Top 10 Education Studies of 2023

The reading this week is an article from educational website, Edutopia, highlighting (arguably) the 10 most significant education studies of 2023.

I have attempted to summarise the key points from each paper below. (My apologies to the authors who spent years working on a paper only to have me oversimplify the findings in one sentence).

Key takeaways

1. AI can cut down the planning time of educators.
2. The best quizzes are frequent, low stakes, engaging and sometimes communal.
3. The tone of voice for a teacher changes the classroom environment.
4. When advanced students are paired with struggling peers, assisted by nudges from the teacher, a group might converge around a common understanding of the material.
5. Images of mathematics concepts can support fluency.
6. To improve student writing, reduce feedback from the teacher. Rubrics and mentor texts are better.
7. Kids might be sad because they don’t play with each other anymore.
8. Direct instruction and inquiry can be complementary.
9. Good wellbeing programs can help learning.
10. Background knowledge is very important for reading.

If you’d like to explore any of these papers further, the original article is here.

What you can do

• Create a process to be across the latest educational research (this email network is a good example)
• Use research summaries as part of the decision-making process (see Teaching One Pagers – Jamie Clark)
• See the principles of professional learning in action in a coaching workshop (like those we offer at the Crowther Centre)