Forest school is a form of outdoor learning that takes children into regular and repeated learning experiences in natural settings. Being based on a comprehensive experience with nature, it is assumed to be beneficial for learning and to promote restorative effects on cognitive and emotional function in preschool children. This review aimed to…

Critical thinking (CT) is widely regarded as an important competence to obtain in education. Students' exposure to problems and collaboration have been proven helpful in promoting CT processes. These elements are present in student-centered instructional environments such as problem-based and project-based learning (P(j)BL). Next to CT, also…

Motivation and instruction are two major substantive domains in educational psychology. Theory and research relevant to each of these domains tend to be diffuse and fragmented. This presents challenges for scholars and practitioners seeking to implement parsimonious and cohesive approaches to help students to learn. This review articulates a…

The growing number of peer assessment studies in the last decades created diverse design options for researchers and teachers to implement peer assessment. However, it is still unknown if there are more commonly used peer assessment formats and design elements that could be considered when designing peer assessment activities in educational…

One of the most important competencies to become a life-long learner is considered to be self-regulated learning (SRL). In this narrative review study, we describe research on the relationships between classroom- and dyad-level student-teacher interactions and the components of elementary students' SRL. These components include metacognition and…

The escalating price of instructional materials creates significant economic and academic hardship for many students. Open educational resources (OER) are instructional materials that are typically electronic and copyrighted under a license that allows free student use. Adopting OER is one strategy that has gained traction from higher education…

There is growing interest recently in the outdoor environment surrounding schools where students spent time during breaks, in-school activities, and after-school programs. Several reviews have examined the impact of long-term exposures to nearby nature on students' academic achievement, but none has focused on the effects of short-term contacts…

School engagement is considered an antidote to several academic problems found in middle and high school. Previous data highlight the importance of understanding school engagement in early years. The present systematic review aims to outline investigations regarding school engagement in elementary school. Findings are expected to (i) help…

The question of how learners' motivation influences their academic achievement and vice versa has been the subject of intensive research due to its theoretical relevance and important implications for the field of education. Here, we present our understanding of how influential theories of academic motivation have conceptualized reciprocal…

A student's sense of school belonging is critical to school success, yet internationally, a large proportion of secondary students do not feel that they belong to their school. However, little is understood about how schools can address this issue, nor what evidence-based interventions are available to increase belonging among secondary school…

This best-evidence synthesis reviews the past 20 years of rigorous reading intervention research to identify effective programs of instruction for Grade K-3 English Learners (ELs), as well as to determine the average effect of reading instruction on reading outcomes for this population. We identified 10 studies, all of which only included students…

Indigenous communities demonstrate immense cultural strengths despite being impacted by mental health and academic disparities due to ongoing systemic racism and historical trauma. Given that schools are a context in which indigenous youths' needs have potential to be met through preventive intervention, this scoping review explores and summarizes…

Motivation is a catalyst of writing performance in school. In this article, we report a systematic review of empirical studies on writing motivation conducted in school settings, published between 2000 and 2018 in peer-reviewed journals. We aimed to (1) examine how motivational constructs have been defined in writing research; (2) analyze group…

This systematic review and meta-analysis explores the impact of motivational reading interventions on the reading achievement and reading motivation of school-age students. Results of preliminary searches for--and inspection of--the existing meta-analytic literature suggest that while there exist published meta-analyses on motivational reading…

Teachers, schools, districts, states, and technology developers endeavor to personalize learning experiences for students, but definitions of personalized learning (PL) vary and designs often span multiple components. Variability in definition and implementation complicate the study of PL and the ways that designs can leverage student…