Another study: writing by hand makes kids smarter

[An old bloke]

For those interested in the science behind this study you can check out this page:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles...020.01810/full

Thanks, Carlos.

The reason I have been replying so often here is that I am a teacher of reading and writing (35 years now), and so many media reports (usually just opinion pieces) make claims about the efficacy of cursive over printing (no such thing has yet been demonstrated) or handwriting over typing for learning. The Van der Meer and Van der Weel study from 2017 is the only one that I have ever seen that tried to look at the efficacy of handwriting (not cursive exclusively) over typing in terms of memory performance, and it did show a slight favor to handwriting (again, not cursive specifically) in the long term.

This study cites Van der Meer et al and claims to "support" it with its data on brain wave function. But this study did not look at any form of "learning" nor any form of actual memory retention, so it is limited in its "support" and, as the authors note, does not appear to be contradictory to Van der Meer. This study did use cursive, but was not comparing it against printed letter use, and the report interchangeably uses "cursive" with "handwriting," which we educators typically do not. We require assignments to be handwritten, some of which we require to be written in "cursive" (connected lettering). The authors claim only that the results show that connected writing "may" be correlated with better memory and learning. This study doesn't demonstrate whether it actually does or does not.

So, I will ask this; in your opinion, assuming no bias, have you observed or perceived one group (cursive writers, print writes, keyboarders, left or right handed writers) assimilated and/or retained material better than another?

[TSherbs]

So, I will ask this; in your opinion, assuming no bias, have you observed or perceived one group (cursive writers, print writes, keyboarders, left or right handed writers) assimilated and/or retained material better than another?

No, I have not observed this. But I teach high school, and all my students must write by hand or use their computers just about every day. And most of my students, like myself, use some hybrid form of connected and printed writing. Very few are 100% one way or the other. When I taught before laptops were widespread, I do not recall that the students had better memories.

I will say, however, that they did read more books back then, and that, I believe, has had far greater impact on their "learning," but that is a different matter.



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[An old bloke]

So, I will ask this; in your opinion, assuming no bias, have you observed or perceived one group (cursive writers, print writes, keyboarders, left or right handed writers) assimilated and/or retained material better than another?

No, I have not observed this. But I teach high school, and all my students must write by hand or use their computers just about every day. And most of my students, like myself, use some hybrid form of connected and printed writing. Very few are 100% one way or the other. When I taught before laptops were widespread, I do not recall that the students had better memories.

I will say, however, that they did read more books back then, and that, I believe, has had far greater impact on their "learning," but that is a different matter.



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Thanks.