The Research Behind Educational Neuroscience/ Social and Emotional Learning

It has been a very busy and growing time in the world of educational neuroscience and as Marian University is preparing for courses, the November symposium and a nine hour educational neuroscience cognate inside our new Master’s in Special Education Degree which is approved, open and ready to go…( Thank you to Cindy Farren who created this degree) I wanted to share the research and insitutions who are guiding us in these new programs! Please have a look!! We are ready for another wonderful academic year!!
Dr. Leslie Hart “Human Brain and Human Learning” 1983

Dr. Michael Posner-Professor Emeritus at the University of Oregon and Weill Medical College at Cornell University

Dr. Judy Willis- MD, MEd- UCLA School of Medicine/ Associate lecturer at USC Santa Barbara

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang- Cognitive Neuroscientist amd Educational Psychologist who studies emotion, social interaction and culture with regard to their implications in school and cognitive processes.

Dr. Diane Williams- Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech Language Pathology at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. She is also co-director for Excellence in Autism Research at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Donna Coch-Assistant Professor in the Department of Education at Dartmouth College and graduate faculty in the Psychological and Brain Sciences Graduate Program at Dartmouth.

Dr. Keith Devlin-Cofounder and Executive Director of Stanford University’s H-STAR institute and Senior Researcher at the university’s Center for the Study of Language and Information.

Dr. Daniel Ansari- He is currently Canada Research Chair in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Western Ontario in Canada where he heads up the Numerical Cognition Laboratory

Dr. Mariale Hardiman- Interim Dean of the John Hopkins School of Education. She began and developed the John Hopkins School of Education ‘s Neuro0Education Initiative, supported by the John Hopkins School of Medicine’s Brain Science Institute.

Dr. Kurt Fischer and Katie Heikkinen- Harvard University

What we know with the most scientifically based brain research as it applies to learning :

1. Movement enhances learning and memory- movement brings additional fuel-carrying blood to the brain. It allows the brain to access more long-term memory areas ( an ancient survival strategy) , thereby helping students make greater connections between new and prior learning. Exercise was shown to be strongly correlated with increases in brain mass and cell production, as well as improved cognitive functioning and mood regulation.

2. Emotions have a great impact on learning- students cannot focus on the curriculum unless they feel physically safe and emotionally secure.

3. The varying pace of brain development explains the behavior of children and adolescents.

4. The school’s social and cultural climates affect learning. A school’s culture is characterized by openness of communication, level of expectations and appreciation for effort , involvement in decision-making, and degree of caring.

5. Brains can grow new neurons in the hippocampus. The hippocampus encodes long term memory.

6. Immediate memory and working memory. Working Memory can last several weeks.