neuroscience: implications for classroom practice february 14, 2012 linda l. jordan hope college
TRANSCRIPT
Neuroscience: Implications for Classroom Practice
February 14, 2012
Linda L. JordanHope College
Agenda
Welcome Brain GeographyWhat?
Brain Compatible ElementsSo What?
Action PlansHow?
Closing
Neuroscience Implications for
Classroom Practice
Meet My Family
My Credentials
Associate Professor
Hope College
Doctoral Candidate
SENIOR CONSULTANT
Successful Practices Network
International Center for Leadership in Education
Co-Director
Why do we need to get to know the teacher? (Linda)
• Emotion is the gatekeeper to learning• Relationship is a key element in every
classroom• Builds trust• Models inclusion in a safe way• Find common threads of interest• Fun
Sense of Belonging ActivityAll We Have In Common
• With the people sitting near you form a group of 3-5
• Create a list of at least three things you have in common.
• Be ready to share some items from you list with the group.
Goals for the Day
My Goals: Your Goals:~Give you a basic understandingof the brain~Give you some applications of brain information to help you create a brain compatible environment
~Create an action plan as a resultof being here today.
Brain Geography…WHAT?
Change
What are the global issues we face today?
Who Are the Students We Teach?
• Digital Natives• Live in Global World• Parents & Students have new choices
–On-line learning
Common Core State Standards
• Fewer• Higher• Deeper• The students will be expected to THINK and
apply their knowledge• Computerized• Next Generation of Testing, 2014
Why Change?
• Career and College Ready• 21st Century Skills• Technology• Foundational Knowledge• Pursuit of Excellence• Maximize Potential
LEVELS OF USE When learning a new strategy, process, or skill
LEVELS INDICES
Return to Non-Use and the cycle begins again
Use requires focus day by day on steps involved.MECHANICAL USE
All refinements possible have been made, user now seeks more effective alternatives, new approaches, and abandons the old in favor of the new.
RENEWAL
No action taken—user doesn’t know about it. NON-USEUser has just acquired or is acquiring information and is exploring it.ORIENTATION
Use has become routine and comfortable for the user. If changes are made, they are convenient.ROUTINE USE
Preparing to use it, finding out more, gathering the necessary materials, and getting organized.PREPARATION
User makes changes to improve the process and outcome for students.REFINEMENT
Deliberate effort is made to collaborate with others to achieve broader changes.
INTEGRATION/ COLLABORATION
Why do we need to Change?
Shenzhen, China: 1975
Shenzhen, China: Today
1980 - Fishing Village
2008 -
Port of Shenzhen
Source: Atlantic Monthly
1 / Second
24 / 7
Projection Keyboard
Projection Keyboard and Projector
1950’s School Building
1970’s School Building
2000’s School Building
2010’s School Building
Teachers are working hard, however….
Common Core State Standards
• Fewer• Higher• Deeper• The students will be expected to THINK and
apply their knowledge• Computerized• Next Generation of Testing, 2014
LEVELS OF USE
When learning a new strategy, process, or skill
LEVELS INDICES
Return to Non-Use and the cycle begins again —Karen Olsen, The Mentor Teacher Role, 1989
Use requires focus day by day on steps involved.MECHANICAL USE
All refinements possible have been made, user now seeks more effective alternatives, new approaches, and abandons the old in favor of the new.
RENEWAL
No action taken—user doesn’t know about it. NON-USEUser has just acquired or is acquiring information and is exploring it.ORIENTATION
Use has become routine and comfortable for the user. If changes are made, they are convenient.ROUTINE USE
Preparing to use it, finding out more, gathering the necessary materials, and getting organized.PREPARATION
User makes changes to improve the process and outcome for students.REFINEMENT
Deliberate effort is made to collaborate with others to achieve broader changes.
INTEGRATION/ COLLABORATION
Who Are the Students We Teach?
• Digital Natives• Live in Global World• Parents & Students have new choices
–On-line learning
BRAIN BIOLOGY
Do you Own a Million-Dollar Racehorse?
If you did, would you…• Keep him up until the wee hours of the morning?• Permit him to skip 90% of his training rituals?• Let him maintain a poor non-nutritious diet? (pop and potato
chips)• Endorse an almost completely sedentary lifestyle?• Find it okay for him to play video games for 3-4 hours a day?• Experiment on him with habit-forming and destructive drugs
and/or hallucinogens? Sometimes combining them with alcohol?• Let him “hang out” with other un-ambitious horses listening to
music for most of the day?
Do you Own a Million-Dollar Racehorse?
If you did, would you…• Allow him to watch 1,400 hours of TV each year,
complete with 18,000 gratuitous horse murders and expect him to be well-adjusted with a healthy self concept, and to see the world as a supportive, friendly place to grow, develop and a place where he will maximize his full potential?
Do you Own a Million-Dollar Racehorse?
If you did, what would he be worth to you or himself?
Our students and children have multi-billion dollar brains.
We should not allow their brains to be treated in ways far worse than we would ever treat a horse.
Kenneth Wesson
The BrainSO WHY DOES INFORMATION FROM THE
NEUROSCIENCES MATTER?
IT HAS BEEN A CURIOSITY FOR MUCH OF HUMAN HISTORY!
Learning is the brains primary function.
Leonardo da Vinci – 1489 a.d.
•First anatomical drawing of the human brain.
•Leonardo believed that all sensations–especially the emanations of vision converged at the intersection of lines.
Michelangelo – 1511 a.d. Creation of Adam – the brain of God?
Early Brain Studies.... Phrenology
Yesterday’s thinking…..Phrenology – 1840s and 50s
An early practice at the end of the 19th century that claimed to be able to identify mental capacity and character by feeling the bumps of the skull.
Early studies….
PET Scans
MRI and fMRI
It is possible to see the mind at work!
BRAIN BASICS
“LEARNING ISTHE BRAIN’S
PRIMARY FUNCTION…”Frank Smith, Insult to Intelligence
Pinky and the Brain
Lobes of the Brain
Occipital Lobe – lower back of brain
•Processes visual data coming in from the outside world. •Visual info is compared to previously stored associations to make meaning.
Parietal Lobe – two subdivisions
•Front section sends and receives info about movement.
•Back section analyzes and integrates info for spatial awareness.
Temporal Lobes – both sides
•This area is believed to be responsible for hearing, senses, language, learning and memory storage—especially auditory memory.
Frontal Lobes – executive functions
•Controls voluntary movement, verbal expression, problem solving, willpower, and mood.
•This is how we are consciously aware of our thoughts and actions.
•Not fully mature until mid to late 20s.
Communication of Neurons
Photograph of NEURONS
Environmental Factors Affecting the Growing Brain
Rapidly changing input-MTV
Variation in family pattern
Diet, nutrition,and drugs
Less physical activity, more TV
Greater stress, threat, and violence
Emotion laden messages
—David Sousa, 1998
Cerebral Cortex
•Made up of 6 layers of cells, their dendrites and some axons and has four lobes.
•Different lobes have separate functions.
Limbic System
Brain Stem
BRAIN STEM
Amygdala
•The psychological sentinel of the brain because it plays a major role in the control of emotion.
•It is connected to many parts of the brain and plays a critical part in learning, cognition and emotional memories.
Amygdala-Almond
Hippocampus
•It helps us remember events in recent past, as well as responsible for sending new information and experiences to be stored in the cortex in long-term memory.
•Critical to learning and memory formation.
Hippocampus-FEED THE HIPPO!
Corpus Callosum
• 200 million nerve fibers connecting the right and left hemispheres, and providing instantaneous communication.
• Not fully mature until adolescence – ages 16 to about 25.
Corpus CallosumDirt Road to Super Highway
Reticular Activating System
•The RAS receives information from all over the body and acts as a central, initial regulator for attention, arousal, sleep-wakefulness and consciousness.
•It filters out distractions or trivial sensory information.
Reticular Activating System The Filter…The Senses
DISTRATCIONS
Strategies for the Structures
What lessons have you taught that activated these structures in your
students brains?• Amygdala-Emotion
• Hippocampus-Memory
• RAS-Attention
SIX KINDS OF SENSORY INPUT
2nd HAND (3)
BEING THERE (20)
HANDS ON the real thing (9)
HANDS ONrepresentational items (4)
S Y M B O L I C (2) E = MC2 Adverbs
IMMERSION (13)
72
R. Rivlin and K. Gravelle, Deciphering Your Senses-1st 19 on list
SightHearingTouchTasteSmellBalance-MovementVestibularTemperaturePainEidetic ImageryMagneticInfraredUltravioletIonicVomeronasalProximalElectricalBarometricGeogravimetricProprioception
Visible LightVibrations in AirTactile ContactChemical MolecularOlfactory MolecularKinesthetic GeotropicRepetitious MovementMolecular MotionNociceptionNeuroelectrical Image RetentionFerromagnetic OrientationLong Electromagnetic WavesShort Electromagnetic WavesAirborne Ionic ChargePheromonic SensingPhysical ClosenessSurface ChargeAtmospheric PressureSensing Mass DifferencesSensation of Body in Space
© Exceeding Expectations by Susan Kovalik & Karen D. Olsen, p. 1.10
OUR “20” SENSES
The BrainA Pattern Seeking Device
The brain is so much into meaning that by the time it finishes processing it may not catch the whole picture.
Essentially, the brain’s reality filter asks, “Does this have meaning?” If the perception is that meaning isn’t there, information briefly hangs around then vanishes!
Dr. John Medina, Molecular Biologist
School of Medicine, University of Washington
SITUATION
PARTY: BirthdayHalloweenChristmasGraduation
GOING TO SCHOOLTAKING A TESTMEETING A STRANGER
RELATIONSHIP
I ME, HOT, COOLYOU TOMORROWDADDY YESTERDAYMOMMY OLD, NEW
PROCEDURE
GETTING DRESSEDGOING TO THE STOREDRIVING A CARSHOWERING
OBJECT
TEAPOTHAIRBRUSHCHAIRCATDOG
SYSTEM
FAMILYCOMPUTERTRANSPORTATIONLAWSCHOOLPOLITICAL
CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUESCLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUES • CLUESC
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EE p. 4.4
ACTION
RUNNING SKIPPINGWALKING JUMPING
SWIMMING
PATTERNSEEKING...
“You only understand information relative to what you already understand.”
“You only understand the size of a building if there is a car or a person in front of it.”
“You only understand facts and figures when they can be related to tangible, comprehensible elements.”
Richard Saul Wurman, Information Anxiety
“Cayard forced America to the left, filling its sails with ‘dirty air,’ then tacked into a right-hand shift….That proved to be the wrong side. America, flying its carbon fiber/liquid crystal main and headsails, found more pressure on the left. Cayard did not initiate a tacking duel until Il Moro got headed nearly a mile down the leg….Cayard did not initiate a jibing duel to improve his position heading downwind and instead opted for a more straight-line approach to the finish.” —USA Today, May 13, 1992
Mirror Neurons in the Brain
A new class of brain cells -- mirror neurons are active both when people perform an action and when they watch it being performed.
• making meaning through pattern seeking• developing a mental
program for using what we understand and wiring it into long-term memory
© Exceeding Expectations by Susan Kovalik & Karen D. Olsen, p.4.2
LEARNING IS A TWO STEP PROCESS
Developmental Nature of Learning
• Early Learning
• Teenagers
• Aging
Developmental Nature of Learning
Early Learning
The base patterns, 90% of which are acquired within the first few years of life, give us the template, on which to attach all future learning.
• Carla Hannaford, PhD., Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All In Your Head, Page 62
Dendrite Growth in the Young….
Pruning the Connections….
Developmental Nature of Learning
Teenagers
Mirroring the dramatic process of brain development that occurs in infancy, the development of the teen brain involves a massive overproduction of connections between brain cells, sometimes doubling the gray matter in one year.
ADOLESCENTS
The brains of teens are not like the brains of adults. More like young children.
• Emotional centers (limbic system) are reved up. The emotional centers, are the seat of raw emotions, like anger, fear, elation-gut reactions.
The Teen Years….
• Overproduction of connections (synapses)• Good judgment is learned.• The teen brain is a work in progress, far from mature.
Neural circuitry is not completely installed until into the 20’s.
• Surges of testosterone in both sexes swell the amygdala, causing a rise in aggression and irritability.
The Adult Brain
Marian Diamond
• Einstein’s brain• Enriched
environments• Magic Trees of the
Mind• Successful, healthy
aging• Adolescent brain
Patterns of Aging…..
Brain Books• Spark- John Ratey• Play- Stuart Brown• Teaching with the Brain in Mind- Eric Jensen• How the Brain Learns- David Sousa• Teaching the Reading Brain- Pat Wolfe• Brain rules-John Median• Primal Teen- Barbara Strauch• Secrets of the Teenage Brain-Sheryl Feinstein• The Adolescent Brain- Robert Sylwester • Brains Rules- John Medina
Brain Information
• Neurons that fire together wire together.• The brain that does the work grows the
dendrites!• No meaning, no memory.• Take your current lessons and frame them into
the following:– Invite everyone to participate– Cause learners to think, process, work– Create multiple connections
SO WHAT?Brain Compatible Elements
“A journey of a thousand
miles begins with a
single step.”~ Confucius ~
Absence of Threat/Nurturing Reflecting
Thinking
Meaningful Content
Adequate Time
Enriched Environment
Immediate Feedback
Movement
Choices
Collaboration
Mastery/Application
Bodybrain
Compatible
Elements
Enriched Environment
We are the only species
that creates the
environment that
creates who we become!Land of Childhood
EE p.7.16
2.28
Emotional EnvironmentTeacher/Facilitator
• “Every teacher is the an active and potent carrier of suggestion-whether s/he is conscious of that fact or not.”
• 1 year of a bad teacher- 3 years behind• 3 years of a bad teachers- may never catch up
Enriched Environment
Amygdala Hippocampus RAS- Reticular Activating System
• Clean and clutter free• Use of visuals-agenda, procedures• Calm, welcoming, joyful
ABSENCE OF THREAT
ABSENCE of THREATABSENCE of THREAT
• Absence of threat does not mean absence of challenge or lack of consequences for misbehavior or bad choices.
• It does mean lack of real and perceived threat to physical and emotional safety.
Classroom ManagementExpectations
• Set the tone for behavior
• Specific, clear and consistent
• Teacher to student
• Student to student
PROCEDURES
BE
QUICK
BE
QUIET
BE
CLEAN
Restroom
Procedure
Written procedures list the agreed-upon behaviors related to a regular school or classroom routine.
When developing procedures…
Use easily read letters Support with an illustration Use two colors for one chart Have students help create
Agendas give students the security of knowing what is coming for the day and a tool for planning and organizing their time to meet the day’s objectives.
Marvelous Monday
Morning Business
Mapping Our
Neighborhood
Mapping A Story
Moving to Specials
Munch a Snack
Mental Notes About Today
AGENDAS
Absence of Threat/Nurturing Reflective Thinking
Amygdala Hippocampus RAS- Reticular Activating System
• Procedures, Agendas• Learning Clubs• Teacher- setting the climate/tone
Movement
Why Should I Include Movement in My Lessons?
• 85% of school age children are natural kinesthetic learners.
• Bringing learning into a three dimensional format increases retention and retrieval of learning.
• Physical activity forces oxygen and glucose to the brain.
• Cross lateralization uses the same neural connections that the brain uses to read, write, spell, and compute math.
MOVEMENT TO ENHANCE INTELLIGENCE
• Spark, John Ratey– http://www.johnratey.com/newsite/
index.html• Bal-A-Vis-X
– http://www.bal-a-vis-x.com/
• Brain Gym– http://www.braingym.org/
Movement
Amygdala Hippocampus RAS- Reticular Activating System
• Activates multiple structures & systems• Helps focus students energy• BNDF –Miracle Grow fro the brain
Meaningful Content
Meaningful Content
• Is from real life.• Depends heavily upon prior experience.• Is age-appropriate.• Is rich enough to allow for pattern-seeking as a
means of identifying/creating meaning.• Can be used within the life of the learner.• Does not involve an external rewards system. The
brain is a self-congratulator.
“Cayard forced America to the left, filling its sails with ‘dirty air,’ then tacked into a right-hand shift….That proved to be the wrong side. America, flying its carbon fiber/liquid crystal main and headsails, found more pressure on the left. Cayard did not initiate a tacking duel until Il Moro got headed nearly a mile down the leg….Cayard did not initiate a jibing duel to improve his position heading downwind and instead opted for a more straight-line approach to the finish.” —USA Today, May 13, 1992
Progression of Instruction
SensoryInput fromBeing ThereExperiences
concept language application to the real world
GROWTH
Brain Compatible Classroom
Traditional Classroomlanguage
concept application
When presenting a lesson remember…
-Build an Emotional Bridge
C.U.E.-Creative
-Useful
Meaningful Content
Amygdala Hippocampus RAS- Reticular Activating System
• Long term memory storage• Fun• Prior Knowledge
Collaboration
Moving From “Me” to “We”
If a person does not feel included in a group, he/she will create his own sense of worth by grabbing influence- attracting attention, creating a controversy, demanding power, or withdrawing into a passive belligerence.
© Tribes, pg. 76 by Jeanne Gibbs
Collaboration
Amygdala Hippocampus RAS- Reticular Activating System
• We are social beings• Absence of Threat
Choices
Gardner’s MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
Logical-mathematical(logic/number smart)
Linguistic(word smart)
Spatial(picture smart)
Bodily-kinesthetic(body smart)
Musical(music smart)
Intrapersonal(self smart)
Interpersonal(people smart)
Naturalist(nature smart)
Choices
Amygdala Hippocampus RAS- Reticular Activating System
• We like to have choice• Control
Immediate Feedback
Immediate Feedback• Direct Instruction~ 16 minutes/hour
– clear, concise, succinct, what’s most important to understand
• Circulate, re-teach, discuss, support
• Students give feedback to peers
• Immediately assess effectiveness of direct instruction and assignment
Immediate Feedback
Amygdala Hippocampus RAS- Reticular Activating System
• Teacher “waitressing”• Checking for misconceptions• Assessment• Classroom Management• Brain doesn’t have a right and wrong button
Adequate Time
Adequate Time The brain is a pattern-seeking, meaning-
making device.
Using what we understand helps build mental programs.
Learning is a two-step process:
• Making meaning throughpattern seeking
• Developing a mental program for using what we understand and wiring it into long-term memory
Patterns ~ Programs
Examples of Patterns to Programs:
• Driving a car
• Percentages in my 5th Grade Math Class
• Cayard
• Christopher
Warm-up200 SKIPS
10x25@30 Drill odd Build evenPre-Set
1x200@2:30 Prime2x100@1:20 Negative Split} x 24x50@45 Descend Prime8x25@ 25 All Out
Set #110x100@1:05 JMI
Set #2Kick
1x200@4:00 Build by 502x100@1:45 Negative Split} x3
4x25@30 Under H202x50 Sprint SL
Set #3Pull
1x600 Breath 7,5,5,3 by 25’s 9x100@1:10 Descend 1-3
400 easy no paddlesSet #4
100 for time (get up and go)300 loaf
A 200 each Swim, Kick, IM, Pull, Swim 10 25 yards on 30 seconds each. Drill improve
technique. A build is where you increase speed over the 25.
Prime equals Primary strokeNegative Split is when the second half is faster
than the first.Descend is when each one gets faster
Just Make ItKick means kick board optional
Build is where each 50 gets fasterSL is Stream Line with no kick board
Pull uses pull buoys and paddles (optional) The numbers are the number of strokes per
breath. Each 25 has its own breathing pattern which is repeated until 600 yards
All out sprint from the block like a raceLoaf is warm-down.
Adequate Time
Amygdala Hippocampus RAS- Reticular Activating System
• Students see the real life application• They know the content and can apply it• Meaningful
Mastery/Application
We must teach as though teaching for genuine expertise.
Caine/Caine, Making Connections: Teaching and The Human Brain, pg. 110
Mastery Application
Amygdala Hippocampus RAS- Reticular Activating System
• Storage in long term memory• Student Interest• Assessment, student understands and can apply their
knowledge in unpredictable situations
So What?
Where are you currently doing as a: teacherschool
administratorto implement the brain compatible
elements?
Next Steps/Action Plan
As a result of what you heard and worked on today what will you do first, second, third?
If we understand… we are responsible.
