Dr. James Catterall, professor at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education, says that his academic career has taken him down three main paths over the last few decades. The first was the examination of the economics of education, a pursuit that extended naturally from his undergraduate background in economics and from his graduate work at Stanford…
I first met Robert Sapolsky years ago at a research conference. My first impression was that he was quiet… too quiet. In a crowded hotel lobby with hundreds of scientists busily jabbering about themselves and their research, he seemed almost transparent. He didn’t talk much, took up very little personal space and seemed comfortable and…
Dr. William Newsome is sitting at his PC computer grumbling. “Do you know what IBM stands for?” Newsome asks in a slight Southern drawl. “It stands for ‘I’m Building a Mac’,” he quips, displaying quick-witted charm and ardent loyalty to the Macintosh operating system. Dr. Newsome, an associate professor of neurobiology at Stanford University, is…
Education in the United States today is undergoing major reforms, and voices are calling for a return to the fundamentals: reading, writing, and…neuroscience? Dr. Bret Peterson explores how students can enjoy learning about the brain. At first blush, teaching kids about neuroscience might seem silly. The topic is much too complicated for kids to understand,…
Most beginning teachers quickly discover that they don’t completely understand all the curricular material they’re expected to teach, and many of the noteworthy events the mass media constantly report. Professional pride and the questions and confusion of our students tend to nudge us to try to develop at least a functional understanding of such issues.…
