Teaching, Learning and the Human Brain

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Placing Teaching in the Context of Learning“The human brain/mind is like a dynamic kaleidoscope. The neurosciences are telling us that, energized by genetics, experience and culture, students literally learn from everything.”

Caine et al., p. 1

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Placing Teaching in the Context of LearningAs educators and future administrators, we have

begun to see what this generation of students is learning beyond the classroom and is unlike anything that past generations have experienced due to the technological revolution…

We often find ourselves caught between the world of the past that has a sense of order and security for us, and the world of the future that is filled with ambiguity and uncertainty….

Thoughts taken from Caine et al. for slides 3 -19

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A Definition of Learning Based on 12 PrinciplesAll learning is physiological.The brain/mind is social.The search for meaning is innate.The search for meaning occurs through

patterning.Emotions are critical to patterning.The brain/mind processes parts and wholes

simultaneously.

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A Definition of Learning Based on 12 Principles ContinuedLearning involves both focused attention and

peripheral perception.Learning always involves conscious and

unconscious processes.There are at least two approaches to memory:

archiving isolated facts or making sense of experience.

Learning is developmental.Complex learning is enhanced by challenge and

inhibited by threat associated with helplessness.Each brain is uniquely organized.

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From Learning to Teaching1. Relaxed Alertness: Creating the Optimal

Emotional Climate for Learning2. Orchestrated Immersion in Complex

Experiences: Creating Optimal Opportunities for Learning

3. Active Processing of Experience: Creating Optimal Ways to Consolidate Learning

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Brain/Mind Learning Capacities Creating an Enriched Environment for

LearningEngage the physiology in learningEngage social interactionsEngage their innate search for meaningEngage their capacity to recognize and

master essential patternsEngage emotional connectionsEngage their ability to perceive both detail

and the larger viewEngage both their ability to focus attention

and learn from the peripheral context7

Brain/Mind Learning Capacities Creating an Enriched Environment for

LearningEngage both conscious and unconscious

processingEngage their capacity to learn from

memorizing isolated facts and biographical events

Acknowledge and engage developmental steps and shifts

Reduce threat and enhance self-efficacyEngage their individual style and uniqueness

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What are we after as teachers and teacher leaders? Developing the Executive FunctionsThe key to reaching and sustaining high

standards of learning, and continually raising those standards over time…

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Executive FunctionsIndividuals with highly developed executive

functions have mastered the ability to:

Plan and organize their thinkingUse reasonEngage in risk assessmentMake sense of ideas and behaviorMultitask

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Executive FunctionsModerate emotionsWork with longer time horizonsThink criticallyAccess working memoryReflect on their own strengths and weaknesses

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Executive FunctionsThese functions of the brain go way beyond discrete, memorized skills or information.

This is often sabotaged by children’s social/emotional environment and is often bypassed by traditional teaching…

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Scaffolding the Journey Three Instructional ApproachesInstructional Approach 1View of Learning: Memorization of facts and skills, and veridical decision making

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Instructional Approach 1

Instruction: Largely focused on teacher presentations followed by repetition and practice

Academic Goals: Completion of assigned work, high grades based on teacher judgment and standards

Assessment: Standardized Tests14

Scaffolding the Journey Three Instructional ApproachesInstructional Approach 2View of Learning: Intellectual Understanding supplemented by memorization, with some opportunities for adaptive decision making

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Instructional Approach 2Instruction: Teacher-led experiences

orchestrated around concepts and meaning; include student choices and input on assignments, class rules and assessment (example: rubrics)

Academic Goals: Mastering, Curriculum and Standards

Assessment: Authentic assessment supplements standardized tests

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Scaffolding the Journey Three Instructional ApproachesInstructional Approach 3View of Learning: Understanding in order to make sense of experience, with strong emphasis on adaptive decision making and development of executive functions

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Instructional Approach 3Instruction: Real-world projects with

curriculum embedded, driven by student choices and interests

Academic Goals: Going beyond academic school standards through ongoing, authentic questioning, investigation, and documentation based on experts in the field

Assessment: Authentic performance of all kinds

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Idea is for teachers and teacher leaders to walk the path from Instructional Approach 1 to 3

This is a transformational process…Engage students in cooperative projects that

require research, higher order thinking, problem solving, planning and participating in defining and reaching the highest standards.

Include additional abilities such as dealing with emotions to help become socially mature and adept…

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Doing Math Kindt et al, 2006

How much do all 3 chickens weigh? Each chicken?

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Pedagogical Content Knowledge Lee Shulman, 1986, pp. 9-10For the most regularly taught topics in one’s

subject area:The most useful representations of ideasThe most powerful analogies, illustrations,

examples and demonstrationsWays of representing and formulating the subject

that make it comprehensible to othersA collection of resources of alternative forms of

representation Understanding of why certain concepts are easy

or difficult to learn21

Mathematical Knowledge for TeachingDeborah Ball & Hyman Bass, 2000 “a kind of understanding ..not something a

mathematician would have, but neither would be part of a high school social studies’ teacher’s knowledge”

“teaching is a form of mathematical work… involves a steady stream of mathematical problems that teachers must solve”

Features include: unpacked knowledge, connectedness across mathematical domains and over time (seeing mathematical horizons)

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Trimming- making mathematics available yet retaining mathematical integrity

Unpacking-making the math explicit Making connections visible- within and across

mathematical domainsUsing visualization to scaffold learningConsidering curricular trajectoriesFlexibly moving among strategies/ approaches

adapted from Ferrini-Mundy et al, 2004

Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching

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Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)“Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge

(TPACK) attempts to capture some of the essential qualities of knowledge required by teachers for technology integration in their teaching, while addressing the complex, multifaceted and situated nature of teacher knowledge. At the heart of the TPACK framework, is the complex interplay of three primary forms of knowledge: Content (CK), Pedagogy (PK), and Technology (TK).” See Figure below. As must be clear, the TPACK framework builds on Shulman's idea of Pedagogical Content Knowledge.

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TPACK www.tpck.org

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Polya’s Ten CommandmentsBe interested in the subjectKnow the subjectKnow about ways of learningLet students learn guessingLet students learn provingLook at features of problems that

suggest solution methods (Polya, 1965,p. 116)

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Polya’s Ten CommandmentsRead faces of studentsGive students “know how”, attitudes of mind,

habit of methodical workLet students guess before you tell themSuggest it; do not force it down their throats

(Polya, 1965, p. 116)

http://orangemath.blogspot.com/2009/08/ten-commandments-for-teachers-george.html

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References• Ball, D.L. & Bass, H. (2000). Interweaving

content and pedagogy in teaching and learning to teach: Knowing and using mathematics. In J.

• Burrill, G. (2004). “Mathematical Tasks that Promote Thinking and Reasoning: The Case of Farmer Jack” in Mathematik lehren

• Caine, R. N.,Caine G., McClintic, C.,& Klimek, K. (2005). Brain/Mind Learning Principles in Action.

Ferrini-Mundy, J., Floden, R., McCrory, Burrill, G., & Sandhow, D. (2004). Knowledge for teaching school algebra: challenges in developing in analytic framework. unpublished paper

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ReferencesKindt, M., Abels, M., Meyer, M., Pligge, M.

(2006). Comparing Quantities. In Wisconsin Center for Education Research & Freudenthal Institute (Eds.), Mathematics in context. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica

Polya, G. (1965). Mathematical discovery: On understanding, learning, and teaching problem solving.

Shulman, L.S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher. 15 (2): 4 - 14.

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