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Nice. As a total non-scientist who thought it was way too hard and not for me at all, this is fascinating.

In addition what seems to be missing in the analysis and perhaps the most important thing for me as I have got older and met more and more successful and famous people is that I am constantly astonished that they aren't that different from me after all. They are not usually people who have an innate brilliance which I don't have and therefore I can never be one, but people like me, perhaps with different skills, but with variable confidence, ups and downs, who have tried and failed and struggled and nearly given up and then tried again and maybe again and again and then succeeded and maybe then failed a few more times. I love all the stories about how many times people have tried and failed as it makes the whole process seem more human, more accessible and more possible. Much more inspiring for me than tales of brilliant people who I could never aspire to be like.

Actually also, learning about people is, for me, a bit more interesting than the theories. So maybe the scientists on the cusp felt that this was a more rounded subject which resonated with the other sides of their personality. Those who get a kick out of the science alone may not need that but others might.

Your quote about failing because you think you will fail is absolutely true. But realising that the best of them fail all the time, makes failure not such an end point, not such a stigma, but just another step along the way. Confidence is what is needed to stop people being sure they will fail, and realising it is just the human condition is quite heartening.

Life and work, whether it is science, art, business or whatever is a messy business populated mostly with people just like us. Anything that makes us understand that and gain heart from it is I think is a great idea.

I'm feeling philosophical because I took an hour off just now to catch up on Masterchef and seeing all those lovely people trying so much harder than I ever do always makes me catch my breath.

Best regards
Hilary

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On 15 Dec 2011, at 17:43, Newson, Lesley wrote:

All scientist know that science is actually hard work. But some psychological research suggests that we should tell students that maths and science are easy or many (especially girls) will fail because they think they will fail.

Below is a summary of some recent scientific research from Taiwan that suggests the opposite (from http://www.researchdigest.org.uk/blog).

Maybe there are individual or cultural differences. What do list members think?

Lesley

Hearing about scientists' struggles helps inspire students and boosts their learning

Science suffers from an image problem. Many students see the subject as too difficult and they think scientists are aloof boffins with big brains. A new study out of Taiwan tests the benefits of teaching high-school physics pupils about the struggles of eminent physicists - Galileo, Newton and Einstein.

Over the course of three computer-based lessons during one week, 88 low-achieving students were taught not just about the relevant theories developed by these characters but also about their frustrations and perseverance. For instance, they heard about Newton's hard work and inquisitive nature (including his comment "I keep the subject constantly before me, till the first dawnings open slowly, by little and little, into the full and clear light."), and they heard about Einstein's efforts, but ultimate failure, in seeking to develop a unified field theory - an endeavour that he spent the last 25 years of his life working on.

For comparison, a further 93 students completed the three computer-based lessons on the relevant theories but without any background information on the scientists, and 90 more completed a version in which they heard achievement-based background information on the scientists, including their key discoveries and dates.

Learning about scientists' struggles had several important benefits versus the other two conditions. Students in the struggles condition developed more rounded, less stereotypical images of the scientists, seeing them as people who worked hard. For students who had no initial interest in science, the information about struggles boosted their interest in the subject. Struggles-based background info also improved students' delayed (a week later) recall of the theoretical material, and it increased their success at complex open-ended problem solving tasks based on the lesson material.

Huang-Yao Hong and Xiadong Lin-Siegler, who made these findings, think the benefit of struggle-based background info for students' recall may have to do with helping the students to build connections between different key concepts, and with increasing their emotional and cognitive reactions to the course material. Similarly, the researchers think that the struggle-oriented background information helps students see the interconnections between theories, which aids complex problem-solving.

Future research is needed to differentiate the effects of struggle-based information related to the scientists' work and their personal lives. Also, the findings need to be tested in a different cultural context and over a longer time period.

"By helping students see the real human struggles behind science, we can inspire greater interest and learning to benefit future generations of scientists," Hong and Lin-Siegler said.

Full article is at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0026224

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Lesley Newson
College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter
Department of Environmental Science and Policy, UCDavis

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