From Knowledge To Skill: Do Learning Strategies Improve Critical Thinking?
(The Learning Scientists)
“How do I ace an exam?”… “How can I make learning more meaningful for my students?”… “How do I help my child to study?” are just a few of the many questions asked by students, teachers, and parents. And although these questions are articulated in slightly different ways, they ultimately are trying to understand the same underlying mechanism; that is, how do humans learn?
A de-escalation exercise for upset students
(Edutopia)
A simple technique that takes just a few minutes can help an agitated student regain the state of mind needed for learning.
This is your child’s brain on books: Scans show benefit of reading vs. screen time
(CNN)
Taking away screens and reading to our children during the formative years of birth to age 5 boosts brain development. We all know that’s true, but now science can convince us with startling images.
Growing a brain dump
(The Effortful Educator)
A brain dump is a really simple, easy, and effective method for assessing students’ knowledge.
Everyone knows memory fails as you age. But everyone is wrong.
(The New York Times)
In the absence of brain disease, even the oldest older adults show little or no cognitive or memory decline beyond age 85 and 90, as shown in a 2018 study. Memory impairment is not inevitable.
Screen time: Conclusions about the effects of digital media are often incomplete, irrelevant or wrong
(The Conversation)
Scientific data, however, often fail to confirm what seems true based on everyday experiences. In study after study, screen time is often not correlated with important effects at a magnitude that matches the concerns and expectations of media consumers, critics, teachers, parents, pediatricians and even the researchers themselves.
Mix of stress and air pollution may lead to cognitive difficulties in children
(Science Daily)
Children with elevated exposure to early life stress in the home and elevated prenatal exposure to air pollution exhibited heightened symptoms of attention and thought problems, according to researchers. Early life stress is common in youth from disadvantaged backgrounds who also often live in areas with greater exposure to air pollution.
Internet use reduces study skills in university students
(Science Daily)
Research has shown that students who use digital technology excessively are less motivated to engage with their studies, and are more anxious about tests. This effect was made worse by the increased feelings of loneliness that use of digital technology produced.
‘Marshmallow test’ redux: Children show better self-control when they depend on each other
(Science Daily)
The researchers say their experiments are the first to show that children are more willing to delay gratification for cooperative reasons than for individual goals.
What we’re watching: what it will take for social and emotional learning to succeed
(Education Next – Closed captions available)
Video examining the challenges and future of SEL hosted by American Enterprise Institute’s Frederick Hess.
Why teen depression rates are rising faster for girls than boys
(The Conversation)
Rates of depression started to tick up just as smartphones became popular, so digital media could be playing a role. The generation of teens born after 1995 – known as iGen or Gen Z – were the first to spend their entire adolescence in the age of the smartphone. They’re also the first group of teens to experience social media as an indispensable part of social life.
‘Accidental’ shooting in Houston high school sparks new rounds of questions
(Education Week – Subscription required, free trial)
When a 16-year-old boy shot and killed a fellow student at a Houston high school this week, it set off yet another round of questions about how students manage to get guns onto campuses undetected. But the Texas tragedy also calls attention to the unique and difficult fallout from gun incidents that are deemed accidental.
Relationships are important. How do we build them effectively with kids?
(KQED – Mind/Shift)
“A gigantic body of research shows that the relationships in a kid’s life are like the roots of a tree,” Pekel said during a TEDx talk. “When kids have strong roots they can grow, they can thrive, they can withstand the storms life throws at them.”
Why I’m going to teach my child how, and when, to quit
(The Washington Post – Subscription required, free trial)
The psychology professor Carsten Wrosch has found that people who are “better able to let go when they experience unattainable goals” have “less depressive symptoms, less negative affect over time. They also have lower cortisol levels, and they have lower levels of systemic inflammation, which is a marker of immune functioning. And they develop fewer physical health problems over time.”
Miami-Dade district considers later school bells, weighing science against logistics
(WJCT)
“There’s nothing in this for me. I am driven by what’s right for kids, and I cannot deny what the research says,” Carvalho said during a town hall Monday at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School.
