Education Research

Teaching

Students Benefit From Depth Rather Than Breadth. Quotes: Teaching fewer topics in greater depth is a better way to prepare students for success in college science. Teachers who "teach to the [standardized] test" may not be optimizing their students' chance of success in college science.

National education standards can end up hurting students

Active Focused Learning Approach. Quotes: “I’m not really held back anymore, just sitting in class waiting” . “‘There’s not a lot of lecturing, which makes it easier to stay focused,’ ” she said. ‘I really like working with other students.’” . Students spend more time working in groups.. The strategy is getting more students to achieve better in class.

Teacher Teaming. Quotes: Teachers naturally engage in “teaming” at Living Wisdom School, thanks to the integrated curriculum that encourages teacher collaboration.

Is Test Prep Educational Malpractice? Quotes: In many elementary schools there is little or no time for non-tested subjects such as art, music, even science and history.

Explaining Math Concepts Improves Learning. “‘Teaching children the basic concept behind math problems was more useful than teaching children a procedure for solving the problems - these children gave better explanations and learned more,’ Rittle-Johnson said. ‘This adds to a growing body of research illustrating the importance of teaching children concepts as well as having them practice solving problems.’”

Impact of Homework on Academic Achievement (PDF)

Longer school day and year failed to improve test scores

Creating Positive Classroom Management. (This teacher developed creative ways to encourage positive attitudes and behaviors in younger students. The method and theory are very similar to the “Rocks in the Basket” game used at LWS and described in this video.) Quotes: “I’d spent years offering students rewards (stickers, tickets, tangibles, intangibles) for good behavior and I’d come to realize how they were often self-defeating ... One change I had already made was ... I would celebrate “great work” by reading aloud the child’s name and stating what they had done well. Often their classmates would give an actual round of applause—which was lovely.”

“The Examined Life, Age 8” (New York Times article). At Living Wisdom School, it’s never too early to start asking the Big Questions. When children start learning about life's joyous possibilities in Kindergarten, big things become possible by Middle School.

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Physical Education

A Fit Body Means a Fit Mind. Quotes: Cardiovascular exercise was related to higher academic performance. . Regular exercise benefits the brain . improve attention span, memory, and learning ... reduce stress and the effects of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. . Aerobic exercise pumps more blood throughout the body, including to the brain. More blood means more oxygen and, therefore, better-nourished brain tissue. Exercise also spurs the brain to produce more of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, which Ratey calls “Miracle-Gro for the brain.” This powerful protein encourages brain cells to grow, interconnect, and communicate in new ways. Studies also suggest exercise plays a big part in the production of new brain cells, particularly in the dentate gyrus, a part of the brain heavily involved in learning and memory skills. . [Many] schools are cutting back on PE and reducing recess hours . it’s a huge challenge with budget restraints and No Child Left Behind.

Physically fit students do better on tests. Quotes: Physically fit students ... are more likely to do well on ... tests and have better attendance. . Fit students are less likely to have disciplinary problems.

Schools use mind-body relaxation techniques to help kids fight anxiety. Quotes: Mind-body relaxation, including yoga, can improve self-esteem and boost grades and test scores. . Regular exposure to the [relaxation] training boosted students’ work habits, attendance, and academic performance.

Physical Activity May Strengthen Children’s Ability To Pay Attention. Quotes: Following the acute bout of walking, children performed better on the flanker task. . Following acute bouts of walking, children had a larger P3 amplitude, suggesting that they are better able to allocate attentional resources. . The increase in reading comprehension following exercise equated to approximately a full grade level.

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Joy in Learning

Ten Steps to Better Student Engagement. Quotes: Students who have been shamed or belittled by the teacher or another student will not effectively engage in challenging tasks. To learn and grow, one must take risks, but most people will not take risks in an emotionally unsafe environment.

Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play In School (PDF)

Tutoring Tots

Lack of Playtime Killing Joy of Learning

Pressure Cooker Kindergarten. Quotes: Kindergarten has changed radically in the last two decades in ways that few Americans are aware of. Children now spend far more time being taught and tested on literacy and math skills than they do learning through play and exploration, exercising their bodies, and using their imaginations. Many kindergartens use highly prescriptive curricula geared to new state standards and linked to standardized tests. In an increasing number of kindergartens, teachers must follow scripts from which they may not deviate. These practices, which are not well grounded in research, violate long-established principles of child development and good teaching. It is increasingly clear that they are compromising both children’s health and their long-term prospects for success in school. . Kindergarten has ceased to be a garden of delight and has become a place of stress and distress. . Blindly pursuing educational policies that could well damage the intellectual, social and physical development of an entire generation. . There's ongoing concern about American children catching up with their counterparts in countries such as Japan and China . Specifically in areas such as science, math and technology, schooling in those countries before second grade is “playful and experiential.” And youngsters in Finland, where teens consistently score high academically, also attend play-based kindergarten and start first grade at age 7 rather than age 6.

School Burnout. Quotes: A sense of optimism during university studies along with high self-esteem tend to predict job engagement ten years later on, while an avoidance strategy tends to predict work-related burnout. . The more encouragement the students got from their teachers, the less likely they were to experience school burnout.

Most 1st Grade Classes Not High Quality. Quotes: Only 23 percent of classrooms could be judged to be of “high quality” in both their instructional practices and social and emotional climate.

Algebra-for-All Policy Found to Raise Rates Of Failure

College prep math failure full study. (PDF) Quotes: This study indicates that artificially pushing children beyond their current capability can be counter-productive.

Smiles Predict Marriage Success. (Many parents report their children smile more after attending Living Wisdom School.)

Teaching Resilience With Positive Education

Playtime. Quotes: People who attended play-based preschools were eight times less likely to need treatment for emotional disturbances than those who went to preschools where direct instruction prevailed. Graduates of the play-based preschools were three times less likely to be arrested for committing a felony.

Loneliness Spreads Like a Virus. (At Living Wisdom School, joy spreads like a virus.)

Self-Control Is Contagious

Happiness Contagious as the Flu. (At Living Wisdom School, we create a joyful, caring environment among the students. When a new student arrives, he or she feels immediately supported and positively affected. Parents routinely comment that soon after their children enter LWS they seem happier than at their former school.)

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Meditation, Breathing, Yoga

The Heart in Holistic Education. (PDF) Quotes: Educational programs based on new scientific discoveries about the heart lead to improved emotional stability, cognitive functioning, and academic performance.

Faith rites boost brains. (Even 10 to 15 minutes of meditation appear to have significantly positive effects on cognition, relaxation and psychological health.)

Meditation seen promising as ADHD therapy. Quotes: “The effect was much greater than we expected.” — lead researcher Sarina J. Grosswald, a cognitive learning specialist in Arlington, Virginia. . The children also showed improvements in attention, working memory, organization, and behavior regulation.

Meditation in the Treatment of ADHD. (PDF) Quotes: Meditation-training showed significant decreases in levels of impulsivity [and significant improvements in] selective deployment of attention and freedom from distractibility . and the behavior of the children.

Effects of Meditation on Cognition. (Meditation practice produced significant effects.)

Effect of Meditation on Academic Performance. Quotes: Results revealed ... grade point averages of the meditation group to be significantly higher those of the non-meditation group.

Meditation improves Leadership Behaviors. Quotes: Subjects who learned [meditation]... as a self-development technique improved their leadership behaviors.

Schools use mind-body relaxation techniques to help kids fight anxiety. Quotes: Mind-body relaxation, including yoga, can improve self-esteem and boost grades and test scores. . Regular exposure to the [relaxation] training boosted students’ work habits, attendance, and academic performance.

Vedic Science based Education and Non-verbal Intelligence. (An increase in student problem-solving ability was found.)

Meditation Program in the College Curriculum. Quotes: [Meditation] produced significant freshman-senior increases on intelligence and increased social self-confidence, sociability, general psychological health, and social maturity.

Meditation and Assertive Training. Quotes: Pre-post changes for meditation subjects were significantly superior to the control group on ... assertiveness and reductions in situational and trait anxiety, general dysphoria, and social isolation.

Silence is Golden, Mindfulness Meditation

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Social Skills

Social Skills, Extracurricular Activities In High School Pay Off Later In Life. Quotes: High school sophomores who ... having good social skills and work habits, and who participated in extracurricular activities in high school, made more money and completed higher levels of education 10 years later than their classmates who had similar standardized test scores but were less socially adroit and participated in fewer extracurricular activities. . “Soft skills” such as sociability, punctuality, conscientiousness and an ability to get along well with others, along with participation in extracurricular activities, are better predictors of earnings and higher educational achievement later in life than having good grades and high standardized test scores. . Shools are increasingly cutting ... activities that foster soft skills in order to focus almost exclusively on achieving adequate yearly progress on state-mandated standardized tests.

Studies Reveal Why Kids Get Bullied and Rejected. (The researcher's recommendations for teaching children social skills uncannily reflect how LWS teaches conflict resolution during daily playground time.

Going in circles puts students on path to better choices. Quotes: The goal is not so much to punish as to get students on paths to make better choices, to understand the impact of what they do, to deal with people better. . “We’ve become more like a family and not just kids who go to school together,” said freshman Leah Brito. “We've grown up big time in the last few months.” “One result of the new approach is that kids are giving more thought to the effect what they do and say can have on others,” she said. “In eighth grade, the he said/she said stuff was horrible when many of the students were together at Audubon middle school,” Brito said. “This year, there is much less of that.”

Nature Makes Us More Caring

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Music

Adolescents Involved With Music Do Better In School. Quotes: Music participation . has a positive effect on reading and mathematics achievement for both elementary and high school students.

Music Training Linked To Enhanced Verbal Skills. Quotes: Music training ... may be more important for enhancing verbal communication skills than learning phonics. . potential of music to tune our neural response to the world around us. . Music training may have considerable benefits for engendering literacy skills. . (Musicians have enhanced subcortical auditory and audiovisual processing of speech and music.)

Music Education Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills. Quotes: Children exposed to a multi-year programme of music ... display superior cognitive performance in reading skills compared with their non-musically trained peers.

The High-pitched Sounds of Living Cells. Quotes: Living cells generate high-pitched sounds, a cytological song whose harmonies potentially encode a hidden language of health and disease."

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Recess

Recess Makes for Better Students. Quotes: Study finds getting enough of it [recesss] each day helps kids perform better in classroom. . Children learn as much on breaks as they do in the traditional classroom, experimenting with creativity and imagination and learning how to interact socially. . Conflict resolution is solved on the playground, not in the classroom. . The more physical fitness tests children passed, the better they did on academic tests. . Walks outdoors appeared to improve scores on tests of attention and concentration.

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Other Articles and Papers

Smart and Good High Schools. (PDF — Warning: large file: 8.8 MB.) A “Report to the Nation” from the State University of New York)

Study proves conclusively that violent video game play makes more aggressive kids (BrainMysteries article). A new study by Iowa State University Distinguished Professor of Psychology Craig Anderson reviewed 130 research reports on more than 130,000 children worldwide and found that exposure to violent video games makes childen more aggressive and less caring, regardless of their age, sex, or culture.

Fish may be brain food for teenage boys

Task to Aid Self-Esteem Lifts Grades for Some

Affirmations podcast transcript. (PDF) Quotes: If you interrupt the process sufficiently early you can redirect the trajectory of performance. So, small changes to . initial psychological state can have surprisingly large effects over time.

Positive Action Program. (The program focuses on teaching which behaviors are positive.)

When Friends Make You Poorer. Quotes: Students tend to gravitate to a major chosen by more of their peers. And the students whose choice was driven by their peers were then more likely to end up in lower-paying jobs that they didn’t like.

Smacking Hits Kids’ IQ

After Abuse, Changes In the Brain. Quotes: Affectionate mothering alters the expression of genes in animals, allowing them to dampen their physiological response to stress. These biological buffers are then passed on to the next generation . [There is] direct evidence that the same system is at work in humans.

Learning and Motivation Strategies Course Increases Odds of College Graduation