Posts Tagged ‘learning and the brain’
Finding Our Own Answers: A Case Study
On November 28, I attended a truly excellent webinar conversation with Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, hosted by Intrepid Ed News and OESIS. Once again, I was struck by the response of so many teachers and administrators who, when presented with new insights into how people learn (insights that challenge the status quo), want very specific…
Read MoreMotivation
It was cold, a November evening, and I was the administrator on duty, so I was walking around the campus shortly after dinner on my way to the athletic center to lock the building. The last coach to leave after practice was supposed to lock up but never did. My mood was not good. The…
Read MoreThe Costs of Paying Attention, The Value of Reflection
Recent studies done by neuroscientist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang (University of Southern California) and her colleague Joanna Christodoulou (Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT) suggest that educators need to consider much more carefully the role of reflection in learning.1 They cite new theories of two brain systems that control our attention. One is activated when we engage with…
Read MoreLearning Disabled or School Disabled?
According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, my grandson is one of about 6.4 million children who have been diagnosed with ADHD. The symptoms of ADHD include inattentiveness in school, distractibility, inability to sustain attention, difficulty finishing school work, difficulty shifting from task to task, procrastination, and fidgeting when seated. In other words, if you…
Read MoreMy School, My Self
“I just needed a place where I could be myself.” That was Teri’s assessment of what was missing from her life in school, and my experience suggests that she speaks for hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of students. School is not typically a place for the self, at least not the self of students. A…
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