Meaning Making: Insights into how learning happens in the human brain

• Developed by Professor Terry Doyle• Ferris State University• www.learnercenteredteaching.wordpress.com• doylet@ferris.edu

Making Meaning

Slides from the presentation are available at

www.learnercenteredteaching.wordpress.com

Our Professional Obligation

As in any profession we need to follow where the validated research findings leads us.

Here is Our Challenge?

We as teachers can’t make informed decisions about which teaching approaches or tools to use if we don’t first understand how our students learn.

Here is Our Challenge?

To understand how our students learn we must understand how their brains take in, process, and retrieve information as well as the numerous factors that affect these processes.

Question1.

What do we teach?

1. What would make us happy that our students still knew and could apply from the content and skills of our course/class a year later?

Question2.

Where do we put our efforts?

1. What knowledge and skills do students need our help with to learn and what can they look up as needed or learn on their own?

Question3.

What is the best use of our time?

2. How do we use our time most effectively to help students master the learning outcomes of our courses?

Question 4.

What teaching actions best facilitate students’ learning?

What activities, assignments and assessments work best?

The Human Brain Myths and Mistakes

Forget that Right-Left Brain Stuff

The human brain works as a complex design of integrated systems not through specialized and competing right and left brain functions.(Tokuhama-Espinosa, Mind Brain and Education Science, 2011

The Human Brain

• Complex mental tasks and behaviors and even simple task result from a complex coordination of activity in multiple brain regions including both the right and left hemispheres.

(Rekart, 2013)

We only use 10 % of our Brains

• Brain scans have shown that no matter what one is doing, brains are always active.

• Some areas are more active at any one time than others, but barring brain damage, there is no part of the brain that is absolutely not functioning.

No Science Support for Learning Styles• “there is no adequate evidence

base to justify incorporating learning styles assessments into general educational practice”

(Pashler et al, 2009:105)

No Science Support for Learning Styles• Professor John Hattie , author of

Visible Learning in 2012 produced a synthesis of years of educational research trying to figure out what has the biggest impact upon student learning states that,

• “One of the more fruitless pursuits is labeling students with learning styles.”

No Science Behind Learning Styles

We are all visual and auditory learners—evolution made certain of it.

(Rekart,2013)

No Science Behind Learning Styles

• Advocating a tactile style of learning is a mistake. The direct connectivity found in the visual and auditory centers of the brain are not found in the tactile modality.

• (Rekart, 2013)

No Science Support forLearning Styles • Neither the somatosensory

cortices (which process touch) nor the cerebellum (motor learning) would produce the kind of long term memories desired in school.

(Rekart, 2013)

Myths

Myth: You can train certain parts of the brain to improve their functioning.Fact: This has been an attractive and sometimes lucrative idea for many entrepreneurs. However, it is not possible to target a specific brain region and teach just to that part of the brain.

The brain is highly connected. Neurons in the brain learn remember and forget, but they do not do so in isolation.

Myths

• You are born with certain abilities and these do not change over time.

• Fact: At one time, people believed that the brain developed into its full form by the age of three, and that what developed afterwards was just a matter of refinement.

• In fact, we now know that the brain is plastic — it changes with experience and development. Evidence shows that rather brain development continues into one's twenties. For many adolescents, the maturation of the frontal lobes may not end until age 25.

Multitasking is not Possible when trying to Learn New Things

Multitasking does not Exist unless the Tasks are Automated

You're not actually doing four or five things at once.

(Levitin,2014)

The Brain Can’t Multitask

Our brains engage in sequential tasking or unitasking shifting rapidly from one thing to another without realizing it.

The brain is actually fracturing time into ever smaller parts and focusing on each thing individually.

(Levitin,2014)

Multitasking = Less Productive

People often think they are being more productive when they try to juggle tasks.

Not only is sequential unitasking detrimental to productivity, but it produces less creative work as well.

Levitin, 2014

Multitasking Burns Energy and Stresses the Brain

When people try to do several things at once--

like text and listen to a lecture,

The brain uses up oxygenated glucose at a much faster rate and releases the stress hormone cortisol.

(Levitin,2014)

Studies on Multitasking

2011 study explored the perception on how often a person thinks they are multitasking in a 30 minute period—

Subjects guessed 15

(Brasel and Gips, 2011)

Studies on Multitasking

The students actually looked away an average of 123 times.

Reducing Multitasking

• How can someone overcome their brain’s attempts to distract?

• Best solution-- physically removing distractions whenever possible.

• Shut down the phone when driving or disconnect from Wi-Fi while doing homework.

The Human Brain

• The human brain weighs about three (3) pounds

• Contains 86 billion neurons

• These neurons can make 40 quadrillion connections

(Ratey, 2001, Goldberg, 2009)

We are Born to Learn

The brain was meant to explore and learn

The Definition of Learning

Learning is a change in the neuron-patterns of the brain.

(Goldberg, 2009)

www.virtualgalen.com/.../ neurons-small.jpg

Teachers Definition of Learning

Learning is the ability to use information after significant periods of disuse

and it is the ability to use the information to solve problems that arise in a context different (if only slightly) from the context in which the information was originally taught.

(Robert Bjork, Memories and Metamemories, 1994)

Helping elementary and middle school students make meaning by understanding how their brains learn

Neuron

Brains Change a Great Deal

• A lot of pruning

• Born with 200 billion neurons

• We have only 86 billion by about age 10

Functional Areas of the Brain

An Unfortunate Reality for Elementary Teachers• The brain begins to mature even before

birth. Although it continues to mature throughout most of life, the brain does not mature at the same rate in each individual.

• This should not be surprising. After all, our bodies grow at different rates — we reach puberty at different ages and our emotional maturity at different times as well. Why should our brains be any different?

Maturation differs by individual

• For example

• A young child with highly advanced verbal skills may develop gross and fine motor control more slowly and have trouble learning to write clearly.

• Another child may be advanced physically but not know how to manage his/her social skills.

• Others may be cognitively advanced but show emotional immaturity.

Example of readiness for reading

• For example: A key predictor of reading readiness is a child's ability to understand rhyming (Semrud-Clikeman, 2006).

• This ability translates into skills in understanding how sounds differ and in turn predicts a child's success with phonics instruction.

Moving from rote to automatic

• As neural networks form, the child learns both academically and socially. At first, this learning is mostly rote in nature.

• As skills become more automatic, the child does not have to think as hard about what he or she is learning or doing, and brain resources are freed up to be used for complex tasks that require more and more attention and processing.

• Skills in reading, mathematics and writing become more specialized and developed.

Development of New Levels of Connectivity• From late elementary school into middle school, inferential

thinking becomes more emphasized in schools, while rote learning is de-emphasized.

• This shift in focus is supported by the increased connectivity in the brain and by chemical changes in the neuronal pathways that support both short and long term memory.

• These chemical changes can continue for hours, days and even weeks after the initial learning takes place (Gazzaniga, & Magnun, 2014). Learning becomes more consolidated, as it is stored in long-term memory.

Match instruction to maturity levels of students brains• As a teacher, all children need to be challenged and nurtured in order

to profit from your instruction. Instruction that is above or below the maturity level of a child's brain is not only inappropriate; it can also lead to behavior problems in your classroom.

• Inappropriate behaviors — such as avoidance, challenging authority and aggression towards other students — can be explained by a failure to match instruction to the brain maturity of your students.

Instructing even young children about their brain is a good idea

• Marshall and Comalli believe such instruction about how the brain learns can and should begin much sooner.

• A 20-minute lesson about the brain was enough to improve knowledge of brain functioning in second graders.

Teaching the youngster about their brain

• Marshall and Comalli’s neuroscience lesson was especially focused on teaching children about the role of the brain in sensory activities—that the brain is not just “for thinking,” as many kids assume, but also for seeing, hearing, smelling, and feeling.

Teach Kids Very Early about their Brain• Stanford University psychologist

Carol Dweck has demonstrated that teaching students about how their brains work—in particular, that the brain is plastic and can develop new capacities with effort and practice—makes a big difference in how constructively kids deal with mistakes and setbacks, and how motivated they are to persist until they achieve mastery.

Dweck’s Work

• Dweck has found that children’s attitudes and behaviors regarding achievement and failure are already in place by preschool.

• Parents’ and educators’ messages about the malleability of the brain and the importance of effort must begin even earlier.

Dweck’s Recommendations

• To reduce anxiety about new "stuff" , reading problems or the Common Core State Standards, -- you can find opportunities to emphasize students' ability to literally build the brains they want.

• Remind them when they turn in a story, demonstrate a science principle in a skit, or even raise their hand to respond to a question, they grow more dendrites and add new layers of myelin to their axons.

• Like a muscle, the brain responds to interaction and activity.

Building understanding of how their brain’s work• You can support your instruction by

explaining which executive functions will be activated during a unit, and how.

• Then invite students to describe the executive functions they believe they activated in their work.

• Be specific. Remind them how the math word problem they worked on strengthened their organizing and prioritizing, which resulted in more dendrites in their brain's connections.

Executive Function of the Week

• Building Student "Brain Literacy"• A second grade class could have an "Executive Function of the Week." After introducing a

new function and giving an example, you could invite students to offer their own examples.

• Other examples for elementary students might include:• Judgment

• What is a fair way to take turns when six students want to play 4-Square, a two-person handball game?• What do you say when a friend is being mean to another classmate?• How do you respond differently when a two-year old sibling, a new puppy, or an older brother

damages your toy?• Which library book do you select when you like three and can choose only one?• How much paint of each color should you take for your table group's project?

Executive Functions--Priority

• Priority• Which television programs do you

most want to watch for your hour of TV?

• Which of your favorite stuffed animals should you pack for vacation when there is room for only two?

• Should you take full notes during a lecture or jot down key words to fill in later from a book or with a classmate?

Organization

• Organize• How do you sort your music on

playlists?• How do you find and sort art

materials for others?• How do you organize your

classroom desk materials?

Analyze

• Analyze• What strategies are best when

playing a card or video game (independently and with others)?

• Is something your friend said about monsters in their closet true? How can you find out?

• Which your favorite video games can you complete? Which might be too easy or too hard?

Cognitive Flexibility• Cognitive flexibility and emotional self-

control both support students' capacity to be more responsive to corrective feedback and learn from mistakes

• How do you react when a substitute teacher does things a different way?

• How do you adapt when disappointed by changes in family plans?

• When you don't get your first choice of the topic you want to write about, how do you find things you like about one of the other choices?

Frontal Lobes

• The frontal lobes begin to mature more fully in middle school. The maturation continues through high school and adulthood (Semrud-Clikeman & Ellison, 2009).

• The frontal lobes are a more recent evolutionary development in brains and allow humans to evaluate and adapt their behavior based on past experience.

• The frontal lobes are also thought to be where social understanding and empathy reside (Damasio, 2008).

Experience play a major role in frontal lobe development• The refined development of the

frontal white matter tracts begins around age 12 and continues into the twenties. This region of the brain is crucial for higher cognitive functions, appropriate social behaviors and the development of formal operations.

• These tracts develop in an orderly fashion and experience appears to contribute to further development.

Movement and Learning

Natural selection developed a human brain to solve problems of survival in outdoor, unstable environments while in almost constant motion.(Medina, 2008)

Movement and Learning

Our brains were shaped and sharpened by movement.

We continue to require regular physical activity in order for our brains to function optimally.

(Raichlen and Polk, 2013)

Moving to Learn

• A growing body of evidence suggests we think and learn better when we walk or do another form of exercise.

Rhodes, 2013

Coke and Crisco—A Multisensory Experience

Understanding how the brain learns

• The one who does the work does the learning

• Teachers can do way too much of the work for students

• Significant time and effort are needed for learning- more than students think.

Ownership of learning requires several steps• Deep processing = Elaborations

• Learners need to make connections to all prior knowledge through multiple sensory pathways.

• Need to use emotional connections when possible.

Multiple Uses Leads to Ownership

• Multiple uses—write it, talk about it, think it, say it, visualize it , draw it, map it, free recall it.

To own it you must sleep on It

• Memories are made during sleep

Zull’s, Natural Learning Model

In take

Annotation is an action that lead to ownership• Annotation• Read it• Understand it• Translate it• Write it in own words• Analyze it• Become aware if you understood it( metacognition)• Fix up strategies

Ownership of words

• Vocabulary- sound it out• Say it correctly• Recognize it in print• Be able to show you know what it means and how it is used correctly

in a sentence

• No memorizing—ownership is what we want.

Reward pathway in the brain

• Wanting to learn it and remember it are vital to learning success.

• Wanting to learn engages the emotional reward pathways in the brain—dopamine is a neurochemical that reinforces learning as a survival behavior.

Directing the brain to learn and remember• The brain can be directed to

recall what is important-especially before sleep.

• (Payne, Tucker, Ellenbogen, Wamsley, 2012 )

Free recall

• How information gets studied can significantly improve its chances for recall.

• Recall the information from memory—strengthens the connections of the memory and speed up its ability to be recalled in the future (LTP).

Efficiency of Reading

• Read only what is designated by the purpose of the reading.

• This is how professionals read.

• Know the patterns of the text.

Don't waste the brains energy

• Spending time on things that you do not care whether the students learn is wasting their brains energy.

• Students spending time on social networks uses up the brains energy.

Spaced Learning

• The brain needs time to process new learning.

• Non cognitive down time between repeated learning activities improve learning and recall for all levels of learners.

• Paul Kelley, Making Minds: What's wrong with education- and what should we do about it?, Routledge, London / New York,150-4

Ideal Study Intervals

• 10 to 20 % of retrieval intervals—if studying facts.

• Test in 3 weeks =21 days.

• Study every 2-3 days.

(Cepeda Coburn, Rohrer, Wixted, Mozer and Pashler 2009)

Enhanced Meaning from Patterns

• Meaning is enhanced when learners see the patterns that exist with in the new learning and use familiar patterns of their own to organize and recall the information.

Using Any Pattern Make these Words Easier to Recall.

olives, tomatoes, carrots, chicken, lettuce, ham, grapes, beef, strawberries, spinach, pork, plums, mangos, potatoes, onions, fish, duck, broccoli, cheese, cherries, turkey and blueberries

Using Patterns to Make Learning Easier- A too SIMPLAE APPROACH

• Alphabetical—This is a familiar pattern but it doesn’t help very much.

• Beef, blueberries, carrots, cheese, cherries, etc.

A More Meaningful Patterning

• Lunch and Dinner—categorizing the food by familiar areas like lunch and dinner gives it more meaning and makes it much easier to recall.

• Lunch a salad including lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, olives, carrots, spinach, broccoli, onions, turkey, ham served with bread.

• Dinner a fruit salad with plums, strawberries, mangos, grapes and cherries.

• Choices of duck, chicken, beef, fish or pork with potatoes.