Brain research from NTNU in Trondheim has shown that children learn more from hand writing
Brain research from NTNU in Trondheim has shown that children learn more from hand writing than typing on a computer. Scientists are now warning against the over-use of computers at school.
‘Don’t skip the stage where you teach the children to write by hand,’ said Professor Audrey van der Meer at NTNU to the newspaper Klassekampen.
This week, she published a new study on how the brain works when writing by hand or using a keyboard.
Klassekampen has previously written a report about Trondheim municipality, where the goal is one computer per student.
Arbeiderpartiet’s (the Labour Party) Trond Giske wishes to widen the use even more by spending half a billion per year purchasing tablets or PCs for all Norwegian students.
New research suggests that pencil and paper is just as effective if you want the students to learn something.
The study by brain researchers Audrey van der Meer and Ruud van der Weel at NTNU shows that the brain works differently when we draw, or write letters by hand than when we use a keyboard.
Their findings confirm previous research that suggest the same thing.
‘When we write by hand, the brain is set to a state that makes learning easier,’ said Van der Meer to the newspaper.
‘Learning to write by hand is an important, and difficult, stage that every child should go through.
To argue that by using a keyboard, they learn to read and write more quickly, and can express themselves by writing at an earlier age, is to do the children a disservice’, said Van der Meer.
The study was published in the internationally published and recognised journal, ‘Frontiers in Psychology’ on the 9th of May.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
