Transcript Absence of Threat

Celebrating Change..
Doing What Works
MAS/FPS
Brain Research
Implications for the Classroom
Linda L. Jordan
Hope College
February 4, 2010
Agenda
WELCOME
The Brain
Thoughtful
Thursday
Action Plans
The Brain at School
Why do we need to get to know the
teacher? (Linda)
• Emotion is the gatekeeper to learning
• Relationship is a key element in every
classroom
• Builds trust
• Models inclusion in a safe way
• Find common threads of interest
• Fun
Goals for the Session
My Goals:
~Give you a basic understanding
of the brain
~Give you some applications of
brain information to your jobs,
personal lives, and the RR
Framework.
~Create an action plan as a result
of being here today.
Your Goals:
“A journey of a thousand
miles begins with a
single step.”
~ Confucius ~
Do you Own a Million-Dollar
Racehorse?
If you did, would you…
• Keep him up until the wee hours of the morning?
• Permit him to skip 90% of his training rituals?
• Let him maintain a poor non-nutritious diet? (pop and potato
chips)
• Endorse an almost completely sedentary lifestyle?
• Find it okay for him to play video games for 3-4 hours a day?
• Experiment on him with habit-forming and destructive drugs
and/or hallucinogens? Sometimes combining them with
alcohol?
• Let him “hang out” with other un-ambitious horses listening
to music for most of the day?
Do you Own a Million-Dollar
Racehorse?
If you did, would you…
• Allow him to watch 1,400 hours of TV each
year, complete with 18,000 gratuitous horse
murders and expect him to be well-adjusted
with a healthy self concept, and to see the
world as a supportive, friendly place to grow,
develop and a place where he will maximize
his full potential?
Do you Own a Million-Dollar
Racehorse?
If you did, what would he be worth to you or
himself?
Our students and children have multi-billion
dollar brains.
We should not allow their brains to be treated in
ways far worse than we would ever treat a
horse.
Kenneth Wesson
The Brain
SO WHY DOES INFORMATION FROM
THE NEUROSCIENCES MATTER?
IT HAS BEEN A CURIOSITY FOR MUCH
OF HUMAN HISTORY!
Yesterday’s thinking…..
Phrenology – 1840s and 50s
An early practice at the end of the 19th century that claimed to
be able to identify mental capacity and character by feeling
the bumps of the skull.
Today’s Science…
“LEARNING IS
THE BRAIN’S
PRIMARY FUNCTION…”
Frank Smith, Insult to Intelligence
Lobes of the Brain
Communication of Neurons
Actual Photograph of NEURONS
Amygdala
•The psychological sentinel of the brain because it plays a
major role in the control of emotion.
•It is connected to many parts of the brain and plays a
critical part in learning, cognition and emotional memories.
Hippocampus
•It helps us remember events in recent past, as well as
responsible for sending new information and experiences
to be stored in the cortex in long-term memory.
•Critical to learning and memory formation.
FEED THE HIPPO!
Reticular Activating System
•The RAS receives information from all over the body and
acts as a central, initial regulator for attention, arousal, sleepwakefulness and consciousness. Uses this information to
change the cell excitation to meet the changing conditions in
the environment.
•It filters out distractions or trivial sensory information.
Learning is Firing and Wiring
• Thinking- neurons must communicate
Input….Output
– Firing….(thinking)
– Wiring (learning)
• Learning is about dendrites communicating
and growing
– Example: Pathways around new building
“Fire it until you wire it!”
-S. Feinstein
Firing and Wiring
• Within in 5 minutes of firing bumps form on
dendrites branches
• Within 20 minutes branches begin to grow
• Chemical Bust is arousal- easiest way to learn
• Harder to learn without the burst…..
“Fire it until you wire it’
“Use it or Lose it”
(Example: Roots on a plant with or without water)
Mirror Neurons in the Brain
A new class of brain cells -- mirror neurons
are active both when people perform an
action and when they watch it being
performed.
Mirror Neurons
• Social Ability
– Empathy
– The ability to tap into others emotions and feel the
same
• Addictive Behaviors
– Hard to recover after rehab when they return to the
same friends
• Violence (Video Games)
– Boys frontal lobes go to sleep, need reaction not
reflection and thought
– Can stay in the this state for 3-4 days
– Desensitized
“Neurons that fire together, wire together” -P. Wolfe
Average Retention
Rate After 24 Hours
Lecture
5%
Reading
10%
Audiovisual
20%
Demonstration
30%
Discussion Groups
50%
Practice By Doing
75%
Teach Others/Immediate Use of Learning
90%
-David Sousa p. 95
Mastery/Application
Absence of Threat/
Nurturing Reflecting
Thinking Enriched Environment
Bodybrain
Adequate Time
Compatible
Movement
Elements
Meaningful Content
Immediate Feedback
Choices
Collaboration
We are the only species
that creates the
environment that
creates who we become!
Land of Childhood
LIFELONG GUIDELINES/LIFESKILLS
CONCEPT~
INTERDEPENDENCE
GOING BUGGY!
TOPIC: INSECT
MONARCH BUTTERFLY
HABITAT
LIFESKILL
of the
WEEK
CARING
UNCLUTTERED—BUT RICH
 Wall displays reflect the itinerary
for the topic and yearlong theme
 Print and non-print materials
support the content being learned
 Real objects are available
 Aesthetically pleasing
 Seating is arranged in clusters
with easy access to work tools
© Exceeding Expectations by Susan Kovalik & Karen D. Olsen, p. 7.18
ABSENCE of THREAT
• Absence of threat does not mean
absence of challenge or lack of
consequences for misbehavior or
bad choices.
•
It does mean lack of real and
perceived threat to physical and
emotional safety.
Lifelong Guidelines
Trustworthiness: To act in a manner that makes one
worthy of confidence
Truthfulness: To act with personal responsibility and
mental accountability
Active Listening: To listen with attention and intention
No Put-Downs: To never use words, actions and/or
body language that degrade, humiliate, or dishonor
others
Personal Best: To do one’s best given the
circumstances and available resources
L ••
I ••
F•
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E•
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S•
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K•
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I •
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L•
L ••
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INTEGRITY: To act according to what’s right and wrong
INITIATIVE: To do something because it needs to be done
FLEXIBILITY: The ability to alter plans when necessary
PERSEVERANCE: To keep at it
ORGANIZATION: To work in an orderly way
SENSE OF HUMOR: To laugh and be playful without hurting others
EFFORT: To do your best
COMMON SENSE: To think it through
PROBLEM SOLVING: To seek solutions
RESPONSIBILITY: To do what’s right
PATIENCE: To wait calmly
FRIENDSHIP: To make and keep a friend through mutual trust and caring
CURIOSITY: To investigate and seek understanding
COOPERATION: To work together toward a common goal (purpose)
CARING: To show/feel concern
COURAGE: To act according to one’s beliefs
PRIDE: Satisfaction from doing your personal best
RESOURCEFULNESS: To respond to challenges in creative ways
PROCEDURES
Written procedures list the agreed-upon behaviors
related to a regular school or classroom routine.
When developing procedures…
 Use easily read letters
 Support with an illustration
 Use two colors for one chart
 Have students help create
AGENDAS
Agendas give students the security
of knowing what is coming for the day
and a tool for planning and organizing
their time to meet the day’s objectives.
Mapping A Story
Morning Business
Mental Notes
About Today
Marvelous Monday
Moving to Specials
Munch a Snack
Mapping Our
Neighborhood
Why Should I Include Movement
in My Lessons?
• 85% of school age
children are natural
kinesthetic
learners.
• Physical activity
forces oxygen and
glucose to the
brain.
• Bringing learning
into a three
dimensional format
increases retention
and retrieval of
learning.
• Cross lateralization
uses the same
neural connections
that the brain uses
to read, write,
spell, and compute
math.
Meaningful Content
•
•
•
•
•
•
Is from real life.
Depends heavily upon prior experience.
Is age-appropriate.
Is rich enough to allow for pattern-seeking as
a means of identifying/creating meaning.
Can be used within the life of the learner.
Does not involve an external rewards
system. The brain is a self-congratulator.
Progression of Instruction
Brain Compatible Classroom
Sensory
Input from
Being There
Experiences
 concept
 language  application to
the real world
GROWTH
Traditional Classroom
language
 concept
 application
When presenting a lesson remember…
C.U.E.
-Creative
-Useful
-Build an Emotional
Bridge
Community is a dynamic whole that emerges
when a group of people:
•participate in common practices:
•make decisions together:
•identify themselves as part of something larger than the sum of
their individual relationships: and
•commit themselves for the long term to their own, one another’s,
and the group’s well-being.
Shaffer & Anundesen, Creating Community Anywhere, pg. 10
Gardner’s MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
Logical-mathematical
Linguistic
(logic/number smart)
(word smart)
Spatial
Bodily-kinesthetic
(picture smart)
(body smart)
Musical
Intrapersonal
(music smart)
(self smart)
Interpersonal
Naturalist
(people smart)
(nature smart)
Immediate Feedback
•
Direct Instruction~ 16 minutes/hour
–
clear, concise, succinct, what’s most important
to understand
•
Circulate, re-teach, discuss, support
•
Students give feedback to peers
•
Immediately assess effectiveness of direct
instruction and assignment
Adequate Time
•
The brain is a pattern-seeking,
meaning-making device.
•
Using what we understand helps build
mental programs.
Examples of Patterns to Programs:
• Driving a car
• Percentages in my 5th Grade Math Class
• Christopher
We must teach as
though teaching for
genuine expertise.
Caine/Caine, Making Connections: Teaching and The Human Brain, pg. 110
If we understand…
we are responsible.
Linda L. Jordan
Hope College
616-395-7435
[email protected]