Learning and Research Digest

When are children happiest? When at school, research suggests

Data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, which has tracked the ups and downs of 40,000 households since 2009 claims that children are happier when at school than during the holidays with the Easter break being the gloomiest time of the year.

Social Media Use and Children’s Wellbeing

A somewhat alarming study that suggests children who spend more time on online social networks feel less happy in almost all aspects of their lives. It may well be that unhappy students are more drawn to social media but the levels of use are concerning. Additional findings reported that girls suffer more adverse effects than boys.

New research reveals that college students study best later in the day

Students learn more effectively between 11 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. than at other times of the day; “The basic thrust is that the best times of day for learning for college-age students are later than standard class hours begin.”

Critical thinking instruction in humanities reduces belief in pseudoscience

A recent study by North Carolina State University researchers finds that teaching critical thinking skills in a humanities course significantly reduces student beliefs in “pseudoscience” that is unsupported by facts.

Teacher encouragement has greatest influence on less advantaged children

Schoolchildren who receive words of encouragement from a teacher are significantly more likely to continue their education beyond the age of 16 than those who do not, a new study suggests.

Sleep Docs Push for Later School Start Time

A new position statement from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) asserts that the school day should begin at 8:30 a.m. or later for middle school and high school students.

Flipped Classrooms: a Review of Key Ideas and Recommendations for Practice

This study looks at a range of methods used to ‘flip’ learning and finds that aof all the methods evaluated from student presentations to video lessons, “the benefits of testing are robust and likely to enhance performance regardless of how it is carried out—something difficult to say about many techniques.”

‘Ordinary working families’ won’t get access to grammar schools – and government data confirms as much

This piece from Becky Allen at Datalab suggests that the new government consultation on ‘ordinary working families’ actually undermines its own argument that grammar schools are a viable vehicle for social mobility.