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As teacher merit pay spreads, one noted voice cries, ‘It doesn’t work’
The Washington Post: Merit pay for teachers, an idea kicked around for decades, is suddenly gaining traction. Fervently promoted by Michelle A. Rhee when she was chancellor of the District’s public schools, the concept is picking up steam from a growing cadre of politicians who think one way to improve the country’s troubled schools is to give fat bonuses to good teachers. The Obama administration has encouraged states to embrace merit pay, highlighting it as one step that states could take to compete for more than $4 billion in federal funds through the Race to the Top program. Indiana and Florida passed legislation that requires merit pay for teachers; Louisiana Gov.
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Psychologen halten Dating-Seiten für untauglich
Der Spiegel: Wenn es um Liebe geht, glauben viele Menschen an göttliche Fügung. Der Mann oder die Frau fürs Leben wird einem schon irgendwann über den Weg laufen - und wenn das passiert, dann wird man das gewiss merken. Doch nicht immer taucht der Traumpartner einfach so aus dem Nichts auf - Online-Partnerbörsen versprechen da Abhilfe. Sie betreiben die Suche nach dem Märchenprinzen ganz ähnlich wie ein Immobilienmakler die Fahndung nach der Traumwohnung. Man benötigt nur genügend Eckdaten (Interessen, Vorlieben, Wünsche an den potentiellen Partner) - und bringt die Suchenden dann per Matching-Algorithmus zusammen. Read the full story: Der Spiegel See Eli J.
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A Neuroscientist Debunks the Myth of Musical Instinct
The Atlantic: Are musicians born or made? What is the line between skill and talent in any domain, and can we acquire either later in life? That's exactly what neuroscientist Gary Marcus explores in Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning—a fascinating journey into the limits of human reinvention. In an effort to reconcile his lifelong passion for music with his self-admitted chronic musical ineptitude, Marcus set out to debunk one of science's longest-running theories about learning—that there are "critical periods" in which complex skills can be learned, and that they slam shut after adolescence. Read the full story: The Atlantic
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Current Directions in Psychological Science Speaker Series
The Current Directions in Psychological Science Speaker Series, presented by Pearson and APS (Association for Psychological Science), provides current, cutting-edge research from respected researchers in the field in an accessible format for students and instructors across the country.
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Think Fast! Take Risks! New Study Finds a Link Between Fast Thinking and Risk Taking
New experiments show that the experience of thinking fast makes people more likely to take risks. This discovery suggests that some of the innovations of the modern world—fast-paced movies, social media sites with a constant
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Behind the Music: Human Factors Rap
The Arch Laboratory at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, USA is the main research and training facility of the graduate program in Human Factors and Applied Cognition. Arch Lab members conduct research in attention, audition, biological motion, eye movements, imagery, memory, and visual perception as applied to such domains as automation, aviation, driving, robotics, and human-computer interaction. Students and faculty created this video for a Human Factors and Ergonomics Society video contest in 2011 to help explains what human factors is.
