THIS WEEK'S EDUCATION RESEARCH REPORT
Interactive teaching methods help students master tricky calculus
The key to helping students learn complicated math is to understand how to apply it to new ideas and make learning more interactive, according to a new study by UBC researchers. Pre-class assignments, small group discussions and clicker quizzes improve students’ ability to grasp tricky first-year calculus concepts. Students taught in such active-engagement classes were 10 per cent more likely to u
Comprehensive review of marijuana’s negative health effects: Risks are greatest for teen users
The current state of science on the adverse health effects of marijuana use links the drug to several significant adverse effects including addiction, a review reports. The article, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, is authored by scientists from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. “It is important to alert the public that
Diplomas Count 2014 Motivation Matters: Engaging Students, Creating Learners
The nationwide push toward greater school accountability and common standards has generated a chorus of calls for raising the level of academic rigor in U.S. schools. However, the realization has come that academics alone may not be enough: Students have to want to come to school, work hard, and graduate on time. The 2014 installment of Diplomas Count investigates the new attention to cultivating
JUN 03
Brain signals link physical fitness to better language skills in kids
Children who are physically fit have faster and more robust neuro-electrical brain responses during reading than their less-fit peers, researchers report.These differences correspond with better language skills in the children who are more fit, and occur whether they're reading straightforward sentences or sentences that contain errors of grammar or syntax.The new findings, reported in the journa
Teachers Are In School 94 Percent On Average, But Rate Is Dragged Down By Minority Of Teachers Who Are Absent 18 Days Or More
A study looking at the attendance of over 234,000 teachers in the 2012-2013 school year found disturbing evidence of a group of teachers who are absent at least one out of every ten school days. The report, Roll Call: The importance of teacher attendance, finds that at 16 percent, the group of chronically absent teachers was precisely equivalent in size to the group of teachers who had excellent
Report on NYC Children First reforms provides useful insights but oversells statistical evidence
A report published earlier this year on the education reforms instituted in New York City during the three mayoral terms of Michael Bloomberg concisely summarizes those efforts – collectively known as “Children First” – but reaches too far in assigning causation to certain policies, according to a new review published today.Randall Reback, an economist at Barnard College, reviewed New York City’s
JUN 02
Poor sleep equal to binge drinking, marijuana use in predicting academic problems
A new study shows that college students who are poor sleepers are much more likely to earn worse grades and withdraw from a course than healthy sleeping peers. Results show that sleep timing and maintenance problems in college students are a strong predictor of academic problems even after controlling for other factors that contribute to academic success, such as clinical depression, feeling iso
Major Barriers Immigrant Parents Face Engaging with Education Programs at Pivotal Early Childhood Stage
Offers State-Level Data on English Proficiency, Education, Income for Immigrant Parents of Young ChildrenImmigrant parents confront significant barriers as they try to engage with their children's educational programs during the developmentally critical early years, with many facing greatly restricted access due to the lack of robust translation and interpretation services and their own limited fu
Quality of preschools in England depends on where you live
Private and voluntary (not-for-profit) nurseries and preschools catering for disadvantaged areas and children are lower quality than those serving more advantaged areas and children, according to University of Oxford research published by the Nuffield Foundation.The 'quality gap' between nurseries catering for the least and most advantaged three and four-year-olds is widest (9%) in relation to how