Understanding the Science of Learning 2010 Grinnell Middle School 2011 Day 3

Understanding the Science of Learning

2010

Grinnell Middle School

2011

Day 3

Motivation (CLICCCK)CEI (Iowa Core)The Adolescent Brain (snow day)

The Adolescent Brain (postponed)

The Adolescent Brain

This year at a glance…

Oct. 6Dec. 1Feb. 2Apr. 6Apr. 20

Learning Goals for today’s workshop:

•To learn about basic differences between the adolescent brain and the brains of young children and/or adults

•To identify the skills, abilities and processes that often prove challenging for adolescents, due to their still-developing brains.

•To understand the implications this information might have for classroom practice.

Microsoft Office Images, 2011

“As it turns out, teenagers may, indeed, be a bit crazy. But they are crazy according to a primal blueprint. They are crazy by design.”

Barbara Strauch, The Primal Teen

What we KNOW…

•PET •MRI

Image source: Google images

• fMRI •DTI

What might we DO…

because of what we know?

So… what do you remember- or know- about the adolescent brain?

What are you still curious about?

Adolescent Sleep Patterns

Adolescents and Risk Taking

Emotional Development

Multitasking (working memory)

Frontal Lobe Development

Fundamental Differences

Effects of Drugs/ Alcohol

How do we know what we

know?

Possible Topics for Today:The Adolescent Brain

How do we know what we know about the adolescent brain?

www.positscience.com 2010 Posit Science ?

How do we know what we know about the adolescent brain?

Dr. Jay GieddPhineas Gage

These two men have played key

roles…

http://www.interscoop.com/media/phine.jpg http://www.nih.gov/nihrecord/08_12_2005/images/teenbrain.jpg

Google image source: http://www.sruweb.com/~walsh/gage1.jpg

Phineas Gage

Image source: Smithsonian magazine, January 2010

Google image source: http://www.brown.edu/Research/Memlab/py47/diagrams/phineas.jpg

Phineas Gage: September 1848 Age 26

Died: 1861

Before the accident…

After the accident…

Hard-working Respected Personable

Efficient Effective Responsible

Unreliable Irrational Impulsive

Disagreeable Difficult to get along with

Overly emotional Indecisive Foul-mouthed Anti-social Irresponsible

The Frontal Lobes

•Plan for the future

•Make decisions

•Control impulses

•Assess Risk

•Set goals & priorities

•Make sound judgments

•Reason

• Plan & organize multiple tasks

• Control emotions

Dr. Jay Giedd

Brain Imaging Technologies

•PET Scan

•CT Scan

•MRI

•fMRIGoogle image source: http://www.loni.ucla.edu/~thompson/OZARKS2001/37_schizo_pmaps_loss.jpg

Clarify with your tablemates… How have we come to learn about the adolescent brain?

Topics Menu

How might educators use the new information that is emerging?

Sleep

What do we know about the sleep patterns of adolescents?

www.positscience.com 2010 Posit Science

What do we know about adolescent sleep patterns?

• struggle to get up in the morning

• claim they are not tired at bedtime

• Sleep late on weekends

Many adolescents…

Image Source: iCLIPART for Schools

What do we know about adolescent sleep patterns?

• go to school each day in a “fog”

• struggle to concentrate in early morning classes

• have difficulty remembering the content in early morning classes

• feel drowsy and irritable by mid-afternoon

Many adolescents…

Image Source: iCLIPART for Schools

What do we know about adolescent sleep patterns?

• They are regulated by “circadian rhythms” (the brain’s natural “body clock”)

• They differ from those of younger children & those of adults

• The circadian rhythms of adolescents “program” them to stay awake longer into the night, & to wake-up later in the morning

Image Source: Microsoft Office Clip Art

So… Just how much sleep do adolescents need?

Permission granted: American Academy of Sleep Medicine, www.sleepeducation.com

Why does this matter?Without adequate sleep, adolescents…

• Have a more difficult time holding a focus on the task at hand (class activities & lessons)

• Have more difficulty in thinking creatively and solving problems

• Are more prone to errors

• Are more irritable; less patient

• May be more impulsive

• Miss out on the consolidation of learning that takes place during sleep

Image Source: iCLIPART for Schools

What can educators do?

• Inform parents re: adolescents & sleep • Stick to a schedule• Discourage long daytime naps on weekends• Discourage caffeine use during evening hours• Establish a “turn-off time” for TV, computer,

cell phone, iPod• Encourage calming activities just before bedtime

: iCLIPART for Schools

• Inform students re: adolescents & sleep• Incorporate movement, engagement

Clarify with your tablemates what you’ve just learned about the sleep patterns of adolescents.

Topics Menu

What might educators DO because of what we now know…?

What do we know about adolescents & risk-taking?

www.positscience.com 2010 Posit Science

Risk-Taking

Risk-TakingThe Adolescent Brain:

Image source: Google images, 2011

Scientific American Mind: Dec. 06-Jan. 07 254 9th-12th grade students were asked to estimate the likelihood that a sexually active teenage girl would contract an STD

Risk-TakingThe Adolescent Brain:

Chlamydia Gonorrhea HIV/AIDS Human Pap. Virus Syphilis0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Perceived Published Data

Sexually Transmitted Disease

Infe

cti

on R

isk (

% p

robabilit

y)

Scientific American Mind: Dec. 06-Jan. 07 254 9th-12th grade students were asked to estimate the likelihood that a sexually active teenage girl would contract an STD

Risk-Taking: Adults vs. Adolescents

For what amount of money would you be willing to participate in a game of Russian

Roulette?

The Fuzzy-Trace Theory…

Gist vs. Verbatim

Valerie F. Reyna, Cornell University; Frank Farley, Temple University; Charles Brainerd, Cornell University, Scientific American Mind, Dec. 06-Jan. 07

Risk-Taking: Adults vs. Adolescents

Clarify with your tablemates what you’ve just learned about adolescents and risk-taking.

Topics Menu

How might you use this information as you work with middle level learners?

What do we know about drugs, alcohol, addiction

and the adolescent brain?

www.positscience.com 2010 Posit Science

Drugs, Alcohol, Addiction

Alcohol, Drugs and Addiction

The Adolescent Brain:

Research suggests that adolescents…• become addicted more strongly…

• have a more difficult time quitting…

• are more susceptible to “drug-cue associations”…

• are more susceptible to relapse, once they have quit…

Clarify with your tablemates what you know about adolescents and drugs, alcohol and addiction.

Topics Menu

What are you currently doing to address this issue… and what more might you do?

Frontal Lobe Development

What is actually going on (developmentally) inside the adolescent brain?

The Adolescent Brain

www.positscience.com 2010 Posit Science

A thickening of the brain’s gray matter… caused

by an overproduction of connections

between neurons

Exuberance… Pruning…

Google image source: http://www.brainexplorer.org/brain-images/graymatter.jpg

A systematic pruning away

of unused connections…

between neurons

Myelination…

…the developmental process in which neurons are coated with a fatty, waxy substance… that insulates and speeds signals as they pass through one brain cell and on to another…

Myelin sheath

The Frontal Lobes

•Plan for the future

•Make decisions

•Control impulses

•Assess Risk

•Set goals & priorities•Make sound judgments

•Reason

• Plan & organize multiple tasks

•Control emotions

Clarify with your tablemates what you’ve just learned about myelination and pruning in the adolescent brain.

Topics Menu

What implications does this information have for middle level educators?

What do we know about multitasking and the

adolescent brain?

www.positscience.com 2010 Posit Science

Multitasking (Working Memory)

What do we know about multitasking?First… a bit about working memory

• Right behind the forehead

• Also called the prefrontal cortex

• Processes conscious thoughts

• Limited in its capacity

• Develops with age… to a point

www.positscience.com 2010 Posit Science

6 3 8 2 5 9 4

7 4 0 3 1 5 9 2 8 3 6

Task #1:

Task #2:

177618651945

1776 1865 1945

Working memory…

151311975

*Mental Age

*Plus or Minus 2

Memory Space (M – Space)

1-8-0-0-3-7-5-2-8-7-2

18 - 00 - 37 - 52 - 87 - 2

1-800-375-2872

1-800 DR LAURA

Working memory…

XCNNPHDFBICI

ANCAAX

XCNNPHDFBICIA

NCAAX

Working memory…

Factual and Conceptual Knowledge (organized for retrieval & application)

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Rigor & Relevance Framework

BSCS 5E Instructional Model Engage Explore Explain Elaborate Evaluate

The Cocktail Party Effect:The brain is usually able to block out competing stimuli, in order to focus on the task at hand.

(but not always)

The limitations of working memory…

In performing an experiment like this one on man attention car it house is boy critically hat important shoe that candy the man material car that house is boy being hat read shoe by candy the man subject car for house the boy relevant hat task shoe be candy cohesive man and car grammatically house correct boy but hat without shoe either candy being man so car easy house that boy full hat attention shoe is candy not man required car in house order boy to hat read shoe nor too difficult.

“Read” the colors…

YELLOW BLUE ORANGE BLACK RED GREEN

PURPLE YELLOW RED ORANGE GREEN BLACK

BLUE RED PURPLE GREEN BLUE ORANGE

The Cocktail Party Effect:

The brain can pay conscious attention to only one train of thought at a time.

The limitations of working memory…

What about multitasking?

• Toggling (task-switching)

• Paying “continuous partial attention”

• Quality decreases on both (or all) tasks attempted

• Time to complete tasks increases when attempting to multitask

Clarify with your tablemates what you’ve just learned about multitasking… and working memory in the adolescent brain.

Topics Menu

How might this information influence your work with students?

What do we know about emotional development in the adolescent brain?

www.positscience.com 2010 Posit Science

Emotional Development

The Limbic System…

The brain’s emotional center… more primitive… more powerful… develops throughout childhood… is shaped by nature and by nurture

Google image source: http://symptomresearch.nih.gov/chapter_23/images/fig81v2.gif

Incoming SignalAmygdalaAmygdala

Thalamus Thalamus

NeocortexNOT

NOT

Adolescent Brain

Adult Brain

FEARANGERSHOCKSURPRISE

Clarify with your tablemates what you’ve just learned about emotional development in the adolescent brain.

Topics Menu

How might this information help you in developing relationships with your adolescent learners?

What do we know about fundamental differences… due to society’s influence?

www.positscience.com 2010 Posit Science

Fundamental Differences

Fundamental Differences

The Adolescent Brain •Effects of TV & video games

•Exposure to violence through media and video games

•Immediacy- fast-paced world

• Dendritic branching

• New connections

Neural Plasticity: The brain’s ability to change its structure… based on environment & experience.

Clarify with your tablemates what you’ve just learned about society’s influence on brain development.

Topics Menu

What implications does this information have for the teaching profession?

is the act of making and strengthening connections between neurons…

LEARNING…

…and adolescence is a critical window of opportunity for this “sculpting” of brains!

Julie Crottyjcrotty@aea267.k12.ia.us

Six Kinds of Sensory InputBEING THERE

IMMERSION

HANDS-ON (The Real Thing)

HANDS-ON(Representational Items)

2ND HANDSYMBOLIC E=MC2 +

+ ! “ ”=#$

Characteristics of Effective Instruction

Student-Centered Classrooms

Teaching for Understanding

Assessment FOR Learning

Rigorous and Relevant Curriculum

Teaching for Learner Differences

Additional Resources on Adolescents and Sleep

Teen sleep: Why is Your Teen so Tired? (Mayo Clinic Tween and Teen Health)

Sleep and Teens: Biology and Behavior (National Sleep Foundation)

Adolescents and Sleep (PBS Frontline)

Image Source: iCLIPART for Schools