WHAT WORKS IN EDUCATION The George Lucas Educational Foundation

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We share evidence-based K-12 learning strategies that empower you to improve education.

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School Transformation Through Arts Integration at Bates Middle School

Teacher leading a class in dance with arms outstretched

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Constance Steinkuehler on Interest-Driven Learning (Big Thinkers Series)

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How to Thank a Teacher

Blogs on Brain-Based Learning

Brain-Based Learning

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Understand how the brain works and how educators and parents can improve the learning process.

Matching Teaching with How Students Learn

Ben JohnsonApril 25, 2012

Tags Brain Research, Multiple Intelligences, Primary (K-2), Teacher Development, Upper Elementary (3-5), Middle (6-8), High (9-12)

What is a learner? A learner naturally observes and mimics. From the time we are born to the age of two, we are what you would call a learning machine. All humans during that time period are learning prodigies.

Four Strategies to Spark Curiosity via Student Questioning

Kevin D. WashburnMarch 22, 2012

Tags Brain Research, Comprehensive Assessment, Performance Assessment, Primary (K-2), Project-Based Learning, Student Engagement, Upper Elementary (3-5), Middle (6-8), High (9-12)

British archaeologist Mary Leakey described her own learning as being "compelled by curiosity." Curiosity is the name we give to the state of having unanswered questions. And unanswered questions, by their nature, help us maintain a learning mindset. When we realize that we do not know all there is to know about something in which we are interested, we thirst. We pursue. We act as though what we do not know is more important than what we do, as though what we do not possess is worth the chase to own it. How do we help students discover this drive?

Neuroscience and the Bilingual Brain

Judy Willis MDMarch 22, 2012

Tags Brain Research, Comprehensive Assessment, English-Language Learners, Global Education, Parental Involvement, , English Language Arts, Math, World Language Learning

A selective attentive focus and the ability to block out distraction are seminal executive functions that are minimally developed in youngsters. These functions gradually become stronger throughout the years of prefrontal cortex maturation, which last into the twenties. It is with regard to these executive functions that research about the "bilingual brain" is particularly exciting.

A selective attentive focus and the ability to block out distraction are seminal executive functions that are minimally developed in youngsters. These functions gradually become stronger throughout the years of prefrontal cortex maturation, which last into the twenties. It is with regard to these executive functions that research about the "bilingual brain" is particularly exciting. Read More

Executive Function, Arts Integration and Joyful Learning (Part 6 of 7)

Judy Willis MDMarch 14, 2012

Tags Arts Education, Brain Research, Comprehensive Assessment, Integrated Studies, Primary (K-2), Project-Based Learning, Student Engagement, Upper Elementary (3-5), Middle (6-8), Drama, High (9-12), Music, Visual Arts

This post is part of a series on executive function. Here I will cover the arts and the neuroscience of joyful learning.

Promising Starts

Children's brains need to acquire memory associations that link pleasure with learning. The creative arts can provide this link through associations with the pleasures of creative experiences enjoyed during early childhood.

Nine Things Successful People Do Differently

Heidi Grant HalvorsonFebruary 6, 2012

Tags Brain Research, Upper Elementary (3-5), Middle (6-8), High (9-12)

One of the trickiest challenges any child faces (or any adult, for that matter) is figuring out how to get from wanting to do something -- like getting a better grade on his or her next quiz, or studying over the summer for college admissions tests -- to actually doing it. Commitment is a first and very necessary step when it comes to reaching a goal, but it's just the beginning.

DSM-5: A Controversy in the Mental Health Community

Mark PhillipsJanuary 31, 2012

Tags Brain Research, Comprehensive Assessment, Mental Health, Performance Assessment, , All Grades

A very important controversy related to children is flying under the radar of most educators. It's a controversy in which educator voices could play a highly constructive role.

Some background first. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. It's used by mental health professionals, researchers, psychiatric drug regulation agencies, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and policy makers. There have been a number of revisions since it was first published in 1952, and each revision has included more mental disorders.

Three Strategies for Using the Arts to Build Student Executive Functions (Part 5 of 7)

Judy Willis MDJanuary 16, 2012

Tags Arts Education, Brain Research, Primary (K-2), Project-Based Learning, , Student Engagement, Teacher Development, Upper Elementary (3-5), Middle (6-8), High (9-12), Visual Arts

Before information can be processed through executive functions, it must reach the prefrontal cortex (PFC), where higher order thinking occurs. The pathway to the PFC has potential roadblocks in the form of an information intake filter and an emotional switching station that determines if input reaches the PFC or is diverted to the lower, reactive brain. Embedding the arts into instruction and assessment promotes flow through these filters, builds growth mindset, and strengthens the actively developing executive functions.

Social and Emotional Curriculum: Understanding Happiness

Randy TaranNovember 16, 2011

Tags Brain Research, Mental Health, Professional Learning Network (PLN), , All Grades, Science

This seven part series, from the Project Happiness curriculum, explores the many facets of happiness and provides practical techniques to generate greater happiness and a more meaningful life -- from the inside.

Three Brain-based Teaching Strategies to Build Executive Function in Students (Part 4 of 7)

Judy Willis MDOctober 5, 2011

Tags Brain Research, Primary (K-2), Teacher Development, Upper Elementary (3-5), Middle (6-8), High (9-12)

For young brains to retain information, they need to apply it. Information learned by rote memorization will not enter the sturdy long-term neural networks in the pre-frontal cortex (PFC) unless students have the opportunity to actively recognize relationships to their prior knowledge and/or apply new learning to new situations.

The Role of Mistakes in the Classroom

Alina TugendSeptember 6, 2011

Tags Achievement Gap, Brain Research, Comprehensive Assessment, Primary (K-2), , Standardized Testing, Upper Elementary (3-5), Middle (6-8), High (9-12), All Grades

As the school doors swing open to welcome the start of another year, both teachers and students will have goals: to inspire a class, to learn new things, to get good grades.

What probably won't be on that list is to make a mistake -- in fact many. But it should be.