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Brain Rules

John Medina, Pear Press, 2008

Application to education

Chapters 1 -5 Lawrence P. Creedon

In Brain Rules author and neurobiologist John Medina identified 12 principles for surviving and thriving at

home, work and school. He devoted a chapter to each principal. Here we will focus on chapters 1- 5. A page

by page reference to points made by Medina that relate to education and learning has been extracted from

Medina’s text. Most of the Medina references are followed by a comment by Creedon. Your assignment is

to extrapolate from the education based points made by Medina their application for you and your practice.

Medina’s 12 Brain Rules principals are: are:

1. Exercise: The brain strives on motion. Exercise is an “incredible” test-score booster

2. Survival: The human brain has evolved and will continue to do so

3. Wiring : Multiple intelligence -- Every brain is wired differently

4. Attention: Emotions matter. We don’t pay attention to boring things

5. Short-term memory: “Memories” get stored in different areas of the brain and change

6. Long-term Memory: Regular, purposeful repetition has its place in learning

7. Sleep Well, Think Well: The brain doesn’t sleep to rest. “Sleep on it!”

8. Stress: Stress can be good and bad for brains and learning. What is good stress, bad stress?

9. Sensory Integration: Multisensory stimulation supports better learning

10. Vision: Vision trumps all other senses

11. Gender: Male and female brains are different

12. Exploration: Babies are great scientists. What happens when they go to school?

Professor Medina alludes to a self evident reality when he notes brain research and its application to what

goes on behind the classroom door is not of high priority in the pre-service preparation of teachers, graduate

study nor professional development activities. In my experience it has been seen as being too esoteric,

mysterious and remote with little direct application for practitioners. That perception calls to mind Plato’s

observation: That which is honored is practiced, while that which is without honor is neglected.

However, brain research and its application to learning is the future. More than that, it is not only the future,

it is now. As I write this a new book by Barton Gellman is coming on the market concerning United States

Vice President Richard Cheney: Angler – The Cheney Vice Presidency. Gellerman quotes former White

House Chief of Staff Andrew Card as saying that his job was to provide peripheral vision to the president of

the United States rather than perpetuate the tunnel vision of the conventional wisdom. And, so it is with

Medina’s Brain Rules as it relates to education and specifically classroom management and student behavior.

Brain research is on the periphery of what goes on in assisting young people in coming to know.

Medina’s focus is not directly on education, however, the implication for what goes on behind the classroom

door is significant. It is up to concerned practitioners to extrapolate from the findings of brain research to the

application for schooling and in particular, in this context, classroom management, student behavior and the

learning needs of special needs youngsters. To embrace the findings of brain research, the tunnel vision of

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the present must be challenged. To challenge tunnel vision is by no means new thinking. It is at least as old

as Plato’s analogy of the cave. See Plato: Republic, Book Seven

http://www.geocities.com/jasonpell/documents/cave.html

Medina calls for the establishment of a college of education where the program is all about brain

development. He likens the college of education to a medical school and advocates it being comprised of

three divisions. The first division he identified as a “traditional faculty”. The second of “certified teachers

who teach the little ones…” And the third brain scientists. He credits John Dewey [1859-1952] with

establishing in 1896 a model for such a school in the Laboratory School at the University of Chicago.

[Medina, p. 274, 276-7].

Brain Research and its application is relevant to the professional development of educators in all phases of

their professional preparation. The cutting edge of research related to learning focuses on the brain and on

emotional development.[See Medina chapter 8: Stress]. It has application in the hiring, promotion and

evaluation of practitioners. It is relevant to the development of curriculum as well as instructional strategy

and tactics. It is applicable to classroom management and student behavior. It plays a strong role in

providing for special needs learners including ESL students.

What follows is a series of direct references to Brain Rules where Medina relates brain research to education.

In writing Brain Rules, Medina’s purpose was not to produce a theory into practice piece; however,

throughout he makes frequent references to the application of what is now known about how the brain

functions, to how human beings learn and thus to what goes on in school. It is up to the reader to extrapolate

what Medina, as a brain scientist with a background in molecular biology, discusses in Brain Rules. To do

less in the pursuit of excellence in education might be termed as being at play in little games. And, that calls

to mind the 1939 poem by Robert Abrams: “The Night They Burned Shanghi:” The poem’s final verse

tragically notes:

Some men die of shrapnel

Some go down in flames

But most men die bit by bit

In play at little games.

Ignoring brain research is tantamount to being at play the little game of schooling.

Two Concerns About Education

In discussing how ideas are formed in the brain Medina cited two concerns he has about education. Certainly

these are not original with Medina and a case might be made that they are not the most pressing from a

practitioner’s point of view. However, they do go to a concern for how schools are and have been organized,

about perpetuating a one-size-fits-all approach, and how these strategies impact on performance and

behavior. Medina observed that individual brains are individually wired; therefore: [Medina, p. 66-67.]

…does it make any sense to have school systems that expect every brain to learn like every other?

Does it make sense to treat everybody the same…? The data offer powerful implications for how we

should teach kids …

The current system is founded on a series of expectations that certain learning goals should be

achieved by a certain age. Yet there is no reason to suspect that the brain pays attention to those

expectations. Students of the same age show a great deal of intellectual variability.

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These differences can profoundly influence classroom performance. This has been tested. For

example, about 10 percent of students do not have brains sufficiently wired to read at the age at

which we expect them to read. Lockstep models based simply on age are guaranteed to create a

counterproductive mismatch to brain biology.

The Past as Prologue

It is generally recognized that the past is an ever present foundation upon which the present and the future is

built. So it is with Medina’s not unique observation cited above. For example, it relates to what Rousseau

[1712-1778] writing in his classic novel Emile observed when he laid out his theory of natural unfoldment.

Obviously Rousseau was not privy to brain research, but he did advocate that learning should follow the

natural interests and developmental unfoldment of the child. He proposed that the teaching of reading be

delayed until the learner was 10 to 15 years old so that it would be consistent with his/her individual

development. In direct contrast to the observational and logic based view of Rousseau and to the documented

results of contemporary brain research schools continue to reflect adherence to past theories anchored in

whole class, large group lock-step procedures. In roads in contrast to this approach made by progressivist

educators was not welcomed by advocates of the old order. For example in 1949 Mortimer Smith offered

And Madly Teach. Smith alleged that a “progressivist philosophy of education was undemocratic and anti-

intellectual because it failed to adhere to any standards of knowledge and abandoned the notion of educating

every child with the world’s wisdom by embracing ‘utilitarian how-to courses’ “[Evans The Social Wars: What

Should We Teach the Children?, 2004] See how this relates to notions of Faculty Psychology referenced on p. 110

of Brain Rules and found here on p.

The drumbeat of Smith’s criticism has been heard continuously since publication of And Madly Teach and it

was not original with Smith. While it is not the purpose of this piece to join the “social wars” reviewed by

Evans what can be done is to focus on what brain research contributes to the allegation of schools being

undemocratic and anti-intellectual. A purpose of brain research is to understand how the individual brain of

each human being is wired and how learning takes place.

Is that being undemocratic? If educators are schooled in their professional development in brain research

and provided opportunities to apply what they have learned in their practice is that being anti-intellectual?

These neurologically based questions shed insight on how educators ought to be prepared, how the

curriculum ought to organized and presented, how schools and learning environments ought to be organized

and managed, and how learner behavior is affected. To do less, is that not being undemocratic and anti-

intellectual?

Chapter 1: Exercise – Exercise Boosts Brain Power p.10 There is a relationship between exercise and mental alertness.

Creedon: If this is a fact how can school authorities in good conscious cut physical education and recess? Is

this not being anti-intellectual?

p. 11 Humankind’s unique cognitive skills were forged “in the furnace of physical activity.”

Creedon: How are sedentary schools justified in light of what scientific brain research has demonstrated?

p. 14 A lifetime of exercise can result in sometimes astonishing elevation in cognitive performance

compared with those who are sedentary.

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Creedon: What of school mission statements proclaming that a purpose of schooling is to develop life long

learners? Is exercise to be excluded from life long?

p. 14 Short term memory skills appear to be unrelated to physical activity.

Creedon: A forceful reminder that exercise is not a silver bullet in the arsenal of coming to know. There are

factors, purposes and conditions that define exercise.

p. 14 Aerobic exercise is important such as jogging for 30 minutes two or three times a week.

p.15 Too much exercise and exhaustion can hurt cognition.

p. 16 Exercise has a positive impact on mood, depression and anxiety.

Creedon: These factors become applicable when student behavior becomes an issue.

p. 16 There is a limited amount of research relating the cognitive impact of exercise on young children.

Creedon: Be careful not to impose an adult solution on developing children.

p. 18 physically fit children do identify visual stimuli much faster sedentary ones. Vision trumps all other

senses.

p. 18 Physically fit children have longer attention spans.

Creedon: Failure to pay attention is a common lament teachers have about students. It is related to behavior.

p. 22 Exercise is cognitive candy.

p.23 Our evolutionary ancestors walked up to 12 miles a day mostly in search of food.

p. 24 Treadmills in classroom. Rather than sitting stationary at desks, walking on a treadmill.

Creedon: Do not be too quick to dismiss this as quackery. Think of all the others things in life that could not

be, but now are commonplace. As one example how about computers and everything related to them. At a

time when the sedentary activity of children is gaining more attention schools are reinforcing a sedentary

approach to learning through the emphasis on drill in preparation for standardized high stakes A response

has been the emergence of “Kid Gyms.” It is estimated that in 2007 1.3 million children ages 6 to 11 were

members of health clubs according to the International Health, Racquet and Sports Club Association. It is

estimated that one-quarter of health clubs have children’s programs. One major organization is Action Kids

Fitness Centers. A question that immediately comes to mind is: Are “Kid Gyms” filling the void left by

schools as they abandon physical education in order to focus on test preparation? Beyond that is the question

of: How should schools respond to what brain research indicates about the importance of exercise as it

relates to learning including student behavior? [DCExaminer.com, September 18, 2008].

Summary Chapter One

1. Our brains were built for walking – 12 miles per day

2. To improve thinking skills, move

3 Exercise brings blood to the brain, bringing it glucose for energy and oxygen to soak up the toxic

electrons that are left over. It also stimulates the protein that keeps neurons connecting.

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4. Aerobic exercise just twice a week halves your risk of dementia. It cuts your risk of Alzheimer’s

by 60 percent

Questions

1. What is the policy and program for PE, recess and exercise where you practice?

2. Should brain research be a major consideration in educator professional development?

3. How can brain research impact the curriculum and instructional procedures?

4. How would the results of brain research impact classroom management and learner behavior?

5. Do you deny recess as a form of punishment? If so, is it effective? Why? Why not?

6. What does brain research tells us about accommodating the learning needs of special needs learners?

7. Are you satisfied with the exercise program for your learners? What more can you do?

Additional Input

The Washington post newspaper of Wednesday, September 16, 2008 carried a feature story by Bill Turque

in its Metro section: “The Recess Regimen – Structured Recess Offers Fitness and Life Lessons.”

YOUR ASSIGNMENT: The article will be made available to you. Critically review it. In that context

include n your consideration: 1.What is the purpose of “recess”? 2. What is the rationale for a structured

recess? 3. How has adult supervision, organization and control of “play-time” by children changed with the

advent of little league sports, play dates, etc? 4. What is the relationship of the “benefits” of recess to the

findings of brain research related to exercise and considered here by Medina?

Chapter Two: Survival - The Human Brain Evolved Too p. 32 Other animals have cognitive abilities, but those of the human being are unique and surpass all others.

Creedon: Do you agree with this statement? If you do, why? If not, why not?

p. 32 Human beings have the ability to reason “symbolically” and engage in “dual representation.”

Creedon. What do these terms mean? Google or Yahoo them. Do they have any impact on your practice? Is

there a relationship here with intuition? See Malcolm Gladwell: Blink – The power of Thinking Without

Thinking, 2005.

p.33 Symbolic reasoning is a developmental skill. Pre school children are capable of reasoning

symbolically.

Creedon: If you practiced consistent with what is known about brain development how would it impact on

classroom management, your approach to student behavior and how you provided for learners with special

needs?

p. 34 The brain is a biological tissue; it follows the rules of biology. And there is no bigger rule in biology

than evolution through natural selection.

Creedon: Does that finding of science have any relevance to your practice? If so where, when, how?

p. 37 “Variability Selection Theory” predicts some simple things about learning such as a data base to store

information and the ability to improvise off that data base. One allows us to know when we have made a

mistake; the other allows us to learn from mistakes. “Any learning environment that deals with only the

database instincts or only the improvisatory instincts ignores one half of our ability…Some schools

…emphasize a stable, rote-learned database. They ignore the improvisatory instincts drilled into us for

millions of years.”

Creedon: What is the reality where you practice?

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p. 39-40 The “executive function” of the prefrontal cortex of the brain located just behind the forehead. This

controls our ability to solve problems, maintain attention and control emotional impulses. This region

controls much of behavior.

Creedon: Are you knowledgeable concerning this area? How might your competence in this area impact on

your practice including “how you teach,’ how you organize your learning environment and how you address

student behavior?

p. 43-44 Teamwork. If you can establish cooperative agreements [with other learners] you can double your

[learning] power…Learning to cooperate and work together increases your learning power. It requires

creating a shared goal that takes into account you’re the interests of colleagues as well as your own. To

understand the interests of others you must be able to understand their motivation.

Creedon: How does this resonate with your practice? To what extent are you “brain savy” in this regard?

Does learning as an interactive activity characterize your practice or do you view and practice learning as a

solitary activity with each learner functioning individually? When is one approach more appropriate than

another? Which emulates real life more? Should school emulate life?

p. 44 Theory of Mind. Theory of mind is something human beings have like no other creatures. Through

theories of mind we try to see our world in terms of motivations.

Creedon: What has and does motivate you in your professional life? Why be a teacher? Why are you in this

course, this degree program? Why are your learners in your class? Does motivation have an impact on how

you prepare to teach whatever it is that you do teach, how you teach it, how your organize your learning

environment and how you view student behavior?

p. 46 Stress, both good and bad, has an impact on learning If a student feels misunderstood because the

teacher cannot connect with the way the student learns, the student may become isolated.

Creedon: How learning takes place is the number one professional question that must be foremost for every

educator.

Summary Chapter Two

1. Human beings took over the earth by adapting to change itself.

2. The brain has evolved

3. Symbolic reasoning is a uniquely human talent.

4. Team work and understanding what motivates others is critical to learning.

Questions

1. In your professional preparation to what extent have you studied the relationship of the brain to

learning?

2. What does brain research say to you about how you practice?

3. What do you understand about motivation?

4. How can knowledge about how the brain functions impact on your practice – what you teach, how

you teach it, how you organize the learning environment and how it all impacts on student behavior?

Chapter Three: Wiring – Every Brain is Wired Differently What happens to brain while it is learning? What role does experience play?

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p.53 DNA possesses genes, small snippets of biological instructions, that guide everything from how tall

you will become to how you respond to stress.

Creedon: What does information such as this imply about how far education is from responding to the

individual learning needs of learners? How far away are other professions and end users of genetic

information such as medicine and forensic law enforcement away from applying information gained from

DNA? What DNA information about your learners could you use?

p. 57 When people learn something the wiring in their brains change. These changes result in the functional

organization and reorganization of the brain.

Creedon: Does knowing this make any difference to what goes on behind the classroom door?

p. 58 The brain acts like a muscle. The more activity it is involved in the larger and more complex it

becomes. However, this does not, as yet, mean to more intelligence.

Creedon: In your experience is the place where you practice sensitive to brain development?

p. 59 The brain does not develop in lock-step fashion. Different regions within the brain develop at different

rates.

Creedon: How does this square with the lock-step method of schools, with a one-size-fits-all approach, with

time controlled learning exercises?

p. 60 The brain in learners is as unevenly developed as individual bodies.

p. 60 The brain has three major categories of wiring related to behavior. They are “experience independent.”

“experience expectant,” and “experience dependent.”

Creedon: What might you conclude from the context of the terms? Can you cite examples from your

practice. How would you respond to each?

p. 61 No two people have the same identical experience. Brains create different memories of the same

experience.

Creedon: If this is so, do schools accommodate that reality?

p.63-4 Howard Gardner has identified nine different intelligences. Brain scientists would counter with there

are more than seven billion – one for each living person.

p. 65 No two brains store information in exactly the same place.

p. 69 A three-pronged research effort brain brain and education scientists:

• Evaluate teachers and teachers to be for advanced Theory of Mind Skills. Determine whether or not there is

a difference in student performance.

• Develop adaptive software for a variety of grade levels and subjects.

• Test both approaches in various combinations.

p. 70 It cannot be denied that brains are wired differently; however, it can be ignored and schools do that.

Creedon: Do you support this allegation?

p. 71 Grade structures based on age ought to be dismantled?

Creedon: Do you agree. If so – How would you organize the school? If you disagree, why?

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Summary Chapter Three

1. What you do in life physically changes what your brain looks like.

2. The various regions of the brain develop at different rates in different people.

3. No two people’s brain store the same information in the same way in the same place.

4. We have a great number of ways of being intelligent, many of which don’t show up on IQ tests.

Chapter Four: Attention – We don’t pay attention to boring things p. 74 A strong link between attention and learning has been shown in classroom research both historically

and currently. “Better attention always equals better learning.” Attention “improves retention of reading

material, accuracy, and clarity in writing, math, science – every academic category that has ever been

tested.”

Creedon: From a practitioner’s point of view is that observation obvious, self evident? Do not practitioners

constantly caution learners to “Pay attention?” Do they not report to parents that their child has attention

problems? Do we not label some children as suffering from: Attention Deficient Disorder? Does the labeling

contribute to behavior problems? Is not the assumption made that there must a “silver bullet” solution out

there is some form of motivation, reward and/or punishment?

Historically the issue is not new. For example Plato observed: That which is honored is practiced while that

which is neglected is ignored.

p.74 Research indicates that attention loss begins after 10 minutes of direct presentation. “Before the first

quarter-hour is over in a typical presentation, people usually have checked out…” What happens at the 10

minute break no one knows. Messages that do grab attention are connected to memory, interest and

awareness.

Creedon: Do you believe the above? In your practice are you sensitive to this and structure your

presentations accordingly? Do you believe this matter has an impact of student behavior? Do you practice

with memory, interest and awareness in mind?

p.75 What we pay attention to is often profoundly influenced by memory. We use previous experience to

predict where we should pay attention.

Creedon: Cautioning students to “Pay attention or suffer the consequences” is sometimes a common

utterance of teachers. The market place is redundant with “How-to” schemes promoting solutions as to how

to achieve this elusive goal. For example, Craig Segenti offers one such program:

craigsegenti@classroomdiscipline101.com.

Many teachers seem to be fixated on looking for the quick fix, silver bullet solution. The route of striving to

apply scientific fndings that address the issue of brain development is ignored as too esoteric.

Efforts at making them pay attention including reward and punishment tactics are not and never have been

successful unless you adhere to the view that children are born evil and need to disciplined so as to conform.

If so see an admittedly critical review of James Dobson’s views at:

www.geocities.com/cddugan/DobsonsDog

It is time for educators to give research findings a chance. John Holt [1923-1985] put it this way:

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No use to shout at them to pay attention. If the situation, the materials, the problems before the child

do not interest him, his attention will slip off to what does interest him, and no amount of exhortation

of threats will bring it back

p. 75 Culture matters and influences something is paid attention to, how and why.

Creedon: Can you cite culture based examples from your own experience?

p.76 Interest or arousal is directly related to attention. However, why this is so remains unknown.

Creedon: to what extent are you in your practice sensitive and responsive to this?

p. 76-7 Awareness. We must be aware of something for it to grab our attention. It is not known where

“consciousness” resides in the brain.

p. 78-9 The Posner “Trinity Model” of the brains functions: 1. Alerting [Arousal], 2. Intrinsic Alertness, 3.

Phasic Alertness.

Creedon: Getting into an understanding of matters such as this goes far beyond the day-to-day concerns of

educators. Visit: www.nutramed.com/philosophy/modules for one scholarly reference to Posner’s Trinity

Model. Such a brief familiarity with the field of brain research is a wake-up call for practitioners to realize

the magnitude of the questions related to how human beings come to know and how success in coming to

know impacts on behavior.

p. 80 Emotions. The research community is still debating exactly what an emotion is. However it is

generally accepted that emotion has a major effect on learning.

Creedon: What has been your personal experience related to the influence and impact of emotion on

learning? It is now an accepted belief concerning emotional intelligence is that it has more to do with

learning than the conventional belief in and reliance on IQ [Intelligence Quotient]. Daniel Goleman in his

book Emotional Intelligence [1995] brought emotional intelligence to the forefront. Another prominent and

contemporary source is that by Gordon Dryden and Dr. Jeannette Vos The Learning Revolution [1999].

However, a consideration of EQ in schooling remains embryonic. The emotional center of the human brain is

located in the limbic system – sometimes called "the mammalian brain" because it is similar to the major part

of the brain in other mammals.

p. 83 The brain remembers emotional things best. Emotion arousal focuses attention of the heart of an

experience – the “gist” - rather than the peripheral details. Over time it is the “gist” that gets remembered

more than the recall of details. However, it school it is detailed information that wins the day and is called

for in tests.

Creedon: The current influence on standardized testing is a prime example.

p.84 Meaning comes before details. “Knowledge is not simply a list of facts and formulas…instead

…knowledge is organized around core concepts or big ideas…”

Creedon: An example of this from my personal experience was in the Design for Learning developed by

educators in Quincy, MA during the period of my superintendency there. In curriculum development and

instructional implementation a concept based approach to the structure of the discipline was followed. In

subsequent years it was allowed to fall into disuse. In Plato’s terms it came to be without honor. However,

vestiges of the concept has been resurrected in the current standardized testing era. Ask Creedon about the

Design for Learning. See the Creedon monograph in this regard.

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p. 85 “To put it bluntly, research shows that we can’t multitask. We are biologically incapable of processing

attention rich inputs simultaneously.”

Creedon: Does this include such common place as activities such watching TV or talking on a telephone

while studying and doling home work? For more on multitasking go to:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200711/multitasking

p. 88-89 Expertise doesn’t guarantee good teaching.

Summary Chapter Four

1. The brain’s attention spotlight can focus on only one thing at a time: no multitask

2. We are better at seeing patterns and abstracting the meaning of an event than we are at recording details.

3. Emotional arousal helps the brain learn.

4. Audiences check out after 10 minutes, but you can grab them back by…creating events rich in emotion.

Additional Input

The findings of brain research is not something aside from the realities of every day life and beyond the

interest or comprehension level of regular people. Certainly attention and memory are two critically

important areas of concern. They are bread and butter issues in education. Teachers are constantly calling for

attention and lamenting its absence among students. Memory is basic to schooling and frequently out ranks

understanding and application in the hierarchy of what constitutes student success in school. Periodically the

popular press devotes space to brain research. Such is the case with the September 22, 2008 issue of

Newsweek magazine. A piece in the issue of Newsweek is devoted to a layman’s understanding of the role

memory. A copy of the article will be provided.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT: Realize that brain research is not a passing fad. Realize that the results of brain

research have direct application to what goes on in school including classroom management, student

behavior and how the learning needs of learners, including special needs youngsters, are addressed. Review

the article from Newsweek and check out additional information through a source such as Google. Confer

with one or more colleagues on the topic. Reflect on how the findings of brain research have impacted on

your practice. Lay out a plan of action for being more responsive to the findings of brain research in your

practice.

Chapter Five: Short Term Memory – Repeat to Remember

Creedon Note: A red flag should go up when considering this brain rule, especially in reference to “Repeat to

Remember.” Medina is in no way recommending the long established practice of teachers requiring students

to engage in seemingly endless exercises of repeating and memorizing. While “Practice may make perfect”

it is not as simple as the slogans suggest. An “Apple a day may keep the doctor away” but there is more to

nutrition than that. A good deal of understanding and reconsideration required here in order to set aside non-

defensible ingrained habits from the past.

p. 99 It is memory that makes us human.

p. 99 Memory is more complex than information retrieval. Information storage and retrieval are not the same

thing.

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p.100 People usually forget 90% of what they “learn” within 30 days.

p. 100 Memories have different life spans. Some are shorter, longer than others.

p. 100 Spaced learning is a critical component for transforming temporary memories into more lasting

memories. Spaced learning is greatly superior to massed learning.

Creedon: Clearly brain research does not support cramming, a common approach to studying and reinforced

by students cramming for an exam and schools setting aside study days that in effect encourage cramming.

All of it is well established, common practice. If research has demonstrated that cramming does not result in

more effective long term learning, why is it condoned and practiced? Does it amount to mal-practice?

p. 100 Spaced learning is greatly superior to massed learning.

Creedon: An ancient bit of wisdom is that “Repetition is the mother of learning.” Assuming that to be true,

the question becomes one of defining, understanding and applying appropriate repetition techniques. A

reality is that repetition can become mindless, time filling, drill in conflict with learning. See:

http://www.supermemo.com/english/princip.htm.

p. 101 There are at least two types of memories: 1. Conscious Awareness and 2. Memories that are not

conscious.

Creedon: From your own experience cite examples of each. Cite examples from your practice.

p. 103 Declarative Memory – Four steps involved: 1. Encoding, 2. Storing, 3. Retrieving, 4. Forgetting.

p. 104 The Moment of learning: “The moment of learning, of encoding, is so mysterious and complex that

we have no metaphor to describe what happens to our brains in those first fleeting seconds… Information is

fragmented and redistributed the instant the information is encountered.”

p. 112 “…the brain has no central happy hunting ground where memories go to be infinitively retrieved.

Instead memories are distributed all over the surface of the cortex…the data suggest that the human brain has

no hard drive separate from the initial input detectors.”

Creedon: This view is in sharp contrast to that of the now repudiated Faculty Psychology. Faculty

Psychology was the most prominent learning theory of the 19th

century. It held that the mind was a separate

entity from the body and that it was made up of separate and distinct areas where mental faculties resided.

The purpose of education was to identify each faculty and to train it by drill and repetition in order to

cultivate memory. This came to be known as the theory of mental states which promoted the notion that

certain subject areas had an inherent value in training the mind. While the theory is without scientific

foundation and honor today it continues to be practiced in the “drill-baby-drill” mantra of those committed to

equating basic skill mastery as determined by standardized tests with knowledge. The belief was that a

“mind so sharpened and so stored with knowledge was believed ready for any calling; indeed, it was

considered 'trained' and equipped for life. Thus... transfer of training resulted from sharpening the 'faculties'

or powers of the mind, instead of from the specific benefits derived from a particular subject or method of

study" See: http://employees.csbsju.edu/esass/facultypsychology.htm

A FEW QUESTIONS FOR YOU: What do you think about all of this? Do you identify with Faculty

Psychology? If so, how does it present itself in your approach to classroom management and learner

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behavior? If you do not support an approach rooted in Faculty Psychology what do you believe and how is

that belief reflected in your approach to classroom, management and student behavior? Maybe you have

never thought about it one way or another, if so what do you think now?

p. 114 Learning takes place best when it is “elaborate, meaningful and contextual… When you are trying to

drive a piece of information into your memory systems, make sure you understand exactly what the

information means. When you are trying to drive it into someone else’s brain, make sure they understand

what it means.”

Creedon: The reference to driving information into the brain seems to echo the now repudiated faculty

psychology of the 19th

century; therefore, it requires further clarification. It ought to be understood in the

context of such thinking as found in, among others, Benjamin Bloom’s Six Category Cognitive Domain

Taxonomy. See the Creedon monograph on Bloom.

p. 117-8 The learning environment. The encoding environment and the retrieving environment ought to be

equivalent. “At the moment of learning, many environmental features – even ones irrelevant to the learning

goals – may become encoded into the memory right along with the goals.”

Creedon: Why is it that so many students grow into adults expressing their dislike for one subject area or

another, or expressing a feeling of inadequacy in a given subject area? Why is it that some students conclude

that they hate school? Does it not all have to do with the climate for learning? And, is not the climate for

learning reflected in classroom management which in turn influences student behavior?

Summary Chapter Five

1. The brain has many types of memory systems. One four point system is: encoding, storing, retrieving

and forgetting.

2. Information coming into the brain is immediately split into fragments that are sent to different regions

of the cortex of the brain

3. Whether or not something will be remembered occurs within the first few seconds of learning.

4. The chances of remembering something are increased when the encoding and retrieving

environments are compatible.

Ipse dixit! Lawrence P. Creedon

lpcreedon@aol.com; lpcreedon@gmail.com; www.larrycreedon.wordpress.com.

Developed for Saipan: Classroom Management and Student Behavior, October 2008. Applied Seoul Korea,

Santiago Panama, Kuwait 2009.