Boise State University

The purpose of this efficacy study is to analyze data from a matched-pairs randomized controlled trial of the Positive Action (PA) program to determine how and for whom PA has its effects. Data from the original IES-funded Chicago trial of PA and the IES-funded extension trial show positive effects for a wide range of student social-emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes from 3rd through 8th grade.

The project team developed and tested a training and support package to boost teachers' implementation and sustained use of physical activity breaks in elementary school classrooms as one way to improve students' academic performance. Brief breaks in instruction for classroom-based physical activity (CBPA) are hypothesized to improve students' attention and increase time on task, which in turn should improve learning and performance. Traditional methods of providing opportunities for physica...

In this project, the research team will explore how to improve the design of practice items in a digital learning platform (ASSISTments/E-TRIALS) so that they better support students' conceptual and procedural knowledge of proportional reasoning. Students' reasoning about situations involving ratios, rates, and proportions is deeply tied to their understanding of fractions, measurement, functions, and algebra as well as complex topics in statistics, biology, and physics. Despite its importan...

This project developed and validated a special education teacher observation measure, Recognizing Effective Special Education Teachers (RESET), to evaluate and improve instructional practice delivered to students with disabilities. The challenges of evaluating special education teachers are significant. Special educators work under a variety of conditions, serve a heterogeneous group of students with disabilities, enter the profession with varying skill levels, and may require additional ins...

In order for learning to be effective, teachers must accurately monitor students' learning. Monitoring is important to making informed decisions about whether educational objectives have been reached by all students, and to identify which students may need additional help to reach their objectives. This research team, using a metacognitive perspective of teaching, believe that monitoring accuracy plays an important role in effective teaching-and that by improving the accuracy with which teac...

A great deal of student learning occurs in self-regulated activities such as reading or studying outside of a structured classroom context. For these activities, accurate metacognitive (self) monitoring is critical to effective study. If a student does not accurately differentiate well-learned material from less-learned material, he or she could waste time studying material that is already well learned, or worse, fail to restudy material that has not yet been adequately learned. However, st...