What the Latest Neuroscience Research Says Every Educator Should Know About the Brain

By Sarah Bosch, 6-12 Director of Curriculum & Instruction, Elkhorn Area School District

It is ironic to reflect on the genesis of my infatuation especially considering that my passion for the brain actually stemmed from great fear. It was 2011 and I was asked to teach Advanced Placement Psychology for the very first time in my teaching career. I remember looking at the course overview on the AP CollegeBoard website and saw one whole unit on the human brain, which spiraled back in more depth in every subsequent unit thereafter. I wanted to vomit. I was screaming in my own thoughts, “I am not a science teacher! I am a social studies teacher! How am I going to teach kids how the brain works?” I was officially intimidated by the structures and functions of the human brain. I muddled my way through the content of the brain unit my first year and was determined the next year to dominate the topic. I began reading everything I could about how neurologist believe our brains work, diving deep into the latest research that has come out of the field of neurology. Soon my studies began to collide with how that research could impact teaching and learning. Thus began my journey into neuroeducation, which is described by Tracy Tokuhama-Espinosa an “interdisciplinary field that combines neuroscience, psychology, and education to help create improved teaching methods and curricula” (2011). One would think my infatuation with the brain would stem (Haha -- neuroscience humor, brainstem! Get it?!) from the amazing ability of this three pound organ to orchestrate everything a human being does, says, thinks, feels, sees, etc. It is remarkable; I will admit that. However, my passion comes from something deeper and became more powerful than what I could have ever imagined.  

As I began my journey into neuroeducation, I read books and articles, watched videos, and listened to podcasts from my soon to be heros: Dr. Judy Willis, John Medina, Sharon Begley, Pat Wolfe, Eric Jensen, Donna Wilson & Marcus Conyers -- to name a few. I learned if I started my lessons with a learning target it acts as a cognitive courtesy for students to help focus their attention on what they should get out of the lesson. I learned that I needed to switch up my mode of instruction (lecture for 10 minutes, get the students in groups for 5 minutes, watch a video clip for another ten minutes, 2 minute reflection, get the students back in groups to create a skit for 15 minutes, etc.) every 15 minutes or so because a student’s sustained attention is their age in minutes (Jensen, 2005; McAvinue et. al., 2012; King, 2011). Meaning, if I am teaching 17 year old students, they have a sustained attention of 17 minutes and then it becomes hard to stayed focused after that time. I learned our brains cannot process two cognitive thoughts at the same time. So that means if I want my students to take notes and listen to me at the same time it isn’t going to happen very successfully. I learned I needed to give students time to take notes, time to listen to me and finally time to process the notes that they took.  I learned if I created opportunities for my students to practice the knowledge and skills I taught them they will better remember and learn them. This happens because they would not only create stronger neural connections by growing myelin around the axons of those newly formed connections but will also create multiple connections in the brain creating more than one pathway for a message to be sent during retrieval, which could help to ensure this learning would not be lost (Willis 2012). This lead me to the importance of feedback on student learning, which is necessary to strengthen or break correct or incorrect connections in the brain. I began to understand why relationships are so important in the classroom because of the impact emotions have our brains and ultimately our ability to learn and retain information because a negative classroom environment produces too much neoremphinere and which blocks learning altogether (Howard, 2000). I learned about brain plasticity, which means that our brains have the ability change and make new connections. This means that intelligence is not fixed (Begley, 2007; Willis, 2010). We are not born with a math brain or a brain that makes us a good writer. The brain we come to school with each day is not the same one that we leave with. We have the power to make and break neural connections each and every day. We have control over our brains. Learning doesn’t happen to us, we make it happen!  I fervently took my new learning and began altering my teaching practices using the research as a filter to be more purposeful and intentional in my lesson planning and teaching.

I started seeing positive results in the classroom rather quickly through my formative and summative assessments resulting in an ability to balance rigor with students truly enjoying their classroom experience. I kept deepening my knowledge and emulating what I was learning in the classroom, honing and refining my craft to successfully maximize student learning potential. One would think my story would end here, but the brain still had more to give. I had only begun to see the real power of this new learning. The most pivotal moment in my career occurred when I began to realize what the impact of sharing this knowledge with my students would do.

At first it happened accidently, mainly because I was so excited about what I was learning that I couldn’t helped but ooze passion for the brain each day with factoids in every teachable moment. For example, there was a time when a student said, “I’m bad at math.” I took the moment to explain brain plasticity and how we have the power to change our brains. Some brains learn things easier than others but all have the capability to learn -- that’s what brains were made to do, some of us just have to work harder at learning than others. Another example was when I asked a student to put their cell phone away and then told the whole class that humans can’t process two cognitive thoughts at once so I knew they weren’t honed in on what I was trying to teach if they were reading or crafting a text message. I thought I was being sassy and creating a situation that was hard to argue against. Little by little I began to see the power in sharing this knowledge with them; that this was a game changer. That's when I started to be purposeful, I began to explain to students why I was asking them to do an activity; what physiologically would happen in their brains if they did the activity and how it would impact their learning and memory. We took the time to talk about how the brain best learns and what study strategies help the brain retrieve information best. The more knowledge about the brain they gained the more confidence they gained in their own learning. They began to understand their ability to change their brains, which led them to take charge of and have confidence in their learning process, which not only made them successful in my class, but others. They applied the memory and study strategies in other classes and would come and share with me their successes with trying the different techniques. My kids were empowered to create a growth mind-set for learning. It was such an amazing moment to be part of!

As a student myself that wallowed in a fixed mind-set for learning from elementary through high school, I wish I would have had just one teacher that could have shared at minimum the knowledge of the brain’s plasticity with me. I was even told once by a teacher that I would never be more than a “C student” (whatever that means). Ayesha Siddiqi said, “Be the person you needed when you were younger.” Assisting in the growth mind-set transformation of my students allowed me the opportunity to be that person for another human being. What an awe inspiring moment! This is why I love the brain. This is why I can’t stop sharing what I know about the brain. Why I talk with my own children (and even my husband) about the brain. I think we just laid the trump card for college, career and life ready.

I invite you to take the time to learn what you can about the science of learning and dig deeper into neuroeducation. Let it change you, but more importantly let it change your students. Share what you learn with them and watch that amazing transformation take place. I promise you won’t be sorry. As Sharon Begley said, “I think if people just knew more about the brain, it could help make the world a better place” (2007). I couldn’t agree more.

References

Begley, S. (2007). Train your mind, change your brain. New York: Random House, Inc.

Howard, P. J. (2000). The owner’s manual for the brain. Austin, TX: Bard Press.

Jensen, E. (2005). Teaching with the brain in mind (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for

Supervision and Curriculum Development.

King, L. A. (2011). The science of psychology (2nd ed.). New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill

Companies.

McAvinue, L., Habekost, T., Johnson, K., Kylingsbaek, S., Vangkilde, S., Bundesen, C., Robertson, I. (2012).  Sustained attention, attentional selectivity, and attentional capacity across the lifespan. Retrieved from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22825931

Tokuhama-Espinosa, T. (2011). Why mind brain and education science is the new brain-based

education. Retrieved from http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Journals/Winter2011/Tokuhama1

Willis, J (2010). How to teach students about the brain. [Web log post]. Retrieved from

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec09/vol67/num04/How-to-Teach-Students-About-the-Brain.aspx

Willis, J. (2012, July 27). A neurologists makes the cases for teaching teachers about the brain.

[Web log post]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.edutopia.org/blog/neuroscience-higher-ed-judy-willis 

Sarah Bosch will be presenting on this subject at the upcoming Quality Educators Convention. Come and hear more about this topic and register today!

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