Brain-Based Education

Today's learners need to be critical and creative
thinkers, and Brain-Based Learning lays the
foundation for this.

Brain-Based Education is the purposeful engagement of
strategies that apply to how our brain works in the context of
education.
Brain-based learning has hatched a new discipline now entitled
by some as educational neuroscience, or by others as mind, brain,
and education science (Sousa, 2011). Whatever we call this "not
really new discipline," it is a comprehensive approach to
instruction using current research from neuroscience.
Brain-based education (aka educational neuroscience) emphasizes
how the brain learns naturally and is based on what we
currently know about the actual structure and function of the
human brain at varying developmental stages.

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.
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This form of learning also encompasses such newer
educational concepts like:

mastery learning,
experiential learning,
learning styles,
multiple intelligences,
cooperative learning,
practical simulations,
experiential learning,
problem-based learning,
Movement education, also known as embodied
learning.

The Brain-based Learning Theory assumes that when the brain
fulfills its normal processes, learning will occur.
Proper nutrition, clean air and rested bodies are all normal
processes. In education, many students lack a basic need, and
learning cannot occur.
Brain-based learning theory is based on current research about
the structure and function of the brain.
Brain-based teaching is all about understanding the principles
of brain research and using strategies in a purposeful way based
on these principles.
What we know about how the brain works has a significant
impact on curriculum, instruction and assessment.

Brain theory in the 1970s spoke of the right and
left-brain.
Later, Paul MacLean developed a concept of the
Triune Brain which refers to the evolution of the
human brain in three parts.
In this theory MacLean hypothesized that survival
learning is in the lower brain, emotions were in
the mid-brain, and higher order thinking took
place in the upper brain.
Currently, brain-based education embraces a more
holistic view of the brain -- one that is more
systems-based and gestalt -- the whole being
greater than the sum of its parts.

Brain-based Learning is the newest in educational
theories. It encompasses past theories, such as
multiple intelligences, meta-cognitive reflection
and cooperative learning.
The brain based learning movement is based upon
advancements in technology, which have permitted
researchers to analyze the brain with greater
precision than in generations prior to the
development of high-performance computers.

In accordance with neuroscientists’ suggestions
classroom practices can be modified by teachers
applying new theories of teaching and learning
based on recent findings in cognition.

Principles & Implications for Education

Educators who become aware of recent research on how the
brain learns will gain exciting ideas about conditions and
environments that can optimize learning.

- The brain performs many functions
simultaneously.
Thoughts, emotions, imaginations operate concurrently. They interact with other brain
processes such as health maintenance and the
expansion of general social and cultural
knowledge.
*** Implications for Education;
- Teachers need a frame of reference that enables
them to select from the vast array of methods
and approaches that are available. That is
because this leads to a good teaching which
should orchestrate all dimensions of parallel
processing.

- Like the heart, liver or lungs, the brain is a complex physiological
organ functioning according to physiological rules.
- Learning is as natural as breathing, and it is possible to either inhabit
or facilitate it.
- Neuron growth, Nourishment, Happiness, Stress and Threat
affects the brain.
- The actual writing of the brain is affected by school and life
experiences.
Anything that affects our physiological functioning affects our capacity to learn.
- Brain-based teaching must fully incorporate stress
management, nutrition, exercise, drug education, and other
facets of health into learning process.

- making sense of our experiences is survival
oriented and basic to the human brain.
The brain automatically registers the familiar
while searching for the novel stimuli. People are
meaning makers.
- Brain-based education must furnish a learning
environment that provides familiarity and
stability.
- Educators should be able to satisfy the brain's
enormous curiosity and hunger for novelty,
discovery and challenge.

- The brain is both scientist and artist,
attempting to discern and understand patterns as
they occur and giving expression to unique and
creative patterns of its own.
- Learners are patterning all the time in one way or
another, searching for meaning.
- Teacher should not stop learners from patterning,
but they can influence the direction.
- Teacher should provide learners with problem
solving and critical thinking skills.

Emotions & Cognition cannot be separated.
- Emotions are crucial to memory because they
facilitate the storage and recall of information.
- What we learn is influenced and organized by
emotions and mind-sets involving expectancy,
personal biases and prejudices, self esteem, and the
need for social interaction.
- Teachers should make sure of that the emotional
climate is supportive and marked by mutual respect
and acceptance. The cooperative approaches to
learning support this notion. Reflection & Metacognitive approaches should be encouraged.

- There are differences between the left and the right
hemisphere of the brain.
- The value of the two-brain doctrine is that it requires
educators to acknowledge the brain's separate but
simultaneous tendencies for organizing information.
- One is to reduce such information into parts, the other is
to perceive and work with it as a whole or series of
wholes.
- Good teaching builds understanding and skills over
time because it recognizes that learning is cumulative
and developmental.
- Teachers should have to know that vocabulary and
grammar are best understood and mastered when they
are incorporated in genuine, whole language
experience.

- The brain absorbs the information of which it is directly aware and
to which it is paying attention. It also absorbs information and
signals that lie beyond the immediate focus of attention.
- Peripheral perception; the brain responds to the entire sensory
context in which teaching or communication occurs.
(For example; changes in body postures - Our inner states show in skin
color, muscular tension and posture, rate of breathing, eye
movements, and so on.)
- Peripheral information can be organized to facilitate learning.
- The teacher can and should organize the materials that will be
outside the focus of the learner's attention.
- Teachers should engage the interests and enthusiasm of
students through their own enthusiasm, coaching and modeling.

-We learn much more than we ever consciously understand.
We remember what we experience, not just we are told.
- "Having reached the brain, this information emerges in
the consciousness with some delay, or it influences
motives and decision"
- A student can easily learn to sing on key and learn to hate
singing at the same time.
- Teaching should be designed to help students benefit
maximally from unconscious processing. You can use
"Active processing"
- Active processing allows students to review how and what
they learned so that they can be responsible for their
learning and the development of their own personal
meaning.
- Teachers should deliver his students the ways of reflection
and meta-cognitive strategies.

1- Remembering what we had for dinner last night doesn't require the use of
memorization.
- We have natural spatial memory system which doesn't need rehearsal and
allows for "instant" memory of experiences. This memory registers our
experiences.
- The system is always engaged and is inexhaustible. It is enriched over time.
The system is motivated by novelty.
- In fact, this is one of the systems that derive the search for meaning.
2- The more information & skills are separated from prior knowledge and actual
experience, the more we depend on rote memory and repetition.
- Rote memory works for facts and skills that are dealt in isolation and
which need rehearsal and memorization. These facts are organized
differently in brain and need more practice. All new information must be
worked on before it is stored.
Note: Concentrating too heavily on storage and recall of unconnected
facts is a very inefficient use of the brain.
- Educators are adept at focusing on memorization of facts. Common
examples include; multiplication tables, spelling, and sets of principles in
different subjects.
- Teachers shouldn't overemphasize the focus on memorization because it
doesn't facilitate the transfer of learning.
- Also as a teacher, you shouldn't ignore the personal world of the learner
in order not to inhabit the effective functioning of the brain.

- Our native language is learned through multiple interactive
experiences involving vocabulary and grammar. It's shaped both
by internal processes and by social interactions.
- That is an example of how specific items are given meaning when
embedded in ordinary experiences.
- Spatial memory is best invoked through experiential learning.

- Teachers should use a great deal of "real life" activity including
classroom demonstrations, projects, field trips, stories, metaphors,
drama, and interaction of different subjects and so on.
- Vocabulary can be "experienced" through skits.
- Grammar can be "in process" through stories or writing.
- Success depends on making use of all senses, the more senses
you use, the fixed embedded skills & experiences they get.

- The brain learns optimally when appropriately
challenged and "down-shifts" under perceived
threat. The brain is most sensitive to stress.
- Under perceived threat, we literally lose access to
portions of our brain. It has a physiological
explanation.
- Teachers and administrators should strive to create
a state of relaxed alertness in students. This means
that they should provide an atmosphere that is
low in threat and high in challenge.
- All the methodologies the teacher uses to
orchestrate the learning context influence the state
of relaxed alertness.

- Although we have the same set of systems,
including our senses and basic emotions, they are
integrated differently in each and every brain.
- In addition, because learning changes the
structure of the brain, the more we learn, the
more unique we become.

- Teaching should be multifaceted in order to allow
all students to express visual, tactile, emotional, or
auditory preferences.
- Choices should also be variable enough to attract
individual interests.
- Education needs to facilitate optimal brain
functioning

Curriculum
–Teachers must design learning around student
interests and make learning contextual.
Instruction
–Educators let students learn in teams and use
peripheral learning. Teachers structure learning
around real problems, encouraging students to also
learn in settings outside the classroom and the
school building.
Assessment
–Since all students are learning, their assessment
should allow them to understand their own learning
styles and preferences. This way, students monitor
and enhance their own learning process.

1- Allow students to have water bottles
and to take more bathroom breaks so
they are encouraged to drink more
water.
2- Have a snack in the mornings in your
classroom, as well as one in the
afternoon.
3- Schedule time to take breaks between
activities.
4- Evaluate your particular group of
students and design a schedule for when
they are most interested and motivated
to learn.

The brain is complex. It thrives on environments with a variety of stimuli.
Presenting information in diverse ways, such as musically and with
movement, enhances learning.
Chunking;
In the classroom, it is important to help students make connections between
new information and what the students already know. When learning new
information, the brain attempts to chunk information together to retain it.
The brain may connect the new information to prior knowledge or chunk
bits of new information together.
Feelings and Learning;
Emotion and cognition are strongly connected. Emotions help store and
remember information. It is critical that the classroom environment is a
positive place that is conducive to learning.
Thinking about Thinking
Learning happens both consciously and unconsciously.
When a student reflects on the knowledge she has gained, she is more likely
to remember what she has learned because she has unconsciously reviewed
it.
Real Life Connection
The brain works best when it learns in real-world context.
Understanding happens when facts or skills are presented using a variety of
senses and integrated across the curriculum. Using demonstrations and
projects aids in meaningful learning by tapping into the natural spatial
memory.

1. Talking!
Research has taught us that learners don't
learn much from sitting and listening. Sure,
they need to listen a bit, but they need the
opportunity to talk! The talking internalizes
what they've learned.
In my classroom, I'll give the children a few
tidbits of information, and then they have
"turn and talk" time, where they discuss what
they've learned.
They love this, and it works!

2. Emotions rule!
If you think about the strong memories you have
from your past, I'll bet they are closely related to
strong emotional experiences, either positive or
negative: your wedding, your child being born, a
death... strong emotions.
This works with children, too! Hopefully, your
teaching won't bring out too many negative
emotions, but there are ways to get to the positive
ones! Kids love games.
Some children are very competitive, and thrive on
that stuff! Getting up in front of their classmates
brings out plenty of emotions. Of course, different
kids feel different things, so just be careful about
playing with the emotions of children. What works
for one might traumatize another. (Yikes, don't
want to go there!)

3. Visuals!
Vision is the strongest of the senses. Talking alone isn't
enough. Make sure the children have plenty to look at in
addition to what you say.
Use posters, drawings, videos, pictures, and even some guided
imagery with the children to help them learn.
4. Chunking!
The typical attention span is the child's age plus or minus a couple
of minutes. That means that many of my second graders can't
attend past 5 minutes.
Again, proof that typical "lecture" type teaching just doesn't
work. That means they need a chunk of information, then an
opportunity to process that in some way.
Here's where "turn and talk" works, as well as an opportunity to
write, draw, or even move.

5. Movement!
Combining movement with the learning almost
guarantees stronger learning.
Here are some ideas: Counting by tens while
doing jumping jacks, touch three desks while
naming the three states of matter, and
Brainy Kinesthetic Vowels Sounds , from a
blog post I wrote in the fall.
http://www.elementarymatters.com/2011/1
0/brainy-kinesthetic-vowels-sounds.html

6. Shake it up!
If you do exactly the same thing, exactly the
same way, it becomes boring and the brain
tunes out.
Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of good
things about sticking with a routine, but
once in a while you need to shake it
up! Have a backwards day, turning the
whole schedule around (within reason, of
course!) Change the seating arrangement,
do one part of the day completely
different. We need this in our own lives, too,
don't we?

7. The brain needs oxygen!
They say 20% of all the oxygen used in the body is used by the
brain. That means we need to get the kids up out of their seats
regularly and moving! I particularly enjoy the Brain Gym
exercises. I recommend the book, but there are also plenty of
YouTube videos on brain gym that will model the exercises for you
and tell how they help learning! Of course, there's nothing better
than old fashioned jumping jacks or running in place. And the
kids love it!
Brain Gym ; http://www.braingym.org/
8. Make connections!
We talk about connections in books a lot, but connections are
important for the brain. It can't hold random information; it needs
to connect to something else that's already there.
Did you ever hear a kid say, "I remember that because I
know...." You can make connections through your own experience
and stories. I often talk about my daughter, my cat, or some other
thing they know of to make something else come true.

9. Feedback is essential!
Practice doesn't make anything better unless the practice is
accurate. Students need to hear they are on the right track.
I use a color code to let the children know if they are on track,
which I described in this blog post from September. It works
pretty well for motivation, as well.
this blog post ;
http://www.elementarymatters.com/2011/09/givingfeedback.html
10. Music is magical!
Tell the truth, how many of you know all the words to a television
commercial? People my age know all the words to the Gilligan's
Island Theme Song and the Brady Bunch Theme Song. Did we
work hard to learn those? Nope, never even tried! Because they
were put to music, we learned them.
There are many studies on music and learning. One way I use
music is that I often play "happy music" first thing in the
morning. That way the children enter feeling good. Now this
brings us back to #2 emotions!

- One way to see if you really infuse the brain in
learning is to see how many of these are used
in a single lesson.
- Discovery? - Inquiry? - Games? - Experiments? Research? - Drills? - Hands-On? - Arts
integration? - Play? - Creating an object? - Using a
textbook? - Technology-driven? - Discussion? Practice? - Writing?

English Instructor

Thanks

Brain-Based Education

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