| January 21 & 22, 2010 | Cary Academy | Cary, North Carolina |
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Overview:
A two-day Conference on Learning and the Brain for High School Educators, hosted by Cary Academy, a national
leader in the use of innovative methods in education. We invite you to join us as we explore how our innovations
have led to exciting new teaching strategies called modeling as well as exceptional student performance outcomes. High school education has relied on teaching methods developed in an agrarian age aimed at imparting facts and knowledge. However, in the 21st century, information is available at the click of a button. Teachers must shift their methods of teaching and design lessons to accommodate the changing purpose of education as well as to complement the way the brain learns. Today’s high school educators need to prepare students to be able to think, judge, assess, plan, and design. In other words, students must become adept problem solvers, if they are to solve the plethora of difficult problems that lie ahead. Dr. George McCloskey will deliver the Keynote talk on The Role of Executive Functions in Learning and Production. This presentation will provide a comprehensive, multidimensional model for describing the set of cognitive processes and related behaviors currently being labeled as executive functions and will discuss how they impact on learning and production both in the classroom and at home. The conference will introduce the practice of modeling and explore the brain-science behind it. Dr. Robert Greenleaf will speak and present a session on the brain-science that is involved when students model. Several other presenters will address modeling from the practice side. There will be both panel faculty and student discussions and classroom demonstrations of modeling in action. |
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| Previously: The first annual Southeastern Brain Conference was held in April, 2009. This conference focused mostly on modeling in physics and the brain science involved in modeling. Cary Academy was just beginning modeling in humanities courses and several of our teachers and students shared their experiences in modeling in English and history classes. Many of the sessions from that conference are available in video form at this page: videos. | ||
Topics:
This second annual Southeastern Conference on Learning and the Brain will explore
how to improve learning retention and teach students to become problem solvers,
using current information about how the brain learns.
At this conference attendees will learn how the brain processes didactic and inquiry-based teaching in general and how retention is increased with a technique called Modeling Instruction. Attendees will see classroom demonstrations of modeling Instruction in English, Physics, History, Chemistry, and Math. They will participate in panel discussions with students and teachers, and have ample time to 'mingle' with other teachers, administrators, and professionals who share an interest in the practical application of neuroscience to teaching. Session schedule. |
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Who Should attend:
The dramatic results of using modeling techniques suggest that the emerging use of modeling in disciplines has already begun to spread beyond physics to many disciplines over recent years. This potential should be investigated and developed by innovative high schools and teacher preparation colleges. Because this kind of instruction has far reaching implications for everyone involved with teaching the following should attend:
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Modeling: Most teaching and learning takes place at the language level, and a great deal of it requires memorization that must be reproduced on exams. Modeling understands that beneath any learning, and before language is acquired, the mind works on a level of spatial representations. Language (spoken, verbal, written, and symbolic) is at the next higher level of processing, where retention is less sturdy. When students create their own conceptual frameworks—a kind of internal ‘map’—their retention exceeds that attained by even the most creative teaching methods. 
Through modeling, students store theoretical knowledge at the very core of the mind,
where it can be called up to be applied in new settings. To teach using modeling,
teachers provide learning environments where students discuss and diagram their
understandings of relationships between
ideas, eventually developing rich symbolic spatial representations like the one shown on the left.
Dr. Matt Greenwolfe has been modeling high school physics for eight years. He has enjoyed great success in increasing test scores and increasing retention. A few teachers at Cary Academy have begun to experiment with teaching using modeling in disciplines beyond physics, and are finding dramatic results. While not as robust and developed as physics teaching, these humanities modeling techniques suggest that students can develop some fundamental tools that can, for example, be applied to analyze cultural, societal, governmental, and economic forces with the same exciting results being found in Physics instruction. But modeling isn't just drawing diagrams and sharing your work. Read more about modeling. Three other CA teachers, Coven and the Hamiltons, saw the potential of using Greenwolfe's teaching technique, modeling, outside physics. They began modeling in their history, English, and digital technology classes. Even in its nascent state, the method shows tremendous promise in helping students find relevance, deep understanding, transferable skills, making ideas their own, and a new way of integrating content and concept. It is this expanded use of modeling that inspired us to hold this first annual Southeastern Brain & Learning Conference. |
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