Live Chat Transcript

Modsu: Good evening everyone. We’ll start in about 5 minutes, but meanwhile, perhaps we could introduce ourselves and share what sort of work we’re involved in? 🙂 aglover: Hi my name is Andrea. I am training as a specialist dyslexia teacher. Modsu: That sounds interesting – are you doing a course alongside teaching? How are you finding the training so far? aglover: It’s quite demanding but really interesting. I love finding out about current research in particular. I am supply teaching and tutoring alongside. Camilla: Hi, I look at what factors influence the development of mathematical skills in children and adults.  Modsu: What sort of factors in particular that you have found to influence mathematical development? And do they influence all types of maths equally? Camilla: There are a really wide range of factors that influence mathematical development including general thinking skills (such as memory, attention), language and attitudes to mathematics.  Abena: Good evening. I’m Abena, a … Continue reading →

ModShane: Good evening. The chat is due to start at 8.30 this evening, but do log in and say hello if you’re early. ModShane: Can I sneak in with a question before everyone arrives? The first point in our topic guide: /learning-zone/individual-differences/ talks about genes being responsible for 30% of the variation in intelligence in young people but 76% in older people. So what’s the responsible for the other 70% in young people and what are the sorts of things that make the change to 76% in older people? Emma: Okay, so this is a question about heritability – right? Studies tend to find (overall) that heritability increases as we age, so that it is maximal in adulthood. ModShane: That’s what I understand to be true, but it is counter-intuitive to a lay person like me Emma: What we suspect is happening is that people are seeking out environments that … Continue reading →

Modsu: Welcome to the 2nd week of Evidence in the classroom. It would be really useful if we could introduce ourselves – share a little bit about our research or our teaching background, or other areas of interest 🙂 Courtney: Hi Everyone, I’m Courtney – currently a postdoctoral researcher in the US. I study numeracy and mathematics learning, and have education research and math teaching experience.  I focus on adolescents and young adults. I’ve taught middle school, high school, and college math content. abena baiden: Good evening. I started teaching in EFL, then in England, Malaysia and Vietnam. On a break at the moment, and returning to Asia later this year. Studying Psychology in prep for conversion course (MSc) in September. Find ed neuroscience fascinating. Currently an English and Drama teacher but also do a lot of Digital Literacy. Carolina: Hello, my name is Carolina and I’m a lecturer in Psychology at the University … Continue reading →

ModKathryn: Hi! Welcome to tonight’s live chat on Evidence in the classroom. We’re due to start at 8pm, but it would be nice to introduce ourselves! Abena: I’m most recently an international school teacher of English and Digital Literacy, (hopefully) starting a Psychology conversion course in September. Also currently studying Research Methods with Coursera. ModKathryn: My name is Kathryn, I’m a moderator for the Learning Zone and a PhD student in cognitive development Richard: Hi, I’m Richard. I have been teaching teachers to do randomised controlled trials for the last three years and am now working on a Wellcome Trust project in which teachers who have previously completed an RCT have designed trials in collaboration with neuroscientists. Paula: I’m Paula, and I am currently working on developing a previous RCT as I hope to replicate and extend the findings we obtained. The work I hope to develop is on developing … Continue reading →

Modsu: Welcome everyone. I think it would be really useful if we all introduce ourselves and say a little bit about what we’re researching at the moment. Nicola: I am researching a) wellbeing in adolescents and young adults with language and communication difficulties b) language and cognition in deaf children and c) understanding overlaps between different educational / developmental needs. Kinga: I’m researching the links between logical thinking and mathematics. We also have a project on the development of time management skills, and we investigate this is both typically developed adolescents and in adolescents with autism. Lucia: I am Lucia, and I have just started working on my postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley, working on how puberty impacts learning. ModSu: What would you say are the key ways that puberty impacts learning? Lucia: We really don’t know all that much. It is hard to tease out effects of puberty (hormonal changes) … Continue reading →

ModKathryn: Welcome everyone! ModShane: Hello everyone. What have you learned about adolescents so far this week? Lucia: I was excited to see the journal Nature launch a special collection on Adolescence, which includes more traditional research articles, as well as podcasts, videos, and popular science articles. Many of the reviews invite us to rethink how we talk about adolescence, and how to move the research forward ModShane: @Lucia From an educational perspective or more broadly? Lucia: More broadly, but it definitely includes relevant topics for learning and education. The nature collection link is here: https://www.nature.com/collections/vbmfnrsssw ModShane: “It’s widely accepted that adolescents are misunderstood. Less well known is how far we still have to go to understand adolescence itself.” That is a quote from the Nature collection ModKathryn: The Centre for Educational Neuroscience Seminar at Birkbeck today was on sleep-dependent learning and academic performance. Dr Francis Knight presented her work and … Continue reading →

ModSu: Welcome everyone to tonight’s live chat.   Mark: My major project is testing 20,000 children of who 13,500 are part of our longitudinal birth cohort study – this allows us to understand all of the factors that influence a child’s outcome. We did our first school sweep when they were 4-5 years and now we are back when they are 7-8 years. But we have all of the routine data being harvested continually. Rebecca: My interest is primarily on early years learning and attention, and I’ve focused on maths learning in particular. I’m especially interested in how young children learn the meaning of number symbols and what foundational numeracy skills are important to establish in the early years. Katie: My research is in maths education. In particular in how spatial thinking influences maths learning.   ModSu: What do you think are the most important foundational numeracy skills to establish in the early years? Rebecca: From … Continue reading →

ModAnnie: Welcome to the chat everyone!    gertzerl17: I’m interested in the effect of sign language on English language and literacy skills in hearing, and in bilingualism in general and its effect on literacy. Mark: These are really interesting questions! I tend to think in terms of information – so sign language MIGHT provide additional information that could aid literacy etc. An interesting research question! Rebecca: There is a lot of mixed evidence about the effects of bilingualism on literacy. This is a gross oversimplification, but I think the general picture is that learning a second language seems to cause some delays in early vocabulary and literacy. But, bilingual children seem to eventually ‘catch up’ to their monolingual peers. Annie: A quick search in the questions section of this site showed me one article that concluded “simultaneously presenting words visually, kinaesthetically, and orally enhances a child’s vocabulary development.” It is of course just one paper … Continue reading →

ModKathryn: Welcome everyone to tonight’s live chat on Attention, Reward and Motivation! Mike: Hi everyone! I’m Mike and I work mostly on attention and distraction in real world environments, with special focus on teenagers in schools ModKathryn: Hi Mike! Maybe I could start with a question? There seems to be various opinions on whether colourful and vibrant displays on the walls in classrooms are distracting or not. What are your thoughts on this? Is there evidence to suggest it has benefits? Mike: It’s an interesting question. There is research suggesting that highly decorated classroom environments could be distracting for children and impede learning, e.g. Barrett, P., Davies, F., Zhang, Y., & Barrett, L. (2015). The impact of classroom design on pupils learning: Final results of a holistic, multi-level analysis. Building and Environment Hanley, M., Khairat, M., Taylor, K., Wilson, R., Cole-fletcher, R., Riby, D. (2017). Classroom displays- attraction or distraction? … Continue reading →