The Daniels on Research

We discuss a recent meta-analysis which concludes that learning to play a musical instrument does not lead to cognitive benefit in other areas....but we also suggest that the question "Does music training make you smart?" is not the most important one to pose.

Diane Ravitch recently posted a blog titled "Why I object to the term 'Science of Reading,'" in which she claimed that reading isn't open to scientific investigation. We didn't think it would be interesting to address this obviously false claim, so instead we considered the relationship between science and practice, as a way of considering why people would be concerned about a "science of reading."Ravitch's blog is here: https://dianeravitch.net/2020/11/25/why-i-object-to-the-term-science-of-reading/

The Daniels on Research look at an article deploying a new statistical method, which indicates that personal use of phones during class might not lower student grades.Article URL: https://osf.io/8cmab

We examine an important qualification on the testing effect & also discuss the role of action research--educators conducting research in their classrooms.

David Daniel and Daniel Willingham consider E. D. Hirsch's latest book, How to Educate a Citizen, focusing on the idea that common knowledge of our history and culture might bring our fractured country together.

David Daniel and Daniel Willingham look at a 2016 article, which took a very meticulous approach to intervention. The researchers sought a way to create a growth mindset in 9th graders, and The Daniels found this article fascinating both for the methods they used, and as a springboard to more general reflections on the status of the growth mindset theory. Yeager, D. S., Romero, C., Paunesku, D., Hulleman, C. S., Schneider, B., Hinojosa, C., ... & Trott, J. (2016). Using design thinking to improve psychological interventions: The case of the growth mindset during the transition to high school. Journal of educational psychology, 108(3), 374.

We look at an article that both argues for teachers learning more neuroscience, and that offers an experiment that provided PD for teachers with some neuroscientific content, and then looked for changes in their classroom teaching.  Dubinsky, J. M., Roehrig, G., & Varma, S. (2013). Infusing neuroscience into teacher professional development. Educational Researcher, 42(6), 317-329.

The Daniels discuss Maloney et al., 2015, which focuses on whether it's possible for kids to "catch" math anxiety from their parents. Maloney, E. A., Ramirez, G., Gunderson, E. A., Levine, S. C., & Beilock, S. L. (2015). Intergenerational effects of parents’ math anxiety on children’s math achievement and anxiety. Psychological Science, 26(9), 1480-1488.