Audio: Activating Student Engagement Through Brain-Based Learning

Activating Student Engagement Through Brain-based Learning. Educators at Lakewood Elementary School take pride in creating schoolwide, interdisciplinary curriculum that students find exciting and memorable. They ground their strategies in a brain-based approach, meaning that lessons are designed to activate students’ brains, and that educators help children understand how learning happens.

Kathleen Cigich, Lakewood’s principal, explains in the audio profile that students in all grades “learn about different parts of the brain, and how that brain can impact a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. Our students even learn about metacognition and cognitive awareness, so that they know that reflecting on their own thinking will help them as learners”.

Cigich also notes that because “we know the brain turns on when there [are] life experiences involved”, teachers in all subjects get creative with their lessons, and are supported through collaboration time and ongoing learning about new findings in brain science.

To listen to the full podcast, scroll down. You can download the transcript here.