Brain Research

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Brain Research

• President Bush officially proclaimed the 1990s,
  THE DECADE OF THE BRAIN.
• In the last 25 years, we have learned more about
  the brain than in the past 100 years.
• The Decade of the Brain will give rise to-
• THE AGE OF EDUCATION

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The Brain

• Learns because that is its job.
• It has an inexhaustible capacity to learn.

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All Healthy Brains

• Are equipped with-
• The ability to
• detect patterns
• make approximations
• Have a capacity for various types of memory

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All Healthy Brains

• Have
• the ability to self correct and learn from
  experience through analysis of external data and
  self reflection.
• inexhaustible capacity to create.

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• There can be brain compatible or brain
  antagonistic education. Understanding the
  difference is crucial (Leslie Hart, 1983).

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Brain Based Learning

• Involves
• acknowledging the brains rules for meaningful
  learning
• organizing teaching with those rules in mind
  (Caine and Caine, 1994).

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Teachers Role

• Educators task is to orchestrate experiences
  from which learners extract meaning.

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THE THINKING ORGAN
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Brainstorming

• What is the difference between the brain and the
  mind?
• Are you facilitators of the development of the
  brain or the mind? Why?

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The Brain
Gray Matter
White matter
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Brain Hemispheres

• Left- analysis
• Process the objective content of language
• What was said.
• Principal processor of spoken, written and signed
  language
• Right- synthesis
• Processes the emotional content of facial
  expressions, gestures and intonation.
• How it is said.

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Interconnection of Left and Right Brain
Hemispheres
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Physical Development of the Brain

• Neurogenisis-
• process that occurs before birth
• Brain cells
• are generated
• migrate to the places in the brain where they
  belong.
• Brain begins to wire itself.

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Neurons

• Brain Cells
• Have a body and projections, that send out
  connections to other cells.
• can be as long as 3 feet.

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Neuron
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The Neuron
Dendrites
Cell Body
Nucleus
Axon
Myelin sheath
Axon terminals
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Neuron Development

• Different brain cells myelinate at different
  times in life.
• Different capacities will be evident at different
  ages.

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How does the message travel?

• Nerve impulses travel from one neuron to another
  in the form of electrical or chemical signals.

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Message Flow

• Synapse
• Microscopic spaces between neurons.
• chemical messengers flow across the
  one-millionth-of-an-inch gap (synapse) between
  the axon and one or many waiting dendrites

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Chemical Synapse
Axon terminal
Direction of nerve impulse
Target cell
Synapse
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Chemical Synapse
Axon terminal
Bubbles containing chemicals
CELL
Chemicals
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Synapse at work
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How does the message travel?

• Nerve impulses travel from one neuron to another
  in the form of electrical or chemical signals.

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The Mind

• Begins to develop prenatally through interactive
  sensory experiences.
• encompasses individual emotions, thoughts and the
  human spirit (Caine and Caine 1998)

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The Learning Cell
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BRAIN BASED LEANING IN THE CLASSROOM
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Brain Based Learning

• DefinitionLearning theory based on the structure
  and function of the brain. Learning will occur if
  the brain is not prohibited from fulfilling its
  normal processes.

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Constructivism

• An approach based on the premise that cognition
  (learning) is the result of "mental
  construction."
• Students learn by fitting new information
  together with what they already know through a
  hands on minds on experience.
• .

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Brain Development
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Brain Pruning

• The brain is refined by -
• retracting and pruning inappropriate neurons
• selecting appropriate ones.

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Piaget

• Children have their unique framework for looking
  at things and interpreting the world through the
  filter of their cognitive structures.

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Vygotsky

• Vygotsky- social interaction is important for
  learning.
• Children are not solely independent problem
  solvers, but learn from adults and other
  children.

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Research Findings

• Findings- babies are scientists in the
  cribconducting mini-experiments-
• Desperately making sense of people, objects and
  language.

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The Childs Brain

• Young children conduct mini-experiments to make
  sense of the world.
• Language is not used just to label objects.

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The Childs Brain

• Language is used to label significant cognitive
  thoughts.-
• Beliefs about the invisible
• Intentions
• Personal desires and the desires of others

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The Childs Brain

• Social input is very important for behavioral,
  cognitive and emotional development.
• Learning is achieved by imitation and observable
  watching.

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Play and Development

• Play activities are vital.
• Very serious business for-
• Transforming the world
• Trying out new possibilities
• Repeating things to master them
• Making things their own
• Exploring their own interests

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• How can teachers use brain research information
  to promote learning in school?

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• By fostering classrooms that promote exploration
  and discovery, for the testing of the learners
  cognitive and emotional limits.

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• By understanding that all people learn better
• in stress free environments

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The Childs Brain
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State of Relaxed Alertness

• The most active part of the brain is the
  neocortex-
• Capable of adaptive response and abstract
  learning.

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Interpreting Brain Research for Classroom
Practice Important Findings

• The brain changes physiologically as the result
  of experience
• Shaped by the interaction between genetic
  inheritance and experience
• At birth humans do not possess fully operational
  brains

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Important Findings

• The brain has amazing ability to constantly
  change its structure and function in response to
  external experiences
• The connections between brain cells can grow at
  any age.

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Important Findings

• The environment in which a brain operates
• determines to a large degree its functioning
  ability
• influences the brains growth and learning.

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What constitutes an enriched environment?

• Gives students the opportunity to make sense or
  meaning out of what they are learning.
• Addresses multiple integrated aspects of
  development simultaneously.
• Allows the learner to be active rather than
  passive.

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Brain Transporting Messages
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Enriched Environments

• To survive the brain must be essentially curious
  .
• Seeking connections between the new and known.
• Providing students with the opportunity to relate
  what they are learning to what they already know.

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Enriched Environments

• Include a steady source of emotional support.
• Have an atmosphere free of undue pressure and
  stress, suffused with a degree of pleasurable
  intensity.
• Stimulate the senses- but not all at once.

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Enriched Environments

• Present a series of novel challenges that are
  neither too easy nor too difficult for the
  learners development.
• Give the learner opportunity to choose many of
  his/her efforts and to modify them.

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Enriched Environments

• Provide
• students with the opportunity to discuss their
  thinking out loud, and to produce collaborative
  work.
• an enjoyable atmosphere that promotes exploration
  and the fun of learning.

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Important Findings

• Childs peak learning years-
• Early years before puberty
• Remarkable ability to adapt and reorganize
• Neural connections (synapses) form rapidly in the
  brain
• Enriched environments pronounce effects on the
  brain

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Important Findings

• IQ is not fixed at birth.
• Some abilities are acquired more easily during
  certain sensitive periods-
• Windows of opportunity or critical periods.
• These are not windows that slam shut-
• Just harder to open.

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Important Findings

• Complex subjects like trigonometry, second and
  foreign languages should be introduced before
  puberty.

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Important Findings

• There is no evidence of critical periods for the
  acquisition of culturally and socially
  transmitted skills-
• Reading, writing, mathematics, music

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Important Findings

• Reading is helpful for stimulating the growing
  brain, writing is another way to develop
  vocabulary.

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Important Findings

• The brain can reorganize itself for learning
  throughout our lifetimes.

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Synaptic Densities
U
Early childhood
Birth
Adulthood
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Implications

• For normal development of motor, sensory and
  language skills
• A person must have certain kinds of experiences
  at specific times during his/her development.

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Critical Periods

• 3-12 yrs.
• Children are capable of developing 50,000-100,000
  words.
• Approximately 50 words per day.
• Stereoscopic vision-
• The brain integrates information from both eyes.

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Messages
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How the Brain Interprets Sound
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Interpreting Visual Stimuli
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The City of the Mind
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Important Findings

• Learning is strongly influenced by emotion.
• Experiences become more meaningful and exciting-
• Brain interprets the information for importance
• Retention increases

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• The brain in not designed to easily remember
  print, text copy, or isolated facts in seconds
• 15 yrs or older- focuses on a maximum of 7 chunks
• 5 yrs -3 chunks
• This is why after 24 hrs. only 15 of a lecture
  is typically remembered.

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Short Memory
Long Memory
THOUGHFUL ACTION
Taxon Memory
Episodic Memory
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How Brain-Based Learning Impacts Education

• Curriculum--Teachers must design learning around
  student interests and make learning contextual.

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How Brain-Based Learning Impacts Education

• Instruction--Educators let students learn in
  teams and use peripheral learning.
• Teachers structure learning around real problems,
  encouraging students to also learn in settings
  outside the classroom and the school building.

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How Brain-Based Learning Impacts Education

• Assessment--Since all students are learning,
  their assessment should allow them to understand
  their own learning styles and preferences. This
  way, students monitor and enhance their own
  learning process

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Key Facts that Educators Should Know About Our
Brilliant Brain

• One
• It is not the size of the brain that is important
  in determining intelligence-
• Its the number of connections

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• The growth of connections is due to stimulating
  environments.

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• Two
• The brain has two hemispheres left and right.
• Left- linear processing, logical thought, works
  with words and numbers, editing reality to agree
  with the patterns that already exist in our
  mental maps.
• Traditional education methods serve left brain
  learners well.

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• Right- visualization, movement, color, voice
  tone, abstract thought, recording reality.
• The majority of students labeled as learning
  disabled or with learning difficulties are more
  right-brained.

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Language Areas
Broca Region
Wernicke Region
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• The traditional lecture format which works
  primarily with the auditory system works for only
  15 of the students.

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Three

• There are 6 eye positions
• These patterns are true for 95 of the
  population.
• Left handed people may reverse right to left.

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Eye Positions
Visual Recall
Visual Imagination
Auditory Recall
Auditory Imagination
Self Talk
Kinesthetic
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• The distinct functions of the brain can be
  assessed by various eye positions.
• Eyes going up- assesses the occipital and visual
  system.
• Up left- visual retention.
• Up right- visual imagination.
• Eyes looking from side to side- triggers temporal
  and auditory systems-

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• Eyes moving-
• Left for auditory retention
• Right for auditory imagination
• Looking down and to the right.
• Triggers kinesthetic aspects

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• Eyes looking down to the left-
• Self talk and self-dialog.

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• Four
• The brain can focus and learns best on 7 chunks
  of information at any one time.
• Smaller children learn in smaller chunks.

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• Five
• musical
• linguistic
• logical-mathematical
• visual-spatial
• body-kinesthetic
• inter-personal
• intra-personal
• naturalistic

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Application to Education

• Focus on Problem-Solving Strategies-
• Multiple Intelligence theory suggests several
  independent intellectual processes are at work in
  each child
• they are rarely, if ever, mutually exclusive.

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• Most complex problems and real life situations
  require the use of several intelligences

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Improving Classroom Methods

• Focusing instruction on the problem-solving
  strategies that students should master to arrive
  at the answer
• not on a rigid set of skills, and not only on the
  answer itself.

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Improving Classroom Methods

• Taking into account the "whole child" or are
  "project based.
• Tailoring education to the individual.

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• Multiple Intelligence Theory
• structures the classroom to accommodate this
  diversity
• encourages teachers to cultivate the student's
  individual approach to problem solving.

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• Gardner - students are the best illustrators of
  how they solve problems.
• By classifying what intellectual strategies the
  student employs
• the teacher can
• choose whether to reinforce particular strengths
  or encourage in intellectual areas where there
  are difficulties.
• determine what knowledge and skills should be
  developed in school.

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Research Findings

• 90 of students at-risk of dropping out of
  school before high school completion have
  kinesthetic or visual preferences in modality
• Preference or style has a neurological base so
  students are unlikely to change their preference
  in style.

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Research Findings

• 85 of students are learners who have a
  preference toward gestalt preference in style.
• 15 of teachers have gestalt preference in style.
  
• 7 of students are able to switch easily and
  automatically to non-dominant preference.

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Research Findings

• The classroom instruction, environment, and
  relating must be in alignment with ways students
  can be successful.

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Research findings

• Research in learning styles suggest that at least
  3 primary modalities are used in thinking
• Auditory
• Visual
• Kinesthetic

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Six

• The brain has 9 second attention span.
• Learners tend to tune in and out of what the
  speaker is saying.

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• Seven
• The human brain has the capacity to store the
  information of 10 million books.
• Traditional lecture format 95 of the information
  is lost within 24 hrs.

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Critical period

• Synaptic densities stabilized in frontal lobes at
  age 16

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For Learning to Occur

• We must create a receptive state for learning.
• Sustaining optimistic states
• Effective teachers model and mediate an attitude
  of healthy optimism.

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• Teachers must make information meaningful.
• Relationships, styles and experiences
• Relate positively to students without put downs
  or sarcasm.
• Teach in the learning styles of the students.

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• We must help students retain information.
• Memorable lessons and retention tools.
• We must help students transfer learning.
• Metacognition, strong original learning and
  practice.

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Normal Brain
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Dyslexic Brain
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Listening, Speaking and Reading      

• Good perception of language sounds provides a
  stronger foundation for improved listening,
  speaking, and reading skills.

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Skills for Improved Language and Reading

• phonemic awareness
• phonological awareness
• event-sequencing
• working memory
• grammar
• syntax
• semantics
• and oral language comprehension

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New Research Proves

• Misbelief-
• Before children learned to talk, they were not
  thinking, problem solving human beings.

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New Research Confirms

• Learning is very important during the first 3
  years of life.
• Learning is a life long enterprise.
• Humans have a natural drive to learn and
  experience a pleasure in finding things out.

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The Minds Untapped Potential
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Neuroscience

• Neuroscience has the existing potential to
  increase our understanding of teaching and
  learning.
• It is the responsibility of all educators to
  carefully interpret what science means for
  classroom practice.