Stephanie Golski Dept. of Psychology

1. Applying Cognitive Neuroscience to Intentional Teaching and Learning Stephanie Golski Dept. of Psychology

2. Plasticity • Brains change • Use it or lose it • Top-down Processing • Fit it in frameworks • What are your/their expectations? • Optimal Arousal • Depends on task • Selective Brain Development • Works in progress

3. Seated to the LEFT? Check out picture Close eyes Seated to the RIGHT? Close eyes When asked, check out picture Try It…

6. Psychology and Neurons Tying human behavior to neurons is difficult. There may be 100 billion neurons in your nervous system. Each neuron has many connections (within brain average = 10K)

7. Changing Brains • What changes can occur in synapses? • # (increases or decreases) • Strength and pattern of signal • Character (excitation or inhibition) • Changed by: • Use • Importance of signal

8. Long term potentiation • Think about each term • Change in neuronal response due to experience • Could be easier to fire • Or release more chemicals • All because of previous firing savings effect

9. Plasticity • Neuronal changes produced by experience • Spines on dendrites can appear within minutes of stimulation • Existing structure will play a role, be modified • We’ll have to pay attention to existing knowledge

10. Changing Brains • Neuronal response is enhanced if: • Stimulation is repeated • Distributed practice • Saturation avoided • Smaller chunks • Making connections • Depth of processing • Highlighters and flash cards don’t cut it • Overlearned/overlapping savings effect

11. Will they remember everything from intro? • No, but may experience the • Faster relearning asconnections are reestablishedand strengthened savings effect

12. BRIDGE and the Brain • Focus of BRIDGE • Scholarship of teaching • Discipline-based epistemology • Classroom experimentation • Themes across three years • Content coverage vs. mastery • Transition from novice to expert • Backward design

13. Assignment Design Manage the timing of assignments to include review and reuse of critical concepts Increase the frequency of assignments Include practice with smaller chunks BRIDGE examples Increasing the meaning of reading assignments Ungraded assignment sheet (did it?), can use during exams Learning to use critical terms Key term web Maximize Savings

15. Processing what comes in: Bottom-Up • Association Cortex for integration • Primary Cortical nuclei • Thalamic nuclei • Receptor to transduce energy

16. Processing what comes in: Top-Down • Association Cortex for integration • Primary Cortical nuclei • Thalamic nuclei • Receptor to transduce energy

17. Seated to the LEFT? Check out picture Close eyes When asked, open eyes and blink quickly Seated to the RIGHT? Close eyes When asked, check out picture Then blink repeatedly for final slide Try It…

20. blink rapidly

21. Go beyond “cool”… • Make the connection explicit • HOW you saw the second item was influenced by your “preparation” • Once you see it one way it is difficult, but not impossible, to see other ways • Reading ahead of time, slides/outlines available can prime students to get the lecture

22. Top-Down Processing • Looking at a brain end of semester vs. first week • Expertise • Recognizing your friend from really far away b/c you knew she would be here • Expectations • Hearing the words to the song so clearly once you read the lyrics • 20-20 Hindsight

23. Reality • Raw sensory (biological) info • + past experiences • + context • + motivation • + expectations...

24. “The Last Supper is supposed to be thirteen men. Who is this woman?” Although Sophie had seen this classic image many times, she had not once noticed this glaring discrepancy. “Everyone misses it,” Teabring said. “Our preconceived notions of this scene are so powerful that our mind blocks out the incongruity and overrides our eyes.” Dan Brown, Da Vinci Code

25. Top-down and Teaching • Be aware of biases, prior info • Can we think like Novices? • The obvious is NOT obvious • We see details, students need to be SHOWN • Framework, knowledge reminders • Point out patterns, themes • Encourage/reward reading before class

26. Existing neural networks/knowledge= Top-down processing • Use for: • Examples…concrete, interesting • Vocabulary breakdown • Group work, explanations from students • Teaching approach • Memory of own student habits

27. Existing neural networks/knowledge • Help students find their own networks • What does this make you think of? • What makes this memorable to you? • Use from one semester to another and/or one class session to another (supplemental instructor/tutor) • Language and/or technology barriers • “comparing apples to oranges” • “I can do it on my computer at home”

28. Blah blah blah 1.Orient 2.Familiarity alters processing

29. What if their “top” is wrong? • Focus on factually and conceptually correct information • Asterisks in notes • Error in previous thinking- show how it fits in • Freud • Negative correlation, negative reinforcement • Polygraph

30. Attention: More Filters • The Brain sees what it wants to see, not just what you put in front of it • Same stimuli can be on retina- only cause brain response when attended to • Optimal level of arousal • Engagement/rewards • Depth of processing again

31. Assignment Design Know what is important and make that apparent Match course contingencies to real value of activities Influence student perceptions of value BRIDGE examples Should students have class notes on Blackboard (web)? Value of practice and homework What happens when you assign work that isn’t completed? Managing Attention

32. Teacher sees important details, students need to be shown • E.g. purpose of assignments (“busy work!”) syllabus design can include(w/recurring patterns) purpose, points, procedure

33. 10 Minute Reading Reinforcers (RR) Purpose: Reinforce review of correct quiz answers and previous class notes as well as active reading of current chapter. Procedure: Twice during each unit several questions (usually multiple choice) will be projected during the first 10 minutes of class. Please bring a pencil to class everyday (there is a sharpener just outside the classroom on counter in TLC office space). Notes can be used; the text book cannot. Latecomers will miss that day’s reinforcer. Answers will be discussed immediately afterwards. Because this is not intended to take more than 10 minutes of class time, if you have an Individual Education Plan (IEP) through Rider Learning Center that recommends longer time on assessments please advocate for yourself by discussing this with me early in the semester. You should plan regular times throughout the week to read the text and review your notes. Plan on reading about 30 pages per class session on average. Points: 9(5) = 45 points possible (can skip one w/out penalty or drop lowest) [12.7% of grade]

34. Stayed Aroused Helps Us Pay Attention Tasks of avg. difficulty

35. Optimal arousal level high for easy or passive tasks Tasks of low difficulty: lecture, driving

36. Optimal arousal level low for difficult tasks Tasks of high difficulty: stressful exam

37. So Why Doesn’t Fun Stuff Always Work? • Increase arousal but students can miss the point • Improvements= add REFLECTION • Games as review for test • List topics strongest/weakest in • Sensory illusions • Use vocab words to summarize what was demonstrated

39. Selective Brain Development • Still have some growing to do • Problem is, it is in the region that manages: • Planning • Response inhibition • Emotional regulation • Organization

40. PFC and Teaching • Encourage planning • Interim deadlines • Model applications/abstractions • Piaget • Use action to complete learning cycle • Group work to test ideas, promote outward use of terms and concepts • Encourage metacognition • Knowing what you know, reflection

41. Assignment Design Anticipate needs for long term planning Use assignments that build on each other BRIDGE examples Adding pre-professional activities to assignments interview Linked assignments that create planning Intermediate deadlines Long term planning

42. Models at our fingertips, FPOT, synapse plasticity Maximize savings, LTP, distributed processing top-down processing Be aware of and use existing knowledge, obvious is not!, maintain arousal and direct attention brain development Selective, Promote and model abstraction, long-term planning, active use of material

43. Suggested reference The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching the practice of teaching by exploring the biology of learning James E. Zull 2002 http://Styluspup.com