Educational Research

List of Research Animations

BRAIN-BASED LEARNING

Optimizing Working Memory in the Classroom

• Research shows that distractions, confusing material, or an overwhelming amount of information can tax a student’s working memory.

SPECIAL EDUCATION

A Landmark Study Strikes a Resounding Note for Inclusion

• New research confirms that the best way to serve students with disabilities is in general ed—not siloed in special education classrooms.

LITERACY

Why Prior Knowledge Wins the Game

• Although schools have been prioritizing discrete skills in reading instruction for years, education writer Natalie Wexler says building rich background knowledge could lead to more successful readers.

BRAIN-BASED LEARNING

Neuroscientists Say Don’t Write Off Handwriting

• Brain scans reveal crucial reading circuitry flickering to life when young readers print letters and then read them. The effect largely disappears when letters are typed or traced.

PLAY & RECESS

The Mysterious Power of Brain Breaks

• During breaks, it turns out, the brain works overtime. New research illuminates what kinds of breaks benefit learners the most.

CRITICAL THINKING

How Drawing Can Lead to Deeper Understanding

• Organizational drawings—concept maps and sketchnotes, for example—help students see gaps in their learning while boosting comprehension by fourfold.

BRAIN-BASED LEARNING

An Authoritative Study of Two High-Impact Learning Strategies

• To boost long-term retention, research shows that retrieval practice—like using quizzes and flash cards—and spacing learning sessions over time can make a dramatic difference.

TEACHER WELLNESS

How Set Better Boundaries With Technology

• When teachers never get to unplug, their physical and mental health suffers. But school leaders can—and should—push back against always-on culture.

DIVERSITY

Discovering a Disturbing Bias in Kids’ Books

• Has the recent uptick in diverse characters in children’s literature translated into authentic representation? One team of researchers used artificial intelligence to investigate.

LITERACY

A Better Way to Learn Your ABCs

• Integrating whole-body movements into learning the alphabet improves students’ recollection of letter-sound pairings and hard-to-learn sounds.

STUDENT WELLNESS

What Do Coal-Fired Power Plants Have to Do With Learning? More Than You Think

• A 2020 study reminds us that educational equity does not begin and end at the schoolhouse door.

EDUCATION EQUITY

A Study Upends Stereotypes About Good Coders

• Research shows that learning how to code closely resembles learning a language like French or Chinese, challenging entrenched beliefs.

CREATIVITY

The Powerful Effects of Drawing on Learning

• The science is clear: Drawing beats out reading and writing to help students remember concepts.

WORLD LANGUAGES

To Teach Vocabulary, Let Students Be Thespians

• Kids learning a new language retain new vocabulary at significantly higher rates if they act it out.

PLAY & RECESS

The Importance of Recess

• Recess is often sacrificed to make room for more academics. The research says that’s a big mistake.

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING

3 Ways to Maximize Peer-to-Peer Learning

• Using simple strategies to get students to teach each other is a research-proven path to better learning.

FLEXIBLE CLASSROOMS

Can Flexible Classrooms Boost Student Achievement?

• The research suggests that flexibility and a sense of ownership make a real difference for students—but it's not the furniture at work.

HOMEWORK

Homework: How Much Is Too Much?

• There's a conventional take on how much homework kids should do. Here's the research on why we should rethink it.

BRAIN-BASED LEARNING

Boosting Student Memory

• Forgetting starts as soon as learning happens, but educators can make their teaching stickier with these five tips.

LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

5 Tips for Decorating Your Classroom

• A quick primer on how to think about decorations in the classroom, with five research-backed tips for getting it right.

WORLD LANGUAGES

The Benefits of Learning a Second Language

• It’s a myth that learning a new language interferes with a child’s development.

Source: Edutopia

But does the research agree? What are the fundamental levers that teachers can pull to refine their practices, improve their craft, and make a significant—or even life-altering—contribution to the lives of their students?

Edutopia reviewed nearly two dozen studies in compiling this piece—and here are the key findings. Read the entire article

1. Always Be Collecting (Targeted) Feedback

2. Attend to Relationships (and Classroom Culture)

3. Don't Give an Inch on Standards

4. Make Your Classroom Management 'Invisible'

5. Humanize Your Teaching

6. Check Your Biases

7. Authenticity + Passion = Success!

8. Close the Book on the Day

Also, learn how the eight teaching practices directly align with high quality PBL and project-based teaching. (Article by John Larmer of PBL Works)

Source: Edutopia 

Reason #1: A lot of professional learning is "sit and get".

The report is clear. This does not usually work, unless it is to kick off follow-up active PD sessions.

In the report they identify seven factors of effective PD. Five out of the first six are specifically about active and hands on learning.

Using the methodology detailed in Appendix A, we identify seven characteristics of effective PD. Specifically, we find that it:

1. Is content focused

2. Incorporates active learning utilizing adult learning theory (can't do this in sit and get)

3. Supports collaboration, typically in job-embedded contexts (can't do this in sit and get)

4. Uses models and modeling of effective practice (can't do this in sit and get)

5. Provides coaching and expert support (can't do this in sit and get)

6. Offers opportunities for feedback and reflection (can't do this in sit and get)

We see that each characteristic is slightly different, but almost all of them cannot be successful in a "sit and get" type of learning environment. This is why the most effective PD is often an "Earn to Learn" session where both the facilitator and the learner are working to create authentic meaning out of the experience.

Reason #2: A lot of professional learning is "one and done"

The seventh characteristic of effective PD is "sustained duration". This means it cannot be a single session on a single topic. When we do this there is no research to support it being effective in any way, and is often a waste of time.

If you are leading professional learning, try to filter the experiences and sessions between these two reasons and see how it stacks up.

If you have to do a sit and get session, follow it up with a hands on experience like a design sprint, rapid prototyping session, or empathy mapping experience.

Then follow up and continue the focus of your professional learning for a sustained duration to make it effective.

Source: Learning Policy Institute & A.J. Juliani Blog

What we’ve seen in the past couple of years specifically, is that the public often has misconstrued ideas on what it means to learn, and how we (as humans) can learn best. This series will hopefully shed some light, in a non-academic way, on principles that form the foundation of engaging and empowering experiences that foster deep learning.

Post #1: The Principles of Learning: It All Starts with Attention

Post #2: The Principles of Learning: Context Is Integral to Learning

Source: A.J. Juliani Blog

Inquiry vs. Direct Instruction: Is One Superior?

The paper responds to claims that direct instruction outperforms inquiry-based learning. While proponents of direct instruction cite its grounding in Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) and claim its superiority in all cases, the authors refute this by showcasing studies where inquiry-based learning is rooted in cognitive and sociocultural theories. They present evidence that inquiry-based learning supports the development of deeper conceptual knowledge and problem-solving skills, particularly when scaffolding and teacher support are provided.

Context Matters: Examples of Combined Methods

The key, according to the authors, is to identify the conditions where each method works best. In many real-world scenarios, a blend of guided inquiry and direct instruction proves most effective. The paper offers several examples of how these methods can be combined:

1. Physics: Newton’s Second Law of Motion

Direct Instruction Example: The teacher explains Newton’s second law in detail, breaking down the relationships between force, mass, and acceleration. This includes both a conceptual explanation and the formula. Students can ask questions to ensure they understand before applying the knowledge. Following this, they experiment with a practical demonstration, using a wheeled skateboard to test and verify the law in real-life conditions.

Inquiry-Based Learning Example: Students begin by asking a question: What type of motion occurs when a force is applied to an object? They then engage in experiments with the skateboard, exploring different outcomes based on their hypotheses. Instructor guidance is provided, but the focus is on the students generating content and understanding through investigation.

In both cases, students are actively engaged, whether verifying through direct application or discovering principles through inquiry. The combination provides structured learning with opportunities for deeper exploration.

2. Density in Physics

Direct Instruction Example: The concept of density is introduced through explicit teaching. The teacher explains the formula and its relationship to mass and volume. Students then apply the concept by solving problems or conducting simple experiments to confirm the formula.

Inquiry-Based Learning Example: Instead of starting with an explanation, students are tasked with experimenting with different materials to explore why some objects float while others sink. Through guided inquiry, they discover the principle of density for themselves, with teacher support.

This contrast highlights the balance between structured content delivery and active student-led investigation. Both approaches work together to enhance student understanding.

3. Project-Based Learning: Chemistry and Physics

Two large-scale studies show the advantages of project-based learning, a method combining inquiry and instruction:

Schneider et al. (2022): In this study, students explored real-world problems in chemistry, such as why table salt is safe to consume while its components are toxic. The project-based approach included experiments, modeling, and predictions, leading to better performance compared to traditional instruction.

Krajcik et al. (2022): A similar study involved students learning physics and biology through project-based inquiry. Over 2,000 students participated, and those in the project-based group outperformed their peers in traditional classrooms.

Managing Cognitive Load in Inquiry-Based Learning

A notable concern with inquiry learning is cognitive load. However, the paper discusses examples where students effectively manage cognitive demands during inquiry-based tasks. Perez et al. (2017) conducted a study on electrical circuits, demonstrating that low-prior-knowledge students who successfully learned through inquiry started with simpler tasks and took pauses to reflect on their learning. This shows that with the right scaffolding and strategies, inquiry-based learning can be just as effective as direct instruction while also promoting deeper engagement with the material.

Generative Learning Strategies

The authors also emphasize the benefits of generative learning strategies in inquiry-based learning. Research by Fiorella and Mayer (2016) shows that students benefit from engaging in activities like summarizing, explaining, and predicting, which help them organize and integrate new information with what they already know. This active construction of knowledge is key to mastering complex scientific concepts, making inquiry-based methods particularly effective in fostering long-term understanding.

Conclusion

Ultimately, this paper advocates for a flexible, research-informed approach to science instruction. Educators should leverage both inquiry-based learning and direct instruction based on the specific context, ensuring students not only absorb knowledge but also develop the skills to apply it critically. As science education continues to evolve, the key to success lies in the thoughtful combination of instructional strategies that foster deep understanding and engagement. By blending the strengths of both approaches, educators can offer students the best of both worlds, preparing them for deeper learning and real-world problem-solving.

Source: Thought Stretchers Education

• • Children's brains are highly malleable, with heightened periods of change in early childhood and adolescence. Learning and brain development occur across the lifespan.

  • There is no such thing as an "average" learner. Every child learns and develops differently along their own unique pathway. Education systems designed for an imaginary "average" fail many students.

  • A child's experiences, environments and cultures are the primary influences on their development, more so than genes. Positive contexts nurture potential.

  • Strong, trusting relationships are essential for learning and healthy development. They reduce stress and create conditions for children to thrive.

  • Academic/cognitive development is inextricably linked to social, emotional and physical development. Children must be supported as whole people.

  • Learning progresses in an integrated way, not linearly. Children build understanding by connecting new knowledge to prior experiences.

The article argues that to realize the potential of all students, education systems must be transformed based on this scientific understanding of how children actually learn and develop. Educators need to design environments, relationships and experiences tailored to each child's unique pathway.

Also see:

• • The Science of Learning and Development (SoLD)

  • SoLD Alliance Research Papers

  • Design Principles for Schools: Putting the Science of Learning and Development Into Action

Source: Science of Learning Development Alliance

The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, challenges the notion of innate talent and emphasizes the importance of effort and effective practice. The study suggests that prior knowledge often misconstrued as faster learning, as some students may have a head start due to previous exposure to concepts.

Using educational software, researchers tracked students' progress and found that while initial accuracy rates varied widely among learners, the rate of improvement per practice attempt remained consistent across all ability levels. High achievers, starting with above-average accuracy, required fewer practice attempts to reach mastery compared to below-average students, who needed more attempts.

The study highlights the significance of well-designed practice exercises and feedback in facilitating learning. While the findings primarily apply to computerized learning environments, researchers acknowledge potential variations in learning rates in traditional settings. Memory processing speeds influenced learning rates, particularly in language learning programs.

The research suggests a shift in attitudes towards low achievers, viewing them as individuals who may need more practice opportunities rather than lacking inherent ability. The conclusion underscores the importance of practice, feedback, and effort in achieving mastery in various subjects.

Source: The Hechinger Report

Education systems worldwide are increasingly acknowledging the crucial role of social and emotional skills (SES) in the development of both students and societies. The OECD has been actively involved in advancing the understanding and assessment of SES through the OECD Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES). This working paper contributes to the broader initiative of rethinking the assessment of social and emotional skills by addressing conceptual and empirical challenges.

As part of the project, the paper seeks to enhance clarity on various aspects related to SES. Firstly, it delves into the origins of the SSES framework for SES, addressing criticisms and responding to concerns, including those related to the utilization of the Big Five personality model. Secondly, the paper explores the teachability of SES and compares different skills in terms of their educability. Thirdly, it compiles recent evidence that sheds light on the association between SES and key life outcomes. Finally, the paper strives to bridge conceptual gaps within the literature by updating the overarching definition of SES, highlighting disparities in the definitions of specific skills, and pinpointing teachable skills with substantial predictive value. This comprehensive approach aims to strengthen the foundation for understanding and assessing SES, contributing to a more nuanced and effective educational paradigm.

Source: OECD iLibrary

Parents were picking up subtle cues in the list of SEL-related terms that irked or worried them, the researchers suggest. Phrases like “soft skills” and “growth mindset” felt “nebulous” and devoid of academic content. For some, the language felt suspiciously like “code for liberal indoctrination.”

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 “life skills,” and relentlessly connecting SEL to academic progress puts parents at ease—and seems to save social and emotional learning in the process.

Source: Edupedia

Chentsova Dutton and her team interviewed students from Turkey, Russia, Canada and the United States, asking them to describe a risky or dangerous experience they had in the last month. Both Turkish and Russian students described witnessing events that involved actual risk: violent fights on public transportation; hazardous driving conditions caused by drunk drivers; women being aggressively followed on the street. 

But American students were far more likely to cite as dangerous things that most adults do every day, like being alone outside or riding alone in an Uber.

The American students’ risk threshold was comparatively “quite low,” according to Chentsova Dutton. Students who reported they gained independence later in childhood — going to the grocery store or riding public transportation alone, for example — viewed their university campus as more dangerous; those same students also had fewer positive emotions when describing risky situations. 

Chentsova Dutton hypothesizes that when students have fewer opportunities to practice autonomy, they have less faith in themselves that they can figure out a risky situation. “My suspicion is that low autonomy seems to translate into low efficacy,” she said. “Low efficacy and a combination of stress is associated with distress,” like anxiety and depression. Learn more by reading  the report.

Also see:

• The Play & Independence: Let Grow Website that is mentioned in the report.

• Health and Wellbeing Section

Source: KQED Website

Quality matters, and you can move kids from simple yes/no questions to more penetrating inquiry by guiding them toward questions that start with “explain,” or that use “how” and “why” framing. Alternatively, you can use class time to identify the characteristics of higher-order questions—those that require analysis or synthesis, for example—then collect student questions and discuss them as a group.

Source: Edutopia & Wiley Online Library

Practice makes perfect. To become ambidextrous in basketball, dribble with your left hand, switch to your right, and repeat the process again and again. Likewise, to solve differential equations in math, pile them up and work your way through them diligently.

According to one popular school of thought, it’s this active, repeated manipulation of material that lays the neural foundations for skill development. All too often, time away from the basketball court—or the math books—is seen as a break in the learning process, a way to cool off, reenergize, and then return to the vital work of actual practice.

But for Leonardo Cohen, a neuroscientist at the National Institutes of Health and the senior author of a June 2021 study published in the journal Cell, the idea that breaks are a cooling-off period is a misconception.

Source: Edutopia

The Five Signposts

• Lead the creation of a New Education Narrative

• Lead within ecosystems

• Lead for equity 

• Lead for innovation 

• Lead for futures literacy

Leaders in the future need to be advocates for inclusion and diversity, for racial equality; fiercely anti-racist and anti-sexist; agents of change, activists intervening to attack institutional barriers to equity and achieve the power shifts that are necessary to produce justice for all. In the everyday running of schools, the very essence of the culture and ensuing policies and practice needs an equity lens.

Source: Association of Independent Schools of South Australia

Inclusion is often associated with students who have impairments or students seen as 'having special educational needs'. However, in the Index, inclusion is about the education of all children and young people. Read the entire document here.

Source: Published by the Center for Studies on Inclusive Education (CSIE)

While immigrants initially “face challenges in assimilation that may require additional school resources,” the researchers concluded, hard work and resilience may allow them to excel and thus “positively affect exposed U.S.-born students’ attitudes and behavior.” But according to teacher Larry Ferlazzo, the improvements might stem from the fact that having English language learners in classes improves pedagogy, pushing teachers to consider “issues like prior knowledge, scaffolding, and maximizing accessibility.”

Source: Edupedia

Bransford and colleagues emphasize the following three conditions for effective learning: engaging prior understandings and background knowledge, integrating factual knowledge with conceptual frameworks by encouraging deep understanding, and supporting students in taking active control over the learning process.

Any instructional intervention that claims scientific credibility should reflect these principles, which are particularly important when it comes to English language learners. Prior knowledge refers not only to information or skills previously acquired in formal instruction but also to the totality of the experiences that have shaped the learner's identity and cognitive functioning. In classrooms with students from linguistically diverse backgrounds, instruction should explicitly activate this knowledge.

Source: ASCD Website - September 1, 2005

“Schools that promote socio-emotional development actually have a really big positive impact on kids,” said lead researcher C. Kirabo Jackson in an interview with Edutopia. “And these impacts are particularly large for vulnerable student populations who don’t tend to do very well in the education system.”

The findings reinforce the importance of a holistic approach to measuring student progress and are a reminder that schools—and teachers—can influence students in ways that are difficult to measure, and may only materialize well into the future.⁣

Source: Edupedia

Funding for private schools is diverse, with 42% of upper secondary level funding coming from private sources, mainly tuition fees. Private schools generally exhibit greater autonomy and face fewer shortages than public schools, as evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

However, disparities in material and resource shortages, teacher shortages, and social diversity objectives exist between private and public schools. While private schools often achieve better results in PISA assessments, this is attributed to enrolling more students from advantaged socio-economic backgrounds. 

The report underscores the challenge of enhancing social diversity in both public and private schools, emphasizing the need for efforts to address this over the past decade.

• In 2021, 18% of students from pre-primary to upper secondary level were enrolled in private schools in OECD countries. Enrolment in private schools was more common in pre-primary and upper secondary education than in other levels of education.

• Private schools are mostly state funded, with government funding accounting for 58% of total funding on average in upper secondary education. However, this figure masks major differences between OECD countries.

• Private schools enjoy greater autonomy and suffer fewer shortages of teachers and educational material than public schools. They were generally better in responding flexibly to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in many countries private schools contribute to social segregation by enrolling a greater share of students from advantaged backgrounds.

• In most countries, the performance advantage of 15-year-old students enrolled in private schools over their publicly educated peers disappears once their socio-economic background and the profile of their school are taken into account.

Source: OCEDiLibrary

The Lancet Commission presents the case for placing children, aged 0–18 years, at the centre of the SDGs: at the heart of the concept of sustainability and our shared human endeavour. Governments must harness coalitions across sectors to overcome ecological and commercial pressures to ensure children receive their rights and entitlements now and a liveable planet in the years to come.

February 2020

This insight led Brown to study the impact of play deprivation on incarcerated individuals, finding that those with limited play opportunities often struggled with social connections and empathy.

Play, experts assert, is essential for cognitive, social, and emotional growth. Research shows that play, particularly unstructured play, helps children develop resilience, emotional regulation, and social skills. Chemicals like oxytocin and dopamine, which are released during play, foster these skills and promote positive emotions. Studies with animals and children reveal that play strengthens brain connections crucial for problem-solving, memory, and language.

However, play opportunities are dwindling due to structured academic pressures and the lasting effects of the pandemic, which kept many children indoors. Experts argue that play should be reintegrated into classrooms, not just as recess but as a learning tool. "Guided play" — activities with learning goals that encourage exploration — has shown particular promise in teaching concepts like math and engineering. Experts such as Doris Bergen and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek believe that play is not peripheral but fundamental to learning, helping children internalize knowledge, problem-solve, and develop perseverance.

That distinction—between “learning” and “play”—is a false one, according to early childhood educator and author Erika Christakis. Although kindergarten and elementary classrooms often devalue it in favor of direct instruction or seat time, play is the “defining feature” of all mammalian development, and its “signature” is apparent in the bodies and lives of little kids who experience it: “Their life expectancies are longer and their social-emotional capabilities are more robust when they have a chance to learn through play and deep relationships, and when their developing brains are given the chance to grow in a nurturing, language-rich, and relatively unhurried environment,” Christakis told Edutopia in a 2019 interview.

Children aren’t miniature adults. Nonetheless, a bias toward adult perspectives of childhood, with its attendant schedules and routines, has gradually exerted a stranglehold on our educational system, Christakis continues, trapping young kids in educational spaces that too often feel dreary, joyless, and alienating. “The notion that there is something of value in being a little kid—with little kid desires and, above all, needs—seems to have fallen out of favor.”

Breaking the Cycle

Despite the clear benefits of play, setting aside the time for even the youngest students can seem out of step with the academic demands of the school day. Early childhood teachers are pressured to meet strict seat-time guidelines in their classrooms, and they often feel that direct instruction is the best method to achieve the many curricular objectives that parents, principals, and other leaders expect.

According to a new study, there’s a middle path. A group of researchers from the University of Cambridge analyzed decades of research on “guided play”—more commonly called play-based learning—and concluded that it can have a “greater positive effect” on the acquisition of skills like math, shape knowledge, and task switching than more traditional approaches that prioritize seat time and explicit instruction.

“In redefining play as a spectrum with varying degrees of child autonomy and adult guidance, guided play has been situated as a ‘middle-ground’ between free play and direct instruction,” the researchers concluded. The learning is inherently rich and meaningful because “play naturally cultivates their enjoyment, motivation, and agency; while the inclusion of guidance by a supportive adult extends the scope for learning beyond what the child might achieve on their own.”

Incorporating key elements of play—like wonder, exploration, and student agency—into loosely structured lessons that are gently supported by teachers provides an “optimal” approach for students, according to the researchers. For Christakis, this means that play-based learning experiences should provide students with a “steady diet of free, unstructured time and access to open-ended materials” that allow them to engage in “rambling” storytelling and provide plenty of time to just “mess around and make their own rules.”

Play, with an Objective in Mind

In a successful play-based learning class, teachers often have a clear “learning goal” behind the play they let students engage in ahead of time, according to the Cambridge study. A teacher should keep this goal in mind during the play and subtly guide the child toward the goal.

Don’t pull the strings too tight: According to primary teacher Maggie Sabin, teachers shouldn’t necessarily expect students to produce specific outputs. For example, to teach students how colors can be mixed to form new colors, you might avoid giving students instructions to mix specific colors and instead model one example and then allow them to make their own combinations. “Be well prepared and intentional in planning, but allow for flexibility and inspiration,” writes Sabin.

One way to make sure that students are playing with purpose is to structure your classroom with deliberate spaces or centers containing materials, games, or objects intentionally chosen for students to engage with and make sense of.

An area in Sabin’s classroom, for example, contains a “tinker tray” of items that might seem random but are related to lessons or units she is using direct instruction to guide students through. During a unit on nature and natural materials, for example, the tray is stocked with items like pebbles, leaves, or sticks that students can both practice naming and manipulating. The materials can also be used to practice early math skills through the course of play by simply asking students how many pebbles they have or how many pebbles they have left after giving some to a friend.

Providing Choice and Agency

Effective play-based learning should be child-led when possible and give students “freedom and choice over their actions and play behavior,” the researchers assert. However, their findings suggest that the level of autonomy being given to students in play-based learning scenarios is often less than the amount needed to “cultivate children’s agency, motivation, and curiosity.”

To foster that agency, San Jose Unified School District kindergarten teacher Jessica Arrow often starts the day by allowing students 30 to 45 minutes of “choice time” to explore various spaces in the classroom—a block center, math center, science center, art center, book nook, or dramatic play corner.

The items they encounter are related to previous lessons and the interests her students have expressed. For example, after reading the children’s book Miss Maple’s Seeds, Arrow said, her students became fascinated by the author’s process of creating the book from her imagination. As a result, Arrow’s art center included materials for students to create stories of their own and to practice speaking, listening, and writing standards in the process.

Arrow writes that their bookmaking interests eventually carried over into other areas of learning. For example, one student created a number book. After Arrow shared it with the class, number books became popular, and her students were referencing number grids and creating their own number books that helped them count and identify large numbers in the process.

“Once my students had experienced play-based learning, they were more focused, motivated, and purposeful,” writes Arrow. “Most important, they were happier. Bringing play-based learning to my classroom created balance, deepened our learning, and defined our classroom community as a place where we could learn and grow together.”

When to Step In

As children play, teachers should be observing closely to gather insights about the way students are learning and use open-ended questions, hints, and prompts to gently nudge students and encourage deeper thinking. You might step in “when a child appears to find an activity too difficult or too easy” so that you “can help them learn beyond what might be possible in independent play,” the researchers say.

For example, when children are playing with blocks, open-ended questions can be posed to encourage problem-solving, prediction, and hypothesizing, according to veteran teacher and curriculum manager for Edmentum Winnie O’Leary. A teacher can bring awareness to math standards by asking students low-stakes questions such as “I wonder how tall this tower can get?” or “I wonder how many blocks you need to make that tower as tall as your friend’s?”

Simple questions can also encourage practice recalling information and identifying shapes, objects, or colors, according to O’Leary. During a game of Go Fish, for example, you can ask, “Hey, who had the number 4 in the last round?” Or during a game of Uno you might ask, “Hmm, what color card do you need to add to the center deck?” Games involving strategy—like checkers or tic-tac-toe—are great to get students thinking critically about their objectives and how to adjust them based on what is happening during the game. Try questions like “I wonder what move you could have made to win?”

Use these strategies wisely, though, the researchers caution. In the end, hints and questions should not feel like directives.

Christakis agrees, telling Edutopia that she often coaches teachers to stay away from “checking questions” such as “What color is the apple?” or “What are you drawing?” Instead, she says, teachers should ask questions like “Tell me about your drawing.”

“The open-ended response really opens up a huge space for spontaneous and deep learning,” Christakis says.

Researchers looked at 39 studies of play and included 17 in a meta-analysis that found when children ages three to eight engage in guided play, they can learn just as much in some domains of literacy and executive function as children who receive direct instruction from a teacher or adult. (The studies that were excluded did not fit the review’s criteria of assessing child learning and development outcomes.) Guided play, unlike free play, means there is a learning goal set by an adult and children are ‘gently steered’ to explore. The study found children also learned slightly more in some areas of numeracy, like knowledge of shapes, and showed a greater mastery of some behavioral skills, like being able to switch tasks.

These findings, which were published in the journal, Child Development, add to a growing body of research that has found play is not simply a carefree tangent to learning, but rather an effective way to teach important early skills. Continue reading.

**More information about 'Play'

Children Are Born Learning, Exploring and Growing

How children develop depends on us. We know that during the first few years of life, more than 1 million neural connections are formed every second. Young children develop through rich, daily interactions with nurturing caregivers and educators, building brains and shaping physical, socioemotional and cognitive development for life. These early years represent a unique, flexible period of human development and a finite window for high-impact investment.

Early learning environments shape children’s present and future through mechanisms scientists continue to discover — from statistical learning to nervous system attunement to epigenetics. Because children are born learning, any environment can become an ideal learning environment — whether at home, in family- or center-based child care, or at school. While every child should have access to ideal learning environments from birth, far too many do not. With growing public investment, we now have the opportunity to create equitable ideal learning environments serving children, families and educators in any setting.

Additional Resources

• Condensed version of the nine principles

• Ideal Learning in Principle and Practice

Among the findings: While more characters with darker skin color begin to appear over time, the most popular books—those most frequently checked out of libraries and lining classroom bookshelves—continue to depict people of color in lighter skin tones. More insidiously, when adult characters are “moral or upstanding,” their skin color tends to appear lighter, the study’s lead author, Anjali Aduki, told The 74, with some books converting “Martin Luther King Jr.’s chocolate complexion to a light brown or beige.” Female characters, meanwhile, are often seen but not heard.

Cultural representations are a reflection of our values, the researchers conclude: “Inequality in representation, therefore, constitutes an explicit statement of inequality of value.”

Source: Edupedia

Advocates counter that student-centered learning and direct instruction can and should coexist in classrooms.

Now two new large-scale studies—encompassing over 6,000 students in 114 diverse schools across the nation—provide 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 Edutopia, 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—well above those experienced by students in traditional classrooms—and those gains seemed to raise all boats, persisting across socioeconomic class, race, and reading levels.

Source: Edupedia

The article is separated into four sections:

1. How choice, PBL, and inquiry-driven learning increases student engagement and achievement

2. Success-stories from fellow teachers using the choice and inquiry-driven learning model

3. How choice, PBL, and inquiry-driven learning is connected to the common core standards

4. Related books, whitepapers, and research linked to choice and inquiry-driven education

Also read: PBL vs Doing The Same Thing: The Research Is Clear by A. J. Juliani

Source: A. J. Juliani

 Doing so improves the validity of tests - probably because with more time students can read instructions more closely, check their work, and keep their anxiety under control. “As instructors, we are not assessed by how speedily we can demonstrate our mastery,” the researchers conclude. “Why then do we continue to administer time- limited exams, which are less valid, less reliable, less inclusive, and less equitable?”

Source: Edutopia