Trends in Neuroscience and Education最新文献

Background

Block play is one type of intervention that improves visuospatial skills. There are multiple forms of block play and it is unclear whether they have differential cognitive effects.

Method

Given the importance of visuospatial skills for mathematical performance, we studied the differential impact of two types of block playstructured (copying a block design) and free (building from imagination) on arithmetic processing, using behavioral and fMRI methods. Forty-three children aged 8.3±0.8 years participated (21 free play and 22 structured block play).

Results

Results showed that while both groups showed behavioral improvements, only the structured block play group showed significant improvements in both addition and subtraction performance. Additionally, the structured block play group showed increased activation in several regions linked to memory, motor, and arithmetic processing after training.

Conclusion

The results inform choices for activities used in the classroom to improve visuospatial skills and suggest structured block play may be beneficial for arithmetic processing.

This review weighs the risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 against the side effects of school closures on physical and mental health, education, and well-being of those affected by the school closures. Whereas short term effects – decreased learning and food security, and increased anxiety, violence against children, child labor and teen pregnancies – are frequently discussed, the long-term effects of school closures will be much more detrimental across the lifespan of the “Generation Corona”: Existing pandemics of inactivity and myopia, already affecting billions of people, are worsening due to less physical exercise and less time spent outdoors, poor diet, weight gain, and increased screen time during lockdowns, causing future increases of stroke, heart attack, cancer, and blindness. Socio-emotional complications of isolation, learned helplessness, economic and existential insecurity will include increased depression and suicide, decreased empathy and increased loneliness. Together with decreased educational attainment and economic productivity, the amount of ensuing increased future global morbidity and mortality justifies immediate action of school reopening.

Background

Prior studies reported that practice playing an approximate arithmetic game improved symbolic math performance relative to active control groups in adults and preschool children (e.g. Park & Brannon, 2013, 2014; Park et al., 2016; Szkudlarek & Brannon, 2018). However, Szkudlarek, Park and Brannon (2021) recently failed to replicate those findings in adults. Here we test whether approximate arithmetic training yields benefits in elementary school children who have intermediate knowledge of arithmetic.

Method

We conducted a randomized controlled trial with a pre and post-test design to compare the effects of approximate arithmetic training and visuo-spatial working memory training on standardized math performance in third and fourth grade children.

Results

We found that approximate arithmetic training did not yield any significant gains on standardized measures of symbolic math performance.

Conclusion

A Bayesian analysis supports the conclusion that approximate arithmetic provides no benefits for symbolic math performance.

Background

Owing to the prevalence of neuromyths in education, there has been a call for more teacher training in neuroscience. However, neuroscience is rarely featured in teacher education. This study investigated the neuroscience literacy and perceptions of neuroscience in education among preservice teachers in order to inform future development of initial teacher education.

Method

Neuroscience literacy of 968 preservice teachers and their perceptions towards applying neuroscience in education were examined using survey items adapted from studies addressing similar constructs. Rasch item response theory and classical test theory techniques were employed for data analysis.

Results

Most of the preservice teachers had limited brain knowledge and subscribed to many common neuromyths but were positive towards applying neuroscience in education. General brain knowledge was the only predictor for ability to identify neuromyths (β = .564).

Conclusion

Neuroscience knowledge can help safeguard preservice teachers against neuromyths. Neuroscience training deserves a place in teacher education.

Background

Graph analysis detects psychosis and literacy acquisition. Bronze Age literature has been proposed to contain childish or psychotic features, which would only have matured during the Axial Age (∼800-200 BC), a putative boundary for contemporary mentality.

Method

Graph analysis of literary texts spanning ∼4,500 years shows remarkable asymptotic changes over time.

Results

While lexical diversity, long-range recurrence and graph length increase away from randomness, short-range recurrence declines towards random levels. Bronze Age texts are structurally similar to oral reports from literate typical children and literate psychotic adults, but distinct from poetry, and from narratives by preliterate preschoolers or Amerindians. Text structure reconstitutes the “arrow-of-time”, converging to educated adult levels at the Axial Age onset.

Conclusion

The educational pathways of oral and literate traditions are structurally divergent, with a decreasing range of recurrence in the former, and an increasing range of recurrence in the latter. Education is seemingly the driving force underlying discourse maturation.

Background

It is not well understood whether qualified teachers believe neuromyths, and whether this affects their practice and learner outcomes.

Method

A standardised survey was administered to practising teachers (N = 228) to determine whether or not they believe fictional (neuromyth) or factual statements about the brain, the confidence in those beliefs, and their application.

Results

Although factual knowledge was high, seven neuromyths were believed by >50% of the sample. Participants who endorsed neuromyths were generally more confident in their answers than those who identified the myths. Key neuromyths appear to be incorporated into classrooms.

Conclusion

Australian teachers, like their overseas counterparts, have some neuroscience awareness but are susceptible to neuromyths. A stronger partnership with neuroscientists would addresss the complex problem of disentangling brain facts from fictions, and provide better support for teachers. This study uncovered psychometric weaknesses in the commonly used neuromyth measure that future research should address.

Background

Fractions are known to be difficult for children and adults. Behavioral studies suggest that magnitude processing of fractions can be improved via number line estimation (NLE) trainings, but little is known about the neural correlates of fraction learning.

Method

To examine the neuro-cognitive foundations of fraction learning, behavioral performance and neural correlates were measured before and after a five-day NLE training.

Results

In all evaluation tasks behavioral performance increased after training. We observed a fronto-parietal network associated with number magnitude processing to be recruited in all tasks as indicated by a numerical distance effect. For symbolic fractions, the distance effect on intraparietal activation was only observed after training.

Conclusion

The absence of a distance effect of symbolic fractions before the training could indicate an initially less automatic access to their overall magnitude. NLE training facilitates processing of overall fraction magnitude as indicated by the distance effect in neural activation.

Background

There is an increasing prevalence of physical inactivity during childhood, concurrent with a rise in obesity rates, which is associated with a variety of health problems. However, the extent to which increased body mass index (BMI) influences acute physical activity (PA) benefits on cognition in childhood remains unknown. The aim of this study was to examine whether BMI influences the effects of acute PA on inhibitory control task performance.

Methods

In a sample of 116 children pooled from four prior studies (ages 8-11; 51 females), demographic measures of age, sex, IQ, socioeconomic status, and aerobic fitness were considered along with BMI. Children participated in a counterbalanced, randomized crossover study, whereby they completed two different interventions; 20 minutes of treadmill walking (60-70% heart rate max) and restful reading (non-exercise control). Following each intervention, children performed a modified flanker task that manipulates inhibitory control demands. Correlations were conducted to determine the influence of demographic variables, fitness, and BMI on inhibitory control following each intervention. Subsequent hierarchical regression analyses were performed with significant demographic factors in the first step, aerobic fitness in the second step when significant, and BMI in the final step.

Results

Analyses indicated that children exhibited improved task performance (p's ≤ 0.001) and decreased interference (p = 0.04) following the walking intervention compared to the restful reading control condition, indicating greater benefits following acute PA across task condition, with selectively greater benefits for the task condition requiring greater inhibitory control. Regression analyses revealed that greater BMI was related to decreased performance following acute PA (p = 0.001); an association not observed following restful reading (p's ≥ 0.11). These results suggest that BMI negatively influences the effect of acute exercise on performance.

Conclusion

Confirming previous studies, these findings indicate beneficial effects of acute PA on a flanker task that modulates inhibitory control requirements, but the effects are significantly greater for task conditions requiring greater amounts of inhibitory control. Further, these beneficial effects of PA appear to be blunted in children with higher BMI. These findings suggest that the acute benefits of PA on cognition may not be fully realized in children with higher BMI.

Background

The randomised controlled trial (RCT) design is increasingly common among studies seeking good-quality evidence to advance educational neuroscience, but conducting RCTs in schools is challenging. Fit to Study, one of six such trials funded by the Education Endowment Foundation and Wellcome Trust, tested an intervention to increase vigorous physical activity during PE lessons on maths attainment among pupils aged 12–13. This review of designing and conducting an RCT in 104 schools is intended as a resource on which researchers might draw for future studies.

Method

We consider intervention design and delivery; recruitment, retention, trial management, data collection and analysis including ethical considerations and working with evaluators.

Results

Teacher training, intervention delivery and data collection during large-scale RCTs require a flexible approach appropriate to educational settings, which in turn entails planning and resources.

Conclusion

Simple interventions, with few outcome measures and minimal missing data, are preferable to more complex designs.