The Science of Education Quotes

“Acceleration means studying material that is part of the standard curriculum for older students. Enrichment involves learning information that falls outside the usual curriculum—say,”
― Scientific American, The Science of Education: Back to School

“And educators should recognize that physical education is about building the brain as well as the body and should put it center stage in the curriculum. If teachers want their students to pay attention, they should consider letting them jump, stomp and”
― Scientific American, The Science of Education: Back to School

“Almost half of those in a heavily academic preschool went on to have emotional problems, compared with only 6 percent of those in the play-based preschool. The latter group also had fewer felony arrests and spent fewer years in special education diagnosed with emotional impairment. Perhaps most disturbing is the potential for the early exposure to academics to physiologically damage developing brains. Although the brain continues to change throughout life in response to learning, young children undergo a number of sensitive periods critical to healthy development; learning to speak a language and responding to social cues are two such domains. Appropriate experiences can hone neural pathways that will help the child during life; by the same token, stressful experiences can change the brain’s architecture to make children significantly more susceptible to problems later in life, including depression, anxiety disorders—even”
― Scientific American, The Science of Education: Back to School

“What would she do with that knowledge other than spout it back to adults? We want kids to draw relationships from what they see. To think and question and act on these things.” A child’s play is essentially improvisation— a chance to try out new concepts by imagining”
― Scientific American, The Science of Education: Back to School

“accepted fact of life among professional-class Manhattan parents in recent years, despite the absence of proof: admission to what is considered an “elite” preschool is a necessary first step to admission to the Ivy League.”
― Scientific American, The Science of Education: Back to School

“The law passed by Congress in 2001 known as No Child Left Behind encouraged preschools to include more direct instruction in their curricula by mandating standardized tests in math and reading for all public school third graders.”
― Scientific American, The Science of Education: Back to School

“Alternatives need to be considered. What little work has been done on teacher competence suggests that students perform better with teachers who have greater verbal ability and, at the secondary school level, better knowledge of their subject matter.”
― Scientific American, The Science of Education: Back to School

“difficulty speaking English rose from 2.8 percent in 1979 to 5.1 percent in 1995. And the percentage of children living in poverty increased from 14.9 in 1970 to 20.2 in 1995. There was some good news: the median level of education among parents increased a bit during that time period,”
― Scientific American, The Science of Education: Back to School

“gains from small classes occur in the early elementary grades and do not accumulate beyond first or second grade. Kindergarten and first-grade teachers in particular tend to use small groups, hands-on projects and personal relationships with students.”
― Scientific American, The Science of Education: Back to School

“Alternatively, mixed-age classes such as those found at Montessori schools prevent precocious students from leaving their regular class completely and yet may enable some acceleration for younger students.”
― Scientific American, The Science of Education: Back to School

“Because these children speed through the regular curriculum for their grade, they need additional intellectual stimulation while they wait for the rest of the kids to learn the basics.”
― Scientific American, The Science of Education: Back to School

“In fact, so-called gifted students may fail to do well because they are unusually smart. Ensuring that a gifted child reaches his or her potential requires an understanding of what can go wrong and how to satisfy the unusual learning requirements”
― Scientific American, The Science of Education: Back to School

“Pupils actually learn better if conditions are arranged so that they have to make errors. Specifically, people remember things better and longer if they are given tests so challenging that they are bound to fail.”
― Scientific American, The Science of Education: Back to School