The application of the neuroscience research to teaching offers keys to access the brain’s most powerful information processing networks. Dr. Willis will explain what the most recent neuroscience and cognitive science research reveals about attention, emotion, memory and executive functions. You will learn how the brain’s response to stressors, including boredom and frustration, can reduce memory and cause students to “act out” and “zone out.” Dr. Willis will provide neuro-logical classroom strategies to reverse negativity, build growth mindsets and perseverance, promote accurate long-term memory and guide the transfer of learning to novel applications. You will gain an enhanced understanding of how neuroscience relates to education and acquire a rich toolkit of strategies to apply to your classroom or clinical practice.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After this seminar, you will be able to:
• Employ brain-friendly strategies to advance student achievement and the skill sets for 21st Century success
• Examine ways to maximize and maintain student attention and focus
• Improve student participation by reducing stress and promoting confidence and resilience
• Increase construction of working and long-term memories through the use of patterning, mental manipulation and metacognition
• Use advances in neuroscience research to ignite student motivation and promote growth mindsets
• Apply the compelling video game model of individual achievable challenge levels and the recognition
of incremental progress to increase student effort and perseverance
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
This seminar will be applicable for all professionals in education, including teachers PreK through graduate school teachers, administrators, policy makers, curriculum designers, professional development coordinators, consultants for schools, teacher educators, school psychologists, tutors and graduate students.
WORKSHOP LEADER
Judy Willis, MD, MEd, is on the adjunct faculty of the Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara. She is an authority on the application of brain research to the classroom. Dr. Willis practiced neurology for 15 years before returning to university to obtain her teaching credentials. She subsequently taught in elementary and middle school for 10 years. With her unique background as both a neurologist and classroom teacher, she publishes in several education journals and is the author of six books including Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning (2006) and How Your Child Learns Best (2008).
