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Harvard educational review.

Edited by Maya Alkateb-Chami, Jane Choi, Jeannette Garcia Coppersmith, Ron Grady, Phoebe A. Grant-Robinson, Pennie M. Gregory, Jennifer Ha, Woohee Kim, Catherine E. Pitcher, Elizabeth Salinas, Caroline Tucker, Kemeyawi Q. Wahpepah

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Journal Information

• ISSN: 0017-8055
• eISSN: 1943-5045
• Keywords: scholarly journal, education research
• First Issue: 1930
• Frequency: Quarterly

Description

The Harvard Educational Review (HER) is a scholarly journal of opinion and research in education. The Editorial Board aims to publish pieces from interdisciplinary and wide-ranging fields that advance our understanding of educational theory, equity, and practice. HER encourages submissions from established and emerging scholars, as well as from practitioners working in the field of education. Since its founding in 1930, HER has been central to elevating pieces and debates that tackle various dimensions of educational justice, with circulation to researchers, policymakers, teachers, and administrators.

Our Editorial Board is composed entirely of doctoral students from the Harvard Graduate School of Education who review all manuscripts considered for publication. For more information on the current Editorial Board, please see here.

A subscription to the Review includes access to the full-text electronic archives at our Subscribers-Only-Website .

Editorial Board

2024-2025 Harvard Educational Review Editorial Board Members  

  Hannah Castner  

Editor, 2024-2026  

Hannah Castner is a second year PhD student in the Sociology Department at Harvard University. She studies how culture shapes and reproduces inequality within education organizations. In particular, she is interested in how parents, teachers, politicians, and administrators lay claim to education curricula and systems and the consequences of these assertions. One of her ongoing areas of research investigates how teachers respond to state laws restricting discussion of race, gender, and sexuality in U.S. schools. Prior to starting her doctoral studies, Hannah taught English to middle and high school students in France. Hannah holds BAs in sociology and data science from Mount Holyoke College.  

Jane Choi  

Content Editor 2024-2025 Editor 2023-2025 [email protected] [email protected]  

Jane Choi is a third-year PhD student in Sociology with broad interests in culture, race, education, and inequality. Her research examines intra-racial and interracial boundaries in US educational contexts. She has researched legacy and first-generation students at Ivy League colleges, families served by Head Start and Early Head Start programs, and parents of pre-K and kindergarten-age children in the New York City School District. Previously, Jane worked as a Research Assistant in the Family Well-Being and Children’s Development policy area at MDRC and received a BA in Sociology from Columbia University.  

Moisés G. Contreras  

Moisés G. Contreras is a third-year PhD student in the Culture, Institutions, and Society concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is interested in the promise and potential of liberatory and humanizing education occurring within community-based educational spaces. Moisés’s work is informed by diverse youth work experiences both locally and transnationally, having been an English teaching assistant with the Fulbright Program in Italy and a tutor and mentor in a predominantly-Latine Chicago public high school with the AmeriCorps program, City Year. Moisés holds an MA in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BS in Psychology and Italian, with a minor in Latina/Latino Studies, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.   

Content Editor 2024-2025 Editor 2023-2025 [email protected] [email protected]  

Jen Ha is a third-year PhD student in the Culture, Institutions, and Society concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research explores how high school and undergraduate students produce personal narratives for school applications, scholarships, and professional opportunities. Prior to doctoral studies, Jen served as the Coordinator of Public Humanities at Bard Graduate Center and worked in several roles organizing academic enrichment opportunities and supporting postsecondary planning for students in New Haven and New York City. Jen holds a BA in Humanities from Yale University, where she was an Education Studies Scholar.  

Woohee Kim  

Co-Chair 2024-2025 Editor 2023-2025 [email protected]  

Woohee Kim is a PhD student studying youth activists’ civic and pedagogical practices. Shaped by her activism and research across South Korea, the US, and the UK, Woohee seeks to interrogate how educational spaces are shaped as cultural and political sites and reshaped by activists as sites of struggle. Grounded in her scholar-activist commitments to creating spaces for pedagogies of resistance and transformative possibilities, Woohee hopes to continue exploring the intersections of education, knowledge, power, and resistance.  

Melina Melgoza  

Melina Melgoza (she/her/ella) is a third-year doctoral student in the Culture, Institutions, and Society concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and taught Ethnic Studies and Social Studies in Los Angeles public schools. She is enthusiastic and hopeful about advocating for and participating in liberatory Ethnic Studies practices, both within an educational setting and as an integral aspect of life. Through her research, she hopes to collaborate with various communities in Los Angeles to shed light on the power, message, and potential of Ethnic Studies praxis in educational environments. She sees Ethnic Studies as a social, political, and educational pathway for self-exploration, healing, community building, and solidarity. Prior to starting the doctoral program, she received her B.A. in History and Chicana/o Studies, and her M.Ed. and teaching credential from UCLA, specializing in Social Studies and Ethnic Studies. She also has a Master of Arts in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.   

Brein Y. Mosely  

Brein Y. Mosely is a third-year doctoral student in the Education Policy and Program Evaluation concentration at HGSE. She is interested in how quantitative educational researchers use race-based deficit narratives and perpetuate injustice in academic language. She is both a PIER and Stone Inequality fellow. She is also a research assistant for Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research Institute on Policing, Incarceration & Public Safety. Prior to their doctoral studies, Brein pursued both a MS and BS in Statistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.   

Catherine E. Pitcher  

Development Editor 2024-2025 Editor 2023-2025 [email protected]  

Catherine E. Pitcher is a third-year doctoral student at Harvard Graduate School of Education in the Culture, Institutions, and Society program. She has over 10 years of experience in US education in roles that range from special education teacher to instructional coach to department head to educational game designer. She started working in Palestine in 2017, first teaching and then designing and implementing educational programming. Currently, she is working on research to understand how Palestinian youth think about and build their futures. She holds an Ed.M. from Harvard in International Education Policy.  

Anakaren Quintero Davalos  

Anakaren Quintero Davalos is a 3rd year PhD student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in the Culture, Institutions, and Society concentration. Her research interests include exploring the manner in which undocumented and immigrant origin students create counterspaces in response and in spite of oppressive institutions, and their advocacy for institutional supports in higher education contexts. Advocating for immigrant rights and working toward collective liberation is the forefront of all the work that she does. She has dedicated many years to serving undocumented students in higher education institutions. She holds a BA from UC Santa Cruz and is a product of the wealth of the community college system.  

Elizabeth Salinas  

Elizabeth Salinas is a doctoral student in the Education Policy and Program Evaluation concentration at HGSE. She is interested in the intersection of higher education and the social safety net and hopes to examine policies that address basic needs insecurity among college students. Before her doctoral studies, Liz was a research director at a public policy consulting firm. There, she supported government, education, and philanthropy leaders by conducting and translating research into clear and actionable information. Previously, Liz served as a high school physics teacher in her hometown in Texas and as a STEM outreach program director at her alma mater. She currently sits on the Board of Directors at Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America, a nonprofit organization working to diversify the leadership pipeline in the United States. Liz holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in higher education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  

Jesse Y. Tang  

Editor, 2024-2025  

Jesse Y. Tang is a second-year student in the Doctor of Education Leadership (EdLD) program at Harvard Graduate School of Education. A son of immigrants from Thailand and Hong Kong, Jesse was drawn to education for the powerful potential of schools to transform opportunities in each student’s life. He has two decades of experience working in PreK-8th Grade urban schools in Chicago, Boston, New York City, and Denver. Prior to his doctoral studies, Jesse served as Founding Principal for two schools, Central Queens Academy and Denver Online Elementary, as well as Turnaround Principal at Schmitt Elementary in Denver, CO. Jesse is passionate about increasing diversity within school leadership pipelines, as well as supporting, mentoring and sustaining new principals in their early years. Jesse holds a BS in Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University, an MAT in Teaching from Dominican University, and an EdM in School Leadership from Harvard Graduate School of Education.   

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Article Submission FAQ

Submissions, question: “what manuscripts are a good fit for her ”.

Answer: As a generalist scholarly journal, HER publishes on a wide range of topics within the field of education and related disciplines. We receive many articles that deserve publication, but due to the restrictions of print publication, we are only able to publish very few in the journal. The originality and import of the findings, as well as the accessibility of a piece to HER’s interdisciplinary, international audience which includes education practitioners, are key criteria in determining if an article will be selected for publication.

We strongly recommend that prospective authors review the current and past issues of HER to see the types of articles we have published recently. If you are unsure whether your manuscript is a good fit, please reach out to the Content Editor at [email protected] .

Question: “What makes HER a developmental journal?”

Answer: Supporting the development of high-quality education research is a key tenet of HER’s mission. HER promotes this development through offering comprehensive feedback to authors. All manuscripts that pass the first stage of our review process (see below) receive detailed feedback. For accepted manuscripts, HER also has a unique feedback process called casting whereby two editors carefully read a manuscript and offer overarching suggestions to strengthen and clarify the argument.

Question: “What is a Voices piece and how does it differ from an essay?”

Answer: Voices pieces are first-person reflections about an education-related topic rather than empirical or theoretical essays. Our strongest pieces have often come from educators and policy makers who draw on their personal experiences in the education field. Although they may not present data or generate theory, Voices pieces should still advance a cogent argument, drawing on appropriate literature to support any claims asserted. For examples of Voices pieces, please see Alvarez et al. (2021) and Snow (2021).

Question: “Does HER accept Book Note or book review submissions?”

Answer: No, all Book Notes are written internally by members of the Editorial Board.

Question: “If I want to submit a book for review consideration, who do I contact?”

Answer: Please send details about your book to the Content Editor at [email protected].

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Question: “the submission guidelines state that manuscripts should be a maximum of 9,000 words – including abstract, appendices, and references. is this applicable only for research articles, or should the word count limit be followed for other manuscripts, such as essays”.

Answer: The 9,000-word limit is the same for all categories of manuscripts.

Question: “We are trying to figure out the best way to mask our names in the references. Is it OK if we do not cite any of our references in the reference list? Our names have been removed in the in-text citations. We just cite Author (date).”

Answer: Any references that identify the author/s in the text must be masked or made anonymous (e.g., instead of citing “Field & Bloom, 2007,” cite “Author/s, 2007”). For the reference list, place the citations alphabetically as “Author/s. (2007)” You can also indicate that details are omitted for blind review. Articles can also be blinded effectively by use of the third person in the manuscript. For example, rather than “in an earlier article, we showed that” substitute something like “as has been shown in Field & Bloom, 2007.” In this case, there is no need to mask the reference in the list. Please do not submit a title page as part of your manuscript. We will capture the contact information and any author statement about the fit and scope of the work in the submission form. Finally, please save the uploaded manuscript as the title of the manuscript and do not include the author/s name/s.

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Answer: If you think your manuscript is a strong fit for HER, we welcome a request for invitation. Invited manuscripts receive one round of feedback from Editors before the piece enters the formal review process. To submit information about your manuscript, please complete the Invitation Request Form . Please provide as many details as possible. The decision to invite a manuscript largely depends on the capacity of current Board members and on how closely the proposed manuscript reflects HER publication scope and criteria. Once you submit the form, We hope to update you in about 2–3 weeks, and will let you know whether there are Editors who are available to invite the manuscript.

Review Timeline

Question: “who reviews manuscripts”.

Answer: All manuscripts are reviewed by the Editorial Board composed of doctoral students at Harvard University.

Question: “What is the HER evaluation process as a student-run journal?”

Answer: HER does not utilize the traditional external peer review process and instead has an internal, two-stage review procedure.

Upon submission, every manuscript receives a preliminary assessment by the Content Editor to confirm that the formatting requirements have been carefully followed in preparation of the manuscript, and that the manuscript is in accord with the scope and aim of the journal. The manuscript then formally enters the review process.

In the first stage of review, all manuscripts are read by a minimum of two Editorial Board members. During the second stage of review, manuscripts are read by the full Editorial Board at a weekly meeting.

Question: “How long after submission can I expect a decision on my manuscript?”

Answer: It usually takes 6 to 10 weeks for a manuscript to complete the first stage of review and an additional 12 weeks for a manuscript to complete the second stage. Due to time constraints and the large volume of manuscripts received, HER only provides detailed comments on manuscripts that complete the second stage of review.

Question: “How soon are accepted pieces published?”

Answer: The date of publication depends entirely on how many manuscripts are already in the queue for an issue. Typically, however, it takes about 6 months post-acceptance for a piece to be published.

Submission Process

Question: “how do i submit a manuscript for publication in her”.

Answer: Manuscripts are submitted through HER’s Submittable platform, accessible here. All first-time submitters must create an account to access the platform. You can find details on our submission guidelines on our Submissions page.

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New advances in technology are upending education, from the recent debut of new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots like ChatGPT to the growing accessibility of virtual-reality tools that expand the boundaries of the classroom. For educators, at the heart of it all is the hope that every learner gets an equal chance to develop the skills they need to succeed. But that promise is not without its pitfalls.

“Technology is a game-changer for education – it offers the prospect of universal access to high-quality learning experiences, and it creates fundamentally new ways of teaching,” said Dan Schwartz, dean of Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE), who is also a professor of educational technology at the GSE and faculty director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning . “But there are a lot of ways we teach that aren’t great, and a big fear with AI in particular is that we just get more efficient at teaching badly. This is a moment to pay attention, to do things differently.”

For K-12 schools, this year also marks the end of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding program, which has provided pandemic recovery funds that many districts used to invest in educational software and systems. With these funds running out in September 2024, schools are trying to determine their best use of technology as they face the prospect of diminishing resources.

Here, Schwartz and other Stanford education scholars weigh in on some of the technology trends taking center stage in the classroom this year.

AI in the classroom

In 2023, the big story in technology and education was generative AI, following the introduction of ChatGPT and other chatbots that produce text seemingly written by a human in response to a question or prompt. Educators immediately worried that students would use the chatbot to cheat by trying to pass its writing off as their own. As schools move to adopt policies around students’ use of the tool, many are also beginning to explore potential opportunities – for example, to generate reading assignments or coach students during the writing process.

AI can also help automate tasks like grading and lesson planning, freeing teachers to do the human work that drew them into the profession in the first place, said Victor Lee, an associate professor at the GSE and faculty lead for the AI + Education initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. “I’m heartened to see some movement toward creating AI tools that make teachers’ lives better – not to replace them, but to give them the time to do the work that only teachers are able to do,” he said. “I hope to see more on that front.”

He also emphasized the need to teach students now to begin questioning and critiquing the development and use of AI. “AI is not going away,” said Lee, who is also director of CRAFT (Classroom-Ready Resources about AI for Teaching), which provides free resources to help teach AI literacy to high school students across subject areas. “We need to teach students how to understand and think critically about this technology.”

Immersive environments

The use of immersive technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality is also expected to surge in the classroom, especially as new high-profile devices integrating these realities hit the marketplace in 2024.

The educational possibilities now go beyond putting on a headset and experiencing life in a distant location. With new technologies, students can create their own local interactive 360-degree scenarios, using just a cell phone or inexpensive camera and simple online tools.

“This is an area that’s really going to explode over the next couple of years,” said Kristen Pilner Blair, director of research for the Digital Learning initiative at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, which runs a program exploring the use of virtual field trips to promote learning. “Students can learn about the effects of climate change, say, by virtually experiencing the impact on a particular environment. But they can also become creators, documenting and sharing immersive media that shows the effects where they live.”

Integrating AI into virtual simulations could also soon take the experience to another level, Schwartz said. “If your VR experience brings me to a redwood tree, you could have a window pop up that allows me to ask questions about the tree, and AI can deliver the answers.”

Gamification

Another trend expected to intensify this year is the gamification of learning activities, often featuring dynamic videos with interactive elements to engage and hold students’ attention.

“Gamification is a good motivator, because one key aspect is reward, which is very powerful,” said Schwartz. The downside? Rewards are specific to the activity at hand, which may not extend to learning more generally. “If I get rewarded for doing math in a space-age video game, it doesn’t mean I’m going to be motivated to do math anywhere else.”

Gamification sometimes tries to make “chocolate-covered broccoli,” Schwartz said, by adding art and rewards to make speeded response tasks involving single-answer, factual questions more fun. He hopes to see more creative play patterns that give students points for rethinking an approach or adapting their strategy, rather than only rewarding them for quickly producing a correct response.

Data-gathering and analysis

The growing use of technology in schools is producing massive amounts of data on students’ activities in the classroom and online. “We’re now able to capture moment-to-moment data, every keystroke a kid makes,” said Schwartz – data that can reveal areas of struggle and different learning opportunities, from solving a math problem to approaching a writing assignment.

But outside of research settings, he said, that type of granular data – now owned by tech companies – is more likely used to refine the design of the software than to provide teachers with actionable information.

The promise of personalized learning is being able to generate content aligned with students’ interests and skill levels, and making lessons more accessible for multilingual learners and students with disabilities. Realizing that promise requires that educators can make sense of the data that’s being collected, said Schwartz – and while advances in AI are making it easier to identify patterns and findings, the data also needs to be in a system and form educators can access and analyze for decision-making. Developing a usable infrastructure for that data, Schwartz said, is an important next step.

With the accumulation of student data comes privacy concerns: How is the data being collected? Are there regulations or guidelines around its use in decision-making? What steps are being taken to prevent unauthorized access? In 2023 K-12 schools experienced a rise in cyberattacks, underscoring the need to implement strong systems to safeguard student data.

Technology is “requiring people to check their assumptions about education,” said Schwartz, noting that AI in particular is very efficient at replicating biases and automating the way things have been done in the past, including poor models of instruction. “But it’s also opening up new possibilities for students producing material, and for being able to identify children who are not average so we can customize toward them. It’s an opportunity to think of entirely new ways of teaching – this is the path I hope to see.”

Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

Our Best Education Articles of 2020

In February of 2020, we launched the new website Greater Good in Education , a collection of free, research-based and -informed strategies and practices for the social, emotional, and ethical development of students, for the well-being of the adults who work with them, and for cultivating positive school cultures. Little did we know how much more crucial these resources would become over the course of the year during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, as we head back to school in 2021, things are looking a lot different than in past years. Our most popular education articles of 2020 can help you manage difficult emotions and other challenges at school in the pandemic, all while supporting the social-emotional well-being of your students.

In addition to these articles, you can also find tips, tools, and recommended readings in two resource guides we created in 2020: Supporting Learning and Well-Being During the Coronavirus Crisis and Resources to Support Anti-Racist Learning , which helps educators take action to undo the racism within themselves, encourage their colleagues to do the same, and teach and support their students in forming anti-racist identities.

Here are the 10 best education articles of 2020, based on a composite ranking of pageviews and editors’ picks.

Can the Lockdown Push Schools in a Positive Direction? , by Patrick Cook-Deegan: Here are five ways that COVID-19 could change education for the better.

How Teachers Can Navigate Difficult Emotions During School Closures , by Amy L. Eva: Here are some tools for staying calm and centered amid the coronavirus crisis.

Six Online Activities to Help Students Cope With COVID-19 , by Lea Waters: These well-being practices can help students feel connected and resilient during the pandemic.

Help Students Process COVID-19 Emotions With This Lesson Plan , by Maurice Elias: Music and the arts can help students transition back to school this year.

How to Teach Online So All Students Feel Like They Belong , by Becki Cohn-Vargas and Kathe Gogolewski: Educators can foster belonging and inclusion for all students, even online.

How Teachers Can Help Students With Special Needs Navigate Distance Learning , by Rebecca Branstetter: Kids with disabilities are often shortchanged by pandemic classroom conditions. Here are three tips for educators to boost their engagement and connection.

How to Reduce the Stress of Homeschooling on Everyone , by Rebecca Branstetter: A school psychologist offers advice to parents on how to support their child during school closures.

Three Ways to Help Your Kids Succeed at Distance Learning , by Christine Carter: How can parents support their children at the start of an uncertain school year?

How Schools Are Meeting Social-Emotional Needs During the Pandemic , by Frances Messano, Jason Atwood, and Stacey Childress: A new report looks at how schools have been grappling with the challenges imposed by COVID-19.

Six Ways to Help Your Students Make Sense of a Divisive Election , by Julie Halterman: The election is over, but many young people will need help understanding what just happened.

Train Your Brain to Be Kinder (video), by Jane Park: Boost your kindness by sending kind thoughts to someone you love—and to someone you don’t get along with—with a little guidance from these students.

From Othering to Belonging (podcast): We speak with john a. powell, director of the Othering & Belonging Institute, about racial justice, well-being, and widening our circles of human connection and concern.

About the Author

Greater good editors.

• Our Mission

The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2020

We reviewed hundreds of educational studies in 2020 and then highlighted 10 of the most significant—covering topics from virtual learning to the reading wars and the decline of standardized tests.

In the month of March of 2020, the year suddenly became a whirlwind. With a pandemic disrupting life across the entire globe, teachers scrambled to transform their physical classrooms into virtual—or even hybrid—ones, and researchers slowly began to collect insights into what works, and what doesn’t, in online learning environments around the world.

Meanwhile, neuroscientists made a convincing case for keeping handwriting in schools, and after the closure of several coal-fired power plants in Chicago, researchers reported a drop in pediatric emergency room visits and fewer absences in schools, reminding us that questions of educational equity do not begin and end at the schoolhouse door.

1. To Teach Vocabulary, Let Kids Be Thespians

When students are learning a new language, ask them to act out vocabulary words. It’s fun to unleash a child’s inner thespian, of course, but a 2020 study concluded that it also nearly doubles their ability to remember the words months later.

Researchers asked 8-year-old students to listen to words in another language and then use their hands and bodies to mimic the words—spreading their arms and pretending to fly, for example, when learning the German word flugzeug , which means “airplane.” After two months, these young actors were a remarkable 73 percent more likely to remember the new words than students who had listened without accompanying gestures. Researchers discovered similar, if slightly less dramatic, results when students looked at pictures while listening to the corresponding vocabulary. 

It’s a simple reminder that if you want students to remember something, encourage them to learn it in a variety of ways—by drawing it , acting it out, or pairing it with relevant images , for example.

2. Neuroscientists Defend the Value of Teaching Handwriting—Again

For most kids, typing just doesn’t cut it. In 2012, brain scans of preliterate children revealed crucial reading circuitry flickering to life when kids hand-printed letters and then tried to read them. The effect largely disappeared when the letters were typed or traced.

More recently, in 2020, a team of researchers studied older children—seventh graders—while they handwrote, drew, and typed words, and concluded that handwriting and drawing produced telltale neural tracings indicative of deeper learning.

“Whenever self-generated movements are included as a learning strategy, more of the brain gets stimulated,” the researchers explain, before echoing the 2012 study: “It also appears that the movements related to keyboard typing do not activate these networks the same way that drawing and handwriting do.”

It would be a mistake to replace typing with handwriting, though. All kids need to develop digital skills, and there’s evidence that technology helps children with dyslexia to overcome obstacles like note taking or illegible handwriting, ultimately freeing them to “use their time for all the things in which they are gifted,” says the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.

3. The ACT Test Just Got a Negative Score (Face Palm)

A 2020 study found that ACT test scores, which are often a key factor in college admissions, showed a weak—or even negative —relationship when it came to predicting how successful students would be in college. “There is little evidence that students will have more college success if they work to improve their ACT score,” the researchers explain, and students with very high ACT scores—but indifferent high school grades—often flamed out in college, overmatched by the rigors of a university’s academic schedule.

Just last year, the SAT—cousin to the ACT—had a similarly dubious public showing. In a major 2019 study of nearly 50,000 students led by researcher Brian Galla, and including Angela Duckworth, researchers found that high school grades were stronger predictors of four-year-college graduation than SAT scores.

The reason? Four-year high school grades, the researchers asserted, are a better indicator of crucial skills like perseverance, time management, and the ability to avoid distractions. It’s most likely those skills, in the end, that keep kids in college.

4. A Rubric Reduces Racial Grading Bias

A simple step might help undercut the pernicious effect of grading bias, a new study found: Articulate your standards clearly before you begin grading, and refer to the standards regularly during the assessment process.

In 2020, more than 1,500 teachers were recruited and asked to grade a writing sample from a fictional second-grade student. All of the sample stories were identical—but in one set, the student mentions a family member named Dashawn, while the other set references a sibling named Connor.

Teachers were 13 percent more likely to give the Connor papers a passing grade, revealing the invisible advantages that many students unknowingly benefit from. When grading criteria are vague, implicit stereotypes can insidiously “fill in the blanks,” explains the study’s author. But when teachers have an explicit set of criteria to evaluate the writing—asking whether the student “provides a well-elaborated recount of an event,” for example—the difference in grades is nearly eliminated.

5. What Do Coal-Fired Power Plants Have to Do With Learning? Plenty

When three coal-fired plants closed in the Chicago area, student absences in nearby schools dropped by 7 percent, a change largely driven by fewer emergency room visits for asthma-related problems. The stunning finding, published in a 2020 study from Duke and Penn State, underscores the role that often-overlooked environmental factors—like air quality, neighborhood crime, and noise pollution—have in keeping our children healthy and ready to learn.

At scale, the opportunity cost is staggering: About 2.3 million children in the United States still attend a public elementary or middle school located within 10 kilometers of a coal-fired plant.

The study builds on a growing body of research that reminds us that questions of educational equity do not begin and end at the schoolhouse door. What we call an achievement gap is often an equity gap, one that “takes root in the earliest years of children’s lives,” according to a 2017 study . We won’t have equal opportunity in our schools, the researchers admonish, until we are diligent about confronting inequality in our cities, our neighborhoods—and ultimately our own backyards.

6. Students Who Generate Good Questions Are Better Learners

Some of the most popular study strategies—highlighting passages, rereading notes, and underlining key sentences—are also among the least effective. A 2020 study highlighted a powerful alternative: Get students to generate questions about their learning, and gradually press them to ask more probing questions.

In the study, students who studied a topic and then generated their own questions scored an average of 14 percentage points higher on a test than students who used passive strategies like studying their notes and rereading classroom material. Creating questions, the researchers found, not only encouraged students to think more deeply about the topic but also strengthened their ability to remember what they were studying.

There are many engaging ways to have students create highly productive questions : When creating a test, you can ask students to submit their own questions, or you can use the Jeopardy! game as a platform for student-created questions.

7. Did a 2020 Study Just End the ‘Reading Wars’?

One of the most widely used reading programs was dealt a severe blow when a panel of reading experts concluded that it “would be unlikely to lead to literacy success for all of America’s public schoolchildren.”

In the 2020 study , the experts found that the controversial program—called “Units of Study” and developed over the course of four decades by Lucy Calkins at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project—failed to explicitly and systematically teach young readers how to decode and encode written words, and was thus “in direct opposition to an enormous body of settled research.”

The study sounded the death knell for practices that de-emphasize phonics in favor of having children use multiple sources of information—like story events or illustrations—to predict the meaning of unfamiliar words, an approach often associated with “balanced literacy.” In an internal memo obtained by publisher APM, Calkins seemed to concede the point, writing that “aspects of balanced literacy need some ‘rebalancing.’”

8. A Secret to High-Performing Virtual Classrooms

In 2020, a team at Georgia State University compiled a report on virtual learning best practices. While evidence in the field is "sparse" and "inconsistent," the report noted that logistical issues like accessing materials—and not content-specific problems like failures of comprehension—were often among the most significant obstacles to online learning. It wasn’t that students didn’t understand photosynthesis in a virtual setting, in other words—it was that they didn’t find (or simply didn't access) the lesson on photosynthesis at all.

That basic insight echoed a 2019 study that highlighted the crucial need to organize virtual classrooms even more intentionally than physical ones. Remote teachers should use a single, dedicated hub for important documents like assignments; simplify communications and reminders by using one channel like email or text; and reduce visual clutter like hard-to-read fonts and unnecessary decorations throughout their virtual spaces.

Because the tools are new to everyone, regular feedback on topics like accessibility and ease of use is crucial. Teachers should post simple surveys asking questions like “Have you encountered any technical issues?” and “Can you easily locate your assignments?” to ensure that students experience a smooth-running virtual learning space.

9. Love to Learn Languages? Surprisingly, Coding May Be Right for You

Learning how to code more closely resembles learning a language such as Chinese or Spanish than learning math, a 2020 study found—upending the conventional wisdom about what makes a good programmer.

In the study, young adults with no programming experience were asked to learn Python, a popular programming language; they then took a series of tests assessing their problem-solving, math, and language skills. The researchers discovered that mathematical skill accounted for only 2 percent of a person’s ability to learn how to code, while language skills were almost nine times more predictive, accounting for 17 percent of learning ability.

That’s an important insight because all too often, programming classes require that students pass advanced math courses—a hurdle that needlessly excludes students with untapped promise, the researchers claim.

10. Researchers Cast Doubt on Reading Tasks Like ‘Finding the Main Idea’

“Content is comprehension,” declared a 2020 Fordham Institute study , sounding a note of defiance as it staked out a position in the ongoing debate over the teaching of intrinsic reading skills versus the teaching of content knowledge.

While elementary students spend an enormous amount of time working on skills like “finding the main idea” and “summarizing”—tasks born of the belief that reading is a discrete and trainable ability that transfers seamlessly across content areas—these young readers aren’t experiencing “the additional reading gains that well-intentioned educators hoped for,” the study concluded.

So what works? The researchers looked at data from more than 18,000 K–5 students, focusing on the time spent in subject areas like math, social studies, and ELA, and found that “social studies is the only subject with a clear, positive, and statistically significant effect on reading improvement.” In effect, exposing kids to rich content in civics, history, and law appeared to teach reading more effectively than our current methods of teaching reading. Perhaps defiance is no longer needed: Fordham’s conclusions are rapidly becoming conventional wisdom—and they extend beyond the limited claim of reading social studies texts. According to Natalie Wexler, the author of the well-received 2019 book  The Knowledge Gap , content knowledge and reading are intertwined. “Students with more [background] knowledge have a better chance of understanding whatever text they encounter. They’re able to retrieve more information about the topic from long-term memory, leaving more space in working memory for comprehension,” she recently told Edutopia .

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“I've yet to meet anyone who's not keen for simulation” – a qualitative study of simulation-based education in the Pacific Islands

• Paediatrics Monash Health
• Surgery Monash Health
• School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health

Research output : Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review

Background: Simulation-based education (SBE) has been increasingly used to train healthcare workers in low-resource settings and has been endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO). Consideration of the educational and cultural context is important to maximize the effectiveness of SBE. Despite its demonstrable benefits, there have been no studies of the general approach in the Pacific Islands. This study aimed to determine the factors that influence the uptake and success of SBE in the Pacific Islands. Methods: In this qualitative study, participants were recruited via professional networks to contribute to focus groups. Questions focused on participants' previous experiences and perspectives on SBE. Data were manually transcribed before thematic analysis. The reporting of the research was guided by the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR). Human Research Ethics Committee approval was obtained. Results: Two focus groups were conducted with 16 participants from six Pacific Island countries. Six themes and 15 subthemes were conceptualized from the data. Uptake of SBE is challenged by resource availability, clinical workloads and geographic remoteness. However, locally-driven solutions and positive attitudes towards SBE facilitate its success. Conclusion: This study reveals the complexity of factors affecting the uptake and success of SBE in the Pacific Islands. These findings can serve to optimize the impact of existing and future SBE programmes and may be considered by educators prior to programme implementation.

• focus groups
• global health
• medical education
• simulation-based education

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• 10.1111/ans.19156 Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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• Link to publication in Scopus

T1 - “I've yet to meet anyone who's not keen for simulation” – a qualitative study of simulation-based education in the Pacific Islands

AU - Robinson, Samuel J.A.

AU - McLeod, Elizabeth

AU - Nestel, Debra

AU - Pacilli, Maurizio

AU - Hansell, Lamour

AU - Nataraja, Ramesh Mark

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). ANZ Journal of Surgery published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

N2 - Background: Simulation-based education (SBE) has been increasingly used to train healthcare workers in low-resource settings and has been endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO). Consideration of the educational and cultural context is important to maximize the effectiveness of SBE. Despite its demonstrable benefits, there have been no studies of the general approach in the Pacific Islands. This study aimed to determine the factors that influence the uptake and success of SBE in the Pacific Islands. Methods: In this qualitative study, participants were recruited via professional networks to contribute to focus groups. Questions focused on participants' previous experiences and perspectives on SBE. Data were manually transcribed before thematic analysis. The reporting of the research was guided by the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR). Human Research Ethics Committee approval was obtained. Results: Two focus groups were conducted with 16 participants from six Pacific Island countries. Six themes and 15 subthemes were conceptualized from the data. Uptake of SBE is challenged by resource availability, clinical workloads and geographic remoteness. However, locally-driven solutions and positive attitudes towards SBE facilitate its success. Conclusion: This study reveals the complexity of factors affecting the uptake and success of SBE in the Pacific Islands. These findings can serve to optimize the impact of existing and future SBE programmes and may be considered by educators prior to programme implementation.

AB - Background: Simulation-based education (SBE) has been increasingly used to train healthcare workers in low-resource settings and has been endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO). Consideration of the educational and cultural context is important to maximize the effectiveness of SBE. Despite its demonstrable benefits, there have been no studies of the general approach in the Pacific Islands. This study aimed to determine the factors that influence the uptake and success of SBE in the Pacific Islands. Methods: In this qualitative study, participants were recruited via professional networks to contribute to focus groups. Questions focused on participants' previous experiences and perspectives on SBE. Data were manually transcribed before thematic analysis. The reporting of the research was guided by the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR). Human Research Ethics Committee approval was obtained. Results: Two focus groups were conducted with 16 participants from six Pacific Island countries. Six themes and 15 subthemes were conceptualized from the data. Uptake of SBE is challenged by resource availability, clinical workloads and geographic remoteness. However, locally-driven solutions and positive attitudes towards SBE facilitate its success. Conclusion: This study reveals the complexity of factors affecting the uptake and success of SBE in the Pacific Islands. These findings can serve to optimize the impact of existing and future SBE programmes and may be considered by educators prior to programme implementation.

KW - focus groups

KW - global health

KW - medical education

KW - simulation-based education

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85199566057&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/ans.19156

DO - 10.1111/ans.19156

M3 - Article

C2 - 39051180

AN - SCOPUS:85199566057

SN - 1445-1433

JO - ANZ Journal of Surgery

JF - ANZ Journal of Surgery

Eliminating silos in higher education to tackle climate change

• More on this topic

During the 2024 THE Global Sustainable Development Congress, experts discussed a holistic approach to climate change early-warning systems

The record heatwave taking place in Thailand has already killed more than 60 people since the start of 2024. The climate emergency in the country, and elsewhere, is increasingly severe and pressing. During a recent discussion at the 2024 THE Global Sustainable Development Congress in Bangkok, representatives from international organisations, academia and community-based social support groups came together to examine the creation of early-warning systems to alleviate climate and health crises.

“There is no doubt that the world is in crisis,” said Duncan Ross, chief data officer at THE. “Higher education is critical here but we also need to understand how higher education can interact with our broader communities.” Fei Chen, co-chair of the World Weather Research Programme’s Urban Prediction Project at the World Meteorological Organization and professor at the Division of Environment and Sustainability at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), spoke about the importance of adopting an international approach to tackling climate change.

“To enhance our observations and improve climate disaster warning systems, we need access to data,” Chen explained. “We need to engage with local stakeholders, governments and community leaders to improve resilience. All urban climate adaptation actions must also be taken locally because every city is different and has a different climate risk.” The importance of both collaboration and coordination was highlighted in Chen’s presentation.

“Air quality has become an important issue in Hong Kong,” added Alexis Lau, head of the Division of Environment and Sustainability at HKUST. “We’ve developed an early-warning system for this issue that we think can be used for other hazards, including heatwaves.”

Lau explained that early warning technologies that have displayed utility can potentially be extrapolated and applied to other extreme weather events. However, these technologies must move beyond giving generic information, ideally providing personalised advice.

“We recently developed a personalised real-time air quality informatics system for exposure,” Lau continued. “With this system, we can help people manage their individual exposure to poor air quality. We can build a numerical weather prediction system combined with air quality that gives high-resolution information.” An effective early warning system is about providing individuals with information about their personal risk factors. Of course, financial issues come into play here but they are not always fully understood.

“From an investment point of view, for every US dollar spent on disaster preparedness, you can save up to 15 in disaster relief,” said Eva Yeung, senior manager of community resilience service at the Hong Kong Red Cross. “That is why it is so important to build community resilience,” Yeung added. The reality is that climate change does not affect everyone equally, with effects varying by demographic, location and socioeconomic background. Altogether, it represents a complex conundrum but one that “as a scientist is also an exciting one to confront”, Chen explained. However, solving it will require all stakeholders to work together. They cannot operate in silos if they want to overcome a challenge of this scale, he said. 

• Alexis Lau, head, Division of Environment and Sustainability, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• Fei Chen, co-chair, World Weather Research Programme’s Urban Prediction Project and professor, Division of Environment and Sustainability, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• Duncan Ross, chief data officer, Times Higher Education (chair)
• Eva Yeung, senior manager of community resilience service, Hong Kong Red Cross

Find out more about the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.