Education & Learning News

August 20, 2016

Using the Outside World to Save On Brainpower

Most Adults Know More Than 42,000 Words

Early Brain Connections Key to Reading

Brain Stimulation During Sleep Boosts Memory

Latest Headlines

updated 11:30am EDT

School Quality, Genetics Play Role in Child’s Reading Ability

Aug. 10, 2016 — Natural smarts can only take a child so far if they are also attending a poor school, according to new educational ... read more

'Cultural Learners' in the Cradle

Aug. 10, 2016 — Well before starting to speak, children from a very young age pay higher attention to the information received from native speakers of their language compared to the information received from ... read more

Positive Teacher-Student Relationships Boost Good Behavior in Teenagers for Up to 4 Years

Aug. 9, 2016 — The first study to look at the impact of the relationship with teachers on adolescent behavior finds that a positive teacher-student relationship can ... read more

Playground Zoning Increases Physical Activity During Recess

Aug. 8, 2016 — Most grade school students are likely to claim recess as their favorite period of the day; however, in many cases recess still can be sedentary with students not engaging in enough physical activity. ... read more

Magnifying Mistakes Boosts Motor Skills Past a Performance Plateau

Aug. 4, 2016 — Exaggerating the visual appearance of mistakes could help people further improve their motor skills after an initial performance peak, according to a new ... read more

Curiosity Has the Power to Change Behavior for the Better

Aug. 4, 2016 — Curiosity could be an effective tool to entice people into making smarter and sometimes healthier ... read more

Reducing 'Mean Girl' Behaviors in Classrooms Benefits Boys and Teachers Too

Aug. 2, 2016 — When a targeted program to reduce relational aggression among at-risk girls is shared with the entire classroom, the entire class benefits -- not just the aggressive girls for whom the program was ... read more

Cognitive Ability Varies, but Prejudice Is Universal

July 29, 2016 — A new study shows both high and low cognitive ability have distinct prejudices against particular ... read more

Research Tracks Interplay of Genes and Environment on Physical, Educational Outcomes

July 26, 2016 — Over the course of the 20th century, genes began to play a greater role in the height and body mass index (BMI) of Americans, while their ... read more

Pain of Rejection Makes Us More Likely to Commit Fraud

July 25, 2016 — People commit fraud because they are unhappy about being rejected, a new study has ... read more

You Can Blame Students For Ethiopia's Temporary Social Media Ban

Pakistani Roboteers Hunt Global Soccer Glory

Apple Created An App That Could Turn Your Child Into A Developer

Kenyan Girls Code Their Way to a New Future

Young, Gifted, First-Generation Minority Science Students Motivated by Prosocial Values

Aug. 19, 2016 — There are as many motives as there are undergraduates taking introductory science courses, but if you look closely at groups of freshmen science students such as those from underrepresented minority ... read more

Are Urban Black Males Shortchanged in Classroom?

Aug. 18, 2016 — Giving special treatment to young urban black males in the high school classroom runs the risk of shortchanging these students academically once they get to college, indicates a new ... read more

Persistence Makes the Difference in Minority Participation in Science, Researchers Say

Aug. 12, 2016 — The problem of persistence has long troubled undergraduate programs hoping to guide promising students from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups into science careers, but a new study by science ... read more

Negative Attention from Teachers Can Lead to More Negative Student Behaviors

Aug. 8, 2016 — Researchers have developed a new method for observing and measuring teacher interaction with every child in a classroom. As a result of testing this method within K-3 classrooms, they found that ... read more

Kindergarteners' Mathematics Success Hinges on Preschool Skills

Aug. 4, 2016 — Researchers have discovered that preschoolers who better process words associated with numbers and understand the quantities associated with these words are more likely to have success with math when ... read more

What’s Changed in Genetics Since Your High School Biology Class?

Aug. 2, 2016 — The field of genetics has seen astonishing breakthroughs and the development of world-changing technologies in the past half ... read more

One-Third of Students Report Elevated Psychological Distress, Survey Shows

July 21, 2016 — More than one in three -- an estimated 328,000 -- students in grades seven to 12 report moderate-to-serious psychological distress, according to new survey results in Ontario, Canada. Girls are twice ... read more

Here's Why Run-Down Schools Trigger Low Test Scores

July 21, 2016 — More than 230 New York City public middle schools were involved in a study that found a chain reaction at work: leaking toilets, smelly cafeterias, broken furniture, and run-down classrooms made ... read more

Watching the Brain Do Math

July 21, 2016 — A new neuroimaging study reveals the mental stages people go through as they are solving challenging math problems. Insights from this new work may eventually be applied to the design of more ... read more

Background Noise May Hinder Toddlers' Ability to Learn Words

July 21, 2016 — A new study of toddlers has found that the presence of background noise in home or at school can make learning new words more difficult for ... read more

Scientists Predict Academic Achievement from DNA Alone

July 19, 2016 — Scientists have used a new genetic scoring technique to predict academic achievement from DNA alone. This is the strongest prediction from DNA of a behavioral measure to ... read more

Blue, Green or 'Nol'?

July 18, 2016 — Even in infants too young to speak, the object categories infants form and their predictions about objects' behavior, are sculpted by the names we use to describe them, new research shows. As ... read more

Human Intelligence Measured in the Brain

July 18, 2016 — Human intelligence is being defined and measured for the first time ever. It turns out that the more variable a brain is, and the more its different parts frequently connect with each other, the ... read more

Youngest Siblings More Likely to Go Into Business, Study Finds

July 14, 2016 — The last-born children of non-entrepreneurial parents are more likely to go into business than first-borns, new research into birth order effects has ... read more

Calculus I Factors Women out of STEM Degrees

July 13, 2016 — It's no secret that Calculus I is a major hurdle in the quest for a science degree. But, according to a new paper, the class is far more likely to discourage women than men from continuing on in ... read more

Cinnamon May Aid Learning Ability

July 12, 2016 — Cinnamon is a delicious addition to toast, coffee and breakfast rolls. Eating the tasty household spice also might improve learning ability, according to new ... read more

Genetics Play Role in Character Traits Related to Academic Success

July 12, 2016 — Character traits, such as grit or desire to learn, have a heavy hand in academic success and are partially rooted in genetics, according to a new psychology ... read more

Report Identifies Ways to Boost Children's Quality of Life Through Outdoor Learning

July 10, 2016 — Outdoor learning can have a significant and positive impact on children's quality of life but needs to be introduced more formally into the school curriculum in order for its potential benefits ... read more

Attention Problems in Early Childhood Can Have Lasting Impact

July 6, 2016 — Children with attention problems in early childhood were 40 percent less likely to graduate from high school, says a new study that examines how early childhood characteristics affect academic ... read more

How to Get Moral 'Free-Riders' to Cooperate

July 6, 2016 — What motivates people to contribute to trustful moral judgment, which is a public good yet tends to be costly? This is 'the moral free rider problem'. Mathematicians have put forth a ... read more

Friday, August 19, 2016