Applied Educational Psychology

Dissertation Wordle

2009-04-01T16:45:00.000-07:00

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Does Temperament Matter?

2008-10-16T08:22:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-03T07:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-20T07:05:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-01T04:46:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-16T12:56:00.001-07:00

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.

Civics via Computers

2008-06-14T06:19:00.000-07:00

I just had to post about this, even though at first it didn't seem to pertain to educational psychology directly (though certainly to educational policy and philosophy). This is an article about former Justice O'Connor's role in developing a website intended to teach aspects of the American Judicial system. She makes a scary point that civics (which was poorly taught in all of my experience - I learned more from Tim Russert than my high school government class) is getting squeezed out of school.

It is towards the end of the article where I saw a connection to ed. psych. and our recent classes on constructivism. One of the planned activities that students can engage in on the website will be to form an argument related to constitutional issues. They can go up against the computer, or other students on the site. The following quote from O'Connor gets right to the constructivist theory underlying such an activity:

“I believe that when we learn something, a principle or concept, by doing, by having it happen to us, which you can do by that medium of a computer, and you exercise it and you make an argument and you learn, ‘Oh yes, that’s an argument that prevails,’ you learn by doing.”

Civics is a subject that is ripe with opportunities for authentic tasks. I mean, what is more authentic than learning how to navigate and understand our government?

Classical Conditioning Videos

2008-06-09T13:50:00.001-07:00

Someone sent me a link to a video from The Office in which Jim classically conditions Dwight with Altoids. As I was watching it, I found a video a student had posted for his Psych 101 course, in which he classically conditions his roommate - and it is quite funny.

I, and the other TAs in my department, have started using videos to illustrate things in class every once in a while. Watching the student video made me wonder about the increasing ability to get students to create their own illustrations and examples of psychological theories and what role this could play in instruction. Maybe I'll experiment with this in the Fall.

Link to The Office video

Link to student video

Tip-of-the-tongue and memory

2008-06-09T10:44:00.000-07:00

Since we'll be discussing cognitive science and memory in class Tuesday and Wednesday, I was quite excited to hear this story on NPR and wanted to post it. We've all experienced the tip-of-the-tongue phenomena and (finally!) scientists have begun to study this with brain imaging. I love these two segments because they emphasize the importance of meta-cognition on memory and retrieval and help steer us away from the metaphor of a file cabinet when describing the brain's organization. They also explain why tip-of-the-tongue moments occurs more often as we get older.

There are two segments: one from "All Things Considered" and another from "Bryant Park Project". I like the Bryant Park piece better, personally.

Back to blogging

2008-06-05T12:55:00.000-07:00

My best friend told me about an article that one of her college friends had written for Newsweek (I had forgotten Newsweek was still around) about bi-polar disorder. While reading it, I saw an article on Executive Functioning, which is much more up my alley than reading about a suicidal 5 year old. The article describes a research program designed to teach EF skills to preschoolers and many of the examples it gives are a lot like games I played as a kid (like Simon Says). Which reminds me of a previous article I posted on the importance of play in cognitive development. The researchers later tested these kids and found that they did (surprise, surprise) score higher on EF tests than other students. There was no mention in the article if the children did better academically or behaviorially in the classroom but I would bet my cat that they are following them through elementary school.

What are your thoughts on all this new research pointing to the cognitive benefits of dramatic play?

If you name your child Fred, does that mean he'll Fail French class?

2007-11-16T17:50:00.000-08:00

Will the students at the top of your grade roll have higher grades? I came upon this news item today and just had to post it. Drawn from marketing research, a couple of psychologists have found a connection between our behaviors and our names. Among their examples is their finding that people named Dennis and Denise are more likely to be dentists. So does that mean that your student named Ally Adams will be an A student?

What are your thoughts?

I'm not convinced here and my immediate thought is that I wonder what the p-value was for their findings .... I can't imagine that it was very small.

Bad behavior isn't ... bad?

2007-11-13T11:36:00.000-08:00

You are going to find these results very interesting, especially given what we have talked about recently in terms of gender and temperament. This article, again, from the New York Times, describes two recently published studies about children's behavior and ADHD. What do you think of these findings? Does they run counter to anything we've talked about in class?

Exercise and the brain

2007-11-11T08:06:00.000-08:00

We know instinctively that taking recess away from kids is a bad idea but this article discusses some of the reasons why. It mainly focuses on aging adults, but one can clearly see the implications for teachers and parents.

Article on Millionaires living by Middle-Class "Rules"

2007-11-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

Remember the class we had recently in which I talked about the "hidden rules". I found an article today about how a growing number of millionaires still live within the "hidden rules" of the middle class. I think it is interesting as it shows that the classes are cultures in an of themselves. An increase in salary does not always result in the adoption of a new class-culture. Which begs the question, "would a significant decrease in salary result in the adoption of a new class-culture?"

To Sleep, Perchace to . . . Learn?

2007-10-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

Think about nap-time in kindergarten, and the little cat naps you always want to take when you study. There's new research that suggests you should go ahead and nap, if you're attempting to memorize, that is. But if you're studying a new piece of music, you need Stage 2 sleep, the kind that occurs in the second half of the night - which might explain why great musicians tend to be nightowls.

Here's a link to a report about a series of recent studies on sleep and learning that I found fascinating. Basically, all the stages of sleep that we go through seem to play a part in processing certain types of learning. So, a good night's sleep that includes all of these stages is essential.

Maybe these studies will help put nap-time back into early education. What do you think?

The article is from the New York Times, so you might need to sign up for a free membership to view it.

No Grades?

2007-10-15T20:49:00.001-07:00

I found some articles on schools without grades, since a lot of my students became interested in this after I mentioned it in class last week. I found some research in my quick search tonight, but it was all done in the 1960's. So, I'll try to find some time this week to see if any new studies have been done on the effects of this type of progressive education on students' future success in schools (college acceptance).

The following is from an NPR story a few years ago.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4618720

Here's one that takes the philosophy a little far (in my opinion).
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003645914_unschooled01m.html

Many Law schools do not have grades, like Yale:

http://www.law.yale.edu/admissions/4881.htm

Mastery Learning

2007-10-08T20:02:00.000-07:00

Mastery learning is a concept I've just recently become familiar with in the last couple of years since teaching EPSY 2130. Mastery learning purports that most students and will perform at a high level if allowed enough time to learn the concepts. It puts the emphasis on whether a student can learn the concept, not when the student learns the concept. I bring this up on the blog because the mid-term I am giving back tomorrow is an example of how to include mastery learning in a class.

This mid-term assessed your understanding of the concepts we had covered in the first 1/3 of the class. However, if you did not completely understand the concepts as of September 25, the day the exam was administered, you have a second chance to prove to me that you do understand the concepts later in October. This is because I want to know that you know this stuff, and I don't care if you know it in September or in October, as long as you know it by the end of the semester.

Unfortunately, mastery learning requires a lot of time on the teachers' part, and is the biggest disadvantage. This means another week, later in October, of ignoring my new husband and the growing piles of laundry. Yet, when I see a student improve their answers on the recapture and prove to me that s/he DOES know this stuff, I am convinced that mastery learning is something to implement when you can.

Leading Test Designer Discusses High-Stakes Educational Testing

2007-10-02T08:01:00.001-07:00

Frontline Interview on Standardized Tests

This is a link to an interview with James Popham, a leading designer and professor in educational testing. He talks openly about the miscommunication and misconceptions surrounding the increased use (and mis-use) of standardized and high-stakes testing.

Standardized Testing

2007-10-01T19:27:00.000-07:00

The 2007 Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) interpretive guide is a useful tool to help you learn about the test and how to talk to parents and students about students' scores. It should also be helpful for you as you learn to teach and learn how to take the information the tests provide into account when planning.

Bookmark this website!

2007-09-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

I came across the following website (Theory into Practice) this morning while looking for blogging inspiration. It provides clear and concise explanations of many of the theories covered in EPSY 2130, including some that we don't cover. I plan to bookmark it to use as a primer - a way to access the right networks in my long-term memory - when planning. My students might find it useful when preparing for the mid-term, or as a bookmark in the future when they do not have their Woolfolk text handy.

Teacher Credentials = Student Success ?

2007-09-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

Those of us in the field of education have always assumed that the more "qualified" teacher produces more academically successful students. It is only recently that researchers are really looking into what "qualified" actually means. These researchers found that over the last 10 years in North Carolina, teachers with more experience and more credentials (licenses, course work, degrees, etc.) had a more positive effect on student achievement. This is nice to confirm, but what I find interesting about this article is that the effect was higher in mathematics than in reading.

Why do you think they found this higher effect in mathematics? Is it due to something inherent in math or reading, or in teachers' training?