Janet Fulks, Bakersfield CollegeASCCC North Area Representative

The Art of Changing the Brain by Zull How People Learn by the National Research

Council

Scientific Teaching by Jo Handelsman et al.

Back page of Chapter 5

Learning and memory require physical changes in the neurons of the brain

Requires organizing and linking knowledge for later retrieval

I will read some numbers, you remember them

Patterning and organization Concrete words and abstract words versus

nonsense words

Infection Syphilis Treponema pallidum

Visualization – metrics and real life How do you create patterning in your

teaching?

When we are Motivated Immersed Emotional

Types of Memory Explicit or specific – facts or events (words

and events) Implicit or perceptual – Skills, Sensory,

Emotive and Physical responses

cAMP (cyclic AMP) & responsive binding protein (CREB)

Calcium Corticosteroids

People learn better when there is something to heighten the emotions – mild stress

People learn least well when the emotion is fear When multiple neural pathways are created What do you do to create an environment that

stimulates all areas of response?

True False

False – memorization can compartmentalize thinking

True False

False – acclimatization, inoculation, rote memory

Misconceptions

Preconceptions

Metacognition

Learning Styles

True False

False – page 42 of Chapter 5 – A Private Universe

Share your discipline Share a misconception students have in

your discipline Share a method to change this

Primitive Brain controlling vital functions- think vegetable

Breathing Consciousness Heart Rate and Blood Pressure Relaying information Digestion Alertness

Center for movement control – think repetitive skills

Voluntary muscle movements Fine motor skills Maintaining balance, posture, and equilibrium

Frontal Lobe

The front of the brain –largest surface area

Touch Vision Hearing Judgment Reasoning Problem solving Emotions Learning

Right side controls the left side of the body, creativity and artistic abilities

Left cerebral hemisphere controls the right side of the body, logic and rational thinking.

Lobes have different functions◦ Frontal lobes are involved with personality,

speech, and motor development ◦ Temporal lobes are responsible for memory,

language and speech functions ◦ Parietal lobes are involved with sensation ◦ Occipital lobes are the primary vision centers

Frontal LobeAssociation, personality Broca’s speech center

Parietal LobeSpeech and Reading

Temporal LobeSmelling and Hearing

Occipital LobeVisual

Assessments are actually a learning tool, but provide a way to visualize that learning.

Students must be conscious and attentive to their own learning strategies.

Addressing self-regulated learning is the primary responsibility of the Academic Development and Counseling departments.

Learning strategies that include working in competitive learning teams, is more effective than working in non-competitive teams.

Please link to the image of Kolb’s learning cycle overlaid on the anatomy of the brain called “Learning through a virtuous Learning Cycle” from Dr. James Zull, Professor of Biology and Biochemistry at Case Western University, Director of UCITE (The University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education), and Professor of a Human Learning and The Brain class.

Learning is physical. Learning means the modification, growth, and pruning of our neurons, connections–called synapses– and neuronal networks, through experience.

Four stages of the Learning Cycle.1) We have a Concrete experience,2) We develop Reflective Observation and Connections,3) We generate Abstract hypothesis,4) We then do Active testing of those hypotheses, and therefore have a new

http://sharpbrains.wordpress.com/2006/10/12/an-ape-can-do-this-can-we-not/

Key conditions for teaching:realize the brain is a parallel processor – create an environment – How do you do this in your class?

learning engages physiology – How do you create the conditions for chemicals and multiple processing?

learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by fear

How do you do this in your class?

Key conditions for learning and self perpetuating the learning cycle:

self-regulated learning (SRL)ownership/metacognitiondeep learning – implicitscaffolding

Create outcomesDevelop contentEmbed metacognition activitiesCreate learning activitiesManage the environment

teamworkAssessment – See article chapter 5 Appendix