Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children

by Roberta Michnick Golinkoff

are they learning more than if they didn’t work together to discuss the story? Robert Slavin of Johns Hopkins University and the Johnson brothers at the University of Minnesota showed that back-and-forth discussions increase learning over the usual sitting-in-your-seat competitive kind of learning. Competition has only a couple of “winners,” whereas collaboration yields more. Collaboration expands language skills and encourages kids like Jamal and Shevon to express their ideas. Listening to others’ ideas and learning debate skills can be handy in life—with your spouse as well as on the job. Even shy children (remember that kid in elementary school who never spoke up?) are more likely to talk and take risks in small groups—and are more likely to be heard.