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Geoffrey Caine
Ronald M. Clavier
David Eagleman
Steven Feifer
Mary Fowler
Garfield Gini-Newman
Robert Greenleaf
Laurel Trainor
Geoffrey Caine
Email: geoffreycaine@earthlink.net
915-659-0152
http://www.cainelearning.com
Geoffrey Caine, a director of Caine Learning LLC, is a learning consultant and process coach. Caine has been published extensively and is co-author of six books, including Making Connections: Teaching and the Human Brain. His work carries him throughout the United States and abroad. He works in the worlds of education, business, and government, where he capitalizes on his prior experiences as a professor of law, an education services manager of a national software company,
a state manager of a national publishing company, and national director of the Mind/Brain Network of the American Society for Training and Development.
He has given keynote addresses or made presentations to the Campaign for Learning in the United Kingdom, the World Conference on Education for All, the Eighth International Conference on Thinking, the Whole Schools Institute sponsored by the Mississippi Arts Commission, and numerous other national and regional organizations and associations. Caine's major interest is in how best to improve the ways in which people learn together. He directs his attention to the arts of deep listening, dwelling in the question, and processing experience for the lessons it has to offer.
KEYNOTE
How people learn naturally. In essence, natural learning is the way in which all people come to see and perceive their worlds in new ways and develop new ways to act on their world. This is the core of what the Caines call performance knowledge. Natural learning was happening way before schools were ever invented, and needs to be incorporated into education at all levels. In the keynote, Geoffrey describes what scientists call the perception/action dynamic, and then provides an overview of the Caines' 12 systems principles of natural learning that together show how the entire body, brain and mind are involved in the process. For instance, they show that all learning uses the physiology, combines thought and the emotions and is social in some ways. The principles synthesize research from many different fields of knowledge in a way that is useful and practical for educators everywhere.
Performance knowledge: the key to genuinely raising and sustaining high standards. Performance knowledge deals with what students can do in the real world as distinct from surface knowledge, which is matter of knowing about the world. The session shows that the way to generate performance knowledge is based on how people learn naturally. One essential ingredient is the need for students to make real decisions and learn from experience throughout their years in school. That is why the key to raising and sustaining high standards is to teach for deep understanding and performance knowledge, as a result of which standards climb naturally. One consequence is that the appropriate forms of assessment need to be used and that is why test scores and authentic assessment need to be integrated.
From direct instruction to learner centered education: a path of professional development. In this session, Geoffrey explains that the brain/mind is designed to search for meaning and make sense of experience. That is why the best way to teach for high standards, and develop what the Caines' call performance knowledge, is to begin by stimulating, listening for and working with the authentic questions and interests of students. That is the essence of genuinely learner centered education. Direct instruction remains important, but needs to be included in a learner centered environment. The session concludes with an discussion of the link between professional development, which focuses on skills of great teaching, and personal development, which focuses on essential capacities that great teachers need to have.
RONALD M. CLAVIER-Toronto, Canada
ronclavier@hotmail.com Web www.ronclavier.com
Art Web www.ronclavierstudio.com
CLINICAL & CONSULTING PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES
1246 YONGE STREET SUITE 206
TORONTO, ONTARIO M4T 1W7
Tel: (416) 489 – 0300
Dr. Ron Clavier was born in Montreal. Following his undergraduate studies at McGill University, he earned his Doctorate in Experimental and Physiological Psychology from Northwestern University. His Postdoctoral training was in Biochemical Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia. Ron then taught Anatomy and Psychology in medical schools in Chicago and Vancouver. Since 1982, he has run a private practice in clinical psychology. In addition, Ron consults in the corporate, law enforcement, community, health, and education sectors. He worked for a number of years as a research consultant in psychiatry at the University of Toronto and was Senior Consultant to the Council on Drug Abuse until 2007. Ron’s television series, Adolescence: The Stormy Decade, was broadcast on Canadian Learning Television until 2007. His book ”Teen Brain, Teen Mind” (2005) helps families cope with the difficulties of this phase of life. His new book “The Choice Among Pleasures” is scheduled for release in spring, 2010. His passion to educate young people about science through the medium of art is expressed in his project “Awe and Humility and Joy: A Tribute to John Steinbeck”, which can be previewed in his art website. Ron lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Teen Brain, Teen Mind: Taking the Mystery Out Of Adolescent Behaviour Dr. Clavier argues that a clear understanding of the developing brain is the key to unlocking the age-old mysteries of why teens (and pre-teens) act the way they do. This presentation helps educators re-connect with their understanding of the neural basis of cognitive and emotional growth. He addresses the implications of neural development for: rules, motivation, substance abuse, academic choices, emotional disturbances, etc. Along the way, Dr. Clavier offers numerous coping tips and strategies designed to ease tensions and improve communications.
Keeping Kids Off Drugs And Alcohol
Teenagers must be informed that while drugs, including alcohol, make them feel good, there is a very heavy price to pay for that feeling. For over 30 years, Dr. Clavier has devoted his time to bringing teenagers, their parents, and their educators the most valid and reliable scientific information about the drugs in their lives. His credibility derives from his backgrounds in science, education, and clinical psychology, and from his non-judgemental approach. In this presentation, he provides clear, practical, and authoritative information about the physiological, psychological, social, political, financial, and legal consequences of substance use and abuse.
Under-Achievement: Getting From "Shoulda" to "Gonna"
Everyone gets confused when students fail to work up to their potential. Adding to this is the frustration educators feel when kids seem unwilling to take advantage of the resources available to them. In this workshop, Dr. Clavier uses empiricism to take the mystery out of both forms of “under-achievement”, getting at why it happens, and what to do when it does.
Career Counselling: How Physics and Ketchup Can Help
Many young people are confused about which academic path they should take to find their life’s work. In many cases, high school guidance departments suggest placements based on achievement and external indices of success. This can lead young people into “blind alleys”, or even force them to delay their plans in the hopes that “something will come up” to end their dilemma. This need not happen. In this presentation, Dr. Clavier
Encourages educators to look at the role of passion – a true brain-based entity - in discovering life’s “calling”. This will give educators a practical and empirical approach to choosing a career that is socially meaningful and inwardly fulfilling, but most importantly, neurally healthy.
The Curious Brain: The Neuro-Scientific Journey to Knowledge
The more we know, the safer we are. Most educators know that the more students learn by followed their curiosity to its natural end – discovery - the better those students will comprehend and retain that knowledge. The motivation to know things (curiosity) is innate. Yet the necessities of mass education and uniform curriculum often force educators to “bypass” curiosity, thereby stifling it, and provide children with formulas, answers and solutions to questions that kids may not consider important. Is it any wonder that so many kids are described as “unmotivated” or “not performing to their potential”? In this presentation, Dr. Clavier bases this presentation on the neural substrates of curiosity, encouraging educators to stimulate and nourish it. This begins with philosophy: observation, followed by the asking of good questions. It continues with science – the critical thinking that challenges existing beliefs and seeks knowledge by finding evidence to support plausible new answers to those good questions.
Emotionally Safe Sex: The Risks That Condoms Can't Reduce
Say the words “safe sex” and the word “condom” is never far behind. Condoms definitely make sex physically safer; but what about the devastation of emotionally unsafe sex? The desire to connect with other people is fundamental to the human condition. And yet, many young people find it hard to find long-lasting and emotionally secure relationships.
This is always caused by distrust, which is especially strong in those who have exposed themselves in the past only to be hurt. Yet learning to trust again, and the intimacy this engenders, means learning to live with risk. In this presentation, Dr. Ron Clavier helps educators equip young people with the skills to build the foundations of lasting relationships: trust, commitment, sensuality, and passion, each of which is based in brain anatomy and physiology.
David Eagleman
eagleman@bcm.edu
Work: 713-798-6699
http://neuro.bcm.edu/eagleman
Baylor College of Medicine
1 Baylor Plaza, Room T111
Houston, TX 77030
David Eagleman is a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine. He directs the Laboratory for Perception and Action, and is the founder of BCM’s Center for Law, Brains, and Behavior. He has published dozens of papers in high-impact journals, and has authored 4 neuroscience books coming out in 2008: Ten Unsolved Mysteries of the Brain (Pantheon Press), Dethronement: The Secret Life of the Unconscious Brain (Oxford University Press), The Kaleidoscopic Brain of Synesthesia (co-authored with Richard Cytowic, MIT Press), The Dynamically Reorganizing Brain (Oxford University Press). He is additionally the author of an upcoming book of fiction, Vignettes from the Afterlife (Pantheon Press). He earned his undergraduate degree in British and American Literature at Rice University and Oxford University, then obtained a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine. He was a postdoctoral fellow at The Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, where he worked with Terrence Sejnowski and Francis Crick. At BCM, he holds joint appointments in the Departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry.
Keynote: Ten unsolved mysteries of the brain
How are memories stored and retrieved? Why do brains sleep and dream? What is intelligence? These and other deceptively simply questions have taken center stage in modern neuroscience, and what we know – and don’t know – about them is often surprising. Since the field of neuroscience is still young and groping for its theoretical footing, this talk turns the spotlight on these uncharted territories. Given the complexity of modern neuroscience, this talk gives a summary of the state of the science, a roadmap that looks at the outstanding problems for the next generation, and suggests the hotspots for future discovery. This talk is based on Dr. Eagleman’s upcoming book of the same title.
Breakout session #1: Why sleeping is so important to learning?
The brain is like a piece of hardware that can run two different pieces of software: one mode corresponds to being awake, the other to being asleep. Data comes in during the day but must be cemented in – or consolidated – during the night, and sleep is required for that task. By examining the function of sleep (including naps), participants can expect to learn how to schedule sleep to maximize learning.
Breakout session #2: The multisensory brain: how to improve learning by tapping in to all the senses
Humans have multiple senses by which information reaches the brain. Recent studies have suggested that the best learning occurs when the senses can work synergistically. For example, it is easy to remember the words to a song, but difficult to remember the words if you simply read them. Most current teaching styles, by employing only auditory (lecture) or visual (reading material) stimulation, do not take advantage of the fact that the brain has evolved to most effectively extract information from combinations of inputs. Participants can expect to learn new strategies for maximizing learning.
Steven Feifer
feifer@comcast.net
cell: 301-606-8038
2114 Bear Creek Ct.
Frederick, MD 21702
Dr. Steven G. Feifer, D.Ed., NCSP, ABSNP is a nationally renowned speaker in the field of learning disabilities and has conducted numerous seminars and trainings for educators and psychologists throughout the United States and Canada. He is dually trained as both a nationally certified school psychologist from James Madison University, and is also board certified by the American Board of School Neuropsychology. His doctorate work was conducted at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, with research stints at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. His first book, The Neuropsychology of Reading Disorders: Diagnosis and Intervention was voted neuropsychology publication of the year for 2001 by the National Association of School Psychologists. His second book, The Neuropsychology of Written Language Disorders: Diagnosis and Intervention has also received critical acclaim. Dr. Feifer currently works as a school psychologist in Frederick, MD, teaches in the Baltimore/Washington neuropsychology training program, and consults with numerous school districts throughout the country. His latest book, The Neuropsychology of Math Disorders: Diagnosis and Intervention was released in 2005.
Session 1: The Neuropsychology of Reading Disorders - Overview (Part 1)
This workshop will be the first in a three-part series designed to examine reading disabilities from a brain-behavioral perspective. The initial presentation will discuss the pitfalls of over-relying upon the discrepancy model or curriculum-based measurement as the primary means for assessing reading disorders in children. The discrepancy model has drawn much ire and scrutiny due to its statistical impreciseness, inability to link assessment procedures with individualized interventions, and tendency to over-identify impoverished and minority children as being disabled. Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) has provided psychologists with a quicker, more cost effective, and more ecologically valid means of assessing learning at much younger ages in children. While curriculum-based measurement can quickly assess WHERE a student lies in relation to the curriculum, it yields little data indicating WHY. The primary goal of this workshop will be to examine specific brain regions underlying literacy in children. The use of neuropsychological assessment within a 4-tiered intervention system will be discussed as the primary means to pinpoint specific reading disorders in children.
Session 2: The Neuropsychology of Reading Disorders - Overview (Part 2)
Same description as part 1
Session 3: The Neuropsychology of Reading Disorders - Overview (Part 3)
Same description as part 1
Mary Fowler
mary@maryfowler.com
work: 732-842-0659
Mary Fowler has been training educators and parents internationally for 20 years. Her areas of expertise are Student Motivation & Performance, Student Engagement, Classroom Management, Positive Behavioral Supports and Interventions (PBIS), and ADHD. A former classroom educator, Mary brings an authentic understanding and appreciation of the problems educators face on a daily basis.
An internationally recognized expert on Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Mary Fowler is the author of 4 books including the most recently published 20 Questions to Ask if Your Child Has ADHD. The New York Times called her best selling book, Maybe You Know My Kid, “an empathetic, no-nonsense guide for parents.” She authored the ADHD Briefing Paper for the National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities, the original CHADD Educators Manual, and numerous book chapters, including “Mindful Discipline: Classroom Management for Distresses Learners” (Feifer, et al. The Neuropsychology of Behavioral Disorders,” in press.) Mary served as a consultant on the US Department of Education Federal Resource Center on ADHD and has testified before Congress on ADHD-related education issues.
WHEN CHILDREN HURT:
Understanding and Working with Emotionally Distressed Learners
The story of the emotionally-distressed learner is the story of trauma. Many factors lead to trauma issues and stress disorders: abuse, neglect, neurological challenges, mental health disorders. Distress results in diminished performance and undesirable behavior.
Two decades of evidence-based research on the mind/body connection, the emotional brain, traumatic stress disorders, resilience, motivation and performance have opened the frontier to effective techniques that calm and quiet the distress and minimize risk to improve performance.
In this session, you will learn how to calm and quiet distress, strategies that foster self-regulation, and core essentials that reduce the “fear factor” and improve motivation and performance.
- The Reactive Stories of Distressed Learners
- Understanding the Mind/Body/Behavior Connection
- Techniques to Calm and Quiet the Biology
- Applying Principles that Reduce the “Fear Factor”
ADHD Classroom Challenges: Knowing What to Do and Doing What We Know
We all know that students with ADHD face many challenges. We also know they can be challenging in instructional environments. How can we help these students improve their academic, social, emotional, and behavioral performance? This session provides a sound framework for recognizing and understanding ADHD-related school-based difficulties from an educational perspective. You will learn 10 principles along with practical strategies and interventions for the educational care of students with ADHD.
- How & why ADHD affects school performance: evidence-based research, myths and urban legends
- Knowing what to do: What works, what doesn’t work, and why
- Doing what we know: 10 Principles that improve performance
Mindful Discipline:
Leading with Action, not Reaction
All behavior has a purpose. Mindful Discipline gets to the story beneath behavior problems and classroom management issues. It explores leadership qualities that motivate, inspire and create change.
A Mindful Discipline approach transforms classroom management practices from reaction-driven, problem-makers into response-based, problem-solvers.
- Understand the goals & hidden agendas of disruptive behavior.
- Explore ways to evaluate and not judge—yourself, your students or the behavior problems.
- Develop an intention to guide your leadership style.
- Prevent escalation of minor or “nuisance” behaviors.
Garfield Gini-Newman CTL, OISE/UT
Senior Consultant
Email: ggininewman@oise.utoronto.ca
OISE/UT
252 Bloor Street West
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1V6
The Critical Thinking Consortium
is a Social Studies Lecturer at OISE/University of Toronto and a senior national consultant with The Critical Thinking Consortium. Formerly he was a curriculum consultant with the York Region District School Board and a classroom educator for 15 years teaching a range of subject including History, Philosophy, Politics and English. He has spoken across Canada and internationally on critical thinking, brain compatible classrooms, curriculum design and effective assessment practice. Garfield has also authored seven textbooks and has taught in the faculties of education at York University and the University of British Columbia.
1. An Introduction to a Curriculum Embedded Approach to Nurturing Critical Thinking.
Is critical thinking an important educational objective? If so, is it sufficient to encourage critically thoughtful responses from some but not all students? And how can teachers best nurture critically thoughtful students in a crowded curriculum? This workshop will help bring clarity to critical thinking and provide a powerful framework around which engaging curriculum can be structured and a deepened understanding of concepts can be developed.
2. Supporting All Learners in Becoming Critically Thoughtful Learners.
In an increasingly complex it world what we know is rapidly becoming less important than how we use information. During the teen years the brain’s pre-frontal cortex, which is responsible for decision-making, problem solving and goal setting, is undergoing important developments. How we interact with children can help or hinder them in developing the capacity to making critically thought judgments now and in the future. During this talk, Garfield will explore some of the important brain developments occurring during adolescence and will share some practical strategies for helping to nurture critically thoughtful decision-making in teens.
3. Creating Brain Compatible Classrooms by Making Powerful Use of Assessment.
Currently an important paradigm shift in assessment is underway that is seeing assessment evolve from something we do to children after a block of learning to measure progress to an integral part of the teaching and learning process. Used properly, assessment can be one of the most powerful tools in a teacher’s repertoire. Garfield will share insights into how teachers can use critical thinking as a powerful assessment framework to engage students and deepen their learning while at the same time creating safe learning environments.
Robert Greenleaf
bob@greenleaflearning.com
P.O. Box 186
Newfield, ME 04056
207-793-8675
A former professional development specialist at the Education Alliance at Brown University, Dr. Greenleaf has two decades of experience in public education ranging from teaching to serving as superintendent of schools, assistant superintendent of schools, elementary school principal, teaching principal, and special education assistant. His work and travel ranges across levels K-college. Topics include brain-based classroom applications for memory and recall, bi-modal memory formation, as well as relationships and behavior. Dr. Greenleaf has authored six instructional books on brain, learning and behavior. His latest books focus on reluctant learners and teacher education programs at the post-secondary level. He earned his Masters at the University of Southern Maine and his Doctorate at Vanderbilt University.
Session 1: Brain Based Teaching: Making Connections for Long Term Retention
This workshop engages participants in instructional strategies for diverse learners, with the goal being:
- To invite ALL learner to participate
- To cause learners to do the processing necessary for long term memory
To form multiple connections (ways of knowing/accessing) for recall
General Info: This workshop specifically targets the question: ”How do I frame existing lessons so that all learners become engaged in learning?” The goals are to engage all learners simultaneously; to cause learners to do the work (processing) of learning; and to create multiple connections with respect to the important ideas being taught.
Session 2: Memory, Recall and the Brain: Applying the Verbal & Visual Attributes of Memory/Recall that Increases Student Learning Outcomes
The conscious mind works primarily in image and emotion (meaning). Nonlinguistic or VISUAL Representations (NLRs) are reported in the research to generate an overall increase of 26% in student performance outcomes. More poignant are visual-verbal combinations-or “bi-modal” packets that learners can form while engaging new materials.
Applications abound in this workshop. What NRL strategies can be used that engage the mind? Can we merge the research on effective instructional strategies with the neurosciences and generate “Minds-On” learning? Are there some learners or learner types that would benefit from NRL approaches to processing and interpreting
Session 3: Creating and Changing Mindsets: Developing Long-term, Responsible Behaviors.
Focusing upon the behavior of a student seldom prevents repeat occurrences. We may subdue behavior, but our experience is that the behavior always returns/repeats.
Laurel Trainor
McMaster University Music and the Mind
Director, McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind
Professor, Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour
McMaster University
1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1
office: 905-525-9140 x23007
Email: ljt@mcmaster.ca
Research Interests: The development of auditory perception, including basic sound perception and the acquisition of music and language. Behavioural, EEG, and MEG methods are used to ask how sound and musical structure are encoded in the nervous system, how music and language are related in development, how specific musical training affects how the brain gets wired up, and how music induces emotional responses.
Laurel Trainor (Ph.D., Psychology, University of Toronto) is a professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour at McMaster University, and the Director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind. She has published many pioneering research articles and book chapters on the neuroscience of auditory development and the perception of music, appearing in journals such as Science, Psychological Science, and the Journal of Neuroscience. Her research also has one of the highest media profiles of researchers at McMaster. In 2006 she was ranked by Cormex in the Top 30 Most Frequently-Used Academic Experts in Canada. Her studies show that young infants already have multi-sensory connections between auditory and movement areas of the brain, and that they are like adults in preferring consonant chords compared to dissonant chords. At the same time, Trainor and her colleagues have found that brain responses to sound do not reach adult maturation until about 18 years of age, and that the brains of music students mature differently than the brains on students not taking music lessons. These studies suggest that music can have a profound effect on how brain connections form. Her 2005 study of rhythm processing in infants was rated as one of the top 10 papers by the Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development. Her work on the effects of musical training on the brain was rated by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council as one of the top 50 scientific discoveries of 2006. This year she will give invited keynote addresses at several major conferences: the Society for Music Theory, the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity, the Suzuki Society of the Americas, and the International Conference on Music Perception and Performance. Trainor also has a Bachelor of Music Performance from the University of Toronto, loves playing chamber music, and is currently principal flute of Symphony Hamilton.
Session one: Neuroscience of Music
I will begin with a discussion of how sound is encoded in the human brain. I will then examine how music is processed in the brain, how music encoding changes as children age, and the effects of specific musical experience.
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