NEW YORK: Educational fads come and go at about the same pace as students’ whimsical fashion trends. Some years, experts champion the benefits of collaboration; in others, we hear that students learn best working independently. Some researchers advocate a reward-and-punishment classroom management system, while others contend that rewards undermine intrinsic motivation. Many professors extol the benefits of technology at the same time that critics denounce iPads, Chromebooks and smartphones as frivolous distractions.
Educators and parents should praise students’ efforts, rather than their achievements, in order to nurture a love for learning.
Because the flavor of the day changes so frequently in education, it’s easy to understand teachers’ skepticism about the advice of outsiders who don’t have classroom teaching experience. But as educators spend the summer revising lesson plans and setting new goals for the upcoming year, they would do well to heed the conclusions of exciting new discoveries by cognitive scientists about the brain and the mind. New findings expose the flaws of many traditional teaching methods and force us to reconsider fundamental assumptions about how students learn…