Psychology in Action

Tag: Education

  • What are the Areas of Study within Psychology?

    The field of psychology had its modern origin just over 100 years ago, and yet interest in the field has grown rapidly. Researchers with broad and varied interests have expanded the field, and as a result there are many different subdisciplines. Highlighted here are several key areas of psychology. Biological psychologists apply biological principles to…

  • Society For Research in Child Development – Day 2

    Up to the minute reporting.  This was first posted on the Society for Research in Adolescence’ website. So much interesting research to report on.  Today was the day I presented at a symposium I organized that Brad Brown chaired called From Texting to Social Networking Sites to Virtual Worlds: Examining Youth Media Practices.  Many of…

  • China – Education and Parenting — How does it differ from US?

    This is the last piece in a four part series on sociocultural forces that influence academic achievement in India, Japan and China first posted on Parenting in the Digital Age. The last article talked about Japan. China: Educational Promise Out of the three countries of comparison, China holds the most promise to overtake the US…

  • Affirming Values and Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap

    As school performance becomes a bigger issue in the United States, many policy leaders, teachers and administrators are looking at the plethora of issues faces our schools. One such issue is the racial achievement gap. It seems that many minorities are not receiving the same grades as their white and Asian peers. A number of…

  • Desirable Difficulties in Math Teaching

    Continuing in the spirit of my last post, which overviewed the desirable difficulties literature, and Carole Yue’s recent post on how desirable difficulties can improve induction tasks, today I’m highlighting some recent research on applying such difficulties to math learning and practice.  As a quick recap, desirable difficulties are adjustments to teaching that slow down…

  • Desirable Difficulties and Inductive Learning

    Last month, Jeff Bye’s post on desirable difficulties in the classroom inspired some good discussion. One question that came up was, Do desirable difficulties only apply to rote memory tasks, or can we use them for other types of learning as well? I’m going to expand on that idea using inductive learning as an example.…

  • Desirable Difficulties in the Classroom

    Over the last couple of decades, learning and memory researchers have become increasingly interested in bringing scientific findings out of the lab and into the classroom, where they can be implemented into teaching methods to produce more efficient and effective learning.  In a nation mired in an educational crisis, there’s never been a better time…

  • Accurate Representations of Science: Whose Responsibility Is It?

    Here’s a question that’s been on my mind lately: Whose job is it to make sure that the non-scientist consumers of science get it right? I’ve had a few discussions with various psychologists about this lately and they frequently bring up two answers to this question: (1) It’s the consumer’s job. I heard from a…

  • Can Video Games Transform Learning?

    A lot of really smart people believe that video games are the key to engaging children in school. The question is can video games really teach useful, transferable subjects?  The NY Times magazine just put out an issue discussing this very subject.  They profiled a school called Quest to Learn that has a curriculum around…

  • Those That can not do…Education, teachers and Psychology

    I have to admit that before I became an academic, I believed this phrase was true “Those that can not do, teach.” This despite coming from a family of academics. Of course, now that I am on this path, I see that there are many passionate, smart, committed people who could do many other things…