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Want to Get Teens Interested in Math and Science? Target Their Parents
Efforts focused on increasing students’ interest in STEM often take place within the classroom, but findings suggest that parents can play an important role in these efforts.
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Première impression (First Impression)
Le Monde: L'information fait frémir. Cent millisecondes suffisent pour qu'un employeur potentiel, ou un membre de jury de concours ou d'examen, se fasse une opinion sur quelqu'un. En un dixième de seconde, il se fera une première impression : compétent (ou incompétent), travailleur (ou cossard), aimable (ou détestable). Et pour peu que ce sélectionneur se vante de se fier à son intuition, les conséquences peuvent être formidables (ou désastreuses). Un chercheur américain, Alex Todorov, professeur de psychologie à l'université de Princeton (Etats-Unis), avait fait ce constat dès 2006, à la suite de tests réalisés sur 200 personnes.
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Why Reflection Is Good For Well-Being
The Huffington Post: Make sure you take time to rest and reflect -- new research shows it's important for our well-being. The review of studies, published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, shows that "resting" our brains -- a.k.a daydreaming -- is linked with improvements in self-awareness, learning and memory. "We focus on the outside world in education and don't look much at inwardly focused reflective skills and attentions," study researcher Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, a professor of education, psychology and neuroscience at the University of Southern California, said in a statement.
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Jonathan Haidt: He Knows Why We Fight
The Wall Street Journal: Nobody who engages in political argument, and who isn't a moron, hasn't had to recognize the fact that decent, honest, intelligent people can come to opposite conclusions on public issues. Jonathan Haidt, in an eye-opening and deceptively ambitious best seller, tells us why. The reason is evolution. Political attitudes are an extension of our moral reasoning; however much we like to tell ourselves otherwise, our moral responses are basically instinctual, despite attempts to gussy them up with ex-post rationalizations. Our constellation of moral instincts arose because it helped us to cooperate.
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Don’t Punish Yourself Every Time You Spend
The New York Times: My daughter made the cross-country team, and she needed new running shoes. Have you shopped for new trail-running shoes recently? They’re so expensive that it hurt! I was telling someone I know about the experience and said I hoped buying something like shoes never stopped being painful, because I never want to get casual about spending that kind of money. She surprised me by asking this: What good does it do for it to be painful? How did that help? That’s a really good question. I was going to buy the shoes for my daughter anyway. I’m excited she is running cross country.
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It Pays to be a Daydream Believer in a Fast-Moving Age
Express UK: DON’T feel guilty if you ever find yourself staring blankly into space – a study claims that daydreaming is actually good for you. In today’s fast-moving world, the long-lost art of quiet reflection may be increasingly valuable. The brain at rest is used for “constructive internal reflection”. This is critical for learning from past experiences and appreciating future choices, say researchers. Moments spent drifting away aimlessly are especially valuable for young people as it allows them to “understand and manage themselves” in social situations, such as dealing with work colleagues.