The importance of differential psychology for school learning: 90% of school achievement variance is due to student characteristics

This is why the study of individual differences/differential psychology is so important. If you don’t want to read the article you can watch a video of Dr. Detterman where he summarizes his thinking and this paper.

Education and Intelligence: Pity the Poor Teacher because Student Characteristics are more Significant than Teachers or Schools. Article link.

Douglas K. Detterman

Case Western Reserve University (USA)

Abstract

Education has not changed from the beginning of recorded history. The problem is that focus has been on schools and teachers and not students. Here is a simple thought experiment with two conditions: 1) 50 teachers are assigned by their teaching quality to randomly composed classes of 20 students, 2) 50 classes of 20 each are composed by selecting the most able students to fill each class in order and teachers are assigned randomly to classes. In condition 1, teaching ability of each teacher and in condition 2, mean ability level of students in each class is correlated with average gain over the course of instruction. Educational gain will be best predicted by student abilities (up to r = 0.95) and much less by teachers' skill (up to r = 0.32). I argue that seemingly immutable education will not change until we fully understand students and particularly human intelligence. Over the last 50 years in developed countries, evidence has accumulated that only about 10% of school achievement can be attributed to schools and teachers while the remaining 90% is due to characteristics associated with students. Teachers account for from 1% to 7% of total variance at every level of education. For students, intelligence accounts for much of the 90% of variance associated with learning gains. This evidence is reviewed


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Is crying good for you? It depends

[double click to enlarge image]

This post about crying behavior is way off task for the focus of my blog. But the title of the article captured my attention, and upon further review, I discovered, much to my delight (and preference for good model-based research) that the article presented a nice conceptual/theoretical model for understanding crying behavior.


Bottom line---according to Rottenberg et al. (2008) a "good cry" may be beneficial...but sometimes it is not and it may exacerbate stress. Crying, like many human behaviors, is the result of a complex interaction of personal individual difference variables and environmental settings. The authors model (see nice visual-graphic represenation above) suggests that the pros/cons of crying are a function of (a) how crying behavior is measured in research, (b) the conditions in the social environment in which a person is operating, (c) individual personality traits of the crier, and (d) the affective (emotional) state of the crier at the time.

Having a "good cry" is not always beneficial...but sometimes it is. Again...the complexity of human behavior is confirmed.

It all "depends"..........

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, school psychology, neuropsychology, personality, crying, emotions, affective

Impulsivity and time perception

An interesting "in press" article (Trends in Cognitive Sciences; Willmann & Paulus) that links the pacemaker accumulator model (PAM) of mental time-keeping and impulsivity and decision making.

The bottom line is that individuals that focus more attentional resources on time ("watching the clock") and/or who may be in increased arousal states (due to emotional distress), experience time differently. Such individuals overestimate time durations, and thus have a harder time waiting for rewards or delaying gratification needs. According to the author's modification of the predominant PAM model (see addition of "mood states" oval in figure above), the pacemaker of impulsive individuals may run at a higher clock speed, due to increased arousal or attention.

Interesting hypothesis and expansion of the PAM.

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Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, pacemaker accumulator, IQ Brain Clock, brain clock, time perception, temporal processing, impulsivity, ADHD

Biofeedback to help students do better on tests?

A tip-of-that hat to SharpBrains for the FYI post about an article in Technology and Learning Magazine about how a school system is using a PC-based biofeedback program with third graders to "calm" students down before taking tests. I'd like to see an actual controlled study, but the anecdotal reports of higher test scores are interesting.

Technorati Tags: psychology, educational psychology, education, neuroscience, neuropsychology, biofeedback, learning, neurotechnology, brain fitness, testing, tests, achievement, school learning

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