classroom responses to mind, brain and education science

CLASSROOM RESPONSES TO MIND, BRAIN AND EDUCATION SCIENCE

The Brain in Context

By: arteyfotografia.com.ar

TPACK - Koehler & Mishra 2008

"If we teach today like we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.”

-John Dewey, Educator and Philosopher

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0_WhSdsgBo

“Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire” William

Bulter Yeates (1923)

Schools are Traditionally Slow to Change• Many schools continue to teach with methods of the

1950’s.– Rote memorization of dates, places, and facts that are quickly

forgotten after “the test”.

• The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development says, “In 10 years, there will be two kinds of people: the well educated and the hardly employable.”

• Knowledge and technology will be the great equalizers of this millennium.

Mind, Brain, and Education Science

• Research based information in the areas of:

• Neuroscience• Psychology• Education

What we know as fact (not a lot!)

What is probably true

What is “believed” passed on, sold but unhelpful, misguided, wrong (“Neuro-myths”)

Instructional Guidelines for TeachersBy: Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa1: Environments

2: Sense, Meaning and Transfer

3: Different Types of Memory Pathways

4: Attention Spans

5: The Social Nature of Learning

6: The Mind-Body Connection

7: Orchestration and “Midwifing”

8: Active Processes

9: Metacognition and Self-Reflection

10: Learning Throughout the Life Span

Instructional Guideline 1: Environments

• Good learning environments in education are those with physical and mental security, respect, intellectual freedom, self-regulation, paced challenges, feedback, and active learning (Billington 1997)

By: Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa

• Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa

Donna Walker Tileston

Teachers must convey:•Like•Believe

Instructional Guideline 2: Sense, Meaning and Transfer

• Students learn best when what they learn makes sense, has a logical order, and has some meaning in their lives. (Sousa 2000)


Learning to Learn

1. Play the whole game.

2. Make the game worth playing.

3. Work on the hard parts.

4. Play out of town.

5. Uncover the hidden game.

6. Learn from the team…and the other team.

7. Learn the game of Learning.

Instructional Guideline 3: Different Types of Memory Pathways

• Teachers should teach to auditory, visual, and kinesthetic pathways as well as allow for both individual and group work in order to improve the chances of recall.


Instructional Guideline 4: Attention Spans• The average student has an attention span between 10 and 20 minutes. Students learn best when there is a change of person, place or topic every 10 to 20 minutes. Interest impacts attention spans and, consequently, the motivation for learning. “Time flies when you are having fun”.


Myth of Multitasking

• The brain cannot carry out two cognitive processes at the same time.

• What we refer to multitasking is actually task switching. -

• Dr. Larry Rosen, PhD – “Understanding the iGeneration”

Instructional Guideline 5: The Social Nature of Learning

• Debate is one of the most effective teaching methods. It forces students to think critically and to interact with each other; it also prepares them to deal with countering opinions.


Laugh• Humor has many benefits for increased retention.• Provides more oxygen to the brain• Laughter causes the release of endorphins in the blood.

Endorphins stimulate the brain’s frontal lobes, thereby increasing the degree of focus and amount of attention time.

• Humor also decreases stress, pain and blood pressure.• Humor boosts immune defenses.• Be Happy!

Instructional Guideline 6: The Mind-Body Connection

• This includes active learning techniques and serves as a reminder of the importance of sleep, nutrition and physical exercise.


Sleep • REM - In 8 to 9 hour sleep cycle there are usually 4-5

REM stages.• HS students typically get between five and six hours of

sleep on a school night (Carskadon, Acebo, & Jenni, 2004)

• Preadolescents need 9-10 hrs. and 8-9 hours for adolescents.

• stewickie

Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa

• Sleep – 2 fundaments in learning both reasons contribute to why sleep is important to learning.

• Attention + memory = learning• Sleep: sleep deprivation also has a negative impact on

attention spans.• Dreaming: memory consolidation depends on REM sleep

(dreaming)• Attention is served by sleeping and memory is served by

dreaming. Sleep deprived people go straight into REM.

Sleep• A brain deprived of sleep has diminished attention, executive

functions, working memory, mood, logical reasoning, quantitative skills, and motor dexterity.

• Poor grades and depression increases with loss of sleep.• Loss of sleep can damage the hippocampus, leading to

cognitive dysfunction and possible mood disorders

• During sleep is when the brain establishes long term memory circuits needed for remembering new information and skills.

Brain Fuel• The brain cells consume oxygen and glucose (a form of

sugar) for fuel. The more challenging the brain’s task, the more fuel it consumes.

• Low amounts of oxygen and glucose in the blood can produce sleepiness.

• Just 50 grams of glucose increased long-term memory recall in a group of young adults by 35%.

• Water is essential for healthy brain activity is required to move neuron signals through the brain.

Raisins are

convenient!

Moist lungs promote

oxygen transfer

Hydrate Your Brain• Water is essential for healthy brain activity is required to

move neuron signals through the brain. • Low concentrations of water diminish the rate and

efficiency of these signals. Water keeps the lungs moist which allow for the transfer of oxygen into the bloodstream.

Instructional Guideline 7: Orchestration and “Midwifing”

• Similar to an orchestra director a teacher immerse students in complex experiences that support learning by calling on individuals one by one to bring out their voices and then weaving them into a single class experience. Successful teachers will integrate the strengths and weakness of all learners.


Instructional Guideline 8: Active Processes

• Human brains learn best when they are active (i.e., “I hear and I forget. I listen and I understand. I do and I remember”).


Importance of Movement (David Sousa)• Movement turns on the brain: 7% more intelligent through standing. Nobody really understands why this is.

• The species with the biggest brains play the most. So many advantages to play.

• Play and exercise: a way to develop resilience.

By: CC: Redjar

Instructional Guideline 9: Metacognition and Self-Reflection

• Teaches allow time for reflection about the concepts being taught and create spaces to “think about thinking.”

• Journal writing, • what if ….• Closure


By: Lee Haywood

Our Challenge: Dr. Jane Healy, Ph.D.• Honor the talents but ease the learning process. All

students need reflective teaching in order to become masters.

By: Lee Haywood

Instructional Guideline 10: Learning Throughout the Life Span

• Wider windows of learning than previously thought. In practice, this means that teachers should resist the temptation to label students who don’t meet the standard developmental milestones. Rather they should provide remedial activities to help the student fill in the gaps in knowledge that may exist in order to help the student advance and fulfill his own potential.


Dr. Gary Small, MD- iBrain• Digital technology is changing the brain. • Kids spending 1/3 of day engaged in video and digital

media. • Neuroscientists tell us that the brain is a use it or lose it

organ. Parts of the brain that are no longer used are withering away.

•Brain Plasticity• Neural circuits grow and rewire as they are worked

•Neurogenesis • Neurons do regenerate!

What Does Learning Look Like?

From a Brain’s Perspective

•Experience•Repetition•Physical Changes

Learned Physical Pathways/Structures in the Brain

• Multiplication Tables• Vocabulary Recognition• Balancing Equations• Stress Reduction• Addictions

• Once learned information is hard to undo

Brain Development

• Emotional areas of the brain are fully developed around the age of 10-12 yrs.

• Regions responsible for rational thought and emotional control mature closer to 22-24 yrs.

• Strategy: Count to 10 before reacting• Strategy: Spell your name backwards before reacting

• (Giedd, Molloy, & Blumenthal, 2003; Johnson, B.lum & Giedd, 2009)

Brain Structure

• No two are identical, and each is organized differently.

• Different brains can wire the same pieces together in different ways.

• Some learn faster than others and in different ways.

• Some students learn more slowly because they process information more deeply.

• David Sousa- The Basics of Creating a Brain Compatible Classroom

Memory Capacity

• When students learn something new, they process it in the temporary memory called working memory. (frontal lobe)

• Newer studies tell us that the capacity is much less than previously thought …closer to 4 items.

• (Cowan, Morey, Chen, Gilchrist, & Saults, 2008)

•CHUNKING

What we Know About Retention

Factors Affecting Retention

1. Student – self perception

2. Teacher – attitude

3. Teaching

4. Parents/Home

5. School

6. Curriculum

7. Administration

Different Brains, Different Learners: Rethinking “Intelligence” for the 21st CenturyDr. Jane M. Healy, PhD

• A New Look at Brain Development, Talent, and “Disability” in an Electronic Age

• A child born today in the US has a 30% chance of being diagnosed with some type of learning problem.

• New research suggests 1/3 of US kids meet clinical criteria for anxiety disorders.

Environment of Childhood has ChangedDr. Jane Healy, Ph.D.• A recent study of highly successful entrepreneurs found

that close to 50% of them were dyslexic. • Michael Barry, financial whiz who read the financial

statements and who sold short on the sub-prime mortgage market has Asperger’s.

• Dyslexia: talent or liability? Picasso was dyslexic- global spatial awareness. Dyslexics have better recognition of impossible figures, better quality of peripheral vision.

• Are ADHD kids distracted by clearer objects in the periphery of their vision?

Dr. Larry Rosen, PhD – Understanding the iGeneration

• Communicate differently – Nielsen 3705 text messages per month. (share everything)

• Auditory, visual and tactile/kinesthetic learners• Social connections are everything.• They want constant reinforcement• Spend hours creating content

By: jerrycharlotte

What Motivates the “Net” Generation? Tony Wagner – Ed.D

Instant gratification…always on connection, use the web for

1) extending friendships

2) interest driven, self-directed learning

3) as a tool for self-expression,

•Less fear and respect for authority

•They want to make a difference and do interesting/worthwhile work.

What Motivates the “Net” Generation? Tony Wagner – Ed.D

The Global Achievement Gap is the gap between what even our best schools are teaching and testing.

Versus

The skills all students will need for careers, college, and citizenship in the 21st century

What gets tested is what gets taught: having the wrong metric is worse than having none at all.

Good News • Better Skimmers• More Efficient• May have better problem solving skills• Can get information faster• Communicate globally• Respond to visual stimuli quickly.

Bad News• Shorter Attention Spans• More Addictions• May Lose People Skills • Less likely to recognize facial expressions• May Never Develop Good Listening Skills• May Have Difficulty Reading Body Language

Judy Willis, M.D. Engagement Strategies

• Attention Is Not Voluntary Choice

• Whatever is new or different will get priority.

Judy Willis, M.D. Engagement Strategies• The more ways something is learned, the more memory pathways are built

• Multiple stimulation mean better memory

• Examples:• Multiple forms of review

• Visual imagery• Personal relevance• Role-play• Produce product or models

Importance of Movement• Movement turns on the brain: 7% more intelligent through

standing. Nobody really understands why this is.• The species with the biggest brains play the most. So

many advantages to play.• Play and exercise: a way to develop resilience.• 3 “r’s” of old-style PE: roll out the ball, relax, read the

paper. This isn’t enough anymore.

By: CC: Redjar

Stress Management • Boredom is stressful.

• The lower reactive brain is in control.

• Behavior• Fight (Disruptive) – Oppositional Defiant• Flight (Withdrawal) – ADHD and ADD• Freeze (Zone Out) social anxiety syndrome, seizures, OCD

• Children are misdiagnosed when the brain is not the problem. Kids are bored. Children want the dopamine pleasure that games and technology brings.

Engagement Strategies• Attention is not a voluntary choice – input must be

selected by sensory filter. If it does not reach per-frontal cortex, it does not make it to long term memory.

• Must be selected to make it to the Reticular Activating System (RAS). Survival skills for animals.

The RAS – Judy Willis• Curiosity alerts the RAS• Sound (voice volume, pitch, cadence)• Color, placement of objects• Your appearance (costumes, hats) do something unusual• Novelty and curiosity• Predictions are great (which one do you want 1 penny

doubled for a year or $1000,000?)• Optical Illusions http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/• Grumpy faces do not allow passage to pre-frontal cortex

Learning Retention – Harold Pashler, PhD• Longer time frames between study sessions provides

greater long term retention. • If you want to remember for years….need to space 2nd

study session at least 6 months away.• For best test performance – 1 day spacing• Closed book quizzes between initial exposure and final

assessment.

Practice

Testing

Mirror Neurons• Mirror neurons – were discovered in 1996 in Italy with

monkeys. Man walks by eating and monkey brain also fires like monkey is chewing. Mapped brain when throwing a baseball and when watching someone throw a baseball. If you cry when watching a movie your mirror neurons work really well. Autism may be a faulty mirror neuron capability.

Reflection is Effective• Opportunities to come up with the answer.

• Electronic Flashcards – Quizlet, BrainScape, Studyblue

• Educational Games• Funbrain

Game ClassroomGameaquariumBraineosTucoolaTutpupBrainnookCleverislandWhat2learnABCyaPowerpoint Games

Intelligence for a Digital Age:Dr. Jane M. Healy - PhD

• Symbolic analysis, creative imagination, self-regulation, moral reflection.

• Consider that difference may be an asset.• Teach students to be masters of their tools.

Education is Changing• Harvard

Attempts to redefine rigor

New course requirements (21st Century Skills)

Shift from information based to transformation based….

Vision Confirmation• Integration of Technology• Differentiation• Digital Portfolios/self-reflection• Real World Application• Engagement• Student self management/self regulation• Student Choice• Keep moving forward…continual reflection on what we

are doing. Why?

Dr. Gary Small

classroom responses to mind, brain and education science

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