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Harvard educational review.

Edited by Maya Alkateb-Chami, Jane Choi, Jeannette Garcia Coppersmith, Ron Grady, Phoebe A. Grant-Robinson, Pennie M. Gregory, Jennifer Ha, Woohee Kim, Catherine E. Pitcher, Elizabeth Salinas, Caroline Tucker, Kemeyawi Q. Wahpepah

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Journal Information

• ISSN: 0017-8055
• eISSN: 1943-5045
• Keywords: scholarly journal, education research
• First Issue: 1930
• Frequency: Quarterly

Description

The Harvard Educational Review (HER) is a scholarly journal of opinion and research in education. The Editorial Board aims to publish pieces from interdisciplinary and wide-ranging fields that advance our understanding of educational theory, equity, and practice. HER encourages submissions from established and emerging scholars, as well as from practitioners working in the field of education. Since its founding in 1930, HER has been central to elevating pieces and debates that tackle various dimensions of educational justice, with circulation to researchers, policymakers, teachers, and administrators.

Our Editorial Board is composed entirely of doctoral students from the Harvard Graduate School of Education who review all manuscripts considered for publication. For more information on the current Editorial Board, please see here.

A subscription to the Review includes access to the full-text electronic archives at our Subscribers-Only-Website .

Editorial Board

2023-2024 Harvard Educational Review Editorial Board Members

Maya Alkateb-Chami Development and Partnerships Editor, 2023-2024 Editor, 2022-2024 [email protected]

Maya Alkateb-Chami is a PhD student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research focuses on the role of schooling in fostering just futures—specifically in relation to language of instruction policies in multilingual contexts and with a focus on epistemic injustice. Prior to starting doctoral studies, she was the Managing Director of Columbia University’s Human Rights Institute, where she supported and co-led a team of lawyers working to advance human rights through research, education, and advocacy. Prior to that, she was the Executive Director of Jusoor, a nonprofit organization that helps conflict-affected Syrian youth and children pursue their education in four countries. Alkateb-Chami is a Fulbright Scholar and UNESCO cultural heritage expert. She holds an MEd in Language and Literacy from Harvard University; an MSc in Education from Indiana University, Bloomington; and a BA in Political Science from Damascus University, and her research on arts-based youth empowerment won the annual Master’s Thesis Award of the U.S. Society for Education Through Art.

Jane Choi Editor, 2023-2025

Jane Choi is a second-year PhD student in Sociology with broad interests in culture, education, and inequality. Her research examines intra-racial and interracial boundaries in US educational contexts. She has researched legacy and first-generation students at Ivy League colleges, families served by Head Start and Early Head Start programs, and parents of pre-K and kindergarten-age children in the New York City School District. Previously, Jane worked as a Research Assistant in the Family Well-Being and Children’s Development policy area at MDRC and received a BA in Sociology from Columbia University.

Jeannette Garcia Coppersmith Content Editor, 2023-2024 Editor, 2022-2024 [email protected]

Jeannette Garcia Coppersmith is a fourth-year Education PhD student in the Human Development, Learning and Teaching concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A former public middle and high school mathematics teacher and department chair, she is interested in understanding the mechanisms that contribute to disparities in secondary mathematics education, particularly how teacher beliefs and biases intersect with the social-psychological processes and pedagogical choices involved in math teaching. Jeannette holds an EdM in Learning and Teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she studied as an Urban Scholar and a BA in Environmental Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ron Grady Editor, 2023-2025

Ron Grady is a second-year doctoral student in the Human Development, Learning, and Teaching concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His central curiosities involve the social worlds and peer cultures of young children, wondering how lived experience is both constructed within and revealed throughout play, the creation of art and narrative, and through interaction with/production of visual artifacts such as photography and film. Ron also works extensively with educators interested in developing and deepening practices rooted in reflection on, inquiry into, and translation of the social, emotional, and aesthetic aspects of their classroom ecosystems. Prior to his doctoral studies, Ron worked as a preschool teacher in New Orleans. He holds a MS in Early Childhood Education from the Erikson Institute and a BA in Psychology with Honors in Education from Stanford University.

Phoebe A. Grant-Robinson Editor, 2023-2024

Phoebe A. Grant-Robinson is a first year student in the Doctor of Education Leadership(EdLD) program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her ultimate quest is to position all students as drivers of their destiny. Phoebe is passionate about early learning and literacy. She is committed to ensuring that districts and school leaders, have the necessary tools to create equitable learning organizations that facilitate the academic and social well-being of all students. Phoebe is particularly interested in the intersection of homeless students and literacy. Prior to her doctoral studies, Phoebe was a Special Education Instructional Specialist. Supporting a portfolio of more than thirty schools, she facilitated the rollout of New York City’s Special Education Reform. Phoebe also served as an elementary school principal. She holds a BS in Inclusive Education from Syracuse University, and an MS in Curriculum and Instruction from Pace University.

Pennie M. Gregory Editor, 2023-2024

Pennie M. Gregory is a second-year student in the Doctor of Education Leadership (EdLD) program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Pennie was born in Incheon, South Korea and raised in Gary, Indiana. She has decades of experience leading efforts to improve outcomes for students with disabilities first as a special education teacher and then as a school district special education administrator. Prior to her doctoral studies, Pennie helped to create Indiana’s first Aspiring Special Education Leadership Institute (ASELI) and served as its Director. She was also the Capacity Events Director for MelanatED Leaders, an organization created to support educational leaders of color in Indianapolis. Pennie has a unique perspective, having worked with members of the school community, with advocacy organizations, and supporting state special education leaders. Pennie holds an EdM in Education Leadership from Marian University.

Jennifer Ha Editor, 2023-2025

Jen Ha is a second-year PhD student in the Culture, Institutions, and Society concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research explores how high school students learn to write personal narratives for school applications, scholarships, and professional opportunities amidst changing landscapes in college access and admissions. Prior to doctoral studies, Jen served as the Coordinator of Public Humanities at Bard Graduate Center and worked in several roles organizing academic enrichment opportunities and supporting postsecondary planning for students in New Haven and New York City. Jen holds a BA in Humanities from Yale University, where she was an Education Studies Scholar.

Woohee Kim Editor, 2023-2025

Woohee Kim is a PhD student studying youth activists’ civic and pedagogical practices. She is a scholar-activist dedicated to creating spaces for pedagogies of resistance and transformative possibilities. Shaped by her activism and research across South Korea, the US, and the UK, Woohee seeks to interrogate how educational spaces are shaped as cultural and political sites and reshaped by activists as sites of struggle. She hopes to continue exploring the intersections of education, knowledge, power, and resistance.

Catherine E. Pitcher Editor, 2023-2025

Catherine is a second-year doctoral student at Harvard Graduate School of Education in the Culture, Institutions, and Society program. She has over 10 years of experience in education in the US in roles that range from special education teacher to instructional coach to department head to educational game designer. She started working in Palestine in 2017, first teaching, and then designing and implementing educational programming. Currently, she is working on research to understand how Palestinian youth think about and build their futures and continues to lead programming in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. She holds an EdM from Harvard in International Education Policy.

Elizabeth Salinas Editor, 2023-2025

Elizabeth Salinas is a doctoral student in the Education Policy and Program Evaluation concentration at HGSE. She is interested in the intersection of higher education and the social safety net and hopes to examine policies that address basic needs insecurity among college students. Before her doctoral studies, Liz was a research director at a public policy consulting firm. There, she supported government, education, and philanthropy leaders by conducting and translating research into clear and actionable information. Previously, Liz served as a high school physics teacher in her hometown in Texas and as a STEM outreach program director at her alma mater. She currently sits on the Board of Directors at Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America, a nonprofit organization working to diversify the leadership pipeline in the United States. Liz holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in higher education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Caroline Tucker Co-Chair, 2023-2024 Editor, 2022-2024 [email protected]

Caroline Tucker is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Culture, Institutions, and Society concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research focuses on the history and organizational dynamics of women’s colleges as women gained entry into the professions and coeducation took root in the United States. She is also a research assistant for the Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery Initiative’s Subcommittee on Curriculum and the editorial assistant for Into Practice, the pedagogy newsletter distributed by Harvard University’s Office of the Vice Provost for Advances in Learning. Prior to her doctoral studies, Caroline served as an American politics and English teaching fellow in London and worked in college advising. Caroline holds a BA in History from Princeton University, an MA in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, and an EdM in Higher Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Kemeyawi Q. Wahpepah Co-Chair, 2023-2024 Editor, 2022-2024 [email protected]

Kemeyawi Q. Wahpepah (Kickapoo, Sac & Fox) is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Culture, Institutions, and Society concentration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Their research explores how settler colonialism is addressed in K-12 history and social studies classrooms in the United States. Prior to their doctoral studies, Kemeyawi taught middle and high school English and history for eleven years in Boston and New York City. They hold an MS in Middle Childhood Education from Hunter College and an AB in Social Studies from Harvard University.

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Submissions, question: “what manuscripts are a good fit for her ”.

Answer: As a generalist scholarly journal, HER publishes on a wide range of topics within the field of education and related disciplines. We receive many articles that deserve publication, but due to the restrictions of print publication, we are only able to publish very few in the journal. The originality and import of the findings, as well as the accessibility of a piece to HER’s interdisciplinary, international audience which includes education practitioners, are key criteria in determining if an article will be selected for publication.

We strongly recommend that prospective authors review the current and past issues of HER to see the types of articles we have published recently. If you are unsure whether your manuscript is a good fit, please reach out to the Content Editor at [email protected] .

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Answer: Supporting the development of high-quality education research is a key tenet of HER’s mission. HER promotes this development through offering comprehensive feedback to authors. All manuscripts that pass the first stage of our review process (see below) receive detailed feedback. For accepted manuscripts, HER also has a unique feedback process called casting whereby two editors carefully read a manuscript and offer overarching suggestions to strengthen and clarify the argument.

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Answer: Voices pieces are first-person reflections about an education-related topic rather than empirical or theoretical essays. Our strongest pieces have often come from educators and policy makers who draw on their personal experiences in the education field. Although they may not present data or generate theory, Voices pieces should still advance a cogent argument, drawing on appropriate literature to support any claims asserted. For examples of Voices pieces, please see Alvarez et al. (2021) and Snow (2021).

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Answer: HER does not utilize the traditional external peer review process and instead has an internal, two-stage review procedure.

Upon submission, every manuscript receives a preliminary assessment by the Content Editor to confirm that the formatting requirements have been carefully followed in preparation of the manuscript, and that the manuscript is in accord with the scope and aim of the journal. The manuscript then formally enters the review process.

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Answer: The date of publication depends entirely on how many manuscripts are already in the queue for an issue. Typically, however, it takes about 6 months post-acceptance for a piece to be published.

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• Our Mission

The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2021

From reframing our notion of “good” schools to mining the magic of expert teachers, here’s a curated list of must-read research from 2021.

It was a year of unprecedented hardship for teachers and school leaders. We pored through hundreds of studies to see if we could follow the trail of exactly what happened: The research revealed a complex portrait of a grueling year during which persistent issues of burnout and mental and physical health impacted millions of educators. Meanwhile, many of the old debates continued: Does paper beat digital? Is project-based learning as effective as direct instruction? How do you define what a “good” school is?

Other studies grabbed our attention, and in a few cases, made headlines. Researchers from the University of Chicago and Columbia University turned artificial intelligence loose on some 1,130 award-winning children’s books in search of invisible patterns of bias. (Spoiler alert: They found some.) Another study revealed why many parents are reluctant to support social and emotional learning in schools—and provided hints about how educators can flip the script.

1. What Parents Fear About SEL (and How to Change Their Minds)

When researchers at the Fordham Institute asked parents to rank phrases associated with social and emotional learning , nothing seemed to add up. The term “social-emotional learning” was very unpopular; parents wanted to steer their kids clear of it. But when the researchers added a simple clause, forming a new phrase—”social-emotional & academic learning”—the program shot all the way up to No. 2 in the rankings.

What gives?

Parents were picking up subtle cues in the list of SEL-related terms that irked or worried them, the researchers suggest. Phrases like “soft skills” and “growth mindset” felt “nebulous” and devoid of academic content. For some, the language felt suspiciously like “code for liberal indoctrination.”

But the study suggests that parents might need the simplest of reassurances to break through the political noise. Removing the jargon, focusing on productive phrases like “life skills,” and relentlessly connecting SEL to academic progress puts parents at ease—and seems to save social and emotional learning in the process.

2. The Secret Management Techniques of Expert Teachers

In the hands of experienced teachers, classroom management can seem almost invisible: Subtle techniques are quietly at work behind the scenes, with students falling into orderly routines and engaging in rigorous academic tasks almost as if by magic. 

That’s no accident, according to new research . While outbursts are inevitable in school settings, expert teachers seed their classrooms with proactive, relationship-building strategies that often prevent misbehavior before it erupts. They also approach discipline more holistically than their less-experienced counterparts, consistently reframing misbehavior in the broader context of how lessons can be more engaging, or how clearly they communicate expectations.

Focusing on the underlying dynamics of classroom behavior—and not on surface-level disruptions—means that expert teachers often look the other way at all the right times, too. Rather than rise to the bait of a minor breach in etiquette, a common mistake of new teachers, they tend to play the long game, asking questions about the origins of misbehavior, deftly navigating the terrain between discipline and student autonomy, and opting to confront misconduct privately when possible.

3. The Surprising Power of Pretesting

Asking students to take a practice test before they’ve even encountered the material may seem like a waste of time—after all, they’d just be guessing.

But new research concludes that the approach, called pretesting, is actually more effective than other typical study strategies. Surprisingly, pretesting even beat out taking practice tests after learning the material, a proven strategy endorsed by cognitive scientists and educators alike. In the study, students who took a practice test before learning the material outperformed their peers who studied more traditionally by 49 percent on a follow-up test, while outperforming students who took practice tests after studying the material by 27 percent.

The researchers hypothesize that the “generation of errors” was a key to the strategy’s success, spurring student curiosity and priming them to “search for the correct answers” when they finally explored the new material—and adding grist to a 2018 study that found that making educated guesses helped students connect background knowledge to new material.

Learning is more durable when students do the hard work of correcting misconceptions, the research suggests, reminding us yet again that being wrong is an important milestone on the road to being right.

4. Confronting an Old Myth About Immigrant Students

Immigrant students are sometimes portrayed as a costly expense to the education system, but new research is systematically dismantling that myth.

In a 2021 study , researchers analyzed over 1.3 million academic and birth records for students in Florida communities, and concluded that the presence of immigrant students actually has “a positive effect on the academic achievement of U.S.-born students,” raising test scores as the size of the immigrant school population increases. The benefits were especially powerful for low-income students.

While immigrants initially “face challenges in assimilation that may require additional school resources,” the researchers concluded, hard work and resilience may allow them to excel and thus “positively affect exposed U.S.-born students’ attitudes and behavior.” But according to teacher Larry Ferlazzo, the improvements might stem from the fact that having English language learners in classes improves pedagogy , pushing teachers to consider “issues like prior knowledge, scaffolding, and maximizing accessibility.”

5. A Fuller Picture of What a ‘Good’ School Is

It’s time to rethink our definition of what a “good school” is, researchers assert in a study published in late 2020.⁣ That’s because typical measures of school quality like test scores often provide an incomplete and misleading picture, the researchers found.

The study looked at over 150,000 ninth-grade students who attended Chicago public schools and concluded that emphasizing the social and emotional dimensions of learning—relationship-building, a sense of belonging, and resilience, for example—improves high school graduation and college matriculation rates for both high- and low-income students, beating out schools that focus primarily on improving test scores.⁣

“Schools that promote socio-emotional development actually have a really big positive impact on kids,” said lead researcher C. Kirabo Jackson in an interview with Edutopia . “And these impacts are particularly large for vulnerable student populations who don’t tend to do very well in the education system.”

The findings reinforce the importance of a holistic approach to measuring student progress, and are a reminder that schools—and teachers—can influence students in ways that are difficult to measure, and may only materialize well into the future.⁣

6. Teaching Is Learning

One of the best ways to learn a concept is to teach it to someone else. But do you actually have to step into the shoes of a teacher, or does the mere expectation of teaching do the trick?

In a 2021 study , researchers split students into two groups and gave them each a science passage about the Doppler effect—a phenomenon associated with sound and light waves that explains the gradual change in tone and pitch as a car races off into the distance, for example. One group studied the text as preparation for a test; the other was told that they’d be teaching the material to another student.

The researchers never carried out the second half of the activity—students read the passages but never taught the lesson. All of the participants were then tested on their factual recall of the Doppler effect, and their ability to draw deeper conclusions from the reading.

The upshot? Students who prepared to teach outperformed their counterparts in both duration and depth of learning, scoring 9 percent higher on factual recall a week after the lessons concluded, and 24 percent higher on their ability to make inferences. The research suggests that asking students to prepare to teach something—or encouraging them to think “could I teach this to someone else?”—can significantly alter their learning trajectories.

7. A Disturbing Strain of Bias in Kids’ Books

Some of the most popular and well-regarded children’s books—Caldecott and Newbery honorees among them—persistently depict Black, Asian, and Hispanic characters with lighter skin, according to new research .

Using artificial intelligence, researchers combed through 1,130 children’s books written in the last century, comparing two sets of diverse children’s books—one a collection of popular books that garnered major literary awards, the other favored by identity-based awards. The software analyzed data on skin tone, race, age, and gender.

Among the findings: While more characters with darker skin color begin to appear over time, the most popular books—those most frequently checked out of libraries and lining classroom bookshelves—continue to depict people of color in lighter skin tones. More insidiously, when adult characters are “moral or upstanding,” their skin color tends to appear lighter, the study’s lead author, Anjali Aduki,  told The 74 , with some books converting “Martin Luther King Jr.’s chocolate complexion to a light brown or beige.” Female characters, meanwhile, are often seen but not heard.

Cultural representations are a reflection of our values, the researchers conclude: “Inequality in representation, therefore, constitutes an explicit statement of inequality of value.”

8. The Never-Ending ‘Paper Versus Digital’ War

The argument goes like this: Digital screens turn reading into a cold and impersonal task; they’re good for information foraging, and not much more. “Real” books, meanwhile, have a heft and “tactility”  that make them intimate, enchanting—and irreplaceable.

But researchers have often found weak or equivocal evidence for the superiority of reading on paper. While a recent study concluded that paper books yielded better comprehension than e-books when many of the digital tools had been removed, the effect sizes were small. A 2021 meta-analysis further muddies the water: When digital and paper books are “mostly similar,” kids comprehend the print version more readily—but when enhancements like motion and sound “target the story content,” e-books generally have the edge.

Nostalgia is a force that every new technology must eventually confront. There’s plenty of evidence that writing with pen and paper encodes learning more deeply than typing. But new digital book formats come preloaded with powerful tools that allow readers to annotate, look up words, answer embedded questions, and share their thinking with other readers.

We may not be ready to admit it, but these are precisely the kinds of activities that drive deeper engagement, enhance comprehension, and leave us with a lasting memory of what we’ve read. The future of e-reading, despite the naysayers, remains promising.

9. New Research Makes a Powerful Case for PBL

Many classrooms today still look like they did 100 years ago, when students were preparing for factory jobs. But the world’s moved on: Modern careers demand a more sophisticated set of skills—collaboration, advanced problem-solving, and creativity, for example—and those can be difficult to teach in classrooms that rarely give students the time and space to develop those competencies.

Project-based learning (PBL) would seem like an ideal solution. But critics say PBL places too much responsibility on novice learners, ignoring the evidence about the effectiveness of direct instruction and ultimately undermining subject fluency. Advocates counter that student-centered learning and direct instruction can and should coexist in classrooms.

Now two new large-scale studies —encompassing over 6,000 students in 114 diverse schools across the nation—provide evidence that a well-structured, project-based approach boosts learning for a wide range of students.

In the studies, which were funded by Lucas Education Research, a sister division of Edutopia , elementary and high school students engaged in challenging projects that had them designing water systems for local farms, or creating toys using simple household objects to learn about gravity, friction, and force. Subsequent testing revealed notable learning gains—well above those experienced by students in traditional classrooms—and those gains seemed to raise all boats, persisting across socioeconomic class, race, and reading levels.

10. Tracking a Tumultuous Year for Teachers

The Covid-19 pandemic cast a long shadow over the lives of educators in 2021, according to a year’s worth of research.

The average teacher’s workload suddenly “spiked last spring,” wrote the Center for Reinventing Public Education in its January 2021 report, and then—in defiance of the laws of motion—simply never let up. By the fall, a RAND study recorded an astonishing shift in work habits: 24 percent of teachers reported that they were working 56 hours or more per week, compared to 5 percent pre-pandemic.

The vaccine was the promised land, but when it arrived nothing seemed to change. In an April 2021 survey  conducted four months after the first vaccine was administered in New York City, 92 percent of teachers said their jobs were more stressful than prior to the pandemic, up from 81 percent in an earlier survey.

It wasn’t just the length of the work days; a close look at the research reveals that the school system’s failure to adjust expectations was ruinous. It seemed to start with the obligations of hybrid teaching, which surfaced in Edutopia ’s coverage of overseas school reopenings. In June 2020, well before many U.S. schools reopened, we reported that hybrid teaching was an emerging problem internationally, and warned that if the “model is to work well for any period of time,” schools must “recognize and seek to reduce the workload for teachers.” Almost eight months later, a 2021 RAND study identified hybrid teaching as a primary source of teacher stress in the U.S., easily outpacing factors like the health of a high-risk loved one.

New and ever-increasing demands for tech solutions put teachers on a knife’s edge. In several important 2021 studies, researchers concluded that teachers were being pushed to adopt new technology without the “resources and equipment necessary for its correct didactic use.” Consequently, they were spending more than 20 hours a week adapting lessons for online use, and experiencing an unprecedented erosion of the boundaries between their work and home lives, leading to an unsustainable “always on” mentality. When it seemed like nothing more could be piled on—when all of the lights were blinking red—the federal government restarted standardized testing .

Change will be hard; many of the pathologies that exist in the system now predate the pandemic. But creating strict school policies that separate work from rest, eliminating the adoption of new tech tools without proper supports, distributing surveys regularly to gauge teacher well-being, and above all listening to educators to identify and confront emerging problems might be a good place to start, if the research can be believed.

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Articles on Education research

Displaying 1 - 20 of 29 articles.

South Africa’s young education researchers need networks to share experience more than pressure to produce outputs

Mpho-Entle Puleng Modise , University of South Africa and Maureen Robinson , Stellenbosch University

How educational research could play a greater role in K-12 school improvement

Detris Honora Adelabu , Boston University

Scientific measurement won’t answer all questions in education. We need teacher and student voices, too

Lucinda McKnight , Deakin University and Andy Morgan , Monash University

Only 1 in 3 teachers use research evidence in the classroom – this is largely due to lack of time

Joanne Gleeson , Monash University ; Blake Cutler , Monash University ; Lucas Walsh , Monash University , and Mark Rickinson , Monash University

We have the evidence for what works in schools, but that doesn’t mean everyone uses it

Lucas Walsh , Monash University ; Blake Cutler , Monash University ; Connie Cirkony , Monash University ; Joanne Gleeson , Monash University ; Mandy Gayle Salisbury , Monash University , and Mark Rickinson , Monash University

Our study in China found struggling students can bring down the rest of the class

Rong Zhu , Flinders University

First, do no harm: education research should answer to the same standards as medicine

David Lawrence , The University of Western Australia and Tanya Fitzgerald , The University of Western Australia

School vouchers expand despite evidence of negative effects

Christopher Lubienski , Indiana University and Joel R Malin , Miami University

Helping teachers ‘practise what they teach’ could help them stay teaching for longer

Julia E. Morris , Edith Cowan University and Wesley Imms , The University of Melbourne

Is positive education another fad? Perhaps, but it’s supported by good research

Cath Ferguson , Edith Cowan University

How to solve Australia’s ‘rural school challenge’: focus on research and communities

Philip Roberts , University of Canberra ; Adrian Piccoli , UNSW Sydney , and John Hattie , The University of Melbourne

Federal spending bill deals blow to school safety research

F. Chris Curran , University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Educational researchers, show us your evidence but don’t expect us to fund it

Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles , Southern Cross University

An education research institute won’t take politics out of the classroom

Jennifer Charteris , University of New England

Play-based learning can set your child up for success at school and beyond

Natalie Robertson , Deakin University ; Anne-Marie Morrissey , Deakin University , and Elizabeth Rouse , Deakin University

Why the Commonwealth should resist meddling in schools

Julie Sonnemann , Grattan Institute and Peter Goss , Grattan Institute

Male teachers are an endangered species in Australia: new research

Kevin F. McGrath , Macquarie University and Penny Van Bergen , Macquarie University

Gaps in education data: there are many questions for which we don’t have accurate answers

Stacey Fox , Victoria University and Megan O'Connell , Victoria University

Why urban myths about education are so persistent – and how to tackle them

James Williams , University of Sussex

What evidence do MPs turn to when they make policy?

Suzi Gage , University of Bristol

Related Topics

• British Educational Research Association
• Education policy
• Evidence based policy
• Research funding
• School choice
• Teacher training
• US education

Top contributors

Professor and Director of the Centre for Youth Policy and Education Practice, Monash University

Professor of Education and Public Policy, Durham University

Research Fellow in Education, Monash University

Researcher and PhD Candidate in Education, Monash University

Associate Professor of Education, Monash University

Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Derby

Professor of Education Policy Research, University of Birmingham

Lecturer, Psychology and Epidemiology, University of Liverpool

Senior lecturer, Faculty of Education., Monash University

Reader in Education, Brunel University London

Professor of Education Policy & Law; Director of the National Education Policy Center, University of Colorado Boulder

Head of School of Education and Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Wollongong

Research Fellow in the School of Education, Durham University

Lecturer in Education Studies, University of Plymouth

Senior Lecturer in Science Education, Sussex School of Education and Social Work, University of Sussex

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Quantitative Measurement of Pre-Service Teachers’ Competency of Questioning in Scaffolding Students’ Science Learning

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Preferences and Reasoning of 14-15 year-old Students in Relation to Natural or Synthetic Products in Different Contexts: Influence of an Instructional Module

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The Integrations of Elementary Science Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Components during COVID-19: Teaching Electric Circuits and Circuit Diagrams

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Conceptual PlayWorld for Infant-Toddlers : The Unique Nature of Becoming a Science Learner in the Early Years of Life

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On the Interest-Promoting Effect of Outreach Science Labs: A Comparison of Students’ Interest during Experimentation at an Outreach Science Lab and at School

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Science-Based Educational Escape Games: A Game Design Methodology

Explicit Versus Implicit Instruction: Effects of Epistemological Enhancement on Ninth Graders’ Physics-Related Personal Epistemology and Physics Achievement

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A Perspective for Structure–Property Reasoning to Explicate and Scaffold Thinking like a Chemist

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Fostering Secondary School Science Students’ Intrinsic Motivation by Inquiry-based Learning

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Transformation of School Science Practices to Promote Functional Scientific Literacy

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Early Career Innovations in Science Education Research: Introduction to the Special Issue

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STEM Journey Maps as Tools for Exploring Elementary Teachers’ Experiences with Science and Engineering Instruction

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Health Science Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Electricity: Misconception or Lack of Knowledge?

Uncovering Student Strategies for Solving Scientific Inquiry Tasks: Insights from Student Process Data in PISA

The Impact of Digital and Analog Approaches on a Multidimensional Preschool Science Education

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Measuring STEM Career Awareness and Interest in Middle Childhood STEM Learners: Validation of the STEM Future-Career Interest Survey (STEM Future-CIS)

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Are We Really Falling Behind? Comparing Key Indicators Across International and Local Standardised Tests for Australian High School Science

Science Fiction Fan Conventions as Places to Communicate Science

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Correction: The Relationship Between Students’ Awareness of Environmental Issues and Attitudes Toward Science and Epistemological Beliefs—Moderating Effect of Informal Science Activities

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The Relationship Between Students’ Awareness of Environmental Issues and Attitudes Toward Science and Epistemological Beliefs—Moderating Effect of Informal Science Activities

Students’ Perceptions of a “Feminised” Physics Curriculum

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Exploring the Potential of Teacher-Learner Interactions Through Feedback in Online Formative Assessment: Demonstration Cases of Pre-service Physics Teachers

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Developing an Evaluation Rubric for Planning and Assessing SSI-Based STEAM Programs in Science Classrooms

The Potential of Nature of Science (NOS) in Special Education (SPED): Preservice Teachers’ Conceptions, Plans, and Identified NOS Implications for SPED

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Fostering Students’ Situational Interest in Physics: Results from a Classroom-Based Intervention Study

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How Peer Feedback After Hands-On Scientific Inquiry Activities Affects Students’ Scientific Inquiry Competence?

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Sensemaking and Collective Sensemaking Within an Elementary Principal Science Network

• Stefanie L. Marshall

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• 26 Mar 2024
• Research & Ideas

How Humans Outshine AI in Adapting to Change

Could artificial intelligence systems eventually perform surgeries or fly planes? First, AI will have to learn to navigate shifting conditions as well as people do. Julian De Freitas and colleagues pit humans against machines in a video game to study AI's current limits and mine insights for the real world.

• 12 Mar 2024

Publish or Perish: What the Research Says About Productivity in Academia

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Being a Team Player: Why College Athletes Succeed in Business

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Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

Parenting & Family Articles & More

Our best education articles of 2020, readers and editors pick the most interesting and insightful articles from the past year about teaching, learning, and the keys to well-being at school..

In February of 2020, we launched the new website Greater Good in Education , a collection of free, research-based and -informed strategies and practices for the social, emotional, and ethical development of students, for the well-being of the adults who work with them, and for cultivating positive school cultures. Little did we know how much more crucial these resources would become over the course of the year during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, as we head back to school in 2021, things are looking a lot different than in past years. Our most popular education articles of 2020 can help you manage difficult emotions and other challenges at school in the pandemic, all while supporting the social-emotional well-being of your students.

In addition to these articles, you can also find tips, tools, and recommended readings in two resource guides we created in 2020: Supporting Learning and Well-Being During the Coronavirus Crisis and Resources to Support Anti-Racist Learning , which helps educators take action to undo the racism within themselves, encourage their colleagues to do the same, and teach and support their students in forming anti-racist identities.

Here are the 10 best education articles of 2020, based on a composite ranking of pageviews and editors’ picks.

Can the Lockdown Push Schools in a Positive Direction? , by Patrick Cook-Deegan: Here are five ways that COVID-19 could change education for the better.

How Teachers Can Navigate Difficult Emotions During School Closures , by Amy L. Eva: Here are some tools for staying calm and centered amid the coronavirus crisis.

Six Online Activities to Help Students Cope With COVID-19 , by Lea Waters: These well-being practices can help students feel connected and resilient during the pandemic.

Help Students Process COVID-19 Emotions With This Lesson Plan , by Maurice Elias: Music and the arts can help students transition back to school this year.

How to Teach Online So All Students Feel Like They Belong , by Becki Cohn-Vargas and Kathe Gogolewski: Educators can foster belonging and inclusion for all students, even online.

How Teachers Can Help Students With Special Needs Navigate Distance Learning , by Rebecca Branstetter: Kids with disabilities are often shortchanged by pandemic classroom conditions. Here are three tips for educators to boost their engagement and connection.

How to Reduce the Stress of Homeschooling on Everyone , by Rebecca Branstetter: A school psychologist offers advice to parents on how to support their child during school closures.

Three Ways to Help Your Kids Succeed at Distance Learning , by Christine Carter: How can parents support their children at the start of an uncertain school year?

How Schools Are Meeting Social-Emotional Needs During the Pandemic , by Frances Messano, Jason Atwood, and Stacey Childress: A new report looks at how schools have been grappling with the challenges imposed by COVID-19.

Six Ways to Help Your Students Make Sense of a Divisive Election , by Julie Halterman: The election is over, but many young people will need help understanding what just happened.

Train Your Brain to Be Kinder (video), by Jane Park: Boost your kindness by sending kind thoughts to someone you love—and to someone you don’t get along with—with a little guidance from these students.

From Othering to Belonging (podcast): We speak with john a. powell, director of the Othering & Belonging Institute, about racial justice, well-being, and widening our circles of human connection and concern.

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Here’s How Data Can Help Unlock Education Equity

Tc’s renzhe yu, alex bowers, and youmi suk break down their ongoing, different approaches to the same goal: high quality education for all.

Now more than ever, educational equity — ensuring all students have access to meaningful educational opportunities, from college preparation and career assistance to support resources to civic participation — is crucial across America. However, the journey towards educational equity demands a multifaceted approach, with cross-collaboration and data at the helm. That’s where a core aspect of TC’s educator preparation and overall ethos comes into play, seeking to narrow the opportunity gaps millions of U.S. students face. 

While The Center for Educational Equity , established in 2005, focuses on research and policy around fair school funding and civic participation, three TC faculty members are finding unique ways to leverage data for equity. Renzhe Yu , Assistant Professor of Learning Analytics and Educational Data Mining, is leveraging data analytics to uncover the unintended consequences of the rapid adoption of generative artificial intelligence. Alex Bowers , Professor of Education Leadership, is showcasing the power of learning analytics and interoperable data sets to identify and address critical indicators of equity. Youmi Suk , Assistant Professor of Applied Statistics, is harnessing big educational data and cutting-edge machine learning methods to address questions about equity and fairness in educational practice.

Renzhe Yu, Assistant Professor of Learning Analytics and Educational Data Mining; Alex Bowers, Professor of Education Leadership; Youmi Suk, Assistant Professor of Applied Statistics (Photo: TC Archives)

• To reveal the bias and unintended consequences of generative artificial intelligence , Renzhe Yu performs large-scale data analytics.
• In order to identify issues of equity in a transparent way, Alex Bowers utilizes learning analytics and public data.
• Working to improve test fairness and curriculum planning , Youmi Suk draws connections between psychometrics, causal inference and algorithmic fairness.

(Image: iStock)

How Data Analytics Can Address the Growing Digital Divides

Stemming from Yu’s interest in learning how to “equip ourselves to better address existing issues related to education inequity,” his most pressing research focuses on understanding how the mass adoption of generative artificial intelligence has exacerbated digital divides in schools and institutions. Explored in a forthcoming working paper, the project uses large-scale text data from the education system to examine differences in everyday teaching and learning experiences as well as institutional attitudes toward generative AI.

“There are students who are more tech-savvy, there are instructors who are more experienced in using technologies, there are institutions that are more open-minded…and they have probably taken good advantage of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools in the past year,” explains Yu. But there’s also a significant number of students, parents, instructors, and institutions that don’t have that kind of access or awareness. “Although it’s just one year, the emergence of this technology may have widened these gaps,” says Yu.

To explore this growing divide, Yu and his research team focused on real-world data sources instead of conducting lab-controlled experiments in order to see how these relationships are playing out in real life. Because of his familiarity with the tech industry and the still-common impulse to innovate without considering the way that entire populations can be left behind, Yu says, “it’s really important to identify these unintended consequences in the early phase of life for these technologies.”

Yu’s other research interest in algorithmic bias — where he has long been exploring how algorithms used for decision making are treating learners differently based on race or other socio-demographic markers — is also made more urgent by the emergence of generative AI tools because if biased algorithms are “having dynamic conversations with students, [as is the case with generative AI,] the negative consequences of any bias in the process would be even more concerning.”

Ultimately, Yu hopes that his work provides perspective that is often ignored in the innovation process in order to create an education system that achieves equity with the help of advanced technology. 

How Data Can Inform Equity Efforts in School Policy and Conversation

Meanwhile, Bowers is looking at new ways school leaders can use reliable, evidence-based data practices to support equity efforts in schools nationwide. “One of my goals is to help bring communities together around the data that already exists for them—that’s already available, and help empower those communities,” he explains.

His recent work focuses on building collaboration with urban schools to identify data-driven equity practices and outcomes in education. In using a multidimensional framework, Bowers is hoping to facilitate more meaningful discussions with school communities by moving away from stigmatizing variables like standardized test scores and graduation rates.

“I think school districts are excited to have a definition of equity that they can bring into these community conversations, both with the school board, but also with teachers, parents, students.”

The project is fueled by his earlier research , which explores the value of interoperable, equitable datasets, along with a report that he co-authored with the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP). The comprehensive report details the 16 indicators for assessing equity in education, including academic outcomes like test scores, graduation rates, behavioral data, and opportunities such as student engagement, access to quality learning, pre-K experiences, and more.These indicators give administrators and teachers a more transparent lens to examine school performance.

“It can help us move into a framework of, "How are we serving our students?" "Are we serving our communities?" It's moving away from fixating on the gaps and the outcomes and [instead] trying to problem solve as a collaborative opportunity through which we can bring in existing data.”

How Interdisciplinary Approaches to Analyzing Data Can Promote Fairness

For clearer reading.

Causal Inference: An interdisciplinary subfield that determines the cause of an observed effect by considering assumptions, design and estimation strategies.

Psychometrics: A subfield of psychology centered on theories and applications of measurement, assessment and testing.

A leading researcher exploring test accommodation effectiveness, Suk takes a multi-pronged approach to her main research goal of “developing and applying quantitative methods to address practical and important problems in the educational, social, and behavioral sciences.” One of her central projects is forging a connection between test fairness, a field of study that has been developed over 60 years, and algorithmic fairness, an emerging field with high stakes as algorithmic models are utilized in all aspects of life. 

“We can leverage the people, the methods and the concepts developed in test fairness in order to facilitate understanding of algorithmic fairness,” says Suk who is incorporating psychometrics and causal inference concepts into her work. “And it can go both ways. If there's any new discussion happening around algorithm fairness, we can leverage that discussion to make assessments and tests fairer.” As a part of this work, Suk is crafting new frameworks to investigate test fairness on the individual level instead of on the group level, based on the discussions on individual fairness within the algorithmic fairness research.

Her work is also directly informing her recent research on fair and personalized math curriculum recommendations for high school students, funded by the National Science Foundation. It’s known that students get the most benefit from personalized recommendations but “we have to be aware there may be some unconscious bias [in the recommendations],” explains Suk. To address this, Suk is applying algorithmic fairness constraints to create more equitable recommendations for high school students.

Through her varied research, Suk ultimately hopes to “create equitable and fair testing environments for all students and personalized curriculum plans that empower every student to succeed.”

— Sherri Gardner and Jaqueline Teschon

Tags: Evaluation & Learning Analytics Bias Education Leadership Evaluation & Learning Analytics

Programs: Applied Statistics Cognitive Science in Education Education Leadership Learning Analytics Measurement and Evaluation

Departments: Human Development Organization & Leadership

Published Monday, Apr 22, 2024

Teachers College Newsroom

Address: Institutional Advancement 193-197 Grace Dodge Hall

Box: 306 Phone: (212) 678-3231 Email: views@tc.columbia.edu

Call for Proposals: Revitalizing STEM education to equip next generations with STEM Competency (Extended deadline: 12 May 2024)

The 15-month project aims to create innovative educational solutions, to increase institutional and professional capabilities, and share knowledge and best practices at both regional and global levels. The project will identify innovative proposals composed of STEM Research Activities and STEM Educational Activities presented by applicant teams. After 6 months of implementation, project teams will be invited to co-create and consolidate results to co-develop a STEM education knowledge hub and a regional inventory of STEM educational resources.

A supervisory board will select up to 5 promising proposals. Project proposals will need to consider national and local STEM educational landscapes and coordinate with relevant stakeholders. Selected teams will receive funding from the project of a total of up to 26,000 USD to implement their innovative STEM education projects within a 6-month period. 

The selected project teams will have the opportunity to share results, best practices, methodologies, and lessons learnt. The generated knowledge will then be scaled up within and across the region.

Each proposal will include both STEM Research Activities and STEM Educational Activities, whose implementation will be executed by project teams in close collaboration with UNESCO.

For STEM Research Activities , the research should focus on one of the following domains:

• Correlation between investments in STEM and educational outcomes
• Female participation in STEM education
• Flexible teaching and learning models and inclusive approaches
• Technologies development and application in STEM education in schools
• Effectiveness of the educational system to deliver STEM education
• National ecosystems and policies for STEM education

For STEM Educational Activities , the activities should relate to one of the following modalities:

• STEM teaching and learning activities for students
• Strengthening teacher development and inclusive STEM pedagogies

Educational agencies, universities, research agencies, independent experts, NGOs, and schools from UNESCO Member States in Europe  (with a priority focus on South-East Europe and the Mediterranean) are all eligible applicants. 

Interested applicants are requested to submit all documents to [email protected] by 12 May 2024 by 23:59 (CET). Applicants may direct questions related to the preparation of the application to the same email address.

For more details on the selection criteria and supporting documents, please download the attached “Call for Proposals” and “Application Form”.

Related items

• Natural sciences
• Basic sciences
• Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
• Region: Europe and North America
• SDG: SDG 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
• SDG: SDG 9 - Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
• See more add

This article is related to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals .

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• Published: 25 April 2024

Big five personality traits of medical students and workplace performance in the final clerkship year using an EPA framework

• Harm Peters   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1441-7512 1 ,
• Amelie Garbe 1 ,
• Simon M. Breil   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5583-3884 2 ,
• Sebastian Oberst   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1388-2749 1 ,
• Susanne Selch 3 &
• Ylva Holzhausen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8710-8257 1  

BMC Medical Education volume  24 , Article number:  453 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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The qualities of trainees play a key role in entrustment decisions by clinical supervisors for the assignments of professional tasks and levels of supervision. A recent body of qualitative research has shown that in addition to knowledge and skills, a number of personality traits are relevant in the workplace; however, the relevance of these traits has not been investigated empirically. The aim of this study was to analyse the workplace performance of final-year medical students using an Entrustable Professional Activity (EPA) framework in relation to their personality traits.

Medical students at the end of their final clerkship year were invited to participate in an online survey-based, cross-sectional field study. In the survey, the workplace performance was captured using a framework consisting of levels of experienced supervision and a defined set of 12 end-of-undergraduate medical training EPAs. The Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness) of the participating medical students were measured using the Big Five Inventory-SOEP (BFI-S), which consists of 15 items that are rated on a seven-point Likert scale. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The study included 880 final-year medical students (mean age: 27.2 years, SD = 3.0; 65% female). The levels of supervision under which the final-year clerkship students carried out the EPAs varied considerably. Significant correlations were found between the levels of experienced supervision and all Big Five dimensions The correlations with the dimensions of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness were positive, and that for the neuroticism dimension was negative (range r  = 0.17 to r  = − 0.23). Multiple regression analyses showed that the combination of the Big Five personality traits accounted for 0.8–7.5% of the variance in supervision levels on individual EPAs.

Conclusions

Using the BFI-S, we found that the levels of supervision on a set of end-of-undergraduate medical training EPAs were related to the personality traits of final-year medical students. The results of this study confirm the existing body of research on the role of conscientiousness and extraversion in entrustment decision-making and, in particular, add the personality trait of neuroticism as a new and relevant trainee quality to be considered.

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The assignment of professional tasks at a certain level of autonomy to individual trainees by clinical supervisors is a central phenomenon and characteristic of workplace learning in medical education and beyond in health profession education. The concept of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) draws on this tradition to conceptualize learning and assessments in the clinical workplace [ 1 ]. A growing body of research provides a better understanding of the often numerous explicit and implicit factors that influence why one trainee is entrusted with performing a specific task while another trainee is not. These factors include the personal qualities of trainees. For example, qualitative research has shown that certain personality traits of trainees play a role in supervisors’ entrustment decisions [ 2 ]. Yet, this relationship has not been systematically investigated. Such an investigation could confirm, complement and extend our understanding of which trainee qualities influence the entrustment decision-making processes of supervisors. The purpose of this study was to analyse the workplace performance of final-year medical students using an EPA framework in relation to their personality traits measured by an established Big Five questionnaire.

A valuable and practical reconceptualization of workplace performance has been achieved through an EPA framework [ 1 ]. This framework builds on three main components: (1) professional activities, i.e., authentic task characteristics of a profession; (2) levels of supervision, which indicate the proficiency of a trainee in carrying out a professional activity; and (3) entrustment decisions, which link the first two components and are made by supervisors when managing patient care [ 2 , 3 ]. Within the EPA framework, workplace performance increases by the number of EPAs a trainee can carry out and the level of autonomy, a trainee can carry out a professional tasks. Consider, for example, two trainees in their final year of study who have the same supervisor. Trainee A is regularly entrusted with taking medical histories independently, with only the key findings checked afterwards. For Trainee B, the supervisor takes on a much more active role, and the medical histories are checked together with the supervisor. Why are some trainees trusted more than others? Ongoing line research has identified a range of factors that determine under which level of supervision a trainee is entrusted to perform a particular task under particular circumstances by a clinical supervisor [ 4 , 5 ]. The personal qualities of individual trainees have been found to be particularly important factors [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Here, Ten Cate and Chen [ 2 ] recently used a qualitative approach to synthesize the varying entrustment-related qualities of trainees reported in the literature into five categories: agency (proactive towards work, teams, safety, and personal development), reliability (conscientious, predictable, accountable, and responsible), integrity (truthful, benevolent, and patient-centered), capability (specific knowledge, skills, experience, and situational awareness) and humility (recognizes limits, asks for help, and is receptive to feedback) (the A RICH framework). These five categories should be considered when making A RICH entrustment decision [ 2 ].

Beyond knowledge and skill aspects, many of the qualities in the A RICH framework fall into the area of trainees’ personality traits (i.e., relatively enduring patterns of interindividual differences in thinking, feeling, and behaving, e.g., some individuals are more reliable, humble, or proactive than others). Personality traits are often divided into five overarching factors (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness). This so-called five-factor (Big Five) model of personality has demonstrated reliability and validity across numerous populations [ 10 , 11 , 12 ] and can be mapped to the qualities mentioned by ten Cate and Chen. That is, extraversion might be mapped to agency, consciousness to reliability, and agreeableness to integrity and humility. However, we believe that the personality traits of neuroticism and openness are not directly reflected in the A RICH framework.

Research has shown that individual differences in the Big Five traits are related to important outcomes such as learning and (academic) performance [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. In medical education, the importance of personality traits for performing well in medical school and for good medical practice is increasingly recognized [ 17 , 18 ]. Exploring the relationship between personality and performance in the workplace (based on the EPA framework) could complement and extend our understanding of the entrustment-related qualities of trainees as well as learning and assessment in the clinical workplace. However, the empirical relationship between specific trainee personality traits and supervisor entrustment decisions has not been examined. Such an analysis could be useful from both theoretical and practical points of view. Theoretically, this approach could show whether the aspects developed qualitatively in the A RICH framework can be supported empirically. Practically, this approach could help to identify personality traits that affect trainees’ learning and supervisors’ entrustment decisions in the workplace.

The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between the workplace performance of final-year medical students and their personality traits, resulting in the following research question: Are individual differences in medical students’ Big Five personality traits related to their workplace performance? To address this question, personality traits and workplace performance were measured by conducting an online, cross-sectional field study. This was done using a framework consisting of levels of experienced supervision and a defined set of EPAs, both adjusted for undergraduate medical training.

This study was conducted as part of the German national research project “Studierendenauswahlverbund” (STAV) on the selection of medical students for entry into medical school [ 19 ]. In Germany, undergraduate medical education programs take six years to complete. The first 5 years cover basic and clinical sciences, followed by a final clerkship year with three rotations (3.5 months each): one rotation in internal medicine, one rotation in surgery and one elective rotation. The aim of the final clerkship year is for medical students to actively participate in the clinical workplace under the instruction, supervision and responsibility of a physician [ 20 ]. There are currently no mandatory formative or summative workplace assessments in place during the final clerkship year.

Study design

This was an online-administered, cross-sectional field study. The study protocol was approved by the local psychological ethics committee (LPEK) at the Center for Psychosocial Medicine at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (application number: LPEK-0042).

Questionnaire development

The questionnaire, developed by the STAV research team through an iterative and collaborative process, was sent to final-year medical students in Germany. The questionnaire covered sociodemographic characteristics, personality traits and workplace performance in professional activities, among other reported content areas. The questionnaire was piloted by members of the STAV research team.

• Personality traits

Personality traits were measured via self-reports using the German Big Five Inventory-SOEP (BFI-S) [ 21 ]. This instrument is based on the BFI [ 22 ] and was developed as a short economic version for use with the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). The scale consists of a total of 15 items and measures extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness, all measured with three items each. The BFI-S items are rated on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (“does not apply at all”) to 7 (“applies perfectly”).

Workplace performance measured using an EPA framework

Workplace performance refers to the number of professional activities that a trainee can carry out and the level of supervision needed to carry out the respective professional activity. As the basis, a set of 12 core end-of-training EPAs previously developed for undergraduate medical education students at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany, was used [ 23 ]. The EPA descriptions used in the survey are shown in Table  1 .

Participants were asked to indicate the level of supervision while carrying out each of the respective professional activity at least 3 times. The levels of supervision were adapted to undergraduate medical education [ 24 ]. The 5 levels were as follows:

Level 1: I did not perform the task.

Level 2: I carried out this task in co-activity with a supervisor.

Level 3: I carried out this task autonomously, and all findings were double-checked.

Level 4: I carried out this task autonomously, and key findings were double-checked.

Level 5: I carried out this task autonomously, and key findings were discussed afterwards.

The questionnaire was administered using the online software LimeSurvey (version 2.62.2; Limesurvey GmbH, Hamburg, Germany). Final-year medical students from all German medical faculties were invited by email via the listservs of the respective medical faculties. Invitations were sent to reach students within or shortly after their last rotation in the final clerkship year. Before data collection, the students were informed in writing about the purpose of the study and had to provide informed consent.

Statistical analysis

The statistical analysis was performed using SPSS (version 29.0; IBM, Ehningen, Germany; Armonk, Released 2022). The SPSS analysis code can be found in Appendix 1 . Descriptive statistics were calculated for sample size, participant age and gender, the scores on the BFI-S dimensions and the level of supervision for each end-of-undergraduate medical training EPA.

Inferential statistical analysis included the calculation of Cronbach’s alpha, Pearson and Spearman correlations and multiple regression. Cronbach’s alpha was calculated for the scores on the BFI-S dimensions. Pearson correlations were computed for each EPA and each Big Five dimension to analyse the relationship between the BFI-S scores and EPA framework-based workplace performance. To check for the robustness of the results and given that the EPA scale is ordinal, we additionally computed Spearman´s rank-order correlations. Furthermore, multiple regression analyses were conducted to analyse the joint relationship between the five personality traits and the level of supervision for each EPA. For all correlations and multiple regressions, we did not include individuals (per EPAs) who reported supervision level 1. This was because we could not determine whether the students were not capable of performing the EPA or whether they had not yet had the opportunity to perform the EPA.

Study participants

A total of 1,111 students from 35 medical faculties completed the STAV survey. The data were included in the analysis if the participating students were in their last final-year clerkship rotation or had just finished the last rotation. In total, data from 880 participants were included in the study. The mean age of the included final-year medical students was 27.2 years (SD = 3.0), 568 (65%) students were female, and 312 (35%) students were male.

Characteristics of the personality traits

The descriptive statistics as well as the Cronbach’s coefficient for the respective Big Five dimension are shown in Table  2 .

Characteristics of workplace performance using an EPA framework

Figure  1 shows the variation in the levels of supervision under which the final year clerkship students carried out the 12 EPAs. Nine of the 12 professional activities were performed by 75% of the students under supervision levels 3–5, i.e., autonomously without direct supervision. These EPAs ranged from “take a medical history, perform a physical examination and summarize the results in a structured manner” (99%) to “write and transmit a patient report” (93%). The frequencies of supervision levels without direct supervision (levels 3–5) were lower for “recognize an emergency situation and act upon it” (51%), “undertake an evidence-based patient case and initiate patient-specific implementation” (53%), and “compile a treatment plan and initiate implementation” (68%). The levels of supervision correlated significantly amongst all EPAs (see the Appendix 2 ).

Frequency of levels of supervision (levels 1–5) under which final-year clerkship students carried out end-of-undergraduate medical training EPAs. Frequencies are expressed as a percentage of all reported levels of supervision for each EPA. The supervision levels ranged from “I did not perform the task” (level 1) to “I carried out this task autonomously, and key findings were discussed afterwards” (level 5)

Relationship between the personality traits and workplace performance using an EPA framework

Significant Pearson correlations were found between the level of supervision under which final-year clerkship students carried out the EPAs and their scores on the BFI-S for all 5 Big Five traits (Table  3 ). There were 8 EPAs with significant correlations for extraversion, 4 for agreeableness, 8 for conscientiousness, 10 for neuroticism, and 4 for openness. All the correlations were positive, except that for neuroticism, which was negative. The correlations were all small to moderate in size ( r  = 0.17 to r = -0.23). Similar results were observed for the Spearman’s rank correlations (see the Appendix 3 ). In both analyses, significant correlations with at least one Big 5 dimension were found for all EPAs, except for EPA 5 (“perform general procedures of a physician”).

Multiple regression analysis also revealed that the BFI-S dimension scores significantly predicted workplace performance for 11 of the 12 EPAs (excluding EPA 5; see Table  4 ). Here, the amount of explained variance varied across the EPAs, ranging from 0.8% (EPA 6: “seek consent for medical procedures and diagnostics”) to 7.5% (EPA 12: “undertake an evidence-based patient case discussion and initiate patient-specific implementation”. Across all EPAs, the conscientiousness and neuroticism dimension scores were regularly associated with the level of supervision.

Worldwide, medical curricula are increasingly structured around the entrustment of EPAs [ 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Understanding the factors that influence entrustment decisions is important, as they have the potential to stimulate transparent discussion and reflection between supervising doctors and trainees. Personal qualities of trainees play a key role, and this study complements and extends previous, mostly qualitative, research on the personality traits that are related to the decisions to entrust trainees with professional patient-care tasks. The final-year medical students varied widely in the extent to which they had actually performed a set of end-of-undergraduate medical training EPAs, and this variation showed no ceiling effect. Using a quantitative, empirical approach, we found that individual differences in the Big Five traits were related to the level of supervision under which final-year clerkship students carried out end-of-undergraduate medical training EPAs. For the personality traits, the highest number of positive correlations was found for (low) neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extraversion. That is, trainees who reported being relaxed and without worry (i.e., low neuroticism), thorough and efficient (i.e., conscientiousness), and communicative and sociable (i.e., extraversion) were generally able to carry out EPAs with less supervision and greater autonomy. The findings and implications of this study in the context of the literature is discussed in the following sections.

The results of this study showed that the favorable Big Five traits were associated with better performance in almost all EPAs, accounting for between 0.8% and 7.5% of the variance in levels of supervision as a measure of workplace performance. The strongest effects of personality traits were found for EPA 12 (“undertake an evidence-based patient case discussion and initiate patient specific implementation”), EPA 4 (“compile a treatment plan and initiate implementation”), and EPA 3 (“interpret test results and initiate further steps”). Weaker effects were found for the other EPAs where the majority of trainees reached the highest level of supervision and for which there was low variance. These findings further support the assumption that the personality traits of trainees play an important role in their workplace performance [ 2 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ].

Of all the Big Five traits, individual differences in neuroticism showed the highest number of correlations with the levels of experienced supervision for the performance of the end-of-undergraduate medical training EPAs. Individuals high in neuroticism tend to become anxious, worried and irritable more easily or intensely than others [ 28 ]. In the context of busy clinical workplaces, this personality trait may translate into difficulties coping with stress and anxiety, responding to feedback and criticism and solving problems, especially under stress, which can affect individuals’ ability to perform professional tasks effectively. It could also be that students with high neuroticism levels were less self-confident and sought more reassurance when performing tasks. Although these findings are in line with a meta-analysis highlighting the negative relationship between neuroticism and job performance [ 16 ], the relevance of neuroticism is a new finding in the area of entrustment decision-making.

The Big Five dimensions of extraversion and conscientiousness showed positive correlations with the levels of experienced supervision in a high number of the 12 EPAs, indicating higher levels of trainee autonomy. The personality trait of conscientiousness refers to individuals who tend to be highly thoughtful, organized, mindful of details, and responsible, indicating impulse control and goal-directed behaviours. The extraversion dimension refers to talkativeness, assertiveness, and energy. For conscientiousness, these findings are in line with previous research, highlighting trainee conscientiousness as a central factor in entrustment decision-making, particularly early work by Kennedy and colleagues [ 6 ]). The high number of correlations between the Big 5 score for conscientiousness and the levels of supervision across the EPAs is also consistent with previous research on personality traits and academic achievement and job performance across many occupational sectors [ 13 ]. In addition to the personality traits of extraversion, conscientiousness, and neuroticism, we found positive correlations between the levels of experienced supervision and the Big Five agreeableness and openness dimension scores, although these were lower in number and related to individual EPAs.

Our findings provide some support for the A RICH framework [ 2 ]. That is, the three dimensions of extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness overlap with the qualities of integrity, reliability, humility, and agency. However, agreeableness was significant for only a few EPAs, although it is prominently represented by two qualities in the A Rich framework. Moreover, neuroticism, which was found to be the most important predictor of workplace involvement, is not (yet) covered by the A RICH framework on trainee qualities that enable entrustment decisions by clinical supervisors [ 2 ].

This study has several implications. Individual differences in personality traits were considered as a new perspective for understanding the factors that clinical supervisors weigh in their decisions to entrust trainees with responsibility in patient care. Future research could extend this research, for instance, by investigating the relationship between personality traits and the explicit level of entrustment that trainees receive in the workplace, studying other trainee cohorts and different clinical contexts, and focusing on specific facets of personality (e.g., investigating which part of an individual´s neuroticism affects entrustment decisions). Further lines of research may investigate how the personality traits of clinical supervisors influence their entrustment decisions and how the interplay between the personality traits of both trainees and supervisors affects entrustment decision-making. A particularly relevant finding is the strong role of neuroticism in entrustment decisions, which should be further explored in future quantitative and qualitative research. These findings also have implications for the training and development of medical trainees. Although there are already approaches to selecting and training (future) medical students regarding emotional stability [ 29 , 30 ], the findings suggest that even more attention should be given to the emotional stability (or lack thereof) of students and physicians.

This study has some limitations. First, although we managed to recruit a large sample, the context in which the participating students were evaluated was the final clerkship year in Germany. Therefore, future research should investigate the transferability of these findings to other contexts and countries. Second, the study was not based on explicit entrustment decisions by clinical supervisors but rather on the levels of supervision experienced in the workplace and reported by the students. This may have made it unclear whether the supervisors had less confidence in the trainees and therefore preferred to “double check” or whether the trainees themselves had less confidence and therefore preferred to “double check”. Future research should disentangle these two (not mutually exclusive) explanations. Third, the BFI measure is based on a short scale, which has lower internal consistency than longer scales and did not allow us to account for facet differences within the Big Five dimensions. Here, future studies could use longer scales to assess each dimension more thoroughly.

In conclusion, this study introduced personality traits as a new perspective for understanding the role of individual trainees’ personal qualities in clinical supervisors’ decision-making. We found that the level of supervision on a set of end-of undergraduate medical training EPAs was related to the personality traits of final-year medical students. In relation to the existing body of research, the results of this study confirm the role of conscientiousness in entrustment decision-making. In addition, the findings indicate that the personality trait of neuroticism should be considered as an important trainee quality in the context of entrustment decision-making.

Data availability

The data of this study will be made available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all the medical students who participated in the STAV survey and all the staff members of the STAV research team for their support and participation in discussions.

This work was supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany) (project number: 01GK1801).

Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

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Dieter Scheffner Center for Medical Education and Educational Research, Deans´Office of Study Affairs, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Charité Mitte, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany

Harm Peters, Amelie Garbe, Sebastian Oberst & Ylva Holzhausen

Institute for Psychology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany

Simon M. Breil

Department of General Practice and Primary Care, University Medical Center Hamburg- Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

Susanne Selch

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Contributions

All the authors made substantial contributions to the conception and design of the study and the interpretation of the data. AG was responsible for the data acquisition, and AG, SMB and YH were responsible for the data analysis. HP, AG SMB, and YH drafted the manuscript. All the authors were involved in critically revising the manuscript draft. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Harm Peters .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

Author HP is a member of the Editorial Board of BMC Medical Education. The other authors have no competing interests to declare.

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The study protocol was approved by the local psychological ethics committee at the Center for Psychosocial Medicine at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (LPEK-0042). All participants provided informed consent.

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Peters, H., Garbe, A., Breil, S.M. et al. Big five personality traits of medical students and workplace performance in the final clerkship year using an EPA framework. BMC Med Educ 24 , 453 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05434-x

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How Can Teacher Preparation Stay Relevant?

Eleonora Villegas-Reimers and Meagan Comb explore the ways programs are adapting to today’s challenges

Finn gardiner.

Traditional teacher preparation programs housed in institutions of higher education are finding themselves having to adapt to the new reality that fewer people are studying to become teachers. As a result, these programs are building new partnerships, changing their curriculum, and adopting new recruitment methods to keep themselves relevant.

For this Conversations with the Dean session, Dean David Chard is joined by Meagan Comb , assistant dean of Executive Affairs and executive director of the Wheelock Educational Policy Center, and clinical professor Eleonora Villegas-Reimers , chair of the Teaching & Learning Department, to discuss the role that traditional teacher preparation plays in a continually changing landscape—and how higher education institutions can improve their methods to encourage a new generation of students to join the profession.

Highlights from the Conversation

The changing landscape of teacher prep.

There’s been a significant decline in teacher prep enrollment over the last decade. . . . It used to be that, in most states, to become a teacher, you had to complete a teacher prep program from an institution of higher education. [But because of the] shortages, alongside concerns and questions about the quality of training meeting the needs of the current classroom environment, new avenues began to open up. Meagan Comb

Keys to teacher retention

It’s fascinating to have conversations both with recent graduates who are choosing to stay, but also with teachers who have been in the field for 20, 25 years and are choosing to still stay. In talking with the younger teachers, how well prepared they feel has an impact on their decision to stay. They feel that they know what they are doing. They feel that they can do things even when they don’t feel totally supported by their administration, their district, or by the parents in their school. Eleonora Villegas-Reimers

The impact of contemporary research

When I became a teacher, we didn’t know about the impact of social and emotional learning. We didn’t know how the brain works to facilitate learning, and the conditions that we need to create so that learning can happen. . . . So now we have research that says, “You have an ethical responsibility to change the way you prepare teachers to respond to what we know about the way we can facilitate learning and teaching.” Eleonora Villegas-Reimers

Conversations with the Dean are a series of webinars hosted by Dean Chard that explore some of the most pressing topics in education. Learn more about Conversations with the Dean .

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• Eleonora Villegas-Reimers
• Meagan Comb
• Wheelock Educational Policy Center
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