| MEDIA ADVISORY
October 27, 2014 |
||||||||||||
| Contact:Kristin Dunay(781)-449-4010 x102 [email protected] |
FOCUSED ORGANIZED MINDS: USING BRAIN SCIENCE
TO ENGAGE ATTENTION IN A DISTRACTED WORLD
| WHAT: | Classroom attention is under siege. Today’s technology is creating more classroom distractions and disorganization. Yet, academic testing and Common Core State Standards require students to be more focused and organized than ever in order to succeed in school. Neuroscience may offer a way to engage these attention, organization and study skills. A national group of neuroscientists, psychologists and educators will be presenting research, classroom strategies and new cognitive technologies to improve student focus, planning and executive function skills before 1,300 educators at this month’s Learning & the Brain® Conference in Boston, MA.
Renowned psychologist and science journalist Daniel J. Goleman, PhD, will open the conference on the afternoon of Thursday, November 20 with a keynote presentation on “Focus in Learning.”By combining cutting-edge neuroscience research with practical findings, Dr. Goleman will delve into the science of attention. In an era of unstoppable distractions, he will argue that now more than ever, students must learn to sharpen their focus if they are to survive in a complex world. Dr. Goleman was twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, is a Former Visiting Faculty Member at Harvard University and is the author of several books including Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence (2013), Social Intelligence (2006) and Emotional Intelligence (1995) Renowned neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin, PhD, FRSC, will present one of the first public talks on his just released book, The Organized Mind, during a keynote on Saturday, November 22. Dr. Levitin will discuss how the latest findings from brain science can help us to regain a sense of mastery over the way we organize our homes, workplaces, time and lives in the age of information overload. Dr. Levitin is Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience at McGill University and is the author of The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload (2014), Foundations of Cognitive Psychology (2010) and This Is Your Brain On Music (2006) Also on the morning of Saturday, November 22, Joanna A. Christodoulou, EdD, Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the MGH Institute of Health Professions at Massachusetts General Hospital, will be presented with the 2014 “Transforming Education Through Neuroscience” Award for a junior researcher who has advanced the field of neuroeducation. The $5,000 award was established by the Learning & the Brain Foundation and the International Mind, Brain and Education Society (IMBES) to honor an individual who represents excellence in bridging neuroscience and education. Dr. Christodoulou will address the conference on the topic of “New Frontiers in Education Neuroscience: A Survey of Cases Informing the Scienceof Reading”. She will discuss how the feat of reading can be achieved with alternative mechanisms in light of structural or functional brain differences in readers. Rather than study how brains differ among reader groups, she is exploring how readers with distinct brain characteristics are able to still accomplish the feat of reading. She believes that studying distinct reader groups will help enhance our understanding of brain plasticity and reading difficulties. |
||
| WHO: | The program is co-sponsored by several organizations including the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Athinoula A. Martinos Imaging Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, and both the national associations of elementary and secondary school principals, and is produced by Public Information Resources, Inc.
In addition to Drs. Goleman, Levitin and Christodoulou, some of the other featured speakers will be: ▪ Margaret Moore, MBA, (aka Coach Meg), Co-Founder/ Co-Director, Institute of Coaching, McLean Hospital, Affiliate of Harvard Medical School; Author, Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life (2012) and “Train Your Brain to Focus” (2012, Harvard Business Review) ▪ Catherine Steiner-Adair, EdD, Clinical Instructor, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Associate Psychologist, McLean Hospital; Author, The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age (2013) ▪ Adam H. Gazzaley, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco; Assistant Adjunct Professor, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley; Host of the PBS-Special, The Distracted Mind |
||
| WHEN: | Thursday, November 20-Saturday, November 22. Conference begins 1:15 PM. General Registration is $589 until Nov. 7 and $609 after Nov. 1. Contact Kristin Dunay at 781-449-4010 x 102 for media passes. | ||
| WHERE: | Westin Copley Place, Boston, MA | ||
Learning & the Brain® is a series of educational conferences that brings the latest research in neuroscience and psychology and their potential applications to education to the wider educational community and provides professional development for educators. Since its inception in 1999, this series has been attended by more than 40,000 people in Boston, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., New York and Chicago.
For more information about the conference, visit www.learningandthebrain.com.
