The mission of the Pedagogy Arts Collective at Berklee is to foster a collaborative and dynamic community of educators in the pursuit of effective and innovative teaching. Through the pragmatic exploration of pedagogy, educational psychology, technology, student/educator demographics and self-evaluation, the Pedagogy Arts Collective fosters and maximizes holistic excellence in the science and art of education.
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Dissonant Tones: Unpacking Differences In Communication Styles Between Neurodivergent And Neurotypical Individuals
Tara Allen and Pedagogy Arts Collective
“Neurodiversity” refers to the variety of ways that people’s brains work, often reflected in how individuals express themselves, process information, and interact with others. When a neurodivergent person and a neurotypical person try to communicate, this neurodiversity can make understanding and supporting one another challenging. In this session, Tara will be exploring and discussing some of the more common communication styles and practices used by neurodivergent individuals. Attendees will learn how to recognize neurodivergent communication styles and how to support their neurodivergent students, colleagues, and friends through intentional, small changes in everyday communication.
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Can Creativity be Trained? Neuroscience-informed Pedagogy for Creative Professionals
Indre Viskontas and Pedagogy Arts Collective
How do the leading researchers define creativity? What elements can and should be trained in the age of generative AI? In this session, we'll explore cutting-edge neuroscience research demystifying the creative process, and leave with practical tools that can help teachers bring out the most creative work from their students.
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Grading (Philosophy, Context & Practice)
Enric Alberich, Enrique Gonzalez Müller, Erica Knowles, Rebecca Marchand, Mareika McLaughlin, and Pedagogy Arts Collective
How do our grading practices reflect who we are as educators and what we value most in learning? We all teach from different contexts, shaped by our disciplines, experiences, and educational philosophies—and our approaches to grading naturally vary as a result. Join us for an interactive workshop on grading, where we’ll share our philosophies, explore how context shapes evaluation, and discuss concrete examples of our practices. Using the Philosophy > Context > Practice framework, we’ll foster a space to reflect, compare approaches, and collectively rethink what meaningful evaluation can look like.
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Transcendent Thinking: the Developmental Power of Integrating Intellectual and Personal Development in the Brain
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang and Pedagogy Arts Collective
Deep thinking about complex issues is a hallmark of human achievement, supporting civil society, growth, learning, and creativity. It relies on transcendent thinking—the ability to consider broader ethical and systems-level implications. This talk draws on neuroimaging and classroom studies showing how transcendent thinking shapes the brain, predicts wellbeing beyond IQ, and can be nurtured through teaching. The findings reveal how youths shape their own brain development through meaning-making and illuminate the emotional and social work of skilled teaching.
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Designing for Intrinsically Motivated Students Using Fink's Taxonomy
Kerry Foley and Pedagogy Arts Collective
When courses emphasize meaning over coverage, students’ intrinsic motivation and capacity for lasting learning deepen. This session presents Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning as a practical framework for aligning goals, experiences, and assessment—expanding beyond traditional cognitive domains to include caring, the human dimension, and learning how to learn. Through a constructivist lens, we’ll explore approaches to designing assignments that spark engagement and foster enduring learning, alongside strategies for clarifying grading criteria and streamlining feedback. The focus is on giving faculty tools to cultivate richer learning without added workload or loss of autonomy, connection, or impact.
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Resonant Minds: Using Mindful Action through Music for Teaching, Learning, and Connection
Sara Sherman and Mort Sherman
Music reaches parts of the brain—and heart—that words alone cannot. In this interactive session, we will explore how music, paired with mindful action, can boost focus, strengthen executive function, and deepen social-emotional awareness for teachers and students. Drawing from Resonant Minds and their work with Mozart for Munchkins, Mort and Sara Sherman will share practical tools for integrating music into teaching, community building, and leadership. We’ll also explore how these same practices can counter burnout—helping educators and artists reset, reframe, and rediscover joy in their craft. Like great improvisation, the more we master our tools, the greater our ability and freedom to personalize our use of mindful actions through music.
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Joyful Teaching in Every Class: Why and How to Promote Flourishing for All
Flower Darby and Pedagogy Arts Collective
How can college faculty promote their own and their students' well-being in a time of unprecedented disruption and challenge to the educational enterprise? Given the rise of AI, increasingly polarized societal narratives, and widespread faculty burnout and stress, how can we nourish our teaching joy and find strength in so doing? Join us to explore the benefits of, and practical strategies for, intentionally promoting flourishing in our class and campus communities.
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Navigating the Artificial Intelligence Landscape: Leadership, Ethics, and Practical Impact
Ken Shelton and Pedagogy Arts Collective
You have probably heard of this "new" thing called artificial intelligence. In fact, you may have gone to one of the more popular large language models and asked it a simple question or to do a more complex task. The technology is already impacted us in many ways both knowingly and unknowingly. This interactive presentation will focus on how we can maintain a human-centered approach to using artificial intelligence. We will focus on what ethical leadership, systems thinking, and responsible, practical use look like.
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Curiosity about Cultures: The Intentionality and Responsibility of Curricular Planning
Velina Hasu Houston and Pedagogy Arts Collective
Broadening and deepening of students’ perspectives of global and domestic humanity cannot be accomplished without equally deep and broad exploration of cultures, class standings, and sociopolitical backgrounds that differ from that of the mainstream. Teachers must be curious about such differences and, with intentionality, provide curricula that integrate these differences. Such efforts contribute healthfully and comprehensively to students’ education and support their cultivation of society.
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Developing Our Students' Creation-Driven Mindsets
Betsy Newman and Pedagogy Arts Collective
As faculty and educators, we are all responsible for creating an environment that will foster our students’ personal, creative, and artistic growth. This session will introduce a research-based framework that explains how students develop a creation-driven mindset; and the ways in which the educational experiences we provide (or don’t provide) influence it. Through the exploration of five developmental domains—(1) recognizing the unintended consequences of success-as-prescribed; (2) discovering creative drive; (3) building creative agency; (4) negotiating degrees of creative freedom; and, (5) catalyzing creative growth—we’ll explore some practical considerations for designing—with greater intention—educational experiences that advance each student’s development journey.