Group items tagged

"For every charter school that has opened in New York in the past decade, a parochial school has closed, Lackman states in the report that will be published next month in the Albany Law Review." I find charter schools particularly interesting from a political perspective. There's been a lot of research on charter schools. Here's an article about one more study.

"the tension between ideology and evidence in the education reform debate." This tension really lies at the heart of what we'll be discussing in the coming weeks. 

Ahhh, social justice material; technology topics are dandy, but now that is the stuff. It is interesting that the article begins with a comment that the ideology is more effective then the evidence-based position. In line with Ch. 1 of Willingham's text I would say. I was always a "pull yourself up by the boot straps" kind of thinker until I really thought about it. While I am focusing on the education aspect of change and believe that every child can learn and that effective teachers make that happen, I have also seen the evidence that there are wider factors at play in poverty and ignoring them won't change the data or the wealth disparities. As educators who are dug-in and close to the issues sometimes there is a fine line between ignoring that data, being aware of it as we form decisions or using it as excuses. I can appreciate that the ideology side doesn't want to waiver from their noble stance because they don't want to make any excuses; maybe that is why the author calls it more effective, because of the emotion attached. Is it really a problem to have such a positive, unrelenting drive toward success within that specific context of change? I mean if you are a teacher in a rural, 98% free and reduced lunch school while you might not have the skills to bring healthcare to that community you sure as heck can lead your class. I often think what the outcome would be if everyone were crazy in a way they are able to suspend what the see around them to create a new reality so the negativity cannot seep in. The survey research that is cited got me to think maybe it isn't crazy but rather logically suspending our notions for the facts and then addressing them. I think there is a place for both sides I just wish the evidence would be acknowledged so those who are passionate about other aspects can get to work. It is a network with many cogs that will cause change but if the perceptions cannot be influenced by the data then even the best teacher or commun

As we discuss research and technology I found this quote staggering: "According to IBM, 90 percent of the data in the world was created within the last two years," Silver tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies.

A new report shows that 17 percent-or 5.8 million-of all Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 are neither working nor in school. The report, "One in Seven: Ranking Youth Disconnection in the 25 Largest Metro Areas," was released this week by Measure of America, an initiative of the Social Science Research Council.

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a scale used to assess in-class use of laptops in higher education. The Laptop Evaluation Scale consisted of four constructs: academic use, non-academic communication, playing games, and watching movies. All scale items showed acceptable internally reliability. A principal components factor analysis demonstrated good construct validity. Correlation among the LES constructs were significant but small enough to support the existence of four distinct constructs. All four LES constructs were correlated with average grade, time spent on non-academic activities, and perceptions of laptop helpfulness in class, thereby proving evidence for convergent validity. Finally, content validity was supported by frequencies of laptop behaviours reported as well as student comments. However, student comments indicate that the content of the LES may need to be expanded to include more specific academic and non-academic behaviours.

This article researches the effects of laptop multitasking on classroom learning. The obvious results show that learners who multitasked during class had reduced comprehension of lecture material and learners in-view of multitaskers also had reduced comprehension of lecture material. All of these conclusions make perfect sense but I would have appreciated a comparison of a multitasker using a laptop to a student who did not take notes on a laptop.

I know our research wasn't focused specifically on textbooks but I am interested to see what their program has found.

Anyone want to put this one through the Willingham heuristic?  Also, anyone going to show your students cute images before the SOL exams? :)

I WILL be showing my 7th grade students pictures of cute animals before the SOL. I totally agree that looking at cute images makes one better able to concentrate......better able to concentrate at looking at more time-wasting, cute images until you pull yourself away from the wormhole of forwards from an elderly aunt. This is an example of when I would take Willingham's advice and look at the science of the study, is "cuteness" objective? P.S. the 7th graders are studying life science so the pictures are related to that, not because I think it will gain them a few points on the SOL.

Mostly sharing this to test if Diigo is working again... That said, any article that cites the Hart & Risley study is worth sharing...