Download Louise Comely`s

Teachers are Brain Changers:
Neuroscience and Education
Louise Comely
Principal Educational Psychologist
May 2015
AIMS
1. Structure and function of
the brain
2. Classroom implications
Parts of the Brain
THALAMUS
 Relays
messages
amygdala
hippocampus
pituitary
CEREBELLUM
 Coordination
and balance
BRAINSTEM  Heart
rate and breathing
The Cerebral Cortex
• Cerebral Cortex
–the body’s
ultimate control
and information
processing
center
The lobes of the cerebral hemispheres
Planning, decision
making speech
Sensory
Auditory
Vision
NEURONS
OUR JOB IS TO GROW DENDRITES!!!!!
Myelination
Dendrite Growing/Pruning
GROWING
DENDRITES
PRUNING
DENDRITES
Developmental Plasticity/Synaptic
Pruning
Sleep
So what?
Classroom implications
TEACHERS ARE….
Neuroscience and the
Classroom
In her book, “A Student’s Brain”, Kathie Nunley
outlines 4 key education principles linking
neuroscience to education:
1. attention.
2. move students to higher regions of the brain
3. the lower parts of the brain
4. development and plasticity of the cortex.
ATTENTION!!!
If the child is not attending to the
task no learning is taking place!
•
Staying focused
• Relevance and Meaning
The brain
Attention!!!
Stimulating the limbic system..
Meaning,
Emotions and
Learning
But when students
feel helpless and
anxious…
However, there
must be some
“Challenge”
Higher levels of Thinking
There is a critical difference between difficulty and
complexity.
:
Complexity
…is the thought
processes the brain
uses to deal with
information.
Difficulty
…is the amount of
effort the learner
must expend within a
level of complexity
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Levels of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy
“The brain can only do one
thing at a time!”
The role of the lower parts of the
brain and spinal cord have been
underestimated!
Routine Tasks
The spinal cord and lower parts of the brain can perform
these skills automatically, without conscious attention to
detail.
This allows the conscious part of the brain the freedom
to attend to other mental activities.
•
Walking and talking
•
Driving a car and thinking
•
Reading and comprehending
Types of Memory
MEMORY
SHORT TERM MEMORY
Working Memory
LONG TERM MEMORY
DECLARATIVE MEMORY
(consciously processes facts and events)
EPISODIC MEMORY
(Knowledge of events in personal history to which
we have conscious access;
No control)
PROCEDURAL MEMORY
(Unconscious processing of skills; motor
(riding a bike) and cognitive (reading))
SEMANTIC MEMORY
(store intentionally learned information
Generally complete control)
Implications for Teaching…
In classrooms we spend most of our time trying to teach to semantic memory.
ADD: A HOOK TO AN EMOTIONAL COMPONENT AND IT WILL BE SET FOR
LIFE!!! (Flashbulb memories: episodic with an emotional
attachment)
Teaching Method
Retention varies with teaching method
The Brain is ‘Pattern Seeking”
The brain seeks to make order out of
chaos.
• Use mindmap formats
• Use graphics
• Create daily agendas
• Set goals
• Review at the end of the day
The Brain Needs Adequate Time
FLOW theory is an optimal experience
when people report feelings of deep
concentration and enjoyment…a state
of concentration that is so completely
focused it amounts to absolute
absorption in an activity.
3 Key Elements
1. EMOTIONAL HOOKS
2. DO THE REAL THING!
3. USE IT OR LOSE IT!
Teaching children about
their brain
David Sousa
“There is so much we are beginning to learn
about the brain. Let’s understand more
about neuroscience so we can be the
best brain changers“