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Gestures Help Children Grasp Math
Science magazine: Children who are taught to use gestures to solve math problems demonstrate a deeper understanding of concepts, but why? A group of psychologists thinks it’s because the physical actions help youths understand abstract ideas. A study published online in Psychological Science describes how researchers taught a group of third graders to form a V-point gesture with their fingers (as seen in the image) to signify adding the numbers up, followed by pointing a finger at the blank in the equation to represent inserting the outcome in its place. Read the whole story: Science magazine
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Not So Fast: Speed-Reading App Fails To Convince Experts
NBC: The company claims that by removing the need for your eyes to move during reading, the app can raise your reading speed from the average 250 words per minute to a blazing-fast 500 or more. But when we spoke to experts in the field, they were skeptical. "It's been around for a long, long time," said University of California San Diego psychology professor Keith Rayner in a phone interview. "I think there was even a paper in the '60s." The results, including those from Rayner's own research, were never promising. "The main finding was this," Rayner continued. "If you have people reading in this RSVP method, they can read sentences one at a time.
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Study Links Teacher ‘Grit’ with Effectiveness, Retention
Education Week: In recent years, we've heard a lot about gritty students. Now grit researchers are turning their attention to teachers.
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Celtics won’t hit bottom of the league
The Boston Globe: The Celtics beat the once-great Pistons, 118-111, at the Garden Sunday night in front of a hearty sellout crowd. Yowza. In Tankville parlance, we’d call this a 4-point game — in reverse. The Celtics move further away from the basement of the NBA and the Pistons inch closer to Boston among the bottom feeders. And here’s a little fun fact to go along with the perverse thinking in the spring of 2014. Sitting on the Detroit bench Sunday night, inactive because of left knee surgery, No. 1 in your program, Mr. Chauncey Billups. That name ring a bell? Billups represents all that can go wrong with tanking games. ...
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Psychology: ‘An Owner’s Manual for Your Own Mind’
The Atlantic: Over the last decade, Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert has become a prominent voice in the public sphere. His 2006 book Stumbling on Happiness, translated in over 30 languages, became an international bestseller, triggering a slew of invitations—to give a TED Talk, host the PBS series This Emotional Life, and write for The New York Times and other publications. Gilbert spoke with me about his untraditional path to psychology, how psychology affects (and is affected by) other academic fields, and why the study of happiness is critical for public policy. ... My history is pretty different from the history of most professors. I was a high school dropout.
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The Culture of Meetings
Some of the biggest international mergers of the last 20 years are considered to be textbook cases of corporate failure. The 2006 merger of French telecommunications company Alcatel with New Jersey-based Lucent Technologies, Daimler Benz’s 1998 purchase of American automaker Chrysler, and British Steel’s 1999 marriage with Dutch Royal Hoogovens are all considered examples of cultural mismatches. Many of the clashing business standards and corporate values that plagued these mergers were traced to communications between executives and employees — a collision of American or Anglo-Saxon attitudes with European sensibilities.
