Great Myths of Education and Learning

Can standardized tests predict academic performance? Do PowerPoint presentations improve student learning? Do rewards always undermine student s intrinsic motivation? Great Myths of Education and Learning reviews the scientific research on a number of widely–held misconceptions pertaining to learning and education, including misconceptions regarding student characteristics, how students learn, and the validity of various methods of assessment. Using empirical evidence regarding how we learn and how we know if learning has taken place, the book unravels widely–held misconceptions, many of which affect teaching practices and administrative policies. 

The author focuses on some of the most important and influential myths in this area, providing an in–depth examination of each one, with a comprehensive review of the evidence contradicting each belief., To enhance compatibility with textbooks on educational psychology, topics covered include student characteristics related to learning, views of how the learning process works, and issues related to teaching techniques and testing.  

Written engagingly and accessibly for students and lay readers alike, this latest title in the Great Myths series provides a unique introduction to how we learn.

Introduction

Acknowledgements

# 1 Students are accurate judges of how much they know

# 2 Students learn better when teaching methods are matched with their learning styles

# 3 Lecturing is broadly inferior to other teaching methods

# 4 Using PowerPoint in the classroom improves student learning

# 5 Minimally guided instruction is superior to traditional direct instruction

# 6 Rewards always undermine students intrinsic motivation

#7 Multitasking does not inhibit academic performance

#8 People are either left–brained or right–brained

#9 There are many independent varieties of intelligence

#10 Self–esteem improves academic performance

#11 Repetition is a highly effective study strategy

#12 Multiple–choice exams are inferior to other exam formats

#13 Students should not change answers on multiple–choice exams

#14 Coaching produces large gains in college admission test scores

#15 Standardized tests do not predict academic performance

#16 Standardized ability tests are biased against some minority groups

Index

Jeffrey D. Holmes is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. He teaches courses on general psychology, testing and assessment, research methods, and controversial psychological issues. Dr Holmes has published original research on racial attitudes as well as the teaching of psychology, and has published several book chapters on topics related to the importance of scientific thinking in understanding human behavior. He is the author of Social Psychology: Student Handbook to Psychology (2012).