The BPS research digest recently featured a study that investigated
children's reports of factual and narrative information after a visit to a museum. The children were six years old and, perhaps of no surprise to parents, the children were able to recall a large amount of information. Of particular interest is that they could remember significantly more when they drew at the same time as retelling their trip to the museum. In fact, they were able to remember twice as much factual information when drawing.

Some of the 'drawing' effect was put down to the subconscious verbal encouragement given to children by adults while they were drawing. Drawing could also be acting as a motivator and provide memory clues.

Despite recalling lots of information, the children performed relatively poorly in a traditional comprehension test of 12 questions. One explanation is that the children were interested in different aspects of the same phenomena from adults (something that is known from research elsewhere) and the adults made up the test.

As well as highlighting the value of taking children to museums, there is a strong message in this research in terms of methods for assessing and supporting children's learning.

Gross, J., Hayne, H., & Drury, T. (2009). Drawing facilitates children's reports of factual and narrative information: implications for educational contexts. Applied Cognitive Psychology23(7), 953-971.

Labels: assessment, drawing, education, memory, motivation, museums, schools

As the parent of a child who's been keen on computer games from the age of three(!), I welcome the Scottish Government's plans for teaching schoolchildren how to design and develop their own electronic games. Apparently, pupils will use software to create their own games, and be taught how to use computer software to create animations and feature films. While this is at least partly intended to support Scotland's games industry, which employs more than 500 and generates £20million annually, Maureen Watt, Minister for Schools and Skills, also notes "Technologies have become part of every day modern life, whether in computer programming, engineering or craft and design - and we need to encourage children to be confident and competent when using them".

From what I can see, confidence in using technology is already par for the course among primary 1s, certainly in terms of xbox, playstation, nintendo ds various... And if you need convincing about the potential educational value of games, have a look at how it is being done on gamelearning for the 'playstation generation'; read what John Rice has to stay about the educational uses of the ds; or for something more practical (and my favourite) why not see if you can beat the clock on Lunar Jim's patchwork game (Level 3), or for something a bit easier how about Spooky Spoon Sudoku?

Labels: digitalnatives, education, games, learnerexpectations, schools, scotland

It's that time of year again, time to look out your brollies and head down to the SECC in Glasgow for the Scottish Learning Festival 2007 (formerly SETT).

Seminars this year are grouped around key themes in Scottish education (with a strong schools based focus, as to be expected by a LTS organised event):

* Towards the Curriculum for Excellence
* Excellence and Ambition
* Support for Teachers and Learners
* Leadership
* Skills for Work and Life
* International Perspectives

The festival will run on the 19th and 20th September, at the SECC in Glasgow. See the Scottish Learning Festival website for more details.

Labels: conference, elearning, LTScotland, schools, scottish