While there are many strategies for increasing the inclusiveness of anatomy and physiology courses, increasing course structure is a strategy that can not only close achievement gaps for first generation and underrepresented minority students, but also increase performance for all students. High structure courses are characterized by clear…

Within K-12 education, increasing numbers of children are learning via new digital learning tools while at home, raising important questions about the changing nature of parents' involvement in digital spaces. This article uses the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler parental involvement model to discuss parents' decisions to become involved in children's…

Parental involvement in learning, entertainment, emotion, and daily care is crucial to the growth and development of children. Due to the increasing significance of educational attainment in China, parental involvement in child learning is receiving ever-increasing weight and is now the most prevalent of the four aspects. In the wake of the…

The following article is an adapted and abridged excerpt from The Language Immersion Life: A Guide for Families by Millie Park Mellgren (2017). This book features answers to the most common questions Dr. Mellgren was asked as an elementary immersion principal. The volume features commentary and data gleaned from surveys given to hundreds of former…

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's that students don't need more stress. Fortunately, we can reduce students' anxiety about grading--and improve their learning. Grading expert Joe Feldman shares four "outdated" grading practices and their constructive, more equitable alternatives.

This report provides a summary of the full "First Look" report, which presents data on students in the United States attending kindergarten through grade 12. The focus of the report is on parent and family involvement in the students' education during the 2018-19 school year, as reported by the students' parents. It includes the…

One of the goals for requiring all college students to take science courses is to develop critical thinking about scientific issues they will encounter as citizens, consumers, and patients. This article integrates skill development activities targeting civic scientific literacy skills in a nonscience majors (liberal arts) biochemistry course, but…

Current thinking in education reform focuses on how we can prepare students to be successful in both the classroom and their professional careers. Preparing students for their lives beyond school is an important role of education, and this includes encouraging students to be independent and self-regulated learners. Cultivating an adaptive…

Hempshill Hall Primary School is an urban school in Nottingham (U.K.), with almost 500 pupils. It is situated in a low-income area in the country, yet attracts many families from outside its school borders. It offers a broad curriculum that aims to be very child-led and engaging. However, it struggles to reach some of its less-engaged parents and…

At one elementary school in Massachusetts, students are actually excited about homework. In this article, Cathy Vatterott and educators from Vinal Elementary School explain how--and why--they have made the shift to individualized homework, "a methodical, standards-based approach that starts with big ideas and enduring understandings from the…

The tablet is one of the most important developments of the educational environments today. It is used at schools especially at private schools. The number of teacher and student using the tablet is rising day by day due to the development of digital instructional objects. Many approaches are being used in the schools and companies where tablets…

No one teaches a toddler how to walk. No one moves his legs for him. We encourage him to stand, applaud his first step, and tell him it's OK when he falls. Yet when it comes to academic learning, writes Cathy Vatterott, we often fail to appreciate children's inborn desire for mastery or to trust their self-knowledge of how to get there.…

For students with autism, homework time may be especially challenging due to problems in self-organization and difficulties generalizing skills from one setting to another. Although often problematic, homework can provide a valuable context for teaching organizational skills that become essential as students become more independent. By learning to…

This EEF guidance report reviews the best available research to offer schools and teachers four recommendations to support parental engagement in children's learning. Parents play a crucial role in supporting their children's learning, and levels of parental engagement are consistently associated with better academic outcomes. Evidence from our…

Bigger classes are the reality for more and more teachers across the country. In the 2010-11 school year, 57 percent of districts increased their class sizes, and 65 percent anticipate doing so in 2011-12, according to a December 2010 survey by the American Association of School Administrators. So how do teachers cope? Experts and veteran teachers…