Meta-analysis finds value in teaching the science of neuroplasticity, especially for math achievement among at-risk students

___ The ‘Brain’ in Growth Mind­set: Does Teach­ing Stu­dents Neu­ro­science Help? (Edu­ca­tion Week): “Teach­ing stu­dents the sci­ence of how their brains change over time can help them see intel­li­gence as some­thing they can devel­op, rather than innate and unchange­able, finds a new analy­sis of 10 sep­a­rate stud­ies online in the jour­nal Trends in Neu­ro­science and Education.…

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Forget the Oscars — the Greater Goodies honor Ten Films that Highlight the Growth Mindset, Resilience, Purpose and more

___ Every­one’s talk­ing about yes­ter­day’s Acad­e­my Awards—and so we thought we’d give out our own ver­sion of the Oscars, the Greater Good­ies. Where­as the Acad­e­my of Motion Pic­ture Arts and Sci­ences rec­og­nizes achieve­ments in act­ing, direct­ing, edit­ing, and so on, the Greater Good staff picked our win­ners for their abil­i­ty to illus­trate spe­cif­ic keys to human well-being, such…

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We need to understand what stimuli and interventions can result in healthy fetus/ baby development” — Eduardo Briceño, CEO of Mindset Works

Ques­tion: Eduar­do, please share 1–2 major brain health needs you observe right now whose solu­tion demands a cre­ative and sig­nif­i­cant tech-enabled inno­va­tion. Answer: We need to under­stand what stim­uli and inter­ven­tions can result in healthy fetus/ baby devel­op­ment, reduc­ing the per­cent­age of chil­dren devel­op­ing sig­nif­i­cant brain defi­cien­cies and pro­vid­ing means for preg­nant women, par­ents, and…

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Why “Untrained Brains Are A Bit Like Puppies,” And How To Put Together the Building Blocks of a Smarter, Happier Mind

— As a child, I was con­vinced that my dad just went to work to play. My father was a neu­ro­sci­en­tist at Bay­lor Uni­ver­si­ty, and his office was full of bright­ly col­ored blocks to test intel­li­gence, books by MC Esch­er to study per­cep­tion, and even a sound­proof room cov­ered in blue foam that I thought was…

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Book review of Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined

Just a cou­ple weeks ago I had a dis­cus­sion with sev­er­al psy­chol­o­gists and neu­rol­o­gists who seemed to share the opin­ion that “brain fit­ness” is a mean­ing­less con­cept and pur­suit. On the one hand, they thought, intel­li­gence is a fixed trait and no inter­ven­tion has shown so far to reli­ably increase it. On the oth­er hand,…

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Are we intelligent about developing human intelligence?

When it comes to our under­stand­ing of human intel­li­gence, for too long, there has been a mis­match between the­o­ry and prac­tice. The­o­ret­i­cal­ly, the two main threads run­ning through def­i­n­i­tions of intel­li­gence have been (a) adap­ta­tion to the envi­ron­ment, and (b) the cog­ni­tive, affec­tive, and voli­tion­al char­ac­ter­is­tics that enable that adap­ta­tion. Prac­ti­cal­ly, IQ tests mea­sure an…

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