As school districts across the nation revamped curricula to meet requirements of the federal “No Child Left Behind” Act, opportunities for children to be physically active during the school day diminished significantly.
Future mandates, however, might be better served by taking into account findings from a University of Illinois study suggesting the academic benefits of physical education classes, recess periods and after-school exercise programs. The research, led by Charles Hillman, a professor of kinesiology and community health and the director of the Neurocognitive Kinesiology Laboratory at Illinois, suggests that physical activity may increase students’ cognitive control – or ability to pay attention – and also result in better performance on academic achievement tests.
“The goal of the study was to see if a single acute bout of moderate
exercise – walking – was beneficial for cognitive function in a period of time afterward,” Hillman said. “This question has been asked before by our lab and others, in young adults and older adults, but it’s never been asked in children. That’s why it’s an important question.”
For each of three testing criteria, researchers noted a positive outcome linking physical activity, attention and academic achievement.
Study participants were 9-year-olds (eight girls, 12 boys) who performed a series of stimulus-discrimination tests known as flanker tasks, to assess their inhibitory control.
On one day, students were tested following a 20-minute resting period; on another day, after a 20-minute session walking on a treadmill. Students were shown congruent and incongruent stimuli on a screen and asked to push a button to respond to incongruencies. During the testing, students were outfitted with an electrode cap to measure electroencephalographic (EEG) activity.
“What we found is that following the acute bout of walking, children performed better on the flanker task,” Hillman said. “They had a higher rate of accuracy, especially when the task was more difficult. Along with that behavioral effect, we also found that there were changes in their event-related brain potentials (ERPs) – in these neuroelectric signals that are a covert measure of attentional resource allocation.”
One aspect of the neuroelectric activity of particular interest to researchers is a measure referred to as the P3 potential. Hillman said the amplitude of the potential relates to the allocation of attentional resources.
“What we found in this particular study is, following acute bouts of walking, children had a larger P3 amplitude, suggesting that they are better able to allocate attentional resources, and this effect is greater in the more difficult conditions of the flanker test, suggesting that when the environment is more noisy – visual noise in this case – kids are better able to gate out that noise and selectively attend to the correct stimulus and act upon it.”
In an effort to see how performance on such tests relates to actual classroom learning, researchers next administered an academic achievement test. The test measured performance in three areas: reading, spelling and math.
Again, the researchers noted better test results following exercise.
“And when we assessed it, the effect was largest in reading comprehension,” Hillman said. In fact, he said, “If you go by the guidelines set forth by the Wide Range Achievement Test, the increase in reading comprehension following exercise equated to approximately a full grade level.
“Thus, the exercise effect on achievement is not statistically significant, but a meaningful difference.”
Hillman said he’s not sure why the students’ performance on the spelling and math portions of the test didn’t show as much of an improvement as did reading comprehension, but suspects it may be related to design of the experiment. Students were tested on reading comprehension first, leading him to speculate that too much time may have elapsed between the physical activity and the testing period for those subjects.
“Future attempts will definitely look at the timing,” he said. Subsequent testing also will introduce other forms of physical-activity testing.
“Treadmills are great,” Hillman said. “But kids don’t walk on treadmills, so it’s not an externally valid form of exercise for most children. We currently have an ongoing project that is looking at treadmill walking at the same intensity relative to a Wii Fit game – which is a way in which kids really do exercise.”
Still, given the preliminary study’s positive outcomes on the flanker task, ERP data and academic testing, study co-author Darla Castelli believes these early findings could be used to inform useful curricular changes.
“Modifications are very easy to integrate,” Castelli said. For example, she recommends that schools make outside playground facilities accessible before and after school.
“If this is not feasible because of safety issues, then a school-wide assembly containing a brief bout of physical activity is a possible way to begin each day,” she said. “Some schools are using the Intranet or internal TV channels to broadcast physical activity sessions that can be completed in each classroom.”
Among Castelli’s other recommendations for school personnel interested in integrating physical activity into the curriculum:
• scheduling outdoor recess as a part of each school day;
• offering formal physical education 150 minutes per week at the elementary level, 225 minutes at the secondary level;
• encouraging classroom teachers to integrate physical activity into learning.
An example of how physical movement could be introduced into an actual lesson would be “when reading poetry (about nature or the change of seasons), students could act like falling leaves,” she said.
Comprehensive Longitudinal Evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program
When choice and competition in education are expanded by offering families vouchers, how is the achievement of students who remain in traditional public schools affected? This is really the central policy question surrounding school choice. If choice works as its promoters have suggested, then student achievement in traditional public schools should rise as those schools experience greater motivation to attract students and the revenue those students generate. But if choice works as its detractors suggest, student achievement in traditional public schools should decline as talent and resources are drained from those public schools, making it harder for them to teach effectively.
Of course, one could support school choice even if it produced no improvement in traditional public schools as a “lifeboat” for individual students faring poorly in their prior public schools. But given the limited number of students likely to participate in even the largest school choice programs, the biggest policy potential (or peril) for school choice is in its effects on the whole school system, not in its effects on participating students.
This paper examines evidence on the “systemic effects” of expanding school choice in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Milwaukee is home to one of the nation’s largest and longest-running school choice programs. If there are systemic effects from expanding school choice we should be able to see them in Milwaukee.
This paper also introduces a novel method for analyzing systemic effects. Taking full advantage of student level data, we develop a new measure of those effects based on the extent of voucher options that each student has each year. The idea behind this measure is that school systems face greater competitive pressure to serve students well when students have more options to leave. This type of measure might be useful for future analyses of systemic effects.
Using this new approach, the authors find that students fare better academically when they have more options from Milwaukee’s voucher program. The effects are modest in magnitude, but they are robust to multiple specifications of the model.
Complete paper and related papers:
http://www.uaedreform.org/SCDP/Milwaukee_Research.html
Observational methods to improve instruction
With the need for excellent teachers for every student becoming increasingly apparent, education researchers are studying classroom practices to determine those that lead to improvements in learning. The March issue of Educational Researcher, published by the American Educational Research Association, features four articles on observational tools that hold promise for advancing classroom instruction. Taken together, the Educational Researcher articles present evidence that classroom observers, software, and teacher logs can help teachers individualize and improve their instruction. Moreover, the use of such tools can facilitate future research studies that examine classroom practices and describe effective instruction.
• The ISI Classroom Observation System: Examining the Literacy Instruction Provided to Individual Students - Through use of an Individualizing Student Instruction (ISI) classroom observation and coding system, researchers examine whether children in ISI intervention classrooms receive recommended amounts of instruction, based on their language and literacy skills. They can then compare literacy growth in those students who received individualized instruction with the achievement of children receiving instruction that is not specifically individualized. Using the results, the researchers can begin to define how effective classrooms function to ensure achievement.
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• "Where Is the Action?" Challenges to Studying the Teaching of Reading in Elementary Classrooms - The results of this 5-year longitudinal study of fourth- and fifth-grade teachers describe challenges researchers face in determining exactly how, in the complex environment of the classroom, students develop reading skills and the relationship of their reading instruction with literacy achievement. The demands of high-stakes testing with an emphasis on achievement require that researchers define how reading skills are best taught. But the pervasiveness of reading in the classroom makes it difficult for researchers to define the key factors leading to reading achievement, to determine the boundaries of reading instruction, and to assign responsibility for improvement. Noting the complexity of the classroom environment, the authors set determination of a thoughtful, systematic approach to examining reading instruction as a research priority.
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• Conceptualization, Measurement, and Improvement of Classroom Processes: Standardized Observation Can Leverage Capacity - Classroom observations can be an important tool as researchers seek to better comprehend the components of effective teaching. Because classroom teaching is a vital factor in achievement, more evidence is needed to capture teacher-child interactions and identify specific processes that contribute to learning and positive social adjustment. Writing in support of observation in the classroom, the authors propose "that it is now feasible to focus on direct assessments of a teacher's performance in the classroom as an instructor, socializer, motivator, and mentor." Used for professional development, observation of classroom practices can lead to teaching and interventions better aimed at student improvement.
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• Studying Reading Instruction With Teacher Logs: Lessons From the Study of Instructional Improvement - Researchers look at findings from the Study for Instructional Improvement and the issues that arise when researchers use teacher logs, another observational method, to measure classroom instruction. The researchers found that "teacher logs can be a cost-effective, reliable, and valid way to measure instruction." Logs frequently provided data nearly equivalent to that of trained observers, and their use is far less expensive.
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Strengthening California’s System for Preparing and Supporting Principals: Lessons from Exemplary Programs
Current data shows that school leadership is a key factor in the recruitment and retention of teachers, and effective school leaders can be instrumental in creating a culture of learning within schools and supporting improvements in student learning and achievement.
This new research brief from the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning describes the major challenges facing the education leadership workforce, reviews existing data about California principals, provides an overview of the state’s current principal efforts and draws upon what is known about promising programs in other states that can inform improvement of California’s education leadership system.
Despite increasing demands for performance, principals in California generally have not received the support, preparation, mentoring or professional development needed. Based on a 2007 study conducted by Linda Darling-Hammond and Stelios Orphanos, the report is augmented with analysis on California school administrators prepared for the Center by SRI International.
Complete report:
http://www.cftl.org/documents/2009/Strengthening_Cal_System.pdf
Science Setback for Texas Schools
Somebody's got to stand up to experts!" cries board chairman Don McLeroy.
After three all-day meetings and a blizzard of amendments and counter-amendments, the Texas Board of Education cast its final vote Friday on state science standards. The results weren't pretty.
The board majority amended the Earth and Space Science, and Biology standards (TEKS) with loopholes and language that make it even easier for creationists to attack science textbooks.
"The final vote was a triumph of ideology and politics over science," says Dr. Eugenie Scott, Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE). "The board majority chose to satisfy creationist constituents and ignore the expertise of highly qualified Texas scientists and scientists across the country." NCSE presented the board with a petition from 54 scientific and educational societies, urging the board to reject language that misrepresents or undermines the teaching of evolution, which the board likewise ignored.
Although the "strengths and weaknesses" wording that has been part of the standards for over a decade was finally excised--wording that has been used to pressure science textbook publishers to include creationist arguments--a number of amendments put the creationist-inspired wording back in.
"What we now have is Son of Strengths and Weaknesses," says Josh Rosenau, a project director for NCSE. "Having students 'analyze and evaluate all sides of scientific evidence' is code that gives creationists a green light to attack biology textbooks."
For example, the revised biology standard (7B) reflects two discredited creationist ideas--that "sudden appearance" and "stasis" in the fossil record somehow disprove evolution. The new standard directs students to "analyze and evaluate the sufficiency of scientific explanations concerning any data of sudden appearance, stasis and the sequential nature of groups in the fossil records." Other new standards include language such as "is thought to", or "proposed transitional fossils" to make evolutionary concepts seem tentative when, in fact, such concepts are well-documented and accepted by the scientific community.
The changes will not immediately affect curricula in Texas high schools, but "the standards will affect standardized tests and textbooks," says Rosenau. Thanks to such laws as No Child Left Behind, ubiquitous standardized tests are central to measuring student progress and proficiency. Teachers teach to the test, notes Rosenau, and textbooks have to reflect this.
"Will publishers cave in to pressure from the Texas board to include junk science in their textbooks? It has happened before," says Scott. "But textbooks that please the Texas board will be rejected in other states. Publishers will have to choose between junk science and real science."
"Let's be clear about this," cautioned Dr. Scott. "This is a setback for science education in Texas, not a draw, not a victory. The revised wording opens the door to creationism in the classroom and in the textbooks. The decisions will not only affect Texas students for the next ten years, but could result in watered-down science textbooks across the U.S. There’s a reason creationists are claiming victory."
NCSE's Josh Rosenau summed up the frustration of scientists and educators alike: "This is a hell of a way to make education policy."
Education Researchers Gather in San Diego for 90th AERA Meeting
When the American Educational Research Association (AERA) hosts the AERA Annual Meeting next month, more than 14,000 education research scholars will convene in San Diego, California where 2,000 peer-reviewed sessions are scheduled from April 13 to17. The five-day meeting— the 90th Annual Meeting of the Association—is an opportunity to learn about the latest research on wide-ranging education topics.
“The 2009 Annual Meeting will be an opportunity for renewed discussion and expansion of the role of education research as a hub of interdisciplinary scholarship,” says Program Chair Michael J. Feuer, National Academy of Sciences. The theme this year is Disciplined Inquiry: Education Research in the Circle of Knowledge, a focus that celebrates a tradition of multi-disciplinary work and looks ahead to assess new ways that education research and disciplinary inquiry might be more effectively integrated.
“Education research has been inclusive in its application of disciplinary perspectives, and in its respect for quantitative and qualitative methods,” says AERA President Lorraine M. McDonnell. “The result has been a uniquely rich capacity for education research to draw on a broad range of humanistic and scientific disciplines, and to contribute widely to the improvement of education policy and practice.”
President McDonnell is an education policy expert who teaches political science at the University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB). Her research concentrates on the politics of student testing and the potential of deliberative democracy to engage the public in communities and schools. Speaking on Repositioning Politics in Education’s Circle of Knowledge, McDonnell will deliver the 2009 presidential address on April 15 at the Awards Presentation and Presidential Address session scheduled for 4:05 p.m. in the San Diego Convention Center, Ballroom 20BC.
Feuer notes that many of the Presidential Invited Lectures this year have been organized into cluster groupings. These cluster sessions, designed for intellectual and logistical efficiencies and listed below, “bring together scholars who share interests but who use divergent methods and modes of inquiry.”
• Explorations of Cognition _• Interdisciplinary Dialogues_• Education Research in a Changing Political World_• Research Spotlight on California_• Assessment and Accountability from Pre-K to the University_• International Perspectives and_• Research-based Innovations in STEM Education.
The 2009 Annual Meeting Program—with all sessions selected for presentation in San Diego—has been posted online at www.aera.net to supplement programs from 2004 through 2008, for year-round links to experts and the latest research. This year’s program, searchable by presenter name, affiliation, and session/presentation (keyword), includes an array of topics, many focused on knowledge creation and use that spans boundaries between academic disciplines.
The 2009 meeting has four headquarters locations: the San Diego Convention Center, the San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina, the Omni San Diego, and the Manchester Grand Hyatt.
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