Brain and learning

Dyslexia and the Brain: What Does Current Research Tell Us?

By: Roxanne F. Hudson, Leslie High, and Stephanie Al Otaiba (2007)

The identification of a child with dyslexia is a difficult process, but there are ways that parents and teachers can learn more about the reading difficulty and support the child’s learning.

The Content's Best Modality Is Key

By: Daniel T. Willingham (2006)

The idea that people may differ in their ability to learn new material depending on its modality — that is, whether the child hears it, sees it, or touches it — has been tested for over 100 years. And the idea that these differences might prove useful in the classroom has been around for at least 40 years.

Do Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Learners Need Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Instruction?

By: Daniel T. Willingham (2006)

How does the mind work — and especially how does it learn? Teachers' instructional decisions are based on a mix of theories learned in teacher education, trial and error, craft knowledge, and gut instinct. Such gut knowledge often serves us well, but is there anything sturdier to rely on?

How to Help Students See When Their Knowledge Is Superficial or Incomplete

By: Daniel T. Willingham (2006)

Why Students Think They Understand When They Don't

By: Daniel T. Willingham (2006)

Very often, students will think they understand a body of material. Believing that they know it, they stop trying to learn more. But, come test time, it turns out they really don't know the material. Can cognitive science tell us anything about why students are commonly mistaken about what they know and don't know? Are there any strategies teachers can use to help students better estimate what they know?

How Knowledge Helps

By: Daniel T. Willingham (2006)

The author, a professor of cognitive psychology, notes, "it's true that knowledge gives students something to think about, but… knowledge does much more than just help students hone their thinking skills, it actually makes learning easier." Factual knowledge enhances cognitive processes like problem solving and reasoning, and once you have some knowledge, the brain finds it easier to get more and more knowledge.

Schools in Which All Kinds of Minds Can Grow

By: Mel Levine (2006)

As we discover more about how students learn and how different minds learn differently, our schools have a golden opportunity to increase the percentage of their students who experience true academic success.

Dissecting Dyslexia

By: Thomas S. May (2006)

Genetic differences in the brain make learning to read a struggle for children with dyslexia. Luckily, most of our brain development occurs after we're born, when we interact with our environment. This means that the right teaching techniques can actually re-train the brain, especially when they happen early.

Reading Failure

By: Society for Neuroscience (2006)

Raisin' Brain: Maintaining Homes for All Kinds of Minds

By: Mel Levine (2006)

School is not the only arena in which children's minds need to be nurtured and expanded. Equally vital is the kind of education and brain building that a student undergoes at home.

Musical Training Helps Language Processing, Studies Show

By: Lisa Trei (2005)

In what will be music to the ears of arts advocates, researchers for the first time have shown that mastering a musical instrument improves the way the human brain processes parts of spoken language.

Visually Speaking

By: Leonard Shalain (2005)

There’s a reason learning to read is hard for so many children – our brains are not wired for literacy! The written word is a relatively new invention in human history, and our brains have not caught up with the fast-paced changes in the way we communicate. The brain areas that adapted to reading and writing are primarily on the left side, which processes linear, logical information. With the invention of image-based media like television, video, and the internet, the holistic, visual right side is reclaiming an equal role in learning.

Dyslexia: What Brain Research Reveals About Reading

By: Society for Neuroscience (2004)

Remediation Training Improves Reading Ability of Dyslexic Children

By: Lisa Trei (2003)

For the first time, researchers have shown that the brains of dyslexic children can be rewired -- after undergoing intensive remediation training -- to function more like those found in normal readers.