果冻影院

Absorbing new ideas in maths and science often involves overcoming pre-existing incorrect beliefs. For example, when learning that the earth is round, children have to first overcome the compelling belief that it is flat.聽

Research investigating brain activation of adults completing maths and science problems shows that this need to inhibit pre-existing beliefs is true even for science experts. It is not that experts have completely replaced their naive beliefs with new more advanced scientific ideas, but rather that experts have become better at inhibiting those early beliefs to allow the more advanced scientific ideas to come to the fore.

A large-scale randomised control trial was funded by the Education Endowment Foundation and Wellcome to test the efficiency of the computer game called 鈥楽top and Think鈥�. 6672 children from Year 3 (7- to 8-year-olds) and Year 5 (9- to 10-year-olds) in 89 schools across England took part in the study. Pupils who participated in the programme made the equivalent of +1 additional month鈥檚 progress in maths and +2 additional months鈥� progress in science, on average, compared to children in the lessons-as-usual control group.聽

To check whether this impact was due to the 鈥楽top and Think鈥� game specifically, or was a result of the extra pupil engagement and motivation arising from having a novel and fun computer-based activity at the start of lessons more generally, schools were offered an alternative computer-based programme that did not include any content from 鈥楽top and Think鈥�.聽

Pupils who received 鈥楽top and Think鈥� also made more progress than pupils in this 鈥榓ctive鈥� control group. A majority of teachers felt that 鈥楽top and Think鈥� had a positive impact on the mathematical and science abilities of the pupils in their class.

The cost of using 鈥楽top and Think鈥� is very low and is estimated to be a little over 拢5 per child over a three-year period. Further development and evaluation of the 鈥楽top and Think鈥� computer game is underway.

Professor Denis Mareschal (Birkbeck, University of London), Principal Investigator of the UnLocke project, said:

鈥淭his project illustrates how findings from cognitive neuroscience, when properly interpreted, can have a positive impact on educational practice and outcomes.

鈥溾�楽top and Think鈥� demonstrates the effectiveness of computer-based learning activities designed around evidenced-based educational practices in the modern classroom.鈥�

Professor Kaska Porayska-Pomsta (果冻影院 Knowledge Lab), Co-investigator, said:

鈥淭he project findings provide a solid basis for considering how technology may be designed to support key aspects of children鈥檚 learning as part of classroom practices. Based on feedback from teachers, the team is now working to improve the UnLocke environment and to develop adaptive learning support to individual children.鈥�

Teachers involved in the study said:

鈥淚t allowed me to develop my understanding of how the children in my class learn and to analyse what they know, how clearly they understand concepts and to identify misconceptions that聽children in my class have.鈥�

鈥淚t gave me an insight into how children鈥檚 ideas can change when given thinking time and how they are able to reason as to why something is right or wrong.鈥澛�

The research was led by Professor Denis Mareschal from Birkbeck College and involved IOE researchers聽Dr Sveta Mayer, Professor Kaska Porayska-Pomsta and Professor Andrew Tolmie who are part of the Centre for Educational Neuroscience (CEN). CEN is a collaboration between Birkbeck, University of London; 果冻影院 Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience; and the 果冻影院 Institute of Education. This project was developed in partnership with LEARNUS.

Links

• Centre for Educational Neuroscience
• Department of Culture, Communication and Media
• Department of Learning and Leadership
• Department of Psychology and Human Development
• 果冻影院 Knowledge Lab

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• Brad Flickinger ()