Another study in Psychological Science ( March 12 , 2014 ) showed that schools make students smarter by doing two things . First , they increase what the students know in baseline facts . Second , they increase the students ’ mental skills – their ability to process the information . This coincides with how intelligence increases .
So a curriculum that makes kids smarter will not only increase their knowledge about a subject through consistent repetition , but will also help them understand it and make decisions based on it .
It starts by looking at the content of the subject matter . Then it looks at how it is sequenced to make the information usable .
One of the best ways to accomplish these IQbuilding activities is by combining online tools in your in-class and book-based curriculums . Online tools help in several ways . For starters , it helps keep kids engaged . Today ’ s students love being on their devices . If they can accomplish their schoolwork on a device , they ’ re more likely to enjoy the assignments . Second , it ’ s much easier for a teacher to incorporate repetition into the curriculum by using online tools . Automating repetition is what computers excel at , so use them for this purpose . Not only will your students enjoy the repetition more , they will go through the repetition far more than they would without the computer . Third , the consistent repetition will enable the kids to process the information better .
For instance , Vanderbilt University Psychology Professor Andy Tomarken teaches a methods and statistics course in a computer lab . The computers allow him to integrate his traditional lectures with demonstration projects . The computers emulate the methods he ’ s teaching in his lectures . Students receive the information via lecture , then apply it immediately . This gives them a complete repetition , processing , and application cycle .
When students learn content and use it in various arenas over many years , they are more likely to remember it , and use it for a lifetime . That ’ s a curriculum that makes kids smarter . Explaining this to parents is an effective and powerful marketing tool for building your enrollment .
Include communication strategies in your initial planning .
When making big changes , schools often fail to think through the communication it ’ s going to take to get everyone on board with the change . It takes a backlash to ramp up our communication needs . It ’ s far better to plan to communicate upfront . Most people are far more flexible at the outset . So lay out the plan clearly , including any of the negatives they might experience . If they know about these ahead of time , they will weather the storm much easier .
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