I often write about research studies from various field and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of some of them each week or every other week as a regular feature:

Thoughts That Win talks about a new study on the use of postive self-talk. I was particularly struck about its finding that this kind of self-talk is particularly effective in when doing tasks that require endurance, which relates to posts that can be found in My Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control.

We’ve probably all heard the old adage that the time to complete any task will expand to whatever time is allotted to it. We teachers experience that in our classrooms daily, and many of us can see the difference it makes when we are very specific about the amount of time students will have to complete a classroom task. A new study finds that not only can a time limitation help get that task accomplished, having the time limitation on that first task helps people more effectively “disengage” from it so they can put all of their energy into the next job. It contributes to a “higher performance” on that next task.

A study finds that both experts and non-experts can be more persuasive when they express uncertainty. This report, I think, can be useful when teaching students about writing persuasive essays, and I’m adding it to The Best Online Resources For Helping Students Learn To Write Persuasive Essays.

A study finds that when we read, we often “become” the characters that we read about. According to the study:

Reading satisfies a deeply felt need for human connection because we not only feel like the characters we read about but, psychologically speaking, become part of their world and derive emotional benefits from the experience.

In my book on teaching English Language Learners, I share examples of how I reinforce the development of leadership qualities by having students read fiction and non-fiction stories that exemplify these qualities. I guess I might have been onto something….

Wikipedia Improves Students’ Work: Students Become Much More Concerned With Accuracy When Their Research Is Posted Online, Study Finds is the headline of a recent article in Science Daily. Even though the study focuses on student created information for Wikipedia, I don’t think it’s a stretch to suggest it can be applied for other online posts for authentic audiences. You might be interested in The Best Places Where Students Can Write For An “Authentic Audience” and The Best Places Where Students Can Create Online Learning/Teaching Objects For An “Authentic Audience.”