The Answer Sheet: the brain


Posted at 04:02 AM ET, 06/12/2013

A big unexplored idea in school reform
By Valerie Strauss
It seems too simple to take seriously, but it isn't.

By Valerie Strauss  |  04:02 AM ET, 06/12/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  A New Curriculum, It's About The Brain, Teaching and Learning

Posted at 12:09 AM ET, 04/09/2013

The absolute worst story (and video) about standardized testing

By Valerie Strauss
Here's a video about a boy born without most of his brain who is being forced to take a standardized test in Florida because the law requires it. Really.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:09 AM ET, 04/09/2013 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  Boy With Partial Brain Forced to Take Test, Standardized Test

Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 02/28/2011

'Brain-based' education: Run from it
By Valerie Strauss
A veteran educator explains why teachers should run from any curriculum that says it is "brain-based."

By Valerie Strauss  |  05:00 AM ET, 02/28/2011 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Larry Cuban, Learning, Research | Tags:  brain research, brain-based education, daniel willingham, education and brain, larry cuban

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 12/27/2010

Willingham: 3 brain facts every educator should know

By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham writes, "Most of what you see advertised as educational advice rooted in neuroscience is bunkum."

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:00 AM ET, 12/27/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  brain-based classrooms, brain-based education, brain-based teaching, daniel willingham, myelination, neuroscience and education, prefrontal cortex and teens, teaching and neuroscience, the brain and education

Posted at 08:00 AM ET, 11/20/2010

The Matthew Effect, Plinko, and the achievement gap
By Valerie Strauss
The argument for integration of low-income students into more affluent schools is that it offers an opportunity to level the playing field and provide high expectations to students who are not traditionally held to the same schooling standards as the white upper and middle class. However, as a Black male who attended Montgomery County Public Schools for high school, I am not convinced that a culture of high expectations extends beyond honors, AP, and IB classrooms.

By Valerie Strauss  |  08:00 AM ET, 11/20/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Achievement gap, Achievement gap | Tags:  achievement gap, brain development, brain research, closing achievement gap, guest bloggers, plinko, the Matthew Effect, the matthew effect

Posted at 12:09 PM ET, 11/15/2010

Willingham: How 'mind-wandering' affects students
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham writes about "mind-wandering" --or zoning out of what you are doing -- and how it affects students at school.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:09 PM ET, 11/15/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Guest Bloggers, Guest Bloggers | Tags:  brain research, cognitive science, daniel willingham, mind-wandering

Posted at 11:00 AM ET, 09/20/2010

Willingham: Left/right brain theory is bunk
By Valerie Strauss
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham explains why the left brain/right brain theory is pure mythology.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:00 AM ET, 09/20/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  brain research, daniel willingham, left brain/right brain, mike gazzaniga

Posted at 11:23 AM ET, 09/04/2010

How 'Twilight,' other dark fiction affect teen brains

By Valerie Strauss
Scientists, authors and education experts are meeting this weekend at Cambridge University to investigate how fiction with dark themes, such as the "Twilight" saga and the "Harry Potter" series, affects and alters the teenage brain. Here's a Q&A with the conference organizer, who talks about what parents can/should do about it.

By Valerie Strauss  |  11:23 AM ET, 09/04/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Literature, Literature, Literature | Tags:  altering teen mind, brain research, cambridge university conference, dark themes in young adult literature, edward cullen, effects on teen brains, emergent adult, emergent adult conference, harry potter and twilight, his dark materials, how teen brains are affected by reading, neuroscience and teenage brain, teenage brain, themes in YA lit, twilight, twilight and teen mind, twilight saga, young adult literature

Posted at 12:15 PM ET, 03/30/2010

Researchers take new look at teenage brain
By Valerie Strauss
It has become commonplace these days to hear that teens are victims of their own immature brains and raging hormones. But University of Virginia researchers Joseph P. Allen and Claudia Worrell Allen say that while the prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed in teens, it’s far from missing, and we still have little evidence that this affects teens’ real-life behavior.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:15 PM ET, 03/30/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Research, Research | Tags:  brain research, guest bloggers, teenage brain

Posted at 12:56 PM ET, 03/11/2010

Helping students know what they don’t know-Part 3
By Valerie Strauss
The third part of an article by cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham, a professor at the University of Virginia, explains how parents and teachers can help kids understand when they don't know material that they think they do--and then, how they can really learn it.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:56 PM ET, 03/11/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  Daniel Willingham, helping kids learn, the brain

Posted at 12:51 PM ET, 03/11/2010

How students trick themselves about what they know--Part 2
By Valerie Strauss
In the second part of his article on why students think they know material that they don't, cognitive scientist and University of Virginia professor Daniel Willingham discusses the situations that can get kids in trouble in this regard.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:51 PM ET, 03/11/2010 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  Daniel Willingham, guest bloggers, learning, the brain

Posted at 12:10 PM ET, 11/02/2009

Willingham: What the research really says about Baby Einsteins
By Valerie Strauss
By now, you’ve likely heard that the Baby Einstein company is offering a refund for its DVDs, a move widely interpreted as a way of avoiding a class-action lawsuit over the company’s claim that the DVDs are educational....I don’t think the Baby Einstein company needed to make strong claims about education to get parents to think that the DVDs were educative. Many parents already believe that visual stimulation and classical music (which the DVDs offer in spades) have been shown to help brain development. Both beliefs are based on solid research that has been twisted out of shape.

By Valerie Strauss  |  12:10 PM ET, 11/02/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Categories:  Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham, Daniel Willingham | Tags:  Baby Einstein, Daniel Willingham, brain development

Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 09/01/2009

Q & A on Learning
By Valerie Strauss
As promised yesterday, here is more from cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham from the University of Virginia, and author of "Why Don't Students Like School," on how kids learn and what teachers should and shouldn’t be doing in class. The...

By Valerie Strauss  |  06:00 AM ET, 09/01/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  brain, learning, schoolwork, teachers

Posted at 07:40 AM ET, 08/31/2009

Why Do Kids Dislike School?

By Valerie Strauss
So. Your child is one of the millions who think school is a drag. He or she gets bored. Doesn’t stay focused. Avoids homework. When you ask what happened at school earlier in the day, the response is, “Nothing,”...

By Valerie Strauss  |  07:40 AM ET, 08/31/2009 |  Permalink  |  Comments ( 0)
Tags:  brain, learning