InformED

Why is there still a shortage of women in leadership roles? The latest research suggests women have just as much self-confidence as men. But men may have more faith that others, including employers, think as highly of them as they think of themselves.

Women In Leadership: What's the Status? | InformED It’s been five years since Katty Kay and Claire Shipman published their piece on the “Confidence Gap” in The Atlantic. At the time, researchers were claiming that the wage gap wasn’t entirely due to gender inequalities within the system but also in large part because of women’s lack of ass...

A few smart ways to continue your education and find the right professional path for you...

Vocational Education Training vs. Short Courses: Which Path Should You Take? | InformED Vocational education training is becoming a smarter option in an age marked by accelerating change. To keep up with trends in the job market and ensure your tech knowledge is up to par for your chosen industry, pursuing vocational training can keep you grounded in practical skills which can be honed...

"The more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let things upset you." --Bill Murray, Lost In Translation

Goal Setting: How to Set Yourself Up For Success | InformED “The more you know who you are and what you want, the less things upset you.” —Bill Murray, Lost In Translation Life can be rewarding without knowing exactly what you want. In fact, it’s unreasonable and limiting to think we should always know our destination before walking out the door. In ...

"Every society must be very intentional about how it trains its leaders." --Patrick Awuah, co-founder of Ashesi University in Ghana

How to Educate Future Leaders | InformED In his 2004 Ted Talk, Patrick Awuah speaks about the necessity of educating future generations of leaders, rooted in his own experience growing up in Ghana: “Every society must be very intentional about how it trains its leaders, and Ghana was not paying enough attention.” After earning his educ...

Communication Essentials: How to Balance Listening and Speaking | InformED Are you a talker or a listener? A bit of both? Being a good conversationalist is about being interesting and interested, and knowing how to balance these roles during an exchange with another person or group. Any thorough list of communication essentials includes learning how to balance listening an...

Brain cell growth means better memory, right? Not so fast.

Neurogenesis: Why You Should Exercise Before (Not After) You Learn | InformED Various activities spur neurogenesis, or the creation of new brain cells, from aerobic exercise to nootropics to silence. In turn, neurogenesis can lead to memory enhancement or memory loss, depending on when it occurs. Researchers have found that they can control whether rats remember or forget new...

Why Does the Brain Love Stories? | InformED “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” –Joan Didion We’ve written about the power of storytelling before, but this time we’d like to dive deeper into the psychology of story as an organizational tool for the brain. Why does the brain latch onto narrative so tightly? Do we learn to c...

The latest from our talented staff writer, Marianne!

Focus, Flow, and Distractions In Learning: How to Find a Balance | InformED In positive psychology, ‘flow’ is a term used to describe the optimal state of consciousness. It’s in this state that we become so energised and absorbed by what we’re doing that all distractions fade into the background and the hours seem to fly by. Obviously, achieving this state of flow i...

We just got back from the Neuromarketing World Forum in Rome! Here are the latest insights on learning and the brain from the field.

Neuromarketing: 10 Lessons About the Brain from a Growing Field | InformED In March, we headed to Rome for the Neuromarketing World Forum to bring you the latest research in the field and discuss what teachers, students, and lifelong learners can gain from a deeper understanding of the discipline. Here are some of our insights. What Is Neuromarketing? During the opening wo...

Every educator should listen to this episode. "The outcome is the opportunity." --Colin Seale

The Psychology Podcast: 158: Closing the Critical Thinking Gap “At a certain point, the outcome is the opportunity. We have to focus on the bottom line: what is it going to take to get kids ready?” — Colin Seale Today it’s great to have Colin Seale on the podcast. Colin was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York to a single mother and an incarcerate...

In her new book "Dare to Lead," researcher Brené Brown expands the definition of emotional intelligence based on a seven-year study of vulnerability in leadership. Here are her most relevant insights for teachers and students.

Emotional Intelligence: Do You Have It? | InformED “We are not necessarily thinking machines. We are feeling machines that think.” —Antonio Damasio, neuroscientist Emotional intelligence is the ability to accurately perceive your own and others’ emotions, to understand the signals that emotions send about relationships, and to manage your ow...

How Expectations Influence Performance | InformED Whether we do so consciously or not, we all form expectations about certain things in our lives, from how much we think we’ll enjoy a particular experience to the expectations we form about ourselves and others. Sometimes these expectations are based on prior experience, but more often than not, t...