2026 SAIS Annual Conference

Teaching environments often oscillate between high-control rigor and high-flexibility relational models, while students internalize fragmented messages: Work harder. Manage your stress. Be more organized. This session reframes those narratives through Applied Educational Neuroscience, exploring how productive struggle functions as an optimal learning state and how nervous system regulation determines whether students can remain there. Participants will examine how classroom design influences working memory, retention, metacognition, and intrinsic motivation. We will explore a Teaching Style & Environment framework that integrates high expectations with felt safety, showing how regulation and rigor are mutually reinforcing, not opposing, forces.
Grounded in universal neurodivergent design, this lecture offers practical language and classroom strategies that normalize executive skill development and self-advocacy. Educators will leave with a shared vocabulary and ready-to-use tools for designing learning environments where engagement, attention, and deep learning thrive.