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Tag Archives: attention
Decorating the Classroom: How Much Is Too Much?
Teachers decorate classrooms for many reasons — especially to make students feel at home. Recent research, however, suggests that too much decoration distracts students’ attention an interferes with their memory. When it comes to classroom decoration, there can indeed be too much of a good thing. Continue reading
Overcoming Potential Perils of Online Learning
Typical at-home distractions can indeed interfere with online learning. Happily, researchers have suggestions on how best to mitigate these problems. Continue reading
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
Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me
We often post about the unreliability of “brain training.” Heck, even though I live in Boston and am a Patriots fan, I made fun of Tom Brady’s website claiming to “increase brain speed” and other such nonsense. (I don’t even
Does Media Multitasking Really Interfere with Student Thinking?
To many teachers, it just seems obvious: all that screen times MUST be bad for student brains. To many other teachers, it just seems obvious: technology will unleash academic possibilities and revolutionize education. So, which is it? Does media multitasking
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Tagged attention, long-term memory, multitasking, technology, working memory
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Using and Misusing Averages: The Benefits of Music?
The “10 Minute Rule” tells us that people can’t pay attention to something for longer than ten minutes. As teachers, therefore, we shouldn’t do any one thing for longer than ten minutes. We need to mix it up a bit.
The Best Length of Time for a Class
I met yesterday with several thoughtful teachers who had resonant questions about education research. How do we balance factual learning and deep thinking? What’s “the right amount of stress” during a test? How can we promote collaboration while honoring individual
Fresh News on your Laptop Ban
In a college lecture course, divided attention caused by technology distractions didn’t harm student learning in the short term. But, on the final exam, it hurt both those who used the technology and those around them. With research like this, we can help students use technology more responsibly. Continue reading
Your Brain Headlines of the Week
Every week generates lots of interesting research in brain-world. These headlines most grabbed my attention:
You Are a Learning Style of One
Many educational fads ask teachers to sort our students into false learning categories: by learning style, for example, or by gender. Instead, we should focus on cognitive processes — like memory and attention — that apply to all our students. As learners we can’t be categorized, but we’re more alike than different. Continue reading