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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 art education attention bilingual education boundary conditions classroom advice collaboration creativity desirable difficulty development elementary school emotion evolution executive function exercise experts and novices gender high school homework intelligence long-term memory metacognition methodology middle school mind-wandering mindfulness Mindset motivation multitasking neuromyths neuroscience neurotransmitters parents pre-K psychology reading retrieval practice self-control skepticism sleep STEM stress technology working memoryRecent Comments
- Andrew Watson on Cell Phones in the Classroom: Expected (and Unexpected) Effects
- Anonymous on Cell Phones in the Classroom: Expected (and Unexpected) Effects
- landb on Research on Note-Taking: A Teachable Skill
- Beatriz Rodriguez on Research on Note-Taking: A Teachable Skill
- Nini White on Helping Today’s Students Have More Open Minds
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The Better Choice: Open- or Closed-Book Quizzes
As predicted by research into “retrieval practice,” closed-book quizzes do in fact help students learn better than open-book quizzes do. Once again, the right kind of difficulties can be desirable in school. Continue reading
The Limitations of Neuroscience in Guiding Teachers
Neuroscience offers fascinating insights into brains; psychology provides specific teaching suggestions. However much we enjoy and learn from the former, we should keep our eye on the latter. (Helpful links provided.) Continue reading
The Best (Counter-intuitive) Sleep Advice You’ll Get This Year
How to fall asleep faster? According to this research, take 5 minutes a write a to-do list for the upcoming days. This technique offloads stress, and promotes faster sleep onset. Continue reading
Studying Wrong Answers Helps Learn the Right Ones
With teaching as with baking, sometimes you should follow steps in a very particular order. If you don’t do this, and then that, and then the other, you don’t get the best results. Two researchers in Germany wanted to know if, and when,
How Can We Encourage Girls to Pursue STEM Disciplines?
When we see alarming statistics about gender disparities in STEM disciplines, we quite naturally wonder how to fix this imbalance. (This hope – by the way – isn’t simply a do-goody desire to sing “It’s a Small World After All.”
Can We Boost Our Students’ Self-Control?
You have, no doubt, heard about this research before. Walter Mischel tested preschoolers on self-control. In the famous “marshmallow test,” they got either one marshmallow right now, or two if they waited for fifteen minutes. (I have to include an
A Handy Summary of Memory Definitions, for Teachers and Students
Here‘s a quick summary of information about memory: sensory memory, working memory, long-term memory, and (crucially!) forgetting. Author Steven Turner presents this brisk overview to combat “buzzword wasteland.” He fears the education-world habit of coming up with fancy new terms
Does Music Promote Students’ Creativity?
Music played during a creative task distracts students…but, music played before the task might increase creativity. Continue reading
Taking Notes with Graphic Organizers
Researchers office us concrete advice on the best form for handwritten notes: outlines vs. graphic organizers; incomplete vs. complete. Continue reading
Do Collaborative Projects Reduce or Increase Working Memory Stress?
Should teachers ask students to work on projects in teams? This question generates a great deal of heat. Many education thinkers advocate for the benefits of teamwork. Others insist that learning happens one brain at a time, and so should
