At first glance, Rose Ragucci’s second grade classroom looks like any other. But upon closer observation, subtle differences take shape: One student has a digital clock on his desk to help him stay on task. Another has turned her lined paper sideways to help with her difficulty arranging numbers. A third student uses a variety of colored pencils so she can better organize her thoughts on paper. “Different kids have a variety of different problems but they can’t be expected to overcome them exactly the same way,” says Ragucci. “So I give students specific strategies that work for them.”

The idea that all minds are not alike is the basic philosophy behind the work of Dr. Mel Levine, a pediatrician at the University of North Carolina whose goal is to transform the way educators teach. His approach, outlined in his Schools Attuned program, trains teachers like Rose Ragucci in the different ways kids learn so they can tailor their teaching to accommodate these differences.

“Right now teachers’ training is primarily curriculum-based, not kid-based,” says Levine. “They learn how to teach social studies rather than how kids learn social studies.” Armed with this knowledge, Levine says teachers can, for example, help a disorganized student navigate his way through a research report or help a child reschedule his daydreams.

Window to the Mind
It’s Levine’s belief that many kids struggle in school not because of any serious problems but because they just don’t respond well to the one-size-fits-all approach to classroom learning. “We don’t use terms like ‘LD’ (learning disabled) and ‘ADD’ (attention deficit disorder) because they imply a child who is wired differently is somehow pathological. These labels and others like hyperactive, dyslexic or simply ‘bad at math’ can influence kids’ self-esteem for life.” According to Levine, teachers, rather than psychologists or other clinicians, are in the best position to isolate and solve learning problems, “since they are the day-to-day observers.”

Schools Attuned is based on 25 years of scientific and clinical research and the latest data on children’s brain development. “For instance, we now know that in adolescence the brain first begins to learn to operate in a more reflective, slower, well-paced manner. Yet, that’s antithetical to high school’s current focus on time testing,” says Levine. “So we’re telling teachers they need to nurture this area of brain function by stressing to their kids to work slower, not faster.”

Levine has organized these insights into how children learn into eight categories known as neurodevelopmental constructs. These include attention, language, memory and social cognition. A student’s learning profile is developed by observing how well these constructs work together. From this profile, simple learning strategies are devised using the child’s strengths to overcome areas of weakness.

Say a child has an attention problem. Levine says one way to build good concentration is to allow him to become an “expert” in a subject he truly loves. “If it’s an area of passion for a child, he’ll stay focused on it. If he’s struggling with writing and he’s really into dogs, let him write his research report on dogs. Then he can share that knowledge with the class. At the same time he’s building self-esteem and organizational skills.”

Or take a student who struggles with language function that affects his or her ability to code thoughts quickly and easily. “School is designed for linguists and if you have a child who is not verbally-inclined he can have difficulty,” says Levine. “If a student has trouble finding words and formulating sentences, a strategy for her would be to let her know the day before that you’re going to call on her. This way she has time to prepare what she wants to say. But first you would have already explained to her exactly what the problem is and how you plan to remedy it.”

A New Approach
Including the student in the process is a unique aspect of the program and a significant reason why it works. “Interpreting the data with the student is enormously helpful since so many kids know they’re having trouble, they don’t know why and so they feel stupid. But once a student understands how his mind operates, he becomes a savvy expert of his own learning and he’s on the road to rebuilding his self-esteem,” says Ragucci, a teacher for over 30 years. Levine calls this process, “demystification.”

Another unique aspect is the student profile’s versatility. “Rather than just developing strategies for a child that only apply for that year, these profiles continue to work for the student over time, even as the child moves up to the higher grades and the demands on the student change and increase,” says Dena Birnback, Director of Education for the Churchill School in Manhattan, a private school for children with learning problems.

According to Don Rollie, manager of integration of teaching and learning programs at the National Education Association, what sets Schools Attuned apart from other learning programs is “its specific focus on that critical point where teacher meets child. So much of what we do in the name of education reform has to do with organization and procedures, we tend to lose sight of that.”

But how well Schools Attuned trains teachers and the effect on student achievement has yet to be fully tested. Independent evaluations are now underway in six schools in Oklahoma, an elementary school in Sulpher Springs, Texas and the Jewish Day Schools in New York.

Since the program got off the ground in 1987, 9,000 teachers have been trained at sites in New York, California, Texas, Michigan, Hawaii and statewide in North Carolina and Oklahoma. The cost is $1,200 per teacher and includes five days of training and a ten-hour follow-up after the first year. Their Web site also offers teachers detailed case studies, research and strategic recommendations.

Wave of the Future
A long-range goal is to offer Schools Attuned to teaching colleges. So far only California State Northridge School of Education has added the course to their curriculum. However, Levine says the major emphasis will always be on working with educators in the classroom. “Whenever I give lectures teachers tell me they picture kids they know. They say, ‘I never knew how to help him until now.’”

Through these teachers, Levine knows his ideas are being heard. “I think it’s the logical next step in education. What we all want to do is produce successful children, and nobody would say there’s one definition of success. So if there are a lot of different ways to be successful, there have to be a lot of different pathways toward that success.”

For more information:

Visit All Kinds of Minds, Levine’s nonprofit institute for understanding differences in learning.

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Holly St. Lifer is a writer and television producer specializing in issues concerning parents, children and media.

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