Brain based learning

 Brain-Based learning is a comprehensive approach
to instruction based on how current research in
neuroscience suggests our brain learns naturally.
o This theory is based on what we currently know about
the actual structure and function of the human brain at
varying stages of development.

o This type of education provides a biologically driven
framework for teaching and learning, and helps
explain recurring learning behaviors.
o It is a meta-concept that includes an eclectic mix of
techniques. Currently, these techniques stress allowing
teachers to connect learning to students’ real life
experiences.

 Brain-Based Learning is also the application of a meaningful
group of principles that represent our understanding of how our
brain works in the context of education.
 Brain-Based Learning is simply the engagement of strategies
based on body/mind/brain research..
 Brain-Based Learning is not a panacea or magic bullet to solve
all of education’s problems.

 Brain-based education is best understood in three words:
 engagement
 strategies
 principles

Brain-based education is the
"engagement of strategies
based on principles derived
from an understanding of the
brain."

 mastery learning
 learning styles
 multiple intelligences
 cooperative learning
 practical simulations
 experiential learning
 problem-based learning
 movement education.

 For 2,000 years there have been primitive models of
how the brain works. Up until the mid 1900’s the
brain was compared to a city’s switchboard.
 Brain theory in the 1970’s spoke of the right and left-
brain. Later the concept of the triune brain ( a term
coined by Paul McClean that refers to the evolution of
the human three part brain) was introduced.

 During the last two decades, neuroscientists have been
doing research that has implications for improved
teaching practices.
Neuroscience is based on information obtained
through autopsies, experiments, and different types of
scans -- MRIs, EEGs, PET and CAT scans, as well as
the most recent brain research lab studies in
neuroscience.

1. The brain is a parallel processor. It can perform
several activities at once.
2. The brain perceives whole and parts simultaneously.
3. Information is stored in multiple areas of the brain
and is retrieved through multiple memory and neural
pathways.

4. Learning engages the whole body. All learning is
mind-body: movement, foods, attention cycles, and
chemicals modulate learning
5. Humans’ search for meaning is innate.
6. The search for meaning comes through patterning.

7. Emotions are critical to patterning, and drive our
attention, meaning and memory.
8. Meaning is more important than just information.
9. Learning involves focused attention and peripheral
perception.

10. We have two types of memory: spatial and rote.
11. We understand best when facts are embedded in
natural spatial memory.
12. The brain is social. It develops better in concert with
other brains.

13. Complex learning is enhanced by challenge and
inhibited by stress
14. Every brain in uniquely organized.
15. Learning is developmental. (Caine)

 There are interactive teaching elements that emerge from these
principles.
 Orchestrated immersion: Learning environments are
created that immerse students in a learning experience.
 Relaxed alertness: An effort is made to eliminate fear while
maintaining a highly challenging environment.
 Active processing: The learner consolidates and internalizes
information by actively processing it.

1) Rich, stimulating environments using student created materials and
products are evident on bulletin boards and display areas.
2) Places for group learning like tables and desks grouped together, to
stimulate social skills and cooperative work groups.
3) Link indoor and outdoor spaces so students can move about using
their motor cortex for more brain oxygenation.

4) Safe places for students to be where threat is reduced, particularly in
large urban settings.
5) Variety of places that provide different lighting, and nooks and
crannies.
6) Change displays in the classroom regularly to provide a stimulating
situations for brain development.

7) Have multiple resources available. Provide educational, physical and
a variety of setting within the classroom so that learning activities
can be integrated easily.
8) Flexibility: This common principle of the past is relevant. The
‘teachable moment” must be recognized and capitalized upo
9) Active and passive places: Students need quiet areas for reflection
and retreat from others to use intrapersonal intelligences.

10) Personal space: Students need a home base, a desk, a locker area.
All this allows learners to express their unique identity.
11) The community at large as an optimal learning environment.
12) Enrichment: The brain can grow new connections at any age.

 Music: Music can lower stress, boost learning when used 3
different ways:
 as a carrier - using melody or beat to encode content,
 as arousal - to calm down or energize,
 as a primer - to prepare specific pathways for learning
content) impacts the immune system, and is an energy source
for the brain.

 Art: Art is an important part of brain-based education in
that it provides many learners with avenues of expression and
emotional conduits for learning and retaining information.
 Diverse forms of assessment: students should
be exposed to multiple assessment methods. (Jensen)

Brain based learning

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