What Every Educator Needs to Know about
Brain-Compatible Teaching
Marilee Sprenger
Marilee Sprenger©2008
Human Brain
• About 3 pounds
• 78% water, 10% fat, 8% protein
• Less than 2.5% of body’s weight
• Uses 20% of body’s energy
# 1 Thing to Know :The Brain Is Changing!
Department of Internal Medicine, Rhode Island Hospital, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
Adolescents who play more than one hour of console or Internet video games may have more or more intense symptoms of ADHD or inattention than those who do not. Given the possible negative effects these conditions may have on scholastic performance, the added consequences of more time spent on video games may also place these individuals at increased risk for problems in school.
Today’s Student Brain
• Emotionally Laden Messages
• Multi-media Bombardment
• Rapidly Changing Input
Application #1: What to do about the RAS:
1._________________
2._________________
3._________________
4._________________
5._________________
6._________________
# 2 Thing to Know
The brain is the only organ that sculpts itself through experience. (NEUROPLASTICITY)
Brain Cells Can Change Their Functions
Application # 2: Experiences that change:
1.M __________________
2.M___________________
3.C___________________
4.M___________________
# 3 Thing to Know The brain learns and remembers patterns.
Application #3: Teaching Patterns:
1.G
2.C
3.C
4.M
# 4 Thing to Know
The addition of emotion can help students remember.
Stress inhibits learning: “Reduce” Anxiety
Procedure: Something you do on a regular basis to free up working memory and allow more cognitive processing.
Ritual: Something you do on a regular basis that elicits a feeling
Procedures and Rituals
Application # 4: Release the Stress
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
# 5 Thing to Know
The brain-body connection is powerful
Sleep
• The light from a television or computer can delay both the necessary drop in core body temperature and melatonin production – and thus delaying sleep onset – by two hours.
• After just a few days of shortened sleep, the brain starts making extra stress hormone cortisol. It takes six times as long for this stress hormone to drop to a low-enough level that sleep is possible.
Application #5: Brain and body:
1.P
2.F
3.M
4.E
# 6 Thing to Know
The Brain Searches for Meaning.
The brain deletes unimportant or meaningless information.
How the brain looks at incoming information:
Is this important?– Do I need this information? (survival)– Do I want this information? (desire, goal)– Have I been successful with this type of
learning before?
Application #6: Finding Meaning1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
# 7 Thing to Know
Practice/rehearsal is critical to learning for the long term.
CEREBELLUMProcedural
Memory
HIPPOCAMPUSEpisodic MemorySemantic Memory
AMYGDALAEmotional Memory
PRE-FRONTAL CORTEXWorking Memory
CEREBELLUMNEOSTRIATUM
Automatic
28/3 Rule
• New concepts require 24 -28 engagements for long-term storage
• These engagments should be over a 3 week period
• Testing prior to the 3 weeks results in lower performance
Procedural
Conditioned Response
Emotional
Semantic
Episodic