Creating Brain Compatible Learning Environments

Presented byGarfield Gini-Newman

The Critical Thinking Consortiumggininewman@oise.utoronto.ca

Some recommended reading

Does a child's belief about intelligence have anything to do with academic

success?100 seventh graders, all doing

poorly in math, randomly assigned to workshops

One workshop gave lessons on how to study well.

The other taught about the nature of intelligence and the brain.

Students in the latter group "learned that the brain actually forms new connections every time you learn

something new, and that over time, this makes you smarter.”

By the end of the semester, the group who had been taught that the

brain can grow smarter, had significantly better math grades than

the other group.

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Nurturing a Growth MindsetNurturing a Growth Mindset

Fixed Mindset• See intelligence as fixed -

something you are born with

• Success/failure is what is expected

• School is about demonstrating your worth

• Avoid challenges which may not immediately yield success

Growth Mindset• see setbacks as a

challenge that motivate• success is about

stretching oneself• intelligence comes from

hard work• School is an opportunity

to expand intelligence

What is meant by a Brain-Compatible Learning

Environment?

Brain Compatible versus

Brain Antagonistic

Increasingly Complex World

Children who can problem-

solve and make connections

How should we define intelligence?

Intelligence for the 21st Century

Howard Gardner’s Definition of Intelligence

An intelligence entails the ability to solve

problems or fashion products that are of

consequence in a particular cultural

setting or community.

Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice

Essential Brain Research Findings

1. Emotion is the gatekeeper to learning

2. Intelligence is a function of experience

3. The Brain stores most effectively what is meaningful from the learner’s

perspective

The environment must be physically and psychologically safe for optimal learning to occur!

Anything you do which

engages students’emotional/motivational

interest will naturally

engage the adrenaline

system and result in

stronger memories.

Attention:Approximately 99% of all information entering

through the sense is immediately dropped. When it comes to paying attention the brain is more like a

sieve than a sponge!

Every encounter with something new requires the brain to fit the new

information into an existing memory category, or network of neurons. If it can’t, the information will have no

meaning.

Creating the conditions that Creating the conditions that nurture frontal lobe nurture frontal lobe development:development:

Remember:Remember: • Evocative experiences increase the likelihood Evocative experiences increase the likelihood

that learning will be transferred to long term that learning will be transferred to long term memorymemory

• Learning is likely to occur if we move from Learning is likely to occur if we move from the concrete to the abstract the concrete to the abstract

• Inquiry-based classrooms to help students Inquiry-based classrooms to help students take ownership over their learningtake ownership over their learning

• Genuine collaboration to respects the brain’s Genuine collaboration to respects the brain’s need for social interaction need for social interaction

• Open ended assessments to provide students Open ended assessments to provide students choice and allow them to draw on their choice and allow them to draw on their interests and talentsinterests and talents

Consider the following:

Two-thirds of high school students are disengaged in academic classes (Sedlak, Wheeler, Pullin, and Cusick, 1986)

Learning is more likely to occur if the student perceives a task as relevant, meaningful, and appropriate to his or her abilities (Caulfield and Jennings, 2002)

The human brain is built for survival. Storing meaningless information has never been a priority for the brain.

Sustained attention on something that you cannot figure out or that makes no sense is not only boring, it’s almost impossible. (Pat Wolfe, 2002)

“Emotion drives attention and attention drives learning”

In her book Brain Matters, Pat Wolfe noted:

“The brain is biologically programmed to attend first to information that has a strong emotional content. It is also

programmed to remember this information longer.”

Which questions are Which questions are your students more your students more likely to ask?likely to ask?Were the Britsh just in Were the Britsh just in

expelling the expelling the Acadians?Acadians?

Is the use of biofuels a Is the use of biofuels a good solution to rising good solution to rising

oil prices?oil prices?

Does the newspaper Does the newspaper story present a biased story present a biased or balanced account?or balanced account?

Is this on the test?Is this on the test?

Do we need to include Do we need to include a title page?a title page?

Is this for marks?Is this for marks?

oror

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How should we How should we respond?respond?How should we How should we respond?respond?

Remember...Remember...No matter how well planned, how interesting, No matter how well planned, how interesting,

stimulating, colourful or relevant the lesson, if stimulating, colourful or relevant the lesson, if

the teacher does all the interacting with the the teacher does all the interacting with the

material the teachermaterial the teacher’’s - not the students - not the student’’s - brains - brain

will grow new connections.will grow new connections.

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The foundation of a thoughtful classroom is the quality of questions asked by both teachers and students

do the questions posed invite inquiry?

do the questions require reasoned judgment?

are the questions engaging to the learner?

are the questions focused so as not to overwhelm the learner?

“Although thinking is innate, skillful

thinking must be cultivated”

Art Costa, 2008

“It is desirable to expel...the notion that some subjects are inherently ‘intellectual’, and

hence possessed of an almost magical power to train the faculty of thought... any

subject ...is intellectual in its power to start and direct

significant inquiry and reflection.”

John Dewey, 1933

The goal of education in the 21st century is not simply the mastery of knowledge. It is the mastery of learning. Education should help turn novice learners into expert learners—individuals who know how to learn, who want to learn, and who, in their own highly individual ways, are well prepared for a lifetime of learning.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Three Types of Questions

Type 1 Type 2 Type 3

What are the ingredients in Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor

Beans?

What is your favourite flavour of Bertie Bott’s Every

Flavour Beans?

Should Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans be sold in school

cafeterias?

What are three activities in Sutton?

Would you like to move to Sutton?

Would your family’s needs be better met in Markham or

Sutton?

Identify several natural disasters that impact on the

environment?

Which natural disaster creates the most fear for you?

Which natural disaster poses the great threat to the Ontario

economy?

List three types of exercise.What is your favourite type of

exercise?

Which sport would best meet the needs of someone with asthma –

diving, soccer or tennis?

What did the Inuit use to make tools?

What geographic feature of Nunavut do you like the

most?

Which natural resource – diamonds or fish – are most

important to northern society?

Do you see the difference in the Types?

Type 1 Type 2 Type 3

Describe Type 1 questions: Describe Type 2 questions: Describe Type 3 questions:

List 4 methods you could use to determine the point of

intersection of two lines.

Select the method you prefer and describe how to use it.

Should students learn all 4 methods? What are the

advantages and disadvantages of learning all 4 methods?

What is a permutation? What is a combination?

Which type of counting problem do you find easier to solve?

Make up an example.

How do you decide which formula to use and whether you

need to consider cases?

So…What is Critical Thinking?

A complex activity, not a set of generic skills,

Concerned with judging or assessing what is reasonable or sensible in a situation,

Focuses on quality of reasoning, not on performing a specific set of mental operations

Depends on the possession of relevant knowledge

Can be done in endless contexts and is required whenever the situation is problematic

Is effortful but not necessarily negative

When is someone thinking critically?When is someone thinking critically?

A person is thinking critically only if she is attempting to assess or judge the merits of possible options in light of relevant factors or criteria.

Critical thinking is criterial thinking— thinking in the face of criteria.

A person is thinking critically only if she is attempting to assess or judge the merits of possible options in light of relevant factors or criteria.

Critical thinking is criterial thinking— thinking in the face of criteria.

TC2 Model of Critical Thinking

Community of Thinkers

Critical Challenges

Teach and Assess the

Intellectual Tools

Background Knowledge Criteria for JudgmentCritical Thinking

VocabularyThinking Strategies Habits of Mind

Differentiation in a Critically Thoughtful Classroom

ProcessProduct

Content/Groupings

Clear Learning TargetsCritical

Challenges

Community of Thinkers

Background Knowledge

Teach and Assess the

Intellectual Tools

Background Knowledge

Criteria for Judgment

Critical Thinking Vocabulary

Thinking Strategies

Habits of Mind