Mindprint is a scientifically valid, nationally normed assessment of cognitive learning skills. Like a GPS for Learning, it helps to identify when a student’s academic struggles are likely due to areas of weaker cognitive skills rather than curriculum or instruction, and it provides a road map for supporting each learner.
We know that each student is different from every other with cognitive strengths and weaknesses. The idea that any student is “average” doesn’t reflect current understanding of cognitive development. Nor does it reflect the practical challenges teachers and parents face every day with their students.
One student may excel in reading but just can’t seem to manage math; another may master the basics of both but be unable to apply them; another inexplicably bombs a section of a standardized test; yet another works well alone but don’t seem to fit in with a team.
There are underlying reasons for these differences. While it is easy to see the differences, what is harder to see is how these differences arise. At the root are the cognitive processes that give rise to all our behavior and learning capacity, and they can make all the difference.
Some students reason well with verbal information, others with visual or abstract information. Students’ memory skills vary, as do the efficiency or speed with which they take in and process information. And all of this will impact how any student performs academically.
Estimates are that 90% of students show meaningful variability. They might reason well with some kinds of information but not with others, or have strong reasoning skills, but weaker memory skills, or vice versa. When students have uneven learning skills, learning situations can be unpredictable and, therefore frustrating. Some things are easy and other things — for no reason apparent to the student — are much harder.
When we understand the variability in each student’s cognitive skills, we can do two important things:
There is no shortage of good evidence-based strategies that will enhance student learning. The challenge is picking the best strategies for students based on their learner variability.
Even when teachers and parents have data on a student’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses, it is often very difficult and time-consuming to try to figure out which strategies would the most helpful. Translating a psychological evaluation into specific supports in the classroom or at home is exceedingly challenging even for those who are trained in assessments of cognitive learning skills.
Mindprint Learning has compiled and curated hundreds of evidence-based strategies, each of which targets strengths or weaknesses in cognitive skills. Each explains exactly how to apply it and why it works.
The platform also enables teachers to group students in a school/classroom setting. When students are grouped, not just by what they know or don’t know, but by how they learn (note, that we are not talking about learning styles, here, but about the cognitive processes that are required for learning), educators and parents can be strategic in the application of strategies, interventions and other resources. Teachers no longer need a shotgun approach; learning strategies are finely targeted and far more efficient and effective.
Executive Functions
Reasoning Skills
Memory
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BrainWare Learning Company offers programs and tools that further the application of sound neuroscience research to learning and teaching.
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