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Cultivating Think Tank Seeds Sown in 2024

June 2026

This month, we’re refreshing our memory and looking back at the best of our garden that we planted in 2024. Let’s re-examine articles that cover a wide range of topics, including the science of reading, practical discussion activities, ADHD, profanity, bullying, and trauma. 

“Dandelions don’t know whether they are a weed or a brilliance. But each seed can create a field of dandelions.” – adrienne maree brown

APA Reference for this issue:

(author). (2026). (article title, sentence case). MindBrainEd Think Tanks: Cultivating Think Tank Seeds Sown in 2024, 12(6), (pages).

 

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Watch before you read...

In this month’s Think Tank, we’re returning to seeds our contributors planted in 2024. Before reading the articles, we suggest watching these videos. The first video features Stanislas Dahaene explaining how our brain manages reading by re-purposing pre-existing auditory and visual areas. In the second video, Jessica McCabe shares with viewers what it’s like to have ADHD. In the third video, Niall Curry gives language teachers valuable tips on how to set up discussion activities. The last two videos feature Lisa Feldman Barrett, who explores how emotions emerge in the fourth video and the role of prediction in trauma in the fifth video. Then, Heather Kretschmer introduces the issue.

In the Think Tank, Jamie Emerson explains what goes on in the brain while we read, highlighting key takeaways for teachers. Next, Harumi Kimura describes two highly structured discussion activities designed to help students examine different perspectives and express opinions. Then, Julia Daley reviews How to ADHD by Jessica McCabe and explains how this book has positively impacted her life. Amanda Gillis-Furutaka delves into the link between profanity and emotions and the reasons people use swear words, while Julia Daley recounts a powerful story about bullying and explains the science behind bullying and our reactions to it. Finally, Judith B. O’Laughlin describes the effect trauma has on learners and gives teachers advice on creating a trauma-sensitive environment in the classroom.

Myths about emotions debunked

Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett

The neuroscience of trauma

Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett

Our Thoughts on 2024

A photograph of someone passing a handful of seeds to another person.

Planting and Nurturing Think Tank Seeds Heather Kretschmer

Every Think Tank article is a seed packet containing life-giving seeds. Seeds of promise. Seeds of change. Seeds to plant in our thoughts and teaching practice. Seeds to spread in our conversations with students, colleagues, friends, and family.

Perhaps you collected some Think Tank seeds in 2024:

  • Which seeds have already begun growing in your practice?
  • Which seeds are still in packets, waiting to be planted?
  • Which seeds need special nurturing to thrive?
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Think Tank Articles

A photograph of a child reading a picture book.

Reading, the Brain, and Teachers Jamie Emerson

Stanislas Dehaene is a passionate and prolific advocate for the popularisation of neuroscientific research. He is the director of the INSERM-CEA Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit and author of a plethora of academic papers, but also writes and speaks to a general audience. His mainstream books focus on topics like the neuroscience of consciousness and mathematics, but most relevant for language teachers is his work on reading and the brain. Dehaene’s book Reading In The Brain: The New Science of How We Read was a key source for my last Think Tank article about reading disabilities (available here) but for this piece, I’d like to summarise a talk given to the World Innovation Summit for Education, or WISE and then draw some connections between this and classroom practice. 

“Teachers”, Dehaene argues, “know more about the workings of their cars than they know about the workings of the brain of their children.” That is probably overstating the average teacher’s automotive knowledge, but his point is that neuroscience, cognitive science and psychology should inform teaching more than they do. Stanislas Dehaene truly is a man after the Think Tank’s heart. Or perhaps its brain.

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A photograph of an assortment of tools lined up against a dark background.

Building My ADHD Toolbox: A Review of How to ADHD Julia Daley

When my copy of Jessica McCabe’s How to ADHD: An Insider’s Guide to Working with Your Brain (Not Against It) arrived, I was so excited. I sat at my desk, opened it up to the first page, and didn’t move from my seat until I’d finished reading the whole book. That’s the funny thing with hyperfocus: hours had passed me by without my noticing it at all. Honestly, I can’t really say that I read the book the first time I opened it, so much as I devoured it. It was as if, for the first time, there was something that could help fill the gnawing hunger inside of me that I’d never even realized I’d been enduring for so long. 

I’ve been a fan of McCabe’s YouTube Channel—How to ADHD for a while now, and her friendly, relatable voice translates clearly into text. Sometimes I felt I could hear her reading aloud in my head. The book is a compelling mixture of anecdote, science, and practical tips that is structured in an easy-to-digest way. I find myself regularly pulling it off my bookshelf to thumb through again and again and again, all so that I can continue building upon and refining my ADHD toolbox.

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A photo of a river lined with blooming cherry trees. A snow-capped Mt. Fuji can be seen in the distance.

Constructive Controversy for Beginners: Developing Cognitive, Social, and Language Skills Harumi Kimura

I have a problem in my “English Communication” class. It’s a required class for first-year university students. They are non-English majors. They practice spoken language interaction in the class. Students are visibly active when talking about everyday topics, such as music they like, fashion labels they prefer, movies or dramas they have recently watched, restaurants and cafes they like. They even share some bad experiences they have had in the past, like when they’ve lost something important or they’ve made a terrible mistake at a crucial moment. They are attentive to each other. They are patient when their partner or groupmate is having trouble expressing themselves in English. Nobody dominates the interaction. Nobody is left out. I see smiles on their faces and occasionally hear laughter here and there ringing through the classroom.

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Two young boys are standing together. The boy on the left is wearing a blue shirt and has a shocked expression on his face. On the right is a boy in red, who is turned and whispering something (presumably profane) into the other boy's ear.

Profanity and Emotion are Inextricably Entwined – Let Me Show You How Amanda Gillis-Furutaka

First, a little background to this topic, because it is rarely addressed in academic circles or even among friends. Profanities are generally understood to be taboo words and expressions that shock, offend, and hurt. Of course, profanity is expressed not only through words. We use obscene gestures and sign languages have profane signs (Bergen, 2016). These words and gestures express the strongest human emotions. For example, we use them when we feel angry, afraid, surprised, amused, thrilled, and passionate. Profanity can also be used to inflict emotional pain, provoke violent responses, shape minds, and affect judgement. Unsurprisingly, governments, religious leaders, and education boards have often tried to regulate or ban profanity … but it persists.

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A photo of a typical yellow school bus from the USA.

Buses, Bullies, and Bystanders Julia Daley

I’ve been bullied my entire life, and that’s no hyperbole—there’s some old VHS recordings of myself as a three-year-old crying at the way other children were treating me. As a weird, strange kid, I made the perfect target for all sorts of bullies; as an eccentric adult, I’ve experienced bullying less often, but it nevertheless still happens on occasion.

Of course, I’m a writing teacher and, instead of telling you all about my myriad experiences of bullying, I’m going to show you just one. This story isn’t the worst example of bullying I’ve faced—in fact, it’s pretty unremarkable in most regards—but it’s the only one that, to this day, makes me emotional to recount. While you read my story, pay attention to the three roles that characters must fulfill in any tale of bullying: bully, victim, and bystander.

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A young woman in an orange dress and a beige headscarf walks down a path between tents in a refugee camp.

Supporting Immigrant Students with Trauma Backgrounds Judith B. O'Loughlin

Many English learners come to schools having faced traumatic experiences that affect their ability to be academically, socially, and emotionally successful. Trauma is the result of a stressor, a stimulus that impacts student learning, one time or chronically. The type of trauma can be physical, emotional, or both. Acute trauma happens one time or is a short-lived event. Chronic trauma is caused by a situation or series of situations that occur over a long period of time and can have long-term emotional and physical effects on the learner. It is this type of trauma that is experienced by many immigrant and refugee children and their families.

A few types of typical trauma experiences for immigrant and refugee children include: trauma experienced in the home country, which is often the reason for emigrating; war and/or political unrest; extreme poverty; and drug and gang violence…

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Think Tank Plus

Call for Contributions: Ideas and Articles Think Tank Staff

Become a Think Tank star! Here are some of the future issue topics we are thinking about. Would you, or anyone you know, like to write about any of these? Or is there another topic you’d like to recommend? Do you have any suggestions for lead-in, or just plain interesting, videos? How about writing a book review? Or sending us a story about your experiences? Contact us.

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The MindBrained Think Tanks+

is produced by the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) Mind, Brain, and Education Special Interest Group (BRAIN SIG). Kyoto, Japan. (ISSN 2434-1002)

Editorial Staff

      Stephen M. Ryan               Curtis H. Kelly              Julia Daley     

 Afon (Mohammad) Khari     Heather Kretschmer     Nicky De Proost

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