Learning Theory and Neuroscience

1. Helping our Students REALLY Get It Janet Fulks, Bakersfield College Learning Theory and Neuroscience

2. Have you ever asked…. Why didn’t my students learn that important concept we went over and over and over and over in class?

3. Real Learning Perpetuating the learning cycle: • Understanding How the Brain Works • Active Learning – The Learning Environment – • Using all of the brain • Many inputs • Many chemicals • Many outputs • Deep learning – Scaffolding – Neural Nets • Patterning and organization content (chunking info) • Concrete words and abstract words versus nonsense words • Visualizing to make concrete patterns • Ownership/metacognition

4. Important Resources • The Art of Changing the Brain by Zull • How People Learn by the National Research Council • Scientific Teaching by Jo Handelsman et al. • HHMI & PBS online resources • Harvard https://www.testmybrain.org/index.html?page=home

5. Background on Neuroscience and Learning Theory • Learning and memory require physical changes in the neurons of the brain

6. 1. How the Brain Works

7. Brain Stem Primitive Brain controlling survival functions- • Breathing • Consciousness • Heart Rate and Blood Pressure • Relaying information • Digestion • Alertness Think vegetable

8. Cerebellum Center for movement control • Voluntary muscle movements • Fine motor skills • Posture, balance, and coordination Think repetitive movements – dancing, bicycling

9. Cerebrum The Surface of the Brain – • Touch • Vision • Hearing • Judgment • Reasoning • Problem solving • Emotions • Learning Think HUMAN

10. Each lobe of the brain has a different set of functions, so damage to a particular lobe may determine the type of problems that could be expected. Lobes have different functions • Frontal lobes = personality, speech, and motor development • Temporal lobes = memory, language and speech • Parietal lobes = sensation • Occipital lobes =primary vision centers • http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/9549.htm

11. Mapping Brain Functions Brain Functions (Epilepsy Foundation of America )

12. Learning is physical Learning = modification, growth, and pruning neurons, Learning =connections (synapses) & neural networks Four stages of Kolb’s Learning Cycle. 1) Concrete experience,2) Reflective observation and Connections,3) Abstract hypothesis,4) Active testing http://sharpbrains.wordpress.com/2006/10/12/an-ape-can-do-this-can-we-not/

13. Brain Anatomy overlaid with Kolb’s Learning Cycle Zull p 18

14. PET Scan fMRI Other new technologies Discrete physical areas -http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/tryit/brain/probe.html Visualizing Functions

15. Differences in Brain Activity http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/

16. Have You Heard? • Right side controls the left side of the body, creativity and artistic abilities Think – non-verbal • Left cerebral hemisphere controls the right side of the body, logic and rational thinking. Think - Language

17. Watching our input The Girl from Volga. Zull, p 143 Paying attention is not focusing on a single focal point.

18. Watching the Brain Function HHMI – Howard Hughes Medical Institute http://www.hhmi.org/senses/e110.html Brain function when listening

19. Watching the Brain Function http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/

20. From Gross Anatomy to Microscopic Anatomy and Physiology Learning and memory require physical changes in the neurons of the brain – electrical rewiring

21. A little test • I will read some numbers, you remember them

22. Recency/Primary Effect

23. How the Brain Works Image of actual neurons firing in a monkey’s brain and the image he is staring at creating a physical image in the brain. Zull, p 144

24. 2. Active Learning PyramidWhat is retained?

25. Active Learning:Engages all of the BrainEpilepsy Foundation of America http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/about/science/functions.cfm Note that as we go down the pyramid, we are engaging additional areas of the brain, creating deeper learning.

26. Langer Experiment Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze 1816-1868

27. Active Learning – Many Inputshttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/ Multiple Inputs = Multiple Pathways

28. Active Learning Stimulates Multiple Neural Pathways – a Network http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwUn64d5Ddk&feature=fvwrel http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~lss/NNIntro/InvSlides.html#what

29. Patterns and Learning • 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?

30. Figure 1.1 - Functions of the Communal Scaffold 3. Deep Learning: through Scaffolding Requires organizing and linking knowledge for later retrieval – deep learning

31. Scaffolding Content • Patterning and organization content (chunking info) • Concrete words and abstract words versus nonsense words • Visualizing to make concrete patterns • Infection • Syphilis • Treponema pallidum • Visualizing content – metrics and real life • How do you create patterning in your teaching?

32. Educational Misconceptions that Affect Teaching and Learning http://www.ccsse.org/publications/2008_Executive_Summary.pdf

33. 4. Meta-cognition Definition Two simultaneous processes: Monitoring your progress as you learn and Making changes and adapting your strategies if you perceive you are not doing so well

34. 4. Metacognition • “The most shocking finding of all is that ifstudents aren’t aware of these skills and have not found ways to master them, they cannot learn discipline content.” National Research Council – How People Learn (2003) • Students with Basic Skills needs arrive without metacognitive experience – they don’t know how to be successful students, therefore……

35. Meta-cognitive skills include: • Taking conscious control of learning • Planning and selecting strategies • Monitoring the progress of learning • Correcting errors • Analyzing the effectiveness of learning strategies • Changing learning behaviors and strategies, when necessary

36. Metacognition - Strategies • CATs • Exam Post Mortem • Self Evaluations • Student Self Assessment • Learning Styles Assessment

37. Brain Anatomy overlaid with Kolb’s Learning Cycle Zull p 18

38. What you should focus on Create outcomes Develop scaffolded content Embed metacognition activities Create feedback-heavy learning activities Manage the environment & consider teamwork Assessment – See article chapter 5 Appendix

40. Thank You Write down one thing you will do in response to this information. Comments and Questions