What does science tell us about how feedback from the teacher can influence the learning process?
Young children connect actions with what follows them only when the action and its consequences are close in time. You cannot respond an hour later to what an infant is doing and expect the infant to make sense of it. For school-age children, providing that timely, accurate feedback is important when they are solving problems or doing an activity. It is a joy to watch a teacher or parent who not only praises and corrects, but also provides new information and prompts the child to rethink and look at the problem or puzzle in a new way. There is much controversy about the importance of environment and early stimulation to preserve brain cells in young children. What can you tell us about this that will be helpful to educators? It is part of our biology to be influenced by our environment, but there is something of a dispute about early stimulation. The dispute arises from the misconception that all stimulation or environmental input is the same. Scientists like to distinguish among three
