Education

Knowing Looks

istock.com/daaronjPeople use eye contact in a variety of ways every minute of every day but how often do you find yourself staring into space with concentrating on an issue or problem? Psychologists now know that people who are carrying out a complex task tend to look away from anyone else who is nearby. They refer to it as ‘gaze aversion’.

Now they are finding out how to use changes in a child’s gaze aversion to understand their educational progress. A group led by Dr Gwyneth Doherty-Sneddon at the University of Stirling, and funded by Economic and Social Research Council, has looked at gaze aversion in both children and adults. [continue reading…]

New research from the University of New Hampshire shows that students do much better in school when their parents are actively involved in their education.

Researchers Karen Smith Conway, professor of economics at the University of New Hampshire, and her colleague Andrew Houtenville, senior research associate at New Editions Consulting, found that parental involvement has a strong, positive effect on student achievement. [continue reading…]

Whether a young man’s mother earned a college degree and whether she worked outside the home while he was growing up seems to have an effect years later when he considers his ideal wife, according to a study by University of Iowa sociologist Christine Whelan.

High-achieving men — those who earn salaries in the top 10 percent for their age and/or have a graduate degree — are highly likely to marry a woman whose education level mirrors their mom’s. [continue reading…]

Those Who Stay in School, Stay Healthier

student-sitting-exam.jpg Both education and income can determine whether a person will remain healthy, but those who stay in school longer have the best odds, largely because education so strongly influences income, say the authors of a new study. [continue reading…]