boring and tired little girl with many books

When Homework Is (and Isn’t) Genuinely Helpful

Andrew Watson
by: Andrew Watson
Posted on: January 6, 2018

The question “does homework help students learn” is too big a question. We need to narrow it down. What age student are we discussing? What kind of homework are they doing? What discipline are they studying? Continue reading →

Foolish “Brain Training” Flim-Flam of the Day

Andrew Watson
by: Andrew Watson
Posted on: January 5, 2018

Tom Brady’s new “Brain Training” Website looks a lot like earlier attempts to over-hype thinly supported brain research. Don’t fall for it. Continue reading →

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Focus on the Speaker: Charles Fadel Champions Curriculum Redesign

Andrew Watson
by: Andrew Watson
Posted on: January 4, 2018

Most educational reform focuses on the way the teaching happens: project based learning, or flipped classrooms, or technology, or that sort of thing. Your focus is more on curriculum, which is to say, what it is that teachers are actually teaching. Why have you chosen that focus, instead of the method of teaching? Continue reading →

“Ben Barres gave a great seminar today, but then his...

Andrew Watson
by: Andrew Watson
Posted on: January 3, 2018

The remarkable work of a transgender neuroscientist, who inspired colleagues and changed our understanding of the brain. Continue reading →

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Benefiting from Retrieval Practice: Get the Timing Just Right

Andrew Watson
by: Andrew Watson
Posted on: January 2, 2018

Retrieval practice is an excellent study strategy for students more than 24 hours ahead of a test. However, within that 24 hour window, teachers and students should focus more on connecting ideas rather than recalling them. Continue reading →

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An Extra Half-Hour of Sleep? An Extra Hour?

Andrew Watson
by: Andrew Watson
Posted on: December 29, 2017

Students whose first class started later than 8:30 got between 27 and 57 (!) more minutes of sleep than students whose classes started earlier. Imagine just how much more learning might happen if a teen regularly got an extra hour of sleep. Continue reading →

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Enhance Memory by Saying Important Words Aloud

Andrew Watson
by: Andrew Watson
Posted on: December 27, 2017

You’d like to remember a list of words better? Here’s a simple trick: read them out loud to yourself. Continue reading →

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Frequency and Memory: Essential Brain Wave Boost

Andrew Watson
by: Andrew Watson
Posted on: December 23, 2017

Earlier this month, I linked to a study showing that declarative and procedural memories correspond with different…

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Mindset, Gender, and Intelligence: Confusing Myth or Painful Truth

Andrew Watson
by: Andrew Watson
Posted on: December 21, 2017

In this research, there was no consistent gender split on Mindset. And, for men as well as women, intelligence level didn’t consistently influence Mindset; nor did a Growth Mindset predict academic accomplishment. Continue reading →

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The Neuroscience of Morality

Andrew Watson
by: Andrew Watson
Posted on: December 19, 2017

How do brains encode moral impulses? As you can imagine, that’s an extraordinarily difficult question–in…