Lessons from The Science of Learning in the Field
Over the past few months, I have had the pleasure of working on a Science of Learning grant through the Learning Agency, funded by the Overdeck Family Foundation (see here). Through this grant, professors and researchers with expertise in the science of learning have been paired with K-12 teachers across the country. Each team is…
New Findings Inform the Laptop versus Longhand Note-Taking Debate
While there may be very good reasons to be cautious about laptop use in the classroom – e.g., laptops with internet access may invite multitasking which is detrimental to the learning of the student engaging in multi-tasking, but also has negative effects on students sitting in proximity of the multitasker (2) – their use to…
GUEST POST: Testing in the Classroom: The Importance of Feedback
References: (1) Roediger, H. L., III, & Butler, A. C. (2011). The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15, 20-27. (2) Epstein, M. L., Lazarus, A. D., Calvano, T. B., Matthews, K. A., Hendel, R. A., Epstein, B. B., et al. (2002). Immediate feedback assessment technique promotes learning and corrects…
Good Interventions Do NOT Have to be Expensive
A common misconception that we hear is that education and neuroscience are related disciplines and that those who study the brain must know how we learn. While one can inform the other, I promise that training in neuroscience does NOT include an understanding of how those brain processes translate into classroom practices. We often talk…
Tips for Implementing Evidence-Based Learning Strategies in your Classes
At the same time, we are also transitioning to putting out a variety of resources on the blog and podcast once per week. So, I’d like to take this opportunity to invite everyone to listen to our podcast, as it will soon be a part of our weekly rotation on Thursdays! You can listen to…
Weekly Digest #130: SoTL Researcher Spotlight
Dr. Regan Gurung conducts health psychological and social psychological research on cultural differences in stress, social support, smoking cessation, body image and impression formation. He has also received numerous teaching awards, organized teaching conferences, and served on many different committees and executive boards with teaching organizations. For more information about Regan and the work that…
Hocus Focus
From a cognitive psychologist’s point of view, these results are particularly impressive because they demonstrate transfer. There are a number of training tools that are marketed as improving mental processes. While a number of these show improvement on the training task itself, very few show improvement on things outside of the task (4). In other…
Weekly Digest #129: Students Under Stress
When one of our very first guest bloggers reached out to us recently asking about resources for students under severe stress, we realized that we hadn’t broached this issue on our blog yet. This hugely important issues will take more than a quick digest to explore, so expect more on this topic in the future.…
Weekly Digest #132: Dual Coding, Visual Note Taking, and Sketchnoting
1. To Remember a Lecture Better, Take Notes by Hand by Robinson Meyer via The Atlantic Why should you take notes by hand? If you can’t imagine going without your laptop, or asking your students to go without theirs, then this interview with Mueller and Oppenheimer may change your mind. Mueller and Oppenheimer tell the…
Have You Forgotten Your Childhood?
By Yana Weinstein Imagine if I asked you this question: “Are there large parts of your childhood after age 5 that you cannot remember?”. How would you answer: Yes, or no? Are you sure? And what might influence your answer? (Note that the “after age 5” part is important, because most of us do not…
