Research

The latest findings from experts in the field related to the future of learning.

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What Teens Feel About Privacy and Social Media

May 22, 2013 | 9:41 AM | By
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Flickr: Christopher Frier Brown

A new Pew Research study of 802 teenagers ages 12-17 and their parents reveals that teenagers are sharing more information on social networking sites than in the past, even as they carefully monitor and manage their profiles. And, while the number of social media sites and ways to share has grown, most teens aren’t concerned with third parties having access to their personal information.

Some highlights:

  • Today’s teens are sharing more personal information on social media sites: 91% share a photo of themselves with their profile (up from 79% in 2006), 92% use their real name on their most-used profile, and 20% include their cell phone number. And while older teens are more likely to share information like photos of themselves, school names and relationship status than younger teens, boys and girls “generally share personal information… at the same rates.” However, cell phone numbers are a key exception – boys are much more likely to share their cell phone numbers (26%) than girls (14%).
  • Twitter use has grown significantly among teens, rising in popularity from 16% in 2011 to 24% in 2012. African-American teens are more likely to use Twitter than white teens, 39% to 23%, respectively, and Twitter users are much more likely than Facebook users to make their posts public.
  • “The typical teen Facebook user has 300 friends, while the typical teen Twitter user has 79 followers.” Girls and older teens (ages 14-17) have larger networks on social media, and also have a larger variety of friends, drawing from different groups. Younger teens (ages 12-13) are less likely to friend people they don’t know, kids who attend different schools, or teachers and coaches. Girls are more likely than boys (37% to 23%) to be Facebook friends with teachers and coaches, and African-American teens are “twice as likely as whites” to be Facebook friends with celebrities, professional athletes and musicians (48% to 25%).

One of the most fascinating findings from the study’s focus groups was teens’ “waning enthusiasm for Facebook.” Reasons for the shift include increased adult presence on Facebook, friends’ need Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Research, Facebook, Pew Research, privacy, Social Media, teens, Twitter

Can a Toy Spark Interest in Engineering for Girls?

May 17, 2013 | 7:00 AM | By
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Katrina Schwartz

It’s a common refrain that there aren’t enough women in jobs that require math and science skills like engineering and computer science. Though more programs are cropping up geared towards girls involved in science through camps, rocketry clubs or with more focused courses on STEM subjects, the gender imbalance is still striking.

The discrepancy became all-too apparent to Debbie Sterling, a budding inventor who was one of the only girls in her engineering courses at Stanford. So she came up with an idea to encourage more girls in  is why she’s spent the last several years developing GoldieBlox, a toy focused on developing spatial skills in girls.

“I just think there need to be more options, more role models, more career paths for girls to see and that’s what I’m trying to do with GoldieBlox,” Sterling said.

Sterling discovered her interest in engineering almost by accident — a math teacher suggested she take a course when she got to college — and she wonders if girls would choose science careers if they were exposed to basic engineering and physics concepts earlier in life.

“Some modeling of a cool, young girl engineer could be useful if the girl playing can see a path from where she is to where the cool, functioning engineer is.”

Research shows that building toys like Legos or Erector Sets are good for building spatial skills, but those typically fall under the stereotype of toys for boys. After visiting the toy store and experiencing what she called “the pink explosion isle for girls” Sterling decided she needed to build an engineering toy that would appeal to girls.

GoldieBlox and the Spinning Machine is a construction kit with pieces that clip into a board to make a simple belt drive. The set comes with a story that tells of a girl engineer named Goldie who Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, Research, Carol Dweck, Games, STEM, stereotypes

With Tech Tools, How Should Teachers Tackle Multitasking In Class?

May 15, 2013 | 7:00 AM | By
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Lenny Gonzalez

Important research compiled on the effects of students multitasking while learning shows that they are losing depth of learning, getting mentally fatigued, and are weakening their ability to transfer what they have learned to other subjects and situations.

Educators as well as students have noticed how schoolwork suffers when attention is split between homework and a buzzing smartphone. Many students, like Alex Sifuentes, who admit to multitasking while studying, know the consequences well. “When I was grounded for a couple of months and didn’t have my phone, I got done extra early with homework,” Sifuentes wrote in response to Annie Murphy Paul’s article, “How Does Multitasking Change the Way Kids Learn?”

Parents also see a big difference in their kids’ studying habits. Jenifer Gossman reported that her 17-year-old daughter asked her brother to hide her phone so she could study for several important exams. After hours of studying, Gossman’s daughter reappeared, amazed at how productive she’d been without her phone by her side.

“Devices that once were just an entertainment tool are also becoming our educational and work tools.”

But for many, the solution isn’t simply to do away with the gadgets — mostly because they’re the same tools that actually help do the work, and it can be confusing for young adults to distinguish the difference between work and everything else.

“We have a new problem forthcoming and that is our devices that once were just an entertainment tool are also becoming our educational and work tools,” wrote commenter Des. “And with this all combined into one, it’s hard to put one away without the other being easy to access. With these things being integrated, we also start to lose sight of what is actually work and what is entertainment.”

While some teachers want to remove all digital distractions from the classroom, others say Generation M’s biggest challenges — like giving schoolwork undivided attention — require learning Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, Research, Teaching With Tech, multitasking

New Report Challenges Beliefs About the Value of AP Classes

May 13, 2013 | 9:59 AM | By
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By Leslie Harris O’Hanlon

Enrollment in advanced placement courses has skyrocketed in recent years, and there are many reasons for this spike. Students often believe taking AP courses will give them an edge in getting into college, help them do better once there, and save them money by not having to take those classes again. And many believe AP programs enrich students’ lives because they’re taking part in a rigorous program of learning.

But a recent study found that research doesn’t unequivocally support those beliefs.

“The research is mixed,” said Denise Pope, co-founder of Challenge Success, a non-profit organization at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education. “There isn’t any clear research for any of those claims.”

Pope is author of the white paper “The Advanced Placement Program: Living Up to Its Promise?” for which she reviewed more than 20 studies about AP programs and examined the research Challenge Success has conducted on the subject.

The College Board launched its AP program in 1955 as a way to make college-level courses available to high school students. While AP programs have their strengths, they also have their drawbacks, Pope said. For example, while some studies show that students who take AP courses perform better in their college courses, the performance of such students may not be solely based on the fact that they took an AP course. Students who take AP courses often are a self-selecting Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Research, Advanced Placement

How Do You Teach Empathy? Harvard Pilots Game Simulation

May 9, 2013 | 8:00 AM | By
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Elisabeth Hahn and Geoff Marietta

Disruptive students can be a big challenge for teachers in charge of a room full of 30 students. There isn’t always time to get to the bottom of student behavior and in a large class those students can derail learning for everyone. But what if there was a way to help kids stop acting out and show more empathy for classmates and teachers?

A group of Harvard education researchers have developed a virtual simulation for “walking in another person’s shoes” to help students relate to one another better. It’s part of a project called Social Aspects of Immersive Learning (SAIL) funded by the National Science Foundation. “The ability to accurately read people is really important to make compromises,” said Elisabeth Hahn, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard School of Education in a recent edWeb webinar.

The technical term is “social perspective taking” and it means understanding another person by taking in their thoughts, feelings and motivations. Accurately reading another person requires both motivation and ability, qualities that Hahn and other researchers are discovering can be taught.

“This has great potential to use virtual environments to improve interpersonal relationships that are not possible in the real world, to actually walk in the shoes of another party.”

The benefits of reading others are well documented, Hahn said. Taking in social perspective helps people become less ego-centric, decreases use of stereotypes, increases perspectives of similarity, and diminishes social aggression. These effects could make a big impact on many classrooms where the success of the lesson can hinge on how well a teacher is able to interact with the students. “It becomes much easier to empathize and leads to benefits in relationships and ultimately educational outcomes for kids,” Hahn said.

In an effort to create an experience that will help build these types of positive relationships through Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Research, game-based learning, social emotional learning

Parents May Devote More Teaching Time to Girls Than to Boys

May 6, 2013 | 10:25 AM | By
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By Shankar Vedantam

For some years now, teachers and parents have noted something about boys and girls. Starting in elementary school, young girls often score better on reading and math tests than young boys do.

The differences are uneven on different tests and do not describe the experience of every child, but empirical studies do document a difference.

Now, two economists are proposing a partial explanation for the disparity that might give some parents heartburn.

Michael Baker at the University of Toronto and Kevin Milligan at the University of British Columbia recently analyzed survey data of parents in three countries — the United States, Canada and Britain. They were especially interested to see how parents say they spend time with their children — and they turned up an intriguing gender difference in what they called “teaching activities.”

Survey data suggests that young girls are more likely to be taken to libraries than are boys, are more likely to own books than are boys, and are more likely to be read to for longer periods of time than boys.

“So, this would be, ‘How often do you read with your child?’ or ‘Do you teach them the alphabet or numbers?’ ” Baker says. “Systematically parents spent more time doing these activities with girls.”

The finding surprised them because, at least in popular lore, parents supposedly spend more time with boys than girls. And Baker says that perception does tend to hold true for older children — fathers tend to spend more time with boys once they are older than age 4 or 5. When children are Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Research