Adolescent Reasoning Initiative
Teaching Students
How
To Learn, NotWhat
To LearnReasoning, problem solving, and innovation: all necessary competencies for life success. Early adolescence is an optimal time to enhance learning, but many educators do not have the benefit of scientific methods that foster these skills.
Our training program enables middle school through ninth grade teachers to take advantage of this important brain development stage and optimize student learning for success in the classroom and beyond.
A Hands-on Approach
More than 600 teachers have benefited to date, reaching more than 82,000 students.
Educators Receive Intensive SMART™ Training
Teachers Become Cognitive Trainers
BrainHealth® Experts Provide Classroom Support
Teachers Take Annual Refreshers
Student Growth Is Measured
In this video, hear from an educator who shares her "aha!" moment.
A Supportive Collaboration
Middle- and high-school teachers who want to boost their students’ thinking partner with the Adolescent Reasoning Initiative team to learn how to implement Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Tactics, or SMART training, in their classrooms.
SMART is a cognitive neuroscience-based approach designed specifically to improve higher-order thinking skills.
A high school principal discusses the profound impact of the program on students and teachers alike.
Effects of Higher-Order Cognitive Strategy Training on Gist Reasoning and Fact-Learning in Adolescents
We found that the students who had cognitive strategy instruction that entailed abstraction of meaning significantly improved their gist-reasoning and fact-learning ability.
Enhancing Inferential Abilities in Adolescence: New Hope for Students in Poverty
The ability to extrapolate essential gist through the analysis and synthesis of information, prediction of potential outcomes, abstraction of ideas, and integration of relationships with world knowledge is critical for higher-order learning.
New Hope for Executive Function and Reasoning Remediation in Children with ADHD: Strategic Memory and Reasoning Training (SMART)
Teaching children with ADHD specific metacognitive strategies has the potential to improve strategic learning and executive function.
Improved Reasoning in Children with ADHD after Strategic Memory and Reasoning Training: A Novel Intervention for Strategic Learning Impairment
The results of this study demonstrate evidence for the clinical application of cognitive interventions for children with impaired reasoning ability.
Inhibitory Control Gains from Higher-Order Cognitive Strategy Training
Training higher-order executive functions can strengthen students' inhibitory control.