npj Science of Learning Community: Digest #12

The npj Science of Learning Community presents research focussed on the mind, brain and education space. In September, our authors demonstrated different pedagogies modulate specific brain activity; and highlighted the importance of categorisation ability to early cognitive development.

The ability to monitor errors is crucial when students are engaged in new tasks, and the strategies teachers use influence students’ learning behaviours. Solange Denervaud and her research team investigated whether the distinctive learning strategies adopted by traditional and Montessori pedagogies, manifested in student’s brain activity patterns while solving maths problems. The effects of these pedagogies is discussed further in Learning from our mistakes: how different pedagogies influence students’ learning strategies.

Babies recognise the defining features of a dog or a park, by learning how to categorise experiences, actions and phenomenon early in life. This ability to identify similarities and differences helps to make the process of remembering and retrieving information from memory simpler. Chris Barnes and Kay Owen discussed how children apply this information in response to everyday learning in Drawing from memory.