What can learning about the brain teach us about how we learn? How can examining our own...
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Transcript of What can learning about the brain teach us about how we learn? How can examining our own...
You and Your BrainSeminar 6
Goals for This Seminar Series
What can learning about the brain teach us about how we learn?
How can examining our own dispositions help us achieve a better understanding of how we learn?
How can we develop strategies to help us with the process of learning?
THINK-PUZZLE-EXPLORE1. What do you think you know about
your learning and brain?
2. What questions or puzzles do you have?
3. What does the topic make you want to explore?
Metaphors
For each metaphor, ask yourself....
What are some things that you believe about the brain that the metaphor captures?
What are some implications about you as a learner that follow from this metaphor?
How is the brain like a computer?
How is the brain like metamorphosis?
Your Own Metaphor Can you come up with your own
metaphor for learning and the brain?
In what way does your metaphor capture your thinking about the brain?
Learning Engages the Entire Physiology
Food, water, nutrition, sleep and exercise are critical to learning.
We are “holistic” learners - the body and mind interact
Each Brain is Unique
• We are products of genetics and experience
• The brain works better when facts and skills are embedded in real experiences
Learning is Enhanced by Challenge and Inhibited by Threat
The brain’s priority is always survival - at the expense of higher order thinking
Stress should be kept to a manageable level
Provide opportunities to make changes to your life
Have high, but reasonable expectations
The Search for Meaning Is Innate
Each person seeks to make sense out of what he/she sees or hears
Capitalize on this quality!• Present ideas, experiences that may NOT
follow what one expects: Speculate • Question Experiment • Hypothesize
The Search for Meaning Comes Through Patterning
Tie learning to prior knowledge
Use thinking routines and reflect on your own thinking
Start from the “big” questions to be answered.
The Brain is Social
•The brain develops better in concert with others
•When learners have to talk to others about information, they retain the information longer and more efficiently!
•Make use of small groups, discussions, teams, pairings, and question and answer situations
Brain Organizes Memory In Different Ways
Retrieval often depends upon how the information was stored.
Relevancy is one key to both storage and retrieval
Connect to what you know, what you are interested in
Provide examples
Memory When objects and events are registered by
several senses, they can be stored in several interrelated memory networks.
This type of memory becomes more accessible and powerful.
Conversation helps us link ideas/thoughts to our own related memories. Students need time for this to happen!!• Storytelling - Conversations• Debates - Role playing• Simulations - Songs• Games - Films
Techniques to Help Memory Define the “gist” - OVERVIEW Sequence events Plot out pictorially the
information Tell the information to others in
own words - TALK• Peer teaching/tutoring
Amplify by giving examples Use multiple parts of the brain
(emotional, factual, physical)• Auditory, Visual, Kinesthetic• Combine
Use color effectively• Yellow and orange as attention-getters
Can we become more intelligent? Brain is malleable, our experiences help shape it.
It is like a muscle – the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes.
Every time you try hard and learn something new, your brains form new connections that ,over time, make you more clever.
Intellectual development is not the natural unfolding of intelligence, but rather the formation of new connections brought through EFFORT & LEARNING!
Headline
If you were to write a headline to capture the core of your learning over the past 6 seminars, what would that headline be?
Mind Map
Reflect upon your own thinking about Learning and the Brain. How Has Brain Research Influenced Your Approach to Learning?
Draw a Mind Map.
Goals for This Seminar Series
What can learning about the brain teach us about how we learn?
How can examining our own dispositions help us achieve a better understanding of how we learn?
How can we develop strategies to help us with the process of learning?
Other Sources Society for Neuroscience http://www.sfn.org/
Short guides and articles from the New Scientist site about the brain:http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/brain
Thinking Routines & Visible Thinkinghttp://pzweb.harvard.edu/vt/VisibleThinking_html_files/VisibleThinking1.html
Neuroscience for Kids http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/introb.html The Brain from Top to Bottom
http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/index_d.html The DANA Foundation http://www.dana.org
The Triune Brain http://www.psycheducation.org/emotion/triune%20brain.htm
Secret life of the brain: 3D tour http
://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/3d/index.html How Memory Works http
://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0407/02.html
The End