New Initiatives Accelerate Learning Research and Its Applications

Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) Satrajit Ghosh, McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT

In February 2016, MIT President L. Rafael Reif announced a significant expansion of programs in learning research and online and digital education, as recommended by the Institute-Wide Task Force on the Future of MIT Education in 2014. This includes the creation of the MIT Integrated Learning Initiative (MITili), which will be led by Professor John Gabrieli, Grover M. Hermann Professor in Health Sciences and Technology in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.

The MITili (pronounced “mightily”) will be a cross-disciplinary, Institute-wide initiative to foster rigorous quantitative and qualitative research on how people learn. Focusing on the integrative science of learning, it will combine research in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, economics, engineering, public policy, and other fields to explore what methods and approaches to education work best for different people and subjects.

According to Professor Gabrieli, “What’s exciting is that technology is making one rethink all the fundamentals of teaching and learning. There’s very little objective evidence that the standard forms of teaching are as effective as they could be. The MITili research “will look at both fundamental mechanisms of learning that are relevant to education and also be involved in evaluation or assessment of ways in which we think we can improve learning.”

For more information on the new MITili, visit their Web site.

Albert & Company International, Inc. is a one-stop shop for Executive Development and talent management. Our vision is to help individuals gain the knowledge they need to excel, thereby increasing their efficiency and productivity, leading to better organizational growth. For more information on this and many other courses in our extensive Executive Education database, the most comprehensive and complete of its kind, visit us on the Web at http://albertconsulting.com, or email us at info@albertconsulting.com.