Published: January 13, 2011
Students can combat test anxiety and improve performance by writing about their worries immediately before the exam begins, according to a University of Chicago study published in the journal Science.
Researchers found that students who were prone to test anxiety improved their high-stakes test scores by nearly one grade point after they were given 10 minutes to write about what was causing them fear, according to the article, “Writing about Testing Boosts Exam Performance in the Classroom.” The article appears in the Jan. 14 issue of Science and is based on research supported by the National Science Foundation. [continue reading…]
Published: March 19, 2010
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Why do teenagers find learning a drag? Jessica Hamzelou helps us to understand why in today’s New Scientist
Being a teenager can be a drag. As if dealing with peer pressure and raging hormones weren’t hard enough, your ability to learn new things is also reduced. Now the brain molecules behind this learning deficit have been identified in mice – and blocked.
When children hit puberty, their ability to learn a second language drops, they find it harder to learn their way around a new location and they are worse at detecting errors in cognitive tests.
Why is this? Sheryl Smith and her colleagues at the State University of New York now reckon that all of these behavioural changes could be due to a temporary increase in a chemical receptor that inhibits brain activity in an area responsible for learning.Link to read full article
Source:New Scientist
Published: December 17, 2009
Are you a verbal learner or a visual learner? Chances are, you’ve pegged yourself or your children as either one or the other and rely on study techniques that suit your individual learning needs. And you’re not alone— for more than 30 years, the notion that teaching methods should match a student’s particular learning style has exerted a powerful influence on education. The long-standing popularity of the learning styles movement has in turn created a thriving commercial market amongst researchers, educators, and the general public.
The wide appeal of the idea that some students will learn better when material is presented visually and that others will learn better when the material is presented verbally, or even in some other way, is evident in the vast number of learning-style tests and teaching guides available for purchase and used in schools. But does scientific research really support the existence of different learning styles, or the hypothesis that people learn better when taught in a way that matches their own unique style?
Unfortunately, the answer is no, according to a major new report published this month in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, [continue reading…]
Published: October 22, 2009
Whether a parent or a professional caregiver, anyone who has cared for children is likely to have dozens of questions about their development. With the intent of providing up-to-date information on the medical, psychological, educational and legal issues related to children and their development, a leading group of scholars has created The Child: An Encyclopedia Companion. [continue reading…]
