Newsletter: Spring 2011
Looking at Mind, Brain, and Education
Image by Jared Tarbell, via Creative Commons
You may have noticed that we have changed our name – we are now The Yellin Center for Mind, Brain, and Education. I thought you might like to know what “Mind, Brain, and Education” involves and why it resonates so deeply with our work.
First of all, what is “Mind, Brain, and Education?” It’s the name given to a field of study that looks at how scientists, clinicians (like physicians and psychologists, for example) and educators can work together to advance education for all learners. Many leading universities, including Harvard and Johns Hopkins have programs in Mind, Brain, and Education; and the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society (IMBES) was established several years ago to further this important work. IMBES also publishes the excellent journal Mind, Brain, and Education.
For many years, research neuroscientists have studied the physical structures (i.e., nerves and connections) and functions (such as those involving different chemical and electrical activities) of the brain and have learned that structures and functions that were once thought of as fixed hold enormous potential for making new brain cells and connections. Likewise, physicians, psychologists, psychiatrists, and others have studied how we perceive and process information, and we how we feel about the world in which we live. Their findings have greatly advanced our understanding of how individuals think, learn, and remember.
But, for too long, much of this knowledge was not integrated into most classrooms. This meant that educators did not have the benefit of the latest scientific findings, and that researchers did not get to see how their findings were utilized. Mind, Brain, and Education is the field that seeks to promote this collaboration between researchers, clinical practitioners, and educators to develop, evaluate and apply best practices in learning.
First of all, what is “Mind, Brain, and Education?” It’s the name given to a field of study that looks at how scientists, clinicians (like physicians and psychologists, for example) and educators can work together to advance education for all learners. Many leading universities, including Harvard and Johns Hopkins have programs in Mind, Brain, and Education; and the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society (IMBES) was established several years ago to further this important work. IMBES also publishes the excellent journal Mind, Brain, and Education.
For many years, research neuroscientists have studied the physical structures (i.e., nerves and connections) and functions (such as those involving different chemical and electrical activities) of the brain and have learned that structures and functions that were once thought of as fixed hold enormous potential for making new brain cells and connections. Likewise, physicians, psychologists, psychiatrists, and others have studied how we perceive and process information, and we how we feel about the world in which we live. Their findings have greatly advanced our understanding of how individuals think, learn, and remember.
But, for too long, much of this knowledge was not integrated into most classrooms. This meant that educators did not have the benefit of the latest scientific findings, and that researchers did not get to see how their findings were utilized. Mind, Brain, and Education is the field that seeks to promote this collaboration between researchers, clinical practitioners, and educators to develop, evaluate and apply best practices in learning.
"Mind, Brain, and Education is the field that seeks to promote collaboration between researchers, clinical practitioners, and educators to develop,
evaluate and apply best practices in learning."
In early 2009, I was invited to lecture to a class of Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) students at Harvard Graduate School of Education. As I learned more about this exciting new field, I soon realized that our work was very much aligned with it and that, in fact, we were incorporating aspects of MBE in all of the work in which we were involved. Applying new findings in neuroscience to an understanding of how students learn, and then implementing strategies to improve their learning and skills has always been key to what we do. As we work with individual students of all ages, we are looking at learning and providing strategies for improving performance by strengthening brain functions that work well, and providing tools for building skills and success for functions that are problematic. We look at how students perceive their world, noting how issues like anxiety and self-esteem can impact student performance. And we often work closely with schools to help them implement our recommendations.
We have been engaged to provide professional development for a broad range of organizations, including school districts implementing newly-mandated programs like Response-to-Intervention. We have ongoing relationships with many individual schools, serving a wide array of children, including those with complex special needs. We have helped numerous other schools, parent groups, and other programs to better understand the interplay among students’ minds, brains, and their education, and to integrate these new ideas in their work.
The emerging field of Mind, Brain, and Education represents an opportunity to create the kinds of critical linkages that can make a real difference. It is an opportunity to build on our fundamental framework by integrating new ideas, collaborations, and practices into our body of work. With all of this in mind, I am very excited that we are now The Yellin Center for Mind, Brain, and Education.
-- Paul B. Yellin, M.D., FAAP
Paul B. Yellin, MD, FAAP is the Director of The Yellin Center and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine in New York City.
We have been engaged to provide professional development for a broad range of organizations, including school districts implementing newly-mandated programs like Response-to-Intervention. We have ongoing relationships with many individual schools, serving a wide array of children, including those with complex special needs. We have helped numerous other schools, parent groups, and other programs to better understand the interplay among students’ minds, brains, and their education, and to integrate these new ideas in their work.
The emerging field of Mind, Brain, and Education represents an opportunity to create the kinds of critical linkages that can make a real difference. It is an opportunity to build on our fundamental framework by integrating new ideas, collaborations, and practices into our body of work. With all of this in mind, I am very excited that we are now The Yellin Center for Mind, Brain, and Education.
-- Paul B. Yellin, M.D., FAAP
Paul B. Yellin, MD, FAAP is the Director of The Yellin Center and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine in New York City.