April 26, 2010

School of Education hosts summit on ‘Attention and Engagement in Learning’

The Johns Hopkins School of Education Neuro-Education Initiative will host its second annual summit and roundtable discussion on the intersection of brain research and its practical application in schools, at home and in the community.

This year’s summit, to be held Wednesday, May 5, at the American Visionary Arts Museum, will explore the topic “Attention and Engagement in Learning.”

“Linking brain research to education is extremely valuable to our understanding of student development and learning,” said Mariale Hardiman, interim dean of the School of Education and co-chair of the Neuro-Education Initiative, along with Susan Magsamen, author on family and learning topics.

The summit will bring together scientists, educators and advocates to explore current research on the topic of attention and student engagement and to develop a research agenda to inform educational practice at school and home and in the community.

Moderated by clinical psychologist Lynne Michael Blum, the research panel will include Martha Bridge Denckla, of the Kennedy-Krieger Institute and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; Hal Pashler, of the University of California, San Diego; Michael Posner, of the University of Oregon; Daniel Willingham, of the University of Virginia; and Steve Yantis, of Johns Hopkins. Speakers also include Kurt Fischer, of Harvard University and the International Mind, Brain and Education Society, and Susan Rome, a teacher at the Baltimore Lab School.

This summit is made possible, in part, by the generous support of L. Robert Kimball and Associates and Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Brain Science Institute. For more information or to register, go to www.education.jhu.edu/nei.