How the Brain Learns

1. How the Brain Learns • Colleton County School District • Administrative Meeting – July 28, 2005

3. How the Brain Learns

5. Exterior Parts of the Brain • Frontal Lobes – planning & thinking • Temporal Lobe – sound, speech, LTM • Occipital – visual processing • Parietal lobe – orientation, calculations

6. Interior Parts of the Brain • Limbic System – generation of emotions • Thalamus – processes sensory stimuli – except smell • Hippocampus – checks info in working memory to stored experiences

7. Cerebrum • Thinking, memory, speech and muscular movement are controlled by areas in the cerebrum. • Frontal Lobe – Monitors: • Higher Order thinking • Directing Problem Solving • Regulating excesses of the emotional system

8. Cerebral Mode R I G H T M O D E Non V E R B A L L E F T M O D E V E R B A L Logical Analytical Fact Based Qualitative Holistic Intuitive Integrating Synthesizing Interpersonal Emotional Kinesthetic Feeling Based Organized Sequential Planned Detailed Limbic Mode

9. Brain Transmissions • Neurons transmit impulses along an axon and across the synapse to the dendrites of the neighboring cell

10. 1,000,000,000,000,000 synapses • Learning occurs by changing the synapses so that the influence of one neuron on another also changes. • The more complex the skills demanded in an occupation, the more dendrites were found on the neurons – creates more sites in which to store learnings

11. How the Brain Learns • Connections the brain finds useful become permanent; those not useful are eliminated as the brain selectively strengthens and prunes connections based on experience. • What are the implications for teaching?

12. Effective Teaching • Requires: • Planning • Essential elements of effective instruction • Competent teacher • Constant stream of decisions • Students actively engaged • Compatibility to how students learn

13. The Brain is a novelty seeker • The brain has a persistent interest in novelty. • An environment that contains mostly predictable stimuli lowers the brain’s interest

14. Using Novelty in Lessons • Humor • Movement – get the blood flowing • Multi-sensory Instruction – interesting colorful visuals - & talk about their learning • Quiz Games – helps students rehearse – adds repetitions for long term memory • Music – Mr. Morton

15. Information Processing Model • Learning • Storing • Remembering • Are all dynamic and interactive processes

16. Information Processing Model • It limits its scope to the major cerebral operations that deal with: • Collecting • Evaluating • Storing • Retrieving information • The parts that are most useful to educators

17. Self Concept Information Processing Model Past Experiences Sight Hearing Touch Working Memory Sense & Meaning Immed Memory Long Term storage Smell Cognitive Belief System Taste Sensory Register out

18. Memory • Short term memory: • All of the early steps of temporary memory that lead to stable long term memory • Immediate Memory – holds data for 30 seconds • Working Memory – limited capacity – conscious activity – captures our focus and demands our attention – occurs in the frontal lobes

19. Working Memory • Capacity – varies with age • Younger 5 – 2 items • Between 5 - 14 5 items • 14 and older 7 items • The limited capacity explains why we need to memorize a song or poem in stages – increase capacity through chunking. • How can this relate to learning new vocabulary words?

20. Working Memory • Time Limits • Age dependent • Pre-adolescents – 5 – 10 minutes • Adolescents & Adults – 10 – 20 minutes • Fatigue or boredom sets in resulting in a loss of focus - unless a change in the way the individual is dealing with an item.

21. Priorities for Working Memory W O R K I N G M E M O R Y Data Affecting Survival Data Generating Emotions Data for new learning

22. Criteria for Long term Storage • We cannot recall what we have not stored • Emotional experiences have a high probability of being permanently stored • Does it make sense? (oh now I see) • Learner can understand based upon experience • Does it have meaning? (how will I use it) • Is the item relevant

23. Sense & Meaning • Sense and Meaning are independent of each other • When new learning is comprehensible (sense) and can be connected to past experiences (meaning) – retention is dramatically improved.

24. Sense & Meaning • Students often listen to things that make sense but lack meaning. • If they do not find meaning after the learning episode – there is little likelihood of long term storage • Teachers often wonder why students forgot the lesson – (meaning – relevance must be clear) learn it because its on PACT

25. Sense & Meaning • Past experiences always influence new learning. • Teachers spend about 90% of their planning time devising lessons so that students will understand the objective (sense) – they need to be more mindful of helping students establish meaning. • Integrating the curriculum increases meaning and retention • Teachers must understand the intent of the standards

26. Probability of being Stored in Memory M E A N I N G P R E S E N T ? Moderate To High Very High Very Low Moderate To High Sense Present ?

27. Retention • Research has shown that: • The greatest loss of newly acquired information or a skill occurs within 18 – 24 hours • If a learner cannot recall information within 24 hours – there is a high probability that it was not permanently stored

28. Self Concept • Continuum – very low to very high • Emotions play an important part in forming a person’s self concept. • People will participate in learning activities that have yielded success for them and avoid those that have produced failure

29. Self Concept • Hierarchy of Data Processing: • When a concept struggles with an emotion, the emotion almost always wins! • It is possible for the rational system (frontal lobe) to override emotions – but that takes time and conscious effort.

30. Self Concept • The learner must believe that participating in the learning situation will produce new successes rather than repeat past failures. • A teacher teaches children, not merely content. It is vital to create the conditions for success – educational & human relations skills (intentionally maximizing success)

31. Self Concept • The self concept is important in controlling the feedback loop and determining how the individual will respond to almost any new learning situation. • What are the implications for instruction?

32. Constructivism • Students are more likely to gain greater understanding of and derive greater pleasure from learning when allowed to transform the learning into creative thoughts and products. • (learning on a continuum, direct instruction provides a foundation, inquiry or constructivism, cooperative learning can take the learning to new and creative levels)

33. How the Brain Learns –Why it is Important? • When do students remember best in a learning episode? • How can I help students understand and remember more of what I teach? • Why is focus so important, and why is it so difficult to get? • How can humor and music help the teaching learning process? • How can I get students to find meaning in what they are learning? • Why is transfer such a powerful principle of learning, and how can it destroy a lesson without my realizing it?

34. How the Brain Learns – • Physical aspects associated with learning • How the brain processes information • Memory – Retention & Learning • The power of Transfer • Brain Specialization and Learning • The Brain and the Arts • Thinking Skills and Learning

35. Instructional Approaches • Direct Instruction • Cooperative Learning • Interdisciplinary Units • Integrated Thematic Units

36. Using Humor to Enhance Learning • Gets Attention • Creates a positive Climate • Increases retention • Emotions enhance retention • Positive feelings from laughter increase probability of retention • It is an effective discipline tool • No teasing or sarcasm

37. Increase processing time through motivation • Generate Interest – powerful motivator • Establish Accountability • Provide Feedback • Prompt • Specific • Corrective • Level of Concern

38. Increase processing time through motivation • Level of Concern • Provide consequences • Visibility & Proximity • Varying the amount of time allotted to complete a task • Varying the amount of help or support available.

39. Creating Meaning in new Learning • Modeling • Accurately & unambiguously highlight the critical attributes • Teacher presents first to ensure students get it correct during this prime time when retention is the highest. • Avoid controversial issues that evoke strong emotions that can redirect the learner’s attention • Emotions can shut out rational thought

40. Creating Meaning in new Learning • Using examples from students’ experience • Brings prior knowledge into working memory which promotes making sense and attaching meaning. • It is important that the examples are clearly relevant to the new learning – should be planned in advance.

41. Creating Meaning in new Learning • Creating artificial Meaning • Mnemonic Devices • Homes – Great Lakes • Roy G Biv • Others

42. Using Closure to Enhance Sense & Meaning • It is during closure that a student often completes the rehearsal process and attaches sense and meaning to the new learning. • Closure is different from Review • The student does most of the work by mentally rehearsing and summarizing the concepts and deciding whether they make sense and have meaning.

43. Using Closure to Enhance Sense & Meaning • Closure is an investment that can pay off dramatically in increased retention of learning. • Closure is one of the most under used elements of effective instruction.

44. Using Closure to Enhance Sense & Meaning • Closure can occur at various times: • It can start a lesson – think about two causes of WWII that we studied yesterday and be prepared to discuss them…. • It can occur during a lesson – Complete this problem on area before we move on to finding the volume… • It should also take place at the end – to tie the entire lesson together…