24th March 2023
Cheery Friday Greetings to our Learning How to Learners!
Practical Insights From Neuroscience: Improve Your Teaching of Math—or Anything Else—to Neurodiverse Students
Register now for this two-hour webinar from Learning & the Brain, (taught by none other than Barb), which offers CE credit for the live audience, as well as a recording available for one week following the live webinar. This webinar will run from 10:00 am – 12:00 pm ET / 7:00 am – 9:00 am PT on Saturday, April 1, 2023 for a total of 2 credit hours.
In this webinar, we’ll discuss how a growing body of research insight from neuroscience has revealed many surprises when it comes to teaching math. For example, some forms of teaching can engage students’ sophisticated pattern recognition systems, which can be invaluable in making math easier to learn, particularly at more advanced levels. And there are further surprises—for example, just because students know how to solve a problem in math does not necessarily mean that they can—or should—be able to explain it. In fact, forcing some neurally diverse students to explain their reasoning when they can already demonstrate their understanding can actually kill their motivation for deeper learning. In this talk, we will explore these and other counterintuitive insights from research that can allow you to make intelligent use of students’ differing underlying approaches to learning. We will also explore the intimate connection between retrieval practice in math and the metaphors used in art, music, and poetry.
This is a fantastic webinar with the best, most recent insights from neuroscience. Don’t miss it—register now!
Spring 2023 On Course Conference
Recently, there’s been a lot of media coverage and college buzz on the impact Artificial Intelligence is having on education. Will ChatGPT support or prevent our students from effective learning? Our world of education is certainly on the cusp of a profound change! How might educators respond to this fascinating challenge? Attend the April 28, 2023 On Course National Conference (held virtually) for an exploration of AI.
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- Opening Keynote Session and Plenary with Dr. Derek Bruff, author of Intentional Tech and former director of the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Bruff is also the author of the Intentional Teaching newsletter and producer of the Intentional Teaching podcast.
- Mid-Day Keynote Session and Plenary with Dr. Robert Cummings, author of Lazy Virtues: Teaching Writing in the Age of Wikipedia. Cummings is Executive Director of Academic Innovation and Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Mississippi.
- Closing Keynote with Dr. Jonathan Brennan, author of Engaging Learners through Zoom and On Course: Strategies for Success in College, Career and Life. Brennan is a researcher in best practices in student success, holds a BA and an MA in English, an MA in Counseling Psychology, a PhD in Ethnic Studies (UC Berkeley), and an EdD in Educational Leadership and Change (Fielding Graduate University).
- Register here
- More information
Ken’s Korner
One interesting free newsletter we subscribe to, covering everything from the inner workings of Windows 11 to face recognition technology, is “Ken’s Korner.” We get a lot out of the short and informative technical articles. You can sign up here.
Book of the Week
Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon by William D. Cohan. This book has earned pride of place on The New Yorker Best Books of 2022, The Financial Times Best Books of 2022, and The Economist Best Books of 2022. Great leadership in business matters in providing for people’s needs, as Southwest Airline’s recent catastrophic meltdown attests. Power Failure is the magnificent telling of the rise and fall of one of America’s formerly greatest companies, and a cautionary tale of how eminence can lead managers to hubris—and disaster.
General Electric Company grew in the late 1800s from Thomas Edison’s brilliant innovations. By 1896, the company was so important that it was one of the original 12 companies listed on the newly formed Dow Jones Industrial Average. Ultimately, the company’s story revolves around two men. Jack Welch, who is sometimes called “the CEO of the Century,” took GE to greatness during his reign as Chairman & CEO from 1981–2001. Many people working for GE revered Welch, whose rapid-fire and flexible brilliance (he also sported a doctorate in chemical engineering) meant that he relished well-reasoned dissent. Welch’s successor was Jeff Immelt, a Harvard MBA whose slick ability to present and glad-hand were enough to get him to the top—but not make great decisions. It turned out that Immelt, unlike Welch, didn’t tolerate dissent and rarely took advice from others. Under Immelt’s leadership GE lost over $150 billion in market value—the company was not only ultimately dropped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, but dismembered. (Cohan points out how Immelt’s self-serving biography often seems at variance with the facts.)
Cohan’s book provides a perceptive perspective on capitalism itself—the motivation and fulfillment of people’s needs that great companies can provide. But also, the cutthroat death spirals that companies can fall into. As Cohan pointedly observes, General Electric’s current CEO is the one who seems to be making all the money—not share holders. A lengthy read, but worth every page.
That’s all for now. Have a happy week in Learning How to Learn!
Barb, Terry, and the entire Learning How to Learn team
- Uncommon Sense Teaching—the book and Coursera Specialization!
- The LHTL recommended text, A Mind for Numbers
- For kids and parents: Learning How to Learn—the book and MOOC. Pro tip—watch the videos and read the book together with your child. Learning how to learn at an early age will change their life!
