I often write about strategies to help students develop more self-control and how important that is to their future (and my book shares specific lessons on how I do that).

Dr. Walter Mischel’s famous marshmallow experiment is integral to lots of those writings, and there have been plenty of studies that have supported his findings.

Another one just came out today. Relations between preschool attention span-persistence and age 25 educational outcomes found (this next quotation is from an article reporting on the study — the research itself is behind a paywall):

Young children who are able to pay attention and persist with a task have a 50 percent greater chance of completing college, according to a new study at Oregon State University.

Tracking a group of 430 preschool-age children, the study gives compelling evidence that social and behavioral skills, such as paying attention, following directions and completing a task may be even more crucial than academic abilities.

And the good news for parents and educators, the researchers said, is that attention and persistence skills are malleable and can be taught.

I did purchase access to the study, and that excerpt is a good summary (in fact, I’d encourage you to go to the report on the study and read it all — it’s good). I was struck by a few things in reviewing the study itself:

First, I appreciated a paragraph in it that tried to explain — in a common sense way — the cause of the negative long-term consequences to young children who don’t show self-control:

According to this view, children with poor self-regulation have difficulty navigating classroom settings, which can lead to teachers becoming frustrated and expecting poor behavior and school performance from these children, which can then lead to children having poor perceptions of themselves as students. Over time, this pattern can lead children to be increasingly disengaged from school and to experience academic failure as they get older. Although we did not directly measure teacher–child relationships or children’s disengagement from school, the results from the present study support this possibility and suggest that children’s ability to focus their attention span-persistence, attend to relevant information, and persist through difficulty, can be very helpful as they progress through school and into early adulthood, compared to children with poor attention span-persistence skills

I was surprised, though, that they don’t appear to acknowledge (maybe they do and I just missed it) that Professor James Heckman has found that adolescence is also a prime time when children can learn these skills — not just in early childhood.

Sharing these kinds of studies with our students is, I believe, an important responsibility that we have, as well as sharing Dr. Mischel’s comment:

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:

How to rewire your brain to be more optimistic is from The Boston Globe. It has some useful suggestions I’m going to incorporate in a lesson plan, as well as this interesting fact:

A 2005 University of Kentucky study found that optimistic folks spent a minute longer trying to solve an unsolvable anagram word puzzle than those who were more pessimistic. “They literally don’t give up as easily and this links to greater success in life,” said Fox. “Optimists tend to think they can change things; they have a real sense of control, even if it’s illusory.”

I’m adding it to My Best Posts On Why It’s Important To Be Positive In Class.

What did heroin addiction during the Vietnam war teach us about breaking bad habits? is an interesting report on the importance of disrupting the environment in order to make change. Here’s an excerpt:

To battle bad behaviors then, one answer, Neal and Wood say, is to disrupt the environment in some way. Even small change can help — like eating the ice cream with your non-dominant hand. What this does is alter the action sequence and disrupts the learned body sequence that’s driving the behavior, which allows your conscious mind to come back online and reassert control.

“It’s a brief sort of window of opportunity,” Wood says, “to think, ‘Is this really what I want to do?’ “

It’s just another reinforcer to the idea of making small changes in student environments. For example, changing a student’s seat if he/she is having self-control issues, even if they are not connected to the classmates around them.

I’m adding that info to The Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control.

Reducing Academic Pressure May Help Children Succeed is a report on Science Daily that begins:

Children may perform better in school and feel more confident about themselves if they are told that failure is a normal part of learning, rather than being pressured to succeed at all costs, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

I’m adding it to The Best Posts, Articles & Videos About Learning From Mistakes & Failures.

On Summer Loss is a nice, short summary of research on summer learning loss. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On The Summer Slide.

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:

It’s Good to Be the Top Banana is by Jonah Lehrer and appeared in The Wall Street Journal. It discusses research that has found stress is greatly increased by feelings of powerlessness. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Teens & Stress.

Using awareness to increase willpower is by Art Markman, who reports on an interesting study. Here is how he ends it:

What does that mean for you?

If you are in a situation where you have had a rough day, you should know that there is some chance that you will have difficulty resisting future temptations. To help you out, spend a few moments thinking about who you are and who you really want to be. This additional self-awareness will help to inoculate you against new temptations and make it more likely that you’ll use your willpower successfully.

I’m adding it to The Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control.

Educators once opposed raising bilingual children. Experts now say it’s beneficial. is from The Washington Post. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning The Advantages To Being Bilingual.

Sleepy brains drawn to junk food is from CNN. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Helping Teens Learn About The Importance Of Sleep.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about a pretty interesting new study that — through brain scans — actually showed what the brain looked like when you are demonstrating self-control and when you are not (see This Is — Literally — Your Brain On Self-Control).

I hadn’t gotten a chance at that point to actual read the study, but the researcher was interviewed on NPR today (it hasn’t been posted at the time of my writing, but should be up in a few hours). Here’s the transcript of the interview.

He didn’t seem to be saying anything new on the radio, but then my ears pricked up near the end when he said that, in the study, reminding people about the consequences of their not losing self-control was not effective at getting them to regain it. The intervention that did work, though, was asking them to take a minute and think about behaviors they needed to exhibit to achieve their goals.

His comment prompted me to go back and read the research, and I found that his comment was confirmed in the paper.

It’s just another reinforcer to what I have found that has worked for me — instead of threatening punishment, reminding students of their goals and asking them if their actions were going to help achieve them. I might try to remember, though, to also ask them to think of (and maybe write down) one action they could take to help them along in that direction.

It’s just another “tool” in the classroom management toolbox, and you can find more at The Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control.

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:

How To Speak Like A Native: The surprising truth about learning a foreign language: accent isn’t the most important thing is by Annie Murphy Paul at TIME Magazine. She reports on a study that finds:

Pronunciation can be learned—but it should be learned with the goal of communicating easily with others, not with achieving a textbook-perfect accent. Adult students of language should be guided by the “intelligibility principle,” not the old “nativeness principle.” As Derwing and Munro note, “even heavily accented speech can be highly comprehensible.”

This is not new to any ESL/EFL teacher, but a little research to back us up can’t hurt.

I’ve previously posted about this study that showed Being Bilingual Boosts Brainpower, but Breaking News English has actually made it into a lesson accessible to English Language Learners. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning The Advantages To Being Bilingual.

The significance of self-control is by Angela Duckworth and has lots of good annotations. I’m adding it to The Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control.

Co-operative learning: what makes group-work work? is by Robert Slavin, and provides a good overview of cooperative learning research. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Cooperative Learning Ideas.

CEOs and the Candle Problem is a new article describing an old experiment about motivation and the ineffectiveness of incentives. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles On “Motivating” Students.

Understand Uncertainty in Program Effects is a report by Sarah Sparks over at Education Week. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Understanding How To Interpret Education Research.

I’ve shared research on chewing gum in The Best Posts On How To Prepare For Standardized Tests (And Why They’re Bad). Here are two other related posts I’m adding there:

Does chewing gum help you concentrate? Maybe briefly. is by Dan Willingham.

Can chewing gum before a test improve score? is by Valerie Strauss at The Washington Post.

Talking to Yourself: Not So Crazy After All is by Annie Murphy Paul at TIME. It sort of fits in with My Best Posts On Helping Students “Visualize Success.”

Here are a couple of studies that aren’t particularly new, but they are new to me. I’m adding them both to The Best Posts About The Power Of Light Touches In The Classroom:

Why is a touch on the arm so persuasive?

The power of a light touch on the arm

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:

More Evidence of Self-Enhancement Bias: New Study of Tailgating and Flawed Self-Evaluations: David Dunning’s Fascinating Work are both from Bob Sutton, and report on research questioning if we are the best judges of our work. I’m adding them to The Best Resources For Helping Students See They Might Not Always Be The Best Judges Of Their Behavior.

This somewhat rambling report highlights research on “ego depletion” and its effect on self-control. In summary, the study found that feeling socially rejected reduces one’s self-control ability. Yet another reason to develop more of a sense of community in the classroom. I’m adding it to The Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control.

Teaching, Learning, and the “Curse of Knowledge”is an interesting post by Bryan Harris. He quotes the Heath brothers describing it this way: “Once you know something, it’s hard to imagine not knowing it. And that, in turn, makes it harder for you to communicate to a novice.”

The Folly of Stretch Goals is from The Harvard Business Review and discusses the dangers of making unrealistic goals. I’m adding it to The Best Posts On Students Setting Goals.

I’ve often written in this post and in my books about how I use the “marshmallow test” in lessons on self-control (see The Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control).

Today, Sarah Sparks at Education Week has written an article providing new information for a great addition to those lessons.

Here’s the excerpt that is perfect:

Texting seems to have become the new “marshmallow test” for older students, and with similar results.

In a 2011 study, researchers led by Mr. Rosen, who is a psychology professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills, randomly assigned 185 young college students with A and B grade averages to watch a video lecture, on which they knew they would be tested. During critical sections of the lecture, the researchers texted each student either four or eight times with questions that had nothing to do with the lecture and asked them to respond “promptly,” or did not text them at all.

Students who received eight text messages scored more than 10 percent lower on the test, about the equivalent of a full letter grade.
Yet students’ response times to the text messages made a big difference in how well they did. Students who answered the texted questions within five minutes of receiving them—while the critical material was presumably being discussed—answered 75 percent or fewer correct on the test, while those who held off five minutes or more scored 85 percent correct.

Researchers led by Fang-Yi Flora Wei, an assistant broadcast communications professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s Bradford, Pa., campus, likewise found students with greater self-control were less likely to text in class and more likely to attend to content. Ms. Wei’s study is published in the April issue of the journal of the National Communication Association, Communication Education.

The whole article is definitely worth reading, and includes links to all the cited studies. Once I create an addendum to my previous lessons, I’ll try it out with students and publish it here. I suspect it will really resonate with them.

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:

What You Need to Know about Willpower: The Psychological Science of Self-Control is a new publication by the American Psychological Association that gives a pretty thorough review of the research. I’m adding it to My Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control.

Can Blaming Others Make People Sick? is a report on an interesting study that finds “… bitterness may result in global feelings of anger and hostility that, when strong enough, could affect a person’s physical health.” I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Helping Students (& The Rest Of Us) Learn The Concept Of Not Blaming Others.

A study found that “requiring children to gesture while learning the new concept helped them retain the knowledge they had gained during instruction.” I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Students Using Gestures & Physical Movement To Help With Learning.

Do Students Know Enough Smart Learning Strategies? is an important post at MindShift that describes a recent Australian study. It highlights the importance of helping students develop metacognitive skills, and is another reminder to me to create a “The Best…” list bringing together all my posts on metacognition.

I’ve previously posted about a study that explored the impact of wearing certain kinds of clothes can affect the person wearing them — see Can An Educator’s Clothes Affect How He/She Teaches? Recently, though, The New York Times published an article on the same study and, even more interestingly, The New York Times Learning Network posted a related lesson plan.