Brain Based Education - Research
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Dynamic Systems Theory
One very important starting point to learning about the brain and brain based learning is that the brain is a very complex thinking. This paper provides a short explanation of the way scientists in nearly all areas now think about learning and the brain: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~ddl/articlesCopy/RoseFischer_DynamicSystems.ChicagoCompanion2008.pdf “Taken together, these principles—person-in-context and variability-as-information—represent the backbone of dynamic systems theory” Dynamic systems theory, if taken seriously, has dramatic implications for how we organize teaching and learning, as well as how we think about data, assessment, and individual achievement (among other things). There is abundant evidence that context matters a great deal for learning- and that the way in which context is experienced varies from person to person, even of similar backgrounds. In addition, every person is different and there is tremendous variability in how we respond to the same stimuli. In other words, input does not equal output, at least not in any type of simplistic way. |
Testing as a way to improve memory
The short story here is the growing evidence that testing does improve memory more than additional study without testing; with feedback, the effect is even stronger. This is important because while high stakes state and district testing has been on the rise, classroom based assessment continues to vary considerably, with many instructors rarely using tests or quizzes. This research suggests that this is a mistake and that teachers in all subject areas can effectively use tests and quizzes to improve student memory and learning. http://psych.wustl.edu/memory/Roddy%20article%20PDF's/BC_Roediger%20et%20al%20(2011).pdf http://pps.sagepub.com/content/1/3/181.abstract http://faculty.nwacc.edu/jburden/ArtSummaries/The%20power%20of%20testing%20memory.pdf A blog with a quick summary of the article and some thoughts on testing |
There are some fantastic “brain” web sites that explain in plain language (at three different levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced) how the brain works and its implications for learning, as well as other fascinating information.
Neuroscience for kids
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/introb.html#se
Great free website on visual/optical illusions and why they work
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/
This website from McGill in Canada includes sections on everything from short and long term memory to sleep and dreams.
http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_07/d_07_cr/d_07_cr_tra/d_07_cr_tra.html
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Rethinking transfer article http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1116156.files/RethinkingTransfer.pdf
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Mind, Brain, and Education: Neuroscience Implications for the Classroom
Judy Willis
The Neuroscience of Joyful Education
Building A Bridge From Neuroscience To The Classroom
[DOC] The current impact of neuroscience on teaching and learning (this is the chapter in the book)
David A. Sousa
How The Brain Learns
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
Why Mind, Brain and Education, and Why Now?
The Role of Emotion and Skilled Intuition In Learning
Matthias Faeth
Diane Williams
Mariale M. Hardiman
Brain Targeted Teaching Models For The 21st Century
The Science of Learning
Kurt W. Fischer
The Educated Brain:Essays in Neuroeducation
This relatively new book (2010) is chock full of useful information for classroom teachers. I will provide summary and my twist on several chapters as well as links to other material and work by the authors and related to the topic.
Judy Willis “The Current Impact of Neuroscienc”
“Incremental, achievable challenges in the classroom, at the appropriate level for students’ abilities, are motivating and build mastery by lowering the barrier, not the bar.”
“Calculation and geometry and all the other elements of instruction…should be presented to the mind in childhood; not, however, under any notion of forcing our system of education. Because a freeman ought not to be a slave in the acquisition of knowledge of any kind. Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.” (Plato, 387 B.C.)
(p.47-48)
“This incremental, achievable challenge in the classroom, at the appropriate level for students’ abilities is motivating and strategically builds mastery by lowering the barrier not the bar.” (p.48)
“Neuroimaging studies reflect the influence of stress and pleasure on the filtering of sensory input that enters the brain (Reticular Activating System), and the next filter (Amygdala – Krashen’s Affective Filter) determines whether the information goes to the thinking brain (prefrontal cortex) or the lower, involuntary reactive brain. When stress directs sensory input to the lower brain, the input does not become consolidated as stored memory (Hippocampus and Prefrontal Cortex). The interpretation of scientific research supports interventions for emotional support, stress reduction, and strategies such as novelty, discovery, and conceptual learning that change the brain’s neurochemistry, processing of information, and construction of neural networks that hold information in memory. “ (p.49)
“Reducing students’ perception of threat (punishment or embarrassment in front of classmates for not doing homework, fear that they will be picked last for a kickball game, or anxiety that they will make an obvious error because they are not fluent in English) is not a touchy-feely option. Unless the perception of threat is reduced, the brain persists in doing its primary job – protecting the student or animal from harm. The neural activity on scans during fear, sadness, or anger is evident in the lower brain, and the reflective, cognitive brain does not receive the sensory input not relative to survival even though that is the content of the day’s lesson (Shim, 2005). “ (p.50)
“Our increasing knowledge of what gains access through the RAS once threat is reduced also offers clues to strategies that promote attentive focus to our lessons (Raz and Buhle, 2006). Examples of building novelty into learning new information such as changes in voice, appearance, marking key points in color, variation in font size, hats, changes in seating arrangements, music, dance, photos, discrepant events, and radishes keep the RAS focused to admit sensory input! “ (p.50)
“Subjects who viewed the grumpy faces showed metabolic activity high in the amygdalas, but significantly lower than the control group in their PFC while trying to recall the words they were instructed to remember. The significance of studies with varying sources of stressful variables replicated these findings that when in a negative emotional state, the metabolic brain activity is more prominent in the lower, reactive brain (fight/flight/freeze) (Pawlak, Magarinos, Melchor, McEwen, & Strickland, 2003). “ (p.53-54)
“Dopamine release is associated with pleasurable experiences such that when dopamine is elevated we experience pleasure and when we use strategies or students participate in activities or reflections that are correlated with increasing dopamine release, the brain responds not only with pleasure, but also with increased focus, memory, and motivation (Stirn & Tecott, 2005). “ (p.55)
“The value of the brain’s dopamine disappointment response to mistakes is associated ht the brain changes through neuroplasticity. Changes in the neural circuits develop so the brain is more likely to make correct response the next time and avoid the mistake negativity (van Duijvenvoorde, et al, 2008).
The dopamine-pleasure modulating reward center in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) increases in reactivity through the teen years then settles down into adult pattern of less sudden, profound emotional shifts (Philpota, McQuona & Kirstein, 2001).
The difference can be observed particularly in the prefrontal cortex areas of cognitive control. In children through age eight or nine, the reward center reacts strongly to positive feedback and minimally to negative feedback (Crone, et al, 2006).”
“Only the students who risk making mistakes benefit from the nucleus accumbens and dopamine pleasure fluctuations. It is in response to the dopamine response to correct or incorrect predictions (answers) that increase brain receptivity to learning the correct response. This requires that immediate corrective feedback follow the students’ predictions. The brain motivation is to retain and reinforce the response that results in the pleasure or alter the incorrect information in the neural patterning network that resulted in the incorrect prediction and thus avoid the mistake negativity dopamine drop in the future. As will be discussed in the next section, this neural network strengthening or correcting are part of the processes of neuroplasticity “
“Strategies to promote input through the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex overlap with those associated with increased brain levels of dopamine. Examples of these amygdala-friendly and dopamine boasting interventions include movement, being read to, intrinsic satisfaction such as achievement of meaningful goals, humor, optimism, positive peer interactions, and choice. “
“When students understand that their brains have the capacity to develop stronger, more efficient, accessible, and durable neural networks through their actions, they have the positivity, resilience, and motivation to do their part to develop the skills, knowledge, and intelligence to achieve their goals.”
“An example of the neuroplasticity phenomenon comes from an experiment studying the visual cortex. When we see, the information reaches the cortex of the occipital lobes. When we feel something that sensation is recognized and interpreted by the parietal lobes. However, when subjects were blindfolded for a week and received intense Braille practice, which is tactile-sensory, their occipital cortex, which before the experiment did not respond to tactile stimuli, demonstrated new neural circuit plasticity and fMRI activity. Their response as similar to the visual cortex in people blind from birth (Theoret, Merabet, & Pascual-Leone, 2008). “
“To survive successfully animals need to understand their environments and make meaning of what they see, hear, smell, and touch all around them. The brain is designed to perceive and generate patterns and uses these patterns to predict the correct response/decision/behavior/answer to new information.”
“When sensory input first reaches the hippocampus, just beyond the amygdala, it is available only to working memory (short-term memory). The hippocampus takes sensory inputs and integrates them with relational or associational patterns. This binds the new information with already stored and patterned information and builds long-term relational memories. This is the memory of what you think you need now and fades in less than minute. “
“I use sports, dance, and musical instrument analogies about building greater skill the more students practice a basketball shot and ask them to recall how their guitar or ballet performances improved the more they rehearsed. Then we make connections to explain that their brains respond the same way when they practice their multiplication facts or reread confusing parts of a book, because through neuroplasticity - practice makes permanent.”
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
Why Mind, Brain and Education, and Why Now?
The Role of Emotion and Skilled Intuition In Learning
Matthias Faeth
“In effect, efficient learners build useful and relevant intuitions that guide their thinking and decision making (Damasio, 1994/2005; Immordino-Yang & Damasio, 2007). “ (p.74)
“Put another way, they never successfully learn to play the game. Their conscious knowledge, emotional reactions, and cognitive strategies are not integrated or aligned. T” p.75
“For the interaction of emotion and cognition, all of this means that factual knowledge alone is useless without a guiding emotional intuition.” p. 76
“The first and possibly most important strategy that teachers can use to foster meaningful learning through emotion is to design educational experiences that encourage relevant emotional connection
to the material being learned.” p.76
“In addition, teachers can relate material to the lives and interests of their students”
“Another effective tool for emotional engagement is teaching students to solve open-ended problems”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Articles in Different Areas... Neuroscience and Memory
Cognitive Neuroscience and the Study of Memory
Neuropsychology of Memory (book)
The Power of Testing Memory (abstract)
Feedback Enhances Positive Effects of Multiple Choice Testing
“Because of the mnemonic benefit conferred by retrieval, many researchers have argued that tests should be used as learning tools in the classroom (e.g., Bangert-Drowns, Kulik, & Kulik, 1991; Foos & Fisher, 1988; Glover, 1989; Jones, 1923–1924; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006b). Indeed, recent research suggests that testing produces long-lasting benefits for retention of complex, educationally relevant materials (Butler & Roediger, 2007; McDaniel, Anderson, Derbish, & Morrisette, 2007).” p.605
Testing the Testing Effect In the Classroom (abstract)
“Further, short answer quizzes produced more robust benefits than multiple choice quizzes. This pattern converges with laboratory findings showing that recall tests are more beneficial than recognition tests for subsequent memory performance. We conclude that in the classroom testing can be used to promote learning, not just to evaluate learning.”
Neuroscience for kids
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/introb.html#se
Great free website on visual/optical illusions and why they work
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/
This website from McGill in Canada includes sections on everything from short and long term memory to sleep and dreams.
http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_07/d_07_cr/d_07_cr_tra/d_07_cr_tra.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rethinking transfer article http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1116156.files/RethinkingTransfer.pdf
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mind, Brain, and Education: Neuroscience Implications for the Classroom
Judy Willis
The Neuroscience of Joyful Education
Building A Bridge From Neuroscience To The Classroom
[DOC] The current impact of neuroscience on teaching and learning (this is the chapter in the book)
David A. Sousa
How The Brain Learns
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
Why Mind, Brain and Education, and Why Now?
The Role of Emotion and Skilled Intuition In Learning
Matthias Faeth
Diane Williams
Mariale M. Hardiman
Brain Targeted Teaching Models For The 21st Century
The Science of Learning
Kurt W. Fischer
The Educated Brain:Essays in Neuroeducation
This relatively new book (2010) is chock full of useful information for classroom teachers. I will provide summary and my twist on several chapters as well as links to other material and work by the authors and related to the topic.
Judy Willis “The Current Impact of Neuroscienc”
“Incremental, achievable challenges in the classroom, at the appropriate level for students’ abilities, are motivating and build mastery by lowering the barrier, not the bar.”
“Calculation and geometry and all the other elements of instruction…should be presented to the mind in childhood; not, however, under any notion of forcing our system of education. Because a freeman ought not to be a slave in the acquisition of knowledge of any kind. Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.” (Plato, 387 B.C.)
(p.47-48)
“This incremental, achievable challenge in the classroom, at the appropriate level for students’ abilities is motivating and strategically builds mastery by lowering the barrier not the bar.” (p.48)
“Neuroimaging studies reflect the influence of stress and pleasure on the filtering of sensory input that enters the brain (Reticular Activating System), and the next filter (Amygdala – Krashen’s Affective Filter) determines whether the information goes to the thinking brain (prefrontal cortex) or the lower, involuntary reactive brain. When stress directs sensory input to the lower brain, the input does not become consolidated as stored memory (Hippocampus and Prefrontal Cortex). The interpretation of scientific research supports interventions for emotional support, stress reduction, and strategies such as novelty, discovery, and conceptual learning that change the brain’s neurochemistry, processing of information, and construction of neural networks that hold information in memory. “ (p.49)
“Reducing students’ perception of threat (punishment or embarrassment in front of classmates for not doing homework, fear that they will be picked last for a kickball game, or anxiety that they will make an obvious error because they are not fluent in English) is not a touchy-feely option. Unless the perception of threat is reduced, the brain persists in doing its primary job – protecting the student or animal from harm. The neural activity on scans during fear, sadness, or anger is evident in the lower brain, and the reflective, cognitive brain does not receive the sensory input not relative to survival even though that is the content of the day’s lesson (Shim, 2005). “ (p.50)
“Our increasing knowledge of what gains access through the RAS once threat is reduced also offers clues to strategies that promote attentive focus to our lessons (Raz and Buhle, 2006). Examples of building novelty into learning new information such as changes in voice, appearance, marking key points in color, variation in font size, hats, changes in seating arrangements, music, dance, photos, discrepant events, and radishes keep the RAS focused to admit sensory input! “ (p.50)
“Subjects who viewed the grumpy faces showed metabolic activity high in the amygdalas, but significantly lower than the control group in their PFC while trying to recall the words they were instructed to remember. The significance of studies with varying sources of stressful variables replicated these findings that when in a negative emotional state, the metabolic brain activity is more prominent in the lower, reactive brain (fight/flight/freeze) (Pawlak, Magarinos, Melchor, McEwen, & Strickland, 2003). “ (p.53-54)
“Dopamine release is associated with pleasurable experiences such that when dopamine is elevated we experience pleasure and when we use strategies or students participate in activities or reflections that are correlated with increasing dopamine release, the brain responds not only with pleasure, but also with increased focus, memory, and motivation (Stirn & Tecott, 2005). “ (p.55)
“The value of the brain’s dopamine disappointment response to mistakes is associated ht the brain changes through neuroplasticity. Changes in the neural circuits develop so the brain is more likely to make correct response the next time and avoid the mistake negativity (van Duijvenvoorde, et al, 2008).
The dopamine-pleasure modulating reward center in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) increases in reactivity through the teen years then settles down into adult pattern of less sudden, profound emotional shifts (Philpota, McQuona & Kirstein, 2001).
The difference can be observed particularly in the prefrontal cortex areas of cognitive control. In children through age eight or nine, the reward center reacts strongly to positive feedback and minimally to negative feedback (Crone, et al, 2006).”
“Only the students who risk making mistakes benefit from the nucleus accumbens and dopamine pleasure fluctuations. It is in response to the dopamine response to correct or incorrect predictions (answers) that increase brain receptivity to learning the correct response. This requires that immediate corrective feedback follow the students’ predictions. The brain motivation is to retain and reinforce the response that results in the pleasure or alter the incorrect information in the neural patterning network that resulted in the incorrect prediction and thus avoid the mistake negativity dopamine drop in the future. As will be discussed in the next section, this neural network strengthening or correcting are part of the processes of neuroplasticity “
“Strategies to promote input through the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex overlap with those associated with increased brain levels of dopamine. Examples of these amygdala-friendly and dopamine boasting interventions include movement, being read to, intrinsic satisfaction such as achievement of meaningful goals, humor, optimism, positive peer interactions, and choice. “
“When students understand that their brains have the capacity to develop stronger, more efficient, accessible, and durable neural networks through their actions, they have the positivity, resilience, and motivation to do their part to develop the skills, knowledge, and intelligence to achieve their goals.”
“An example of the neuroplasticity phenomenon comes from an experiment studying the visual cortex. When we see, the information reaches the cortex of the occipital lobes. When we feel something that sensation is recognized and interpreted by the parietal lobes. However, when subjects were blindfolded for a week and received intense Braille practice, which is tactile-sensory, their occipital cortex, which before the experiment did not respond to tactile stimuli, demonstrated new neural circuit plasticity and fMRI activity. Their response as similar to the visual cortex in people blind from birth (Theoret, Merabet, & Pascual-Leone, 2008). “
“To survive successfully animals need to understand their environments and make meaning of what they see, hear, smell, and touch all around them. The brain is designed to perceive and generate patterns and uses these patterns to predict the correct response/decision/behavior/answer to new information.”
“When sensory input first reaches the hippocampus, just beyond the amygdala, it is available only to working memory (short-term memory). The hippocampus takes sensory inputs and integrates them with relational or associational patterns. This binds the new information with already stored and patterned information and builds long-term relational memories. This is the memory of what you think you need now and fades in less than minute. “
“I use sports, dance, and musical instrument analogies about building greater skill the more students practice a basketball shot and ask them to recall how their guitar or ballet performances improved the more they rehearsed. Then we make connections to explain that their brains respond the same way when they practice their multiplication facts or reread confusing parts of a book, because through neuroplasticity - practice makes permanent.”
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
Why Mind, Brain and Education, and Why Now?
The Role of Emotion and Skilled Intuition In Learning
Matthias Faeth
“In effect, efficient learners build useful and relevant intuitions that guide their thinking and decision making (Damasio, 1994/2005; Immordino-Yang & Damasio, 2007). “ (p.74)
“Put another way, they never successfully learn to play the game. Their conscious knowledge, emotional reactions, and cognitive strategies are not integrated or aligned. T” p.75
“For the interaction of emotion and cognition, all of this means that factual knowledge alone is useless without a guiding emotional intuition.” p. 76
“The first and possibly most important strategy that teachers can use to foster meaningful learning through emotion is to design educational experiences that encourage relevant emotional connection
to the material being learned.” p.76
“In addition, teachers can relate material to the lives and interests of their students”
“Another effective tool for emotional engagement is teaching students to solve open-ended problems”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Articles in Different Areas... Neuroscience and Memory
Cognitive Neuroscience and the Study of Memory
Neuropsychology of Memory (book)
The Power of Testing Memory (abstract)
Feedback Enhances Positive Effects of Multiple Choice Testing
“Because of the mnemonic benefit conferred by retrieval, many researchers have argued that tests should be used as learning tools in the classroom (e.g., Bangert-Drowns, Kulik, & Kulik, 1991; Foos & Fisher, 1988; Glover, 1989; Jones, 1923–1924; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006b). Indeed, recent research suggests that testing produces long-lasting benefits for retention of complex, educationally relevant materials (Butler & Roediger, 2007; McDaniel, Anderson, Derbish, & Morrisette, 2007).” p.605
Testing the Testing Effect In the Classroom (abstract)
“Further, short answer quizzes produced more robust benefits than multiple choice quizzes. This pattern converges with laboratory findings showing that recall tests are more beneficial than recognition tests for subsequent memory performance. We conclude that in the classroom testing can be used to promote learning, not just to evaluate learning.”
