1 Teachers are….. THE BRAIN CHANGERS A master lecture delivered by Dominic Brockway
2 Why should you study neuroscience?Neuroscience should be required for all students [of education] to familiarize them with the orienting concepts [of] the field, the culture of scientific inquiry, and the special demands of what qualifies as scientifically based education research." Eisenhart & DeHaan, 2005 Reference: Eisenhart, M. and DeHaan, R. (2005). Doctoral Preparation of Scientifically Based Education Researchers. Educational Researcher, 34(4), pp.3-13.
3 The benefits of study “Teachers with foundational understanding about the neuroscience and cognitive science of how the brain turns input into long-term memory and memory into transferable knowledge, will be the most prepared to guide all students to achieve their highest potentials.” (Willis, 2012) Reference: Willis, J. (2012). A Primer: Neuroscience and Teaching Strategies. [Blog] Available at: [Accessed 11 Sep. 2015].
4 How do our brains develop?14-19 year old 19+/adult Short term memory increases by 30% Language ability improves so can start to understand and use abstract and sophisticated language e.g. irony Brain development slows and stops in early to mid 20s Most brain development (grey matter) completed by age 6 (95%) Brain still under construction; pruning and organising, most active neural pathways will be maintained Part of the brain which enables abstract thinking and sophisticated use of language, hypothesis, analysis and problem solving develops last Brain destroying old neural connections and making new ones, setting patterns for life, so a critical point Development of frontal lobe increases ability for rational decision making, limits risk taking and thrill seeking
5 Cognitive changes From 9 to early 20sMoving from concrete to abstract conceptualisation Moral development dependent on development of frontal lobe Can find it hard to multi task Can find it hard to pay attention Can find organisation difficult
6 Brain development in teensRecently discovered that there is a second burst of brain growth in upper frontal region of the brain prior to puberty. This region directly involved in social behaviour, mood and impulse control. This is followed by extended period in which synaptic connections and neural networks are pruned and refined (age 12-20, but starts later in boys than girls).
7 Brain development in teenage boysBoys may agree with arguments against drugs and alcohol, but be unable to withstand social pressure with peers to join in on this activity Alcohol and nicotine cause far more damaging effects to the teenage than the adult brain. Teenage boys appear to be more vulnerable to these and other environmental influences because their development begins later and is slower; research suggests that teen boys are more suggestible than teen girls. Due to larger amygdalas urging emotional responses, teenage boys find handling social pressures, instinctual urges and others stresses harder than their peers who are girls. It is harder for rational brain to control behaviour.
8 OUR JOB IS TO GROW DENDRITESNew growth forms on neurons that are frequently used. Introducing and reviewing information to the brain in several ways creates more dendrite pathways and synaptic connections. The more they are used the stronger they become. The more complex the skills required in occupations, the more dendrites are found on neurons.
9 GROWING DENDRITES HOW AND WHENActual branching of the nerve cells occurs primarily at night during sleep. The bulk of hard wiring takes place during sleep. Sleeping after learning grows twice as many neural dendrites as learning the material did. Children who are sleep deprived after learning new information are unable to process and use the information as well as children who are not sleep deprived.
10 FIVE RULES OF THE BRAIN Dendrites grow only from what is already there. Dendrites grow for what is practiced. Dendrites grow from stimulating experiences. Emotions affect learning. Use it or lose it!
11 Developmental Plasticity/Synaptic PruningIn the past two decades an enormous amount of research has revealed that the brain never stops changing and adjusting. Ineffective or weak connections are "pruned" in much the same way a gardener would prune a tree or bush, giving the plant the desired shape.
12 The brain is a novelty seeker (changes in environment; something new or different). It is always looking for stimuli. Before students can learn, something or someone, must capture their attention. System in the lower brain (RAS) filters stimuli and decides what to attend to and what to ignore based on: physical need, novelty and self-made choice.
13 Getting attention can mean different things to different people….Novelty, humour and surprise are the best ways to get attention.
14 Stimulating the limbic system..Meaning, Emotions and Learning But when students feel helpless and anxious… However, there must be some “Challenge” New learning is more likely to be attended to and remembered if it has meaning to the student and contains an emotional “hook”. An optimal level of emotion is necessary for learning to take place. The amygdala becomes overactivated, preventing new information from passing through to memory circuits. Information must get through the amygdala to get to the hippocampus so it can be sent to memory storage and reasoning parts of the brain. Must have mild to moderate challenge to stimulate authentic curiosity and engagement in lessons. This will motivate students to work toward greater understanding and connection with the material.
15 Emotions Emotions, thinking and learning are all linked!Emotions are learned in two distinct ways: Emotional climate of classroom. Emotions associated with the learning content. Emotions drive attention, create meaning, and have their own memory pathways. Emotions are not located in a single “emotional centre”, but are distributed throughout the brain.
16 The brain can only do one thing at a time!The mind can only pay conscious attention to one thought at a time. You can only do two things at once if one of them is automatic. The spinal cord and lower parts of the brain can perform these automatic activities. This allows the conscious part of the brain the freedom to attend to other mental activities: Walking and talking Driving a car and thinking Reading and comprehending
17 Memory Learning Memory RetentionTeachers with a greater understanding of the types of memory and how they are form can select strategies that are more likely to improve the retention and retrieval of learning. Learning and retention are different. We can learn something for just a few minutes and then lose it forever. Learning Memory Retention How our brain acquires new information and skills. How and where our brain stores learned information and skills. Process where-by long-term memory preserves a learning in a way that it can locate, identify, and retrieve it accurately.
18 This process is affected by many factors including:Retention This process is affected by many factors including: the degree of student focus the length and type of rehearsal that occurred the critical attributes that may have been identified the students’ learning style the inescapable influence of prior learnings.
19 Rehearsal Initial Rehearsal: This happens when the information first enters working memory. If the learner cannot attach sense or meaning, and if there is no time for further processing then the information will likely be lost. Secondary Rehearsal: Allows the learner to review the information, to make sense of it, to elaborate on the details, and to assign value and relevance, thus significantly increasing the chance of it going into long-term memory. Rote Rehearsal: Not complex; learner needs to remember and store Information exactly as it entered into working memory (memorize a poem) Elaborative Rehearsal: More complex thinking; used when it is important to associate the new learnings with prior learnings to detect relationships; reprocesses information several times to make connections to previous learnings and assign meaning (interpret message of poem).
20 Memory “ Try to help students put things into their memory system and then hopefully retrieve them out again. Step One: SENSES: you need to see it, touch it, smell it, hear it, or taste it. ATTENTION: If you are not attending to the task, it’s not going to be processed by the brain and its memory. Step Two: Short Term Memory or Working Memory Short term memory is very, very short, lasting only for about 20 seconds. After this it goes into long term memory or is lost forever. Step Three: Long Term Memory (Procedural Memory and Declarative Memory) Your brain labels the information and puts it in a category (in the hippocampus) If you have no category, it can’t be stored. Once stored in a category the brain will begin its natural process of cross-referencing the new items to previous items in other categories. Basically, the hippocampus memorizes while the cortex learns.
21 Types of Memory
22 Implications for TeachingIn classrooms we spend most of our time trying to teach to semantic memory. Can be frustrating because you have no control and because sometimes students refuse to learn and remember. How much easier if we could teach to episodic memory (hands on or experiential learning). Students would learn and remember whether they wanted to or not. Now the learning is in the teacher’s control. 2. ADD: A HOOK TO AN EMOTIONAL COMPONENT AND IT WILL BE PARTICULARLY MEMORABLE (Flashbulb memories: episodic with an emotional attachment)
23 Higher Order Thinking Increases Understanding and Retention “Our ability to learn, remember, and recall is dependent largely on the number of connections between neurons. PET scans show that elaborative rehearsal, involving higher-order thinking skills, engages the brain’s frontal lobe. This helps ALL learners make connections between past and new learning, create new pathways, strengthen existing pathways, and increase the likelihood that the new learning will be consolidated and stored for future retrieval.
24 Primacy-Recency Effect During a learning episode, we remember best that which comes first, second best that which comes last, and least that which is in the middle. Chunking There are three limits to our power of reasoning and thinking: our limited attention span, working memory and long term memory. Chunking is an effective way of enlarging working memories capacity and for helping the learner make associations that establish meaning.
25 LESS STRESS Stress, confusion and perceived threat can minimize the brain’s capabilities Create a safe and secure climate and healthy physical environment Promote personal relationships and social skills Fight or Flight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdJpLvSTZMU
26 Teach young people self management, empathy and social skillhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7m9eNoB3NU
27 Consider your teaching methods and approachesInfluence Effect Size Source of Influence Feedback 1.13 Teacher Student's prior cognitive ability 1.04 Student Instructional quality 1.00 Direct instruction .82 Acceleration .72 Remediation/feedback .65 Student's disposition to learn .61 Class environment .56 Challenge of Goals .52 There are a number of different techniques and methods a teacher can use that have been proven to help increase retention and learning. Please see this link for the full effect size chart:
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29 Neurological diversity ActivityUsing Google Chrome, we will all work on the same word document to describe various types of neurological diversity. See the activity writing frame.