Speakers and Sessions

In today’s complex, 21st Century world, it is essential for students to be engaged and ethical learners, thinkers, and citizens. Mind, brain and developmental research has found that students who feel valued and empowered are more likely to be actively engaged in school and their community, perform better academically, have more positive social-ethical behaviors and are more likely to be active citizens. Educators can improve school and civic engagement by empowering students through a sense of meaning and purpose, by giving them a choice and voice in their learning, by promoting real-world problem solving, and by providing opportunities for them to feel valued by contributing to civic, community, environmental and global projects. Discover how to empower students to be engaged learners, ethical citizens, and world problem solvers.

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Explore the Latest Research on:
  • Boosting Student Engagement
  • Enabling 21st Century Learning
  • Empowering Voice and Choice
  • Solving Real-World Problems
  • Applying Mind/Brain Research
  • Engaging Meaning and Purpose
  • Promoting Digital, Global Citizenship
  • Encouraging Community Service
  • Using Deeper Learning and Thinking
  • Ethics, Character and Collaborations
  • Intrinsic Motivation and Achievement
  • Helping Students Change the World
  • Youth Development and Civic Action
  • Improving Reading and Writing Skills
  • Moral Minds, Civility and Courage
  • STEM Learning and Citizen Science

Featured Speakers

Tony Wagner, EdD

Senior Research Fellow, Learning Policy Institute, Stanford University; Former Expert in Residence at the Harvard Innovation Lab, Harvard University; Former Co-Director, Change Leadership Group, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Board Member, Mastery Transcript Consortium and Better World Ed; Education Advisor to the documentary, Most Likely to Succeed; Author, Mastery: The Future of Learning in Schools and the Workplace (Upcoming 2024), Learning by Heart: An Unconventional Education (2020); Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World (2012), and The Global Achievement Gap (2014); Co-Author, Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era (2015)

Zoe Weil, MA, MTS

Co-Founder and President, Institute for Humane Education; Author, The Solutionary Way (Forthcoming), The World Becomes What We Teach: Educating a Generation of Solutionaries (2021), Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life (2009), The Power and Promise of Humane Education (2004), and Above All, Be Kind (2003)

1) Empowered Minds: Teaching Students to Change the World

Turbocharge Visionary Brain Power: Equip Students to Improve Their World

Sandra B. Chapman, PhD

Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era

Tony Wagner, EdD

Senior Research Fellow, Learning Policy Institute, Stanford University; Former Expert in Residence at the Harvard Innovation Lab, Harvard University; Former Co-Director, Change Leadership Group, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Board Member, Mastery Transcript Consortium and Better World Ed; Education Advisor to the documentary, Most Likely to Succeed; Author, Mastery: The Future of Learning in Schools and the Workplace (Upcoming 2024), Learning by Heart: An Unconventional Education (2020); Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World (2012), and The Global Achievement Gap (2014); Co-Author, Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era (2015)

Joining Character and Scholarship: Beautiful Student Work That Contributes to a Better World

Ron Berger, MEd

Global Citizenship: Empowering Students to Change the World

Michael A. Soskil, MS

Teaching Tomorrow's Change Makers: The Power of Service, Citizenship and Social Change

Marilyn Price-Mitchell, PhD

Empowering Global Students and Citizens

Connie K. Chung, EdD

2) Citizen Minds: Empowering Civic Education & Digital Citizenship

Empowerment through Education: Equipping Today's Students with the Skills Necessary to Become the Leaders, Innovators and Problem-Solvers of Tomorrow

Amy L. Carrier, BS

Beyond Wit and Grit: Can We Raise Good Citizens?

Howard E. Gardner, PhD

Creating the 21st Century Schools and Citizens We Need

Chris Lehmann, MA

What Kind of Citizens? Educating Our Children for the Common Good

Joel Westheimer, PhD

Educating for Moral and Civic Purpose

William Damon, PhD

Engaging Parents, Schools and Communities in Support of Positive Youth Development

Marilyn Price-Mitchell, PhD

Revitalizing Civic Learning for Empowering Youth

Meira L. Levinson, DPhil

Children Are Citizens: Engaging Young Children in the Community to Create Powerful Learning

Benjamin Mardell, PhD

Participation in School and Community-based Organized Activities

Jennifer A. Fredricks, PhD

Promoting Purpose and Engagement Through Civic Education and Student Voice

Dana L. Mitra, PhD

Contributing to the Civic Society: The Characteristics Associated with Civic, Community and Cultural Participation Among Adolescents

Sara K. Johnson, PhD

3) Thinking Minds: Engaging Real-World Problem Solving

Using Writing as an Avenue to Empower and Develop Deeper, Higher Thinking

Leslie E. Laud, EdD

Fostering Complex, Critical and Creative Thinking for the Classroom

Patti Drapeau, MS

The World Becomes What We Teach: Educating a Generation of Solutionaries

Zoe Weil, MA, MTS

Co-Founder and President, Institute for Humane Education; Author, The Solutionary Way (Forthcoming), The World Becomes What We Teach: Educating a Generation of Solutionaries (2021), Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and Meaningful Life (2009), The Power and Promise of Humane Education (2004), and Above All, Be Kind (2003)

Inspiring Engaged Thinking and Innovation in 21st Century Students

Jacquelyn F. Gamino, PhD

Mind, Brain and Education Research: Informed Pathways for Purposeful Teaching, Learning and Thinking

Ian Kelleher, PhD

Half-Truths and Lies: The Brain Science of Critical Thinking

Daniel J. Levitin, PhD

Mind, Brain and Education Research: Informed Pathways for Purposeful Teaching, Learning and Thinking

Glenn Whitman, MALS

History Teacher; Executive Director, Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning; Co-Designer, NeuroTeach Global and Neuroteach Global Student; Dean of Studies, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School; Co-Author, "Every Educator Needs to Know How the Brain Works" (2020, ASCD Express) and Neuroteach: Brain Science and the Future of Education (2016); Co-Editor, Think Differently and Deeply; who has played and coached soccer, ice hockey, and golf at high school, club and collegiate levels and worked alongside USA National Women’s Soccer Team members at the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy

Student Engagement for Deep Thinking in the 21st Century

Bryan K. Harris, EdD

Associate Professor, Arizona Christian University; Author, 17 Things Resilient Teachers Do: (And 4 Things They Hardly Ever Do) (2020), Retraining New Teachers (2015), and Battling Boredom (2010); Co-Author, The Resilient School Leader (2023, Routledge Eye on Education), Battling Boredom, Part 2 (2018), and 75 Quick and Easy Solutions to Common Classroom Disruptions (2013)

4) Engaged Minds: Motivating with Purpose, Choice & Voice

Learning to Choose, Choosing to Learn: The Keys to Student Motivation

Mike Anderson, MS

Creating Possibilities: Empowering Youth Through Voice, Choice and Entrepreneurship

Lauren Schiller, EdM

Motivation to Learn: Promoting Student Voice and Self-Efficiacy

Michael J. Middleton, PhD

Motivation in Learning: Insights from Multi-Method Approaches

Kou Murayama, PhD

Engaging Students: Creating Classrooms of Choice, Collaboration and Deep Learning

Jennifer A. Fredricks, PhD

Why Is Interest Powerful for Learning?

K. Ann Renninger, PhD

Motivation Intervention in Education

Chris S. Hulleman, PhD

Professor of Education and Public Policy, Curry School of Education; Founder and Director, Motivate Lab, University of Virginia; Co-Author, "The Cost of Being First: Belonging Uncertainty Predicts Math Motivation and Achievement in First-Generation, But Not Continuing-Generation Students" (2023, Learning and Individual Differences), “Belonging in STEM: Growth Mindset as a Filter of Contextual Cues” (2022, International Journal of Community Well-Being), “A Brief Social Belonging Intervention Improves Academic Outcomes for Minoritized High School Students” (2020, Motivation Science), and “The Promotion and Development of Interest: The Importance 0f Perceived Values” (2017, The Science of Interest)

5) Deeper Minds: Engaging Thinking in STEM, Citizen Science & Literacy

Using Citizen Science to Engage Students in STEM Education: From Brooks to Biodiversity

Lisa K. Lobel, PhD

Test Your Brain: Engaging Students as Citizen Scientists

Laura T. Germine, PhD

Engaging Young Engineers: Teaching Problem Solving and Decision Making Skills

Kristen B. Wendell, PhD

Developing Student's Skills and Interest through Citizen-Science- Inspired Invesigations: From Biology to BirdSleuth

Jennifer Fee, MS

Engaging Citizen Science and Empowering STEM Students and Programs

Bronwyn MacFarlane, PhD

6) Ethical Minds: Cultivating Character, Compassion & Community

Moral Tribes: Emotions, Reason and the Gap Between Us and Them

Joshua D. Greene, PhD

Humanitarian Neuroscience: Predicting Future Behavior, Education and Criminal Outcomes

John D.E. Gabrieli, PhD

Director, MIT’s Integrated Learning Initiative; Grover Hermann Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Cognitive Neuroscience; Professor of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; Co-Director, Clinical Research Center; Associate Director, Athinoula A. Martinos Imaging Center, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Co-Author, “Reward-Related Neural Circuitry in Depressed and Anxious Adolescents: A Human Connectome Project” (2021, Journal of the American Academy), “Mindfulness Supports Emotional Resilience in Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic” (2022, MedRxiv), “Sleep Quality, Duration, and Consistency Are Associated With Better Academic Performance in College Students” (2019, NPI Science of Learning), and “Greater Mindfulness Is Associated With Better Academic Achievement in Middle School” (2019, Mind, Brain, and Education)

Connecting Restorative Justice Practice and Brain Research to School Behavior and Bullying Prevention

Chuck Saufler, MEd

Civility, Compassion and Courage: Embracing Your Influence to Be a Change Enterprise

Candice D. Barnes, EdD