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Does Temperament Matter?

Since we're talking about temperament in class today, I thought it would be very appropriate to direct you to an article in Time that talks about the temperaments of Obama and McCain. What I particularly found interesting was that it includes two childhood stories of the candidates (taken, I assume, from autobiographies) that demonstrate the inherent trait of temperament as you can see the same temperamental responses in each of them now.

New Research on Memory!

A recent article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, details new findings of our memory. You can read a summary of the article by following this link to Live Science. Essentially, it reiterates what we talked about last week: in order to process, encode, and retain information, we have to first pay attention - and be motivated to do so and regulate our ability to do so - but when we do pay attention, we are able to encode a lot more information than previously thought. I enjoyed this article because it blended my interests in cognitive science and motivation. In what ways do you believe this information could be useful and applicable for teachers?

ABCs ... no ... 123s

I just read a local story about schools in Jackson County changing the grading system - in essence, doing away with A,B,C, & F and replacing it with a more rubric-like 1, 2, 3, & 4.  The numbers are meant to indicate to parents how much a student has mastered a particular state standard.  So, instead of getting an A in reading, a child might get a 4 in "reads 65 words in a minute".  Basically, they are given a grade for each standard.  The idea is to give parents more information about the child's progress in each standard ... but I also have to wonder if it is a way to keep a record of the teacher's progress in teaching each standard?  The article only mentions that it will be implemented in elementary schools.  Could such a grading system work in middle or high schools?  I see a lot of good things about it, in particular the communication of mastery in specific concepts, rather than one grade for an entire subject.  This could help a child (and his parents) to see exactly where he needs to improve.  It could also show the child where he excels in that subject (or at least where he's doing okay) which could temper negative self-efficacy for the entire subject.  But there are also some aspects about this system that I am skeptical of, mainly because there isn't enough information in the article about how the schools will implement it, whether it will be for every subject or just standard-driven ones or if a student will have to get a certain number of 4s to pass the grade, or just how many of these specific grades the teacher will be required to send home each grading period.  Nevertheless, I have a feeling that this will catch on in Georgia and I think both I, and my students, need to begin looking into it and consider how it will affect their teaching.

More research on homework

Schools in my area have been in session for about a month now, although the University classes just began. Along with the annual rituals of buying new clothes, supplies, and being terrified at the thought of your sweet 11-year old in middle-school, the annual homework debate is firing up.

Usually the homework debate is fought on simplistic terms, with one side arguing that it is good for students to practice what they learned in class, and the other side arguing that it is bad for them because it takes too much time away from family, friends, and play.

A recent analysis of data on mathematics test scores and homework published in Econometrics Journal suggests that it might be good for some students, but bad for others. Specifically, the researchers found that high-achieving and low-acheiving students' math scores benefited significantly from having extra homework. However, the extra homework did not make much of a difference to average-achieving students' scores. Previous studies have found that all students benefit from having more homework, but the authors found that it was only beneficial to about 40% of the students they looked at.

"This does not mean that homework is unimportant for average achievers," says Daniel Henderson, one of the authors of the study. "But it does mean that this population may also benefit from other activities such as sports, art or music, rather than additional hours of math homework."

What are your thoughts on these findings? How should teachers interpret this for use in their classes? Would you assign homework to only those 40% or so who benefit from it?

The Mirror Neuron

After talking about Bandura's Observational Learning Theory, and the various steps in Cognitive Apprenticeships (particularly modeling and fading), I found this article in Scientific American quite fascinating.  Researchers have recently identified the particular neurons that are responsible for this type of learning.  In light of Bandura's theory, the mirror neuron research reinforces my belief that we often learn a lot more than we're often motivated to perform and helps to explain why.  But does knowing about the mirror neuron help you teach any better?

Meta-Blogging

In addition to teaching EPSY 2130, I am also the instructor for an independent/online course, EPSY 3010:  Child Development for Educators (which is also going to be offered face-to-face in the Fall).  One of the students enrolled in that class gave me the link to her blog, Extreme Biology, and a post she made recently on intelligence.  Given that our topic tomorrow is intelligence and intelligence testing, I thought this was a wonderful coincidence and wanted to share it with you.

I highly encourage you to check out the articles she posted at the end of the entry on intelligence (you don't have to answer the questions, though!).  

If you get the time, check out the other posts on Stacy's blog.  I really like how she uses her blog to encourage her students to read research and think critically, to make their own connections and write their own articles.