If you spend any time around a university, you will soon hear the term “interdisciplinary.” It’s an accolade. Administrators in particular love the idea of knocking down academic silos, the favored term for the fact that researchers tend to read only research within their own field, and to write for and speak to that audience. Education has a long history as an interdisciplinary field; schools of education include researchers trained in fields as diverse as political science, economics, critical theory, psychology, sociology, history and many others. Although interdisciplinary work has led to great advances in some fields, I think this...]]> Thu, 25 Sep 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

Do students really need to dissect animals in biology class? That question came to mind when I saw a story in the Los Angeles Times about a teacher suing her district. It seems she was a provocateur regarding the need for students to dissect cats as part of their biology class, and she alleges that the district found various ways to punish her for her activism. I was less interested in the legal claim and more interested in the pedagogical claim that dissection is unnecessary because other methods of instruction are equivalent. This claim points...]]> Tue, 16 Sep 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

“Close reading” has become strongly associated with the Common Core State Standards, as it’s touted as the reading technique that will allow students to get out of texts what they are meant to (and hence, score well on Common Core-aligned assessments). We might ask whether psychologists know anything about the process of reading that could influence how we think about close reading.

As I’ve seen it described, close reading has three critical features. First, we assume we will spend a good deal of time with a text. We will not simply read, but reread, and likely reread again. The first reading may be devoted to straightforward...]]> Thu, 11 Sep 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

It’s a commonplace observation that intelligence is, at least in part, inherited from one’s parents.

Much of the research on this subject in past decades has focused on attempts to get a rough estimate of just how heritable it is, and estimates have typically been in the range of 30 to 70 percent (with the expected caveat that intelligence is really a product of both genes and environment, and you have to account for how they interact, and this stuff is really complicated, etc., etc.)  Meanwhile, finding specific genes associated with intelligence has largely been unsuccessful, even a decade after the Wed, 03 Sep 2014 00:00:00 -0400 ^{Michael Perkins, center, waits with classmates as they line up to graduate from BART charter high school at Massachusetts College Of Liberal Arts in North Adams, Mass., Saturday, June 7, 2014. (AP Photo/The Berkshire Eagle, Stephanie Zollshan)}

RCEd Commentary

Last week Education Next published an easy-to-digest account (West et al., 2014) of a study examining oversubscribed charter schools in Boston. (The original study by Finn et al. had been published last March.) The main...]]> Thu, 28 Aug 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

In the last decade or so there has been a great deal of research on brain maturation in teens. A narrative has emerged along these lines: brain maturation has something of a glitch. During the changes of adolescence, the parts of the brain that are associated with reward (the ventral striatum) suffer a temporary disconnect from the part of the brain associated with executive function and problem solving (prefrontal cortex). In consequence, teens take crazy risks. A recent paper (Sercomb, 2014) spells out some significant problems with this narrative—problems that have...]]> Thu, 21 Aug 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

As a consequence of a 2004 change in federal law, children with disabilities are much more often educated with typically-developing children. That policy, usually called inclusion, assumes that students with disabilities will benefit from this environment. Yet that assumption has largely gone untested. A new study shows that, for at least one aspect of language development, children with disabilities do indeed benefit from inclusion—but not in a way profoundly different than other children.

Inclusion policies are often implemented by creating classrooms with a significant proportion of children with disabilities, and then also...]]> Wed, 13 Aug 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

How does education commentary that is not rooted in science influence the scientific study of education? You might think the answer ought to be "it doesn't," or "it shouldn't." It does, and it should.

Let's start with how scientists do their jobs. As shown in this simplified figure, we take observation from the world—both informal, and the results of research—and try to unify these observations into a theory. Prime virtues of theories are simplicity and coherence. 

By...]]> Tue, 29 Jul 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

Over the weekend New York Times Magazine ran an article titled “Why do Americans Stink at Math?”  by Elizabeth Green. The article is as much an explanation of why it’s so hard not to stink as an explication of our problems. But I think in warning about the rough road of math improvement, the author may not have even gone far enough.

The nub of her argument is this. American stink at math because the methods used to teach it are rote, don’t lead to transfer to the real world, and lead to shallow understanding. There are...]]> Thu, 24 Jul 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

Although the politics concerning charter schools remain contentious, most education observers agree that some charters have had real success in helping children from impoverished homes learn more. (Charter schools are publicly funded, but operate under fewer regulations than other public schools, in exchange for some type of accountability, set forth in the school’s charter.)

If you believe that some charter schools are successful, a natural next step is to ask what those charters are doing and whether it could be replicated in other schools. A recent study tried to do that, and the results looked disappointing. But I think the authors passed...]]> Tue, 15 Jul 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

Teacher tenure laws were adopted by most states during the first half of the 20th Century. To advocates, tenure provides a guarantee of due process should a teacher be dismissed, and thus offers protection from capricious firings and personal vendettas. To critics, tenure is granted too readily to teachers of marginal skill, and the “due process” is so arduous, time-consuming, and expensive that it constitutes a de facto job guarantee. Thus critics see tenure as a primary reason that poor teachers stay in the profession.

Which interpretation is closer to the truth? It’s been very hard to say. Tenure laws have been in place for so...]]> Thu, 10 Jul 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

When I talk to educators about research, their most common complaint (by a long shot) is that they are asked to implement new interventions (a curriculum, a pedagogical technique, a software product, whatever), and are offered no reason to do so other than a breezy “all the research supports it.” The phrase is used as a blunt instrument to silence questions. As a scientist I find this infuriating because it abuses what ought to be a serious claim -- research backs this -- and in so doing devalues research. It’s an ongoing problem (see Jessica & Tim Lahey’s treatment Mon, 30 Jun 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

Public officials often disregard educational research, but it's hard to catch them red-handed. They don't reach positions of influence without learning to obfuscate, to redirect. Rarely does a policymaker as much as say, "Screw the data, I'm doing what I want." 

Last week, one did.

New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña said she supports a greater number of New York City schools using balanced literacy as a reading program. (To clarify, balanced literacy...]]> Thu, 26 Jun 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

According to an article in the New York Times, the American Academy of Pediatrics will soon recommend that children be read to from birth. The Academy also wants pediatricians to make this recommendation every time a baby visits the doctor. It’s a good idea, but it could use some fine-tuning.

Reading aloud to children is associated with a variety of good academic outcomes, including improved vocabulary, better understanding of more complex syntax, improved phonemic awareness, , and the beginnings of letter knowledge...]]> Tue, 17 Jun 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

Stick a few hundred kids together in a building for six hours and you can bet that a few are going to misbehave. How teachers and administrators should react to rule infractions -- especially more serious ones -- is perennial problem. A newly published report from the School Discipline Consensus Project, with over 700 experts contributing, offers the most comprehensive answer I’ve seen.

The reports starts with two grim facts. First, present...]]> Thu, 12 Jun 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

How can we do a better job of teaching kids math? A different curriculum? New pedagogical strategies? Personalized instruction through technology? All these worthy ideas have their adherents, but another method — reducing math anxiety — may both improve performance and help kids enjoy math more. Sian Beilock and I recently reviewed the research literature on math anxiety with an eye towards remediation. Here are some of the highlights.

Math anxiety means, unsurprisingly, that one feels tension and apprehension in situations involving math. What is...]]> Thu, 05 Jun 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

We normally expect that a kindergarten classroom will be decorated with colorful posters, maps, and student artwork. But a recent study indicated that trimming out the classroom may distract students and compromise learning.

Headlines in the press have been not equivocated. The Telegraph, Tampa Bay Times, and Tue, 27 May 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

Is college worth the high cost? After all, everyone knows a college degree doesn't guarantee a good job - English majors all work at McDonalds, right? This lore is gaining acceptance (see discussion of the "college bubble" here and here, for example) but a new review in Science magazine by MIT's David H. Autor marshals data suggesting that it's dead wrong.

College graduates not only continue...]]> Tue, 20 May 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

When you think of a college class, what image comes to mind? Probably a professor droning about economics, or biology, or something, in an auditorium with several hundred students. If you focus on the students in your mind's eye, you're probably imagining them looking bored and, if you've been in a college lecture hall recently, your image would include students shopping online and chatting with friends via social media while the oblivious professor lectures on. What could improve the learning and engagement of these students? According to a recent literature review, the results of which were reported by Tue, 13 May 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

Last week I discussed the case Carl Wieman made that education research and physics have more in common than people commonly appreciate. I mentioned in passing Wieman's suggestion that random control trials - often referred to as the "gold standard" of evidence - are not the be-all and end-all of research, and that qualitative research contributes too. But I didn't say how it contributes, and neither did Wieman (at least in the paper I discussed). Here, I offer a suggestion.

Qualitative research is usually contrasted with quantitative research. In quantitative...]]> Tue, 06 May 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

As someone who spends most of their time thinking about the application of scientific findings to education, I encounter plenty of opinions about the scientific status of such efforts. Almost always, a comparison is made between the rigor of “hard” sciences and education. What varies is the accompanying judgment: derision for education researchers or despondency about the difficulty of the enterprise. In a recent article, physicist Carl Wieman offers a different perspective on the issue, suggesting...]]> Tue, 29 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

Do children learn to read by translating letters into sound, or by perceiving the spelling of the word? The answer has an indirect bearing on teaching; it would presumably be best to instruct kids in a way consonant with how most perform the task.

The last 15 years has seen an increasing consensus among researchers: children initially learn via the letter-sound translation mechanism. As they gain reading practice, they acquire the spelling mechanism as well, although the letter-sound translation method continues to make a contribution to reading. Now a new study of 284 French children in grades 1...]]> Tue, 22 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

You often hear the phrase that small children are sponges, that they constantly learn. This sentiment is sometimes expressed in a way that makes it sound like the particulars don’t matter that much -- as long as there is a lot to be learned in the environment, the child will learn it. A new study shows that for one core type of learning, it’s more complicated. Kids don’t learn important information that’s right in front of them, unless an adult is actively teaching them. 

The core type of learning is categorization. Understanding that objects can be...]]> Wed, 16 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

A recent article in the Washington Post sounds a warning klaxon for our ability to read deeply. You've probably heard this argument elsewhere, made most forcefully by Nick Carr in the The Shallows: frequent users of the Web (i.e., most of us) are so in the habit of skittering from page to page,...]]> Tue, 08 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

When the results for a new international problem solving test were released last week, news -- whether American, British, Israeli or Tue, 01 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

Our scientific understanding is always evolving, changing. Thus, one of the ongoing puzzles in education research is how confident one must be in a set of findings before one concludes it ought to be the basis of educational practice. If the data show that X is true, but X seems really peculiar, do we assume X is probably true, or do we assume that we just don't understand things very well yet? A new study provides something of an object lesson in this problem; in this case "X" was "parents teaching reading at home doesn't help much after kindergarten."

Here's the background on that counterintuitive finding. The work was inspired by the home...]]> Wed, 26 Mar 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCEd Commentary

How do you know whether a book is at the right level of difficulty for a particular child? Or when thinking about learning standards for a state or district, how do we make a judgment about the text difficulty that, say, a sixth-grader ought to be able to handle?

It would seem obvious that an experienced teacher would use her judgment to make such decisions. But naturally such judgments will vary from individual to individual. Hence the apparent need for something more objective. Readability formulas are intended as just such a solution. You plug some characteristics of a text into a formula and it combines them into a number, a point on a...]]> Tue, 18 Mar 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCE Commentary

Because I teach in higher education but spend a lot of time thinking about K-12 education, the differences between the two naturally stand out to me. Perhaps most striking is the extent to which college students are responsible for their own education. Not only do they pick their classes and major (with few restrictions), they are fully responsible for regulating their own study time, and for showing up to class. At most colleges, no one is aware that a student is experiencing academic trouble until things get pretty bad.

Students arrive at college with different levels of preparation to handle these responsibilities. Unsurprisingly, family...]]> Tue, 11 Mar 2014 00:00:00 -0400 RCE Commentary

One of the controversies of the Common Core State Standards concerns the difficulty of the content, especially for early elementary grades. Some critics have suggested that the standards are too difficult; first grade children are simply not ready to learn about Mesopotamian civilizations, for example. But a new experiment shows that first graders can understand a scientific...]]> Wed, 19 Feb 2014 00:00:00 -0500 Today in the New York Times Nick Kristof writes that university professors have “marginalized themselves.” We have done so, he suggests, by concerning ourselves with very specialized topics that are removed from practical realities. (Old joke: the...]]>