There is growing evidence of the connection between environment, body, and mind and how they interact to influence learning. Our study of three books suggest that learning is not just a cognitive endeavor, but is also related to how our body functions and the environments in which learning occurs.  So…does cognition depend on the body and its relation with the environment? This 30-minute interactive session explores this question through discussion and activity related to the brain-body-environment system. Specifically, we will share an evaluation and synthesis of three cognitive neuroscience books: The New Science of Learning (Doyle & Zakrajsek, 2013), Neuroteach (Whitman & Kelleher, 2016) and How the Body Knows Its Mind (Beilock, 2015). Participants will gain new theoretical understandings about the mind-body connection and engage with related transformative learning (TL) applications to build more TL experiences in the classrooms. Come prepared to share your knowledge and insights as we network with one another and interact around the key concepts at the heart of this intriguing session. How do we use responses of the body and mind to stimulate emotion, attention, physical activity, movement, and motivation for deeper learning and more effective recall? Join this session to learn more about the transformative learning potential of an embodied brain perspective and share your perceptions.

There is growing evidence of the connection between environment, body, and mind and how they interact to influence learning. Our study of three books suggest that learning is not just a cognitive endeavor, but is also related to how our body functions and the environments in which learning occurs.  So…does cognition depend on the body and its relation with the environment? This 30-minute interactive session explores this question through discussion and activity related to the brain-body-environment system. Specifically, we will share an evaluation and synthesis of three cognitive neuroscience books: The New Science of Learning (Doyle & Zakrajsek, 2013), Neuroteach (Whitman & Kelleher, 2016) and How the Body Knows Its Mind (Beilock, 2015). The facilitators will introduce research-informed teaching strategies from these books and discuss the evolving mind-brain-education (MBE) discipline out of Harvard Graduate School of Education (Fischer, 2009). From meta-cognition to intrinsic motivation to physical/ mental movement, participants will experience the integration of neuroscience into educational pedagogy. We will practice with research-based classroom strategies that have the potential to launch transformative learning by engaging the whole student. Participants will be asked to consider how developing an embodied brain approach to teaching, rather than the more traditional separate mind-body perspective, can lead to important changes for their students. Shifts in practice which expose students to numerous transformative experiences may indeed launch more dramatic transformative learning changes (Heddy & Pugh, 2015). Participants will gain new theoretical understandings about the mind body connection and engage with related transformative learning (TL) applications to build more TL experiences in the classrooms. Come prepared to share your knowledge and insights as we network with one another and interact around the key concepts at the heart of this intriguing session. How do we use responses of the body and mind to stimulate emotion, attention, physical activity, movement, and motivation for deeper learning and more effective recall? Join this session to learn more about the transformative learning potential of an embodied brain perspective and share your perceptions.

30-Minute Roundtable Session

Launching Transformative Learning