AAI announces the Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Neuroscience

LAWRENCE — The Achievement & Assessment Institute (AAI) at the University of Kansas has announced the new Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Neuroscience (CCREN) whose mission is to draw on the latest research from neuroscience, education and educational psychology to better understand how people learn and what can be done to improve their development.

Led by Michael Orosco, professor of educational psychology in the School of Education & Human Sciences, CCREN seeks to bring together professionals from different fields to better understand how cultural and linguistic diversity affects brain function, cognition, learning and education.

“As the world becomes more globalized, educators and researchers have to be ready to better serve students from a wide range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. CCREN provides an educational neuroscience framework that helps address the growing cognitive diversity we see across America today,” Orosco said.

CCREN arose from Orosco’s own research in the field after he noticed many practitioners had a gap in understanding how the brain learns. Orosco’s hope is that CCREN can create a bridge between research and education and develop innovative teaching methods aligning with how the brain processes and retains information, especially with students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

“I am excited that Professor Orosco is leading the university’s charge into the emerging field of educational neuroscience,” said Rick Ginsberg, dean of KU’s School of Education & Human Sciences. “CCREN stands as one of the first centers of its kind and has the potential to change the practice of education.”

The cornerstone of the center is the Graduate Certificate in Mind, Brain & Education, which provides graduate students with training on how to use educational neuroscience to improve their education and learning approaches. Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) emerged as a new field of study over the last three decades as technological developments led to better understandings of how the brain works.