六合彩彩票

It was a year of unprecedented hardship for teachers and school leaders. We pored through hundreds of studies to see if we could follow the trail of exactly what happened: The research revealed a complex portrait of a grueling year during which persistent issues of burnout and mental and physical health impacted millions of educators. Meanwhile, many of the old debates continued: Does paper beat digital? Is project-based learning as effective as direct instruction? How do you define what a 鈥済ood鈥� school is?

Other studies grabbed our attention, and in a few cases, made headlines. Researchers from the University of Chicago and Columbia University turned artificial intelligence loose on some 1,130 award-winning children鈥檚 books in search of invisible patterns of bias. (Spoiler alert: They found some.) Another study revealed why many parents are reluctant to support social and emotional learning in schools鈥攁nd provided hints about how educators can flip the script.

1. What Parents Fear About SEL (and How to Change Their Minds)

When researchers at the Fordham Institute asked parents to , nothing seemed to add up. The term 鈥渟ocial-emotional learning鈥� was very unpopular; parents wanted to steer their kids clear of it. But when the researchers added a simple clause, forming a new phrase鈥斺�漵ocial-emotional & academic learning鈥濃�攖he program shot all the way up to No. 2 in the rankings.

What gives?

Parents were picking up subtle cues in the list of SEL-related terms that irked or worried them, the researchers suggest. Phrases like 鈥渟oft skills鈥� and 鈥済rowth mindset鈥� felt 鈥渘ebulous鈥� and devoid of academic content. For some, the language felt suspiciously like 鈥渃ode for liberal indoctrination.鈥�

But the study suggests that parents might need the simplest of reassurances to break through the political noise. Removing the jargon, focusing on productive phrases like 鈥渓ife skills,鈥� and relentlessly connecting SEL to academic progress puts parents at ease鈥攁nd seems to save social and emotional learning in the process.

2. The Secret Management Techniques of Expert Teachers

In the hands of experienced teachers, classroom management can seem almost invisible: Subtle techniques are quietly at work behind the scenes, with students falling into orderly routines and engaging in rigorous academic tasks almost as if by magic.聽

That鈥檚 no accident, according to . While outbursts are inevitable in school settings, expert teachers seed their classrooms with proactive, relationship-building strategies that often prevent misbehavior before it erupts. They also approach discipline more holistically than their less-experienced counterparts, consistently reframing misbehavior in the broader context of how lessons can be more engaging, or how clearly they communicate expectations.

Focusing on the underlying dynamics of classroom behavior鈥攁nd not on surface-level disruptions鈥攎eans that expert teachers often look the other way at all the right times, too. Rather than rise to the bait of a minor breach in etiquette, a common mistake of new teachers, they tend to play the long game, asking questions about the origins of misbehavior, deftly navigating the terrain between discipline and student autonomy, and opting to confront misconduct privately when possible.

3. The Surprising Power of Pretesting

Asking students to take a practice test before they鈥檝e even encountered the material may seem like a waste of time鈥攁fter all, they鈥檇 just be guessing.

But concludes that the approach, called pretesting, is actually more effective than other typical study strategies. Surprisingly, pretesting even beat out taking practice tests after learning the material, a proven strategy endorsed by cognitive scientists and educators alike. In the study, students who took a practice test before learning the material outperformed their peers who studied more traditionally by 49 percent on a follow-up test, while outperforming students who took practice tests after studying the material by 27 percent.

The researchers hypothesize that the 鈥済eneration of errors鈥� was a key to the strategy鈥檚 success, spurring student curiosity and priming them to 鈥渟earch for the correct answers鈥� when they finally explored the new material鈥攁nd adding grist to a that found that making educated guesses helped students connect background knowledge to new material.

Learning is more durable when students do the hard work of correcting misconceptions, the research suggests, reminding us yet again that being wrong is an important milestone on the road to being right.

4. Confronting an Old Myth About Immigrant Students

Immigrant students are sometimes portrayed as a costly expense to the education system, but new research is systematically dismantling that myth.

In a , researchers analyzed over 1.3 million academic and birth records for students in Florida communities, and concluded that the presence of immigrant students actually has 鈥渁 positive effect on the academic achievement of U.S.-born students,鈥� raising test scores as the size of the immigrant school population increases. The benefits were especially powerful for low-income students.

While immigrants initially 鈥渇ace challenges in assimilation that may require additional school resources,鈥� the researchers concluded, hard work and resilience may allow them to excel and thus 鈥減ositively affect exposed U.S.-born students鈥� attitudes and behavior.鈥澛燘ut according to teacher Larry Ferlazzo, the improvements might stem from the fact that having English language learners in classes , pushing teachers to consider 鈥渋ssues like prior knowledge, scaffolding, and maximizing accessibility.鈥�

5. A Fuller Picture of What a 鈥楪ood鈥� School Is

It鈥檚 time to rethink our definition of what a 鈥済ood school鈥� is, researchers assert in a published in late 2020.鈦� That鈥檚 because typical measures of school quality like test scores often provide an incomplete and misleading picture, the researchers found.

The study looked at over 150,000 ninth-grade students who attended Chicago public schools and concluded that emphasizing the social and emotional dimensions of learning鈥攔elationship-building, a sense of belonging, and resilience, for example鈥攊mproves high school graduation and college matriculation rates for both high- and low-income students, beating out schools that focus primarily on improving test scores.鈦�

鈥淪chools that promote socio-emotional development actually have a really big positive impact on kids,鈥� said lead researcher C. Kirabo Jackson in an interview with 六合彩彩票. 鈥淎nd these impacts are particularly large for vulnerable student populations who don鈥檛 tend to do very well in the education system.鈥�

The findings reinforce the importance of a holistic approach to measuring student progress, and are a reminder that schools鈥攁nd teachers鈥攃an influence students in ways that are difficult to measure, and may only materialize well into the future.鈦�

6. Teaching Is Learning

One of the best ways to learn a concept is to teach it to someone else. But do you actually have to step into the shoes of a teacher, or does the mere expectation of teaching do the trick?

In a , researchers split students into two groups and gave them each a science passage about the Doppler effect鈥攁 phenomenon associated with sound and light waves that explains the gradual change in tone and pitch as a car races off into the distance, for example. One group studied the text as preparation for a test; the other was told that they鈥檇 be teaching the material to another student.

The researchers never carried out the second half of the activity鈥攕tudents read the passages but never taught the lesson. All of the participants were then tested on their factual recall of the Doppler effect, and their ability to draw deeper conclusions from the reading.

The upshot? Students who prepared to teach outperformed their counterparts in both duration and depth of learning, scoring 9 percent higher on factual recall a week after the lessons concluded, and 24 percent higher on their ability to make inferences. The research suggests that asking students to prepare to teach something鈥攐r encouraging them to think 鈥渃ould I teach this to someone else?鈥濃�攃an significantly alter their learning trajectories.

7. A Disturbing Strain of Bias in Kids鈥� Books

Some of the most popular and well-regarded children鈥檚 books鈥擟aldecott and Newbery honorees among them鈥攑ersistently depict Black, Asian, and Hispanic characters with lighter skin, according to .

Using artificial intelligence, researchers combed through 1,130 children鈥檚 books written in the last century, comparing two sets of diverse children鈥檚 books鈥攐ne a collection of popular books that garnered major literary awards, the other favored by identity-based awards. The software analyzed data on skin tone, race, age, and gender.

Among the findings: While more characters with darker skin color begin to appear over time, the most popular books鈥攖hose most frequently checked out of libraries and lining classroom bookshelves鈥攃ontinue to depict people of color in lighter skin tones. More insidiously, when adult characters are 鈥渕oral or upstanding,鈥� their skin color tends to appear lighter, the study鈥檚 lead author, Anjali Aduki,聽, with some books converting 鈥淢artin Luther King Jr.鈥檚 chocolate complexion to a light brown or beige.鈥� Female characters, meanwhile, are often seen but not heard.

Cultural representations are a reflection of our values, the researchers conclude: 鈥淚nequality in representation, therefore, constitutes an explicit statement of inequality of value.鈥�

8. The Never-Ending 鈥楶aper Versus Digital鈥� War

The argument goes like this: Digital screens turn reading into a cold and impersonal task; they鈥檙e good for information foraging, and not much more. 鈥淩eal鈥� books, meanwhile, have a 聽that make them intimate, enchanting鈥攁nd irreplaceable.

But researchers have often found weak or equivocal evidence for the superiority of reading on paper. While a concluded that paper books yielded better comprehension than e-books when many of the digital tools had been removed, the effect sizes were small. A further muddies the water: When digital and paper books are 鈥渕ostly similar,鈥� kids comprehend the print version more readily鈥攂ut when enhancements like motion and sound 鈥渢arget the story content,鈥� e-books generally have the edge.

Nostalgia is a force that every new technology must eventually confront. There鈥檚 plenty of evidence that writing with pen and paper encodes learning more deeply than typing. But new digital book formats come preloaded with powerful tools that allow readers to annotate, look up words, answer embedded questions, and share their thinking with other readers.

We may not be ready to admit it, but these are precisely the kinds of activities that drive deeper engagement, enhance comprehension, and leave us with a lasting memory of what we鈥檝e read. The future of e-reading, despite the naysayers, remains promising.

9. New Research Makes a Powerful Case for PBL

Many classrooms today still look like they did 100 years ago, when students were preparing for factory jobs. But the world鈥檚 moved on: Modern careers demand a more sophisticated set of skills鈥攃ollaboration, advanced problem-solving, and creativity, for example鈥攁nd those can be difficult to teach in classrooms that rarely give students the time and space to develop those competencies.

Project-based learning (PBL) would seem like an ideal solution. But critics say PBL places too much responsibility on novice learners, ignoring the evidence about the effectiveness of direct instruction and ultimately undermining subject fluency. Advocates counter that student-centered learning and direct instruction can and should coexist in classrooms.

Now two new large-scale studies鈥攅ncompassing over 6,000 students in 114 diverse schools across the nation鈥攑rovide evidence that a well-structured, project-based approach boosts learning for a wide range of students.

In the studies, which were funded by Lucas Education Research, a sister division of 六合彩彩票, elementary and high school students engaged in challenging projects that had them designing water systems for local farms, or creating toys using simple household objects to learn about gravity, friction, and force. Subsequent testing revealed notable learning gains鈥攚ell above those experienced by students in traditional classrooms鈥攁nd those gains seemed to raise all boats, persisting across socioeconomic class, race, and reading levels.

10. Tracking a Tumultuous Year for Teachers

The Covid-19 pandemic cast a long shadow over the lives of educators in 2021, according to a year鈥檚 worth of research.

The average teacher鈥檚 workload suddenly 鈥渟piked last spring,鈥� wrote the Center for Reinventing Public Education in its report, and then鈥攊n defiance of the laws of motion鈥攕imply never let up. By the fall, a recorded an astonishing shift in work habits: 24 percent of teachers reported that they were working 56 hours or more per week, compared to 5 percent pre-pandemic.

The vaccine was the promised land, but when it arrived nothing seemed to change. In an 聽conducted four months after the first vaccine was administered in New York City, 92 percent of teachers said their jobs were more stressful than prior to the pandemic, up from 81 percent in an earlier survey.

It wasn鈥檛 just the length of the work days; a close look at the research reveals that the school system鈥檚 failure to adjust expectations was ruinous. It seemed to start with the obligations of hybrid teaching, which surfaced in 六合彩彩票鈥檚 coverage of overseas school reopenings. In June 2020, well before many U.S. schools reopened, we reported that hybrid teaching was an emerging problem internationally, and warned that if the 鈥渕odel is to work well for any period of time,鈥� schools must 鈥渞ecognize and seek to reduce the workload for teachers.鈥� Almost eight months later, a identified hybrid teaching as a primary source of teacher stress in the U.S., easily outpacing factors like the health of a high-risk loved one.

New and ever-increasing demands for tech solutions put teachers on a knife鈥檚 edge. In several important 2021 studies, researchers concluded that teachers were being pushed to without the 鈥渞esources and equipment necessary for its correct didactic use.鈥� Consequently, they were spending more than adapting lessons for online use, and experiencing an between their work and home lives, leading to an unsustainable 鈥渁lways on鈥� mentality. When it seemed like nothing more could be piled on鈥攚hen all of the lights were blinking red鈥攖he federal government .

Change will be hard; many of the pathologies that exist in the system now predate the pandemic. But creating strict school policies that separate work from rest, eliminating the adoption of new tech tools without proper supports, distributing surveys regularly to gauge teacher well-being, and above all listening to educators to identify and confront emerging problems might be a good place to start, if the research can be believed.