The CERI OECD/National Science Foundation International Conference took place in Paris, at the OECD Headquarters on 23-24 January 2012. Here the presentation of Session 5, Informal Learning, Item 2.

1.
Educa&onal
Neuroscience:
Using
Cogni&ve
and
Brain
Science
to
Enhance
our
Understanding
of
Math
Learning
Susan C. Levine
University of Chicago
Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center

2. Research
Ques&ons
• Is there a preparation gap in math
knowledge related to parent math input in
the early home environment?
• Are variations in young children s math
achievement related to affective inputs – to
teacher math anxiety in early elementary
school?
• Why does math anxiety not always disrupt
math performance?
• Insights from a brain imaging study

3. Numerical
and
Spa&al
Skills:
Key
Elements
of
Early
Mathema&cs
• Numerical
and
spa&al
skills
are
vital
for
success
in
the
STEM
disciplines
(Science,
Technology,
Engineering
&
Math)
• These
skills
begin
to
develop
at
an
early
age
(e.g.,
Delgado & Prieto, 2004;
Levine,
Huttenlocher, Taylor & Langrock, 1999)

4. Early
Individual
Differences
in
Children s
Math
Knowledge:
Do
they
maOer?
• Children
show
wide
dispari&es
in
their
mathema&cal
knowledge
by
preschool.
• These
early
varia&ons
predict
children s
later
math
achievement.
• Importantly,
early
varia&ons
in
math
knowledge
are
related
to
differences
in
the
cogni&ve
and
affec&ve
inputs
young
children
receive.

5. Study
1:
Children’s
first
classroom
is
the
home
• Diverse
sample
of
parent-­‐child
dyads
followed
longitudinally.
• Coded
math
talk
–
talk
about
number
and
spa&al
rela&ons
-­‐-­‐
today
will
focus
on
number
talk.

6. Large
Varia&on
in
Parent
Number
Talk
• Across
our
sessions
range
was
4
to
257
number
words
• Extrapola&ng,
translates
to
enormous
differences
in
children s
opportunity
to
learn
28
to
1799
in
a
week
1456
to
93,548
in
a
year

7. Children’s
Cardinal
Number
Knowledge
• Assessed
at
46
months
• Point-­‐to-­‐X
task
Experimenter: Point to three.

8. Rela&on
between
parent
cumula&ve
number
word
tokens
(log)
and
child
cardinal
number
knowledge
at
46
months

9. Quality
of
number
talk
also
maOered
• Talk
about
number
with
present
objects
predicts
children s
understanding
of
the
number
words
• Talk
about
number
of
objects
in
larger
sets
(4
to
10),
in
addi&on
to
1,
2,
and
3
also
predicts
children s
understanding
of
number
words

10. Why
is
talk
about
sets
>3
par&cularly
helpful?
• Unlike
smaller
sets,
sets
larger
than
3
cannot
be
enumerated
exactly
without
coun&ng.
• Hypothesis:
The
necessity
of
coun&ng
these
sets
to
determine
their
exact
numerosity
helps
children
link
coun&ng
to
the
cardinal
number
of
objects
in
a
set
–
to
understand
the
purpose
of
coun&ng.
Gunderson & Levine (in press) Developmental Science

11. Future
studies
are
informed
by
classroom
prac&ce
and
by
cogni&ve
science
• Partnering
with
teachers
to
implement
lessons
that
strengthen
children s
understanding
of
early
math
–
using
their
feedback
to
design
beOer
instruc&on
in
an
itera&ve
manner
– Cri&cal
classroom-­‐lab
interac&ons
• Examining
how
a
learning
principle
that
emerges
from
cogni&ve
science
–
spaced
learning
works
beOer
than
massed
learning
-­‐
applies
to
early
math
learning

12. Spaced
vs.
Massed
Learning
• How
does
it
apply
to
math
learning
-­‐-­‐
what
is
the
op&mal
spacing?
– At
different
developmental
&me
points
– At
different
points
in
the
learning
trajectory
– In
real-­‐world
learning
environments
– For
different
learning
goals:
facts,
procedures,
and
concepts
– To
promote
long-­‐term
reten&on
and
generaliza&on

13. Study
2:
Affec&ve
Input:
Teachers
math
anxiety
predicts
students
math
achievement
• We
also
inves&gated
the
role
of
teachers
math
anxiety
on
children s
math
achievement
because…
– Elementary
educa&on
majors
in
the
U.S.
have
high
levels
of
math
anxiety
(Hembree,
1990)
– 91%
of
early
elementary
school
teachers
are
female
(Na&onal
Educa&on
Associa&on,
2003)

14. Hypotheses
• Teachers
math
anxiety
may
impact
girls
by
confirming
a
self-­‐relevant
gender
stereotype
(e.g.,
Cvencek,
Meltzoff
&
Greenwald,
2009)
• Girls
who
confirm
tradi&onal
gender
stereotypes
( boys
are
beOer
at
math,
girls
are
beOer
at
reading )
will
learn
less
than
other
children

15. Sample
and
Study
Design
• Students
math
achievement
and
gender
stereotypes
were
assessed
at
the
beginning
and
end
of
the
school
year
• Teacher
math
knowledge
and
anxiety
assessed
at
end
of
school
year

16.
Assessing
children s
gender
stereotypes
about
math:
Gender
ability
beliefs
task
One
story
about
math,
one
about
reading
This is a story about a student who is really good at
math. This student is always the first to finish every math
problem, no matter how hard. And this student also
really likes doing math. If there is a math problem to be
done, this student is the one to do it. This student is a
really great mathematician.
Can you draw a picture of this student?
Is it a boy or a girl?
(adapted from Steele, 2003)

17. Example
drawings
Reading = Girl Math = Boy
Children who confirm stereotype draw girl for reading and boy for math

18. Teacher
assessments
• Math
anxiety
(sMARS;
Alexander
&
Martray,
1989)
• “Reading
a
cash
register
receipt
aoer
you
buy
something”
• “Studying
for
a
math
test”
• Math
knowledge
for
teaching
(CKTM;
Hill,
Schilling
&
Ball,
2004)
• Teachers
varied
widely
on
both

19. Media&on
Analysis
• Teacher
math
anxiety
predicted
girls
end
of
year
math
achievement
Teacher
Math
β = -0.21* Girls’
Math
Anxiety
Achievement
• Mediated by girls gender ability beliefs
Gender
β = 0.31* Stereotypes
β = -0.23*
Teacher
Math
Girls’
Math
Anxiety
Achievement
β = -0.16, n.s.
*p<.05 (Beilock,
Gunderson,
Ramirez
&
Levine,
PNAS,
2010)

20. End-­‐of-­‐Year
Math
Achievement
by
Gender
Ability
Beliefs
(Beilock,
Gunderson,
Ramirez
&
Levine,
PNAS,
2010)

21. Implica&ons
• Teacher
math
anxiety
may
help
to
explain
the
forma&on
of
gender
stereotypes
and
the
divergence
between
boys
and
girls
artudes
toward
math
• To
reduce
these
effects,
it
is
important
to
directly
address
teachers
math
anxiety,
as
well
as
their
math
knowledge,
as
a
component
of
teacher
training

22. Study
3:
How
brain
imaging
can
help
inform
efforts
to
reduce
math
anxiety
• Anxiety
about
math
common
and
deleterious
to
learning,
but
not
all
math-­‐anxious
individuals
perform
poorly
in
math.
• Why
is
this
the
case?
Lyons
and
Beilock
(2011)

23. Math Trial Word Trial
tneimrepxe
tneimrepxe

24. Math anxiety deficit
Lyons & Beilock (2011). Cerebral Cortex

25. Lyons & Beilock (2011). Cerebral Cortex

26. Inferior frontal junction (IFJ)
Inferior parietal lobe (IPL)
Lyons & Beilock (2011). Cerebral Cortex

27. Lyons & Beilock (2011). Cerebral Cortex

28. Lyons & Beilock (2011). Cerebral Cortex

29. Study
3
Summary
• High math anxiety individuals who recruit
additional working memory resources or exercise
greater regulation of their anxiety response (or
both) reduced math performance deficits that are
typically associated with math anxiety.
• These responses begin when individuals
anticipate doing math, before they even see the
problem.
• Its not that these individuals don t feel anxious –
they do, but are able to manage their anxiety
successfully.

30. Overall
Summary
• Both
cogni&ve
and
affec&ve
inputs
are
related
to
math
learning
from
an
early
age
• We
can
increase
our
understanding
of
how
these
factors
interact
–
• By
carrying
out
studies
in
the
lab
and
in
real-­‐world
learning
environments
• By
collabora&ng
with
teachers
as
research
partners
• By
examining
the
impact
of
math
learning,
math
anxiety,
and
stereotypes
at
the
behavioral
and
neural
levels
• Overarching
goal:
To
increase
math
achievement
in
all
children

31. Acknowledgements…
OECD
Study
parCcipants
Collaborators
Funding
agencies:
NSF,
SpaCal
Intelligence
and
Learning
Center
(SILC)
Grant
#SBE-­‐0541957
NIH-­‐NICHD
Grant
#P01HD040605