There is a new Best Evidence in Brief and this time I picked this important meta-analysis from this biweekly newsletter written up by Chenchen Shi, Johns Hopkins University. The first few years of a novice teacher’s career are important, and often accompanied by formalized induction programs aimed at helping teacher development and growth.A new meta-analysis published… Read More Are novice teacher induction programs worthwhile? (Best Evidence in Brief)

Before I start this blog post, I should tell you a little about myself for transparency. Before I started blogging and writing books, I was actively involved in several European projects on inclusive education. Historically, I can be called rather an advocate than a person against inclusive education. This weekend Dirk Van Damme shared a… Read More Does inclusive education work? A report with a nuanced answer.

I found this new review study via Christian Bokhove and dr. Rachel Renbarger, and it’s quite fascinating. Together with her colleagues, dr. Renbarger examined the shift that has happened over time: The construct of SES is measured via an extremely wide set of variables. The number of SES variables used has drastically compounded within the… Read More The history of measuring Socioeconomic Status

This new study seems to have partially found the holy grail of teaching: What constitutes teacher expertise? They base their conclusions on a metasummary of 106 empirical studies of expert teachers. Why did I write ‘partially’? Because the authors admit that the prototype they’ve found remains far from complete. Now, what are the answers? Well,… Read More What are the key characteristics and practices of expert teachers?

It’s a post on this blog that was heavily shared and read, and it was also a chapter in one of our Urban Myths books: Universal Design for Learning. At the time of writing, little research was present. We didn’t describe it as a myth, but we did warn of a possible ‘mentos effect’. For… Read More The positive effects of Universal Design for Learning on learning (meta-analysis)

There is a new Best Evidence in Brief and this time I picked this study from this biweekly newsletter written up by José L. Arco-Tirado, Faculty of Education, University of Granada (Spain) and Xirui Tian, Johns Hopkins University. A recent study published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis addresses the perennial question in education if resources… Read More The effects of teacher assistants on student achievement (Best Evidence in Brief)