By Grace Rubenstein, CEI Intern Engaging, fun, hands-on experiences. Makerspaces serve as a balancing act against the stifling nature of a classroom learning environment. First, psychological research indicates that passive school education may inhibit a person’s internal drive to learn, whereas active learning can enhance that drive. Second, the vast variety of learning types means that few actually benefit from passive education. For instance, auditory learners may do well

By Jordan Gilliard, CEI Intern More than 60 educational studies showing that there is a significant effect on students’ academic achievement when games and activities are applied to their learning process. Activities help students form lovable memories that connect to the material. These positive connections certainly aid the learning process (Marzano, 2010). Meanwhile, students also gain skills of teamwork, creativity, positive sportsmanship, and critical thinking, factors t

By Amber Nicole Dilger, CEI Intern  Chances are you have heard about mirror neurons by now, but how have you incorporated the idea of them into your school? If you missed it, there was a fascinating clip on NOVA in 2005 that explained the overview of these specialized so-called ’empathy’ neurons. More research has been done since then, and more questions and controversies (especially related to the question of whether mirror neurons have an affect on autism) have developed,

I am participating this weekend in a conference on Learning and the Brain. Actually multi-tasking with my iPad as I listen to lectures that tell us that the human brain was not designed for sitting hours on end to absorb information. We were designed of course to be active hunters and gathers, outside, interacting with our environment. Interesting. Conclusion: schools and classrooms are not the ideal environment for learning. Each day we are discovering more and more informat

Cultural responsiveness is an element of education that educators have been working toward since the Civil Rights Movement. Recent attention to culturally responsive pedagogy has risen as more and more students extend the global characteristics of classrooms. Students from Pakistan, Indonesia, and Ecuador join Nigerian, Latino, Romanian, and Russian students’”all newcomers. Geneva Gay (2000) believes that when students can connect with symbols and aspects of their own culture