Transcript Creating Brain Compatible Learning Environments

Creating Brain Compatible Learning
Environments
Presented by
Garfield Gini-Newman
The Critical Thinking Consortium
[email protected]
Some recommended reading
Activity 1: How accurately does this cartoon
capture the essence of adolescence?
Highly
Somewhat
Not Very
Completely
Accurate
Accurate
Accurate
Inaccurate
_______________________________________________
What is meant by a BrainCompatible Learning
Environment?
Brain Compatible
versus
Brain Antagonistic
Activity 2: What does an enriched
learning environment look and
sound like?
Looks like…
Sounds like…
Attributes of a Brain Compatible
Classroom:
Provides a moderate to high challenge to students
Is a low threat environment
Engages positive emotions to support learning
Allows for multi-path input
Provides thinking strategies that support students in
using information to create products and solve
meaningful problems
Includes both novelty and predictability
Allows sufficient time for processing
Provides complex, frequent feedback
How braincompatible is
your classroom?
Think of an Adolescent You Know
Reflecting on an
adolescent you know,
how many
characteristics of the
typical teenager can you
list?
How do we learn? Communicating
Neurons
• Learning produces
physical changes in
the brain
• Plasticity of the brain
means that it is
continually re-wired –
molded by life
experiences
Neurons that fire together, wire
together!
Learning is a matter of making
connections.
The Process of Long Term
Potentiation
When information
(stimuli) is received a trail
along a series of neurons is
blazed making it easier for
subsequent messages to fire
along the same path. The
more the path is re-fired the
more the message or new
learning becomes.
Each time an activity is repeated the bonds
between neurons strengthen and expand,
leading to an entire network developing which
remembers the skill or information.
The Importance of Assessment
for Learning
The cornerstone of brain compatible
assessment is formative feedback. By
providing students with guidance and an
opportunity to implement suggestions,
students feel secure in taking risks, develop
confidence in their ability to meet challenges
and can set their own goals.
Activity 3: How can we provide
anchors for student learning in
our classrooms?
Some anchors to consider:
Films, songs, field trips, photographs and
paintings, evocative experiences, using
manipulative, experiments…
Remember:
• Learning is likely to occur if we move from
the concrete to the abstract
• Inquiry-based classrooms to help students
take ownership over their learning
• Genuine collaboration to respects the brain’s
need for social interaction
• Open ended assessments to provide students
choice and allow them to draw on their
interests and talents
Activity 4: Where does truth lie?
Sandy
Danny
Summer Nights
[Danny]
Summer loving had me a blast
[Sandy]
Summer loving happened so fast
[Danny]
I met a girl crazy for me
[Sandy]
Met a boy cute as can be
[Both]
Summer days drifting away, to oh oh
the summer nights
[Guys]
Well-a well-a well-a huh
Tell me more, tell me more
Did you get very far?
[Gals]
Tell me more, tell me more
Like does he have a car?
[Danny]
She swam by me, she got a cramp
[Sandy]
He ran by me, got my suit damp
[Danny]
I saved her life, she nearly drowned
[Sandy]
He showed off, splashing around
[Both]
Summer sun, something's begun, but oh
oh the summer nights
[Gals]
Tell me more, tell me more
Was it love at first sight?
[Guys]
Tell me more, tell me more
Did she put a fight?
[Danny]
Took her bowling in the arcade
[Sandy]
We went strolling, drank lemonade
[Danny]
We made out under the dock
[Sandy]
We stayed out 'till ten o'clock
[Both]
Summer fling, don't mean a thing, but oh
oh the summer nights
[Guys]
Tell me more, tell me more
But you don't have to bragg
[Gals]
Tell me more, tell me more
Cause he sounds like a drag
[Sandy]
He got friendly, holding my hand
[Danny]
She got friendly down in the sand
[Sandy]
He was sweet just turned eighteen
[Danny]
Well she was good you know what I mean
[Both]
Summer heat, boy and girl meet, but oh
oh the summer nights
[Gals]
Tell me more, tell me more
How much dough did he spend?
[Guys]
Tell me more, tell me more
Could she get me a friend?
[Sandy]
It turned colder - that's where it ends
[Danny]
So I told her we'd still be friends
[Sandy]
Then we made our true love vow
[Danny]
Wonder what she's doing now
[Both]
Summer dreams ripped at the seams,
but oh those summer nights
Neural Pruning
...how and why is the
behaviour
of an adolescent similar
to that of
a 2 year old?
At both stages, the brain is
responding to...
...a massive build up of
connections and pruning away
excess connections allowing for a
more refined and efficient brain.
Brain Sculpting
Imagine you have set out to capture
the essence of who you are in a marble
sculpture. Reflect back to what life was
like at age 11 or 12. Walk yourself
through the defining experiences of your
adolescence. While doing so, imagine
yourself chipping away the excess
marble to allow for the emergence of
your adult self.
Like sculptor...
...the brain sculpts itself
through its experience with
the world.
Teenagers need to realize
that the brain is the only
organ in the body that is sculpted
through experience.
What they are doing with their
brain now is going to determine
what their brain is going to
become as an adult.
Also, remember that...
“...if teens are doing music and sports
and academics, that’s how brains will
be hardwired. If they are doing video
games and MTV and lying on the
couch, that will be how they are
hardwired.”
Jay Giedd
How effectively will the direction of new
curricula in Alberta prepare students to
meet the demands of the 21st century?
Fortune 500 reports that students entering the workforce in the
21st century will be expected to demonstrate mastery of the
following skills:
 Teamwork/interpersonal skills
 Problem solving/decision making
 Oral/written communication
 creative thinking
 goal setting/motivation
 math problem solving
 organizational effectiveness
Success in all of these depend on frontal
lobe activity.
How should we
respond?
Remember...
No matter how well planned, how interesting,
stimulating, colourful or relevant the lesson, if
the teacher does all the interacting with the
material the teacher’s - not the student’s - brain
will grow new connections.
Activity 5:How
would your students
respond to the
following task?
Which lifestyle would you have preferred - that
of the habitants, priests or nuns, or the coureurs
des bois?
From Bain, Colin M., Canadian History 7, Pearson, 2007
People in New
France
Pluses
Who ha d the best life?
Minuses
Interesting
Rating
Habitant:




Security
Fundamental
needs
Family
Leisure
________________
-5-4-3-2-1 1 2 3 4 5
Priests and Nuns




Security
Fundamental
needs
Family
Leisure
________________
-5-4-3-2-1 1 2 3 4 5
Coureurs des
bois




Security
Fundamental
needs
Family
Leisure
________________
-5-4-3-2-1 1 2 3 4 5
The Process of Myelination
Which part of a colt’s brain do
you think gets myelinated
first.
The Role of Glial
Cells:
• A fatty, waxy substance that
wraps itself around the axon
called myelin
• myelin insulates the
electrical impulse so that it
travels more efficiently
• glial cells unlike neurons
regenerate (makes up 90%
of the brain) in response to
new connection
• the more you use your brain,
the more glial cells you will
have
Important to know
about myelination:
• the neurons you need to
survive will myelinate first
• it makes your brain get bigger
• before a neuron is myelinated
it is called immature
• myelination results in the
creation of a more efficient
brain
Important Observations for
Understanding Adolescence
The frontal lobes are the last to be
myelinated occurring as late as the early
20’s.
Myelinated neurons fire 150 times more
quickly, making the brain more efficient.
Once an area of the brain is myelinated it
is much more specialized and efficient at
carrying out tasks.
But…
It appears as neurons become myelinated
they also become more rigid making
acquisition of new skills more difficult
i.e. acquiring a new language after the age 13-14
Students need to solve problems and
practice decision making.
Have students apply learning to
solve “real challenges”
Teach students to use decision
making models
Provide a clear purpose to
student learning
Have students consider purpose
and audience
We need to allow students to “fail
forward”
• Students need to have the
opportunity to learn from their
mistakes without being penalized
• Identifying errors is an important
part of the learning process
Provide the necessary scaffolding
to ensure success.
• Avoid asking adolescents to
multi-task until the learning has
been internalized
• Use graphic organizers to assist
students in gathering and
organizing information i.e.
Lecture road maps, mindmaps
• Integrate technology as
appropriate i.e. Power Point,
Mindjet
Assist students in seeing
patterns and relationships.
• Venn diagrams
• Concept Formation and
Concept Maps
• Concept Attainment
Activity 6
List A
In South Africa, policy prohibited
blacks from living in homes in areas
designated as “white only”
neighbourhoods.
List B
In Canada, the First Nations People
were denied access to most classy
cafes.
In Germany, during World War II, Jews In North America, it is not unusual to
were required by law to have travel
have all white juries hear a case of a
passes in order to move about their
non-white person.
community.
In Canada, during World War II,
legislation was passed that sent
Japanese Canadians to special camps.
In some states in the U.S. if a black
person killed a white person, that person
was almost always found guilty. If a
white killed a black, that person was
almost always found innocent.
In the United States, blacks were
obliged by law to sit at the back of the
bus.
In Israel, a Jew was walking down the
street and was shot by a terrorist.
Testers: Which list would each
of these belong to?
1. In Malaysia, if your hair is longer than a
certain length you will not be served until
everyone else in the bank has been
served.
2. As set out in legislation in some countries,
women are not allowed to terminate a
pregnancy without permission.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Concept Attainment can be
used in all subjects…
Math - prime numbers
English - parts of speech
Art - styles, movements
Science - classifying living things
Movement and cognition are closely
entwined, and movement can
enhance thinking and learning.
How do/can you integrate
movement into your
classroom?
The Role of Emotion in Adolescent
Learning
Emotions, the Amygdala and
the Teenage Brain
• Any information received by the brain
travels first to the amygdala
• The amygdala holds emotional memory - it
tells you how you feel about things
• In the teenage brain, the amygdala is
developing faster than the frontal lobes
• So teenagers tend to be reactive not
reflective
Reading Facial Expressions
“Emotion drives attention and
attention drives learning”
In her book Brain Matters, Pat Wolfe
noted:
“The brain is biologically
programmed to attend first to
information that has a strong
emotional content. It is also
programmed to remember this
information longer.”
Activity 7: So, we know positive
emotions enhance learning and
negative emotions inhibit learning…
How can we engage
student emotions?
How can be remove
unnecessary stress?
Activity 8: Rank order the 3
tweaks you could make to your
classroom to further support
student learning.
Criteria: Feasible, effective, inclusive
 Provides a moderate to high challenge to students
 Is a low threat environment
 Engages positive emotions to support learning
 Allows for multi-path input
 Provides thinking strategies that support students in
using information to create products and solve
meaningful problems
 Includes both novelty and predictability
 Allows sufficient time for processing
 Provides complex, frequent feedback