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New Prize for Work on Brain and Learning
Winner finds a "major discovery" between what kids feel and how they learn >>Read more

Learning & the Brain in the News

New Prize for Work on Brain and Learning Winner finds a "major discovery" between what kids feel and how they learn

February, 2008 -- A "risk-taking" researcher who has helped create what is fast becoming a new discipline has been awarded the first-of-its-kind prize for "Transforming Education through Neuroscience." Announced on Feb. 9 at a national interdisciplinary scientific and education conference in San Francisco, the award comes with $2500.

The winner, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, who holds a doctorate in education from Harvard, is a research fellow at the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California, where she works with the internationally renowned neuroscientist, Antonio Damasio.

"There are major discoveries coming out of Mary Helen's work," said Kurt Fischer, director of the Mind, Brain & Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a former adviser to Immordino-Yang.

Her research proves, "when you're learning, there's a physical change in your body," said Jay Giedd, chief of brain imaging at the child psychiatry branch of the National Institute of Mental Health, who was on the selection committee. "You are not born smart or dumb. Your brain is plastic, so to speak. You can change."

"It is the connection to how students learn and how teachers teach," said Dr. Fischer.

Awarded at the 19th meeting of the Learning & the Brain Conference, a Needham, MA-based organization promoting the most innovative and distinguished thinking on the subject, and co-sponsored by the International Mind, Brain and Education Society, the prize is expected to be awarded annually. It was established to honor an individual who represents excellence in bridging neuroscience and education, that is, applying the findings of hard science, such as fMRIs, to the improvement of classroom teaching and learning.

"Mary Helen represents the next generation of educator, someone who is as facile talking about neuroscience as she is about education," said Charles Nelson III, a pediatrician and neuroscientist at Children's Hospital in Boston, who was on the selection committee. A Harvard Medical School professor, Nelson is known for his headline-making work last year studying Romanian orphans and intelligence.

"This marriage between neuroscience and education is pretty new," said Kenneth Kosik, an eminent California neuroscientist and neurologist, who is Co-director of the Neuroscience Research Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and also on the selection committee. "But people now see it as a discipline in its own right. It's a groundbreaking area for persons who could have had distinguished careers in one or the other but went out of the box. Mary Helen fits that perfectly.

"Mary Helen looked at the feedback from brain activity on how emotion [i.e., mad, sad, glad, etc.] actually related to memory and learning. Before that, it was guesswork."

Immordino-Yang, 36, was once a 7th-grade teacher. "We traditionally think of emotions as interfering with students' performance," she said. "But children should be taught to use their emotions and to be aware of them, rather than control them."

"What's so impressive about Mary Helen," adds Dr. Giedd of NIMH, "is she brings so much credibility and a pragmatic tone -- not like how scientists often talk about what we know and then walk away, leaving it up to someone else to make it happen. Teachers are eager to learn about what she says and apply it."

Indeed, the Neuro-Ed Transformation prize co-sponsor, Learning & the Brain, prides itself on the fact that at a time when so many school districts throughout the country must beg for funding of everything from bathrooms to textbooks, the invaluable teaching recommendations disclosed at its sessions can be applied in any classroom for free.

In addition to Dr. Immordino-Yang's discoveries, discussions at the Learning & the Brain Conference also focused on the brand new results of MIT's esteemed John Gabrieli on how his study of 1000 children from Allegheny (PA) County showed significant ways to improve large numbers of student's reading scores in a short time -- previously the domain of private schools. And the latest from Dimitri Christakis, the intrepid University of Washington pediatrician whom Disney threatened with a lawsuit for saying "Baby Einstein" did no good. Now, says Dr. Gabrieli, these videos may indeed be harmful.

Conference organizer is Public Information Resources, Inc. (PIRI) in Needham, MA. The next Learning & the Brain session is April 26-29, 2008, in Cambridge, MA.