Live 2013 at UFV TEP

Best Practices in Teaching and Learning 

Vs.

The Student Brain

Part 1 – The Basics 

The Brain and Learning – the basics of physiological psychologyOne questions that has puzzled scientists for decades is

exactly what is a memory and how is it stored in the brain.

The first experiments to give a clue were done by James McConnell and his students who experimented on planarians (i.e., flatworms). As you can imagine, these also had a simple nervous system with few neurons. Their approach was to train planarians to find food in a T Maze and then to feed them to untrained planarians.

Their principal discovery was that the naïve planarians were no longer naïve after their meal. They, or at least their memory, appeared to have benefited from eating the trained animals.

The next experimentsLater experiments by George Unger showed

that proteins had a role in a similar memory transfer in rats. As it turned out, these proteins (specific amino acid sequences) could be artificially synthesized and worked just as well as the actual proteins from trained rats.

Their data indicated that both RNA and protein play a role in memory storage, particularly in the transformation from short- to long-term memory.

How Memory Works

Learning Model According to this model, short-term memory is represented by a

transient neuroelectrical code that is vulnerable to interference. Long-term memory is represented by a durable, neurochemical code which is thought to be based on synaptic growth and chemical alteration, and which is resistant to interference.

The limbic system (hippocampus and amygdala), also responsible for emotions, plays an important role in consolidating a memory from short term to long term.

Recall of a memory involves the stimulation of the appropriate neural pathway. Data suggests that although information may be forgotten, it is still in the nervous system and is capable of being retrieved by either electrical current or certain chemicals (like acetylcholine). Both are thought to reactivate the memory by restoring synaptic sensitivity.

Factors that Determine Your Personal Teaching StyleOur personality, background, tastes, and

attitudes;Our own experiences as a student in school; andWhat we learn as a student of teaching.

General Principles of Child Development

People develop at different rates.Development is relatively orderly.Development takes place gradually.

The ProblemEach brain is unique. There are sexual differences,

size differences, connection differences and experience differences. These all influence the way the brain takes in information, processes it and stores it in what we call learning.

“There is no such thing as “the” human brain – no generic brain. What we know and how we know it differs significantly from person to person. There are as many ways to learn as there are learners. And this is what makes the teacher’s task impossible.”

Constructivism

“The learner constructs knowledge and understanding through interacting with meaningful experiences.”

Stages or Steps in Constructivist Learning

Orientation – get the students’ attentionElicitation – find out what they already knowRestructuring – get into the lessonApplication – find out if the students can apply the

new knowledge in related situationsReview – students reflect on new learning and

compare it to previous understanding

The Brain and ConstructivismOrientation – Get the students attentionEmotions are critical to learning – they drive our

attention, health, learning, meaning and memory.Impact of threat or high stress can alter and

impair learning and even kill brain cells. There is a need to get the student brain engaged

before learning can take place.How can you ensure that the student brain is

engaged in your own classroom?

The Brain and ConstructivismElicitation – Find out what the students already

know.The brain is meaning-driven – meaning is more

important to the brain than information. Information is stored and retrieved through

multiple memory and neural pathways.Context may be more important than content. How can your teaching strategies ensure that the

student brain sees the connections between today’s lesson with yesterday’s and tomorrow’s?

The Brain and ConstructivismRestructuring – get into the lessonAll learning is mind-body – movement, foods,

attention cycles, drugs and chemicals all have powerful modulating effects on learning.

The brain develops better in concert with other brains – intelligence is valued in the context of the society in which we live.

Enrichment – the brain can grow new connections at any age. Complex, challenging experiences with feedback are best.

The Brain and ConstructivismApplication – find out if the students can apply the

new knowledge in related situationsPatterns and programs drive our understanding –

intelligence is the ability to elicit and to construct useful patterns.

The Brain and ConstructivismReview – reflect on new learning and compare it to

previous understandingThe brain is a complex and adaptive system –

effective change involves the entire complex system

Yogi Berra on Teaching In theory there is no difference between theory

and practice. In practice there is.If you don’t know where you are going, you might

wind up someplace else.You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know

where you are going, because you might not get there.

Best Methods in Teaching and Learning

Reading as thinkingRepresenting to learnSmall group activitiesClassroom workshopAuthentic experience Reflective assessmentIntegrative units

Common Features of “Best Practices”

ChoiceResponsibilityExpressionCommunityDiversityTechnology

Reading as thinking Reading is thinking.Initially, it was thought that the reader receives

the “correct meaning” of the author.Reading is Constructive. Now many think that

proficient readers are co-creators of meaning and text may have more than one intended meaning or interpretation.

Reading should be interactive.Reading is Strategic. Some student need to learn

how to read and recognize different types of reading.

Representing to learnRepresenting our world seems to help us engage

and enjoy life more deeply. Writing down words is not the only way for

students to seek, engage, construct, probe and store knowledge and share ideas.

Other representational strategies, such as drawing, mapping, drama, dance and song, turn out to be equally powerful cognitive levers. They can be used alone or with words.

Small group activitiesOrganizes classroom activities into academic and

social learning experiences.Tasks are completed collectively as students share

information, ideas and skills.Students can teach each other.Emphasis is cooperation not competition.

Brain StudyA 17 year old had to go to the hospital for some

medical tests – PET scans (Positron Emission Tomography). They gave him some radioactive glucose and then ask him to do different things. The parts of the brain that are active, metabolize the glucose and the radioactivity lights up to show which parts are active.

His tests lasted about one hour, but the radioactivity lasts for about 4 hours. The doctors arranged to do some educational research after his medical tests were done.

Student Reading a Textbook

Student Listening to a Teacher

Student Talking about Himself

Student Teaching another Student

Classroom workshopThe classroom is not merely a location where

information is transmitted, but can be working laboratories where genuine knowledge is created, real products are made and authentic inquiry is pursued.

Students and teachers together reinvent whatever field of knowledge they are engaged in.

Authentic experience Think of the best unit or lesson you’ve ever

taught. What are the key elements that made it effective? Did it involve a real life experience?

Authentic experience is not actually a method. It is more of a structure.

It recognizes that the best teaching always makes kids experiences tangible, real or genuine.

Can take many forms from a letter to an author, a school wide project, investigating local sources of pollution or relating a lesson to life outside school.

Reflective assessment“Assess what you value and value what you

assess.”Helps students become self-monitoring and self-

regulating individuals who take charge of their own learning.

Mostly formative – assessment is used to help students learn better and teachers teach more effectively.

Can take many forms, but portfolios, conferences, anecdotal records, checklists, performance rubrics, and classroom tests are the most common.

Integrative unitsThe move is from single subject teaching to more

complex, cross-disciplinary investigations that involve skills and knowledge from all subject areas.

Integration can be accomplished by inserting appropriate knowledge from one curriculum area into the framework of another or by correlating and drawing connections between different subject areas.

Integration helps students understand the complexities of the world in which they live, see the relations between the different subjects they are taught, and transform fragmented bits of information into a seamless web of knowledge.

One Final Thought“In education, look for trouble. If you

can’t find any, make some.”