GUEST POST: Using Evidence Based Strategies to Improve the Distance Learning Experience
Alison Stone teaches Human Anatomy and Physiology and AP Biology at Central Bucks High School – West in Doylestown, PA. She is a National Board Certified Teacher and the 2015 recipient of the Outstanding Educator Award from Stephenson University. Alison has a passion for using evidence-based practice to improve student outcomes in her classroom. She…
Digest #146: The Psychology of “Zoom Fatigue”
In the world of COVID-19, video conferencing has become commonplace. Many of us spend our days on back to back video calls and find ourselves exhausted by the end. This phenomenon has been dubbed “zoom fatigue” but applies to any type of video conferencing. At its foundation, zoom fatigue is a cognitive issue, which presumably…
Online Learning: Tips for Students and Parents
By Althea Need KaminskeLearning online presents different challenges for students than learning face-to-face in a classroom. Whether you are an older student learning online in your spare time, a university student taking online courses in combination with face-to-face classes, or even a younger (or much younger) student learning online as a safety precaution during quarantine…
Tips for Returning To School: An Interview with Dr Flávia Belham
Carolina: “Let’s dive into concrete teaching activities that can support teachers in their work. How can schools identify and close any ‘learning gaps’ in September? Can setting assessment and feedback strategically support this?”Flávia: “Identifying learning gaps can be a huge task, so we should make data work for us! If we combine all the data…
Retrieval Practice and Stress
School can be stressful, and 2020 has been a particularly stressful year for many of us. So, for this week’s blog, I thought I would write about retrieval practice and stress. Fortunately, I get to share some good news! Prior research has shown that acute stress can hinder our ability to retrieve information. Acute stress is…
Digest # 144: Talking to Kids about Race
We know that kids notice race, and pretending to be color blind just does not work. We all have implicit biases, even if we don’t want them and are not explicitly biased. However, it is difficult for adults to talk about race issues, and teaching our kids about them can seem even more daunting. So,…
Racism in the Classroom: Why Does This Keep Happening and What Can We Do?
If your institution has trouble hiring and retaining black academics there is no time like the present to ask yourself why. What are the barriers in your field or institution for black academics? As every publication in higher education keeps reminding us, we currently have more Ph.D.s than jobs for Ph.D.s in academia (though there…
Student Ability, Self-Regulated Spaced Practice, and Performance In Online Learning
Recording authentic student study behavior A recently published study by Carvalho, Sana, and Yan (1) contributes to the evidence base supporting spaced practice by approaching the question about the benefits of spaced practice differently: They recorded the authentic study behavior of students enrolled in an online course. The online course consisted of 12 units and…
GUEST POST: How Exercise Improves Student Mental Health
The activity connectionIn the last decade, research on the link between exercise and mental health has increased significantly. A paper (4) reviewed the research since 2011 into the link between exercise and depression, self-esteem, anxiety and cognitive functioning and found that the strongest link was found between exercise and cognitive function. For depression, the intervention…
A Statistics Primer for the Overwhelmed Educator
Factorial ANOVAs are a bit more complicated. A factorial ANOVA means there is more than one factor being examined. Maybe we’re interested in both multiple choice vs. short answer questions as well as whether the questions are factual or applied. There are two factors that require a factorial ANOVA. There can be more factors and…
