I often write about research studies from various field and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of some of them each week or every other week as a regular feature:

Bilingual Immigrants Report Better Health Than Speakers of One Language is the headline on a report about a Stanford study. Here’s an excerpt:

Healthy individuals who immigrate to the U.S. often see their health decline over time. A recent study from Stanford University suggests that immigrants who learn English while maintaining their native language might be protected against this puzzling phenomenon.

Ariela Schachter, a Ph.D. student in sociology, examined the correlation between English and native-language proficiency and Asian and Latino immigrants’ self-reported health status. The results, published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, showed that people who are proficient at both English and their native language report better health than do speakers of just one language.

I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning The Advantages To Being Bilingual.

Stress Changes How People Make Decisions is from The Association for Psychological Research. Here’s an excerpt:

Feeling stressed changes how people weigh risk and reward…. under stress, people pay more attention to the upside of a possible outcome.

This means when people under stress are making a difficult decision, they may pay more attention to the upsides of the alternatives they’re considering and less to the downsides. So someone who’s deciding whether to take a new job and is feeling stressed by the decision might weigh the increase in salary more heavily than the worse commute.

The increased focus on the positive also helps explain why stress plays a role in addictions, and people under stress have a harder time controlling their urges. “The compulsion to get that reward comes stronger and they’re less able to resist it,” Mather says. So a person who’s under stress might think only about the good feelings they’ll get from a drug, while the downsides shrink into the distance.

It’s a remind– for me, at least — that when a student is having self-control issues, there may be more than meets the eye.  I’m adding this info to The Best Resources For Learning About Teens & Stress.

Study Shows a Sliding Scale of Sleep Needed for Academic Achievement is from Education Week. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Helping Teens Learn About The Importance Of Sleep.

Thinking Outside The Box, With Our Bodies And Our Brains is from NPR and reports on an intriguing study. Basically, some students sat in a big box and others sat outside of it. Both were given tests to measure their creativity. The students sitting on the outside were judged to have developed solutions on the test that were twenty percent more creative than those sitting inside. The NPR writer comments:

As an educator, I enjoy playing with these ideas. Aren’t walled classrooms boxes too? Would my students’ creativity flare to new heights if we met under open skies?

I’ve written a lot about the importance of being positive in the classroom (see My Best Posts On Why It’s Important To Be Positive In Class). And here comes even more research that emphasizes its importance.

The New York Times has just published an article headlined Praise Is Fleeting, But Brickbats We Recall. Though I’d strongly encourage you to read the whole piece, here are some excerpts:

Negative emotions generally involve more thinking, and the information is processed more thoroughly than positive ones, he said. Thus, we tend to ruminate more about unpleasant events — and use stronger words to describe them — than happy ones…

….Professor Amabile said she found that the negative effect of a setback at work on happiness was more than twice as strong as the positive effect of an event that signaled progress. And the power of a setback to increase frustration is over three times as strong as the power of progress to decrease frustration.

“This applies even to small events,” she said.

If managers or bosses know this, then they should be acutely aware of the impact they have when they fail to recognize the importance to workers of making progress on meaningful work, criticize, take credit for their employees’ work, pass on negative information from on top without filtering and don’t listen when employees try to express grievances.

The answer, then, is not to heap meaningless praise on our employees or, for that matter, our children or friends, but to criticize constructively — and sparingly.

Professor Nass said that most people can take in only one critical comment at a time.

….As Professor Baumeister noted in his study, “Many good events can overcome the psychological effects of a bad one.” In fact, the authors quote a ratio of five goods for every one bad.

That’s a good reminder that we all need to engage in more acts of kindness — toward others and ourselves — to balance out the world.

One suggestion the article makes, which I question is that it’s better to start with criticism and then follow with praise. I wonder how much experience the researchers have had with children — or their parents….

Telling students it’s okay to fail helps them succeed — study is the title of a Valerie Strauss blog post about a recently published study. Here’s an excerpt from her post:

Telling children that it is perfectly normal to sometimes fail at school can actually help them do better academically, according to newly published research.

The results of three experiments by French researchers are not definitive but they are intuitive; kids who don’t feel overwhelming pressure to do well all the time are more likely to feel free to explore, take academic chances and not fall apart if they make a mistake.

Here are two other reports on the same study:

For Better Learning, Failure Is An Option

Reducing Academic Pressure May Help Children Succeed

I’m adding all of these reports to The Best Posts, Articles & Videos About Learning From Mistakes & Failures.

Earlier today, I wrote a post titled Does Getting Better At Metacognition Physically Alter The Brain? In it, I described some interesting studies done on metacognition using MRI’s.

I contacted the author of the study with a question, Dr. Stephen Fleming, and he graciously responded very quickly. Here’s my email and his answer:

MY QUESTION:

Dr. Fleming,

I’m a high school teacher in California, and write a blog with over 25,000 daily subscribers — mostly educators.

I’ve recently learned about your research on metacognition, and have posted on my blog about it.

Helping my students learn about the physical impact learning has on their brain has had an important impact on them. I saw that in your 2010 paper on metacognition, which I write about in my blog, you found that people with a greater metacognitive function had a greater developed prefrontal cortex, but you weren’t sure if that was because it had developed because of their practice of metacognition or if they were just born with it.

Since 2010, have you determined which it was? As I write in my post, it would be a great asset for teachers if we could help our students see that their brains actually change as they practice metacognition.

Larry Ferlazzo

DR. FLEMING’S RESPONSE

Dear Larry,

Many thanks for your interest in our research, and for featuring our article on your blog.

Unfortunately we still do not know the answer to your question. There are two main challenges in carrying out this study. First, one would have to develop a reliable method for training metacognitive function in isolation of other changes in cognitive skill, such as decision-making, memory, etc. As yet I do not know of such a protocol, but would love to hear your ideas on this.

And second, longitudinal measures of brain structure and function would be required at different stages during the training. This is certainly feasible, but a caveat is that the field is still developing in its understanding of what different types of MRI measures mean for brain function. For example, we don’t know how the measure of structure we used in our paper (voxel-based morphometry) affects the functional properties of a particular brain region.

This would be a great study to carry out, and I would love to know the results!
In my own research, I am currently focussed on understanding the computations underlying metacognition at the individual level. Hopefully we can then use this knowledge to examine questions about differences between individuals.

Best wishes
Steve

So it looks like we’ll have to wait awhile for the answer….

Thanks to Dr. Fleming for his gracious response!

I often write about research studies from various field and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of some of them each week or every other week as a regular feature:

Kevin Washburn discusses several research findings and expands on them at What should we be teaching? I was particularly struck by what he said under “Initiative and entrepreneurialism” and am adding it to The Best Posts, Articles & Videos About Learning From Mistakes & Failures.

High Fluid Intelligence, Gestures, and Simulation is from the Eide Neurolearning blog. It reports on recent research on gestures and learning. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Students Using Gestures & Physical Movement To Help With Learning.

Lack of Sleep Makes Your Brain Hungry from Science Daily is a report on recent research. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Helping Teens Learn About The Importance Of Sleep.

Does being reminded of money make you an uncooperative jerk or an independent thinker? is a blog post by Daniel Pink on some a new study. Even though it’s not my post, I’m adding it to My Best Posts On “Motivating” Students because it’s probably the best place for it.

I’ve written a lot about my classroom experiences with students on both helping them learn from mistakes (see The Best Posts, Articles & Videos About Learning From Mistakes & Failures) and helping them learn that their intelligence is not “fixed” (see The Best Resources For Showing Students That They Make Their Brain Stronger By Learning).

A new study, reported by Scientific-American, has found that believing that you can learn from your mistakes,and that you can learn through effort, has a physical impact on the brain. The study found that the brains of people with a “fixed mindset” acted differently from those with a “growth mindset” and that the stronger the belief in a growth mindset, the more pronounced the brain activity.  Here’s an excerpt:

From the data, it seems that a growth mindset, whereby you believe that intelligence can improve, lends itself to a more adaptive response to mistakes – not just behaviorally, but also neurally: the more someone believes in improvement, the larger the amplitude of a brain signal that reflects a conscious allocation of attention to mistakes. And the larger that neural signal, the better subsequent performance. That mediation suggests that individuals with an incremental theory of intelligence may actually have better self-monitoring and control systems on a very basic neural level: their brains are better at monitoring their own, self-generated errors and at adjusting their behavior accordingly. It’s a story of improved on-line error awareness—of noticing mistakes as they happen, and correcting for them immediately….

The way our brains act, it seems, is sensitive to the way we, their owners, think, from something as concrete to learning, the subject of the current study, to something as theoretical as free will. From broad theories to specific mechanisms, we have an uncanny ability to influence how our minds work—and how we perform, act, and interact as a result.

I’ll certainly be incorporating these finding in future classroom lessons…

I often write about research studies from various field and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of some of them each week or every other week as a regular feature:

Learning a language may come down to gestures is a Washington Post report on a new study. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Students Using Gestures & Physical Movement To Help With Learning. Thanks to The Center for Applied Second Language Studies for the tip.

Study: Gestures help language learning is another report on the same study.

How To See Yourself Through Others’ Eyes is a report on a new study that would take too long to explain here, but I think it’s very interesting. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Helping Students See They Might Not Always Be The Best Judges Of Their Behavior.

Why we’re better at predicting other people’s behaviour than our own is another study on the same topic. I’m adding it to the same list.

The Business Case for Reading Novels is from The Harvard Business Review. It reviews research on the role of reading fiction in helping people develop empathy. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On “Becoming What We Read.”

Extreme Stress Could Shrink The Brain is from The Huffington Post and reports on some recent studies. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Teens & Stress.

I often write about research studies from various field and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of some of them each week or every other week as a regular feature:

This study is a few years old, but it’s new to me. It comes via ASCD, and found that children above the age of twelve are more likely to learn from their mistakes than younger kids. I’m adding it to The Best Posts, Articles & Videos About Learning From Mistakes & Failures.

A study reports that students who set a goal of eating more fruit and visualized actually doing it were more successful than those that did not. I’m adding it to My Best Posts On Helping Students “Visualize Success.” And here’s a report on a study showing that people who visualized a job interview going well did better than those who did not.

If You Plan, Then You’ll Do… But It Helps to Have a Friend is a report on a new study. It reinforces my having students identify goal “buddies” to meet with for mutual support. It’s also prompting me to think about having the buddies not only identify their goals on their own, but perhaps pick one that they have in common, too. I’m adding it to My Best Posts On Students Setting Goals.

Be It Resolved is a useful column in the New York Times by John Tierney. It talks about strategies to use in sticking to New Year’s resolutions, but it’s helpful for any kind of increased effort towards self-control. I’m adding it to My Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control.

The Willpower Trick by Jonah Lehrer reports on a new study on self-control that seems to reinforce the conclusions by researchers in the original Marshmallow Experiment:

Mischel discovered something interesting when he studied the tiny percentage of kids who could successfully wait for the second treat. Without exception, these “high delayers” all relied on the same mental strategy: they found a way to keep themselves from thinking about the treat, directing their gaze away from the yummy marshmallow. Some covered their eyes or played hide-and-seek underneath the desk. Others sang songs, or repeatedly tied their shoelaces, or pretended to take a nap. Their desire wasn’t defeated — it was merely forgotten.

Mischel refers to this skill as the “strategic allocation of attention,” and he argues that it’s the skill underlying self-control. Too often, we assume that willpower is about having strong moral fiber or gritting our teeth and staring down the treat. But that’s wrong — willpower is really about properly directing the spotlight of attention, learning how to control that short list of thoughts in working memory. It’s about realizing that if we’re thinking about the marshmallow we’re going to eat it, which is why we need to look away.

I often write about research studies from various field and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of some of them each week or every other week as a regular feature:

Physicists Seek To Lose The Lecture As Teaching Tool is an NPR Report about the successes of a professor who has stopped lecturing and, and instead, has begun using small groups. American Radio Works has a more extensive feature on the results. I’m adding this to The Best Sites For Cooperative Learning Ideas.

Changing our Minds discusses a study and other ideas that suggest “fiction helps us understand ourselves and others.” I’m adding it to The Best Resources On “Becoming What We Read.”

Learning From Brilliant Mistakes and Finding Opportunity in Failures are both articles and videos related to Paul J.H. Schoemaker’s book, ‘Brilliant Mistakes.’ I’m adding them to The Best Posts, Articles & Videos About Learning From Mistakes & Failures.

V is for Visualization at Scott Thornbury’s blog is a discussion of research, and teacher’s experiences, of using visualization with language learners. I’m adding it to My Best Posts On Helping Students “Visualize Success.”

I often write about research studies from various field and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of some of them each week or every other week as a regular feature:

Seven ways to be good: 6) Form if-then plans is from BPS Research Digest and describes a study which found having a specific pre-planned strategy to deal with how you will respond to challenges to self-control increases the odds of successfully resisting temptation. Even though that seems fairly obvious to me, a little evidence can’t hurt. It reinforces the activity I have students do when we discuss the marshmallow plan — on one side of a paper they say and draw a potential temptation, and on the side they write and draw what they will do to distract themselves from following through on taking the action that know isn’t a good one. I’m adding this information to My Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control.

Chewing Gum May Improve Test Scores reports on a new study that says chewing gum can improve test performance, but only for fifteen or twenty minutes after chewing stops. It says the gum should only be chewed prior to the test and will actually ultimately hurt test performance if it continues. This contradicts previous studies I’ve reported on and which can be found at The Best Posts On How To Prepare For Standardized Tests (And Why They’re Bad).

10 Novels That Will Sharpen Your Mind [Interactive]:And boost your social skills to boot is from Scientific American and builds upon previous studies I’ve shared on our “becoming what we read.” I’m adding it to….The Best Resources On “Becoming What We Read.”

Hearing about scientists’ struggles helps inspire students and boosts their learning is a pretty self-explanatory headline about the results of a new study. I’m adding it to The Best Posts, Articles & Videos About Learning From Mistakes & Failures.

I often write about research studies from various field and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of some of them each week or every other week as a regular feature:

I’ve previously written a post titled New Study On “The Influence of Positive Framing” about a study that found “loss framed messages” (if you do this, then something bad will happen to you) really don’t have the “persuasive advantage” that they are thought to have. In fact, positive-framed messages (if you do this, all this good stuff will happen to you) are more effective, particularly in changing people’s health behaviors.

Here’s information on another study with similar findings, though they call it “gain-framed messages.”

The Benefits of Thanks comes from Scientific American, and gives a brief overview of gratitude research. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On “Gratitude.”

Solutions to Social Loafing is a report on forming small groups in classes that has some very interesting, if not unsurprising, findings. Even though it’s not one of my posts, the best place to put it is My Best Posts On The Basics Of Small Groups In The Classroom.

I often write about research studies from various field and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of some of them each week or every other week as a regular feature:

Hearing about scentists’ struggles helps inspire students and boosts their learning is the title of an article about a new study showing that students who learned about the failures and perseverance of scientists became more interested in the subject and were more successful. It seems to me that it would be that great a leap to think a similar strategy might have the same affect in other subjects, too.

The Cognitive Benefits of Chewing Gum is by Jonah Lehrer at Wired. He reports on a study that showed test-takers chewing gum scored higher than those who did it — it kept the chewers more alert. I thought this was particularly interesting because the only other similar research I had read was financed by the Wrigley Company, which didn’t inspire a great deal of confidence in its integrity. I’ll add this info to The Best Posts On How To Prepare For Standardized Tests (And Why They’re Bad).

A rather complicated (at least to me) study found that high-performer physicians (those who appeared to most likely prescribe an effective treatment to a patient) were far more likely to pay attention to learning from their mistakes than low-performers. These “low-performers” were more likely to demonstrate confirmation bias and focus on their successes. I actually think that this study might be an important one, and I just need to set aside some time to review it again…and again until I understand it. I’m adding this information to The Best Posts, Articles & Videos About Learning From Mistakes & Failures.

Research Digest reports on research showing that clenching your muscles can be a useful support for self-control. I don’t think I’m comfortable recommending to students that they actually do that, but I have provided stress balls to some in the past and it seems to me that it works on the same principle.

Relationships Matter by Sean Slade is not a new study, but is an excellent compilation of studies highlighting the importance of positive teacher/student, family/school, teacher/teacher, and student/student relationships. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On The Importance Of Building Positive Relationships With Students.