Getting a Read on Ready To Learn Media: A Meta-analytic Review of Effects on Literacy

Ready to Learn: A Concept Analysis for the Intersection of Health and Education

Since the inception of the National Education Goals in 1989, the United States has enacted policies focused on student readiness to learn, but there is no single or clear definition of ready to learn. Education quality and access are social determinants of health. However, students do not learn well if they are not healthy. This concept analysis explores the connection between health and education across multiple domains. Utilizing the Walker-Avant method, CINAHL, SCOPUS, and the Journal of School Nursing were searched for literature related to ready to learn. Definitions were synthesized from the literature, resulting in a concept of ready to learn encompassing health and thriving at individual, family, school, and community levels. Ready to learn is the result of multiple domains working synergistically to support health and thriving across the lifespan. School health practice improves with a robust understanding of this ready to learn model.

Examining Profiles of U.S. Children's Screen Time and Associations with Academic Skills

Children's screen time (ST) increased in recent years, but investigations of the content and context (e.g., parental presence, and device type) of ST in predicting early academic skills remains understudied. In this study of 127 four- and five-year-olds, we examined whether the educational content and contextual information about children's ST from time diary interviews at age 4 predicted direct assessments of academic skills at age five. Cluster analyses detected three unique groups: Cluster One was "lowest ST and highest non-educational TV, with little parental presence," Cluster Two was "moderate ST and highest educational mobile devices, with moderate parental presence," and Cluster Three was "highest total ST and moderate educational ST and high parental presence." Children in Cluster Two scored significantly higher in literacy skills at age five than peers in Cluster One and Cluster Three. Children in Cluster One scored significantly higher in spatial skills compared to those in Cluster Three. No significant associations were detected between children's ST and number skills. Findings suggest that educational content and contextual features of ST combine in meaningful ways and appear to better predict children's literacy and spatial skills compared to variable-centered approaches. Methodological implications of this research and future directions are discussed.

Unsupervised Screen Exposure and Poor Language Development: A Scoping Review to Assess Current Evidence and Suggest Priorities for Research

Screen exposure has both negative and positive effects on the level of language skills a child acquires. The purpose of this review is to address current literature on the possible relationship between unsupervised screen exposure and language development in children and to provide recommendations to caregivers regarding screen exposure of children, taking into consideration the possible effects. A scoping review was conducted using the PubMed/MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online) database. A total of 590 articles were retrieved and considered for inclusion. Twenty-one articles were finally included and reviewed with an emphasis on language, communication, and executive skills as well as cognitive development. The negative effects of screen exposure for children outweigh the positive effects. The largest number of studies demonstrate that unsupervised screen exposure may negatively impact a child's language usage and cognitive and executive skills, disrupt playtime, and affect the quality of sleep. On the other hand, supervised screen use is associated with improved language skills. More evidence is needed on unsupervised exposure in children to new types of screens. As technology could play a significant role in schools in the future, additional research is required to create educational media for schoolchildren with specific guidelines.

An umbrella review of the benefits and risks associated with youths' interactions with electronic screens

The influence of electronic screens on the health of children and adolescents and their education is not well understood. In this prospectively registered umbrella review (PROSPERO identifier CRD42017076051 ), we harmonized effects from 102 meta-analyses (2,451 primary studies; 1,937,501 participants) of screen time and outcomes. In total, 43 effects from 32 meta-analyses met our criteria for statistical certainty. Meta-analyses of associations between screen use and outcomes showed small-to-moderate effects (range: r = -0.14 to 0.33). In education, results were mixed; for example, screen use was negatively associated with literacy (r = -0.14, 95% confidence interval (CI) = -0.20 to -0.09, P ≤ 0.001, k = 38, N = 18,318), but this effect was positive when parents watched with their children (r = 0.15, 95% CI = 0.02 to 0.28, P = 0.028, k = 12, N = 6,083). In health, we found evidence for several small negative associations; for example, social media was associated with depression (r = 0.12, 95% CI = 0.05 to 0.19, P ≤ 0.001, k = 12, N = 93,740). Limitations of our review include the limited number of studies for each outcome, medium-to-high risk of bias in 95 out of 102 included meta-analyses and high heterogeneity (17 out of 22 in education and 20 out of 21 in health with I2 > 50%). We recommend that caregivers and policymakers carefully weigh the evidence for potential harms and benefits of specific types of screen use.

Access to ICT at Argentine elementary school children's homes and its impact on school achievements

This article analyzes the relationship between access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and school performance. It contributes to the empirical literature in the area since there is no consensus yet. Moreover, the context associated with COVID-19 pandemic also considers the analysis as the most relevant. The goal of this article is to study the impact of ICT on school performance at elementary level. The hypothesis set forth is that having both a computer and connection to Internet at the students' homes, improves their school related achievements. To contrast it, we propose an econometric model using the Propensity Matching Score (PSM) methodology with data from the Learning 2018 (Aprender 2018) campaign of students at the last year of elementary school in Argentina and in each of the regions that conform it. Finally, there is evidence in favor of the hypothesis.

Impact of Exposure to a Counter-Stereotypical STEM Television Program on Children’s Gender- and Race-Based STEM Occupational Schema

Gender and racial diversity in STEM has been deemed an essential need for a sustainable future, but girls and children from underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds continue to show less interest in STEM than their White and male counterparts. Media has been shown to reflect children’s occupational schema from an early age, and therefore might be used to help broaden children’s beliefs about who participates in STEM. In this field-based pre/post-experimental study, children in kindergarten and first grades (N = 48, 62.5% female, Mage = 6.57) viewed episodes of a STEM-focused educational television series that features a diverse group of protagonists two to three times a week for eight weeks. Their occupational schema were measured before and after exposure. Results suggest there was no quantifiable change in their attitudes. However, qualitative analysis of their open-ended responses sheds light on how children’s beliefs about who participates in STEM are shaped, i.e., by both mediated and real-world exposure.

Motivation and Evaluation in Education from the Sustainability Perspective: A Review of the Scientific Literature

(1) Background: This paper outlines the results of a literature review of meta-analyses published on motivation and evaluation in the last five years. (2) Methods: A systematic review of three educational databases (WoS, SCOPUS and ERIC) was conducted following the PRISMA and PICO approaches. A total of 54 peer-reviewed meta-analysis papers were selected, analysed and compared. (3) Results: A significant number and variety of meta-analyses have been conducted: motivation meta-analyses focus primarily on contextual variables, self-regulation and students’ academic performance, and evaluation meta-analyses examine the effectiveness of the teaching intervention, the use of teaching methodologies and technological resources for learning. (4) Conclusions: There are two important absences: on the one hand, it is necessary to develop meta-analyses that combine motivation and evaluation, also measuring their interaction, from the perspective of sustainability, and not only of educational improvement, and on the other hand, it is necessary to perform meta-analyses on the effectiveness of the formative and shared evaluation of the sustainability of learning processes.

Children's Reality Status Judgments of Digital Media: Implications for a COVID-19 World and Beyond

Even prior to the COVID-19 crisis, one of the children's most common screen activities was using the video-sharing platform YouTube, with many children preferring YouTube over television. The pandemic has significantly increased the amount of time many children spend on YouTube-watching videos for both entertainment and education. However, it is unclear how children conceptualize the people they see on YouTube. Prior to the pandemic, children 3-8 years old (N = 117) were recruited to participate. Children were told that they would see pictures taken from videos and answer questions about them. Children saw three physical photos with the same image of a man and a bird and were told that the photo was (a) from a video on the experimenter's phone, (b) from a video on television, or (c) from a video on YouTube. They were asked whether the person in the photo was real or not real, which video would be best for learning, and which video they would prefer to watch. Findings indicated that children were marginally less likely to believe that people on YouTube are real than people in a video on a phone, with no difference between beliefs about people on YouTube and television. Notably, these beliefs were similar across the age range tested here. Across all ages, children preferred to watch YouTube more than phone videos and believed that YouTube possessed greater educational value than both phone and television videos.

Associations Between Children's Media Use and Language and Literacy Skills

Media use is a pervasive aspect of children’s home experiences but is often not considered in studies of the home learning environment. Media use could be detrimental to children’s language and literacy skills because it may displace other literacy-enhancing activities like shared reading and decrease the quantity and quality of caregiver–child interaction. Thus, the current study asked whether media use is associated with gains in children’s language and literacy skills both at a single time point and across a school year and whether age moderates any association. Children (N = 1583) were from preschool through third grade classrooms and language and literacy skills were measured in the fall and spring of the school year. Parents reported how much time their child spends using media on a typical school day. Regression analyses showed that using 4 h or more of media was related to lower literacy gains, but not to language gains. Multilevel models conducted as a robustness check showed that this effect did not hold when accounting for classroom. In neither set of models was there an interaction between age and media use. Single-time-point models did show some associations that did not manifest in more stringent models, highlighting the limitations of correlational designs that do not have measures of children’s skills over time. Given the concern and popular press coverage around children’s media use, it is important to acknowledge non-significant effects in this domain. These non-significant associations suggest that societal fears around children’s media use may be exaggerated. Notably, however, characteristics of children’s media use, like educational content or adult co-use, may moderate any effects. The relation between media use and language and literacy growth did not differ across the age range investigated suggesting that, within this range, younger children are not more vulnerable to detrimental effects.

Optical Fiber Sensors Based on Microstructured Optical Fibers to Detect Gases and Volatile Organic Compounds-A Review

Since the first publications related to microstructured optical fibers (MOFs), the development of optical fiber sensors (OFS) based on them has attracted the interest of many research groups because of the market niches that can take advantage of their specific features. Due to their unique structure based on a certain distribution of air holes, MOFs are especially useful for sensing applications: on one hand, the increased coupling of guided modes into the cladding or the holes enhances significantly the interaction with sensing films deposited there; on the other hand, MOF air holes enhance the direct interaction between the light and the analytes that get into in these cavities. Consequently, the sensitivity when detecting liquids, gasses or volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is significantly improved. This paper is focused on the reported sensors that have been developed with MOFs which are applied to detection of gases and VOCs, highlighting the advantages that this type of fiber offers.