New View EDU Episode 58: Transforming Teaching and Learning

Available April 30, 2024

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What would it look like if a school went “all in” on training teachers to become experts in the neuroscience behind learning? St. Andrew's Episcopal School (MD) did just that, and in the process, created the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning. The center is dedicated to helping educators unlock the power of “Mind Brain Education.”

Glenn WhitmanGlenn Whitman, history teacher at St. Andrew's and the center’s director, joins host Tim Fish to reflect on the evolution of the center, the contributions it has made to the St. Andrew's community, and the key learnings from Mind Brain Education (MBE). Together, Tim and Glenn dive into the practical applications of a schoolwide commitment to MBE and explore how the research can improve teaching and learning.

Starting with the premise that teachers are among the most influential adults in the lives of children, Glenn shares that the central question for St. Andrew's faculty and staff became: Would a deeper understanding of how learning takes place in the developing brain help teachers become even more effective mentors, not just in the classroom, but also in coaching and in social-emotional contexts throughout the school community? Exploring that question led the school to train every adult in the neuroscience of teaching and learning, and eventually, to adopting MBE as a key underpinning of daily practices at St. Andrew's. 

Through the work of training faculty and staff in MBE and promoting a school culture that asks teachers to be “better in June than they are in September,” the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning was born. Resources created to help the St. Andrew's community better immerse in MBE could also be deployed to help other schools improve their practices. While Glenn shares that the effects have been widespread—increased enrollment, better teacher retention—he also attributes much of the success of the CTTL and the implementation of MBE at St. Andrew's to the fact that it has been an ongoing, ever-expanding initiative. 

Among the top takeaways Glenn shares: give students more time to respond to questions in the classroom; develop a more robust secondary science of reading, transitioning beyond elementary education; assign more meaningful homework; and build more metacognitive moments into the classroom to help kids become successful lifelong learners. And, he says, while AI and technology can play a role in helping teachers with many aspects of implementing these ideas in the classroom, there is nothing more important than increasing the human interactions between teachers and students. To truly harness the power of MBE, Glenn says, teachers must “know your stuff, know your kids, and work the room.” 

Key Questions

Some of the key questions Tim and Glenn explore in this episode include:

  • What is Mind Brain Education? What are the key differences between “mind” and “brain” from a neuroscience perspective?
  • What effect has going “all in” on an MBE initiative had on the entire St. Andrew's school community? What are the benefits, and how has that culture changed the course of teaching and learning at the school?
  • What can teachers do right now in their classrooms to improve their effectiveness, from an MBE perspective? What should teachers stop doing?
  • How do technology and human interaction play different, but important, roles in the future of implementing MBE in schools? 

Episode Highlights

  • “We have vocabulary quizzes for kids in every discipline. Why can't we have that for the adult learners in our school? And the fact is, we went after this research around collective teacher efficacy. The idea is that if we have some common language, common frameworks, common North stars, or mountaintops, or drivers that we're all moving toward, then that might make us collectively more effective for all our student population.“ (16:45)
  • “I'll get on my horse for one second about homework. You know, we have our kids, we are privileged to have our kids for eight or more hours a day in all our schools, especially when they get to high school, right? I once had an AP history student ask if we were violating child labor laws because then they still had to go home and do two more hours of homework. I thought that was interesting.” (26:43)
  • “I can ask the AI for an early draft. I can edit it around. And look, every kid can get immediate feedback, too, using these tools, right? Now, you're right though. Learning happens when you think hard. And generationally, I think our kids don't want to think as hard as we, maybe we were willing, and maybe we were foolish, but we know learning doesn't stick unless you think hard about things you're either intaking or doing or building or pondering. And again, I think that's going to be a little, a healthy tension point to figure out.” (34:21)

“The teacher of the future has to do a better job working the room and working among the students. I still see too many times, when I'm in schools, students working independently, and teachers retreating to their laptop and missing—this is the best time to ask deeper questions, to see what kid, is it sticking or working. So I think more and more, you know, working the room and moving amongst kids, as opposed to being in the front of the room. So I think teachers, I'm just going to say heads of school, a new line item budget should be better shoes for teachers.” (39:01)

Resource List

Full Transcript

  • Read the full transcript here.

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About Our Guest

Glenn Whitman is a history teacher at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School (MD). He also directs the school’s Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, which earned the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society's Mission Award. Glenn is co-author of Neuroteach: Brain Science and the Future of Education and co-designer of Neuroteach Global. Glenn has presented at public, private, and international school conferences including Learning Forward, New Teacher Center Symposium, ASUGSV, SXSWedu, researchEd, NAIS annual conference, National Network of Schools in Partnership, International Mind, Brain, and Education Conference, and Learning and the Brain Conference.