Here is a condensed recap of the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) meeting as well as some very positive key takeaways:
-I talked to the NASBE President, former President, and other state board members from across the country about having additional student board members attend these conferences, or be invited to attend (though I am the only full voting member, there are quite a few student board members across the country). Board members were very receptive and some members stated that they would invite the students to attend the March Meeting
-While working on the Student Engagement Committee, we were able to learn about teaching strategies that have not been fully implemented or utilized in State Policy that have a far more reaching impact on deeper learning and intrinsic motivation (such as retrieval, peer assessment.
-We learned about the physiology of engagement and how certain parts of the brain can be stimulated to peak student engagement and overall motivation to learn (such as the balance of gratification, both instant and delayed).
-The most controversial takeaways that we learned from a scientist, who provided a laundry list of resources to prove the validity of her statements, is that taking notes and reviewing notes does not engage students This made many of the board members, including myself, question our current means of engaging students quite seriously.
-We questioned seriously how can policy makers establish a more meaningful connection between the parents, community, the teachers, and the students on a state level, if at all? The basic consensus was that research or surveys should be collectively conducted by educators/policy makers, and state departments that deal with these issues (such as social services).
-My overall experience from the meeting was both memorable and profound. I think student engagement is a topic in education (at least on the policy/state level) that is unfortunately overlooked or incidentally ignored. In addition I think have the battle with engaging students is to also engage the parents and the community with student education. Students not only perform best, but learn the best when they are in a nurturing, supportive environment where they can feel like they can participate, and collaborate, while individually pursuing their own educational aspirations. I sincerely look forward to working with this committee for the rest of the year.
As Always, if anyone has any questions in regards to anything that I stated above, please feel free to ask, and I will be more than glad to answer.
Thank you,
Dan Brogan
