I had the privilege of spending almost four hours with Dr. Sam Goldstein yesterday afternoon. He’s an Assistant Clinical Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Utah School of Medicine and an Affiliate Research Professor of Psychology at George Mason University. He’s an incredible researcher and a wonderful speaker. Topics, if you’re not familiar with his work, include: neuropsychology, ADHD, autism, intelligence and, amazingly, almost all his work pertains to ALL people, not just kids or people on the autism spectrum. Yesterday his official topic was ‘Raising, Educating and Nurturing Self-Discipline in Children’. What he actually covered was many times over what the title suggests. It included a discussion about genetic factors that drive children to learn and what we can do to nurture those, coupled with what we don’t do right now in that respect. The difference between intelligence and achievement. He discussed Instinctual Optimism and Intrinsic Motivation. Interestingly, his big question to all in the room was something along the lines of “How do we design schools to tap into all we know? If we could do it from the ground up, what would it look like?” His link is below:

www.samgoldstein.com

The other wonderful speaker I heard today was Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Assistant Professor of Education at the Rossier School of Education and Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Brain and Creativity Institute. Many wonderful connections between neuroscience, brain research and emotions. Very cool! Also with the challenge that perhaps the way we are teaching children currently is nt allowing some processes that are neurologically beneficial to happen in the classroom. Cutting edge research! Here’s here website and link to publications:

http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~immordin/