Learning

The National Academy of Sciences said Thursday that a two-year study has found little scientific evidence to support claims that biofeedback and other exotic methods for alleviating stress, improving memory and accelerating learning work any better than conventional methods of teaching. There is some indication that techniques of "sleep-learning" and the mental practice of physical skills can reinforce learning, a committee of experts convened by the academy said.

Scientists said last week that they have cloned the long-sought gene for a brain protein that plays a key role in learning, an advance welcomed as the capture of a scientific "Holy Grail." The cloning may eventually help lead to new therapies for stroke, epilepsy and possibly some other disorders by aiding research into how the structure functions, researchers said. The gene gives rise to a protein that forms what is called the NMDA receptor.

A chance meeting in the hall. A quick visit with a co-worker. To a boss, it may look like goofing off. But workers know better: They often learn more chatting on the job than in any training session. A study to be released today will let more bosses in on the secret. The two-year, $1.6-million project, funded partly by the Labor Department, shows that workers learn most of what they do on the fly, and often from one another. "Companies haven't paid any attention to this.

Gene Kitt calls East Harlem "one of the toughest areas in the world. If crack isn't in your house, it's in the hallway or on the corner." Amid the drugs and despair, Kitt operates an oasis of learning and fun: the nonprofit Upward Fund, which runs a summer day camp and after-school programs for 1,200 youngsters ages 6 to 19. Upward Fund teachers and volunteers, working out of an East Harlem elementary school, offer tutoring, job training, anti-drug...

Researchers at La Jolla's Salk Institute have found the gene for one of the most sought-after chemicals in the brain, a protein that plays a key role in early learning and memory. That protein, called the glutamate receptor, is intimately involved in the transmission of signals from one brain cell to another and is thus crucial to normal functioning of the brain.

Driver Jim Crawford has three steel rods between the knee and ankle of his right leg, the result of a crash here in 1987, and learned the other day that they might be permanent. In a story in the Indianapolis Star, surgeon Terry Trammell was asked about Crawford's crash in practice here earlier this month. "When the call came over my radio, it sounded a lot worse than it turned out," Trammell was quoted as saying. "I prayed it wasn't his legs because he's still got three steel rods in his right leg and I've got no idea how to get them out if they get bent."

Attention parents: Do you want to make your preschoolers smarter? Try this pop quiz: What is the best way to teach your children common kitchen terminology? (A) Drill them with flashcards. (B) Point to a spoon, a bowl, the oven, and slowly repeat the name of each. (C) Bake a cake. The correct answer--C--might seem ridiculously obvious. Now, a $3.

As a dedicated teacher, Jenny Dermody took it personally when her son fell behind in school. Though he tested in the gifted range, Kevin acted spacey and didn't work well independently. Then one morning Dermody found Kevin, now 11, curled up on the shower floor with water pelting him. He was fast asleep. It took Dermody months to make the connection. But little by little, she began to suspect restless sleep at night was hindering Kevin's learning and behavior at school.

During the whole of a quiet morning in the Piney Woods, the old man tried hard to understand the way it had turned out. His faded brown eyes looked straight at his visitor. He reached into everything he knew for an explanation. Once more, he failed; and he looked down at his shoes. "I have," he said deeply, "had a load on me." His name is Eddie Lovett. He had just turned 72.

At 10 a.m. on a recent Wednesday morning, the 5-year-olds were writing. Not, mind you, their ABCs, as most kindergartners would be doing. No, these tots were composing sentences, an entire paragraph--and with few errant periods or funny spellings. Their topic: "What I Would Do if I Were President." In another room, the 11-year-olds were doing math. Not long division, not multiplication of fractions, but algebraic equations. X intercept, Y axis, eyes gleaming at the very mention.