A recent meta-analysis and narrative synthesis on the longitudinal association between psychosocial factors during adolescence and future participation in education and employment as a young adult was conducted by Tayfur and colleagues. The meta-analysis investigated the association between adolescent (age of 11 to 19) behavioral problems, peer problems, and prosocial skills with participation in education and employment between the ages of 18 to 25 at outcome. Analysis included 14 studies and used odds ratios^a as effect size to explore the associations.

• Five studies investigated self-reported behavioral problems—defined as rule-breaking, aggressiveness, and other disruptive or delinquent behavior—and its association with being defined as “not in education, employment or training” (NEET). The results demonstrated that behavioral problems in adolescence increased the risk of being NEET in young adulthood (OR = 1.48).
• Four studies investigated the association between peer problems—including bullying, violence, and other forms of peer aggression—and NEET. A significant small association was found (OR = 1.27).
• No significant association was found between prosocial skills and NEET.

Beyond this meta-analysis, the authors also complete a narrative synthesis of other adolescent behaviors or beliefs and their associations with NEET in young adulthood. The investigation indicated mixed results for cannabis use and results for alcohol and tobacco use were based on weak evidence. Investigations of self-esteem, self-efficacy, and locus of control suggest low self-esteem, low self-efficacy, and external locus of control all had positive associations with NEET. Finally, higher educational aspirations were negatively associated with NEET.

These findings provide evidence of the importance of early intervention programs for adolescents demonstrating the psychosocial factors investigated in this analysis, as these early interventions may help at-risk adolescents avoid dropping out of educational institutions or the workforce.

Source (Open Access): Tayfur, S. N., Prior, S., Roy, A. S., Fitzpatrick, L. I., & Forsyth, K. (2021). Adolescent psychosocial factors and participation in education and employment in young adulthood: A systematic review and meta-analyses. Educational Research Review, 34, 100404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2021.100404… Read the rest

Universally, students suffered loss of learning during the pandemic lockdown when schools were closed all over the world. Clark and colleagues published a paper which evaluated the impact of lockdown during the Covid-19 outbreak on students’ academic outcome in China using administrative data on 9th grade students from 3 Chinese Middle schools in the same county in Baise City. During the Covid-19 lockdown period (mid-February to early April 2020), three schools made different arrangements for students:

• School A did not provide any online education support.
• School B used an online learning platform provided by the local government to support students. School B provided online lessons which were recorded by their own teachers.
• School C used the same online platform as School B over the same period which was managed in the same fashion as in School B. The only difference between School B and C was that School C obtained on-line lessons recorded by highest-quality teachers in the city, instead of their own teachers.

The final sample consisted of 20,185 examination results from 1,835 students who took all 11 exams in the five compulsory subjects (Chinese, Math, English, Politics, and History). Exams 1-10 were conducted before lockdown (Nov 2017 to Jan 2020) , and students took Exam 11 immediately after the county reopened (Apr 2020). The last semester of 9th grade was used for revision and to prepare for the High-school entrance exam for which all materials had already been taught previously during Middle-School years. Using a difference-in-difference framework, the impact of online education support is shown below.

• Overall, using an online learning platform improved students’ total exam scores significantly relative to the scores of students without learning support (ES = 0.22, around 26 exam points).
• The quality of recorded lessons mattered. Exam results of School C, whose lessons were recorded by external better-quality teachers, achieved better results than School B, whose lessons were recorded by their own teachers (ES = +0.06).
• Not all online education was equal. The performance of students who used a computer for online education was better than that of those who used a smartphone (School B: ES=-0.14; School C: ES=-0.15).
• Results of quantile DID analysis showed that low-achieving students benefited the most from online learning support, while there was no impact on top academic performers.

Since the data used in the study were obtained from only three Middle Schools in one Chinese county, further investigation is needed for generalizability. Along the same lines, using students exposed to the same environment would improve internal validity of the study. Researchers also admitted that they investigated the effect of an online learning platform used to review materials already taught rather than reviewing platforms concerned with learning new knowledge.

Source: Clark, A. E., Nong, H., Zhu, H., & Zhu, R. (2021). Compensating for academic loss: Online learning and student performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. China Economic Review, 68, 101629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2021.101629… Read the rest

A number of studies have found that children engage in natural conversation with artificial intelligence (e.g., robots, voice assistants) which indicates the feasibility of voice agents as social partners for children.  Moreover, dialogic reading, which includes asking open-end questions to stimulate children’s thinking and providing feedback, has been identified as amplifying the benefits of storybook reading for children. Xu and colleagues compared the effects of dialogic reading with a human and dialogic reading with a non-human agent on promoting children’s language skills.

Researchers recruited 117 children (mean age = 58.1 months; 31% Asian) from five childcare centers serving middle-class communities in US and data were collected from Feb to Aug 2019. A two-by-two factorial design was adopted with human vs agent with voice only interface (Google Home Mini device), and dialogic reading (i.e., conducting the narrative reading and engaging children in dialogue by asking questions and providing feedback) vs non-dialogic reading (merely narrating the same story). Children were randomly assigned into four conditions:

• Agent Dialogic Reading (Agent DR)
• Agent Non-Dialogic Reading (Agent Non-DR)
• Human Dialogic Reading (Human DR)
• Human Non-Dialogic Reading (Human Non-DR)

Both human and agent followed the same dialogue script for the two dialogic reading groups. Children’s baseline vocabulary skills were accessed using standard test. The research team developed a test battery which was used to measure children’s story comprehension. Children’s engagement while listening to the story was coded from video-taped reading sessions. After controlling for pretest vocabulary skills, analysis results indicated that:

• For overall story comprehension, the dialogic reading condition, compared to the non-dialogic reading, led to significant effect (ES = +0.51), while agent and human had no significant difference (ES = -0.14).
• Human or AI agent as reading partner had no significant moderating effect on story comprehension.
• In terms of overall reading engagement, dialogic reading had significant effect (ES = +0.41) while no significant effect was found between reading partners (ES = 0.00).
• In terms of children speaking during a reading episode, dialogic reading increased narrative-relevant vocalization (ES=+1.11) compared to non-DR, while an agent reduced content vocalization irrelevant to the story (ES=-0.63) compared to a human reading partner.
• A possible mechanism was examined: agent dialogic reading promoted narrative-related vocalization (compared to “non-DR” groups) and decreased irrelevant vocalizations (compared to “human” partner), through which, comprehension scores were increased.

The experiment results revealed that a conversational agent, even just voice only (disembodied), replicated the benefit of dialogue with an adult as reading partner. Though researchers did not suggest robots replace parents during children’s story time, conversational agents are a cost-effective tool for enriching preschool-age children’s literacy development.

Source (Open Access): Xu, Y., Aubele, J., Vigil, V., Bustamante, A. S., Kim, Y., & Warschauer, M. (2021). Dialogue with a conversational agent promotes children’s story comprehension via enhancing engagement. Child Development, cdev.13708. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13708… Read the rest

Is the ‘herd behavior’ of attending private tutoring in China really beneficial for students? A recent paper examined the academic and psychological benefits of private supplemental tutoring in Chinese junior high school students.

Using the 2013-2015 China Education Panel Survey, this study claims to be the first on private tutoring in China to use national-level panel data. Researchers adopted a quasi-experimental design to investigate the relationships between private tutoring and academic and psychological outcomes of junior high school students. The academic subjects of interest were Chinese, English, and Mathematics.

• Overall, private tutoring has small, negative association with academic scores (ES = -0.01), but a positive association with psychological outcomes.
• Private tutoring is disproportionately harming the total scores of boys and students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds (rural households with parents of non-elite occupations).
• However, private tutoring benefits students from advantaged socio-economic backgrounds and urban areas in Mathematics scores.

The beneficial disparity means that private tutoring may widen the achievement gap between different socio-economic groups. One attributable factor to this result is the different tutoring quality in urban and rural areas. However, the researchers admit a lack of data in the quality and quantity of private tutoring and the subsequent limitations for a more in-depth analysis.

In terms of psychological effects, private tutoring is found to be negatively associated with negative emotions such as feeling unhappy and not enjoying life. This result indicates that positive emotional benefits might be a key factor driving Chinese students to participate in private tutoring.

Source: Sun, L., Shafiq, M. N., McClure, M., & Guo, S. (2020). Are there educational and psychological benefits from private supplementary tutoring in Mainland China? Evidence from the China Education Panel Survey, 2013–15. International Journal of Educational Development, 72, 102144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2019.102144… Read the rest

Rosetta Stone Foundations developed a software to improve English learners’ outcomes through individualized support and practice. The software, called Rosetta Stone Foundations English (RS), is a self-paced tool to be used as supplemental material to regular instruction in class. Its primary focus is on oral language skills by including speaking and listening practice. Students receive feedback on speaking accuracy as well as on writing, reading, and listening activities.

A randomized study evaluated the effects of the program on English learners’ outcomes in grades 6-8. Eight schools with 152 students were randomly assigned to the treatment and control conditions. Students worked with the program for 32 weeks for an average of 90 minutes per week. Student proficiency in language was assessed using the TELL (Test of English Language Learning) diagnostic test that included several measures: Speaking-Listening TELL Composite, Reading-Writing TELL Composite, Reading-Aloud TELL Composite.

• For Speaking-Listening TELL Composite, positive effect was found for RS user, higher the usage, the better the effect.
• For Reading-Writing TELL Composite, no significant difference between the treatment group and the control group.
• For Reading-Aloud TELL Composite, positive effect was found for RS user. Moreover, students who used the software the most achieved a significant improvement compared to the control students (ES = +0.44).

Source (Open Access): Harper, D., Bowles, A. R., Amer, L., Pandža, N. B., & Linck, J. A. (2021). Improving outcomes for English learners through technology: A randomized controlled trial. AERA Open, 7. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584211025528… Read the rest