Seen on the Screen / Growth Mindset in a Cab

Educational Leadership Staff

Social-emotional learning

Can driving a cab make you smarter? It can if you work in London. Taxi drivers in the British capital famously possess an intricate knowledge of the city's complicated routes and byways. And according to a short video about a landmark University of London study, the process of building that knowledge appears to make their brains grow. The study found that, in these drivers, a section of the hippocampus—a part of the brain involved in learning and memory—was larger than average, with pronounced differences seen in drivers who have been on the job longest. The findings provide fascinating evidence of the human brain's adaptability—something worth sharing with students and educators alike. The video on the study is featured in a free online lesson plan from the University of Washington titled "How Do I Learn?" at www.washington.edu/howdoilearn/brain-basics.

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