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Monthly Archives: September 2018

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The Unexpected Dangers of Reading (and Writing) Blogs
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
September-08-2018

The Unexpected Dangers of Reading (and Writing) Blogs

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A recent post on a well-known education blog beats up on that old nemesis: “rote memorization.”

To highlight this point, the author links to a study on the benefits of “the generation effect.”

When students try to guess at answers to questions, they’re likelier to remember the correct answer even if their initial guess was wrong.

Here’s the study.

Presumably, the study compares “the generation effect” to “rote memorization.” Presumably it concludes the former helps more than the latter.

Nope. Not a bit of it.

This study, instead, looks at different kinds of mistakes that students might make when they guess. It concludes that nearby guesses help, but far away guesses don’t.

Here’s the researchers’ summary: “errors benefit memory to the extent that they overlap semantically with targets.”

The study just isn’t about rote memorization. (Just to be sure, I checked with the study’s lead author. She confirms my understanding of the research.)

Lesson Learned

If you can’t even trust [name-of-well-known-education-blog], what can you do? How can you trust any news from the interwebs.

Here’s my advice:

First: anyone who quotes research should link to it. If you can’t find the link quite easily, don’t make any changes to your teaching.

Second: click the link. (Don’t yet make any changes to your teaching.)

Third: feel a little nervous. You’ve got several daunting pages of big words and bizarro graphs.

Fourth: Think about giving in and just making the changes that the article suggests. Don’t give in to that impulse. No changes yet.

Fifth: read the first paragraph of the research. It’s called the “abstract,” and it should summarize what the researchers did and what they concluded.

If the abstract DOESN’T include the point you read on the website, then you’re done. The research doesn’t focus on the argument that the blogger is making, and so shouldn’t have been cited in the first place.

Lesson learned. Nothing to see here. Move on.

In this case: when you read the abstract about the generation effect, you’d see that it never mentions rote memorization.

Of course, if the abstract DOES include that point — now you can start taking the blog seriously. You might not decide to change your teaching, but at least you’ve got an argument worth considering.

Flipping the Script

I had a similar experience (in reverse) about a month ago. This blog’s software notified me that another blog had linked to my article on omega-3 fish oil.

That post isn’t obviously the sexiest one on the website, so I was a bit surprised to see it getting internet love.

A brief investigation showed that the link came from a website in a foreign language — one that encouraged pregnant women to buy omega-3 fish oil supplements.

Hmmm.

My article summarized research showing that such supplements don’t help with working memory or in-school behavior. Not so much about benefits for pregnant women.

It seems clear that this other blog assumed its readers a) wouldn’t click on the link, and b) if they did, they wouldn’t be able to read English well.

The link was there to fool their readers, not help them.

The Headline

When we see a blog link to research, we can feel reassured. At the other end of the link, doubtless, lies research supporting the author’s point.

Don’t believe it. Don’t trust. Verify.

Click the link. Read the abstract…

What’s the Best Timing for Collaborative Learning?
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
September-05-2018

What’s the Best Timing for Collaborative Learning?

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Learning can be a lonely business.

Does collaborative learning help students? If yes, what guidelines should teachers follow?

Collaborative Learning: Benefits and Detriments

collaborative learning

Overall, we’ve got lots of research suggesting that collaboration helps students learn. And, happily, it doesn’t cost lots of extra dollars.

More specifically: the average score for students who learn in groups exceeds that of those who learn individually.

Unsurprisingly, students who struggle to learn benefit from practice with peers who understand better than they do.

At the same time, the highest scores tend to be lower in groups than among individual learners.

Working in groups, it seems, reduces the mental exploration necessary to find the best answers.

Given this background, we arrive at a really interesting question:

Can we get the benefits of group learning (higher average) AND the benefits of individual learning (highest scores).

It’s All in the Timing

Researchers at several Boston universities wondered if timing mattered. What would happen if students worked in groups at times and alone at other times?

The research team invited college students to work on a spatial puzzle. (It’s called the “Euclidean travelling salesperson problem.” I myself doubt that many of Euclid’s peers were travelling salespeople.)

Some of the students could always see their peers’ solutions. Some could never see those solutions. And some got to see every third solution.

Which groups progressed faster?

As they had hoped, the team found that the third group yielded both the highest average and the highest score.

In brief: teamwork helps most when team members also spend time working by themselves.

Classroom Implications for Collaborative Learning

This study offers a helpful suggestion. Teachers who use group work might ensure that group members work together at some times and solo at others.

At the same time, we should note some important caveats before we follow this guidance too strictly.

First: this study worked with college students. Its findings might apply to younger students. But, then again, they might not.

Second: this research is most easily described as “collaboration,” but that’s not exactly what the research team was studying. Notice: the participants never worked together on the travelling salesperson problem. Instead, they solved the problem on their own and then could (or could not) look at other students’ solutions.

That’s not typically how collaborative learning happens in schools.

More often, “collaborative learning” means that students work together on the project or problem. This study didn’t explore that approach.

(To be precise: the researchers focus on “collective intelligence,” not “collaborative learning.”)

Final Words

I myself think this research offers a helpful suggestion: occasional teamwork might lead to better results than constant (or absent) teamwork.

However, we should keep a sharp eye out for the actual results in our own classrooms. Unless you teach college students by having them look at each others’ correct answers, this study doesn’t explore your methodology precisely.

User mileage will vary.

The Surprising (Potential) Benefits of Stress
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
September-02-2018

The Surprising (Potential) Benefits of Stress

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How realistically do you process bad news?

stress helpsIf you’re like most people, the answer is: “not very.”

We’ve got lots of research showing that people change their beliefs when they hear good news. However, they don’t change their views much when they hear bad news.

For example: I might ask you, “what are the odds that — in your lifetime — your house will be burgled?”

You answer “40%.”

Later on, I inform you that the real number is 30%. Given your initial estimate, I just gave you good news! You’re safer than you thought.

When I ask you the same question later, you’re likely to update your answer. You might guess 32%. That number is still high, but much more accurate than it was.

However, if you initially guessed “20%,” then the real number “30%” is bad news. You’re in more danger than you thought!

When I ask you the same question later, you probably won’t update your answer much. You’re likely to say “21%.”

You just didn’t process the bad news.

Surprise! Stress Helps

Recently, researchers wondered if stress helps us process bad news more honestly.

To find out, they invited people to their lab and stressed out half of them.

(The stressed-out half heard they would have to give an impromptu speech in front of judges. And, they were given challenging math problems to solve.)

The researchers then asked them several questions like the one above: “how likely is it that your house will be burgled?”

How honestly did these participants process the correct information they got?

As before, the un-stressed participants learned from the good news, but not from the bad.

However, the research team found that stress helps. That is: the participants who worried about their upcoming public speaking gig processed the bad news as well as the good.

Next Steps

The research team double checked their results with fire fighters in Colorado. They got the same results. That’s helpful news.

However, all of this research focuses on adults. The average age in the first study was about 25 years. In the second study, 43 years.

We know that adolescents and children process emotions quite differently. So: we should cross our fingers and hope that the researchers try out their idea with school-aged children.

The more we understand the benefits as well as the detriments of stress, the better we can help our students navigate the appropriate challenges that school provides.

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For further thoughts on stress in schools, check out this earlier blog article by Rose Hendricks.

And, for fun, here’s a video of the lead researcher talking about some of his earlier work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1-1rbBarCk

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