Struggling in Math? Try Neuroscience!

Psychologist Carol Dweck headed a study where a group of 100 students that were struggling in math were randomly assigned to participate in two different workshops. One workshop was on study skills, and the other was on how the brain works and information is stored. The students that learned about the brain did considerably better. They embraced their potential by being taught that they have the ability to learn no matter how 'smart' they believe they are. Here is the story with more information: Students View of Intelligence Can Help Grades

I love these results and I hope that more parents adopt these ideas so that student will experience education as a process of learning instead of a sorting between the good and the bad. Another article that emphasizes my point is The Inverse Power of Praise from New York Magazine. Researchers and psychologists have told parents not to call their children stupid, naughty, bratty, spoiled, bad, or incapable because those kids will define themselves by those labels and follow the stereotypes that their parents have placed upon them. The answer to this, however, is not to call them smart, successful, and good so they fill those stereotypes. This creates a dichotomy between smart and stupid. If you are labeled either of these, there is no process (or work) to become one or the other. There is no reason for 'stupid' to strive for smart, and there is no reason for 'smart' to put effort into maintaining that status, because it is an arbitrary assignment. If children have to do smart things to become smart then they are not as confined by our labels and that attributes they associate with them.