Brain-based Learning Workshop

Presentation by Shelley Thomas National TPRS Conference, Vegas, 2004

SESSION OVERVIEW (Thursday Explanation of Handouts Objectives, theme, benefits

8:30)

Begin Power point How a students brain processes information Break/look at posters/look at display books Continue Power Point * 7 * 4 * 4 key points and the research behind them Key memory pathways Key Brain chemicals teachers can influence

Brainstorming for Practical applications Fill out evaluation forms

WEBSITE: www.mtsu.edu/~shthomas

There are literally hundreds of discoveries about the learning process. Here are the ones you will walk away with today: 7 Key Points 1. It is important to honor each learners ____________________. 2. _______________learning enhances new learning. 3. Learning is heavily influence by brain __________________.

4. Too much too fast ______________________________. 5. ________________ time is essential to learning. 6. The brain rarely gets it _______________________________. 7. Learning that taps into _____________________ pathways store information in long term memory. Important Brain Chemicals that YOU can influence: 1. 2. 3. 4. _______________ Ah (neurotransmitter of well-being) _______________ Yikes!(hormone of risk and urgency) _______________ uh oh!(hormone of uncertainty) _______________ Yahoo!(the feel good neurotransmitter)

Four major memory pathways: REFERENCE in Power Point::

Effects of lecture information density on medical student achievement (Russell, J. 1984. Journal of Medical Education 59:881)
(Jensen Diagram)

Presentation by Shelley Thomas National TPRS Conference Vegas, 2004

If youre looking for research to inform your teaching style and choice of classroom activities, Erics done all the work for us!
(from page 6 of your brohcure- Eric Jensen is a leader in the brain research in the classroom movement.written more brain-based books (16) and trained more educators in-depth than anyone else in the world. .is currently a member of the Society for neuroscience and New York Academy of Sciences.interacts with countless neuroscientists annually and visits a half dozen research sites a year) Workshops are costly, but worth it. Moneys from the no child left behind ACT

should be available to you NOW for professional development, so inquire at your institute.

Jensens latest publication: Tools for Engagement: Managing Emotional

States for Learner Success (

2003, www.the Brain Store.com)

Erics point is basically- in addition to effective teaching strategies, teachers must learn to manage students states, which result from certain chemicals in the brain. Educators need to understand the chemistry of the brain and how it learns just as much as medical doctors need to understand the chemistry/ physiology of the body and how it functions. In his introduction he states, A major revelation in the history of neuroscience was the discovery that all external behaviors somehow correlate to the brains internal processes. All states of consciousness, from sleeping, imagining, hoping and dreaming to thinking, are the results, of electrical and chemical activity in our brain. Not only that, each individual electron generates its own activity, both electrical and chemical.
(The following publications are a good place to begin and will provide you with names and resources of various people whose research supports different aspects of comprehensible input methodologies like TPR and TPRS ) Brain-Based Learning (by Eric Jensen, revised edition 2000, The Brain Store)

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Memory (Dr. G.Bower, Stanford,p. 219) 34, 215, 219, 221, 223. Need BOTH explicit (short term) and implicit (long term) memory. Storytelling with visuals,
movement, and participation in story-creation is a major form of implicit.

Need for whole brain activities (Dr. J. Levy, Chicago ) p. 17 Need for pre-exposure(priming) - (Dr. Robert Ornstein, Stanford)p. 81, 88 99% of learning is NONconscious (Dr. E. Donchin, Urbana) p. 102 Need for DOWN TIME/processing (Dr. A. Hobson, Harvard) p. 124 Learning is STATE dependant (implied by research on chemicals) p. 125-6 Laughter boosts neurotransmitters (Dr. A. Stone, NY) p. 126 AND immune system The BEST state for learning (Dr. M.Csikszentmihalyi,) p. 129 is the self lost in activity Chicago Need to appeal to different learning (Drs.Brewer, Campbell, England) p. 145 styles Need for MOVEMENT for memory (Drs.Strick,Doman,Thatch,) p. 163,167 due to NGF (nerve growth factor)and games(trial /error in non-threatening place) Need for ENERGIZERS / breaks every 20 minutes p. 169 -fingers/hands especially important (Dr. E. Kandel, Nobel Laureate) -See also Sousas, How the Brain Learns p. 93 Emotions have their own memory path (Dr. L. Squire, San Diego) p. 208

Differentiation through Learning Styles and Memory (Dr.Marilee Sprenger, 2003) How the Brain Learns (David A. Sousa, second edition, 2003,) Brain Matters (Pat Wolf)Celebration of Neurons (Robert Sylwester)RESEARCH JOURNALS: Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and Memory
Presentation by Shelley Thomas National TPRS Conference- Vegas, 2004

 Teaching with the Brain in Mind (a summary of the materials from Eric Jensens
6-day Brain-Compatible Learning Workshop, Chicago, 2002, updated - San Antonio, 2004 by Dr. Shelley Thomas, MTSU)

Learning that is compatible with the brain is a positive experience that feels easy yet challenging and results in long-term aquisition. Learning in a brain antagonistic environment can leave one feeling threatened, over or under challenged, and therefore frustrated or bored. What distinguishes the two can be summarizes by the following: *Brain compatible learning takes place when there is meaning, movement, and frequent feedback *Brain compatible classrooms take into account the fact that states (emotional, mental, physical) are constantly changing and must therefore be respected. States can only be changed gradually with proper framing which are suggestions suited to the state. Students cannot be expected to change their behavior until they have a change of state. * Attention is in constant flux, so constant demand from the teacher for focused attention is brain antagonistic. Since 98-99 percent of learning is subconscious, a rich environment that includes props, colored posters, appropriate music, games, stories, etc. is more brain compatible for the high percentage of non-focused learning which naturally occurs. * Threats, punishment, embarrassment, and other negative factors are brain antagonistic, causing the release of chemicals that put the amygdala on alert and slow or impede learning. Brain compatible classrooms include humour, novelty, rituals, celebration, and moderately challenging material. These aid the release of chemicals like serotonin (wellbeing) adrenalin (action), dopamine (celebration), and cortisone (healthy concern). * A brain compatible quantity of material does not overload the hippocampus with too many facts and occurs in small chunks. The learned material is given quick feedback for correction to occur before the information gets too fixed. There must be down-time for processing, so that the hippocampus can evaluate and distribute the information to the appropriate parts of the brain, thus ensuring long-term potentiation of the information. * The brain compatible teacher realizes the student rarely gets the right answer the first time after being exposed to new information, allows for much trial and error, and lets the student learn from experience how to eliminate poor choices. *The brain compatible instructor uses many different styles in order to reach the maximum percentage of students because s(he) knows every brain is unique. S(he) knows that students can get just as burnt out on novelty as they can on ritual, so it is important to constantly teach to the whole brain through all 4 basic memory pathways. *Antagonistic feedback tests the 1% of learning that occurs through explicit memory pathways. The information in these pathways is the easiest to test, yet the most likely to change and be forgotten. Brain compatible testing uses a variety of ways of assessing and targets implicit memory pathways, where learning becomes more fixed.
Current brain research validates the use of total physical response [TPR] in several ways. First, a significant pathway for memory retrieval is through the physical body. This is known as procedural memory. We often recall what something is or what we wanted to do by simply getting up and moving. Second, areas in the brain that activate movement (cerebellum, frontal lobes, basal ganglia, motor cortex, etc. ) are also well connected to the pleasure centers in the brain. Motion activates emotion; hence, moving can engage positive feelings and better retrieval. And finally, the peptide molecules which store information are distributed throughout the body. This means that almost any movement or motion can activate feelings and memories. (an exerpt from Joyful Fluency; Brain-Compatible Second Language Acquisition, co-authored by Eric Jensen, published in 1998, page 27.)