research Archives - K12 Handhelds https://www.k12handhelds.com/tag/research/ Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:03:36 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.k12handhelds.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/favicon-150x150.jpg research Archives - K12 Handhelds https://www.k12handhelds.com/tag/research/ 32 32 115208875 The engagement gap: listening to student voices https://www.k12handhelds.com/the-engagement-gap-listening-to-student-voices/ https://www.k12handhelds.com/the-engagement-gap-listening-to-student-voices/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:03:36 +0000 http://www.k12handhelds.com/blog/?p=672 “Engaging the Voices of Students: A Report on the 2007 & 2008 High School Survey of Student Engagement” from the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University is an important piece of research that I think everyone in

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]]> “Engaging the Voices of Students: A Report on the 2007 & 2008 High School Survey of Student Engagement” from the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University is an important piece of research that I think everyone in education should read.

High school drop-out rates are a national crisis caused in large part by a lack of student engagement. This report looks at what students say about school and engagement. Among the findings are the following.

  • Despite high drop-out rates, the aspirations of students are high with 91.4% reporting that they expect to graduate.
  • Students report attending school not only because they have to (58%; the third most common response), but because they want to graduate and go on to higher education (74%).
  • 67% of respondents report being bored in school every day. Their top reasons:
    • Material isn’t interesting (82%).
    • Material lacks relevance (41%).
    • Work isn’t challenging enough (33%).
    • Work is too difficult (27%).
  • Rigor, relevance, and relationships are critical to engagement. Students need to feel some connection to an adult in the school.

There is so much more powerful information in this report, including a collection of student responses to an open-ended prompt. Read it. It might change how you feel about education.

Credit: Matthew Stinson, CC BY NC

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]]> https://www.k12handhelds.com/the-engagement-gap-listening-to-student-voices/feed/ 1 672 Effectiveness of textbooks? https://www.k12handhelds.com/effectiveness-of-textbooks/ https://www.k12handhelds.com/effectiveness-of-textbooks/#respond Tue, 17 Apr 2007 23:34:00 +0000 http://www.k12handhelds.com/blogmm/?p=95 There have been a lot of discussions in the press and the blogosphere about the USDOE’s “Effectiveess of Reading and Mathematics Software Products” report on a few drill-oriented educational software programs and the findings that their use did not significantly

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There have been a lot of discussions in the press and the blogosphere about the USDOE’s “Effectiveess of Reading and Mathematics Software Products” report on a few drill-oriented educational software programs and the findings that their use did not significantly affect test scores. There are many obvious flaws in the study itself, as well as the extrapolation of this research to the use of technology in general. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

This made me wonder though — has the DOE (or other independent third-party) done comparable research studies on the educational effectiveness of textbooks? I am seriously curious about this. If anyone knows of a study like this, please post a comment or email me.

If no one knows of such a study, I’d like to see research on the effectiveness of textbooks in improving student learning, increasing engagement, and developing critical thinking skills. Anyone out there interested in pursuing this?

Just think of the money that could be freed up for other uses if it were scientifically determined that kids in classrooms that used textbooks didn’t score higher on tests.

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