Can Daydreaming Promote Academics?

USC assistant professor Mary Helen Immordino-Yang co-authored a paper, “Rest Is Not Idleness,” which examines the neurobiology of the brain at rest or in “default mode.”  The article suggests that diminishing opportunities for young people to look inward and reflect could have negative effects on their well-being, morality and academic success.

A child with a wandering mind in the classroom may perform poorly on the task that requires concentration. Part of helping the child to focus better, the research suggested, is to help him or her learn to manage inward and outward attention more appropriately. Attending to tasks effectively is essential for gathering new information from lessons. But the reflection a child may learn to engage during mind wandering also is potentially critical for healthy development and learning in the longer term.

Immordino-Yang argued that teachers need to distinguish between a loss of focus and mindful reflection, teaching students skills for constructive internal processing and productive reflection. She also warned against an overuse of social media among teens, which appears to be harmful to the development of the higher-thinking abilities and associated benefits.
“Consistently imposing overly high-attention demands on children, either in school, through entertainment or through living conditions, may rob them of opportunities to advance from thinking about ‘what happened’ or ‘how to do this’ to constructing knowledge about ‘what this means for the world and for the way I live my life,’ ” she said. 

http://news.usc.edu/#!/article/34757/can-daydreaming-improve-academics/