The 10 most-cited articles in Review of Educational Research, 2023

Multiple meta-analyses have now documented small positive effects of teacher professional development (PD) on pupil test scores. However, the field lacks any validated explanatory account of what differentiates more from less effective in-service training. As a result, researchers have little in the way of advice for those tasked with designing or commissioning better PD. We set out to remedy this by developing a new theory of effective PD based on combinations of causally active components targeted at developing teachers’ insights, motivating change, developing teaching techniques, and then embedding these changes in teachers’ practice. We test two important implications of the theory using data identified through a systematic review and meta-analysis of 104 randomized controlled trials, finding qualified empirical support for the theory. The main contribution of the article is to provide a testable theory of what makes PD more effective, which can be used to guide future empirical research on this topic.

Digital game-based learning (DGBL) interventions can be superior to traditional instruction methods for learning, but previous meta-analyses covered a huge period and included a variety of different target groups, limiting the results’ transfer on specific target groups. Therefore, the aim of this meta-analysis is a theory-based examination of DGBL interventions’ effects on different learning outcomes (cognitive, metacognitive, affective-motivational) in the school context, using studies published between 2015 and 2020 and meta-analytic techniques (including moderator analyses) to examine the effectiveness of DGBL interventions compared to traditional instruction methods. Results from random-effects models revealed a significant medium effect for overall learning (g = .54) and cognitive learning outcomes (g = .67). Also found were a small effect for affective-motivational learning outcomes (g = .32) and no significant effect for metacognitive learning outcomes. Additionally, there was no evidence of publication bias. Further meta-regression models did not reveal evidence of…

Although the critical research cannon is often associated with qualitative scholars, there is a growing number of critical scholars who are refusing positivist-informed quantitative analyses. However, as a growing number of education scholars engaged in critical approaches to quantitative inquiry, instances of conflation began to surface. We understood this conflation as the interchangeable use of the terms quantitative criticalism, QuantCrit, and critical quantitative throughout the literature and even within the same chapter or article. The purpose of our systematic literature review is twofold: (a) to understand how critical approaches to quantitative inquiry emerged as a new paradigm within quantitative methods and (b) whether there is any distinction between quantitative criticalism, QuantCrit, and critical quantitative inquiries or simply interchangeable wordplay. We share how critical quantitative approaches are definite shifts within the quantitative research paradigm, highlight relevant assumptions, and share strategies and future directions for applied practice in this…

This systematic literature review examined the research on prior knowledge and its activation to ascertain how these terms are defined; what specific techniques have been empirically investigated; and the conditions under which prior knowledge activation facilitated students’ comprehension. Fifty-four articles met the inclusion criteria and revealed that the terms prior knowledge and prior knowledge activation were often vaguely defined. Further, 30 unique techniques for activating readers’ prior knowledge representing eight different categories wereidentified. Those categories were open-ended prompts, procedural or strategic supports during reading, visual representations, analogical reasoning, text alteration, augmented activation, extratextual activities, and spontaneous activation. Techniques meant to facilitate knowledge activation prior to reading were most common, although the prompting of students’ existing knowledge was beneficial during and after reading as well. Variability in the effectiveness of activation techniques was related, in part, to the amount, accuracy, and…

Need for cognition is conceptualized as an individual’s intrinsic motivation to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activities. Over the past three decades, there has been increasing interest in how need for cognition impacts and correlates with learning performance. This meta-analysis summarized 136 independent effect sizes (N = 53,258) for the association between need for cognition and academic achievement and investigated the moderating effects of variables related to research context, methodology, and instrumentation. The overall effect size weighted by inverse variance and using a random effects model was found to be small, r = .20, with a 95% confidence interval ranging from .18 to .22. The association between need for cognition and learning performance was moderated by grade level, geographic region, exposure to intervention, and outcome measurement tool. The implications of these findings for practice and future research are discussed.

The importance of improving teachers’ use of culturally responsive practice (CRP) in the classroom setting has been widely recognized. Although quantitative data on teachers’ use of CRP has potential to be a helpful decision-making tool in advancing that goal, little is known about the psychometrics of classroom-based CRP measures, their utility in evaluating the impact of interventions designed to improve teacher CRP, or their use to inform teacher professional development in CRP. The current study reports findings from a systematic review of the research on the quantitative measurement of CRP using the 2020 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses standards to document how CRP is operationalized and measured in prekindergarten–12th-grade classrooms in the United States (U.S.). Searching across six databases, 27 measures were identified for inclusion. The vast majority of measures were teacher self-report surveys, and relatively few were student-report or external observer assessments. We examined the availability of classroom-based observational and…

Previous research has evidenced a strong positive relationship between leisure print reading habits and reading comprehension across the lifespan. The rapid evolution of new forms of leisure digital reading could modify such a relationship. This meta-analysis extends previous research by analyzing the relationship between leisure digital reading habits and reading comprehension. We analyzed 40 effect sizes using multilevel analysis. Data involved 469,564 participants from studies published between 2000 and 2022. The average effect size reflects a small significant effect on reading comprehension (r = .055), which contrasts with the medium size effects found in the literature related to print reading habits and comprehension. This relationship is significantly moderated by the reader’s educational stage. At early stages (primary and middle school) negative relationships are observed between leisure digital reading and text comprehension, while at later stages (high school and university) the relationship turns positive. We highlight the different contributions that reading modalities…

This systematic review includes 125 peer-reviewed education-research articles that employ a LatCrit framework (from a search including articles published from 1995 to 2020). The author examines how the literature utilizes LatCrit and advances ideas about race, Latinxs, and Latinidad in education. The author presents significant patterns and divergences in the literature’s strengths, challenges, and tensions. Some strengths include detailing Latinxs’ experiences and valuing experiential knowledge. The author problematizes four research practices: (1) describing LatCrit with select tenets of CRT; (2) not defining race or other relevant concepts (language, culture, etc.); (3) claiming Latinxs are unique because of their multidimensionality; and (4) exceeding LatCrit’s scope by rationalizing the study’s use of LatCrit because its participants are Latinxs. The author argues that these complications lead to a paradox: even though LatCrit emerges from critical race theory and is described as for Latinxs, the literature largely undertheorizes race and lacks clarity about conceptualizing…

Based on 52 studies with samples mostly from English-speaking countries, the current study used Bayesian network meta-analysis to investigate the intervention effectiveness of different reading comprehension strategy combinations on reading comprehension among students with reading difficulties in 3rd through 12th grade. We focused on commonly researched strategies: main idea, inference, text structure, retell, prediction, self-monitoring, and graphic organizers. Results showed (1) instruction of more strategies did not necessarily have stronger effects on reading comprehension; (2) there was no single reading comprehension strategy that produced the strongest effect; (3) main idea, text structure, and retell, taught together as the primary strategies, seemed the most effective; and (4) the effects of strategies only held when background knowledge instruction was included. These findings suggest strategy instruction among students with reading difficulties follows an ingredient-interaction model—that is, no single strategy works the best. It is not “the more we teach, the better…

We conducted a meta-analysis to investigate reading-writing relations. Beyond the overall relation, we systematically investigated moderation of the relation as a function of linguistic grain size (word reading and spelling versus reading comprehension and written composition), measurement of reading comprehension (e.g., multiple choice, open-ended, cloze), and written composition (e.g., writing quality, writing productivity, writing fluency, writing syntax), and developmental phase of reading and writing (grade levels as a proxy). A total of 395 studies (k = 2,265, N = 120,669) met inclusion criteria. Overall, reading and writing were strongly related (r = .72). However, the relation differed depending on the subskills of reading and writing such that word reading and spelling were strongly related (r =.82) whereas reading comprehension and written composition were moderately related (r =.44). In addition, the word reading-spelling relation was stronger for primary-grade students (r =.82) than for university students/adults (r =.69). The relation of reading comprehension with…