News, events, and commentary on bridging neuroscience and education.

Event

Do the Arts Make Us Smarter?

Live Chat on March 14 at 3pm EST

Science Magazine | March 12, 2013

At 3pm EST, Thursday, March 14, Science magazine will be running a live chat called Do the Arts Make Us Smarter?, exploring the effects of arts education on the brain. Moderated by Science staff writer Emily Underwood, guests will be Daniel Levitin, who runs the Lab for Music Perception, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University, and Keith Oatley, a psychologist at the University of Toronto who studies the effect of fiction on our emotions.

NSF Calls for Multidisciplinary Education Research

by Sarah D. Sparks

Inside School Research (an Education Week blog) | March 11, 2013

News

Early Music Lessons Boost Brain Development

Science Daily | February 12, 2013

A recent study suggests children under seven who receive music training develop stronger connections between motor regions.

News

Teaching Kids to Give Themselves a Timeout

by Shirley S. Wang

Wall Street Journal | January 14, 2013

A treatment known as teacher-child interaction therapy advocates "active ignoring" and other techniques as ways for teachers to reduce disruptive classroom behaviors.

Blog

Facing the research-practice divide in science education

by Jean Flanagan

Sci-Ed, a PLOS blog | January 14, 2013

To improve science education, the dialogue between science education researchers and science teachers must improve.  

News

Recess 'crucial' for school kids, pediatricians say

by Eryn Brown

Los Angeles Times | December 31, 2012

The American Academy of Pediatrics released a policy statement outlining the benefits of recess and urging schools not to cut it, despite growing pressure to dedicate more time to academics.

News

Trends in Neuroscience and Education, Volume 1, Issue 1

Elsevier | December 1, 2012

Check out the first issue of the new journal Trends in Neuroscience and Education.

News

Preschoolers at play show science skills

by Stephanie M. Lee

San Francisco Chronicle | November 26, 2012

Preschoolers are not the irrational thinkers we suspected all these years.

News

Neuromyths in Education: Prevalence and Predictors of Misconceptions Among Teachers

by Sanne Dekker, Nikki C. Lee, Paul Howard-Jones, and Jelle Jolles

Frontiers in Educational Psychology | October 18, 2012

This study reports on the presence of “misconceptions about the brain…loosely based on scientific fact,” among teachers in parts of the UK and The Netherlands.

News

How the Brain Learns from Mistakes

by Kayt Sukel

The Dana Foundation | October 16, 2012

Researchers are finally able to prove that what you don't notice can't teach you.

Briefing Paper

A Delicate Balance

Risks, Rewards, and the Adolescent Brain

by Carl Sherman

The Dana Foundation | October 2, 2012

Beyond the biological and environmental interactions that characterize adolescent brain development in general, researchers are teasing apart the details behind differences in risk-taking among teens.

Play, Stress, and the Learning Brain

by Sam Wang, Ph.D. and Sandra Aamodt, Ph.D.

Cerebrum | September 24, 2012

An extraordinary number of species—from squid to lizards to humans—engage in play. But why? In this article, adapted from Dr. Sam Wang and Dr. Sandra Aamodt’s book Welcome to Your Child’s Brain: How the Mind Grows from Conception to College, the authors explore how play enhances brain development in children. As Wang and Aamodt describe, play activates the brain’s reward circuitry but not negative stress responses, which can facilitate attention and action. Through play, children practice social interaction and build skills and interests to draw upon in the years to come.

Podcast

Play, Attention and Learning

How Does Activity Shape the Development of Cognitive Networks?

New York Academy of Sciences | June 14-15, 2012

The New York Academy of Sciences hosted multi-disciplinary experts for a workshop that promoted greater understanding, and continued interest in, the connections between play, the development of attentional and cognitive abilities, and subsequent learning.

News

How Children Succeed

by Paul Tough

Slate | September 5, 2012

Which matters more, cognitive ability or motivation?

News

How the Arts Unlock the Door to Learning

by Mariko Nobori

Edutopia | August 29, 2012

Student achievement was down. Teachers were demoralized. Until a bold strategy -- integrating the arts into curricula -- helped students embrace their learning and retain their knowledge. Today the faculty, staff, and students of Maryland's Bates Middle School are crafting a whole new vision of school transformation.

See also

Re-opening Windows

Manipulating Critical Periods for Brain Development

by Takao K. Hensch, Ph.D. and Parizad M. Bilimoria, Ph.D.

Cerebrum | August 29, 2012

We acquire certain skills—from visual perception to language—during critical windows, specific times in early life when the brain is actively shaped by environmental input. Scientists are now discovering pathways in animal models through which these windows might be re-opened in adults, thus re-awakening a brain’s youth-like plasticity. Such research has implications for brain injury repair, sensory recovery, and neurodevelopmental disorder treatment.

News

How Science Can Improve Teaching

by Daniel T. Willingham

Scientific American | August 22, 2012

Teachers need a trusted source to tell fads and fallacies from proved methods.

News

A Neurologist Makes the Case for Teaching Teachers About the Brain

by Judy Willis, M.D.

Edutopia | July 27, 2012

Now that the neuroscience research implications for teaching are also an invaluable classroom asset, it is time for instruction in the neuroscience of learning to be included as well in professional teacher education.

eBriefing

The State of Games in the Classroom

by Nicole Cojuangco

New York Academy of Sciences | May 25, 2012

A resource from the New York Academy of Science urging educators to begin considering games less as a mindless medium and more as an innovative, interactive tool to increase student achievement.

Website

Neuroscience and the Classroom: Making Connections

The Annenberg Foundation

A free, online course designed by Kurt Fischer, Ph.D., Harvard Graduate School of Education, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Ed.D., University of Southern California, and  Matthew H. Schneps, Ph.D., the Smithsonian Institution.

Pocast

Rhythm and Music Help Math Students

by Sophie Bushwick

Scientific American: 60-Second Science | March 27, 2012

Kids who learned fractions through a music-based curriculum outperformed peers in traditional math classes.

Blog

Does Preschool Matter?

by Jonah Lehrer

Wired Science Blogs: The Frontal Cortex | March 5, 2012

The cognitive stimulation preschool provides can close the achievement gap between wealthy and poor toddlers.

News

The Case for Recess

by Esther Entin, M.D.

The Atlantic | February 27, 2012

Recess time and gym have been eliminated from many school programs to make more time for academics, but physical activity can improve thinking and reasoning skills in children.

Journal

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Volume 2, Supplement 1

Neuroscience & Education

February 15, 2012

This special supplement, supported by the Dana Foundation, will be available online for free until February 2013.

Blog

Learning About Learning

by Nicky Penttila

The Dana Foundation | January 23, 2012

Neuroscientists and educators met at the Aspen Brain Forum last fall to hash out what we know and how schools might change to help every child succeed. One answer: play.

News

Special Educators Borrow From Brain Studies

by Nirvi Shah

Education Week | January 17, 2012

Educators are using techniques drawn from brain-research studies to help students with disabilities.

News

The Arts and Human Development

Framing a National Research Agenda for the Arts, Lifelong Learning, and Individual Well-Being

The National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | March 14, 2011

Current evidence suggests beneficial effects of integrating the arts into health and education programs. The report recommends further research into the ways in which the arts impact human development in order to improve the efficacy of such programs.

News

Brain Calisthenics for Abstract Ideas

by Benedict Carey

The New York Times | June 6, 2011

Perceptual learning—which takes advantage of the brain’s ability to recognize patterns—could help students learn math and science principles more effectively.

News

A Year Adds Up to Big Changes in Brain

ScienceNews | July 2, 2011

The way children process math equations changes in third grade.

News

A Better Way to Teach?

by Jeffrey Mervis

ScienceNow | May 12, 2011

"A new study shows that students learn much better through an active, iterative process that involves working through their misconceptions with fellow students and getting immediate feedback from the instructor."

See also

News

Improving Memory to Improve Academic Performance

by Carl Sherman

The Dana Foundation | April 21, 2011

“The whole function of education is to alter the brain," Nobelist Eric Kandel said at a conference for educators and scientists on learning and the brain in New York City. He and other researchers described what we know about how the brain learns.

News

Visualizing How We Read

by Carl Sherman

The Dana Foundation | March 25, 2011

Brain imaging helps researchers decipher the intricate networks that form as people learn to read, and what may be happening when the learning goes awry.

News

Why Mind, Brain, and Education Science is the "New" Brain-Based Education

by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D.

Johns Hopkins University School of Education

This excerpt from excerpt from Mind, Brain, and Education Science: A Comprehensive Guide to the New Brain-Based Teaching provides an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Neuroeducation, or Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) Science

News

Brain Waves Module 2

Neuroscience: Implications for Education and Lifelong Learning

The Royal Society | February 24, 2011

A research report from The Royal Society emphasizes the importance of integrating scientific awareness of how we learn into teacher training and education policy.

News

Neuro Myths: Separating Fact and Fiction in Brain-Based Learning

by Sara Bernard

Edutopia | December 1, 2010

What does new neuroscience research tell educators about how children learn and how teachers should teach?

News

What’s the Real Deficit in Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder?

by Brenda Patoine

The Dana Foundation | August 1, 2010

In a Dana Foundation briefing paper, brain experts discuss attention allocation of children with ADHD. While these children might not pay attention in school, they are likely to be captivated by activities they enjoy.

News

Busting Some of the Myths of Attention

by Nicky Penttila

The Dana Foundation | May 2010

Multitasking, ADHD, and optimal study times were among the topics as scientists and educators shared their expertise during the “Attention and Engagement in Learning” summit this week in Baltimore. The summit was held at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore on May 5 as part of the Neuro-Education Initiative at the Johns Hopkins School of Education.

See also

Commentary

Home Is Where the Arts Are, Too

Implications of Arts Learning for Families and Parents

by Susan Magsamen

The Dana Foundation | November 19, 2009


Susan MagsamenThe reduction and loss of arts programs in the schools puts more responsibility on families and the community to provide quality arts experiences, writes Susan Magsamen, co-director of the Neuro-Education Initiative at Johns Hopkins University School of Education. Families need to be strong educational partners with schools on behalf of their children. 

 

News

Studying Young Minds, and How to Teach Them

by Benedict Carey

The New York Times | December 20, 2009

New research on when young brains are best able to grasp fundamental concepts could reshape early education.

Commentary

Six Practical Reasons Arts Education is More Than a Luxury

by Valerie Strauss

The Washington Post | November 23, 2009

A guest blog by cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham on the new publication from the Learning, Arts, and the Brain conference.

News

Neuroeducation Emerges as Insights into Brain Development, Learning Abilities Grow

by Aalok Mehta

The Dana Foundation | June 15, 2009

As scientists learn more about how the brain grows and learns, universities are developing programs to translate those insights into practical classroom strategies.

News

Brain Scientists See Signs That Arts Educators Find Familiar

by Ben Mauk

The Dana Foundation | May 14, 2009

The latest research in neuroscience is providing evidence that supports a notion long argued by advocates: that the arts improve learning and cognition.

Commentary

Why the Arts Matter

Jerome Kagan Gives Six Good Reasons for Advocating the Importance of Arts in School

by Jerome Kagan, Ph.D.

May 11, 2009


2009 Learning, Arts, and the Brain Summit - Jerome Kagan "It is not possible to live by rationality alone," said cognitive-research pioneer Jerome Kagan during the Learning, Arts, and the Brain conference in Baltimore. 

 

 

Commentary

The Arts Will Help School Accountability

Commentary by Mariale Hardiman

by Mariale Hardiman

The Dana Foundation | May 12, 2009

Federal and state policy makers should expand their view of what constitutes an effective school based on the evidence of science and of experience, proposes a neuroeducation specialist at Johns Hopkins University.  For example, at the school she ran in Baltimore, "as teachers designed arts-integrated lessons that fostered creative thinking, a transformation occurred in the school."

Learning & the Brain Conference
Student Mindsets and Motivation: Attitudes, Stress and Performance

April 10, 2013
New York, NY

This one-day symposium will bring cognitive scientists, psychologists and educators together to explore the role that mindsets, attitudes, anxiety, goals, optimism, dopamine, intentions, resilience, persistence and character play in student success and achievement in life and school. Learn strategies you can use to make students more successful, motivated and resilient.

Register here.
 
Neuroeducation: Learning, Arts, and the BrainNeuroeducation: Learning, Arts, and the Brain

This free publication focuses on the convergence of neuroscientific research and teaching and learning, with an emphasis on the arts. It is the culmination of a summit sponsored by The Johns Hopkins University School of Education’s Neuro-Education Initiative, and includes an executive summary, edited transcripts of panel presentations, and a synthesis of roundtable discussions.


Front Cover of 'Learning, Arts, and the Brain' - ThumbnailLearning, Arts, and the Brain

Learning, Arts, and the Brain, a study three years in the making, is the result of research by cognitive neuroscientists from seven leading universities across the United States. In the Dana Consortium study, released in March 2008, researchers grappled with a fundamental question: Are smart people drawn to the arts or does arts training make people smarter?