Teach Effectively!

Image of CMU home page

Over on LD Blog I posted an entry a couple of months ago about a study showing changes in brain function as a result of instruction. I’m noting it here because Carnegie Mellon University featured the study on its home page. The story is that Ann Meyers and her colleagues reported another study documenting how reading instruction affects learners’ brains. In this case, the research involved 100 hours of remedial instruction and the outcomes were improved comprehension.

Link to the entry on LD Blog. Link to the CMU Web page, part of which is pictured above. Link to the press release about the study.

Meyler, A., Keller, T. A., Cherkassky, V. L., & Just, M. A. (2008). Modifying the brain activation of poor readers during sentence comprehension with extended remedial instruction: A longitudinal study of neuroplasticity. Neuropsychologia, 46, 2580-2592.

My colleague Dan Willingham has posted a marvelous video that’s an introduction to thinking about neuroscience and education. Under the title “Brain-based Education: Fad or Breakthrough,” he illustrates important elements about what are reasoned extrapolations from cognitive neuroscience to education and what are not.

• D-Ed Reckoning
• Eduwonkette
• Will Talheimers’ Will at Work (an unusually well reasoned commentary on digital learning): Be Skeptical of Brain-Based Learning

Update (7 June 2008): A couple of days ago, Dan posted a new version of the video; I’ve modified the links in the box accordingly.