Our goal is to connect the knowledge base from cognitive development and neuroscience to practical knowledge about learning and teaching in educational environments. Grounding learning and teaching in research about learning, we have discovered a universal scale for learning – which greatly increases the power of assessments and makes possible the use of a common toolkit for learning sequences in any domain. In addition, we have been able to design on-line computer-based assessments that make assessment both less expensive and more convenient. The tests start with assessments that are connected to learning environments and can be used directly to promote and guide learning. Our goal is to move beyond using tests as sorting mechanisms and toward using them as powerful aids for education.

1. Mind, Brain, and Education:
How Cognitive & Neuro Science
Inform Educational Practice.
Kurt W. Fischer, Harvard G.S. Education
! Relating Mind, Brain, & Education (MBE)
< Need for Sound Science,
Not Mere Brain Claims
< Brain Plasticity!
Using Cognitive & Neuro Science To Inform
Educational Practice.
< Different Pathways for Learning
! Research Schools:
Studying Learning and Teaching in Schools
Barcelona, 26 Nov 2012

2. Brain: Most Complex Object in Universe
The Brain - is wider than the Sky -
For - put them side by side -
The one the other will contain
With ease - and You - beside -
Minister of
The Brain is deeper than the sea -
For - hold them - Blue to Blue Education in a
The one the other will absorb - European
As Sponges - Buckets - do -
Country
The Brain is just the weight of God -
For - Heft them - Pound for Pound
And they will differ - if they do -
As syllable from Sound -
Emily Dickinson 1862

3. Creating New Field of
Mind, Brain, & Education
! International MBE Society & University Programs
< Harvard U., Cambridge U., U. Texas at Arlington,
East China Normal University
! Journal & Books
< Wiley-Blackwell, Cambridge U. Press, Guilford.....
AAP Award
! Collaboration with
Other International Groups
< OECD
< Pontifical Academy of Sciences 400th
< Learning & Brain
< Japanese Baby Science
! Beyond the Fad to Build a Field
< Building a Network of Research Schools

4. Neuroplasticity:
The Adaptive Brain
• Learning experiences literally shape how
neurons in the brain connect with one another.
Learning a New Skill Requires Growing a New Neural Network.
• Connectivity patterns influence how the brain
processes new information.
Dendrites
Cell body
Axon
OECD, 2007

5. But School Is [Students Fill in].
BORING!
C & M Suàrez-Orozco
Treating Students as
Disembodied Brains into Which
We Pump Knowledge!
Better Model: Active
Intelligence –
Grasping & Building
with the Mind
XWorldPlugInBrainBucketVTS_05_1.VOB.lnk

6. Illegitimate Claims from Neuroscience
XWorldPlugInBrainBucketVTS_05_1.VOB.lnk (Command Line)
! Learning Involves Filling Our Brains with
Knowledge – NOT.
! There Are Left-Brain and Right-Brain People –
NOT.
! We Only Use Half (or Less) of Our Brains – NOT.
! Boys & Girls Have Fundamentally Different Brains
– NOT.

7. Response to Seeing a Word
Flashed
What Other Regions
Participate in Network for
Seeing a Word?
dog º
Visual Area

8. Speech: Broca’s Area & Wernicke’s Area Parietal lobe:
Touch,
Spatial, etc.
Frontal lobe:
Motor action,
Executive, Occipital lobe:
Emotion, Vision, etc.
etc.
Seeing Word
Temporal
lobe: Brain Stem,
Hearing, etc. Cerebellum
Front of Head

9. Inflating the Brain Image (through
Computer Processing) to Make More
Areas Visible.
Watch the Brain Activity Pattern Several Times.
Duration: Less Than a Second
(Halgren, Poldrack)
Shortcut to meg_word_readingSld20PoldrackVideoEHalgren.mpeg.lnk (Command Line)

10. Need for Research Schools:
Research and Development for Schools
! Research and development are commonplace in
most industries and fields.
< Cosmetics, Chemicals, Agriculture....
< Traffic Safety: National Data Base
< We Need Research and Development in Education!
! Educational theory should be tested by its
consequences in action (Dewey, 1896, 1938).
! Research informs practice, and practice informs
research.

11. Prime Example Is Sesame Street:
Research on Practice Every Day
! Ongoing Assessment of Practice
! Tool for Improving Learning and
Teaching.
! Gerald Lesser, Children and
television: Lessons from Sesame
Street. Random House
Doing Research in Schools: Establishing Partnership
between Schools and Universities to Study Learning.

12. Educating All Children:
Many Different Pathways to Learning.
Educating 25% of Our Students Successfully
Is Not Good Enough!
Tower of Babel: Different Languages, Different Learning
Pieter Brughel the Elder

13. Learning Pathways Involve Webs,
Not Ladders.
Standard Model of Reading
With an Alphabetic System:
3 Domains to Integrate
! 1. Meaning of Words (Definition)
! 2. Sound Analysis, especially Rhyme
! 3. Visual-Graphic (Letters Spell Words)
! Standard Model: Child Must Integrate These
Domains to Read Effectively.

14. Developmental Webs, with Coordination
of Separate Domains
3 Domains to Coordinate
Meaning Sound Visual-
Analysis Graphic

15. Study of Children Reading Single Words
Knight & Fischer, 1992
! Grades 1-3
! Full Range from Good to Poor Readers
frog
! N = 120 boat
cake
! Words were from school curriculum. fish
(16 words) train
string
......

16. 6 Tasks for Each Word
! Word Definition (Meaning)
! Letter Identification (Visual-graphic)
! Rhyme Recognition (Sound)
! Rhyme Production (Sound)
! Reading Recognition (Integration)
! Reading Production (Integration)

17. Modal Standard Simple
and Model
of
Reading
Developmental
Pathway:
WORD DEFINITION
Integration of
Read & Rhyme LETTER RHYME
IDENTIFICATION RECOGNITION
READING
RECOGNITION
Integration of
Domains Leads to
Single Sequence
of Tasks instead of
RHYME Branching.
PRODUCTION
READING
PRODUCTION

18. Dendrogram for Tasks
For Entire Sample, including High & Low Readers
! Based on Partially Ordered Scaling technique
(POSI)
! which does Guttman Scaling that allows
Branching.
! Many studies use techniques analyzing orderings
of all pairs of items.
< Today Rasch scaling is widely used.

19. Profiles of 6 Tasks for Main Developmental Pathway
Step Word Letter Rhyme Reading Rhyme Reading
Definition Identification Recognition Recognition Production Production
0 - - - - - -
1 + - - - - -
2a + + - - - -
2b + - + - - -
3 + + + - - -
4 + + + + - -
5 + + + + + -
6 + + + + + +

20. Modal
Developmental WORD DEFINITION
Pathway .11
.17 RHYME
LETTER RECOGNITION
IDENTIFICATION
.11 .17
READING
RECOGNITION
What about Poor Readers? What about Hard Words?
.44
Does This Integration Model Capture the Whole Story?
RHYME
Dendrogram PRODUCTION
from POSI
Total Sample = .28
120 Children
in Grades 1-3
READING
PRODUCTION

21. Are There Several Pathways Hidden
Here?
! Based on Pattern Analysis of Profiles of 6 Tasks
for Each of 16 Words,
! There Are Two Additional Pathways Besides the
Modal One.
< Every Student Fit One of These Pathways!
P It Is Rare to Successfully Characterize All Subjects in a Study.

22. Second
Developmental WORD DEFINITION
Pathway:
Read & Rhyme LETTER
Independent IDENTIFICATION
READING
RECOGNITION
RHYME
RECOGNITION
READING
PRODUCTION
RHYME
PRODUCTION

23. Third
Developmental WORD DEFINITION
Pathway:
Read, Rhyme, &
Letter
Identification
Independent
READING RHYME
RECOGNITION RECOGNITION
LETTER
IDENTIFICATION
READING RHYME
PRODUCTION PRODUCTION

24. The Centrality of Culture
Cultural Assumptions:
Which Direction Do You Read?
Right to Left, or Left to Right?
Assumption by Advertiser
Bruno della Chiesa

25. Cultural Assumptions:
Right to Left

26. Differences in Pathways
for Visual Talents in People with Dyslexia
! New Research on Visual Talents in Dyslexic
Scientists
< Matt Schneps, Todd Rose, and Kurt Fischer,
in journal Mind, Brain, and Education:
P Plus 7 new articles in press or submitted.
! Development of Visual Fields in Dyslexics and
Normal Readers
< Escher Figures
< Geiger & Lettvin, Winner & von Karolyi
< Visual Scanning Fields

27. Distribution of Sensitivity in Visual Field
Differs in Dyslexics.
Development: More
Sensitivity in Periphery,
Less in Fovea.
Result: Greater Capacity
for Detecting Patterns
across Wide Areas of
Visual Fields, e.g.
Astronomers
(But More Distractability)
Task for the Future:
Describing These Talents
& Limits.

28. •l vl
dyslexia
linked to visual talents?
dyslexia over-
represented in art
schools by a
factor of 2
chuck close
Wolff, U. and I. Lundberg (2002). "The prevalence of dyslexia among art students."
Dyslexia 8(1): 34-42.

29. •l vl
impossible
figures
People with dyslexia are 50%
faster at distinguishing possible
and impossible figures.

30. Talents for Holistic Integration
across the Visual Field
Example: Star Fields and Astrophysicists

31. •l vl
enhanced peripheral ability
d w
vary eccentricity
very quick flash
~15 ms
Geiger, G. and J. Y. Lettvin (1987). New England Journal of Medicine 316(20): 1238-1243.

32. •l vl
Geiger, G. and J. Y. Lettvin (1987). New England Journal of Medicine 316(20): 1238-1243.

33. •l vl
Geiger, G. and J. Y. Lettvin (1987). New England Journal of Medicine 316(20): 1238-1243.

34. •l vl
black hole detection

35. Scientists Dyslexia at
with Excel
Peripheral •l
Detection. vl
finding black holes
detection is often difficult

36. Dyslexia Advantage
in Black Hole Detection

37. Compare Normal? Students (Harvard)
with Landmark College Students
(Dyslexic)

38. With Image Blurred, Harvard Students
Not Able to Detect Letters in Photos.
Landmark Students Did Learn!
Memory Target Is Letter on Tire.