Dr. Kimberly Berens grew up around psychology as her father was a psychiatrist. Her mother was a biologist, so she was also very interested in the natural sciences. She recalls that family dinner time conversations were always interesting as they talked about various mental health issues, general psychology, and human behavior and development. As a result, Dr. Berens originally planned on majoring in biology and minoring in psychology when she started her undergraduate career at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. Although her introduction to psychology class was unique in that each section of it was taught by a professor known in that area of psychology, she was somewhat unimpressed as she “didn’t see a lot of science involved in those sections.” However, that all changed when Dr. Maria Ruiz, her first mentor, walked into the classroom. Dr. Berens shares that Dr. Ruiz was “teaching the section on behavior science and that day changed my life forever because it was at that moment that I discovered that actually there is a natural science of human behavior, and that is what behavior science is.” She ended up switching her major from biology to psychology and Dr. Ruiz remained her mentor through her time at Rollins and beyond.
Dr. Berens shares her academic and professional journey in this podcast and reveals how she applied her degrees in psychology and behavioral science to co-create a powerful system of instruction based on behavioral science and the technology of teaching, which has transformed the learning abilities of thousands of students worldwide. As a doctoral student at the University of Nevada, Reno, Dr. Berens founded Fit Learning in a broom closet on campus and has expanded her business to more than 31 locations worldwide with 3 to 5 new locations opening each year. For more than 20 years, her system of instruction has produced one year’s worth of academic growth in only 40 hours of training.
In addition to Dr. Maria Ruiz, Dr. Berens discusses how other mentors have helped influence and shape her knowledge, career, and passion for helping improve the education and quality of life for students. She discusses, among others, Dr. Elbert (Eb) Blakely, Dr. Ogden Lindsley, and Dr. Seven C. Hayes who also appeared as a guest of the Master’s in Psychology Podcast in November, 2022. She explains that she received her theoretical basic science mentor in Maria and her clinical and applied mentor in Eb. Steven was another one of her mentors while in undergraduate school and she recalls, “I knew that I had found what I was going to do for the rest of my life.”
Dr. Berens explains why she attended the University of Nevada for her doctorate in behavioral sciences and provides advice to those who are interested in the field of psychology or behavioral sciences. She recommends that you find a mentor who you look up to and who is doing research in the area of study you are interested in so that you can learn from them. Don’t be afraid to introduce yourself and say, “I’m looking for a mentor” or “I’m looking for someone to guide me through the process of potentially exploring doctoral training or masters training in the field.” You may be surprised to learn how many faculty members are overjoyed when a student seeks them out for help and asks them to be their mentor.
Dr. Berens also discusses her newest book, Blind Spots: Why Students Fail and the Science That Can Save Them. Close to 70% of kids are now below proficiency in all academic subjects in America and this increases to more than 80% for students of color and those living in poverty. Dr. Berens explains “the reason is because science isn’t used in instruction and teachers aren’t trained in science and education is actually an ideological institution, not a pragmatic or scientific one.” We discuss the fact that most teachers are not taught how to effectively teach. We have all had that teacher or professor who obviously knew their subject but didn’t know how to teach it to their students. Dr. Beren’s states, “one of the greatest misunderstandings is that a subject matter expert will naturally be able to teach that subject, and if a student can’t learn from a subject matter expert, then that means something’s wrong with the student because there couldn’t possibly be something wrong with the subject matter expert because they’re so brilliant at their subject matter.”
Dr. Berens believes education is more important than ever right now and it is time for our educational system to evolve. Blind Spots is a book that every parent, teacher, and policymaker should read as it explains the dismal situation the American education system is in but also provides hope and a system of instruction based on learning, behavioral, and cognitive sciences that markedly improves how students understand and achieve when science is at the heart of instruction. She believes “when you’re not training teachers to be more effective, when you’re not actually bringing science into the design of instruction, nothing is going to change.” She points out that “just because kids fail academically doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with their brains. It doesn’t mean they have a learning disability. It doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with them. That means that there’s actually something wrong with the way they’re being instructed. There’s actually something wrong with the way schools are designed and teachers are trained, but that’s a difficult thing to get people to understand and not do it in a way that offends people and makes people defensive.”
When asked what she loves most about her job, Dr. Berens response was “the best thing about my job is changing a kid’s life. You know, you have a kid who’s coming in and has been told they’ll never learn to read. Has been told that they have something wrong with them.” She further explains “And having an opportunity to actually produce an unbelievable level of mastery and competency with that learner very quickly in an area that they were told they’d never master. That is life changing, and it’s not just life changing for the kid. It’s life changing for the team who gets to have the power to do that for that kid and it’s life changing for the whole family. So, my, you know, the best part of my job is transforming kids’ lives. That’s it. Period.”
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Interests and Specializations
Dr. Berens applies behavior science to rapidly accelerate academic and cognitive skills with kids and adults. She specializes in applying natural science to instruction and to the education of students. She co-created a system of instruction based on behavioral science and the technology of teaching, which has proven to produce one year’s worth of academic growth in only 40 hours of training.
Education
Bachelor of Arts (BA), Psychology (1996); Rollins College, Winter Park, FL.Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Behavioral Sciences (2005); University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV.
Other Sources and Links of Interest
Dr. Kimberly Nix Berens: AmazonDr. Kimberly Nix Berens: Simon & SchusterDr. Kimberly Nix Berens: Psychology Today
Podcast Transcript
00:12 BradleyWelcome to the Master’s in Psychology Podcast, where psychology students can learn from psychologists, educators, and practitioners to better understand what they do, how they got there, and hear the advice they have for those interested in getting a graduate degree in psychology. I'm your host Brad Schumacher, and today we welcome Dr. Kimberly Nix Berens to the show. Dr. Berens is a scientist-educator, Founder of Fit Learning, and author of Blind Spots: Why Students Fail and the Science That Can Save Them. She co-created a powerful system of instruction based on behavioral science and the technology of teaching. Dr. Berens has expanded her business by establishing a formal certification and licensure program to the point where Fit Learning now has 31 locations worldwide, with 3 to 5 new locations every year. Today, we will learn more about her academic and professional journey, more about Fit Learning, and hear her advice to those interested in following a similar career path. Dr Berens, welcome to our podcast.
01:13 KimberlyHi, thanks for having me.
01:15 BradleyWell, thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to talk with us. As you are aware, we kind of go through your academic and professional journey and I see, first off, that you received your bachelor's degree in psychology from Rollins, Collins Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. Based on my research, it appears that those years at Rollins were very instrumental, as you found a couple of important mentors. Can you share with us your journey and background in the field of psychology and education that led you to your career path?
01:46 KimberlyYes, well, you know, I grew up around psychology because my father was a psychiatrist, so we always would have, you know, our dinner time conversations were always pretty interesting, you know, talking about various mental health issues and just general psychological, you know, questions I had about human behavior and so I, you know, I kind of grew up interested in in human behavior, to be quite honest. But my mother was a biologist, so I was also very interested in the natural sciences. So, when I ended up at Rollins College, which is a really small liberal arts College in Florida, I was actually planning on majoring in biology and minoring in psych. And then you know, I started taking my first intro to psychology course and I have to say, you know, the intro to psych course at Rollins was broken into sections. And so, each professor that specialized in that area of psychology taught that section. And so, you know, we went through the normal personality and neurosis, you know, neuropsychology and, you know,
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