Millennial Learning: April 16-17, 2009
Kathleen Harring
Learning, Teaching, and the Brain

Dr. Kathleen Harring is a Professor of Psychology and the Associate Dean for Institutional Assessment at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. She came to at Muhlenberg in 1984 after earning her Ph.D. in Social Psychology with a minor in Quantitative Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She teaches Psychological Statistics, Health Psychology, and Advanced Lab in Social and Personality Psychology. Dr. Harring was chair of the Psychology Department from 1993-2005 and was a founding member and co-director of the Faculty Center for Teaching at Muhlenberg. Her research interests focus on preconscious processing of emotionally toned stimuli, college students’ beliefs about the roles of mothers and fathers, and the role of religious beliefs in coping with stress. In her faculty development and assessment work, Dr. Harring has given numerous workshops and programs at national and international conferences.

Learning, Teaching, and the Brain

Co-presented with Laura Edelman

James Zull’s (2002) The Art of Changing the Brain provides a model for understanding how student engagement leads to higher order thinking and better understanding of subject material. This session provides a brief overview of the relationship between the learning cycle and the research on the biology of learning, and offers examples of assignments and classroom activities that directly tap into each aspect of the learning process. Participants will have an opportunity to relate their own pedagogies to the distinct components of the learning cycle and share strategies for using the model to help students become more intentional learners.