Trends in Neuroscience and Education最新文献

Background

In 2020, school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic forced students all over the world to promptly alter their learning routines from in-person to distance learning. However, so far, only a limited number of studies from a few countries investigated whether school closures affected students’ performance within intelligent tutoring system—such as intelligent tutoring systems.

Method

In this study, we investigated the effect of school closures in Austria by evaluating data (n = 168 students) derived from an intelligent tutoring system for learning mathematics, which students used before and during the first period of school closures.

Results

We found that students’ performance increased in mathematics in the intelligent tutoring system during the period of school closures compared to the same period in previous years.

Conclusion

Our results indicate that intelligent tutoring systems were a valuable tool for continuing education and maintaining student learning during school closures in Austria.

Background

What, exactly, do number line estimation (NLE) tasks measure? Different versions of the task were observed to have different effects on performance.

Method

We investigated associations between the production (indicating the location) and perception version (indicating the number) of the bounded and unbounded NLE task and their relationship to arithmetic.

Results

A stronger correlation was observed between the production and perception version of the unbounded than the bounded NLE task, indicating that both versions of the unbounded—but not the bounded—NLE task measure the same construct. Moreover, overall low but significant associations between NLE performance and arithmetic were only observed for the production version of the bounded NLE task.

Conclusion

These results substantiate that the production version of bounded NLE seems to rely on proportion judgment strategies, whereas both unbounded versions and the perception version of the bounded NLE task may rely more on magnitude estimation.

Executive functions and play have been researched separately over the last few decades. Only recently has the association between the two constructs received more attention. Thus, a Special Issue on this association is timely. The six empirical studies of the Special Issue applied various types of play (e.g., dramatic play or physical play) in their research. Children's executive functions were also measured with a variety of tasks. The wide variability of the studies was a learning point, especially given the cultural connotation of executive function measures. All the studies of the Special Issue were conducted in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) countries raising the issue of generalizability. We discuss future directions of the research on executive functions and play hoping for longitudinal studies on the association between these constructs in the future.

To counteract declining interest in science, contextualizing course material has been suggested, despite little evidence supporting this strategy. We assessed how reading physics problems in different contexts–none, technical, or humanistic–impacted performance and implicit cognitive and affective situational interest (SI) among undergraduate men and women (n = 60). We hypothesized that contextualized problems would increase cognitive SI, boosting performance. We also investigated existing hypotheses that this influence would be stronger when contexts matched stereotypical gender interests. Pupillometric and electroencephalographic data served to indicate cognitive SI, while electrodermal activity (EDA) and valence were measures of affective SI. Significantly higher valence was observed in decontextualized than humanistic problems (p = 0.003) specifically among men (p < 0.001). Greater EDA (p = 0.019) and decontextualized problems (p < 0.001) yielded greater performance than contextualized problems for all participants. Results emphasize the importance of affective SI and of avoiding gender biases in curricular development. This study encourages caution if implementing contextualization.

Background

This study aimed at investigating the interaction between genetic and environmental factors in predicting executive function in children aged four to six years.

Methods

Response inhibition as index of EF was assessed in 197 children using a go/nogo task. A cumulative dopamine (DA) genetic score was calculated, indexing predisposition of low DA activity. Dimensions of parenting behavior and parental education were assessed.

Results

Parental education was positively related to accuracy in nogo trials. An interaction between the cumulative genetic score and the parenting dimension Responsiveness predicted go RT indicating that children with a high cumulative genetic score and high parental responsiveness exhibited a careful response mode.

Conclusion

The development of EF in kindergarten children is related to parental education as well as to an interaction between the molecular-genetics of the DA system and parenting behavior.

Background

A hallmark of the approximate number system (ANS) is ratio dependence. Previous work identified specific event-related potentials (ERPs) that are modulated by numerical ratio throughout the lifespan. In adults, ERP ratio dependence was correlated with the precision of the numerical judgments with individuals who make more precise judgments showing larger ratio-dependent ERP effects. The current study evaluated if this relationship generalizes to preschoolers.

Method

ERPs were recorded from 56 4.5 to 5.5-year-olds while they compared the numerosity of two sequentially presented dot arrays. Nonverbal numerical precision, often called ANS acuity, was assessed using a similar behavioral task.

Results

Only children with high ANS acuity exhibited a P2p ratio-dependent effect onsetting ∼250 ms after the presentation of the comparison dot array. Furthermore, P2p amplitude positively correlated with ANS acuity across tasks.

Conclusion

Results demonstrate developmental continuity between preschool years and adulthood in the neural basis of the ANS.

Background

Several studies have revealed a common high prevalence of educational neuromyths among teachers from different countries. However, only one intervention aimed at reducing these beliefs among in-service teachers has been reported to date, and it was conducted in a non-naturalistic setting.

Procedure

In the present study, we administered a survey to measure the prevalence of common neuromyths in a large sample (n = 807) of primary and secondary teachers from 203 schools across Catalonia (Spain), and then we evaluated the impact that a 15-hour online course on neuroscience had on a sample of them as compared to a control group.

Main findings

Results showed an initial distribution of neuromyth beliefs similar to those of previous studies and a large effect of the intervention on reducing their prevalence shortly after the training and in the long term.

Conclusions

These findings provide evidence that an intervention addressed to in-service teachers that is low-cost and easy to implement can cast corrective effects that persist over time in neuromyth beliefs.

Background

Predictive models for academic performance forecasting have been a useful tool in the improvement of the administrative, counseling and instructional personnel of academic institutions.

Aim

The aim of this work is to develop a Radial Basis Function Neural Network for prediction of students’ performance using their past academic records as well as their cognitive and psychomotor abilities.

Methods

We obtained data from a secondary school repository containing academic, cognitive and psychomotor scores of the students. The preprocessed dataset was used to train the RBFNN model. The impact of Principal Component Analysis on the model performance was also measured.

Results

The results gave a sensitivity (pass prediction) of 93.49%, specificity (failure prediction) of 75%, overall accuracy of 86.59% and an AUC score (aggregate measure of performance across the possible classification thresholds) of 94%.

Conclusion

We established in this study that psychomotor and cognitive abilities also predict students’ performance. This study helps students, parents and teachers to get a projection of academic success even before sitting for the examination.

Background

. An increasing number of people who are neurodiverse (people who have conditions such as autism, ADHD, and dyslexia) are pursuing higher education, including education and employment in the field of audiology

Methods

. This conceptual article was written by neurodivergent professionals to promote a cultural shift of inclusion for students, clinicians, researchers, and professors who identify as neurodivergent.

Findings

. People with these conditions thrive with supportive accommodations in higher education and workplaces but little has been reported in the literature on neurodiversity accommodations in audiology education and practice

Conclusions

. This article reviews the current literature on neurodiversity as it relates to audiology and discusses the practical and ethical considerations for neurodiversity inclusivity in the discipline of audiology.

Purpose

İn line with the objective of this special issue to unveil the challenges, opportunities, experiences, and perspectives of learners while they engage with technology during the global pandemic especially in a broader context, this study decides to examine their perceptions on the use of technology-based learning environments during the post covid semesters. This is on the premise that understanding the learners perceptions on using technology for learning after the pandemic unpacks numerous success and challenges which is essential in making propositions that would enhance learners' digital experience and while steering educational policy to the appropriate direction.

Design

To achieve this, a mixed-method research design was adopted for this study and 36 participants were purposively selected. Semi-structured interview questions and a 5 point Likert-type questionnaire were used to collect information from the participants on their perceptions on using technology-based instruction during the post-pandemic semesters.

Findings

Based on the data that was collected and analyzed, the study unveiled that though technology was perceived to enhance learning among the learners, it significantly creates boredom when used for educational purposes. Other novel findings of this study were instrumental in making valid empirical conclusions on this topic.

Originality

This study adds to the corpus of studies showing learners' experiences and perspectives on the use of technology for learning during the post-pandemic semester. The study is a starting point for more discussions on the need for developing learner-friendly technologies for better learning experiences among learners.