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:

Willpower and Desires: Turning Up the Volume On What You Want Most
is a report on a new study on self-control. It finds that making a conscious decision to “postpone” giving in to temptation can be an effective strategy in reducing a desire (in the study’s case, eating potato chips). This got me wondering if and how I might apply this strategy in my classroom and if I even have been doing it already. For example, one of my students has been constantly using her phone to text message during class. I didn’t want to take her phone away and, instead, I made a deal with her — she could use it openly in my classroom as soon as she entered the room until the bell rang, and she could use it openly when the lunch bell rang until she left (our school has strict rules about not using cellphones during the school day). Since we made that deal, she hardly ever uses her cellphone during class (her seat is right in front of me, so it’s hard for me to not to see her). But, even more significantly, she hardly ever uses her cellphone during the times we agreed she could, either. I’m adding this info to My Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control.

To Learn A New Language, You’ve Got to Move More Than Your Mouth! is from Education Week. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Students Using Gestures & Physical Movement To Help With Learning.

Photos with Strange or Funny Details Deemed Most Memorable is from Scientific American. It reinforces what most of us know already when we pick photos to use in class. I’m adding it to The Best Ways To Use Photos In Lessons.

Dividing younger pupils by ability can entrench disadvantage, study finds
is from The Guardian. I’m adding it to My Best Posts On The Basics Of Small Groups In The Classroom.