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Developing Minds

 A focused female student with glasses is studying in a school or library setting. Youth. Teen.

Higher-Order Thinking Sparks Innovation

Emerging brain health studies suggest training adolescents in higher-order critical thinking serves as a catalyst to frontal lobe development, laying a foundation of actionable steps to achieving adult-level reasoning, complex abstraction, judgment, problem-solving skills and in turn the ability to innovate.
Innovation is an element of cognition (complex thinking) that measures your ability to expand your thinking beyond single solutions toward seeking a multitude of possible ideas, pathways, perspectives, opportunities, and options. It increases nimble, flexible thinking and is a major brain potentiator to increase neural efficiency.

Adolescent Reasoning Initiative

Using science-based practices that teach students how to learn, not what to learn, this 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.

Jacquelyn Gamino, PhD

Director of Adolescent Reasoning Initiative Assistant Research Professor

Featured Research

Student Potential Is Infinite

Students equipped with strong executive function are better prepared to make thoughtful, informed decisions and to fuel economic growth through college and career readiness.

Jacque Gamino, PhD

Director, Adolescent Reasoning Initiative