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Andrew Watson About 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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Ability Grouping: The Debate Continues
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
February 15, 2017

Ability Grouping: The Debate Continues

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A recent meta-analysis of 100 years of research (you read that right — 100 years) suggests that both ability grouping and appropriate grade acceleration benefit students.

Interestingly, the authors argue that ability grouping benefits students across the academic spectrum: “Overall, high-, medium-, and low-ability students benefited equally from ability grouping” (p. 889).

The authors of this study focus on academic benefits, and don’t look at studies that focus solely on social-emotional results. When it comes to grade acceleration, however, they do see a trend: “Numerous studies have investigated the peer dimension of acceleration and generally reported not only no harm but also small to moderate social–emotional benefits of academic acceleration” (p. 853).

For these acceleration programs, selection criteria make a real difference. At least one of the studies they review finds “socio-affective benefits for students selected on the basis of academic readiness and social and emotional maturity, but also cautions that these programs may be harmful to individual students who are arbitrarily selected on the basis of IQ” (p. 892-3).

In other words: we can’t rely solely on cognitive tests to make such placement decisions.

Given the passion surrounding this debate, I wouldn’t be surprised to see zealous push-back in upcoming weeks.

ADHD: Types and Treatments
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
February 07, 2017

ADHD: Types and Treatments

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Here’s a handy anatomy of ADHD, complete with treatment options.

The key point: people are different, and not all ADHD diagnoses are the same. We need to attend to individual differences if we want to help all our students learn.

Bilingual Advantage: Efficient Processing
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
January 27, 2017

Bilingual Advantage: Efficient Processing

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Recently, I linked to a study suggesting potential downsides to bilingualism: in at least this one study, bilingual students were less successful with metacognition than monolingual students.

In that post, I noted that this one detriment doesn’t mean that bilinguals are “bad at thinking” in some broad way, or that bilingual education is necessarily a bad idea. Instead, that study was one interesting data point in a large and complex discussion.

Well, that discussion has gotten even larger and more complex. A research team at the University of Montreal has explored the neural mechanisms that help adult bilinguals focus on some information without being distracted by other kinds of information.

Neuroscience is always complicated, but the simple version is this: bilinguals use more efficient networks to maintain focus on a particular information stream.

In other words: we’ve got research showing both advantages (efficient attention processing) and disadvantages (reduced metacognition) to bilingualism. So, what should we do?

In the end, teachers and parents can draw on research to explore these questions, but we must put many conflicting pieces together to draw the wisest conclusions.

Interactive Teaching at Harvard
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
January 24, 2017

Interactive Teaching at Harvard

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Harvard’s Initiative for Teaching and Learning has posted videos of their most recent conference. The topic: interactivity.

As you listen to these Harvard professors, you might find yourself thinking: their students, and their teaching problems, sound a lot like my students and my teaching problems.

Pro tip: each video begins with a very generous introduction. If you skip ahead 3-5 minutes, you’ll get to the good stuff much more quickly…

Does Size Matter?
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
January 18, 2017

Does Size Matter?

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Is a man’s amygdala larger than a woman’s? And: why does it matter?

The amygdala is central to neural networks that process strong negative emotions: especially fear and anger. Because psychological studies have shown gender differences in the expression of these emotions, researchers have hypothesized that men might have a larger amygdala, on average, than women do.

That is, gendered behavior might have a biological foundation in a gendered brain.

According to a recent meta-analysis of 46 studies: not so much. Lise Eliot’s research team found no statistically significant difference between male and female amydalae.

(More precisely: men’s amygdalae are–on average–10% larger than women’s; but, men’s BRAINS are–on average–10% larger than women’s. So–relative to brain size–there is no meaningful difference.)

Of course, male and female brains are not identical. And: behavioral differences between genders are important.

However, if Eliot’s results hold up, we can no longer say that these behavioral differences result from meaningfully different amygdala sizes.

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