A collection of articles representing progress in the major areas of fundamental and applied handwriting research. Areas covered are: behavioural and cognitive science; development, education and neuroscience; computer analysis and recognition; and forensic document examination.

First Published in 1987, Handwriting reviews theory and research on handwriting, and on children who have handwriting problems, and draws out principles and recommendations for practitioners. The practitioners will include teachers, educational advisors, psychologists and occupational and physical therapists. There has been a revival in the teaching of the basic school skills of reading, writing and number. Surprisingly, however, there are very few books concerning the manipulative skills of handwriting, and this book seeks to fill this major gap. While much of the book is concerned with the development and teaching of handwriting skills in ordinary children, it also gives detailed consideration to the problems encountered by children with physical disabilities. This is an interesting read for students of education.

The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware. But The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention.

In an attempt to celebrate how we find ourselves doodling while on the phone, testing pens in stationery shops, our belief in folklore, the need to misuse technology or whose idea it was to fly aero planes in formation to write messages across our skies. The research notes selected from the archive A Recent History of Writing & Drawing hopefully provide references to things old, new and maybe forgotten which together can offer an alternative understanding of our habit to document thoughts and ideas. Upending assumptions that any one kind of communication is more authentic, more direct or more valid that any other, A Recent History of Writing & Drawing finds meaning, texture and poetry in the most unlikely places. -- https://www.nieves.ch/715/research_notes.

In this meditation/how-to guide on drawing as an ethnographic method, Andrew Causey offers insights, inspiration, practical techniques, and encouragement for social scientists interested in exploring drawing as a way of translating what they "see" during their research.

Learning Begins, written by a teacher for teachers, translates current brain research into practical classroom strategies. Because students learn with their brains, it simply makes sense for teachers to explore educational psychology and neuroscience. And yet, information in these fields can be daunting and contradictory. Worse still, few researchers can clearly explain the specific classroom uses of their remarkable discoveries. Learning Begins both explains this research and makes it useful for teachers and administrators. Part I investigates the science of working memory: a cognitive capacity essential to all school work. When teachers recognize the many classroom perils that can overwhelm working memory, they can use research-aligned strategies to protect it, and thereby promote student learning. Part II reveals the complexities of student attention. By understanding the three neural sub-processes that create attention, teachers can structure their classrooms and their lessons to help students focus on and understand new material. Written in a lively and approachable voice, based on years of classroom experience and a decade of scientific study, Learning Begins makes educational psychology and neuroscience clear and useful in schools and classrooms.

Children’s everyday text making is remarkable in its very ordinariness. This book investigates the multiple ways in which children make meaning as they draw and write – in copying, online messaging, spelling ‘mistakes’, shading, layout – at home and at school, on the page and on the screen.

Presents a set of basic exercises designed to release creative potential and tap into the special abilities of the brain's right hemisphere.