I often share the significant research in the past year in the field of autism, but I decided today to focus on Education studies this past year. 2023 saw the U.S. surgeon general issue warnings about the dangers of the use of social media for developing brains.  There has been much discussion on a national level on how social media should be regulated.  Findings suggest that more frequent use of social media is linked to higher rates of mental distress, self-harming behaviors, and suicide among teenagers.  

So, what should we do?   The study suggest that families should engage in developmentally appropriate discussion about how to limit social media.  ChatGPT caused a huge furor when it was released as all of us thought about how it could be used to expand students’ learning and solve some of the cumbersome tasks in teaching.  So far, the analyses have yet to determine the most effective uses of ChatGPT. 

Interestingly, while the ChatGPT bot provides highly accurate information in areas like economics and critical thinking prompts, it was not able to do so in math and software testing.  The tool also provides out-of-date or incorrect information on various subjects as well as not provide the proper sources for its information.  Another area that has seen headlines is the move to decrease the school week to four days from five.  Currently 900 districts in the nation have implemented this schedule.  

Some of these districts are lengthening the school day to make up for the lost hours. However, this study found that teachers and students were exhausted by this longer day and that it did not “make up” for the lost full days.  Another study, which looked at the schools which provided the most instructional hours, found that over the span of twelve years the students actually received an additional two years of instruction. 

In a future blog post, I will look at the value of tutoring, chronic absenteeism, and family engagement. 

More to come….