Educators instruct students in ways of thinking every day--from critical thinking to logical reasoning to abstract and conceptual thought. But thinking can get overwhelming, and it's easy for students' minds to wander. Juan-Diego Estrada explains how educators can incorporate mindfulness practices into the school day to help students focus,…

Resilience and the ability to manage stress contribute to life satisfaction and success. Resiliency contributes to academic and professional success, healthy interpersonal relationships, confidence in oneself, and is a positive predictor of life satisfaction. The body's stress response is a highly orchestrated biological action that can help or…

This preliminary study aims to address situations such as high anxiety, stress, inability to focus, and physical burnout experienced by students in the exams made during the transition to a higher education process in the educational system. It also aims to contribute to the development of students' academic and social-emotional skills, in other…

Belief in psychological misconceptions, especially those regarding brain function and learning (i.e., neuromyths), hinders students' decision-making and learning. This necessitates conceptual change. Using an experimental design, this dissertation examined whether a utility value instructional induction (UVII) facilitated conceptual change.…

The purpose of this study is to examine effects of Brain-Based Learning (BBL) method on seventh grade students' metacognitive awareness. Concurrent nested mixed method was used in the study. Thirty 7th grade students (21 girls, nine boys) participated in this study voluntarily. The unit of "Structure and Properties of Matter" was taught…

Metacognition comprises both the ability to be aware of one's cognitive processes (metacognitive knowledge) and to regulate them (metacognitive control). Research in educational sciences has amassed a large body of evidence on the importance of metacognition in learning and academic achievement. More recently, metacognition has been studied from…

This article showcases a few campuses' intentional investments in their students' inner well-being and what they are discovering because of their efforts. In the fall of 2016, researchers disseminated a survey exploring the implementation of mindfulness practices on campus. The survey was designed around what businesses had been doing, and left…

This course design integrates the use of contemplative practices, specifically applied improvisational theater, into writing pedagogies to foster mindfulness and critical engagement. It explores the theoretical, neuroscientific, and practical rationale for incorporating contemplative pedagogies in writing classrooms, arguing that applied improv…

Embodied cognition represents a radical shift in conceptualizing cognitive processes, in which cognition develops through mind-body environmental interaction. If this supposition is correct, then the conventional style of instruction--in which students sit at desks, passively receiving information--needs rethinking. "Movement Matters"…

This paper uses narrative inquiry, ethnographic observations, and philosophical consideration of phenomenology to explore the role of mindfulness training, specifically a yoga-based practice, in supporting resiliency, academic achievement, and holistic well-being. Holistic well-being has become a critical and significant area of focus in education…

In this paper, we propose that an increasingly regarded theoretical framework in neuroscience--the predictive processing framework--can help to advance an understanding of the foundations of critical thinking as well as provide a mechanistic hypothesis for how education may increase a learner's subsequent use of critical thinking outside of an…

Mindfulness has become a popular topic of intellectual and experiential study in multiple disciplines, including healthcare, business, education, and various human service professions. We designed a study abroad experience where undergraduate and graduate students from various human service disciplines engaged in academic study, personal…

In this beautifully-written book, the authors skip across the many bridges that connect neuroscience to education, creating a wonderful resource for educators. They consider all the elements that an understanding of neuroscience can bring to education in a highly accessible manner, focusing on emotions and spiritual meaning as well as more…

This study explored whether different types of instructional visuals--knowledge maps and pictorial illustrations--encourage students to focus on specific types of conceptual relationships during learning. Undergraduates (n = 134) studied a text lesson on the human nervous system accompanied by maps (text-with-maps group), illustrations…

"Brain-Based Learning with Gifted Students" combines relevant research in neuroscience with engaging activities for gifted elementary students in grades 3-6. This book: (1) Teaches how development and learning processes happen in the brain; (2) Helps students and teachers explore specific brain-based concepts together; (3) Includes a…