WKU News

Dr. Rena Subotnik of the American Psychological Association will be the featured guest speaker at this year’s Wedge Visiting Scholar Presentations. The event takes place in two sessions, both of which are free to attend. 

The first session begins at 7 p.m. CT Feb. 21 in Gary Ransdell Hall on WKU’s campus and is open to students, parents, teachers, administrators and counselors interested in gifted education. Dr. Subotnik will speak about how psychological science can provide key insights on effective instruction, classroom environments that promote learning, and appropriate use of assessment, including data, tests and measurement, as well as research methods that inform practice. 

The second session, a three-hour workshop with EILA credit available, begins at 8:30 a.m. CT Feb. 22 at WKU’s Knicely Conference Center. This workshop is open to educators and administrators. Dr. Subotnik will explore how gifted students may be simultaneously unique from—and the same as—typical students in that their learning hinges on general psychological learning principles. However, to be effective, the application of those principles may be different for gifted students than for their classmates. Examples will be shared of the varied ways in which psychology promotes the application of principles based on the needs of special groups of learners.

Dr. Subotnik is director of the Center for Psychology in the Schools and Education at the American Psychological Association. Previously, she was a professor of education at Hunter College, where she coordinated the secondary education program and served as research and curriculum liaison to the Hunter College laboratory schools (grades PK-12). She is co-author of “The Talent Gap” (Scientific American, August 2014), and “Malleable Minds: Translating Insights from Psychology and Neuroscience to Gifted Education” (National Research Center for Giftedness and Talent, written with Ann Robinson, Carolyn Callahan, and Patricia Johnson).

This event is sponsored by The Center for Gifted Studies and the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences at WKU.

For information or to register for the Wedge Visiting Scholar Presentations, visit www.wku.edu/gifted/educators/wedge/index.php.

Contact: Jesse Knifley, (270) 745-3014 or jesse.knifley@wku.edu.