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10 Brain Tips To Teach and Learn

Posted By Laurie Bartels On July 3, 2008 @ 3:53 In Education & Lifelong Learning | Comments Disabled

My nat​ u ral rhythms are in cycle with the school cal​ e n​

d ar. Jan​u​
a ry 1st takes a back seat to my new year, which gets ush​ e red in with the month of Sep​ -
tem​ b er when there is crisp​ n ess in the air that grad​ u​a lly shakes off the slower, more relaxed pace of summer.Conveniently, my career in teach​ ing
meshes with my nat​ u ral cycli​
cal year. And as this year draws to a close, I am re-energized by the pace of sum​ mer, know​ ing that any​thing may pop in to
my mind as I engage in activ​ i​
ties not directly related to school. But before that hap​ p ens, I’d like to reflect on this past year, in par​
tic​
u​
lar as it was my
first year of blog​g ing about the brain.

My inter​
e st in the brain stems from want​ ing to bet​
ter under​s tand both how to make school more palat​ a ble for stu​
d ents, and pro​fes​
s ional devel​
o p​
ment
more mean​ ing​ful for fac​
u lty. To that end, I began my Neu​ ing [1] blog in April, 2007, have been doing a lot of read​
rons Fir​ ing, and been attend​ ing work​
-
shops and con​ fer​
e nces, includ​ ing & the Brain [2] .
ing Learn​

If you agree that our brains are designed for learn​ing, then as edu​ca​
tors it is incum​b ent upon us to be look​
ing for ways to max​i​
mize the learn​ ing
process for each of our stu​
d ents, as well as for our​
s elves. Some of what fol​lows is sim​p ly com​
mon sense, but I’ve learned that all of it has a sci​
e n​
tific
basis in our brains.

1. Review and 2. Reflec​ tion are two means for think​ ing about what is being learned. Review can be done in the moments after a ques​ tion is posed, a
com​ment is made, a pas​ s age is read, an activ​ ity is done, or direc​tions are given, pro​ vid​
ing ample time to think about what has taken place, process the
infor​
ma​ tion and respond accord​ ingly. Review is also what should be done peri​ o d​i​
cally over the course of the year, so that stu​d ents have the oppor​ tu​
-
nity to revisit, relearn, clar​ify and con​ s ol​
i​
d ate their learn​ ing to mem​ o ry. Mar​
ilee Sprenger, based upon research by Jeb Schenck, notes that “spac​ ing
reviews through​ o ut the learn​ ing and increas​ ing the time between them grad​ u​
a lly allows long-term net​ w orks to be strength​e ned… the tim​ing between
repeated reviews can sig​ n if​
i​
cantly affect how much infor​ ma​tion is retained.

Reflec​
tion encom​p asses not only a response to actual mate​ r​
ial but also think​
ing about how one learns. It is 3. Metacog​ ni​
tion, and with each iter​
a​
tion
you learn more about your​ s elf as a learner. We empower our stu​ d ents and our​ s elves when we take the time for reflec​ tion, because the more we
under​s tand about how we each learn, the bet​ ter we can become at learn​ ing. Accord​ ing to Sprenger, “Metacog​ n i​
tion involves two phases. The first is
knowl​e dge about cog​n i​
tion or think​ ing about our think​
ing. The sec​ o nd is mon​i​
tor​ing and reg​u​
lat​
ing cog​
n i​
tive processes.

For me, blog​g ing has been a con​ tin​

u al process of review and reflec​ tion. In the course of over 170 posts to date, I con​tin​
u​
a lly revisit top​
ics, make con​ -
nec​tions, and write about my own course of learn​ ing. As teach​
e rs, ide​
a lly we should be review​ing and reflect​
ing on lessons, course mate​ ri​
a ls, and inter​
-
ac​
tions with stu​d ents, both as a means of improv​ ing them as well as learn​ ing from what worked or did not work.

4. Sleep is another way to con​s ol​

i​
d ate learn​
ing, which is one rea​
s on get​
ting a full night of unin​ter​
rupted sleep is impor​ tant. Of course, doing so also
helps us the next day to have more energy and patience, which then helps us with our atten​ tion con​trol. In fact, cou​
p le suf​
fi​
cient sleep with wak​
ing up
to a healthy break​
fast, and you are pre​ p ared to tackle the day.

Proper 5. Nutri​tion keeps our sys​tems func​

tion​
ing closer to their peak by sta​
b i​
liz​
ing var​
i​
o us lev​
e ls of hor​
mones and chem​
i​
cals. All of this holds equally
true for stu​
d ents as well as teachers!

We all have our own life sto​ ries, and being exposed to some​ thing new tends to stick bet​ ter if we have some​ thing else to asso​ ciate it with or if it is suf​
fi​
-
ciently unusual that it stands out on its own. Tak​ ing advan​ tage of stu​d ent 6. Prior Knowl​ edge prob​ a​
b ly requires min​i​
mal effort on the part of the
teacher, but yields big returns by engag​ ing stu​d ent inter​
e st as stu​d ents con​
s ider new infor​ma​ tion as it per​tains to them and their expe​ ri​
e nces. This, in
turn, can 7. Engage Emo​ tions, which is the largest hook into learn​ ing. We all tend to remem​ b er things that get our blood boil​ ing for bet​ter or for worse.
The parts of the brain engaged in emo​ tions include the small yet mighty amyg​ d ala, the hip​
p ocam​ p us and the hypothalamus.

Keep read​
ing…

“The amyg​ d ala deals with our emo​ tions, helps process our mem​ o​
ries, and gets totally absorbed in man​ a g​
ing our response to fear and stress. Com​ -
bined, these are big​ g ies, so the hip​ p ocam​
p us and hypo​
thal​a​mus chime in with some assis​ tance. The hip​
p ocam​p us han​
d les fac​
tual infor​
ma​tion, while
the hypo​ thal​a​
mus mon​ i​
tors how your body is doing inter​n ally and directs the pitu​
itary gland to release hor​mones on the basis of func​ tions such as body
tem​p er​
a​
ture, appetite, and sex​ u al functioning.

8. Nov​ elty is another big hook. As infor​ ma​ tion pre​ s en​ta​tion blends between teach​ e rs or stays the same by one teacher, it becomes dif​ fi​
cult to see pat​ -
terns and stu​ d ents may tune out the “same​ n ess”. But change it up a bit, intro​ d uce some​ thing rad​i​
cally dif​
fer​
e nt or in a rad​i​
cally dif​
fer​e nt man​ n er, and
all of a sud​ d en it is like a quick-pick-me-up in the mid​ d le of a les​ s on, a “brain snack”. Stu​ d ents refo​cus their atten​ tion, and it can even enliven your pre​ -
sen​ ta​
tion and wake you up! One way to incor​ p o​rate nov​ e lty is to add some 9. Move​ ment to reen​ e r​
g ize the body and brain cells. Move​ ment can shake
the sil​lies out or wake up slug​ g ish bod​
ies and brains; it can be an anti​ d ote to the time of day or the cli​ mate. Move​ ment is also a close rel​ a​tive of 10.
Exer​ cise, and it has been shown that exer​ cise is espe​ cially help​ ful in keep​ ing our adult brains healthy, so remem​ b er to par​tic​
i​
p ate in that move​ ment
with your stu​ d ents (and they will prob​ a​
b ly con​s ider your par​ tic​
i​
p a​
tion a bit novel!).

Nov​e lty and move​ ment can also effec​ tively be used to assist kids with sharp​ e n​
ing con​ trol of their exec​ u​tive func​tion, which is man​ a ged by the frontal
lobes in the neo​ cor​tex. Exec​ u​
tive func​
tion is how we con​ trol our atten​ tion, cre​
a te plans, and carry out those plans. Too often in school, kids are
required to “sit still” and “quiet down”, yet these are the very basics of being a kid! Con​ s ider har​ n ess​ing that nat​ u ral kid energy to help stu​d ents man​ -
age their own func​ tion​ing. Indeed, in a recent Newsweek arti​ cle [3] , Wray Her​ b ert notes that an exec​ u​tive func​tion cur​ ricu​
lum has emerged to help stu​ -
dents man​ a ge “effort​ful con​
trol and cog​ n i​
tive focus but also work​ ing mem​ o ry and men​ tal flex​i​
b il​
ity” the abil​ ity to adjust to change, to think out​ s ide the
box. My next post will share some of the many resources I have found to be par​ tic​
u​
larly use​ ful, includ​ ing the Learn​ ing & the Brain con​ fer​
e nce, which is a
“must attend” if you can swing it!

Lau​rie Bar​
tels writes the Neu​ ing [1] blog to cre​
rons Fir​ a te for her​s elf the “the grad​ u​a te course” I’d love to take if it existed as a pro​
-
gram”. She is the K-8 Com​ p uter Coor​
d i​
n a​
tor and Tech​n ol​o gy Train​
ing Coor​ d i​
n a​
tor at Rye Coun​ try Day School in Rye, New York. She is
also the orga​n izer of Dig​
i​
tal Wave annual sum​ mer pro​fes​ s ional devel​o p​ment, and a fre​ q uent attendee of Learn​ ing & The Brain
conferences.

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URL to article: http://sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/07/03/10-brain-training-tips-to-teach-and-learn/

URLs in this post:

[1] Neu​rons Fir​

ing: http://neurons.wordpress.com/
[2] Learn​ing & the Brain: http://www.edupr.com/
[3] recent Newsweek arti​ cle: http://www.newsweek.com/id/139885
[4]

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