Approaches to professional development that combine coaching or mentoring with new knowledge and opportunities for reflection on practice may be the most effective in improving outcomes in early childhood settings, according to a study published in Review of Education. Sue Rogers and colleagues conducted the systematic review, which was funded by the Nuffield Foundation, in order to examine the impact of professional learning and development. The studies included in the review identify approaches to professional learning that demonstrate impact on early childhood education on one or more outcomes across three main areas: literacy knowledge and skills, math and science knowledge, and social-emotional and behavioral development.  The findings from the review suggested that: Coaching models, and approaches that help develop pedagogical knowledge, may be the most effective in improving outcomes in early childhood settings. The evidence on duration, frequency, and intensity of the professional learning, although likely to be important factors, was inconclusive.  ...

In an article published in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, researchers studied whether online collaborative learning was more effective than in-person collaborative learning in middle school science classes in relation to students’ understanding of science concepts. In the study, 90 eighth graders from five classes taught by two teachers at a Virginia public school participated over nine weeks. One teacher taught the experimental group and the other taught the control group. Following a pre-test using the Misconceptions-Oriented Standards-Based Assessment Resources for Teachers (MOSART), both groups were given traditional in-class instruction on the same science topics. At least twice a week, collaborative assignments were then given to the classes, the only difference being that the experimental group collaborated online and did not receive immediate teacher feedback on their theories, unlike the control group who collaborated in person. After nine weeks, the groups were post-tested using MOSART. Results showed that the online...

Technology-supported learning tools have become more popular in recent years. An article recently published in Computer Assisted Language Learning examined whether a vocabulary learning mobile app with a self-regulated learning (SRL) mechanism can help students with vocabulary learning, as well as improving their self-regulated learning abilities. Forty-six fifth graders from an elementary school in Taiwan participated in this study. They are all EFL (English as a foreign language) students. Twenty-one of them were randomly assigned to the experimental group, while 25 students were designated as the control group. Experimental group students received a vocabulary learning app with a self-regulated learning mechanism containing five components, namely a SRL setting module, an English vocabulary learning module, a quiz module, a note module, and a goal reminder module. Students could set self-regulating goals, acquire vocabulary data and pronunciation files, take notes, take quizzes, and check their goals. Control group students also received a...

In a recently published article in the British Journal of Educational Technology, Hwang & Chang (2019) examined how the spherical video-based virtual reality (SVVR) approach can support descriptive article writing in Taiwan senior high school writing classes. In traditional language learning activities, as the authors identified, there is usually no chance for students to develop in-depth feelings about the context of topics, resulting in low learning motivations and limited expression in the writing process. To provide in-depth experiences and to facilitate students’ descriptive article writing, the study introduced an SVVR system that used 360-degree photos or videos in a VR environment supporting students before they started to write. Two classes of 11th graders participated in the study, 30 students being allocated to the experimental group and 35 students to the control group. After students understood the writing tasks and read a descriptive article text about the Jade Mountain in Taiwan,...

A review, published in Review of Educational Research, analyzes the evidence on The Good Behavior Game (GBG), a classroom management program that has been used (and studied) for 40 years. Strategies in the program include acknowledging appropriate behavior, teaching classroom rules, providing feedback about inappropriate behavior, verbal praise, and providing rewards as reinforcement. A total of 22 studies met the authors’ inclusion criteria. In these, the program was mainly being used in mainstream elementary schools with externalizing, challenging behaviors (e.g., disruptive behavior, off-task behavior, aggression, talking out, and out-of-seat behaviors). The review aimed to describe and quantify the effect of the GBG on various challenging behaviors in school and classroom settings. The findings suggested that: The GBG had moderate to large effects on a range of challenging behaviors, and that these effects were immediate. Correct application of reward procedures was found to be important for intervention effectiveness. The authors note that...

A report from the Institute of Education Sciences has found that an intensive approach to providing support for using student data to inform teaching did not improve student achievement, perhaps because the approach did not change teachers’ use of data or their reported classroom practices. For the study, researchers recruited 102 elementary schools from 12 U.S. districts. Schools were randomly assigned to either a treatment or control group. Treatment schools received funding for a half-time data coach of their choosing, as well as intensive professional development for coaches and school leaders on helping teachers use student data to inform their teaching. The control schools received no additional funding for a data coach or professional development. Impacts on teacher and student outcomes were measured after a 1.5 year implementation period. The results suggest that : Despite the additional resources, teachers in the treatment schools did not increase how often they used data...

A study published recently in Frontiers in Psychology explored whether emotional intelligence and classroom motivation in foreign language classrooms can be improved by positive psychology intervention. This study was conducted in two classes from a high school in China. The two classes, taught by the same English teacher, were randomly assigned as the intervention group consisting of 56 students and the control group consisting of 52 students For the intervention group, a six-week emotional intelligence intervention was implemented, consisting of one hour of ARGUER training of emotional intelligence each week, along with keeping a weekday diary, and reflection. Themes of the six sessions of ARGUER training were: Awareness of feelings and emotions in self and others Recognizing emotions in self and others Generating positive emotions that facilitate thinking Understanding causes and consequences of emotions in self and others Expressing emotions appropriately Regulating emotions in self and others effectively Students’ weekday...

Findings from a randomized controlled trial of Tools of the Mind (Tools) suggest that the program improves kindergarten students’ academic outcomes in reading and writing, enhances children’s joy in learning and teachers’ enjoyment of teaching, and reduces teacher burnout. The Tools program is a play-based preschool and kindergarten curriculum that emphasizes self-control, language, and literacy skills. The study, published in the journal PLoS One, analyzed the effectiveness of Tools on kindergarten teachers and 351 children (mean age 5.2 years at entry) with diverse socioeconomic backgrounds in 18 public schools in Canada. Schools were paired with closely matched schools and then randomized to either the intervention group or control group. Teachers in the intervention group received a three-day workshop on Tools before the school year began, along with funds for resources. Control group teachers were offered the same amount of training hours and funds for whatever training and resource materials they wanted. The results showed...

A study of a program that sent literacy-related advice via text messages to parents of preschool children showed that it improved both the parents’ literacy behavior and the children’s early literacy. READY4K! is an eight-month-long text messaging program for parents of preschool children. Parents receive texts that cover literacy skills, encourage them to participate, and provide follow-up tips. In the study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, 519 parents in California were randomly assigned to receive the program or a series of “placebo” texts (e.g., about school enrollment) during the 2013-14 school year. The results indicated: The texts increased the frequency with which parents read books to children and other literacy activities (effects up to 0.35 standard deviations higher). According to teachers, texted parents asked more questions about their child’s learning (up to 0.19 standard deviations higher) than placebo parents, and their children performed better on early measures of literacy...