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Tailoring Teaching to Fit the Class: Teaching Practice and Classroom Composition Under Random Assignment

The main purpose of this project is to explore teaching practice through the lens of classroom composition. In particular, we will investigate how teaching practice affects student learning and engagement differentially depending on the level and dispersion of students’ initial achievement. We will explore how teachers adapt to different classroom compositions and whether these adaptations are productive in improving student outcomes. The research will have important implications for educational inequality, as teaching practice and classroom composition are dimensions of schooling that are both impactful and unevenly distributed. This is a multidisciplinary study sponsored by Institute for Education Sciences.

 

Transitions: A Study of College Life and Well-Being

The main purpose of this project is to assess the determinants of anxiety and depression symptoms for college students. We take a mixed-methods approach, surveying students in their first-year of university (October/November 2019; January/February 2020) and interviewing a small set of participants to understand the stressors they face during the transition to university and the supports they need to thrive. We then conduct follow-up surveys of the first-year students in our initial sample to assess the effects of the pandemic on mental health and to learn about protective factors that helped students to continue to success despite the stresses of the pandemic. These surveys were conducted 4 months into the pandemic (June/July 2020), at the beginning of the cohort’s third year in college or 18 months into the pandemic (September/October 2021) and at the end of their 4th year in college (April to June 2023). This survey and research was developed in collaboration with students to learn from their insights into the challenges of their generation and to provide research opportunities for students to contribute to an issue that they are passionate about.