{"id":7497,"date":"2024-03-10T08:00:47","date_gmt":"2024-03-10T13:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=7497"},"modified":"2024-03-08T14:11:48","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T19:11:48","slug":"writing-by-hand-fosters-neural-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/writing-by-hand-fosters-neural-connections\/","title":{"rendered":"“Writing By Hand Fosters Neural Connections…”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine this conversation that you and I might have:<\/p>\n

ANDREW: The fastest way to drive from here to the school is via South Street.<\/p>\n

YOU: It is? That seems like a long detour. Why would I go that way?<\/p>\n

ANDREW: I didn’t say it was the fastest; I said it was the best because it’s the prettiest.<\/p>\n

YOU: You DID say it was fastest…wait, the prettiest? It’s basically junk yards and construction sites.<\/p>\n

ANDREW: Yes, but because of all the bakeries, it smells really nice.<\/p>\n

YOU: What does that have to do with fastest\/prettiest?<\/p>\n

ANDREW: Why are you being so unpleasant and difficult? South Street is the best route…<\/p>\n

I suspect you would think: “this conversation is very frustrating and unhelpful\u00a0because the goal posts keep moving<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

That is: I initially claimed that South Street is the fastest…but keep moving my claims as soon as you object. (And, oddly, I’m mad at you for being unreasonable.)<\/p>\n

I routinely notice this pattern when I ask questions about the claim that “handwriting is better than laptops for note taking.”<\/p>\n

Watch the goalposts move:<\/p>\n

CLAIM: Handwriting is better than laptops for note taking. This study<\/a> says so.<\/p>\n

ANDREW: That study starts with the BIZARRE assumption<\/a> that students can’t learn how to do new things — like, how to take notes correctly. And, research since then has routinely complicated or contradicted it.<\/p>\n

CLAIM: I didn’t say laptops are better beacuse of this study. It’s because writing by hand changes neural networks. This research says so.<\/p>\n

ANDREW: That research says that writing by hand helps students\u00a0learn to write by hand<\/em>. Of course it does<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But that doesn’t mean that writing by hand helps students learn other things — like, say, history or chemistry or German. Can you show me research supporting that claim?<\/p>\n

CLAIM: I can’t, but when students write on laptops they distract students around them.<\/p>\n

ANDREW: Yes, but that’s a completely different claim than the one you started with.<\/p>\n

CLAIM: Why are you being so unpleasant and difficult? Writing by hand is better than taking notes on laptops!<\/p>\n

Once again, I find this conversation frustrating and unhelpful. SO MANY MOVING GOALPOSTS.<\/p>\n

I am entirely open to the idea that handwriting is better. But if someone makes that claim, and says it’s “research-based,” I’d like them to provide research\u00a0that actually shows this claim to be true<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

So far, that turns out to be a big ask.<\/p>\n

This idea that “handwriting is better than keyboarding” has popped up again (I suspect because of a recent study), so I want to re-investigate this claim — with a keen eye on those goalposts.<\/p>\n

Reasonable Start<\/h2>\n

If you see a headline that says, “Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning,” you\u00a0might interpret that claim roughly this way:<\/p>\n

Students who take handwritten notes — in their 6th grade history class, say, or their 10th grade science class — remember more of that material after 2 weeks than students who took notes on laptops.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, I conjured up some of those specifics: “6th grade history,” “two weeks later.” But those seem like reasonable extrapolations. What else could the claim substantively mean?<\/p>\n

Briefly: plausible goalpost = “students remember more history 2 weeks later.”<\/p>\n

So, let’s look at the recent research<\/a> being used to support this claim.<\/p>\n

Here’s a very basic question: “how did the researchers measure how much the students learned and remembered?”<\/p>\n

Did the students take a quiz two weeks later? Did they undertake a “brain dump” the following day? How, precisely, do we know what they learned?<\/p>\n

The answer is:<\/p>\n

The researchers\u00a0did not measure how much the students learned\/remembered.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Honestly. No quiz. No brain dump. Nothing.<\/p>\n

And yet, even though the study doesn’t measure memory or learning, it is being used to argue that handwriting enhances memory and learning.<\/p>\n

I find this astonishing.<\/p>\n

Instead, the study measures activity “in brain regions associated with memory and learning.”<\/p>\n

Did you notice something?<\/p>\n

Goalpost plausibly was: “students remember more history 2 weeks later.”<\/p>\n

Goalpost now is: “more activity in important brain regions.”<\/p>\n

Grrr.<\/p>\n

Getting Specific<\/h2>\n

When evaluating “research-based” claims, it’s helpful to know exactly what the participants in the research did.<\/p>\n

So, these 36 participants wrote the same fifteen words multiple times. Sometimes they wrote with a stylus on a tablet; sometimes they typed using only their right index finger. (BTW: all the participants were right handed.)<\/p>\n

Now, this insistance on “right index finger” makes sense from a neuro-research perspective. If both “handwriters” and “keyboarders” are using one\u00a0hand, then the researchers reduce lots of confounding variables.<\/p>\n

At the same time, this emphasis also leads to highly artificial circumstances.<\/p>\n

Presumably some<\/em> people type with one finger.\u00a0But, I’m guessing that most people who want to take laptop notes<\/em> don’t.\u00a0I suspect they want to take laptop notes because they have some degree of facility on a keyboard.<\/p>\n

So:<\/p>\n

Goalpost initially was: “students remember more history 2 weeks later.”<\/p>\n

Goalpost then was: “more activity in important brain regions.”<\/p>\n

Goalpost now is: “more activity in important brain regions when participants write as they usually do than when they type in a really, really unnatural way.”<\/p>\n

Double grrr.<\/p>\n

It is, of course, helpful to know about these differences in neural responses. But I don’t think they plausibly add up to “students remember more.” Because — remember — no one measured learning<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Lest I Be Misunderstood<\/h2>\n

In such conversations, I’m often misunderstood to be confident about the right answer. That is: I might seem to be saying “I’m confident that laptops are better than handwriting for learning.”<\/p>\n

I am NOT saying that.<\/p>\n

Instead, I’m\u00a0asking for research that directly measures the claim being made.<\/p>\n

If I say to you: “research shows that handwriting is better for learning than laptops,” I should be able to show you research that directly measures that claim.<\/p>\n

If, instead, I have research showing that handwriting develops neural networks that might be beneficial for learning,\u00a0I should say that<\/em>.<\/p>\n

My frustration about this point stems from a broader concern.<\/p>\n

Over and over, I find that non-teachers cite research — especially neuroscience research — to boss teachers around. While I certainly do believe that teachers should know about pertinent research findings (that’s why I write this blog!), I also believe that we need to acknowledge the limits of our research-based knowledge.<\/p>\n

I just don’t think that research (yet) demonstrates that handwritten notes generate more learning than laptop notes.<\/p>\n

Overall, I’m inclined to believe:<\/p>\n

Practicing fine motor skills (by, say, handwriting) is really important for young learners.<\/p>\n

Praticing handwriting makes us better at handwriting — and other word-related skills.<\/p>\n

As students get older and more facile with a keyboard, the benefits of handwriting vs. keyboarding will probably depend on the student, the subject, the kind of notes being taken, etc.<\/p>\n

And if I see more than one study directly testing the claim that handwriting helps people learn better, I’m entirely open to that possibility.<\/p>\n

But at least so far, that claim is not — by any definition that seems reasonable to me– “research-based.”<\/p>\n

\n

Van der Weel, F. R., & Van der Meer, A. L. (2024). Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: a high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom.\u00a0Frontiers in Psychology<\/i>,\u00a014<\/i>, 1219945.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine this conversation that you and I might have: ANDREW: The fastest way to drive from here to the school is via South Street. YOU: It is? That seems like a long detour. Why would I go that way? ANDREW: I didn’t say it was the fastest; I said it was the best because it’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":7503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[166],"class_list":["post-7497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-handwriting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7497"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7507,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7497\/revisions\/7507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}