Educational Research: Revelations and Reflection

Educational research is helpful in understanding how students’, teachers’, and administrators’ usage and attitudes about many things, including technology, change overtime. When looking at how students identify the benefits of using technology longitudinally, I was surprised at how little the students’ views have changed since 2016. With the school shutdowns in March 2020 due to COVID and then the continued closures and hybrid learning happening throughout the 2020-2021 school year I expected to see larger changes from before to after that timeframe. Specifically, I thought being ‘in control of my learning’ would have increases more than 5%. Additionally, I would have expected ‘applying knowledge to practical problems’ using technology within learning to have increased, or at least stayed the same. Instead we see a small 4% decrease. I would be curios to see educators perspective on these same prompts as they pertain to students. 

Image Credit: Project Tomorrow
2023 SpeakUp Research

When reflecting on these student attitudes and beliefs it reminds me that sometimes while we as teachers think a task has a specific connection, the students do not always grasp it. For example, I was doing an activity where students were classifying fake critters into groups that they created. A few groups asked if they had put them in the correct groups even though I informed them at the beginning there was no correct, or expected groupings. Some students are so programmed to look for the right answer that they miss the meaning of some activities which are geared towards developing critical thinking (using technology or not). The focus on the end product instead of the process that these students have is, I believe, a side effect of the assessment focused nature of current education. 

Image Credit: Project Tomorrow 
2024 Snapshot on Generative AI Research Findings

With the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) I am very curious to see how education continues to change. I think AI might change education as much, or more, than introducing technology devices per student into the classroom. AI has made so many massive steps in the past few months. Even a general Google search is more informative with their AI overviews feature. One of the statistics I was not surprised by, as shown in the SpeakUp 2024 Snapshot is that 74% of surveyed K-12 teachers and administrators feel that AI could cause the circumventing of learning. With this, I think we need to conitnue to reevaluate what we expect students to know, and what we should assume they could look up or reference. For example, during my undergrad my statistics professor allowed us to have a notes sheet for every test. His point was that in a professional setting, we would almost always be able to look up the different statistical equations, the emphasis of the assessment was to know if we could select the appropriate statistical test for the given scenario and correctly solve the math. I have been thinking about this a lot recently because if students can search for most of the basic information, then we need to be assessing with higher level questions.

As AI will drive changes I was not surprised to see that 60% of educators say they are looking for professional learning on leveraging GenAI effectively and efficiently. I would also like professional learning around the various AI tools that are becoming more widely available and accessible to both students and educators. 

Working in a school that is 1:1 with iPads we still have students with phones and there are times a student is not allowed on their iPad but they still try and sneak look at, or the use of, their phone. A Pew Research article from June 2024 addresses smartphones and how students view their performance in school. According to their poll, 45% of teens say smartphones make it easier to do well in school, while 23% say smartphones make it harder. This surprised me as I thought more students would find that smartphones are a distraction, therefore they make it harder to do well in school. I am honestly thankful I did not have a smartphone for high school and most of college, it was one less distraction. Even if I had a smartphone in college, the more than a decade since I graduated has made these phones even more of a distraction. 

I have not looked at education research in the past couple of years as it pertains to technology so this dive back into current understandings, with the ability to see some longitudinal data tracking has been a great opportunity to reemphasize the importance of actively being aware of what data outside of my school is saying. This data gives credence to some of the trends we are experiencing, and it also provides insights into addressing some of this issues. If the only constant is change, I want to make sure that change is informed with accurate information.