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Child Prodigies
Recently there was a clever series of commercials that featured celebrities like Larry Bird and Aretha Franklin showing off their respective talents, and the announcer urged us to do the same. “Are you...
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Do You See What I’m Saying? The Role of Gestures in Learning
Recent research suggests that the gestures accompanying verbal speech convey critical information to the listener…and serve as a window into the thought processes of the speaker. Minnie Pearson, a...
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Sleepyheads’ brains veer from restful path
Does sleep affect learning potential? New evidence is adding to scientific concern over the effects of widespread sleep deficits. A good night’s sleep seems to clear the brain and help the well-snoozed...
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Stress: Interference to Learning
Taking a final exam can be a stressful experience for any student. As the moment arrives when the tests are handed out and procrastination is no longer an option, nervous attentiveness and the flushed...
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Reading, Writing, Arithmetic… and Neuroscience?
Education in the United States today is undergoing major reforms, and voices are calling for a return to the fundamentals: reading, writing, and…neuroscience? Dr. Bret Peterson explores how students...
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Bill Newsome’s Neural Basis of Behavior
Dr. William Newsome is sitting at his PC computer grumbling. “Do you know what IBM stands for?” Newsome asks in a slight Southern drawl. “It stands for ‘I’m Building a Mac’,” he quips, displaying...
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Child and Brain: The Stages of Development
The Apparent Race You’re a proud new parent and you’ve spent innumerable hours—months, probably, if not years—poring over parenting books. You’re practically an expert on the subject now, even though...
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The Pleasure Principle: Connections between Reward and Learning
For centuries, scientists and philosophers alike have tried to understand why human beings consistently make choices that are not in our best interests. For example, the serious health risks from...
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The Drug of Choice: Caffeine and the Brain
Centuries of Craving Caffeine, particularly in the form of tea and coffee, has enjoyed a long history of adoration and exaltation the world over, dating back nearly 5000 years to ancient China. When...
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Looking at Autism from the Inside
Among teachers, parents, and therapists who are interested in autism, Temple Grandin is a familiar name, a high-profile example that one can be diagnosed with autism and grow to lead a productive and...
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Alcohol on the Mind: The Effects of Drinking on the Adolescent Brain
Scientists have noted over the years a litany of consequences associated with underage drinking. According to Dr. Enoch Gordis, director of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the...
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Brain Development Study May Provide Some Help for Educators
It is well known that, compared to adults, children tend to have a much easier time learning new languages and acquiring new skills, such as playing an instrument. A recent study of brain development...
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No Learning without Peace
In the relatively short time since the massacre at Columbine High School in April 1999, the incident has grown to embody the need for educational and gun-control reform in the United States. But it has...
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Human Scale, Curiosity, and Technological Extensions: Part 1
We necessarily function at a human ability scale when we assess the magnitude of challenges we confront. For example, we can recognize up to four objects at a glance. We have an auditory range of about...
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Afraid to Leave Mom: Separation Anxiety in Children
Many children eagerly enter their first classroom excited and a little nervous. It is perfectly natural, after all, to feel jittery when confronting something so new as school. But some children come...
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Brainy Figuring
In pondering the possible relations between inventive thought in mathematics and bodily phenomena, the mathematician Jacques Hadamard (1865-1963) sounded a note of despair in his 1945 book The...
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Human Scale, Curiosity, and Technological Extensions: Part 2
Last month’s column described a dilemma that our curious brain currently confronts. We’ve created wonderful technologies that have now taken us far beyond our biological limitations. For example, U.S....
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Take Two: Lessons Learned from Twins Research
Few scenarios have seemed more promising for the unraveling of human mystery than the research pot of gold that many believe identical twins to be. Unlike the rest of the actual, messy human world,...
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Sleeping In: Teens’ Circadian Clocks Keep Their Own Time. Should Schools Adapt?
“There are always some students who can’t get the motor running,” says Gregory Downs, an instructor at DePaul University and former high school teacher. “Some of them have been up until one in the...
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Reading Gets a C+
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a national exam often used by educators, politicians, and parents to decide how well the nation’s schoolchildren are learning their three R’s....
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