The Partnership for 21st Century Skills - U.S. Students Need 21st Century Skills to Compete in a Global Economy
ASCD: The Perils and Promises of Praise
<p class="MainText">Some students believe that their intellectual ability is a fixed trait. They have a certain amount of intelligence, and that's that. Students with this fixed mind-set become excessively concerned with how smart they are, seeking tasks that will prove their intelligence and avoiding ones that might not (Dweck, 1999, 2006). The desire to learn takes a backseat.</p>
<p class="MainText">Other students believe that their intellectual ability is something they can develop through effort and education. They don't necessarily believe that anyone can become an Einstein or a Mozart, but they do understand that even Einstein and Mozart had to put in years of effort to become who they were. When students believe that they can develop their intelligence, they focus on doing just that.</p>
Innovate: Online Teaching and Classroom Change: The Trans-Classroom Teacher in the Age of the Internet
Research on teachers doing both face-to-face and online teaching. 75% of the teachers said that teaching online improved their face-to-face teaching. Course design and communication changes were most common, but some teachers also added multimedia.
Donald Clark Plan B: Immersive games beats classroom in maths
18-week study comparing performance of high school students who learned math in a traditional classroom or with a game. Both classroom and game learning resulted in improvement in skills, but students who played the game scored significantly higher.
According to the teachers, the games were effective teaching and learning tools because they (a) were experiential in nature, (b) offered an alternative way of teaching and learning, (c) gave the students reasons to learn mathematics to solve the game problems and progress in the games, (d) addressed students' mathematics phobias and (e) increased time on task.
Social networks 'teaching tech skills' - vnunet.com
Brief summary of research on the educational benefits of sites like MySpace and Facebook for high schoolers. Students self-report learning 21st century skills, although the study doesn't attempt to actually measure any of that learning.
When asked what they learn by using social networking sites, the students
listed 'technology skills', followed by 'creativity', being 'open to new or
diverse views' and 'communication skills'.
AllThingsPLC — Articles & Research
Articles and research on professional learning communities. This all seems to be from the more traditional view of PLCs as within schools or districts; I don't see anything about online communities here.
Researching Electronic Portfolios and Learner Engagement (pdf)
Whitepaper on electronic portfolios providing a background on the theory and research. Motivation, engagement, storytelling, and tools are also covered.
Collaborative Blogging as a Means to Develop Elementary Expository Writing Skills
Study on collaborative blogging with third graders that resulted in improved attitudes towards writing, improved quality of writing, and a number of unintended benefits
Weblogs and Their Effects on Writing Skills
Case study of blogs used with fifth graders to improve writing skills. In both classes reviewed, blogs improved "both rich content and author's craft" but not grammar and spelling.
How Does Teacher Pay Compare? Methodological Challenges and Answers
Research on US teacher pay and trends
Research: The Educational BS Repellent | Connected Principals
Highlights of what one principal has learned from Visible learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Some of the ideas in education reform that we hear the most about (such as class size) maybe aren't as important or have as much impact as other strategies.
<p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">1. Class Size</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">My initial thought:</span> Decreasing Class Size from 25 to 15 could significantly improve student achievement.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">The bold, loud claim I hear:</span> “Decreasing class sizes is a key to student success!”</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">What the research says:</span> Of the 138 factors of the meta-analyses done, this was ranked as number 106, and had a impact factor of 0.21, well below the hinge point of showing notable change. This is based on studies of more than 40000 classes, and nearly 950000 students worldwide. Perhaps not surprisingly, “quality teaching” has nearly double the impact on student achievement than this factor.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">My new thought:</span><strong> </strong>Not the high-yield strategy that I believed.</p>
<p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">6. Formative Evaluation of programs</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">My initial thought</span>: Extremely important for teachers to adapt and change their methodologies in response to student learning. Using student data to guide instruction and reflection through collaboration with their peers is something that we have been<a href="http://thelearningnation.blogspot.com/2010/11/restructuring-not-remortgaging-to-make.html"> focussing on in our school through our change in structures</a>.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Loud, bold claim I hear:</span> “I know what works in my class!”</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">What the research says</span>: This ranks as #3 of 138, with an effect of 0.9 over nearly 4000 students and 38 studies. Teachers being purposeful to innovations in that they are looking to see “what works” and “why it works” as well as looking for reasons why students do not do well lead to improvement in instruction and student achievement.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">My new thought</span>: This is the high-yield strategy that can really make a difference at our school, and through the Professional Learning Community Model of providing time for teachers to collaborate and reflect on teaching practices, we have seen a marked increase in the success of our students.</p>