Building Our Understanding of Lesson Study offers help in overcoming obstacles to implementing the lesson study approach

McREL E-news: March 2011

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3/21/2011

Check out the latest issue of McREL E-news for research headlines, report roundups, news from REL Central, events and opportunities, and McREL in the news. Below is a sample article from the March 2011 issue.

Study Finds Social-Skills Teaching Boosts Academics

Education Week

In a report published in Child Development, researcher Joseph A. Durlak, professor at the University of Chicago, found that students who took part in social and emotional learning (SEL) programs improved their standardized test scores by 11 percentile points compared to students who did not participate in an SEL program. Researchers believe this effect is due to teachers teaching to calmer, more cooperative students instead of losing instruction time to behavior issues in class. Further, without the disruptions, the report states that students' time on task increased 40 percent. Durlak also found that simple, teacher-led programs outperformed multifaceted SEL programs because, as Durlak notes, "the more comprehensive and broader programs tended to have more implementation problems."