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If you are new to scientific research, and it is hard and intimidating to read and understand studies, here is a beginner's guide to the scientific literature that might help identify what does a good study looks like and what are the red flags to be aware of.

Latest interesting scientific articles

Looping and Academic Achievement in Elementary Schools

by Kate Hall, 2021

Looping is the practice of a teacher staying with the same group of students for two or more years. It may also be referred to as multiyear teaching, teacher rotation, multiyear placement, and a variety of other names. 

The study examines two looping classrooms at two schools were compared to those of two nonlooping classrooms at two schools for a total of 219 students on reading, writting and math. "The results of the quantitative study revealed that students who participated in looped classrooms scored significantly higher on the math benchmark than students who participated in nonlooped classrooms. However, there was no significant difference in reading or writing benchmark scores between students who participate in looped classrooms compared to students who participated in nonlooped classrooms." I see discrepancies between claims and graphs. 

Comparing Common core standards: 

Study: Common Core Standards: The New U.S. Intended Curriculum by A. Porter, J. McMaken & others

"Finland emphasizes “perform procedures” in almost two thirds of content, compared with none at all for Common Core. On the other hand, Common Core emphasizes “memorize/recall,” in almost two thirds of content, and Finland in only 25%. The difference for “generate/create” is also large: 39% for Common Core and 12% for Finland. At Grade Band 3–5, Finland continues a greater emphasis on “perform proce- dures,” although Finland has almost twice as much emphasis as Common Core on “memorize/recall.” At the coarse-grain topic level, the differences are not dramatic, although Common Core stresses phonics more at Grades 1 and 2 than does Finland, and Finland puts a greater emphasis on writing than does Common Core. Common Core also puts a greater emphasis on language study, whereas Finland puts a greater emphasis on listening and viewing. The greater emphasis on “perform procedures” for Finland versus the Common Core holds up across the other benchmarking countries as well."

Educational case studies

As doctors started writing clinical cases reports 200 or 300 years ago, we should start writing educations case study reports to connect science and practice. Read, use, create your own and share here your work.

Sharing experiences

Here, we invite teachers to share their experiences in teaching. What worked for them and when, what didn't and why. You can read and explore the stories here.