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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrew Watson
Andrew began his classroom life as a high-school English teacher in 1988, and has been working in or near schools ever since. In 2008, Andrew began exploring the practical application of psychology and neuroscience in his classroom. In 2011, he earned his M. Ed. from the “Mind, Brain, Education” program at Harvard University. As President of “Translate the Brain,” Andrew now works with teachers, students, administrators, and parents to make learning easier and teaching more effective. He has presented at schools and workshops across the country; he also serves as an adviser to several organizations, including “The People’s Science.” Andrew is the author of "Learning Begins: The Science of Working Memory and Attention for the Classroom Teacher."
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ADHD adolescence attention bilingual education boundary conditions classroom advice collaboration conference speakers creativity desirable difficulty development elementary school embodied cognition emotion evolution executive function exercise experts and novices gender high school homework intelligence long-term memory math metacognition methodology middle school mindfulness Mindset motivation neuromyths neuroscience online learning parents pre-K psychology reading retrieval practice self-control skepticism sleep STEM stress technology working memoryRecent Comments
- MERIEM on How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice by Paul Kirschner and Carl Hendrick
- R.C. Vogel on EduTwitter Can Be Great. No, Really…
- Kathy Thomas on Does MOVEMENT Help LEARNING?
- Andrew Watson on Have I Been Spectacularly Wrong for Years? New Research on Handwriting and Learning
- Momo on Does Teaching HANDWRITING Help Students READ?
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Blog Roll
I’m Not Excited, YOU’RE Excited (OK: I’m Excited)
I’ve been going to Learning and the Brain conferences since 2008, so it takes a lot to for a roster of speakers to WOW me. But this week I’m officially WOWed. Next weekend’s conference looks remarkable. In some cases, I’m
Does MOVEMENT Help LEARNING?
In the exaggerated stereotype of an obsessively traditional classroom, students sit perfectly silent and perfectly still. They listen, and watch, and do nothing else. Few classrooms truly function that way. But, how far should we go in the other direction?
“Students Switch Their Screens Every 19 Seconds.” Sort Of…
I recently read an arresting claim: when students have web browsers open, they switch their screens — on average — every 19 seconds. Such data boggle the mind with horror. As teachers, we want our students to devote sustained thought
EduTwitter Can Be Great. No, Really…
Twitter has a terrible reputation, and EduTwitter isn’t an exception. The misinformation. The name-calling. The “team” rivalries: all heat and little light. Did I mention the misinformation? You might wonder: why bother? Honestly, I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t. I
How Can We Help Students Study Better?
This story might sound familiar: You attend a Learning and the Brain conference (like, say, our upcoming conference about Teaching During a Pandemic) and come away with FANTASTIC ideas. You go back to your classrooms — in person, online, asynchronous
Does Online Learning Work? Framing the Debate to Come…
With news that several very effective vaccines will be increasingly available over the upcoming months, we teachers can now start thinking about “a return to normal”: that is — in person teaching as we (mostly) worked before February of 2020.
Seriously: What Motivates Teachers to Be Funny?
To start 2021 in the right spirit, let’s think about humor in the classroom. It seems that, obviously, humor might be a good classroom strategy. When the lesson slows down, a joke or two might brighten the mood. Once we
The Best Teaching Advice We’ve Got
You want to improve your teaching with psychology research? We’ve got good news, and bad news. And more good news. Good News: we have lots and LOTS of research. We can talk about attention, or working memory, or the spacing
James Flynn Changed the Way We Think about Intelligence
In 1950, the average score on an IQ test was ~100. In 2020, the average score on an IQ test was ~100. Nothing, it seems, had changed. Those facts, however, disguise a surprising truth. IQ tests are based on scaled scores.
December Book-a-Palooza
When I started in this field, back in 2008, teachers really didn’t have many helpful books to draw on. Books about teaching? Sure. Books about psychology and neuroscience research? Absolutely. Books bringing those topics together? Not so much… What a
