What if students controlled their own learning?

Study suggests giving kids too many toys stifles their creativity (Medical Xpress)—A team of researchers at the University of Toledo in the U.S. has found that children are more creative when they have fewer toys to play with at one time. In their paper published in the journal Infant Behavior and Development, the group describes their observational study of toddlers at play, what they learned and offer some suggestions for parents. Parents have long been subject to the opinions of others, some of which include judgments regarding the number of toys they should provide for their children. Some suggest more toys show children they are more loved, while others argue more toys is overkill and a poor substitute for parental attention. In this new effort, the researchers have conducted a simple experiment meant to test creativity in toddlers playing with toys. In the experiment, parents were asked to bring toddlers to a play area where the little ones were given either four toys or 16 toys to play alone with for 30 minutes.

PARCC Skip to content Resources Resources Latest News​ edutopia A standard approach is the praise sandwich or feedback sandwich, which attempts to sidestep blame, conflict, and hurt feelings by surrounding negative feedback with positive statements. After opening with praise (“Johnny is so energetic”), the teacher brings up a specific critique (“With all that energy, he can become quite disruptive in class”), and closes on a positive note (“But he adds so much to our learning community”). While this tactic remains popular, it’s not always effective: Since people tend to remember the first and last things they hear, they focus on the praise at the ends and not the critique in the middle. The sandwich delivery softens the message and doesn’t necessarily drive it home. A Different Approach to Difficult Feedback

Jessica Lahey’s ‘The Gift of Failure’: A Fear of Risk-Taking Has Destroyed Kids’ Love of Learning I’ve known the mother sitting in front of me at this parent-teacher conference for years, and we have been through a lot together. I have taught three of her children, and I like to think we’ve even become friends during our time together. She’s a conscientious mother who obviously loves her children with all of her heart. I’ve always been honest with her about their strengths and weaknesses, and I think she trusts me to tell her the truth.

About DLM Tests Information for Parents Parents can access additional resources to support their child’s learning on our professional development site, which is facilitated by our partners at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This site includes 50 instructional modules, a variety of instructional resources including books you can read with your child, writing tools if your child cannot use a standard pencil or computer keyboard, and communication supports if your child struggles to use speech to communicate.

It’s Time to Rethink How We Are Educating Our Children In Brief On the whole, the way we educate students hasn't gotten a major upgrade in more than a century. Technology has both revolutionized what we need to teach to children, but also the capabilities that we have at our disposal to teach. Educating for the Future What not to do when your kid tells a lie At the ripe old age of 3, my older daughter has begun flirting with falsehoods. So far, the few lies she has told have been comically bad and easy to spot. Her dad and I usually laugh at them with an amused, “Oh, yeah?” But now that I’ve stopped to consider, that strategy seems flawed. While reporting a story on adult lying, I had the pleasure of talking with developmental psychologist Victoria Talwar of McGill University, who studies lying in children.

What Is Curriculum-Based Measurement and What Does It Mean to My Child? Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) is a method teachers use to find out how students are progressing in basic academic areas such as math, reading, writing, and spelling. CBM can be helpful to parents because it provides current, week-by-week information on the progress their children are making. When your child's teacher uses CBM, he or she finds out how well your child is progressing in learning the content for the academic year. Why 'Unlearning' Old Habits Is An Essential Step For Innovation She said often what stands in the way of implementing change is the inability to see things beyond what they've always been in the past. In order to figure out if something needs to be unlearned to make room for change, Biller asks four questions: 1.

Study Finds Montessori Schools Level the Playing Field for Disadvantaged Kids Researchers and educators have identified early childhood as one of the most important developmental periods in a person’s life, setting in place patterns that can predict life outcomes. This is not surprising given the fact that the human brain goes through profound changes in the first six years, most of which appear to be permanent. In addition, economic analyses have shown that educational interventions aimed at preschool programs have the highest return on investment. Yet, there is little consensus on what kinds of programs should be widely implemented and have the most positive effects. A new longitudinal study from the University of Virginia has been published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology comparing the Montessori educational method to regular preschool education. The Montessori method was developed by Dr.

10 Innovative Formative Assessment Examples for Teachers to Know – Wabisabi Learning Innovative formative assessment examples are part of what defines any modern classroom. They provide crucial information about what students understand and what they don’t. These ungraded assessments are also valuable guides for students. It can help them enhance their performance. Teachers can use them to determine if further instruction is necessary. Kaimai School / School snapshots / Curriculum stories Kaimai School, a small rural full primary, is part of a network of 11 schools in the greater Tauranga area working together to investigate how play can be used to enhance learning. Kaimai principal Dane Robertson shares his findings about play based learning and Kaimai School’s journey so far to put this into action. Photo: George Novak Where did your interest in play based learning come from?