We are committed to advancing the science of teachers as learners. In addition to our memberships in other research groups we are have contributed to furthering research on the Teaching Brain.
My CV can be found here Vanessa Rodriguez, EdD
Teaching is something I was born to do. And yet, we know so little about it. Despite eons of practice, our knowledge of how it works on a cognitive and neuroscientific level is limited. The goal of the The Teaching Brain Project is to use the latest in Mind, Brain and Education methods to shed new light on to this evolutionary old human endeavor.
I am a former NYC middle school teacher of over ten years who continued her passion for understanding teaching during my doctoral work at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Now I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population health in the Center for Early Childhood Health and Development at NYU School of Medicine (med.nyu.edu/faculty/vanessa-rodriguez). I continue my work to build a new framework for understanding the development and growth of teaching in humans. Grounded in Fischer's Dynamic Skill Theory we engage in an ongoing series of studies to develop a developmental scale for teachers as learners. Using cognitive interviews, surveys, observations and dyadic psychophysiologic studies, we hope to uncover the core constructs and developmental milestones of teaching across the lifespan. We conduct this work in conjunction with an international group of investigators dedicated to understanding human interaction (such as teaching) as a complex dynamic system. This group from across the globe is working towards a developmental skill scale of teaching. How does our capacity to teach develop - in the mind and brain.
My CV can be found here: cv_vanessa_rodriguez.pdf
Teaching is something I was born to do. And yet, we know so little about it. Despite eons of practice, our knowledge of how it works on a cognitive and neuroscientific level is limited. The goal of the The Teaching Brain Project is to use the latest in Mind, Brain and Education methods to shed new light on to this evolutionary old human endeavor.
I am a former NYC middle school teacher of over ten years who continued her passion for understanding teaching during my doctoral work at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Now I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population health in the Center for Early Childhood Health and Development at NYU School of Medicine (med.nyu.edu/faculty/vanessa-rodriguez). I continue my work to build a new framework for understanding the development and growth of teaching in humans. Grounded in Fischer's Dynamic Skill Theory we engage in an ongoing series of studies to develop a developmental scale for teachers as learners. Using cognitive interviews, surveys, observations and dyadic psychophysiologic studies, we hope to uncover the core constructs and developmental milestones of teaching across the lifespan. We conduct this work in conjunction with an international group of investigators dedicated to understanding human interaction (such as teaching) as a complex dynamic system. This group from across the globe is working towards a developmental skill scale of teaching. How does our capacity to teach develop - in the mind and brain.
My CV can be found here: cv_vanessa_rodriguez.pdf
Bryan Mascio
My experience suggests that our traditional focus on the actions of teachers and outcomes of students has severely limited our concept of teaching, and a true understanding must approach it as an interactive and cognitive process. I hope to better understand this dynamic system in order to better train and support our teachers.
I have completed programs in Applied Animal Science, Adult and Occupational Education, Special Education, Educational Leadership and Administration, and most recently Mind Brain and Education. After briefly working in the animal field, I was a teacher in alternative education for 12 years. I taught science and the humanities, but most importantly, I taught students who had been unsuccessful (and asked to leave) the traditional school setting. I designed and ran a program for my at-risk students to learn about and travel to Costa Rica and Puerto Rico. I also created and ran a transition program for the students (many potentially first-generation college students) to take classes at the local community college, where I taught as an adjunct. In 2013 I began my doctoral studies in the Human Development and Education concentration at HGSE.
My CV can be found here: mascio_bryan_cv_4-22-17_.pdf
My experience suggests that our traditional focus on the actions of teachers and outcomes of students has severely limited our concept of teaching, and a true understanding must approach it as an interactive and cognitive process. I hope to better understand this dynamic system in order to better train and support our teachers.
I have completed programs in Applied Animal Science, Adult and Occupational Education, Special Education, Educational Leadership and Administration, and most recently Mind Brain and Education. After briefly working in the animal field, I was a teacher in alternative education for 12 years. I taught science and the humanities, but most importantly, I taught students who had been unsuccessful (and asked to leave) the traditional school setting. I designed and ran a program for my at-risk students to learn about and travel to Costa Rica and Puerto Rico. I also created and ran a transition program for the students (many potentially first-generation college students) to take classes at the local community college, where I taught as an adjunct. In 2013 I began my doctoral studies in the Human Development and Education concentration at HGSE.
My CV can be found here: mascio_bryan_cv_4-22-17_.pdf
former members
Chen Chen
I am passionate about data and help the Teaching Brain team develop novel ways to understand and analyze how the skill of teaching develops.
As a Doctoral Student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Smithonian Center for Astrophisics my research focuses on behavioral and cognitive neuroscientific methods for understanding:
1) Metaphor, Model and Mind:
2) Reading Ability and Difficulty:
3) Math Cognition
4) From Governing A Classroom to Parenting A Country
I am passionate about data and help the Teaching Brain team develop novel ways to understand and analyze how the skill of teaching develops.
As a Doctoral Student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Smithonian Center for Astrophisics my research focuses on behavioral and cognitive neuroscientific methods for understanding:
1) Metaphor, Model and Mind:
2) Reading Ability and Difficulty:
3) Math Cognition
4) From Governing A Classroom to Parenting A Country
Lynneth Solis
Working with this group on our exploration of the teaching brain is a constant source of energy and new ideas. I enjoy bringing my knowledge of developmental cognitive research and qualitative methods to understanding this complex phenomenon.
I am a graduate of the Mind, Brain, and Education program and a current doctoral student in Human Development and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. My research interests focus on the study of conceptual development, particularly the cognitive processes that lead students to evermore complex conceptions of phenomena in the world. I aim to inform the ways educators and parents can best support children in the acquisition of deep understanding. I am a researcher at the Understandings of Consequence Lab where I am involved in projects looking at the way students best learn and understand complex causal models in science education.
Working with this group on our exploration of the teaching brain is a constant source of energy and new ideas. I enjoy bringing my knowledge of developmental cognitive research and qualitative methods to understanding this complex phenomenon.
I am a graduate of the Mind, Brain, and Education program and a current doctoral student in Human Development and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. My research interests focus on the study of conceptual development, particularly the cognitive processes that lead students to evermore complex conceptions of phenomena in the world. I aim to inform the ways educators and parents can best support children in the acquisition of deep understanding. I am a researcher at the Understandings of Consequence Lab where I am involved in projects looking at the way students best learn and understand complex causal models in science education.
Laura Edwards
The teaching brain project is a great opportunity to both investigate the complex human behavior of teaching, as well as unpack our understanding of the cognitive and neuroscientific processes underlying social interactions. I enjoy bringing my enthusiasm for neuroscience and my experience with neuroimaging to this groundbreaking interdisciplinary collaborative.
In my primary research at the Boston Children's Hospital Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience I study how children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) learn, at both the neural and behavioral levels. I hope to advance our understanding of the nature of the differences in learning mechanisms between children with autism, their non-autistic siblings, and typically-developing children, in order to inform the design and implementation of more developmentally-appropriate classroom curricula for a diversity of learners. I'm currently focusing on how children in each of these groups imitate, as imitation is an essential learning mechanism in established autism interventions, as well as in early childhood classrooms and for non-verbal populations. Using neuroimaging techniques such as fNIRS, I measure children's brain activity while they are imitating, and I examine this data along with eye tracking and other behavioral measures to understand what information children might really be learning when they imitate, and how this differs between neurotypical children and those with ASD. I was recently awarded an Autism Speaks Weatherstone Predoctoral Fellowship and a miRcore micro grant to study 100 families with children on the autism spectrum over the next two years.
The teaching brain project is a great opportunity to both investigate the complex human behavior of teaching, as well as unpack our understanding of the cognitive and neuroscientific processes underlying social interactions. I enjoy bringing my enthusiasm for neuroscience and my experience with neuroimaging to this groundbreaking interdisciplinary collaborative.
In my primary research at the Boston Children's Hospital Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience I study how children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) learn, at both the neural and behavioral levels. I hope to advance our understanding of the nature of the differences in learning mechanisms between children with autism, their non-autistic siblings, and typically-developing children, in order to inform the design and implementation of more developmentally-appropriate classroom curricula for a diversity of learners. I'm currently focusing on how children in each of these groups imitate, as imitation is an essential learning mechanism in established autism interventions, as well as in early childhood classrooms and for non-verbal populations. Using neuroimaging techniques such as fNIRS, I measure children's brain activity while they are imitating, and I examine this data along with eye tracking and other behavioral measures to understand what information children might really be learning when they imitate, and how this differs between neurotypical children and those with ASD. I was recently awarded an Autism Speaks Weatherstone Predoctoral Fellowship and a miRcore micro grant to study 100 families with children on the autism spectrum over the next two years.