While many studies show positive effects of cooperative learning on student achievement, a recent study examined the effects of cooperative learning on reducing bullying in middle school. A total of 15 rural schools (n=1,460 seventh graders) in the Pacific Northwest were matched based on size and free-lunch percentage, and then seventh graders were randomly assigned to either receive a cooperative learning program (n=792) or to continue business as usual (n=668). The cooperative learning program used techniques by Johnson ,Johnson & Holubec (2013) , incorporating peer tutoring, collaborative reading, and methods where classmates rely on each other to learn new information while being held individually accountable for what they have learned. The theory behind this study was that in cooperative groups, bullies would not be reinforced by their peers to continue bullying, and socially isolated students would have opportunities to interact with others more and make new friends. All participating teachers received a...

An article published in Educational Research Review has examined the effects of self-assessment on self-regulated learning (SRL) and self-efficacy by conducting four meta-analyses. To understand the impact of students’ assessing their own work, Ernesto Panadero and colleagues from Spain analyzed 19 studies comprised of 2,305 students from primary schools to higher education. The meta-analyses only included studies published in English that contained empirical results of self-assessment intervention in relation to SRL and/or self-efficacy, had at least one control group, and had been peer-reviewed. The findings indicated that: Self-assessment had a positive effect on SRL strategies serving a positive self-regulatory function for students’ learning, such as meta-cognitive strategies (ES= +0.23)Self-assessment had a negative effect on “Negative SRL”, which is associated with negative emotions and stress and is thought to be adverse to students’ learning. (ES =-0.65)Self-assessment was also found positively associated with SRL even when SRL was measured qualitatively (ES= +0.43)Self-assessment had...

A systematic review in the Educational Research Review has analyzed the evidence on prerequisites for implementing Assessment for Learning(AfL) in classroom practice. The aim was not to provide a “recipe for success,”but to generate a better understanding of what needs to be considered. A total of 25 studies met the inclusion criteria. Of these, nine were conducted in the context of primary education, ten in secondary, and six covered both. The results included data from eleven different countries, but most of the studies were conducted in the US (n = 9). The authors found that: The knowledge, skills, and attitudes of individual teachers influenced the establishment of an AfL-based learning environment. Pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge had an impact on a teacher’s ability to provide students with accurate and complete feedback. They also needed to have the ability to foster the participation of students in discussions about their answers, and construct questions that drew out...

In the RAND Corporation report “New Assessments, Better Instruction?Designing Assessment Systems to Promote Instructional Improvement.”,researchers conducted a series of literature reviews that focused on topics such as high-stakes testing, performance assessment, and formative evaluation. Their findings suggest that there are a wide variety of effects that testing might have on teachers’ activities in the classroom, including changes in curriculum content and emphasis (e.g., changes in the sequence of topics, reallocation of emphasis across and within topics); changes in how teachers allocate time and resources across different pedagogical activities (e.g.,focusing on test preparation); and changes in how teachers interact with individual students (e.g., using test results to individualize instruction). The report also identifies a number of factors (e.g., student characteristics and district and school policies) that mediate the relationship between assessment and instructional practices. The authors suggest that the role of tests would be enhanced by policies that ensure tests mirror...

A study has looked at the link between instructional alignment (how teaching is aligned with standards and assessments), value-added measures of teacher effectiveness, and composite measures of teacher effectiveness using multiple measures. The study looked at 324 teachers of fourth and eighth grade math and English language arts in five states. They completed a Survey of Enacted Curriculum to measure their instructional alignment. This was then compared with value-added measures(taken from state assessments and two supplementary assessments) and teacher effectiveness (using Framework for Teaching scores). The results showed There was modest evidence of a relationship between instructional alignment and value-added measures,although this disappeared when controlling for pedagogical quality. The association between instructional alignment and value-added measures is more positive when pedagogy is high quality. There was no association between instructional alignment and measures of teacher effectiveness. These results suggest that the tests used for calculating value-added measures are not able to...

An evaluation published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis evaluates the impact of the Digital Conversion Initiative on student outcomes for one school district in North Carolina. The initiative provided laptop computers to every student from the fourth grade upwards, while also providing teachers with training on how to best use the technology in their lesson plans. Marie Hull and Katherine Duch used administrative school data from 2005 to 2013 to determine the program’s impact on math and reading achievement for students in grades 4 to 8, as well as the impact of the program on student behavior. They compared the district’s data from before and after implementation, as well as data from neighboring school districts without one-to-one programs to determine the short-and medium-term effects. Their results suggest there is potential for one-to-one laptop programs to help improve student outcomes. They found that: Math scores for students improved by 0.11 standard deviations in...

A study published in Contemporary Educational Psychology suggested that the relationship between test anxiety and performance in high-stakes tests is positive, but the relationship varies for students with different achievement levels. Yao-Ting Sung and colleagues at the National Taiwan University used data from 1,931 Taiwanese ninth grader from 37 schools. The Basic Competence Test (BCTEST) was used to benchmark their achievement. The BCTEST is a high-stakes test for Taiwan junior-high school students, determining to which high schools with different levels of prestige and tuition fees they will be admitted. Subjects in the test included Mandarin, English, Mathematics, Social studies, Science and Writing. Test anxiety was measured by the examination stress scale. The findings include: The overall relationship between text-anxiety and learning achievement in the high-stakes testing was positive (r =+0.18).Lower levels of test-anxiety were found among the high-achievement and low-achievement students while higher levels of test-anxiety were found among the...

A systematic review published in Review of Education looks at the evidence from randomized controlled trials of the effectiveness of interventions for children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in school settings. Twenty-eight studies were included in the review and were sorted into eight categories of school-based intervention for ADHD. They were analyzed for effectiveness according to a range of different ADHD symptoms, difficulties, and schools outcomes. The eight categories of intervention were: combined/multiple component; cognitive training; daily report card; neuro-feedback; relaxation; self-monitoring; study and organization skills training; and task modification. The review found that: The strongest evidence of beneficial effects was found for interventions that combine multiple components. There was a large effect size (+0.79) for improved ADHD symptoms rated by teachers and parents, and a small effect size for (+0.30) for parent- and teacher-rated academic outcomes. Interventions involving daily report cards also showed some promise for academic outcomes (ES= +0.68). There was a...

A study published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood looks at whether children who are born prematurely (at 23–36 weeks) are more likely to struggle in school compared to their full-term peers. David Odd and colleagues used data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) (a longitudinal population-based cohort study that enrolled pregnant women in 1991 and 1992) to examine how the educational progress of children who are born prematurely varies from their peers throughout school, and to what extent they catch up over time. The study found that: On average, premature children had lower test scores at Key Stage 1 (5–7 years), and continued to perform below their peers throughout school However, there was some evidence of catching up between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 (age 7 to 11 years), particularly among children with the lowest scores. Between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4...