Write this: Writing by hand may be more beneficial for brain development and learning than typing.
This is according to a new study. This builds on previous research suggesting greater cognitive benefit from handwriting than typing, and provides more evidence to support a growing movement calling for the teaching of handwriting in many states. For the study, EEG data was recorded from 36 college students while they were asked to type words shown to them on a laptop.
“Only when students hand-wrote given words with a stylus on a touch screen did we find widespread brain connectivity in large parts of the brain,” says Audrey van der Meer, co-author of the study and rain researcher and professor of Neuropsychology. at the Norwegian University of Science and technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway. “On the other hand, when they were typing on a keyboard, the brain was much less active and, as a result, there was no need for the brain to communicate between its active parts, resulting in few or no neural connections.”
Handwriting versus typing: What previous research says
In a 2020 study, van der Meer and her colleagues found evidence that students were more prepared to learn when writing by hand by examining and comparing brain scans of participants when they wrote versus when they typed. Using pencil and paper gives the brain more “hooks” to hang memories van der Meer told tech & Learning after that study was published. The new study builds on that research and adds to the evidence supporting the benefits of students' handwriting.
In addition to these studies looking at brain scans, there is also more direct evidence of a difference between handwriting and typing. For a 2014 study, researchers asked students to watch TED talks, in which half of them took handwritten notes and the other half took notes on a PC with a keyboard. “Students scored similarly on the exam on factual questions, but students who took notes by hand performed significantly better than those who typed conceptual, inferential, and implication questions,” van der Meer says of the research, in the who did not participate. .
However, as with many other educational issues, the issue is not completely resolved. Research published in 2019 It attempted to duplicate the findings of the 2014 study and found no significant differences between handwritten and keyboard note takers.
Political implications
In 2010, the Common Core State Standards deemphasized cursive writing instruction in the U.S., and handwriting education declined in subsequent years. In 2016, only 14 states required schools to teach cursive writing; however, that number has since increased again. Now more than 20 states require some type of cursive instruction by law. California became the latest state to pass such a law this fall.
Some see these efforts as a reaction against technology in schools, while some of the reasons behind the movement to require cursive have been baffling. California Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, who led the passage of California's recent cursive law, He argued that this type of education was necessary so that students could read historical documents. written in cursive. But is a lack of knowledge of cursive really the main thing preventing students from conducting historical research of primary sources? And there are already ai tools that can read cursive for students.
Still, there is a strong scientific basis for these policies, van der Meer says. Twenty U.S. states have used her and her colleagues' 2020 paper to justify the decision to reinstate handwriting education requirements.
<h2 id="pro-handwriting-isn-apos-t-anti-technology-xa0″>Handwriting is not anti-technology
Van der Meer doesn't like research into the benefits of handwriting being labeled anti-technological.
“We are often misunderstood and accused of wanting to return to the stone age. But it is obvious that we live in a digital world that is here to stay,” she says. “Our findings show that handwriting is excellent brain stimulation, especially for the young developing brain, because accurate letter formation requires fine motor control and sensory support. Therefore, more of the brain is active and the brain needs to communicate between its active parts by forming neural connections between them.”
That's why he recommends that all students receive some level of handwritten instruction. But he maintains that this doesn't have to come at the expense of technology education.
Beyond the benefit of handwriting for brain connectivity, van der Meer believes cursive has other benefits. “We consider handwriting part of our cultural heritage and feel it would be a shame if the next generation couldn't handwrite a poem or a love letter, or at least a shopping list,” he says.
