Conference on Cognition and Education Research Held at Fordham

Faculty and graduate students from four New York City universities convened at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus to discuss research about cognitive psychology science and education.

Held on Feb. 27, the second annual Subway Summit on Cognition and Education included scholars from Fordham, New York University, the City University of New York and Columbia University. The event was sponsored by the Fordham Graduate School of Education’s Center for Learning in Unsupervised Environments (CLUE).

"It was great for all of the participants, but particularly for the graduate students,” said William B. Whitten II, Ph.D., Distinguished Research Scholar and co-director of CLUE. "They are studying in New York, and sometimes think the whole world is wrapped around their university. This gave them an opportunity to possibly find something related to their research going on just a few blocks away.”

The conference also gave graduate students an opportunity to attend a top-notch academic research conference at a low cost—the cost of a subway ride, Whitten said.

“It’s a low-cost, local conference in which they can build linkages that might lead to future collaborations,” he said.

Whitten and Mitchell Rabinowitz, Ph.D., professor and chairman of the psychology and educational services division and co-director of CLUE, made presentations along with students, as did Fordham faculty members Fran Blumberg, Ph.D., and John Houtz, Ph.D.

The presentations included topics such as “Academic Lessons from Video Game Learning” and “Developing Student Argumentation and Inquiry.”

The goal of CLUE at the Graduate School of Education is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of learning in unsupervised environments. CLUE participants engage in applied educational psychology research to produce practical knowledge toward optimizing unsupervised learning, and to extend theories of learning, memory, and comprehension.

–Gina Vergel