We’ve known for a long time now that it’s not as simple as stating that motivation will lead to learning or vice versa. TuongVan Vu and colleagues try to clarify this better in a new review paper (h/t Greg Ashman for pointing me to this paper). The researchers introduce a nice circular diagram summarising the… Read More New review discusses the complex reciprocal relation between learning and motivation
People have massively shared my second Funny on Sunday Post. One reply I received was quite telling: this never could be real papers as the titles are so to the point. This brings me to a new paper I’ve read… From the press release: Researchers from University of Arizona and University of Utah published a… Read More How to Write Research Articles that Readers Understand and Cite: 3 ways to improve in a new article (but I know you can guess them)
Sleep and exercise have been two important worries about children for the past few decades, for sure in relation to obesity. New research from the University of South Australia shows that the same decline in body mass index may be achieved by either extra sleep or extra exercise with some extra insights! From the press… Read More What’s better for children: sleep or exercise?
On Saturday Robert Slavin passed away. This is sad news for everybody who knew him and for educational research. There is a very beautiful farewell in the latest Best Evidence in Brief, the newsletter that Robert Slavin started. Besides the touching eulogy, the first study that is being discussed is the following: How effective is… Read More This is such a nice farewell to Robert Slavin in his ‘Best Evidence in Brief’
Education can do a lot – even miracles, trust me – but education can’t do everything. A recent study finds that in the US social inequality persists, regardless of educational achievement – particularly for men. From the press release: “Education is not the equalizer that many people think it is,” says Anna Manzoni, author of… Read More Social inequality persists, regardless of educational achievement
Mindfulness has been a hype for quite a while, also in education. I wouldn’t call it a myth, as I know research that do show benefits, but it often comes with a warning that for some children – most often the children who are having difficulties already – it can have negative consequences. But now… Read More Can mindfulness make you selfish?
We have known that merit pay is often an expensive approach with little to no effect. But maybe we should change this view, as this new study shows that it can have a detrimental effect on segregation: Teacher incentive pay programs that focused on raising student achievement in high-need high schools expanded the test score… Read More This study finds that merit pay in education can make segregation worse
There is a new systematic review study on a topic that is highly relevant to the present situation. High‐quality evidence shows that, on average, school‐based interventions aimed at students who are experiencing, or at risk of, academic difficulties, do improve reading and mathematics outcomes in the short term. This is in line with a previous… Read More School-based interventions can help improve reading and math in at-risk children
Executive functions have been popular in education for a while now, although still a lot is not really clear yet. This is in part because there is no solid agreement on what those functions are and what not, as also is discussed in this new article. The article itself is not a study but a… Read More Executive functions might not exist all in your head?
I was not sure if it was needed to post this new study as it doesn’t add a lot of new insights to what we already know. Still, in times of replication crises, it’s always worth noting that an existing insight still stands: prior knowledge is key and more important: there is often a Matthew… Read More Again for who ever doubted it: Prior knowledge predicts new learning of domain-relevant information.
