Kenneth WessonEducational Consultant: Neuroscience

San Jose, CA kenawesson@aol.com

The STEM Hologram: Several Disciplines – One Interdependent Picture

1. Why we need to change how we teach in the U.S.? (next-day implementation)

2. How can we use some of the latest research from the cognitive sciences in planning C & I?

3. What are the benefits of the S.T.2R.E.A.M. model, where we layer the curriculum to mimic a hologram rather than a quilted patchwork of unconnected learning?

The STEM Hologram: Several Disciplines – One Interdependent Picture

It is your job to prepare our students for

new occupations that

1. have yet to be created

2. for a future that we have neither

encountered nor envisioned in

detail

3. demanding the mastery of skills that

we cannot even imagine.

Hologram

Creative Thinkers-Learners

• Agricultural Age → Industrial Age

→ Information Age

• Moving from the Information Age

→ The Innovation Age

Modern Commercial Airline Cockpit

Testing testing

2012: Boeing 787

Our Schools

We

A student in New Hampshire dissects a pig on the Web. (Her school does not offer zoology→ an online course).

Students no longer need to go to school to “go to school.”

New Information:The Knowledge Explosion

“The sum total of humankind’s knowledge doubled between 1750 and 1900. It doubled again between 1900 and 1950, again from 1950 to 1960, again from 1960 to 1965. It’s been estimated that the sum total of humankind’s knowledge has doubled at least every five years since then.

It’s been further projected that by the year 2020, knowledge or information will double every 73 days.”

Dr. James Appleberry - President, American Association of State Colleges and Universities

We don't need more information; we

need more effective strategies for

1. retrieving just what we want

(memory or technology)

2. understanding it

3. managing information

The S.T.2R.E.A.M. Hologram

Interconnected content for depth

S.T.2R.E.A.M. Schools

Science

Technology (and Thematic-interdisciplinary

instruction for student learning)

Reading and Language Arts

Engineering

Art

Mathematics

(One Goal: Maximizing connections)

Evolutionary biologists - the physiological transitions of a brain that has changed dramatically over the past 4 million years.

Developmental psychologists - the information-processing software (preloaded during the early stages of “brain building.”)

Experimental psychologists -dig deeper into “the roots” of human behavior.

Until the 1980s, brain research centered on diseases, abnormalities and dysfunction. Now neuroscientists are examining the brains of healthy individuals to understand average "normal" brains (cognitive enhancement).

• The human brain is the most sophisticated

information-processing system on earth

with over 40,000 miles of "wiring"

connecting over 100 billion neurons and

nearly 1 trillion other support cells.

• As brain cells develop into networks, the

brain does makes no distinction between

the academic discipline (there is no

evolutionary basis for this “need”.)

…a vast ensembles of neural circuits numbering in the hundred of millions, intricate wide-area networks crisscross the brain in search of connections…

We “see” with our eyes?

We see with our brain. Blind individuals read, learn, recognize objects, etc. without their eyes.

Math - tube

• Human beings were engaged in STEM

experiences before we called them STEM.

• Our human advances have nearly always been

dependent on an improved understanding

of science (“knowing”)

The STEM Initiative is not NEW

The Heritage of the Human Brain

• Human beings have always been naturally explorers/scientists and have been so inclined for the last 4.5 to 5M years.

• In their quest to respond to danger and opportunities, and the most important of all cognitive tasks -- survival.

We were never “born to read.”

The Reading Brain

We Were Born to Learn

1. Observing (identifying/describing attributes, characteristics, systems and “big ideas”)

2. Predicting (hypothesizing)

3. Classifying/categorizing (groups)

4. Reasoning (inductive and deductive)

5. Organizing information (order)

6. Comparing traits and systems (next-step decision-making) and quantifying (more, less, how many, difference/change, etc.)

7. Relating (examining relationships and connections)

Successful Adaptation Strategies: What Tools Do Scientists Use

When They Are Working?

8. Testing hypotheses (experimentation) – Applying knowledge

9. Communicating information/interacting (Talking/interacting with “knowledgeable others” are essentials to learning; Open discourse; Accountable talk; expressive language -

drawing)

10. Recording data information (“When found, make note of.” – Dickens)

11. Sharing and evaluating data (community of learners; examining/ analyzing for error)

12. Utilizing multi-sensory methods (and sensory extensions, e.g., telescopes, microscopes, etc.)

13. Summarizing and revising one’s own thinking

14. Arriving at and sharing conclusions (as well as interpreting data; modifications to the original experiment possibly leading

to cycles of investigation) and inferring

15. Writing (preparing arguments that support one’s conclusions) and learning from reading without “the experience”

Meaning Is Derived From Connections

Our academic curriculum should reflect the beauty of patterns that blend together, rather than resembling a patchwork of unrelated content and experiences. Patterns are easy to process, comprehend, and remember because of the blended relationships.

Our ancestors’ survival was determined by…

•Discovering patterns to understand/predict the ever-

changing world around them

• We became the planet’s only animal that looks for

problems/invents problems to solve. We even

practice solving imaginary problems in places

called “school” -- preparation for adulthood.

• Scientists estimate that 99.99% of all species that

have ever lived on earth are extinct today.

Practicing for real and imagined problems has

played a vital role in our long term survival

What does a scientist look like when he is working?

Relevant questions, imagination, predictions, inferences, patterns, hunches, experimenting (trial/error) skepticism, thinking, memory, curiosity, minimize errors, sense-making, a quest for knowledge →

Survival

Testing testing

Non-educators Consumed byLegislation and Bureaucracy

No Considerations for human Learning and Behavior

Neuroscience, Cognition, Learning and the human Brain

N.C.L.B.

Kenneth Wesson, a founding member of the Association of Black Psychologists wrote brilliantly,

“Let’s be honest. If inner-city children consistently outscored children from wealthy suburban homes on standardized tests, is anyone naïve enough to believe that we would still insist on using these tests as indicators of success?”

“The Big Picture” by Dennis Littky

…more High-stakes Testing?

Good spreadsheets do not make us immune to bad decisions

Where Did the Idea That “We Need More Tests” Come From?

1.No high-achieving nation spends as much time, money or organized efforts on standardized testing as we do. 2.If excessive testing → ↑ scores in math and science, why aren’t the leading nations (whose scores we are trying to emulate) testing more?

3.Why are we alone in advocating a “test-and-they-will-learn-more” strategy, which has not been proven successful anywhere in the entire world?

Instead….

• Finland, Singapore and South Korea

• Teaching is the most popular career choice for HS

graduates in Finland (choose just 1/10 applicants from

the top quarter of their classes).

The ↑ performing countries have rigorous recruitment for

teachers with strong academic qualifications and

they are paid well for their important contribution to their

countries’ long-term economic security.

High-achieving Nations:Highly Respected Professionals (“Experts”)

• Economists recognize the correlation between a strongly supported ed.’l system and a strong economy.

• KW proposal – “No state should be allowed to pay an actor or professional athlete $1 more than the lowest paid teacher in the state.” - AD directors

• The NY-based McKinsey & Co. report: teachers’ salaries should begin at $65,000 (↑$150,000) annually. (↑

ROI on teachers not tests)

• Chile raised teacher salaries by more than 150% in a decade → one of the fastest growing economies in the OECD countries/fastest improving countries participating in the PISA exam.

High-achieving Nations:Highly Respected Professionals (“Experts”)

• Educators and South Korea and Finland spend

600 hours a year engaged in face-to-face instruction

with their students.

• Many school days are spent in PD, planning and refining

lessons with colleagues (“STREAM-posium”).

• Contrast: Teachers in the US average 1100 hours/yr.

face-to-face with students and with annually

decreasing numbers of hours set aside for PD.

High-achieving Nations:Highly Respected Professionals (“Experts”)

Obstacles to Successful S.T2.R.E.A.M. Learning

1.A weak foundation in concrete learning and working memory formation – prerequisites for complex and abstract thinking

2.Reading, writing, discourse, argumentation and mathematics are taught as subjects rather than as tools we use in the pursuit of knowledge (in science).

3.↑ time memorizing facts (and testing) instead of on viable curricular connections - S.T2.R.E.A.M.

Hologram

Multiple layers of a 3-D hologram

Good thinking is a matter of making connections, and knowing what kinds of connections to make.

---David Perkins

• If thinking engages multiple areas of the

cerebral cortex simultaneously, why

shouldn’t classroom instruction?

• Our academic silos impose a structure

that often becomes an obstruction to

learning and creative thinking.

Critical Cognitive Connections

Math

Engineering

ThematicInstruction

Art

Reading/LATechnology

Science

• Real world problem solving requires integrated solutions, where language, mathematics, logic, visualization, physics/engineering, scientific reasoning, technology, may come into play

o in varying combinationso in different proportionso where each is used in a different sequence

depending upon the nature of the problemo to a different degree of usageo in varying durationso at varying times and possibly multiple times

Critical Cognitive Connections

Math

Engineering

ThematicInstruction

Art

Reading/LA

Technology

Science

The brain naturally organizes information

based on complex connections that are

established over time, not based on the

subject heading that the initialinstruction

took place.

Learners Create Meaning via Connections

3-D Hologram

We “hook” students on learning by “hooking” together our curriculum (PBL) and by integrating ideas across the disciplines (ideas, concepts and content are seen as relevant in multiple contexts).

Doing so prepares students for 1. The real-world (relevant to my life beyond the

lesson, the classroom, and the school)2. Increasingly complex and abstract concepts that

require background knowledge from multiple fields of study (relevant and connected to each other)

3. Higher education, graduate work, and careers in the 21st century workplace

Obstacle:

Conceptual “holes” in a student’s thinking

caused by a lack of connections and

reinforcement (practice and extensions) →

robust neural networks → knowing what the

connection is and where other connections are

likely to be found.

The Hole Illusion

• Roll a sheet of paper lengthwise into a tube shapeapproximately 2 inches in diameter. • Hold the tube up to your left eye with your left hand.• Focus on an object 12-15 feet away with both eyes,

with the left eye still looking through the tube. • Hold right hand 8-10 inches in front of right eye -- with right hand open/palm facing towards you.• Move your right hand towards side of the paper tube

until your little finger touches the edge • With both eyes open you should see a strange sight. • What happened?

A Hole in Your Hand Illusion

Both of your eyes see the same thing, but from two slightly different visual fields. Your brain must combine two slightly different viewpoints in order to see depth, 3 dimensions and to judge distances. We have interfered with that process.

X

“A Hole in the Concept” - Instructions

1.Read the excerpt on the next slide at normal speed.

2. Do not skim or give up halfway (read through to the end.)

3. Once you've finished, ask yourself how do you feel about reading the paragraph.

“A Hole in the Concept”

A newspaper is better than a magazine. A seashore is better place

than the street. At first it is better to run than to walk. You may have

to try several times. It takes some skill, but it is easy to learn. Even

young children can enjoy it. Once successful, complications are

minimal. Birds seldom get too close. Rain, however soaks in very

fast. Too many people doing the same thing can also cause

problems. One needs lots of room. If there are no complications, it

can be very peaceful. A rock will serve as an anchor. If things

break loose from it, however, you will not get a second chance.

On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're NotRobert A. Burton, M.D.

Note what happens in your mind when a

title is added.

• Re-read the excerpt (knowing the title,

now with no change to the contents)

Was this paragraph comprehensible or

is it meaningless to you?

Making Connections

A newspaper is better than a magazine. A seashore is better

place than the street. At first it is better to run than to walk.

You may have to try several times. It takes some skill, but it is

easy to learn. Even young children can enjoy it. Once

successful, complications are minimal. Birds seldom get too

close. Rain, however soaks in very fast. Too many people

doing the same thing can also cause problems. One needs

lots of room. If there are no complications, it can be very

peaceful. A rock will serve as an anchor. If things break loose

from it, however, you will not get a second chance.

Flying a Kite

Now can you make meaningful

connections?

• Does every sentence support what you

now know? (Sense-making: meaning

derived from making neural connections)

Making Connections

About Learning

• Learning is a complex multi-directional process of (1) interpretation, (2) thinking, and (3) revision - not a linear process

• Knowledge is socially constructed (importance of peer-to-peer interaction)

• Learners create meaning

National Research Council. Knowing What Students Know, 2001.

Science

Technology

Engineering

Mathematics

Reading/Language Arts (Standards)

Art

Drawing/diagramming, visual spatial thinking, imagery, inferential

thinking, 2/3-dimensional modeling, symbolic models, interpreting visual evidence, visual representations -

illustrations, charts, etc.

Visual Literacy

S.T2.R.E.A.M.

Reading, writing, discourse, argumentation, vocabulary development, comprehension, journals, note-booking,

lab reports, summaries, oral presentations, recording interpreting and

critiquing data and information

Reading/Language arts

or

Math or Science?

Binary arguments that limit the scope and quality of our subsequent discussions.

Education: Caught in a Web of False Choices

The Achievement Gap

• Vocabulary = proxy for knowledge. Achievement gaps are knowledge gaps primarily sponsored by ever-expanding vocabulary gaps.

• A highly developed vocabulary facilitates precision, not just in speaking, but in thinking.

• Lack of vocabulary can be a crucial factor underlying the school failure of disadvantaged students (Becker, 1977; Biemiller, 1999).

Of the most common language interactions used, 400 to 600 high frequency words are used most

out of the 86,741 most widely-used English words:

1. children's books → 627 of the ↑ utility words2. primetime children's TV shows → 543 words3. Conversations among non-college graduates

→ 496 of the ↑ utility words4. Scientific articles → 4389 of the ↑ utility words

making science the richest academic source for vocabulary development

Science Should be at the Center of Language Development

Question:

How do you teach vocabulary best?

Answer: In context

Full answer: In the context of doing

(not in the context of reading).

Instead of saying: Use MINDFUL LANGUAGE by saying:

“Let’s look at these two pictures.” “Let’s COMPARE these two pictures.”

“What do you think will happen when…?” “What do you PREDICT will happen when…?”

“How can you put those into groups?” “How can you CLASSIFY…?”

“Let’s work this problem.” “Let’s ANALYZE this problem.”

“What do you think would have happened “What do you SPECULATE would have happened if…?” if…?

“What did you think of this story?” “What CONCLUSIONS can you draw about this story?”

“How can you explain……?” “What HYPOTHESES do you have that might explain...?”

“How do you know that’s true?” “What EVIDENCE do you have to support…….?”

“How else could you use this…..? “How could you APPLY this ……..?”

The Language of Science?

Cognitive Rehearsals

When playing with objects, learners are simultaneously manipulating and playing with ideas (using internal dialogues to attach words and meaning to actions)

Exploring and experimenting involve examining relationships, interactions and systems, where learners formulate their own personal “theories” (mental constructs)

Thinking is a rehearsal for discourse

Discourse is a rehearsal for writing

Cognitive Rehearsals

“You can't make the words or ideas

come out of your pencil,

until you can get them

to come out of your mouth.”

-- CO Master Teacher Eileen Patrick

Cognitive Rehearsals

Playing with objects and ideas, exploring and experimenting, thinking, talking, and writing become rehearsals (background knowledge) for reading.

Writing and reading clarify one’s thoughts, generate coherent thinking, and cultivate precision in expressing one’s inner thoughts

Discourse and writing become rehearsals for assessment

Source: Kenneth Wesson (2011). Education for the Real World: six great ideas for parents and teachers.Brain World, Issue 2, Volume 2.

“STREAM-posium” (PLC): Share Interdisciplinary Vocabulary Lists

• Prepare a list of the key vocabulary words for the

week/month from each subject area/discipline

• Exchange those lists with colleagues and look for

polysemous words that also are germane to

your discipline, your lessons plans for the year.

• Word appearing in multiple academic areas, warrant

attention

• Weave these interdisciplinary (bonus) words into

your lectures, discussions, writing assignments,

and assessments (bonus for multiple meanings).

“STREAM-posium” (PLC): Sharing Your Interdisciplinary Vocabulary Lists

• Introduce words along with their (1) associated definitions in

context, and (2) connections to contexts in other

subject areas. (Use Word webs and Venn diagrams)

• “Last year, you heard this word used when you learned about

______ in your ______ class”

• “In your social studies class this year, you will see this word

again. However, its alternative meaning of ______

will be emphasized.”

• “What do you think this word mean, when you hear it used in

mathematics?”

• “In 6th grade literature, you will hear more about this word,

but guess what? In literature, this word is used to describe…

However, in science it means…”

“STREAM-posium” (PLC): Content Knowledge: “Resident Expert”

• Have the Science teacher “guest lecture” in the

Reading/LA class on how we read differently in

science than we do in literature. How is it different

and why?

• Have the Art teacher “guest lecture” in the

Engineering and English class to show how we take

visual images in the mind → paper

• Have the Science teacher “guest lecture” in P.E.

(games, baseball, amusement rides, etc., all depend

on principles from physical science)

When planning your instruction,

be sure to use the appropriate

context for teaching the target

concept.

The problem is not always just what

we teach, but it is

how, when and where (context)

we teach important content.

Time is often taught as a random abstract concept

Shared Learning Experiences: Time, Earth, and Space

At this time of day, I…

Wake up ______ a.m. leave home ______ a.m.

eat lunch______ leave school ______p.m.

eat dinner ______ p.m. do homework ______ p.m.

go to bed ______ p.m.

The sun rises in the East at ______ a.m.

Measure and Insert Data Points (Graph) of Changes in the Position of the Sun Throughout the Day:

Data from your own “obelisk”

Making connections

Time is most effectively taught in aScience context, not as a Math skill

Time reflects the regular degrees of consistent changes in the earth-sun relationship. We calibrate those degrees of change in “seconds, minutes, hours, days, etc.,”-- applying math to the science content.

1. Science2. Math3. Art4. Social studies5. History6. Vocabulary/L.A.7. Critical thinking8. Spatial relations9. Home-school

connection

S.T2.R.E.A.M. : Multiple Contexts For Connected Learning

Transfer

• Transfer is facilitated by knowing the multiple contexts under which an idea applies

(i.e., effective transfer is inextricably linked to the conditions for applicability; rote

learning rarely transfers.)

• New learning depends on prior learning and previous learning can often interfere with new content that is being taught.

Balance

Balance and Engineering: The Cantilever Bridge Challenge

Table2 inches

1 inch

= 12 inch ruler

How far?

Balance

History of toys; different toys used by children around the world = S.S.

Bridges

Toys, playground equipment, amusement parks = balance and motion (physical science)

Physics/systems

The geometric shape used most in construction?

skill

s/kn

ow

led

ge

Content

Hologram:Learning on the Diagonal

9 Most Effective Strategies for AchievementMarzano, et. al.

"CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION THAT WORKS“

PERCENTILE NUMBERCATEGORY GAIN of STUDIES

Identifying Similarities and Differences 45% 31

Summarizing and Note-taking 34% 21

Reinforcing Effort/Providing Recognition 29% 21

Homework and Practice 28% 134

Nonlinguistic Representation 27% 246

Cooperative Learning 27% 122

Setting Objectives/Providing Feedback 23% 63

Generating and Testing Hypotheses 23% 63

Questions/Cues/Advance Organizers 22% 1,251

We incorporate each of these in S.T2.R.E.A.M.

The S.T2.R.E.A.M. Hologram

Uses 8 of Gardner’s

9 Multiple Intelligences

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)

"Since the beginning of the 20th century, the

average per capita income in the United

States has grown more than sevenfold,

and science and technology account for

more than half of this growth."

Reflect and Connect At some point within the next 24 hours, write:

• What did you learn today?

• How did our conversation change your thinking?

• Write down two “I will” statements from today’s experience.

Contact information:

Kenneth Wesson

Educational Consultant: Neuroscience

San Jose, CA

(408) 323-1498 (office)

kenawesson@aol.com