Chimpanzees more likely to share tools, teach skills when task is complex
New Arts & Sciences research finds that chimpanzees that use a multi-step process and complex tools to gather termites are more likely to share tools with novices. The study helps illuminate chimpanzees’ capacity for prosocial — or helping — behavior, a quality that has been recognized for its potential role in the evolution of human cultural abilities.
Quick learners remember more over time
Healthy adults who learn information more quickly than their peers also have better long-term retention for the material despite spending less time studying it, finds a new study from psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis finds.
Expecting to teach enhances learning, recall
People learn better and recall more when given the impression that they will soon have to teach newly acquired material to someone else, suggests new research from the Department of Psychology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.
Pérez honored for excellence in teaching
Julio E. Pérez, MD, professor of medicine, has received multiple honors this year for excellence in teaching. The American College of Cardiology, the American Society of Echocardiography and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis each have recognized Pérez as a gifted educator and mentor in the field of cardiology.
Improving undergraduate STEM education is focus of new national initiative
Washington University in St. Louis is one of eight Association of American Universities (AAU) member campuses selected to serve as project sites for the association’s five-year initiative to improve the quality of undergraduate education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields at its member institutions, AAU officials announced today.
Goldstein Leadership Award nominees due by Oct. 1
Nominations are now open for the 2012 Samuel R. Goldstein Leadership Awards in Medical Student Education. A $5,000 prize will be awarded to up to three WUSM faculty members who demonstrate leadership in medical student education.
WUSTL faculty member part of national initiative to change undergraduate education in biology
On September 7 the Partnership for Undergraduate Life
Sciences Education (PULSE) announced that Kathryn Miller, PhD, professor
and chair of biology at Washington University in St. Louis has been
selected as one of 40 Vision and Change Leadership Fellows. Over the
next year the Vision and Change Leadership Fellows will consider and
then recommend models for improving undergraduate life-sciences
education.
Quizzes key to learning for middle school students
Practice may not always make perfect, but a novel study of Midwestern middle school science students suggests it just might. New research from Washington University in St. Louis shows that students who received three quizzes on content questions before a unit test performed at the “A” level on those test questions, compared with a “C” level on questions that were not quizzed beforehand but still on the test.
Grant helps WUSTL computer science faculty emphasize active learning
Computer science faculty are exposing their undergraduate students to learning in ways that prepare them for interaction in the real work place. It’s not about “staying between the lines,” but more about getting out of your seat, moving around and interacting with your classmates. It’s called active learning, a learning-laboratory-based tutorial teaching concept.
New direction in teaching computer science emphasizes activity, interaction, critique
Computer science faculty at Washington University in St. Louis are exposing their undergraduate students to learning in ways that prepare them for interaction in the real work place. It’s not about “staying between the lines,” but more about getting out of your seat, moving around and interacting with your classmates. It’s called active learning, a learning-laboratory- based tutorial teaching concept.
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