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+--- Thread: Welcome our new OECD expert and Forum members! (/Thread-Welcome-our-new-OECD-expert-and-Forum-members)
Welcome our new OECD expert and Forum members! - tjlise - 25-04-2005
As suggested by the OECD administrator I am going to try a new post of introduction and see where it leads. I am currently taking the first of 8 courses to complete a Masters of e-Learning. We are meant to immerse ourselves in online communities and actively participate and observe how learning occurs at these communities. As a high school teacher for the last ten years I have become very interested in brain research and how the brain operates in order to enhance what goes on in the classroom.
This interested really began developing three years ago as I went to a conference in Chicago hosted by North Central a school accreditation and improvement organisation in North America. At that conference I stumbled upon a presenter who spoke with such depth of knowledge but at a level that an ordinary person like me could understand - it was refreshing. I arranged (with my administration team) for him to come to my last school to share his knowledge with the rest of the staff.
I became more familiar with CERI and your various works while researching and reading through your Future of Schooling project. My university lecturer posted your link to the Brain and Leaning web site and here I am. I have tried other online forum discussions and have found them a bit difficult to interact. For this reason I have tried to post as much information about why I am becoming an active member of this community.
In reading through some of the other posts on this site I will make some general comments. In my teacher training I received no information in how the brain functions. In fact my teacher training was really quite useless other than it afforded me a piece of paper that allowed me to become a teacher. I have greatly enjoyed my experience having taught in both the US and Australia for the last 10 years but I now want to make some changes in what goes on in classrooms. The Brain and Learning site you have loads of resources but plowing through all of them takes more time than many have got. Are there articles, books, sites that discuss brain development, how we learn and high school students?
Another post asked the question does gender impact learning and what goes on in schools? I would say without a doubt. I have primarily taught at boy’s schools but the difference between a 15 year old boy and girl is so great that I believe how we work with them needs to be that great too. If you look at the mixed abilities of students in a typical classroom and then divide those abilities and issues again by gender you create a situation that is unmanageable or does not need to be managed. Boys and girls are going to seek each other if they want - the separation during school hours, in my opinion only makes sense.
I will leave it at that I look forward to engaging in discussion on this forum.
Welcome our new OECD expert and Forum members! - OECD - 29-04-2005
The Teach-the-brain team would like to introduce you to Christina Hinton, our new neuroscientific and education online expert. Christina is currently enrolled in the new MA: Mind, Brain, and Education programme at Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has a BA in Neurobiology-Education and has conducted transdisciplinary research across disciplines of Developmental Neurobiology at Swarthmore College, PA. Apart from this Christina is also a certified elementary teacher with teaching experience in various schools in the US, including leading an after-school enrichment program. Christina also joined the OECD Brain and Learning project as a consultant in January this year.
Christina is well equipped to answer questions on neuroscience and join in on the current debates by offering expert opinion and moderate discussions.
We would like to welcome Christina on board.