Education News

Every week we review hundreds of articles that come in through online newsletters.  We select those that we think are either most relevant to our business or would have some interest for Scholastic staff.  It's often a difficult decision as there are so many relevant and interesting articles in newspapers, magazines and on the blogs.

Ed Week recently ran a story as part of its special issue, Technology Counts 2009, Research shows evolving picture of e-education.  “Research shows that virtual schooling can be as good as, or better than, classes taught in person in brick-and-mortar schools,” according to the article.  But virtual schooling also has specific issues to deal with, one of which is that “the courses tend to draw students at the extremes of the academic spectrum—advanced, highly motivated students looking for academic acceleration, and students who are struggling in regular classrooms.”

A new study out of the University of Pennsylvania has found that Visual learners convert words to pictures in the brain and vice versa (Science Daily).  The authors of the study believe these results may help in tailoring reading instruction for students.

A survey of teachers in Britain found that three quarters of teachers believed children should be at least five before starting school.  (Call to start school at age six – BBC)  The teachers had several other thoughts as well, including a lack of playtime and too much emphasis on testing.

Publishers Weekly profiled Gary Shapiro, a teacher in Salinas, CA, who uses comic books to teach reading (Superman, super teacher: using comics to teach reading).  As a kid, Shapiro had trouble learning to read and found comics helped him.  He applies his experience to his students.