1.04) compared to both math and reading difficulties (ES = +0.66). When the intervention was delivered in large groups (more than 8 students), the effect was larger than for one-to-one or small-groups (ES = +1.41, +0.86, respectively). Intensive interventions (3 to 5 times a week) were more effective than interventions implemented one or two times weekly (ES = +1.15, +0.76, respectively). A...

Education children receive in their early childhood has been shown to have long-term impacts on their achievements in school, career and even physical health at the later stage of life. Jenkins and her team explored how the design of preschool curricula (including the content and style of instruction) would influence children’s school readiness – measured by their skills in literacy, math, and socioemotional domain at the end of preschool. By evaluating 11 early childhood education curricula funded by the Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research (PCER) Initiative Study, the team was particularly interested in comparing the effectiveness of the whole-child approach, which is widely adopted in most preschool classrooms in the United States, with the skill-targeted curricula in preparing children for promotion to elementary school education. Whole-child approach: With an emphasis on child-centered active learning, the approach encourages children to interact independently with the equipment, materials, and their peers during learning rather...

Early childhood education is associated with positive high school outcomes, including achievement and engagement. In a recently published article in Child Development, Amadon and colleagues reported on a longitudinal study of the effects of early childhood education on high school performance. The study tracked 4033 students enrolled in Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) kindergartens in Oklahoma from 2006 to 2007. Among them, 44% attended the public universal pre-K program, 14% attended Tulsa’s Community Action Project (CAP) Head Start program, and the rest did not attend either program. The study tracked students’ attendance, academic skills, course selection and completion, and grade retention. The results show that students who attended the TPS pre-K program missed 1.5 fewer days (d = −.10) and were less likely to be chronically absent or retained in grade. And students who attended Head Start missed three fewer days than the other two groups (p = .053) but with...

A recent study in the American Educational Research Journal examined a developing program started in 2017 that offers Early College (EC) opportunities in high schools serving large English learner (EL) populations in California. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of an EC program on high school graduation and subsequent college enrollment for EL students. Data for this study were collected from seven cohorts of high school students (N = 15,090) in a large, urban school district in California. As EC was rolled out in the district in three of the high schools first, the researchers compared the post-EC outcomes of treated and control groups (i.e., the three high schools that started EC first vs. other high schools in the district who had not yet started EC). This study expands current knowledge of EC effects on historically underserved student populations such as ELs. Findings from this study showed that although...