The theory of evolution is one of most familiar in all of science — and one of the most widely misunderstood. Even well-educated people are often fuzzy regarding the mechanics that drive evolutionary change. Is there a better way to teach both students and the public about this fundamental process? Writing in the online journal Evolutionary Psychology, British anthropologist and psychologist Daniel Nettle puts his finger on one major roadblock to understanding and offers a simple but compelling solution. A researcher with the Newcastle University Institute of Neuroscience, Nettle notes ... Read More
Minding the Education Gap
May 18, 2010 • By • 7 Comments
Americans aren't exactly making progress in closing the country's deep education gap. Thirty-two percent of Asians and whites held a bachelor's degree in 2008, compared to only 15 percent of blacks and Hispanics — a larger disparity than a decade ago. The widening gap is worrisome on its face, suggesting that a problem district officials have long struggled to solve at the grade-school level extends well into higher education. Taken in conjunction with a pair of other trends, the picture gets even gloomier, and its impact on the U.S. economy becomes disturbingly clear. Non-whites are ... Read More
Kids and TV: Maybe It’s Not an Idiot Box
May 5, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Television has always been a menace. Over decades, it allegedly has stifled creativity, stymied social development, inhibited academic achievement, and increased depression. At one time, a few of these charges made sense (and some still do), but now, with a hundreds of new-media options competing for eyeballs, many seem a bit quaint. There's one criticism that could be shelved entirely: More hours of TV watching means lower test scores for young children. New research, headed by Abdul Munasib at Oklahoma State University, finds that the amount of television watched has little ... Read More
Motivating Students Via Mental Time Travel
April 26, 2010 • By • 1 Comment
Why do so many teens lack the necessary motivation to rigorously focus on their schoolwork? To quote William Shakespeare — whom your seventh-grader should be studying right now, rather than instant-messaging her friends — the problem may be in their mind’s eye. That’s the conclusion of a new study by two University of Michigan researchers, who find a link between schoolwork, grades and the vision kids have of themselves as happy, successful adults. They report some middle school students see themselves becoming doctors or lawyers — professions that require a good education — ... Read More
Home Libraries Provide Huge Educational Advantage
April 8, 2010 • By • 32 Comments
In an era of electronic entertainment, the term “home library” increasingly has the word “video” in the middle. But before parents start giving away books to clear shelf space for DVDs, they’ll want to consider the results of a comprehensive new study (PDF). After examining statistics from 27 nations, a group of researchers found the presence of book-lined shelves in the home — and the intellectual environment those volumes reflect — gives children an enormous advantage in school. “Home library size has a very substantial effect on educational attainment, even adjusting ... Read More
Are Parents Too Involved With Their Children?
April 6, 2010 • By • 3 Comments
Despite media fondness for reports of hyper- and helicopter parenting, the short answer to this question is a resounding no. While some kinds of parental involvement with kids are better than others, say researchers, any kind of involvement is better than none at all. Psychologist William H. Jeynes’ found that — regardless of race or gender — the more parents were involved in their kids’ lives, the better their children’s grades and test scores. The California State University, Long Beach, professor analyzed more than 140 other studies of elementary and secondary school students, ... Read More
Environmental Literacy: No Child Left Indoors
March 23, 2010 • By • 1 Comment
Page 28 of the Obama administration's blueprint for rewriting No Child Left Behind, released earlier this month, contains a vague but interesting paragraph about ensuring that American students have a "well-rounded education." The plan would provide grants to states and school districts to bolster the teaching of arts, foreign languages, history, civics and something called "environmental education." Patrick Fitzgerald, the director of education advocacy for the National Wildlife Federation, could not think of another time when environmental literacy has been explicitly broached in ... Read More
Collegiate Commitment to Bridge Achievement Gap
March 23, 2010 • By • 1 Comment
When it comes to graduating more students from college, especially more minority and low-income students, the news is both good and not so good. In December, a report co-published by the Education Trust and the National Association of System Heads (the chief executives of the 52 public colleges and university systems in the United States) painted a bleak picture. "Charting a Necessary Path" reported that of all the low-income and minority students who entered college as freshmen in 1999, only 45 percent of them had graduated six years later. That's 12 percentage points lower than the ... Read More
Extreme School Makeovers
March 16, 2010 • By • 1 Comment
Last fall, a teenager on the South Side of Chicago was beaten to death during an after-school melee caught on videotape and spread widely on the Internet. The violence was the indirect result of a so-called "turnaround" effort, the controversial practice of implementing radical changes to schools that have high dropout rates and low test scores. One neighborhood high school had been closed down, forcing students from two different areas to attend the same school. In the aftermath, the killing was cited as an example of the kind of disaster that can result. Former Chicago teachers' union ... Read More
Female Teachers Add to Students’ Math Anxiety
February 5, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
In spite of the multitude of research indicating otherwise, the assumption that boys are biologically better at math than girls is alive and well at schools across the nation. And a new study indicates that when female teachers believe the stereotype, they pass their own mathematical anxiety on to the girls in their classes. While the perpetuation of the idea is troubling, the implications are more so: The girls who believe their gender possesses inferior math skills do significantly worse in the subject than the girls who don't. Researchers at the University of Chicago conducted a ... Read More
