Physical activities are important to facilitate children's development. A recent systematic review by a team from the University of South Australia investigated whether playing in nature-based spaces could be beneficial for child health and development. Quantitative studies of children aged 2-12 years without health or developmental conditions examining unstructured nature play were included. The review identified 16 studies involving 711 children. Due to the diversity in study methods, the research applied descriptive synthesis. The outcome measures covered different domains including physical activity, motor, cognitive, and social emotional development. Results showed that: Despite the various measures in outcomes, there were consistent positive impacts of nature play on physical activity outcomes and cognitive play behaviors. However, five out of seven studies reported no significant differences regarding to physical activity in nature play compared to traditional play space experiences. The authors also expressed their concerns when interpreting the findings, which includes the evidence-base quality, the...

Teaching is an emotional endeavor as teachers are expected to maintain proper emotional expression in their work. However, in some cases, emotional job demands can also be rewarding, depending on how one uses appropriate emotional labor strategies, including surface acting, deep acting, and expression of naturally felt emotion, one used. A metanalysis published in Educational Research Review comprehensively examined the relationship between teachers' use of emotional labor strategies and their antecedents (in terms of job characteristics and individual characteristics) and consequences (in terms of burnout and job satisfaction). To be included in the analysis, studies had to be quantitative studies written in English, conducted in a school setting using pure samples of school teachers, and reporting at least one correlation coefficient. 86 independent samples from 85 articles were included in the analysis, comprised of 33,248 teachers in total. The analysis demonstrated that emotional labor strategies were significantly related to burnout...

Charlton and colleagues reviewed various types of school-wide interventions promoting students' and teachers' perception of school climate regarding engagement (quality of relationship), safety (the absence of aggression, bullying, and violence), and environment (quality of physical school environment). Only peer-reviewed studies published between 1989 and 2019 were included in this review. The total of 26 studies (28 papers) were identified, including 18 studies on elementary students, 7 studies on middle school students, and 2 studies in mixed school settings. More than 60% of the studies were randomized controlled trials. The included programs were categorized into five subcategories: social–emotional learning, schoolwide positive behavioral interventions and supports, bullying prevention, community development, and teacher working conditions programs. Among the five subcategories, effect sizes for Schoolwide PBIS (a behaviour management approach) (ES=+0.61) and SEL (ES=+0.48) were the largest, followed by community development (ES=+0.42), and bullying prevention programs (ES=+0.27). A single study on a teacher working conditions program...

A recently published meta-analysis of 120 studies about the predictors of teacher turnover confirms the influence of teachers' personal background and school working conditions. Teachers over 28 years old (odds ratio, OR = +0.70), Hispanic teachers (OR = +0.47), and traditional in certified teachers (OR = +0.53) are all less likely to leave. Teachers at schools with evaluation or merit pay systems (OR = +0.95, +0.78) or better working environments (OR = +0.56) are also less likely to leave. To prior reviews and frameworks of teacher turnover, this study adds a look at accountability and policy impacts (e.g., merit pay). Additionally, its findings imply changes in the labor market from prior reviews – such as the now null impact of teacher gender, Black race/ethnicity, and advanced degree, and school demographic makeup. Notable limitations, as acknowledged by the authors, include the limited number of studies of certain predictors (e.g. 1 study about retention...

A study by the UK's Institute for Fiscal Studies examines the different costs, and likely outcomes, of various routes into teaching. In England there is a policy of increased school-led initial teacher training, moving away from traditional training in higher education (HE). Although the postgraduate HE route is still the most popular (approximately 40% of trainees each year), school-led approaches such as School Direct, which employs prospective teachers as they learn on the job (more than 30%), and Teach First, the UK version of Teach for America  (5%), are growing. The study used data from the School Workforce Census, an annual record of the school workforce in state-funded schools in England, between 2010 and 2014. This allowed the researchers to track the progress of early career trainees. The key findings from the report included: Five-year retention rates for elementary school trainees in state-funded education vary from 58% to 68%, with School...

A recent study investigated whether Chinese students' purposes in relation to doing math homework were affected by factors related to homework, teacher, and parent. The study recruited 3,018 students in grade 8 from 96 classes from three regions in China. These students averagely spent 34.1 minutes on math homework each day, and 76.9% of them did math homework four or more days each week. Using a survey, the researchers assessed students’ math homework purposes (namely academic purposes, self-regulatory purposes, approval-seeking purposes). They then examined factors related to homework (namely homework quality, homework interest, homework favourability, homework frequency and homework time), teachers (namely teacher feedback quality, teacher feedback quantity, and teacher autonomy support), and parents (namely parent content support and parent autonomy support). The multilevel analysis of the relationships showed that: The triple cluster of homework characteristics, teacher and parent support had at least one variable significantly related to the three...

As the COVID-19 pandemic forces schools to turn to remote teaching, education technology is being regarded as a promising tool to maintain education quality despite school closures, and this is adding to interest in educational technology in general. However, learning scientists often argue against computers’ benefits for students by saying that computers are “oversold and underused.” Focusing on developed countries, researchers from the Abdul Latif Jamel Action Lab (J-PAL) presented a systematic review to evaluate education technology and its promise. J-PAL’s review solely included studies with large samples and rigorous causal designs to ensure review quality. In total, 126 randomized controlled trials and regression discontinuity designs were included. Major findings were: Equipping students with a computer and internet access yielded mixed results. At the K-12 level, computer distribution generally had no effects on academic outcomes. Computer-assisted learning programs were effective in mathematics but not in reading. Customized learning experiences was one reason...

Students with growth mindsets believe their abilities are malleable through hard work, which in turn, will positively influence their school performance. A recent study by Ganimian evaluated the effects of a “growth-mindset” intervention at scale with Grade 12 students from 202 public secondary schools in Salta, Argentina. The intervention invited participants to read a passage showing evidence that one’s intelligence can be developed through practicing challenging tasks, followed by a brief exercise to help them internalize the idea. In this study, the participating schools were randomly assigned to a treatment group (n=102) and a control group (n=100). The treatment group received a single-session growth-mindset intervention during a non-academic period. Then, the survey and scores of the national assessment taken two months after the intervention were used as indicators of the Grade 12 students’ beliefs and school achievements. The study finds that: There is no significant evidence that the growth-mindset intervention can affect...

A recent publication in Educational Research Review systematically investigated the effect of education technology (ed tech) on mathematics achievement and orientation. The authors from six universities found that there is insufficient evidence to makes claims about technology’s general effectiveness in supporting math achievement and orientation outcomes. Unlike most other research, the authors went beyond academic outcomes by including orientation towards mathematics and technology as another important measurement. Coined by Schoenfeld in 2011, student orientation refers to students’ beliefs, attitudes, and preferences. Orientation is found to influence student learning through engagement, motivation, and confidence. In total, 123 effect sizes from previous studies were synthesized. Meta-analysis results showed that ed tech in mathematics class has statistically significant but very small effects on achievement (ES = +0.11) and orientation (ES = +0.13). However, after further adjustment for publication bias, these very small effects were gone. Therefore, researchers are inconclusive about ed tech’s effects on student outcomes. The researchers also...