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Submitted by Michael Joseph Mercanti Anthony
This is only my third year on the Greenwich Board of Education, but my 25th year in the field of education. For about two-thirds of that time, I had a nagging feeling that something was missing. In fact, what surprised me most about my own teacher preparation program was that we never really talked about how children learn. I mistakenly thought I would learn about the mind and how it works. For me, studying “education” meant learning “how learning happens.”
But when I finished pre-service training in the late ’90s, the conversations weren’t focused on what was going on inside students’ heads. In my particular program, the closest I came to answering this question was the concept of “practitioner inquiry.” I was asked to study my students and hypothesize what would work best. It sounded hollow to me – surely more experienced people know better. After all, we didn’t know much about learning, so I thought I didn’t learn about learning.
But the truth is that we actually know quite a bit about learning. The fields of neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychology have made significant advances in our understanding of the sciences of learning. Sadly, these concepts have only recently begun to make their way into schools of education and teacher training programs.
That’s why we’re so excited that the Board of Education will be hosting ResearchEd Greenwich, a one-day education conference, this Saturday at Greenwich High School.
The conference theme is “Unlocking the Science of Learning.” More than 20 published authors and experts present, representing a variety of aspects of our understanding of how the learning sciences impact classroom practice.
ResearchEd is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting education researchers and practitioners in the field. An event regularly held in Europe, Australia and Dubai, Greenwich is his second school district in the United States to host the event. Next fall, Delaware Research Ed and Utah Research Ed will be held.
I attended the first conference hosted by the Frederick County, Maryland School District last year. I was shocked by the high quality and significance of the presentation.
content. This was exactly the idea I was missing in my own training.Finally, I
At this conference, you won’t hear about trends or gimmicks; you’ll hear about the actual science of how students learn and what that means for everyday classroom instruction.
I kept thinking about how I could bring these ideas to the community. A year and a half later, and the efforts of so many people, we are now on the eve of our very own conference.
The caliber of speakers that come to Greenwich is world class. Keynote speaker Dr. Karl Hendrik is Professor of Learning at the Academica University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam. He is co-author of the books How Teaching Happens and How Learning Happens. Both encapsulate seminal achievements in the learning sciences.
Other speakers include Dr Jim Heal, co-author of Dr Hendrick, and Tom Bennett, founder of researchEd and UK National Adviser on Student Conduct Issues. Literacy expert James Murphy and renowned authors Tom Sherrington and Hairi Hughes will also be flying in from the UK. Pedro de Bruecker, author of The Psychology of Great Teaching, will be joining us from Belgium.
The conference also features national thought leaders such as Rober Pondiscio, Barbara Davidson, Patrice Bain, and Natalie Wexler. Kim Marshall of Marshall Memo is giving the closing keynote speech. These names are probably unfamiliar, but each one is a rock star in the education world. If you don’t believe me, Google it!
The conference will also showcase many of the great ideas being done here. Former Greenwich principal Dr. Jen Bencivengo and GHS teacher Joe Bask each spoke, and Patrick Briggs discussed how the award-winning AVID program helps its students reach their potential. It explains what is going on.
That means next weekend is a unique opportunity for Greenwich educators to learn from many of the giants in the field. I’m sure the ideas discussed at his GHS next weekend will have an impact for years to come.
Dr. Michael-Joseph Mercanti-Anthony is a member of the Greenwich Board of Education and the Ed Greenwich Research Chair.
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