Research in brain physiology, genetics, and cognitive science has proliferated in recent years. With the availability of so much new and promising information comes an unprecedented opportunity to gain new insight into human behavior and its relationship to educational practice. The Connecting the Mind, Brain, and Education institute provides an invaluable chance to understand current research findings, consider their implications for your work as an educator, and assess their usefulness in your ongoing teaching and research activities.
The institute brings together educators and researchers to explore promising developments, new insights, and emerging connections in the fields of cognitive science, neuroscience and educational practice. Through a combination of face-to-face learning at Harvard and both pre- and post-institute interaction, participants better understand the powerful links between these disciplines and how contemporary research can inform their own teaching and research agendas.
Benefits of Attending
During this highly-interactive institute you will:
• Consider the most current research on the mind, brain, and education from leading experts
• Understand more deeply connections between the mind, brain, and education
• Rethink your teaching and research activities in ways that incorporate the latest research
• Identify and develop a personal project that applies key institute ideas and insights to your own professional setting
Access the Most Recent Research
Faculty experts from Harvard University and other leading institutions will discuss their most recent research and explore several pressing questions:
• What bridges exist between cognitive science, neuroscience, and education?
• Which discoveries in cognitive science, neuroscience, and human development are most significant and hold the greatest potential for educators?
• What does emerging research in the biological sciences indicate about the nature of learning disabilities?
• How should cognitive science influence curriculum design?
• How should lessons from the neurosciences inform pedagogy in a world of new teaching and learning technology?
• How have advances in neuroscience influenced cognitive science?
• How can dynamic modeling identify meaningful links among cognitive science, neuroscience, and education?
• What are the key questions to consider as we seek to integrate the disciplines of mind, brain, and education?
From Theory to Action
Throughout the institute, you will apply current research to challenges in your own teaching, research, and curriculum development. Through a combination of lectures and interactive discussion, pre- and post-institute online learning, and development of a personal project, the institute will afford the opportunity to:
• Review and reassess models of human development
• Evaluate the relevance and comprehensiveness of human development curricula at your institution
• Develop a personal project that enriches your understanding of human development and instructional improvement
• Receive feedback from faculty and institute colleagues on the particulars of your personal project
Hands-on, interactive learning
Interactive large-group sessions
Practitioners from the fields of neuroscience, cognitive science, and education will present up-to-date research, theoretical frameworks, and practical applications.
Facilitated small-group discussions
Discussions will summarize and clarify ideas from readings, consider educational implications, reassess frameworks for understanding human development, and explore related questions for practitioners.
Working sessions for personal project
Participants will work in teams with shared goals. As a team, participants will outline action plans for projects of relevance to their current professional circumstances. Each plan will be presented to faculty and institute colleagues for feedback and refinement.
Online learning
Participants will have two opportunities for online interaction and learning. Prior to the institute, participants will develop background knowledge via digital lectures, readings, and small-group discussions. After the institute, participants will have the chance to further share ideas and refine their personal projects.
Informal and optional sessions
Optional discussion sessions on topics of particular interest to institute faculty will be convened during the program to enable more in-depth exploration of current research findings and their implications for educational practice and future research.
Who should attend
University faculty who are associated with teacher education programs, teaching cognitive and developmental psychology, and/or are interested in the latest research in the areas of mind, brain, and education will find the institute of value. In addition, educational administrators (at both the higher education and K-12 levels) responsible for curriculum development, teacher education programs, and developing programs for diverse learners will also find the program beneficial.
2008 Institute Faculty Included
Kurt Fischer (Institute Co-chair) is Director of the Mind, Brain, and Education Program and Charles Bigelow Professor of Education and Human Development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His research analyzes cognition, emotion, and learning and their relation to biological development and educational assessment. Leading an international movement to connect biology and cognitive science to education, he is founding president of the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society and founding editor of Mind, Brain, and Education.
L. Todd Rose (Institute Co-chair) is a research scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His research focuses on understanding AD/HD and dyslexia from a developmental systems perspective, with a focus on quantitative variability instead of qualitative ‘disorder.’ Rose lectures nationally to educators and parents on the science of learning disabilities and the role of neuroscience in education.
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang studies the neuroscience of emotion and its relation to cognitive, linguistic and social development at the Brain and Creativity Institute, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California. She lectures on the implications of brain and cognitive science research for curriculum and pedagogy and is the North American editor for Mind, Brain and Education. She has a particular interest in the connection between learning and emotion.
Paul van Geert is Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He is interested in development theory, particularly from a dynamic systems point of view. He has played a pioneering role in the application of dynamic systems theory to a broad range of developmental areas, including early language development and second language acquisition; cognitive development in the context of learning-teaching processes; and social development including social interaction and identity.
David Rose is a Lecturer on Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Co-Founding Director and Chief Scientist, Cognition & Learning, CAST. Rose specializes in developmental neuropsychology and the universal design of learning technologies.
Marc Shwartz is Professor of Mind, Brain and Education at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). He also serves as the Vice President for the
International Mind, Brain and Education Society and is an Associate Researcher in the Science Education Department at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Schwartz's current focus at UTA is to create a new Center for MBE where researchers, policy makers and educational practitioners can collaborate and focus on the cognitive and emotional changes and political challenges that emerge and evolve for students, teachers and administrators as learning contexts change.
Schedule
The Institute will be held at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An online component of the program will begin about one month prior to the institute.
Environment
While at Harvard, participants will have access to the academic, cultural, social, and athletic resources of the University, including libraries, museums, and theaters. Harvard Square offers a variety of bookstores, shops, coffee houses, and restaurants.
Program Fee & Registration
The comprehensive program fee includes tuition, all program and instructional materials, refreshment breaks, an opening reception, social event, and certificate of completion.
Registrations will be accepted on a first come, first served basis. Please wait for registration confirmation before making travel plans. Participants will be able to register at www.gse.harvard.edu/ppe.
For further information, please call 1-800-545-1849 or email ppe@gse.harvard.edu
Payment or purchase order is due within 30 days of institute registration.
Accommodation Options
Detailed accommodation options will be made available closer to the program date.
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