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Research on NSU’s Abraham S. Fischler School of Education Graduate Programs with Majors in Brain-Based Teaching Shared at National Teacher Education Conference

A qualitative study on the effective teaching practices of graduates of the Nova Southeastern University programs with majors in Brain-Based Teaching was featured in a presentation at the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) recent annual conference.

Donna Wilson, codeveloper of the M.S. and Ed.S. degree programs with majors in Brain-Based Teaching, presented the study “Strengthening Teacher Effectiveness with Education, Mind, and Brain Research: A Qualitative Study of K-12 Teachers Focusing on Higher Needs Students” at the AACTE Annual Meeting in Chicago on Feb. 18. Wilson is Team Leader of Academic Affairs for the Center for Innovative Education and Prevention (CIEP, www.ciep.org) and BrainSMART (www.brainsmart.org).

Wilson’s presentation summarized ethnographic research involving seven recent NSU graduates with a focus on how what they had learned about education, mind, and brain research influenced their teaching practice. Several of the teachers who participated in the study reported student achievement gains, and they attributed that progress, in part, to the neuroeducational principles and strategies they learned while earning their degrees.

The term neuroeducation refers to an interdisciplinary field bringing together research from neuroscience, psychology, and education with the aim of improving teaching methods and outcomes. The NSU graduate degree programs with majors in Brain-Based Teaching emphasize several principles from neuroeducation, including the potential for all students to learn, physical changes in the brain that result from learning, and classroom research demonstrating the academic gains that result from teaching students metacognitive strategies, or thinking about their thinking with the aim of improving learning.

“This study is based on in-depth interviews with seven graduates, but many of the teachers who have earned their degrees with majors in Brain-Based Teaching tell us this foundation from neuroeducation on how student learn best has been extremely useful in their classroom practice,” Wilson said.

Wilson is a nationally known presenter at educational conferences and professional development events for teachers and school administrators throughout the United States and in other nations. In fact, she will be presenting next at the International Roundtable on School, Family, and Community Partnerships on April 13 in Vancouver, British Columbia, on “Improving Students’ Health and Cognitive Skills: An Examination of the Impact of Education, Mind, and Brain Research on Teachers’ Interactions with Parents.” The upcoming roundtable conference is sponsored in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA, www.aera.net).