Teaching with the Brain in Mind

A Snapshot of Learning from the June 2010 Eric Jensen Workshop

Bethany Kjellesvik Lori Knoblauch Kirby Mirly

Before we begin…

6 days in 30 minutes does not an easy presentation make!

We’ll cover 4 (of the 14) key principles today

Jot down your questions as we go – Q & A at close of presentation

What is Brain-Based Teaching?

It’s the purposeful

ENGAGEMENT

of effective

STRATEGIES

derived from

PRINCIPLES

from neuroscience

14 Core Principles

Each backed by peer-reviewed studies

No sequential order or hierarchy of importance to them

It’s NOT about squeezing all 14 into each lesson plan!

14 Core Principles

Uniqueness Labels &

Properties Emotions Attention & Input

Limitations Adaptive & Flexible Rough Drafts Prediction

Environments Body-Mind Integration Malleable Memories Perception, Not

Reality Social Conditions Developmental

Stages Meaning Making

Before we talk about Rough Drafts – There is a Basic Skill Set that can be taught across the curriculum. The following skills are learned skills and are

developed like exercising a muscle: Working Memory Extended Focus and Attention Sequencing Processing High Detail and Big Background are also

important when beginning a chapter.

1. Rough Drafts

Our brain makes sketchy “rough drafts” until there is a better reason to hold, revise, or drop the new

learning.

These rough drafts lack detail & error correction; they get the “gist” of the concept.

Our brain is NOT designed to get most of our explicit learning the first time!

First, the difference between Implicit and Explicit Learning

99% of all student learning is IMPLICIT words, pictures, names, text, conversations, anything

said or taught to us directly

1% of all student learning is EXPLICIT feelings, skills, perceptions, attitudes, anything we have

just picked up from others indirectly.

Rough Drafts

Learning does not progress on a continual upward slope. Skills are built up, sustained for a while, then they often collapse and are rebuilt all over again. Deeper learning takes time! (Fischer, KW 2000)

High expectations mean nothing if we don’t provide students with the skills for how to get there!

Rough Drafts

We need to embrace mistakes as opportunities for students to learn. Learning what isn’t right is just as valuable as learning what is right. (Socratic Method)

Savvy teachers continually hook in curiosity and long-term motivation. (Intrinsic Motivation)

We need to help students increase their working memory through specific activities; make sure we don’t provide too much information too quickly; tap into their prior knowledge as much as possible; guide them into the right state for learning.

Rough Drafts Expect your students to participate so that

they will learn the way the brain is designed to retain information!

Layer the learning process with priming and follow up. Spiral back regularly to solidify understanding and connections.

We need to provide activities to help strengthen students working memory and attentional, processing, and sequencing skills.

The Way Jensen used Rough Draft to start retention of the 14 Principles… 1. Sun Point w/index finger Uniqueness

2. Pants Label on back Labels 3. Tricycle Ride in circle Emotion 4. Table Knock on table Att. Limits 5. Starfish Mean – Nice Adaptable 6. Six Pack Drink all 6 Rough Draft 7. Dice Roll Dice for 7 Prediction

The Way Jensen used Rough Draft

to start retention of the 14 Principles (cont’d) 8. Snowman Put arms in circle Environment

9. Baseball Bat hits ball Mind – Body 10. Cat Whiskers Make MM Mall. Mem. 11. Pens Move back and forth Perception 12. Eggs Give dozen to friend Social Conn. 13. Cougars Meow to ROAR Dev. Stages 14. Heart Pat your heart Mng. Making

In My classroom I do two things at the beginning of a chapter - #1… I create a Chapter Outline that we use and

fill in throughout the whole chapter This outline will sometimes be allowed when

taking quizzes and tests… I especially do this early on to let students know the

importance of taking notes By the end of the year I do not allow their notes, but I

may put some of their notes on the board for harder concepts…

In My classroom I do two things at the beginning of a chapter - #2…

Usually on the first day of a new chapter – we play the chapter video game on the Smartboard It is a great tool for implicit learning

While the students are trying to figure out how to beat the video game like parking cars… New chapter Math problems are imbedded, and I work them

through the first time. They take over by the end of the hour – it is fun with very little pressure…

Remember, Our Brain is a “GIST” Gatherer… We rarely get new and complex learning right

the first time… This is not what teachers hope for. Nor is it what we test for.

Teachers must create a PATH that starts from the general idea of the chapter to specific facts at the end! Each day into the chapter we add facts to the

general idea and outline to prepare for the chapter test at the end of the 2 or 3 weeks!

2. Malleable Memories

Strong scientific evidence suggests that memories are often not formed correctly,

formed with a bias, altered after formation or inadequately retrieved at a later time.

Malleable Memories Memories are malleable. Memory is NOT a thing, but

an ongoing process. They are not usually intact entities, but composed of dozens of “properties” that must be retrieved from different parts of the brain.

Encoding an explicit memory is like making a recipe: It takes time and many ingredients or “properties” – about 5-10 for a typical memory. Retrieving the memory requires re-making “the recipe” in less than a second. We generally retrieve only 2-4 of the possible 5-10 properties. That makes for sketchy memories.

Malleable Memories We don’t have a “memory bank.” We store information in different pathways – actual physical trails

in the brain that encode/store each “property.” The more pathways used in making the memory, the more robust the memory will be. Procedural – gardening, driving, walks, sports, eating, playing an

instrument, keyboarding Emotional – being attracted to another, food poisoning, being

scared, excited, trauma, fun Semantic (word memory) – reading, being read to, seeing signs,

net surfing, seeing pictures Episodic (event in life)– field trip, changing locations in

room/building, recalling something by location, autobiographic memories, new seats

Pathways to the BrainExplicit

(Highly Modifiable)

Implicit(More Fixed)

Semantic (what)

Emotional (wow)Procedural

(how)

Episodic (where)

•Storytelling

•Compare/contrast

•Critique/Analyze

•Strong emotion

•Celebrations

•Playing an instrument

•Sports

•Use of body

•Move seats

•Field trip

•Move around room

Malleable Memories

Memories are either explicit or implicit. Explicit (words, pictures, names, text,

conversations, anything said or taught to us directly)

Implicit (feelings, skills, perceptions, attitudes, anything we have just picked up from others indirectly.

For memories to be accurate, they must be encoded accurately, maintained over time, and retrieved in context.

Malleable Memories

Our attention is better at the start and end unless other strategies are used for the middle.

Emotional events are much more likely to be recalled. Emotional memories get preferred treatment in our brain.

We can’t expect students to remember things the 1st, even 2nd time they hear it.

Having a highly adaptable, sieve-like memory that forgets most things is the price we pay to forget all the other things we need to forget to cope everyday or that aren’t essential for survival.

Malleable Memories

Improve student memory: Slow the rate of information input

If running out of time, focus on what students really need to known. Spend ½ of class on input, other ½ letting students process/produce with that new information.

Teach strategies for memory Pre-teach content using novelty/complexity Manage your learners’ stress Make meaning and strengthen emotions Space repetition

Malleable Memories

Use a variety of pathways to create the memory Semantic Emotional Episodic Procedural

Malleable Memories

Visualize key ideas

Compare/contrast

Analyze/critique

Focus on features

Use the “pause” technique. Every few minutes, pause to let content sink in.

Malleable Memories

Chunk content into smaller bits, then review.

Prime the learning to create an attentional bias to the content Frame it…”This will change the way you think about memory,

so listen carefully.” Tie it in personally…”Remember when you were over at

Kevin’s house the other day?” Give a reason to buy into it…”This may show up on the test.” Make it rare…”This is the only time we’ll go over it…” Novelty…demonstrations, simulations, activities, experiments,

trips and predictions.

Malleable Memories Do a fast physical activity first to activate glucose,

dopamine, and norepinephrine. Play card games like concentration, other games

like Rush Hour (traffic-jam puzzle) and Qwirkle, video games like Picross and Big Brain Academy, Dance Machine, Azada, Chocolate Fix, Mad Dash, Crash Bandicoot

Use “repeat after me” instructions/games Practice “stretch my number recall” with partners

(take 22, add 5. That’s 27. Now add 6, etc.) Learn a musical instrument Serial story telling in small groups – 1 word at a

time, repeating all words before yours

3. Labels & Properties

Our brain is designed to put new learning into groups and label it to make it

accessible and useful.

Labels & Properties

Labels – the “box” that our learning goes into (file cabinet)

Blue jeans

Properties – the defining features that give meaning to the label (file folders)

Size Wash Fit Brand Color

Labels & Properties

•Labels allow us to say, “That’s it!”

•Labels give our brain a “place mark”

•Labels allow us to talk about things, processes, concepts, or actions

•Without them, we may have an intuitive sense of “knowing,” but we are unable to manage the process actively

Labels & Properties

99% of all student learning is IMPLICIT Unlabeled learning: priming, processes, feelings, associations,

generalizations, experiences, learning by doing, etc. Uses more memory pathways (ways to get into our brain) so we

remember things better

1% of all student learning is EXPLICIT Labeled learning: words, facts, stories knowledge, pictures,

learning by being told about it Has to go through the Hippocampus, which, like a surge

protector, quickly becomes overwhelmed if too much information is given too fast. Too much, too fast – It won’t last!

Labels & Properties

•When kids “don’t get it,” they don’t have clear labels or properties to describe it. We need to back up and make sure they get those!

BUT…

•When learners can label new information and know its properties, they can represent and communicate the learning to others in a form different from how they learned it.

That’s good learning.

Labels &Properties

We need to help students build understanding of the properties associated with the concepts we teach.

Direct:

•Make analogies

•Create metaphors

•Design/build the model

•Mind mapping

•Debriefing discussions

•Simulations

Indirect:

•Storytelling

•Field Trip

•Observations

•Demonstrations

Labels &Properties

We need to tailor our instruction to include more implicit learning. Categorizing Compare and contrast Mind mapping/concept mapping Debating Describing Metaphor/analogy (spoken, written, drawn, or acted out) Design or build a model The environment we create

Labels &Properties

Label pathways for processing in our

content areas

Creates clear, simple models

Helps kids “get it” faster

Labels &Properties

Have students…

Teach the content to another studentBuild models of the conceptConnect their learning to a personal event (Describe a time when…)

Facilitate a discussion on the topicPut concepts into historical perspectiveIllustrate their understanding of the concept for othersWrite a descriptive paragraph/essay about the topic

These strategies are only useful if they are followed by FEEDBACK!

4. Emotions

Emotions Rule!

Our brain is designed to integrate emotions with our cognition and

movement.

Emotions

Humans are Social/Emotional Learners

“Modern biology reveals humans to be fundamentally emotional and social creatures.”

Yet much of instruction and assessment is emotionally bland and solitary – why?

Emotions Here’s why emotions run your brain… Only 1-2% of ALL the brain’s communication

signals are through neurotransmitters (chemicals produced in the brain).

The rest – 98%- occur through hormones and peptides chemicals stimulated from emotional responses and physical activity.

(Dopamine, Serotonin, Adrenaline / Epinephrine, etc...)

EmotionsWhat Does Cognition-

Emotion Link Mean?

Either orchestrate or allow students to “mark” the cognitive moment (failure or success) with an emotion. That process will encourage the learning and accelerate future appropriate behaviors.

Emotions Emotional “Punctuation” During or right after learning evoke an

emotion so the brain “locks in” a memory of the event.

For wrong answers, use a 2 – 4 second facial expression, gesture, or comment.

For positives, use “turn-tos” affirmations, celebrations, or expressions of joy

FYI….thought this was quite interesting….

Humans only have 6 “hard wired” emotions available from birth….

Anger Sadness Fear Joy Disgust Surprise

Children need to be TAUGHT all other emotions…this is huge when considering character education and discipline programs!!

“They just don’t care they are not… grateful, compassionate, empathetic, proud, determined, enthusiastic, positive, inspired,

eager, cheerful, fascinated, etc…”

Maybe they have never been taught how to feel / express these emotions???

14 Core Principles

Uniqueness Labels &

Properties Emotions Attention & Input

Limitations Adaptive & Flexible Rough Drafts Prediction

Environments Body-Mind Integration Malleable Memories Perception, Not

Reality Social Conditions Developmental

Stages Meaning Making

Very Important!There is a Basic Skill Set that can be taught across the curriculum. The following skills are learned skills and are

developed like exercising a muscle: Working Memory Extended Focus and Attention Sequencing Processing High Detail and Big Background are also

important when beginning a chapter

Students will retain 99% of what they learn through IMPLICIT learning! What fun activities can you do around the content

that you teach? Our content is the track… The Basic Skill Set is the engine…

Strengthen and Build these skills: Working Memory Extended Focus and Attention Sequencing Processing High Detail and Big Background are also

important when beginning a chapter.

Strengthen and Build these skillsThey will last a lifetime!

The 14 Principles are given to teachers to better understand how the brain works: Now we have a choice to teach better based

on these important principles. Brain-based teaching is a commitment.

We should look at our lesson plans and make sure we are doing the best job we can by making it easier on our students to learn by giving them activities that follow these 14 researched-based principles!

Thank you!

Questions Comments