This week’s article summary is "The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2025."
Every year, Edutopia publishes an annual roundup of the most significant education research from the prior year.
As in past years, many of the findings reinforce long-standing best practices. This year’s research again highlighted the value of outdoor recess, in-class brain breaks, writing by hand with pencils and pens, allowing students to wrestle with problems before stepping in, and building strong, trusting relationships within schools.
Not surprisingly, students today struggle with math word problems much as previous generations did.
Several studies also examined the impact of artificial intelligence on teaching and learning. For educators, AI can be a helpful tool that reduces administrative workload; for students, however, over-reliance on AI often limits deep understanding and meaningful learning.
Finally, research shows that phone-free classrooms—introduced over the past two years in many middle and high schools—result in improved student behavior and stronger learning outcomes.
Joe
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IT’S OVER FOR CELL PHONES: Researchers embarked on a massive project to determine the impact of cell phone bans on academic performance. Phone-free classrooms produced better academic outcomes, especially among new and struggling students. The will to ban phones in U.S. schools has been slow to coalesce but has recently gained momentum. This year 22 states passed new laws restricting phone use in schools. Beyond improved grades, the researchers reported “fewer instances of disruptive behavior” in classrooms, “less peer-to-peer conversation unrelated to course material,” and better student-teacher relationships. Kids who attended class without phones, meanwhile, became converts: As a group, they were “significantly more supportive of phone-use restrictions” going forward—signaling a “convergence of academic performance” and “increased student receptivity” that highlights the potential of phone bans to transform school cultures, the researchers say.
CRACKING THE CODE OF MATH WORD PROBLEMS: Researchers found that students often stumbled when trying to translate narrative text in math word problems into manageable, computable steps. What may seem like a straightforward scenario—calculating the gas, food, and lodging costs for a family road trip, for example—can exert “high demands on working memory” as information outstrips cognitive bandwidth. In the study, the most common technique—highlighting key elements of a word problem—was only marginally helpful. But when used as the first step in a broader “organizational and elaborative” approach that included sketching diagrams, categorizing information, and annotating the problems with arrows or labels, students were better able to see how the pieces fit together. What’s the secret behind the strategies? Math word problems often present more information than students can hold in working memory. “Capable problem solvers” offload information to sketch pads and margin notes and reintegrate it later, allowing savvy students to refocus their attention on a smaller set of factors as they work to translate a story into solvable math.
BENEFITS OF MICROBREAKS: Sustained student attention is the horse that never wins. Researchers detected the first signs of wobbly student focus a mere five minutes into a lecture. Attention then steadily declined for the rest of the lesson. Microbreaks are very effective, consisting of activities like “closing your eyes, quietly speaking with fellow classmates, stretching, or drinking water.” The attempt to master challenging material always leads to mind-wandering—there are no cures. Historical studies of attention spans place the limits at various thresholds, from eight to 10 to 25 minutes. Instead of trying to “overcome these constraints,” the researchers say, educators should “acknowledge the theoretical impossibility of perfect sustained attention” and choose strategies that are compatible with “inherent neural, biological, and cognitive limitations.”
HANDWRITING LEADS TO (MUCH) BETTER READING: In the debate over screens versus paper, new research tips the scale dramatically, revealing that writing by hand—but not typing—helps build the cognitive framework young students rely on to decode letters and recognize words. Across nearly every measure, the children who wrote letters by hand demonstrated superior alphabetic and orthographic skills. A study of seventh graders revealed telltale traces of deeper learning when kids wrote words instead of typing them, confirming that handwriting is an “important tool for learning and memory retention” that benefits students across all ages, including middle and high school. As screens increasingly claim space in children’s daily routines, the studies argue for a return to older technologies. For the youngest readers and writers, the need for a steady diet of pencil and paper work is inarguable. Meanwhile, middle and high school students can move between tools like Google Docs and old-fashioned paper notebooks, gaining crucial experience with modern technologies while periodically slowing down to engage in methodical, embodied thinking.
WHEN TO RESIST THE URGE TO HELP STUDENTS: Feeling competent is crucial to well-being, but for young learners it tends to come at a price: a dose of (healthy) frustration. When adults spot a struggling student and intervene too quickly, it can signal that solutions are beyond the child’s ability—and dampen their confidence and willingness to take intellectual risks when new challenges arise. As early as age 5, children across a range of studies reviewed by the researchers became “less motivated to persist on a difficult task” after an adult stepped in to help solve a puzzle. The impulse to rescue students from confusion and frustration is hard to ignore, but real learning often happens in the difficult moments just before we do. When tempted to step in, educators might consider other scaffolds like “providing hints or asking questions,” pointing kids in the right direction without doing the thinking for them. Offering a few useful stepping stones in lieu of answers can preserve independence and foster self-
AI TAKES A BIG BITE OUT OF SPECIAL ED PAPERWORK: Special education teachers often face an overwhelming volume of paperwork, from drafting IEPs to logging weekly data on student progress and tracking learning accommodations. That’s precious time that could be reallocated to working directly with kids. A team of researchers asked experienced K–12 special education teachers to write an IEP goal based on a brief description of a student’s disability, past performance, and areas of need. The same teachers then used ChatGPT to generate an IEP goal by providing basic information about a student’s learning differences. After analyzing both sets of goals on six dimensions including clarity, measurability, and timeliness, the researchers found “no statistically significant difference in quality” between the AI-generated versions and those written entirely by teachers. The teachers, however, had a more favorable impression: Most said that the ChatGPT goals were “either of the same or better quality than they think a special education teacher… would have written,” and viewed AI as a tool they could use to improve efficiency.
BLISSED-OUT KIDS: Decades ago, the U.S. had a “simple philosophy” on school recess that recognized outdoor play as “essential for healthy and happy children” and honored the principle by setting aside 60 minutes for daily recess. In the ensuing years, a creeping tide of academic expectations led to more seat time and testing, undermining the quality and quantity of free play in schools. The researchers say that recess should be frequent, unstructured, and outdoors. More independent play yields happier, more socially competent children, according to an ever-expanding body of research. One study that combed through 50 years of historical records concluded that kids in the past spent more time outdoors and derived long-term benefits from opportunities to “play, roam, and engage in other activities independent of direct oversight and control by adults.”
THE VALUE OF RELATIONSHIPS: From kindergarten through high school, students spend roughly 15,000 hours with teachers, making the quality of those relationships a crucial factor in learning. Supportive student-teacher relationships were linked to a wide range of benefits across grade levels: higher academic achievement, improved behavior, better executive function and self-control, and greater feelings of belonging, motivation, and well-being. “Students who feel a sense of belonging within the school community are more successful academically,” the researchers note, pointing to the crucial role that teachers play in creating a culture that helps students reach their full potential. Relationships before rigor holds true, then.
TEACHING MIGHT BE ONE OF THE MOST COMPLICATED JOBS IN THE WORLD: Thrust into the chaos of real classrooms, teachers may look back at their training and wonder if too much time was spent learning about conceptual models—and not enough time practicing everyday teacher moves. Researchers compared “traditional” teacher prep programs, which emphasize reading and discussion of theoretical frameworks, with “practice-based” approaches that focus on expert observation and role-playing in simulated classroom environments. Watching videos of master teachers and then “rehearsing” in the presence of coaches might be especially beneficial for young teachers, because the approach allows for “feedback in the moment” along with quick hints on “how to elevate instruction.” In the end, practice trumped theory. Teaching dozens, or even hundreds, of students is mind-numblingly complicated: Kids process information at different speeds, possess wildly disparate skills in reading and math, and sometimes come to school grumpy, fidgety, or even desperately hungry. To get learning off the ground under those circumstances, as so many teachers do every day, theory is insufficient. Regular practice, access to inspiring mentors, time for planning, and plenty of encouragement and patience from administrators and peers is the path to improving one of the most challenging jobs in the world.
WRITERS USING CHATGPT ARE STRANGERS TO THEIR OWN THINKING: Given free rein with ChatGPT, ninth, 10th, and 11th graders engage in only superficial conversations with the software; among the most frequent student queries were “can u solve this question?” and “what is the answer?” The results were unsurprising: AI users performed well in practice sessions, but then quickly forgot most of what they’d learned and bombed a closed-book test on the material. It’s not as cut-and-dried as it sounds; the how and when of AI usage seems to matter a great deal. Several studies conclude that AI tutors designed to withhold answers and ask probing questions, for example, make excellent study partners.
