Education Research Report:
This Week's Education Research Report
This Week's Education Research Report
Early learning about spatial relationships boosts understanding of numbers
Children who are skilled in understanding how shapes fit together to make recognizable objects also have an advantage when it comes to learning the number line and solving math problems, research at the University of Chicago shows. The work is further evidence of the value of providing young children with early opportunities in spatial learning, which contributes to their ability to mentally manipulate objects and understand spatial relationships, which are important in a wide range of tasks, including reading maps and graphs and understanding diagrams showing how to put things to... more »
Persistence is learned from fathers, study shows
New research from Brigham Young University shows that dads are in a unique position to help their adolescent children develop persistence. BYU professors Laura Padilla-Walker and Randal Day arrived at these findings after following 325 families over several years. And over time, the persistence gained through fathers lead to higher engagement in school and lower rates of delinquency. "In our research we ask 'Can your child stick with a task? Can they finish a project? Can they make a goal and complete it?'" Day said. "Learning to stick with it sets a foundation for kids to flouri... more »
Knowledge Of Fractions and Long Division Predicts Long-Term Math Success
From factory workers to Wall Street bankers, a reasonable proficiency in math is a crucial requirement for most well-paying jobs in a modern economy. Yet, over the past 30 years, mathematics achievement of U.S. high school students has remained stagnant — and significantly behind many other countries, including China, Japan, Finland, the Netherlands and Canada. A research team led by Carnegie Mellon University's Robert Siegler has identified a major source of the gap - U. S. students' inadequate knowledge of fractions and division. Although fractions and division are taught in ele... more »
Limited Choice Doesn’t Support New School Models, Study Finds
School choice is growing nationwide, but existing programs don’t support highly innovative school models, according to a new study. Although previous research has established a moderate academic benefit from those programs, the study suggests universal school choice for all families would bring to scale the kind of dramatic models piloted by such schools as Carpe Diem, Rocketship Education, or KIPP. Greg Forster, Ph.D., and James L. Woodworth, M.Ed., authors of “The Greenfield School Revolution and School Choice,” took a critical look at whether current private school choice plan... more »
Low-Performing Students: Percentage of U.S. Students at the Lowest Proficiency Levels Relative to International Peers on the Most Recent International Assessments in Reading, Mathematics, and Science: Results from PIRLS 2006, TIMSS 2007, and PISA 2009
How does the United States compare with other nations in terms of the proportion of students performing at the lowest proficiency levels? The international assessments Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) report the percentage of students in each participating nation and sub-national or non-national education system performing at each of several proficiency levels. The most recent U.S. results on international assessments are from PIRLS 2006, TI... more »
Teaching autistic teens to cope
Teenagers with autism spectrum disorder are in a bind. The disorder is characterized by impairments in communication and social interaction, but it's a continuum, so some teens diagnosed with ASD are considered high functioning and healthy enough to be "mainstreamed" in school. But without the proper social skills, even mainstreamed teens don't quite fit into the general social milieu of middle school or high school. As a result, they suffer from all the slings and arrows of that world. Since 2006, however, the UCLA PEERS (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Sk... more »
Treating Childhood Anxiety with Computers, Not Drugs
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, one in eight children suffers from an anxiety disorder. And because many anxious children turn into severely anxious adults, early intervention can have a major impact on a patient's life trajectory. The understandable reluctance to use psychiatric medications when it comes to children means child psychologists are always searching for viable therapeutic alternatives. Now Prof. Yair Bar-Haim of Tel Aviv University's School of Psychological Sciences and his fellow researchers are pursuing a new method to address childh... more »