Graduate Credits

Boston University
Two-Academic Credit Graduate Course
BU COURSE #: SE 590
MODERN MINDS: LEARNING IN THIS DISTRACTING, DIGITAL AGE

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This course explores some of the new research in the neurosciences, and in particular what this new research says about the working of the child and adolescent brain. Significantly for educators, the course will examine how neuroscience research informs our understanding of learning as well as obstacles to learning. Research in the areas of multitasking, memory, emotions, technology, perception, reading, language acquisition, the nature of depression and other mental disorders such as autism and maldevelopments in sensory integration, are not only intriguing in themselves, but carry implications for the ways we think about how the brain learns, and in turn, how we approach the work of teaching children and youth. Among the topics to be considered are: The effects of stress and today's society on learning; teenage brains; biology and behavior; early childhood; critical periods, experience and brain plasticity; the biology of child temperament; the emotional brain; stress and students with learning disabilities; dyslexia, fluency and the brain; and the damaged brain; how abuse and neglect shape the developing brain.

The course is unusual for Boston University in that it meets in conjunction with the "Learning and the Brain" conference held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, over the period of Nov. 20 through Nov. 22, 2009, at the Boston Marriott Cambridge Hotel. During this course, students are required to attend conference sessions, as well as meet together as a seminar, during the conference where the material learned in the conference lectures and workshops will be discussed. Students will be expected to have read the assigned readings prior or during to the Conference and to prepare a final paper in which they will have an opportunity to critically appraise some aspect of neuroscience research and its relation to education. Given the compressed nature of the course, the instructor will remain in contact with students as they write their final paper. The course requires students to enroll in the "Learning & the Brain" conference as well as pay tuition fees to Boston University.

These two graduate credits are issued through the Department of Special Education, School of Education, Boston University.

Friday, November 20 Day 1
Pre-Conference Workshops: (Optional)
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

BU Seminar Class Meeting
1:00-2:00 p.m.
Reviewing the Structure of the Brain. This session will be spent looking at some of the major anatomical and physiological functions of the brain. The session is intended to review some of the fundamental issues that will be considered throughout the conference. Reading: Jackson Beatty, The Human Brain. Sage Publications, Chapters 1, 2, 9, 11, and 12.

Opening Conference Keynotes
2:00 p.m. - 5:45 p.m.

BU Seminar Class Meeting
6:30 p.m.- 8:30 p.m.
Introduction to the Workings of the Mind. In this session, the focus of the discussion will be on the way the brain learns, and more generally, the nature of human intelligence. Reading: Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works, chapters 1, 2, and 4.

Saturday, November 21 Day 2
BU Seminar Class Meeting
7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.
The Brain of the Special Needs Child. This class time is devoted to an examination of the workings of the brain of children with special needs and psychological disorders. The topics will include learning disorders, depression and mood disorders, autism and social skills, and problems of sensory integration. Reading: David Sousa, "How the Special Needs Brain Learns," Corwin Press; and Michael Posner and Marcus E. Raichle, "Images of Mind," Scientific American Library, chapter 8 and 9; John Ratey and Catherine Honson, "Shadow Syndromes," chapters 5, 6 and 7.

Conference Sessions and Keynotes
8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.

BU Seminar Class Meeting
12:45 - 1:45 p.m.
State of Mind. The final class session is devoted to more general concerns on the well being of children in context of their families, schools and broader culture. Topics include the nature of social bonding, the action of the will, the role of the arts, mechanics of thought, and the nature of memory. Reading: Rita Carter, "Mapping the Mind," University of California Press, chapters 7 and 8; Pinker, "How the Mind Works," chapters 7 and 8.

Sunday, November 22 Day 3
BU Seminar Class Meeting
7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.
Final wrap up of the class.

Conference Sessions and Keynotes
8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.

Seminar Course Information

Instructor: Thomas Cottle, Ph.D., Professor, BU Dept. of Education

Students in this course may meet individually with the instructor during open lunch periods during the conference for additional help.

Graduate Course & Conference Recommended Reading
(Several readings from the following list will be selected and required for those in the L&B/Boston University Graduate Credit program)

R. Bandler, Using Your Brain for a Change
J. Carper, Your Miracle Brain
C. Conners, Feeding the Brain
F. Crick, The Astonishing Hypothesis
D. Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why it can Matter more than IQ
S. Greenfield, The Human Brain: A guided Tour
L. Hart, Human Brain and Human Learning
J. LeDoux, The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life
R. Ornstein and R. Thompson, The Amazing Brain
J. Ratey, A Users Guide to the Brain
D. Siegel, The Developing Mind: Toward a Neurobiology of Interpersonal Experience
R. Sternberg, Successful Intelligence
R. Sylwester, Student Brains, School Issues