Trial reportPloS one2019
Randomized control trial of Tools of the Mind: Marked benefits to kindergarten children and their teachers.
Trial report in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 125 citations in OpenAlex.
- Does preschool children's self-regulation moderate the impacts of instructional activities? Evidence from a randomized intervention study.Journal of experimental child psychology · 2022Trial
- Effects of Prekindergarten Curricula: Tools of the Mind as a Case Study.Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development · 2021Trial
- Schooling Trajectories and the Development of Brain Dynamics: A Comparative Study of Montessori and Traditional Education.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Examining the Impact of Young Children's Motor Development on Inhibitory Control and Social Skills.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Transfer of the EFE-5 Executive Function Intervention Program to the Reduction of Behavioral Problems.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Supporting Young Children's Self-Regulation Through Nature-Based Practices in Preschool.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Effect of the Partners in Play Intervention on Parents' Autonomy-Supportive Guiding Behaviour and Children's Self-Regulation.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- Using Hot and Cool Measures to Phenotype and Predict Functional Outcomes Across Dimensions of ADHD and Typical Development in Adolescents.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2024Article
- Explaining Brain-Behavior Relations: Inhibitory Control as an Intermediate Phenotype Between the N2 ERP and the Externalizing Spectrum in Childhood.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2024Article
- The relationship of school performance with self-control and grit is strongly genetic and weakly causal.NPJ science of learning · 2023Article
- Centre-based early education interventions for improving school readiness: A systematic review.Campbell systematic reviews · 2023Review
- Design and evaluation of a remote synchronous gamified mathematics teaching activity that integrates multi-representational scaffolding and a mind tool for gamified learning.Education and information technologies · 2023Article
- Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task and EF in two samples of adolescents in Brazil and United States.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Article
- Machine Learning to Predict Executive Function in Adolescents with Repaired d-Transposition of the Great Arteries, Tetralogy of Fallot, and Fontan Palliation.The Journal of pediatrics · 2022Article
- A Systematic Scoping Review of Pre-School Self-Regulation Interventions from a Self-Determination Theory Perspective.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Reinventing the public square and early educational settings through culturally informed, community co-design: Playful Learning Landscapes.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Detecting Time Concept Competence in Children with Autism Spectrum and Attention Disorders.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2022Review
- Article
- Reducing Aggression by Developing Emotional and Inhibitory Control.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The kindergarten program, Tools of the Mind (Tools), has been shown to improve executive functions (as assessed by laboratory measures) and academic performance. The objective here was to see if Tools can improve executive functions in the real world (in the classroom), academic outcomes not previously investigated, reduce bullying and peer ostracism, and increase teachers' and students' joy in being in the classroom. This first randomized controlled trial of Tools in Canada included 351 kindergarten children (mean age 5.2 years at entry; 51% female) in 18 public schools. Stratified randomization resulted in teachers and students in both groups being closely matched. Teachers in both groups received the same number of training hours and same funds for new materials. Outcome measures were pre and post standardized academic skill assessments and teacher online survey responses. This study replicated that Tools improves reading and shows for the first time that it improves writing (far exceeding levels the school districts had seen before), self-control and attention-regulation in the real world (e.g., time on task without supervision), reduces teacher burnout and children being ostracized or excluded, and increases the joy students and teachers experience in school. By Spring, Tools teachers were still enthusiastic about teaching; control teachers were exhausted. These results were not only better than the control group but also better than Tools teachers experienced the year before Tools. Thus, children in a kindergarten curriculum that emphasized play, improving self-regulation, working together and helping one another, and hands-on learning performed better academically, showed less bullying and peer ostracism and more kindness and helping behavior than students in more traditional classes, and teacher enthusiasm for teaching soared. Tools reduced initial disparities separating children, schools, and teachers.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.