Showing papers in "Review of Educational Research in 2013"
TL;DR: This paper presented an integrative review on school climate research, focusing on five essential dimensions of school climate: Safety, Relationships, Teaching and Learning, Institutional Environment, and the School Improvement Process.
Abstract: For more than a century, there has been a growing interest in school climate. Recently, the U.S. Department of Education, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Institute for Educational Sciences, a growing number of State Departments of Education, foreign educational ministries, and UNICEF have focused on school climate reform as an evidence-based school improvement strategy that supports students, parents/guardians, and school personnel learning and working together to create ever safer, more supportive and engaging K–12 schools. This work presents an integrative review on school climate research. The 206 citations used in this review include experimental studies, correlational studies, literature reviews, and other descriptive studies. The review focuses on five essential dimensions of school climate: Safety, Relationships, Teaching and Learning, Institutional Environment, and the School Improvement Process. We conclude with a critique of the field and a series of recommendations for school climate...
1,506 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a thematic analysis of the research evidence on assessment feedback in higher education from 2000 to 2012, focusing on the feedback that students receive within their coursework from multiple sources.
Abstract: This article presents a thematic analysis of the research evidence on assessment feedback in higher education (HE) from 2000 to 2012. The focus of the review is on the feedback that students receive within their coursework from multiple sources. The aims of this study are to (a) examine the nature of assessment feedback in HE through the undertaking of a systematic review of the literature, (b) identify and discuss dominant themes and discourses and consider gaps within the research literature, (c) explore the notion of the feedback gap in relation to the conceptual development of the assessment feedback field in HE, and (d) discuss implications for future research and practice. From this comprehensive review of the literature, the concept of the feedback landscape, informed by sociocultural and socio-critical perspectives, is developed and presented as a valuable framework for moving the research agenda into assessment feedback in HE forward.
803 citations
TL;DR: In this article, student engagement research, policy, and practice must become more nuanced and less formulaic, and the ensuing review is structured accordingly, guided in part by social-ecological analysis and social-cultural theory.
Abstract: Student engagement research, policy, and practice are even more important in today’s race-to-the top policy environment. With a priority goal of postsecondary completion with advanced competence, today’s students must be engaged longer and more deeply. This need is especially salient for students attending schools located in segregated, high-poverty neighborhoods and isolated rural communities. Here, engagement research, policy, and practice must become more nuanced and less formulaic, and the ensuing review is structured accordingly. Guided in part by social-ecological analysis and social-cultural theory, engagement is conceptualized as a dynamic system of social and psychological constructs as well as a synergistic process. This conceptualization invites researchers, policymakers, and school-community leaders to develop improvement models that provide a more expansive, engagement-focused reach into students’ family, peer, and neighborhood ecologies.
528 citations
TL;DR: The authors provided an extensive overview of the recent literature on student evaluation of teaching (SET) in higher education, based on the SET meta-validation model, drawing upon research reports published in peer-reviewed journals since 2000.
Abstract: This article provides an extensive overview of the recent literature on student evaluation of teaching (SET) in higher education. The review is based on the SET meta-validation model, drawing upon research reports published in peer-reviewed journals since 2000. Through the lens of validity, we consider both the more traditional research themes in the field of SET (i.e., the dimensionality debate, the ‘bias’ question, and questionnaire design) and some recent trends in SET research, such as online SET and bias investigations into additional teacher personal characteristics. The review provides a clear idea of the state of the art with regard to research on SET, thus allowing researchers to formulate suggestions for future research. It is argued that SET remains a current yet delicate topic in higher education, as well as in education research. Many stakeholders are not convinced of the usefulness and validity of SET for both formative and summative purposes. Research on SET has thus far failed to provide c...
473 citations
TL;DR: The authors reviewed empirical articles published over the past two decades to determine what and how student teaching experiences contribute to preservice teachers' development as future teachers of students in urban and/or high-needs schools specifically.
Abstract: Despite increasing emphasis on preparing more and better teachers and despite the near universal presence of student teaching across teacher education programs (TEPs), numerous questions about what and how student teaching experiences contribute to preservice teachers’ development remain unanswered. Indeed, much of the attention focused on student teaching in reform and policy discourses emphasizes student teaching’s structural and logistical dimensions—for example, its location, duration, and division of labor—but not its contributions to learning among preservice teachers, nor K–12 students. This article reviews empirical articles published over the past two decades to determine what and how student teaching experiences contribute to preservice teachers’ development as future teachers of students in urban and/or high-needs schools specifically. While keeping this central focus, the article also considers the implications of student teaching for the schools that play host to it and for the students who a...
270 citations
TL;DR: The authors reviewed the research on professional development (PD) for inclusive education between 2000 and 2009 to answer three questions: (a) how is inclusive education defined in PD research? (b) How is PD for inclusion education studied? (c)How is teacher learning examined in PD The authors.
Abstract: We reviewed the research on professional development (PD) for inclusive education between 2000 and 2009 to answer three questions: (a) How is inclusive education defined in PD research? (b) How is PD for inclusive education studied? (c) How is teacher learning examined in PD research for inclusive education? Systematic procedures were used to identify relevant research and analyze the target studies. We found that most PD research for inclusive education utilized a unitary approach toward difference and exclusion and that teacher learning for inclusive education is undertheorized. We recommend using an intersectional approach to understand difference and exclusion and examining boundary practices to examine teacher learning for inclusive education.
254 citations
TL;DR: Wanzek et al. as discussed by the authors extended a report of research on extensive interventions in kindergarten through third grade to students in Grades 4 through 12, recognizing that many of the same questions about the effectiveness of reading interventions with younger students are important to address with older students, including how effective are extensive intervention in improving reading outcomes for older students with reading difficulties or disabilities and what features of extensive interventions are associated with improved outcomes.
Abstract: This synthesis extends a report of research on extensive interventions in kindergarten through third grade (Wanzek & Vaughn, 2007) to students in Grades 4 through 12, recognizing that many of the same questions about the effectiveness of reading interventions with younger students are important to address with older students, including (a) how effective are extensive interventions in improving reading outcomes for older students with reading difficulties or disabilities and (b) what features of extensive interventions (e.g., group size, duration, grade level) are associated with improved outcomes. Nineteen studies were synthesized. Ten studies met criteria for a meta-analysis, reporting on 22 distinct treatment/comparison differences. Mean effect sizes ranged from 0.10 to 0.16 for comprehension, word reading, word reading fluency, reading fluency, and spelling outcomes. No significant differences in student outcomes were noted among studies related to instructional group size, relative number of hours of ...
242 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the impact of gardening-based learning on academic outcomes in schools was analyzed. But, the authors pointed out that a common issue was lack of research rigor as there were troubling issues with incomplete descriptions of methodological procedures and sampling techniques and validity in particular.
Abstract: What is the impact of garden-based learning on academic outcomes in schools? To address this question, findings across 152 articles (1990–2010) were analyzed resulting in 48 studies that met the inclusion criteria for this synthesis. A review template with operational coding framework was developed. The synthesis results showed a preponderance of positive impacts on direct academic outcomes with the highest positive impact for science followed by math and language arts. Indirect academic outcomes were also measured with social development surfacing most frequently and positively. These results were consistent across programs, student samples, and school types and within the disparate research methodologies used. However, a common issue was lack of research rigor as there were troubling issues with incomplete descriptions of methodological procedures in general and sampling techniques and validity in particular. Recommendations for more systematic and rigorous research are provided to parallel the growing ...
224 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a systematic review of work-related learning was conducted to examine the antecedents of work related learning and found a positive relationship between intention and actual participation in workrelated learning with respect to attitude, subjective norms, self-efficacy, and career related variables.
Abstract: Involvement in work-related learning seems to be more complex than a simple supply–demand fit. An interplay of several factors can influence this involvement at different stages of the decision-making process of the employee. The aim of this systematic review is to examine which antecedents of work-related learning have been identified in previous research. In total, 56 studies met the criteria for inclusion. In the current study, we describe how work-related learning was measured and what the empirically observed relationship is between learning intention and actual participation in work-related learning. The results show a positive relationship between intention and participation. A learning intention is most related to the attitude, subjective norms, self-efficacy, and career-related variables of the employee. Important predictors of actual participation in work-related learning are firm size, initial level of education and self-efficacy of the employee, support by managers, and opportunities within th...
187 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a meta-analysis reviewed research on summer reading interventions conducted in the United States and Canada from 1998 to 2011 and found that children who participated in classroom interventions, involving teacher-directed literacy lessons, or home interventions, including child-initiated book reading activities, enjoyed significant improvement on multiple reading outcomes.
Abstract: This meta-analysis reviewed research on summer reading interventions conducted in the United States and Canada from 1998 to 2011. The synthesis included 41 classroom- and home-based summer reading interventions involving children from kindergarten to Grade 8. Compared to control group children, children who participated in classroom interventions, involving teacher-directed literacy lessons, or home interventions, involving child-initiated book reading activities, enjoyed significant improvement on multiple reading outcomes. The magnitude of the treatment effect was positive for summer reading interventions that employed research-based reading instruction and included a majority of low-income children. Sensitivity analyses based on within-study comparisons indicated that summer reading interventions had significantly larger benefits for children from low-income backgrounds than for children from a mix of income backgrounds. The findings highlight the potentially positive impact of classroom- and home-base...
159 citations
TL;DR: This article conducted an integrative literature review focusing on the methods of argument analysis and assessment that have been proposed thus far in the field of education and constructed an interpretative framework to organize the information contained in 97 reviewed studies in a coherent and meaningful way.
Abstract: The need to enhance argument skills through education has become increasingly evident during the past 20 years. This need has resulted in an ongoing discussion that focuses on students’ and teachers’ argumentation and its support. However, apart from the extended competence-based discourse, no clear and homogeneous definition exists for argumentative competence and its constituent skills. To respond to this deficiency, we conducted an integrative literature review focusing on the methods of argument analysis and assessment that have been proposed thus far in the field of education. Specifically, we constructed an interpretative framework to organize the information contained in 97 reviewed studies in a coherent and meaningful way. The main result of the framework’s application is the emergence of three levels of argumentative competence: metacognitive, metastrategic, and epistemological competence. We consider this result the beginning of further research on the psycho-pedagogical nature of argument skill...
TL;DR: The authors employed a two-level hierarchical linear model to analyze the 25 primary studies with 98 regression effects and found that school racial isolation has a small statistically significant negative effect on overall building-level mathematics outcomes.
Abstract: Recently published social science research suggests that students attending schools with concentrations of disadvantaged racial minority populations achieve less academic progress than their otherwise comparable counterparts in more racially balanced or integrated schools, but to date no metaanalysis has estimated the effect size of school racial composition on mathematics outcomes. This metaregression analysis reviewed the social science literature published in the past 20 years on the relationship between mathematics outcomes and the racial composition of the K–12 schools students attend. The authors employed a two-level hierarchical linear model to analyze the 25 primary studies with 98 regression effects. Results indicate that school racial isolation has a small statistically significant negative effect on overall building-level mathematics outcomes. This relationship is moderated by the size of the sample in the study and by the way the independent variable was operationalized. Although it is small, the effect size is substantively meaningful. The effects are stronger in secondary compared to elementary grades, and racial gaps widen as students age. The emergence and widening of the race gaps as students move through the grades suggest that the association of racial segregation with mathematics performance compounds over time. Implications for educational policy and future research are discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the effectiveness of accommodations for students in the special education eligibility category of emotional disturbance and those with diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was evaluated for a systematic literature review.
Abstract: Educational policies mandate the consideration of accommodations so that students with disabilities become proficient in the objectives outlined by state academic content standards and demonstrate proficiency on high-stakes assessments. However, neither policies nor empirical research provide sufficient guidance for educators to effectively select and implement accommodations. This study reviews the effectiveness of accommodations for students in the special education eligibility category of emotional disturbance and those with diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). First, we propose definitions that delineate accommodations from modifications and interventions. Next, we identify strategies that could serve as potential accommodations for this population. Next, we conduct a systematic literature review and calculate effect sizes to evaluate the effectiveness of the included strategies. Finally, we review the evidence to determine whether each included strategy meets the proposed def...
TL;DR: In this paper, a theoretical analysis of three temporal perspectives: clock time, measured in objective, linear units; socially constructed time, experienced subjectively according to social and cultural context; and virtual time, a new category that synthesizes emergent temporal theory in the digital age.
Abstract: The construct of time influences student learning in and out of school and consequently pervades educational discourse. Yet the integration of information and communication technologies into contemporary society is changing how people perceive and experience time. Traditional theoretical and methodological approaches to time research no longer capture the nuances of digital, temporal realities. This article offers a theoretical analysis of three temporal perspectives: (a) clock time, measured in objective, linear units; (b) socially constructed time, experienced subjectively according to social and cultural context; and (c) virtual time, a new category that synthesizes emergent temporal theory in the digital age. Implications for educational research and practice are discussed. The authors initiate discourse around new theoretical approaches to educational time research in an era characterized by great sociocultural and temporal transformations.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors evaluated the effectiveness of four categories of intervention when implemented in public schools with adolescents and young adults diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, including antecedent, consequence, self-management, and video-based interventions.
Abstract: This article reviews research on the effectiveness of four categories of intervention when implemented in public schools with adolescents and young adults diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The study’s inclusionary criteria include a setting of public schools, participants aged between 12 and 22 years, and the investigation of an antecedent-, consequence-, self-management-, or video-based intervention strategy to influence skills or behaviors in students. A total of 34 studies met these criteria. The procedures of the What Works Clearinghouse Standards for Single-Case Designs and Evidence are used to evaluate whether sufficient high-quality research in using antecedent-, consequence-, self-management-, and video-based strategies exists to consider these evidence-based practices. Intervention effectiveness is estimated using PAND scores and phi coefficients. The results suggest that sufficient research exists to consider antecedent-, video-, and consequence-based interventions evidence-based pract...
TL;DR: This paper investigated whether there was a noticeable shift in focus from general to specific learning disabilities, and in the types of articles (narrative or empirically based) in the Journal of Learning Disabilities (JLD) between 1995 to 2000.
Abstract: We investigated whether there was a noticeable shift in focus from general to specific learning disabilities, and in the types of articles (narrative or empirically based) in the Journal of Learning Disabilities (JLD) between 1995 to 2000. A pilot study had revealed an increase in empirically based articles and a shift toward specifically delineated learning disabilities across three journals focusing on learning disabilities between 1995 and 2000. To attempt to delineate a specific year for the change, we examined all JLD articles from 1995 to 2000. We found a dramatic increase in articles focusing on specific learning disabilities (designating area of academic weakness) and on the percentage of empirically based articles beginning in 1999. We speculate on the relationship between this increase and evolving practices emphasizing research-based interventions, particularly those that predated No Child Left Behind and the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.