NPR | By ELIZABETH BLAIR
Let’s start with a question from a standardized test: “How would the world be different if we all had a third eye in the back of our heads?”
It’s not a typical standardized question, but as part of the Next Generation Creativity Survey, it’s used to help measure creativity a bit like an IQ test measures intelligence. And it’s not the only creativity test out there.
HUFFINGTON POST | By ROBERT GALLUCCI
For those of us committed to addressing global poverty, improving education for girls may be the closest thing to a silver bullet.
More education for girls brings well demonstrated benefits for them. Girls with higher levels of education marry later, have smaller families, survive childbirth at higher rates, experience reduced incidences of HIV/AIDS, have children more likely to survive to age five and earn more money.
This story is posted on the MacArthur Foundation website.
THE EVOLLLUTION | By LEILA JAHANGIRI Co-written with TOM MUCCIOLO
As colleagues at NYU, we collaborate on topics related to teaching effectiveness. Our research led to the design of our skills assessment tools and to the book A Guide to Better Teaching, which focuses on the skills of effective teachers as identified from learner preferences. One of the most desired skills preferred in teachers is that of expertise, which can be briefly defined as the ability to logically explain or simplify the content.
STATE IMPACT & NPR | By KYLE STOKES
Indiana University psychology professor Karin James conducted research that found that teaching young children to write letters activated parts of their young brains that become critical for reading.
ORBIT | By RUBEN GAZTAMIBIDE-FERNANDEZ
The arts are assumed to inspire beauty and introduce students to the world of aesthetics and expression, while popular culture is feared as the source of social ills, violence, and disengagement. As one view romanticizes and the other vilifies, both are simplistic and misguided, and both views miss the unique opportunities that open up when we engage the arts and popular culture as educational experiences.
(Paper posted on Academia.edu)