[385] EXPERT TO ADDRESS ‘MISUNDERSTOOD CHILD’ AT MTSU CONFERENCE

March 24, 2009

CONTACT: Dr. Zaf Khan at zkhan@mtsu.edu or Tom Tozer at 615-898-2919


EXPERT TO ADDRESS ‘MISUNDERSTOOD CHILD’ AT MTSU CONFERENCE

MURFREESBORO—Eighty percent of behavioral problems come from 20 percent of students, says Dr. Zaf Khan, assistant professor of elementary and special education at Middle Tennessee State University, which is why he has invited Dr. Mel Levine to MTSU to talk about working with the “misunderstood child.”
MTSU’s Positive Behavior Support Initiative will play host to the third annual conference April 30, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Tucker Theater. The conference is free and open to teachers, parents, MTSU students—anyone who is involved in teaching children.
Levine will present “The Difference that Differences Make: What we are learning about learning processes and the differences they bring out in students.”
“Dr. Levine takes an alternative view when he talks about learners and learning differences,” noted Khan, who is PBSI grant project director. “He’ll ask us pivotal questions such as, ‘Can we teach without labels?’” Khan added that Levine will focus on the “misunderstood child” and approaches to dealing with individual learning differences.
“I think the number one thing that is going to resonate through his presentation will be positive expectations,” Khan said. “He will leave us with a new mindset and a new frame of reference of looking at things when dealing with all children.”
Khan encourages teachers, parents and MTSU students of all majors to attend because the conference will create a good dynamic for understanding human behavior.
Registration forms, as well as an agenda for the conference, can be found at www.mtsu.edu/pbsi. For more information about PBSI and the conference, contact Khan at zkhan@mtsu.edu.

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