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Major Topics
Learning
Research
New
Reason To "Sleep On It": Study Shows Importance Of Sleep To
Memory Consolidation And Task Performance
School
kids may be cutting back on sleep to finish ever mounting piles of
homework, but it could be a self-defeating strategy. Harvard Medical
School researchers have found that people who stay up all night after
learning and practicing a new task show little improvement in their
performance. And the study suggests that no amount of sleep on the
following two nights can make up for the toll taken by the initial
all-nighter.
Study
Describes Brain Changes During Learning
A
new study by brain scientists at Brown University provides evidence that
learning engages a brain process called long-term potentiation (LTP),
which in turn strengthens synapses in the cerebral cortex. The study
provides the strongest evidence to date to support the 25-year-old
hypothesis, generally accepted by neuroscientists, that learning uses LTP
to produce changes in the connections (synapses) between brain cells
(neurons) that are necessary to acquire and store new information, said
lead author Mengia-Seraina Rioult-Pedotti. Neuroscientists also
theorize that higher forms of learning occur in the cerebral cortex.
Evidence from the study supports that theory.
Brain
Structure May Play Role in Children's Ability To Learn To Read
Brain
structure and hand preference may be as important as environment in
influencing a child's ability to learn to read, according to a University of
Florida Brain Institute study. The seven-year study of 39 Alachua
County students from kindergarten to sixth grade indicates that while
children from a lower socioeconomic class may be at risk for reading
failure, the detrimental effects of environment are greatly increased in
children with unusual brain asymmetry.
Brains
Of Those In Certain Professions Shown To Have More Synapses
Education not only makes a person smarter, it may generate
a specific type of synapse in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, Illinois
and Russian neuroscientists say.
Learning
And Skilled Performance Use Different Brain Circuits
The parts of the brain that enable you
to do a familiar task are different from those that learn that task, a new
study confirms. Researchers at Washington University School of
Medicine in St. Louis reached this conclusion after obtaining positron
emission tomography (PET) images of people tracing maze patterns. PET is
one of the techniques that can reveal which areas of the brain are
active. "Our volunteers used some areas of the brain to learn
the maze task but shifted to other areas after practice," says lead
researcher Steven E. Petersen, Ph.D., professor of neurology, neurobiology
and radiology.
Instant
Replay: Study Finds Potential Mechanism For Building Long-Term Memory
Princeton scientists have discovered a
key mechanism the brain uses to transfer short-term memories into
permanent storage, a finding that could have broad implications for
understanding how the brain maintains long-term stability.
Researchers led by neuroscientist Joe Tsien found that the brain appears
to have a system of repeatedly replaying and reinforcing the same cellular
event that led to the initial formation of a memory. The reinforcement is
critical for creating the cell-to-cell connections that constitute
long-term memories, the researchers found.
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Educational
Issues
Research
Shows Homework Does Boost Academic Achievement; But Overemphasizing Grades
And Performance May Lead To Cheating
Stressing Competition May Drive Adolescents
To Cheat In School Adolescents
who perceive that schools and classroom teachers define achievement
primarily in terms of grades and performance are more likely to cheat and
believe that cheating is acceptable. Psychologist Eric M. Anderman, Ph.D.,
and graduate students Tripp Griesinger, M.S., and Gloria Westerfield,
M.S., of the University of Kentucky studied 285 middle school science
students and examined the link between cheating in science class and the
motivational variables behind such behavior. Their findings indicate that
students who report cheating tend to:
- worry about school
- perceive their school as focused on grades and ability
- believe they can obtain some type of reward for doing well in class
- attribute failure in school to outside circumstances
- avoid using deep-level cognitive processing strategies, such as
trying different ways to solve a problem.
Involvement
in School Gives Even High-Risk Students a Good Chance at Academic Success,
Says New Study Going to
school, being on time and doing one's coursework can make academic success
more attainable for those students who are considered at risk for not
completing high school, say researchers, even if other negative influences
exist. This finding is examined in a new study of academic achievement of
minority students who are at high risk for dropping out of school which
appears in the April issue of the American Psychological
Association's (APA) Journal of Applied Psychology.
"Successful at-risk students who participated in positive engagement
behaviors --for example, coming to class and school on time, being prepared
for and participating in class work, expending the effort needed to complete
assignments in school and as homework and not being disruptive in class --
counteracted other influences to produce acceptable grades, test scores and
on-time graduation," said researcher Jeremy D. Finn, Ph.D., who is the
lead author of the study.
Teachers'
Nonverbal Clues Affect Students' Performance
Children are quick studies when it comes to their teachers'
body language, and the messages they get about their teachers' feelings
toward them can have a profound effect on their classroom performance, a
University of Florida researcher has found.
School
Breakfast Participation Leads To Academic, Psychosocial Improvements
A new study by researchers from the Massachusetts General
Hospital (MGH) and other institutions lends support to traditional beliefs
about the importance of a good breakfast. The report in the September
Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine finds that children who
increase their participation in school breakfast programs tend to show
improvement on a wide range of measures of social and academic
functioning.
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School Curriculum Issues
Poor
Performance In Math And Science Testing Confirms Need For Concerted Effort
In School Reform The American Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS) is saddened but not surprised by the disappointing scores of U.S.
high school seniors in the Third International Mathematics and Science
Study (TIMMS) released Feb. 24 by the Department of Education.
U.S.
Math And Science Scores Indicate Mediocrity
Penn State researchers think they know what is behind
Johnny's and Janey's inability to do science and math, but Americans may
not wish to make the changes that could improve performance.
Innovative
‘Boombox Physics’ Provides Sound Education
Turn on the receiver, pop in a CD, crank up the volume and
. . . let’s do physics.
Heavy
Books Light On Learning -- Not One Middle-Grades Science Text Rated
Satisfactory By AAAS's Project 2061 Not one of the widely used science textbooks for middle
school was rated satisfactory by Project 2061, the long-term science,
mathematics, and technology education reform initiative of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). And the new crop of
texts that have just entered the market fared no better in the study.
Girls
Less Confident Than Boys In Science Classes, Researcher Finds
Girls
remain a step behind boys in their confidence and participation levels in
science classrooms, despite a hands-on teaching approach now popular in
many science classrooms, according to University of Illinois research.
National
Geography Illiteracy Reflects Disinterest With The Subject, Study Suggests
Ever wonder why so many American
students can't find Vietnam on the map or are hard-pressed to explain why
the District of Columbia isn't a state? It may be because they don't
like geography and sometimes aren't exposed to an active learning
environment when they study geography in school, says an Ohio University
researcher who has examined students' attitudes toward the subject.
School
Governance & Safety Issues
Early
Warning Signs Of Violence Often Overlooked, Study Finds
A new study by Ohio University researchers suggests many
teachers and counselors often overreact to one-time, physical
confrontations between kids and overlook nonviolent behaviors that can
cause even more damaging, long-term emotional and social problems. The
work was presented at the American Counseling Association World
Conference.
UF
Study: Students Improve Reading Skills By Tutoring Younger Kids
High
school students struggling with reading can improve their skills
significantly over short periods of time by becoming tutors to younger
students, a University of Florida study has found. In the
seven-month span that students were tested last year, the tutors' reading
comprehension grew as much as it would have in two years without the
program, and their reading skills grew as much as they would have in a
year and four months, the study shows. Their vocabulary skills and
attitudes toward reading also improved.
UF
Study: Polarizing Parents And Schools Make Truancy Worse
A
child skips one school day after another. The teacher and principal blame
the parents for not disciplining the youngster, while mom and dad fault
the school for not giving the child the benefit of the doubt. This
tug-of-war is no child's game when it frequently makes the problem of
truancy worse, a new University of Florida study suggests.
Kids
Who Don't Get Along With Others Also Less Likely To Learn
"Works
and plays well with others," that seemingly minor item on many a
kindergarten report card, may be much more important to a child's academic
success than many parents realize, a University of Illinois professor of
educational psychology says.
Study
Finds Host Of Sleep-Related Problems Among School-Age Kids
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A new study of
parents, children and teachers finds that 37 percent of 494 youngsters in
kindergarten through the fourth grade suffer from at least one
sleep-related problem. That percentage is higher than expected and is an
indication that pediatricians are not screening school-age patients
adequately for sleep problems.
Scientists
Reveal Details Of Brain Cell Communication: Implications For Learning &
Memory Forget gigabytes. Even
the most powerful computers available today are mere playthings compared to
the complexity, efficiency, and information processing capacity of the human
brain. Underlying the brain's far superior design are the billion-million or
so connections between brain cells—called synapses—that form vast neural
networks in which brain cells, or neurons, are each connected to thousands
of other neurons. These networks—and their ability to be shaped by
experience—enable us to receive, process, store, and retrieve all manner
of information about our world. Unfortunately, the extremely tiny size of
synapses and the limitations of conventional experimental techniques have
hampered detailed studies of these essential structures. (One trillion
synaptic compartments, or "dendritic spines," could fit into a
thimble). Now, scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have overcome
these technical obstacles to gain an extremely close look at the properties
of dendritic spines and synapses that govern brain function.
Heavy
Books Light On Learning -- Not One Middle-Grades Science Text Rated
Satisfactory By AAAS's Project 2061
Not
one of the widely used science textbooks for middle school was rated
satisfactory by Project 2061, the long-term science, mathematics, and
technology education reform initiative of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS). And the new crop of texts that have just
entered the market fared no better in the study. The in-depth study
found that most textbooks cover too many topics and don't develop any of
them well. All texts include many classroom activities that are either
irrelevant to learning key science ideas or don't help students relate what
they are doing to the underlying ideas.
Many
Classrooms Have Bad Acoustics That Inhibit Learning
Researchers
at Ohio State University have found that the acoustics of many classrooms
are poor enough to make listening and learning difficult for children.
The study of 32 classrooms in central Ohio primary schools found that only
two met the standards recommended by the American Speech-Language-Hearing
Association (ASHA). “This is probably the most extensive acoustical
study of classrooms ever,” said Lawrence Feth, professor of speech and
hearing science at Ohio State. The findings held across economic
boundaries. In rural, urban, and suburban classrooms -- old school buildings
and new -- background noise and echoes were prominent enough to hamper the
learning of children with even mild hearing problems, according to the ASHA
recommended levels.
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