Essential
question: What is brain-based learning and how can it inform
differentiation?
Challenge! I
challenge you to outline three “ways of being” that will lead to
ongoing differentiation and brain based learning in your classroom.
Degen
explains that brain-based learning is take what is known about how the brain
functions in terms of learning and applying this in any situation or environment
that includes learning. The study of the brain and how it learns has become to
be known as cognitive science of which the focus is to “promote learning in
accordance with the way the brain is naturally designed to learn.” (2014)
Jensen brings to light the following seven key factors that effective our
brains that influence learning: engagement, repetition, input quantity,
coherence, timing, error correction, and emotional states (2005). Brain-based
learning is differentiation because its looking at what each students’ brains
are capable of and applying teaching strategies that will provide learning
opportunities that connect to how the brain works. For example, as I was
reading my resources for this week, I started out feeling great and then about
30 minutes later I was super exhausted and fought through it. Then once again
after 30 minutes, I woke right back up and had high energy again. This refers
to the fact that the its important to know the timing of our brains and energy.
Jensen explains how naturally the brain has high and low energy levels in a
cycle of 90-110 minutes (2005, p.49).
In my own classroom there are many
ideas that I want do after reading more in depth about brain-based learning. My
students who are most affected by their home life and peers are all in the same
class. Getting my students in an emotional state that gives release to their
brain to learn is one of my main focuses. There are three of my students in my
class who sometimes arrives or sometime during class goes into an emotional
state that seems more like a crisis and stress state than learning. As an
ongoing differentiation, I will begin trying to interrupt this stressful state
by physical movement, talking out problems with a close friend, or taking a
moment for every student to switch from peer mode to math mode by a song or a
dance. Similarly, I need to start providing settling time for information to be
stored in the brain. I plan on having a set routine on this settling time such
as 5 ways to settle the brain and let the students pick which gives them the
opportunity to make some of their own decisions.
Kapadia
collected data through a survey of teachers in the greater Mumbai area. He found
that on average teachers understood brain-based learning and also that the
teachers believed in and practice this in their classrooms. However, the teachers
felt the need to have training formally through professional development so
that they can confidently implement the strategies in their classroom (2014).
In Kegen’s book Teaching with Poverty in
Mind, he suggests that teachers need to all have a mindset that we can help
mold our high need students, that staff needs to be invested in so that they
can take care of the students, staff needs to have ongoing supported
collaboration about the fact the brain can be changed, and encourage dialogue between
the staff to celebrate in successes of working with students and forming their
brains and to support each other in failures (2009).
References
Degen, R. J.
(2014). Brain-Based Learning: The Neurological Findings About the Human Brain
that Every Teacher should Know to be Effective. Amity Global Business
Review, 915-23.
Jensen, E.
(2009). Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids'
Brains and What Schools Can Do About It. Alexandria, Va: ASCD.
Jensen, E.
(2005). Teaching with the Brain in Mind. Alexandria, Va: Assoc. for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Kapadia, R. H.
(2014). Level of Awareness about
Knowledge, Belief and Practice of Brain based Learning of School Teachers in
Greater Mumbai Region. Mumbai, India: Procedia - Social and Behavioral
Sciences Vol:123, pg. 97 – 105.
Something that really stuck out to me during this weeks reading was how much I new about brain-based learning without realizing what it was called. It is so important that students feel safe and acknowledged within the classroom. Something that I want to work on is making making more of an effort to acknowledge every student through out the day for more then bad behavior. I have been struggling with a few students who are extremely disruptive and find myself only acknowledging them because of bad behavior.
ReplyDeleteIt is a worthy goal to acknowledge students for non-negative behaviors. I have found in the last few weeks that I also have struggled with a few students that have huge disruptive behaviors. In order to have some positive interactions with them, I met with him and the counselor to talk about his positive aspects of school right now and encourage him to keep up with the good work. Then I shared with him how I would like to have more positive interactions with him and that one way would to say hello and hi-five every time I see him in the hallway. He was down for that!
DeleteI remember reading some time ago about the best way to remember, and one term that caught my attention was accretion. If I’m not mistaken, it’s the process in which certain memories are embedded in our brain and we don’t forget them easily, like not at all. It would be nice to have this type of memory-brain system, but it takes some time and it involves something we encounter on a daily basis. I think as math teachers, we have this type of memory, but for students that encounter our math content for the first time, it is difficult to commit math to memory like we do. I think it’s the same idea as the phrase “you use it, or lose it”. Sometimes I don’t understand why students don’t get our math concepts, but I try to remember we use it daily, year in, year out, it’s embedded, and for students, they are seeing it probably for the first time! I shouldn’t get upset at them. :-)
ReplyDeleteGood point that we remember math stuff so much more because we teach it. I would have to say that the concepts that I want my students to have memorized, I have them create something such as a poster or a pamphlet explaining the concept and process. Then I have them teach it to two other groups so that they get the chance of learning, processing, and teaching the concept.
DeleteThere are days as a teacher when you realize that what's best for a student on a particular day is not trying to teach them - insert your subject matter here. Some days they just need to deal with their home life stress. It's pretty pointless to try and teach them, when they are in no position emotionally or mentally to learn. Some days you just have to roll with it and take off your teacher hat, and put on your parental/psychologist/counselor hat. Sometimes learning on a particular day is not what's best for the kids.
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