WHAT WORKS IN EDUCATION The George Lucas Educational Foundation
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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.

16
A New Model of Schooling: Creating Knowledgeable, Responsible, Nonviolent, Drug-Free, Caring Kids
Maurice EliasApril 10, 2008
Tags Brain Research, , Teacher Development, All Grades

Around the world, people want to improve education.

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20
Creative Play and Scientific Inquiry, Part 2: A Mandate to Make Learning Meaningful
Anthony CodyMarch 13, 2008
Tags Brain Research, Comprehensive Assessment, Primary (K-2), Student Engagement

This is the second part of a two-part entry. Read part one.

In many of our schools, we have stopped giving our students real creative challenges because there is not enough time for anything open ended. Open-ended projects, by their very design, allow students to explore a wide variety of interests, concepts, and skills. That means we can't easily assess these projects with a multiple-choice test; therefore, schools suffer when they pursue them.

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16
Emotional Engagement in Education, Part One: Should Teachers Care About Student Apathy?
Jim MoultonJanuary 30, 2008
Tags Brain Research, Dropout Prevention, Integrated Studies, Place-Based Learning, Project-Based Learning, , Student Engagement, Teacher Development, All Grades, Maine

This is the first post in a three-part entry.

The answer is, "Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes! Everyone has to care."

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10
The Choreography of Calculus: Using the Arts to Comprehend Content
Jim MoultonJanuary 23, 2008
Tags Brain Research, Curriculum, Integrated Studies, Project-Based Learning, , Teacher Development, All Grades, Maine

I recently attended the Juice Conference here in Maine on the effort to power up the state's creative economy. The discussions focused on how craftspeople -- potters, weavers, dancers, musicians, metalworkers, woodworkers, and their ilk -- contribute to the bottom line. As I listened, it occurred to me that the conversation -- and the definition of "creative economy" -- needed to be far deeper, far more foundational than that. We must be more creative in how we think about creativity.

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113
Teachers, Like Students, Learn by Doing: Project Learning at Envision Schools
Bob LenzAugust 29, 2007
Tags Classroom Management, Pre-Service Teachers, Professional Learning Network (PLN), Teacher Development, Team Teaching

A quote by experiential-education pioneer Kurt Hahn projects brightly onto a large screen: "We are crew, not passengers." After a brief welcome, the thirty-five new teachers at Envision Schools are asked to respond to the quote in their journals. Then, following some quiet reflection time, the teachers meet their fellow group members.

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6
Closing the Achievement Gap: "All Children Can Learn"
Larry LeverettSeptember 5, 2006
Tags Brain Research, Comprehensive Assessment, All Grades

"How many effective schools would you have to see to be persuaded of the educability of poor children? If your answer is more than one, then I submit that you have reasons of your own for preferring to believe that pupil performance derives from family background instead of school response to family background. We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need to do that. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven't so far." -- Ronald Edmonds, Harvard University

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