Here’s how to reach every student brain

Expert gives educators tips on how to get every student brain to learn

brain-learning-neuroscienceBy now, most educators know that classroom practices such as differentiating instruction, critical thinking, and making the environment less stressful for students are critical to a 21st-century education. But…why does it work? One education and brain expert says it all comes down to chemicals and neurons.

Dr. Sarah Armstrong, the senior director for statewide K-12 professional development at the University of Virginia and a former elementary school principal and assistant superintendent of curriculum, said she became a “brain junkie” in the 1980s and never looked back.

Armstrong, author of Teaching Smarter With the Brain in Focus: Practical Ways to Apply the Latest Brain Research to Deepen Comprehension, Improve Memory, and Motivate Students to Achieve, discussed with educators how students learn at the chemical level, and why certain practices succeed when others fail.…Read More

How colleges are propelling women into computer science-and why

Good intentions and promising programs are not enough; how colleges are stepping up to the women in computer science challenge

computer-science-women If there is any hope of reversing the stunning decline of women’s participation in computer science, it is going to take an effort of moonshot magnitude radiating from Washington, D.C.

The handful of promising and well-meaning programs at Stanford University, the University of California-Berkeley and elsewhere are a good start, but really only one small step for womankind. We need a window-rattling, world-beating blastoff that represents a giant leap—and which ensures that every girl in America takes a high-quality computer science course before she graduates from high school.

We need a nation that looks at the fact that only 17.6 percent of computer science degrees go to women and meets that challenge as if half the country weren’t being taught to read or to write a meaningful sentence.…Read More

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