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Educational Theory of the Week: Brain-Based Learning Principle 12

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

This is it for brain based learning. While I think it is incredibly fun and honestly tied to life, the ideas of it are difficult. The “brain” is, well, difficult and complex. Talking about brain-based learning barely chisels away the slightest bit of it. (Be sure you comment down at the bottom if you have any requests for next Monday!)

Here is the twelve and last concept:

Each brain is unique.

This summarizes what all parents and teachers know. Children learn best when they have environments that are personalized. Everyone’s experiences shape who he or she is and everyone feels comfortable learning in a unique way.

Parents do a good job of “knowing” their kids and therefore teaching them well. The sticky part is when they get into school. Too much (for an assortment amount of reasons, too many to account here) of education does not take the unique brain into account. This is why parents must advocate for their children and help them at home.

And there they are–all twelve brain based learning core principles. Enjoy your Monday, and please drop a comment with ideas for our new learning theories/practices. Possibilities: Bloom’s Taxonomy, cooperative learning, or technology. Inclusion? Our world influences education and almost everything has a “name” so I’ll listen to my blog readers ideas! Let me know and thanks!

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Educational Theory of the Week: Brain-Based Learning, Core Principle 11

Monday, March 15th, 2010

The eleventh and second to last brain based learning principle is:

Learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat.

(Obviously). The patient teacher or friend who helped you figure out the tough math question, your fingers on the piano, or bike riding not only knew what to teach, but how to teach. This educational theory is easy to apply whiles teaching our kids, because we love them and are so darn cute. Does your patience diminish as they get older? I know my patience sometimes does, but I always try (and sure, I fail sometimes) to regain my patience.

Example

The example that immediately came to me was of course, potty-training because we just finished that. (It is over and Ty is trained, yay). It took a long time, lots of tears, and plenty of patience from the teacher. How? Why? Well, I hate messes. Especially messy messes. But potty-training isn’t about me, it was about Ty. So even though the downstairs bathroom was sanitized more in six months than it had been in the previous 4 years we’ve lived here, being patient was best. Looking back, our worst days were the days when Ty probably felt threatened by my impatience or frustrations. Instead of thinking about what to do or how to solve his problems, he was worried about my reactions.

This is such a fine line, one I think about. How do we challenge our kids without threatening them, or pushing too much?

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Educational Theory of the Week: Brain-Based Learning, Core Principle 10

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Thank you for brain based learning theory number 10 (one of my favorites, dorky that I have favorite, I know):

We understand best when facts are embedded in natural, spatial memory.

Yes, yes we do. How many of us utilized our rote memory for a test, using flash card after flash card? I did. I can’t remember a darn term from my high school anatomy class but I sure can wire an electrical outlet because I practice on a real outlet. I was taught to do that naturally where the terms did not seem funny or out of place. Natural is best when it comes to learning.

Example

This can go two ways: positive and negative. I’ve flipped out at the dog several times only to see my son staring at me and learning, “the dog pukes up wood chips, this must be how we respond.” I think we’ve all done that (and regretted it and felt guilty and so on). But yes, children do learn facts, where that is how to react or how to greet or how to apologize to someone from our natural environment. Hopefully, it is more positive than negative.

As far as teaching “facts” such as ABCs, numbers and later, reading and adding and then still later, grammar and algebra, people do remember and learn better when their natural and spatial memory is tapped. How do we do this? Well, it goes along with the cliche of “a life long learner.” I always believe parents do not need fanciness to teach, but merely common sense every day activities. For instance, Ty “helps” me cook. This normally involves him dumping a cup or sugar or a teaspoon of salt into a bowl. But what else can he learn in this natural environment?

Before we start, he washes his hands, which teaches him about science, health and germs. It requires about a 2 sentence explanation for me. Lately, he’s questioned where the water goes, so I’m sure we are going to continue learning as we (very simply) wash our hands.
He watches me read the recipe, which I read to him, which teaches him letters and numbers.
He sees me double check my measurements. Hopefully, he can take this learning and apply it to double checking his homework or his book bag for school.
He realizes patience is required. Getting all the ingredients out, showing him that the product is not immediately finished and that we must clean up our mess is an important lesson. Food doesn’t just POOF appear, just like learning and so many other processes in life don’t. We must wait and be patient.

How have you engaged your child’s quest to be a life long learner, or taught facts in a natural way?

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Brain-Based Learning: Core Principle 9

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

I will admit that I am eager for brain based learning to get over. While it is terribly interesting, it is hard. Maybe I should have done this a bit down the road. I do hope that everyone has learned something, because it is fun to look at how your kids learn in a different way. That is my goal–to take all these thoughts I have from my old job and transfer them to my new job.

The ninth core principal of brain-based learning

We have two types of memory: spatial and rote.

After my introduction, I hope to keep this peppy. Let’s define the two:

Spatial memory is the part of the memory that is responsible for recording information about one’s environment and its spatial orientation.

Rote memory is the avoidance of learning but focuses on memorization. When you memorize something with no meaning and it does not stay with you, this is your rote memory.

When I was a freshman in college, I took a theater class. The professor said that she was going to “give everyone the acting bug.” She of course, did not make me ill with such a bug, but did grate my nerves. I did not make many connections in my brain with the material. The night before the final, I wrote out the answer to the long essay question, as the teacher had previously given us the questions. It was about a two page answer. I memorized it by rewriting it over and over, using my rote memory. I walked into class the next day, slapped it down on a piece of paper, got an “A” and took very little away from the test or class.

Spatial memory is not the opposite of rote memory. Spatial deals with remembering the geographical layout of something. For instance, in remembering that theater class, I could recall parking my car in the lot next to my college’s communication building, walking across the street and into the classroom. I can even picture the three levels of that large classroom that housed most introductory classes.

Of course, the problem is with rote memory–that people don’t learn material, they just memorize it for a test. Have you ever done such a thing–memorized and forgotten?

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Brain-Based Learning: Extra stuff

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Anyway, because I so enjoy reading educational theory (I really do, I am really nerdy like that), I was reading and came across this powerful statement:

Use is required to strengthen the neuronal connections. The more a connectionis used, the larger the network grows, and the more secure the links become. The number of synaptic connections may also increase.

Thus, the old adage “use it or lose it” is true of the brain.

At the beginning of this series, I said that brain based learning is so simple and so true. How many times have parents or teachers told children to practice, to build a foundation or “the more you know the easier it is to learn”? Lots of times, and now we know it is true, because of the neuronal connections. (Pretty neat science-speak).

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Brain-Based Learning: Core Principle 8

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Number eight! Brain based learning, I see it everywhere with Ty and Za. I hope that you are seeing them as well. The eighth core principal of brain based learning is:

Learning involves both conscious and unconscious processes.

So, let’s define both ‘conscious’ and ‘unconscious’:

Consciousness refers to the ability to be self-aware and make meaning of our experiences.

Nonconscious is a term that has sometimes been preferred by researchers to signify processes which are not conscious because they are by nature such that they are not available to

awareness. (like breathing, emotions)

So, when teaching our children, we need to be aware of this principle. When Ty tries to learn new trains and their names (consciousness), he is building on this knowledge of all his trains. He cares about these trains, his hobby that he devotes time to (nonconscious). These are happy emotions. What if he had unsettling or angry emotions?

To serve our students best, we can teach them more if we look to tap the happy unconsciousness. Do some students struggle more because they have more angry and sad emotions that interfere with their learning processes?

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Brain Based Learning: Core Principle 7

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

Tired of brain based learning? I hope not. This theory is throughout schools and with society’s move toward healthier eating, this theory is always in the news. Let’s look at the seventh of twelve principles:

Learning involves both focused attention and peripheral perception.

What this principle means is that what is in the background (the television, decorations on the wall, other people’s conversations) influences the focused learning. Parents and teachers acknowledge this: when children do their homework, “turn off the TV!” So, sometimes this principle is a bit negative. Positively, surroundings can enhance a learning environment, or reinforce what you teach your children–think magnet letters on the fridge.

This principle relates to my kids in several ways. If I am reading to Ty and Za, that should be their focused attention. Sure, they will perceive other parts, but I have to balance it. If the television was on or I was talking on the phone, they of course will focus their attention elsewhere.

There are two big ways to use this with our children:
1) Have a rich and positive environment for learning. For instance, I painted shapes on the wall of the kids’ main play area. (I just used scrap paint from other projects). You can find posters almost anywhere, or hang their artwork, letters or labeled pictures. This is why classrooms are normally filled with colorful material.

2) Eliminate noise and loud junk. It is hard for anyone to learn something new if his or her peripheral perception is fighting to be the focus attention.

Enjoy~find the right balance of focused attention and peripheral perception for your children.

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Brain-Based Learning: Core Principle 6

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

The sixth of twelve principles in brain based learning. Half way there. Are these ideas becoming more applicable to your children? Do you see how these ideas take place in your child’s every day life? Anyway, onto the sixth, which is…

The brain processes wholes and parts simultaneously.

The greatest example of this is with language. Parents who observe how their children’s language skills grow might already see this. As children learn a language (whole), they are also learning parts (inflections, words, sentence structure, tone, meaning, nonverbal signals).

So, as students work on a project creatively, the brain is not focusing on one aspect, but on the whole and parts, all at the same time. Pretty neat.

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Brain-Based Learning: Core Principle 5

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

The fifth principle of brain-based learning is:

Emotions are critical to patterning.

Brain-based learning contends that the search for meaning comes through patterning. These patterns are best formed (or remembered by your child/student) when emotions are involved. This makes sense: think about something you really, really remember in life. It might be finding out someone died, getting engaged, or seeing something really surprising happen. Whatever it is, emotions will be attached to it.

Teachers try to activate this way of learning by having students journal when they read something. (What would you do if you were in character X’s position?) How can we do it as parents?

Use simple ideas. If you are discussing the color green, relate it to something your child likes, such as a toy car or the green beans from last night. When you read a book, ask what the characters are doing from the pictures. (Why is he happy? Have you ever gotten a present and were happy?) Any other ideas, about connecting learning, patterning to emotions?

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Brain-Based Learning: Core Principle 4

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

The fourth core principle of brain based learning:

The search for meaning comes through patterning.

Woo-hoo! This applies to my two year old Ty in every way. He tries to find a pattern in everything, everywhere. When we arrive in a doctor’s building, we go to the fourth floor for Za’s physical therapy and not to the first floor for the allergist? Why? He wants a pattern. The tall building means physical therapy and playing with the balls, not the boring allergist.

As children grow, they pattern in different ways. There are many approaches to learning one concept. The more you know, the easier it is to learn new concepts. Substitute “pattern” in that common phrase now. The more you pattern, the easier it is to pattern new concepts. Our minds build on each other. I know that when I start a writing assignment, I make a pattern between paragraphs and ideas by writing a list. Others may make a web, an outline, a cause and effect sheet, and on and on. Our patterning methods are different because of our individual experiences.

How does your child pattern? Smaller children probably hide their attempts to pattern less than older children. Older children do this by looking for people’s behavioral patterns. Do they do it with their schoolwork? How?

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Brain based learning » Switching Classrooms

Switching Classrooms

Archive for the ‘Brain based learning’ Category

Educational Theory of the Week: Brain-Based Learning Principle 12

Educational Theory of the Week: Brain-Based Learning, Core Principle 11

Educational Theory of the Week: Brain-Based Learning, Core Principle 10

Brain-Based Learning: Core Principle 9

Brain-Based Learning: Extra stuff

Brain-Based Learning: Core Principle 8

Brain Based Learning: Core Principle 7

Brain-Based Learning: Core Principle 6

Brain-Based Learning: Core Principle 5

Brain-Based Learning: Core Principle 4

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