A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Most of the time, we learn only gradually, incrementally building connections between actions or events and outcomes. But there are exceptions—every once in a while, something happens and we immediately learn to associate that stimulus with a result. For example, maybe you have had bad service at a store once and sworn that you will [...]
In Australia, anxiety is even more common than depression. In fact, about one in four of us suffer from it. The general belief is that stress or circumstances cause it. But, this might not necessarily be the case. Richard Friedman, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, says some of us have a feel-good [...]
Children younger than 30 months “cannot learn from television and videos as they do from real-life interactions.” And to use a mobile device before that age on tasks that aren’t educational can be “detrimental to the social-emotional development of the child.” Of particular concern, according to the recommendations, was how such technology could “interfere” with [...]
The more curious we are about a topic, the easier it is to learn information about that topic. New research publishing online October 2 in the Cell Press journal Neuron provides insights into what happens in our brains when curiosity is piqued. The findings could help scientists find ways to enhance overall learning and memory [...]
How old were you when you decided that you weren’t any good at sport? Or that you couldn’t sing? When did you decide that you weren’t a maths person or that you couldn’t draw to save your life? Was it last week? In your late 30s? Early 20s? Late teens? Early teens? In primary school [...]
I recently heard Student Voice being described as the ‘latest trendy term in education.’ That may be so, but I’d argue it’s a pretty important concept to understand if we are serious about reaching every kid. Research indicates that disengagement from school rises with age, to the point that nearly half the kids sitting in [...]
Babies and young children make giant developmental leaps all of the time. Sometimes, it seems, even overnight they figure out how to recognize certain shapes or what the word "no" means no matter who says it. It turns out that making those leaps could be a nap away: New research finds that infants who nap [...]
Learning can only occur if certain neuronal "brakes" are released. As the group led by Andreas Lüthi at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research has now discovered, learning processes in the brain are dynamically regulated by various types of interneurons. The new connections essential for learning can only be established if inhibitory inputs from [...]
An article in The Age recently opened up, yet again, the discussion around education and the pros and cons of a conservative approach to teaching and learning or a more innovative, creative approach. It made for thought-provoking reading. I make no apology for being a huge fan of Sir Ken Robinson and his ideals of [...]
1. What's the best way to motivate people to learn? Generally, we are motivated by two different reasons. We either do some things for what we call extrinsic reasons. Namely, you work for forty hours a week so you can get a paycheck at the end. And you don't really like the job much but [...]
