1. Brain Based Teaching and
LEARNING…
An Introduction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=cgLYkV689s4
2. Before We Get Underway
Caveat - Nothing is an absolute,
but we are learning more and
more every day about how the
brain functions and how that
translates to behavior - including
teaching and LEARNING.
What do you think?
Can your brain grow new cells?
Does what you eat and drink affect your
brain?
Do colors influence emotion?
Can knowledge of “brain- based” learning
positively influence learning?
What influences intelligence more, genetics
or environment?
3. Setting the Table
What will we gain from this powerpoint?
What do you already know about brain based
learning?
4. OBJECTIVES
To learn about brain-based learning and teaching.
To understand the practical implications of brain based
learning.
To gain physiological information on the brain and body.
To appreciate and take care of your brain to maximize your
learning
To establish a learning foundation for rest of your life
5. What is Brain Based
Learning?
Taking what we know about the brain, about development
and about learning and combining those factors in
intelligent ways to connect and excite your desire to learn.
Combining emotional, factual and skill knowledge into a
metacognitive tool.
6. How is your brain like(?)
A cabbage
A walnut
A refrigerator
A grapefruit
A computer
A box
A jungle
7. Our Brains
Are like a “jungle”- nothing “runs”
the jungle
All parts of the brain participate
with each other, while each has
its own function
There is natural pruning or neural
pruning that occurs when parts are used and when
they are not used (this may be why sounds not heard
or used atrophy over time)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWMah7Io4qA
“LEARNING IS DELICATE, BUT IS A POWERFUL DIALOGUE
BETWEEN GENETICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT…”
Robert Sylwester, A Celebration of Neurons
8. Brain’s Complexity
Cellular level - three pints of liquid, three
pounds of mass, tens of billions of nerve
cells (or neurons), ten times more numerous
glial cells that support, insulate and nourish
the neurons
Brain cells - 30 thousand neurons (300,000
glial cells) fit into the space of a pinhead.
Liquid and electrical congruence
9. Parts of the Brain
Brainstem (survival)
Cerebellum ( autonomic nervous system)
Limbic system (emotion)
Cortex ( reason/logic)
These develop in
This order
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owFnH01SD-s
Brainstem
Cerebellum
Cortex
10. Frontal lobe - Cortex
Creativity - Judgment - Optimism - Context
Planning - Problem solving - Pattern making
Upper temporal lobe - Wernicke’s Area
Comprehension - Relevancy - Link to past
(experience) - Hearing - Memory - Meaning
Lower frontal lobe - Cortex
Speaking/language - Broca’s area
Occipital lobe - Spatial order
Visual processing - Patterns - Discovery
Parietal lobe
Motor - Primary Sensory Area - Insights -
Language functions
Cerebellum
Motor/motion - Novelty learning - cognition -
balance - posture
11. Broca’s
area
Pars
opercularis
Motor cortex Somatosensory cortex
Sensory associati
cortex
Primary
Auditory cortex
Wernicke’s
area
Visual associ
cortex
Visual
cortex
Language and Thought
Grammar
and word
production
Movement and joint positions
Cerebellum
12. Neurons
Connect to other neurons,
to muscles, or glands
Send and receive chemical information
(messages) for behaviors
Can be a millimeter in length or as long as a
meter
Cells nucleus contains DNA (As long a meter)
THE MORE CONNECTIONS BEING MADE,
THE MORE LEARNING IS RELEVANT,
MEMORABLE AND FUN!
13. Neurons contain tubular extensions that are
designed to communicate quickly with
specific cells in the body network - this is a
transportation system, much like a phone
system.
• The brain has both nerve cells and glial
cells. The neurons are cellular agents of
cognition; the glial cells act as a scaffolding
or insulation for impulses. (The insulation
increases the speed of the neural (electrical)
messages.)
14. How the Brain Determines
What’s Important
Emotion and attention are the
PRINCIPLE processes of the brain
Primary emotions - innate responses
Assemble life-saving behaviors quickly
Secondary emotions - also innate
reactions
Enjoyment, pleasure
Students need to process their emotions
Games, cooperative learning, field
trips, interactive projects, use of humor
Limit emotional stress- Fight/Flight/Freeze
15. The Twelve Principles of
Brain Based
Teaching/Learning
FIRST OF ALL…
Why are these important?
What are the implications of this
information to working with/teaching/
understanding ourselves and others
How will this affect the way I
approach learning?
16. Twelve Basic Principles
Related to Learning
1. Brain is a parallel processor
2. Learning engages the entire
physiology (body)
3. Learning is developmental
4. Each brain is unique
5. Every brain perceives and creates
parts and wholes simultaneously
6. Learning always involves
conscious and unconscious
processes
17. 7. The search for meaning is inborn
8. Emotions are critical to learning
9. Learning is enhanced by challenge and
inhibited by threat- FFF principle
10. The search for meaning occurs through
patterning
11. We can organize memory in different ways
12. The brain is a social brain
18. The Brain is a Parallel
Processor
Both hemispheres work together cooperatively
Many functions occur simultaneously
Edelman(1994) found when more neurons in the brain
were firing at the same time, learning, meaning, and
retention were greater for the learner.
Let’s talk about that…
It is the key to your success in this milieu!!!
1
19. Learning Engages
the Entire Physiology
Food, water, and nutrition are critical
components of thinking. (Drink more water)
We are “holistic” learners - the body and
mind interact (indivisible)
the peptides in the blood are chains of
amino acids that become the primary source
of information transfer.
What you do with your body ALWAYS affects
your brain
The level to which you are mentally engaged
also affects your body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=vNHRW4GDT5Y
2
20. Learning is Developmental
Depending upon the topic,
some students can think
abstractly, while others have a
limited background and are still
thinking on a concrete level.
(Connotation)
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=FmqOld0Ye-4
Building the necessary neural
connections by exposure,
repetition, and practice is
important to the student.
3
21. Each Brain is Unique
• We are products of genetics,
environment, and experience
• The brain works better when facts
and skills are embedded in real life
experiences
THIS IS WHY CONNECTIONS ARE
SOOOOOOOOOO IMPORTANT!!
4
22. Each Brain Perceives and
Creates Parts and Wholes
Simultaneously
Some think more easily inductively while
others find deductive thinking more
comfortable – (thinking big to small and
small to big)…use both
Shank (1990) Telling stories is one of the
most influential techniques because you
give the information, ground the
meaning in structure, provide for
emotion, and make the content
meaningful. Our brain loves storytelling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdK-
ebSVFmY
5
23. Learning Involves Conscious
and Unconscious Processes
The brain and body learn physically, mentally, and
affectively
Body language as well as actual language
communicate (90 percent of communication is non
verbal)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMDHD-fHz0Q
6
• How we treat each other makes a
difference in our learning and desire to
learn.
• How the physical environment is
organized makes a difference too.
24. The Search for Meaning Is
Innate
Each person seeks to make sense out of what he/she
sees or hears
Capitalize on this quality!
Present ideas, experiences that may NOT follow what one
expects:
Speculate • Question
Experiment • Hypothesize
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf6lqfNTmaM
7
25. Emotions Are Critical
to Learning
A common form of communication within our brain is
the electrical-chemical-electrical process between
neurons.
Emotions trigger the chemicals active in the axon-
synapse-dendrite reaction. This permits or inhibits
communication between the cells.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmwiJ6ghLIM
90% of the communication is carried out by peptides
(which are strings of amino acids that travel the blood
stream and permit information transfer. Peptides are the
glue that connect the body and the brain.
8
26. Learning is Inhibited by Threat
and Enhanced by
Challenge
The brain’s priority is always survival - at the
expense of higher order thinking…
Stress should be kept to a manageable level-
Prefrontal cortex (maturity)
Provide opportunities to “grow” and to make
changes (take your education further)
Have high, but reasonable expectations
If you ever feel unchallenged, you are in the wrong
class!!!
WHO IS THE BEST TEACHER
YOU WILL EVER HAVE?
9
27. The Search for Meaning
Comes Through Patterning
Tie learning to background knowledge
Tell us ALL what you know relating to the subject
at hand
Brain (What the Best College
Teachers Do) suggests working from “Driving
questions” to be answered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67Z7mlihxss
10
28. Brain Organizes Memory In
Different Ways
Retrieval often depends upon HOW the
information was stored. Was it recorded
as important?
Relevancy is one key to both storage and
retrieval…
Connect to what you know, what they
are interested in (My reading story)
Provide and get examples of varying
types
Student talk!!!
11
29. Memory
Short-term memory
TO HELP:
Combine or “chunk”
Mnemonics https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=VoYOb2sPnqA
Long-term memory
Declarative - Factual
Episodic - Events or experiences
Semantic - Words
Procedural - Step by step
30. Memory
When objects and events are registered by
several senses, they can be stored in several
interrelated memory networks.
This type of memory becomes more accessible
and powerful. (Is it evoking emotion)
Conversation helps us--link--ideas/thoughts to our
own related memories. Students need time for
this to happen!!
Storytelling - Conversations
Debates - Role playing
Simulations - Songs
Games - Films
31. Techniques to Help Memory
Define the “gist” - OVERVIEW
Sequence events
Plot out pictorially the information
Tell the information to others in own
words - TALK
Peer teaching/tutoring
Amplify by giving examples
Use multiple parts of the brain
(emotional, factual, physical)
Auditory, Visual, Kinesthetic, Talk
Combine
Use color effectively
Yellow and orange as attention-getters
32. The Brain is a Social Brain
12
• The brain develops better in concert with others
When students have to talk to others about
information, they retain the information longer and
more efficiently!
Make use of small groups, discussions,
teams, pairings, and question and answer
situations.
33. How Might Brain-Based
Research Influence Your
LEARNING?
What changes should you make?
What are you already doing that fits this research?
What would you like to know more about?
Editor's Notes
#6:A cabbage - weight, stem
A raisin -convolutions (membrane)
A pillowcase - size - unfolded
A grapefruit - skin, thickness of cortex; high % of water
String cheese - corpus colosum - bundle of axons, fibers
A walnut - two sides, skull covering; lobes
