Brain Research

As an administrator I have been to workshops about effective evaluation and how to identify effective teachers. We have discussed leadership traits. We have set goals. We have developed and refined policy. Through this all we remind ourselves that we are doing to this because it is the student that matters. I began to wonder when we are going to learn more about our students. What are we missing? What can research tell us about our “clients”?

Brain research is not a new field but it seems to be slow in coming to education. My first dive into several articles is summarized here.

My development courses in education focused on the psychological development of children and adolescents. While I have returned to this information in my teaching, the course did not address the physical development of the child and more specifically, the child’s brain. The brain develops in a sequential manner as well. Trauma at different times in a child’s life can lead to different results. This will affect how we teach some students, especially if we can be aware of the child’s past. ¹

Brain based learning relies on the finding of research that shows “learning changes the structure and the functional organization of the brain”. ² If I understand this statement correctly it becomes very important to change my view of my job as a teacher. I don’t teach anymore but I ensure that students learn. This article by Bonnema notes that memory is the only evidence that something has been learned. ³ I do wonder about the importance of changes in behavior, skills or emotions. As teaching occurs, the student must take in the lesson. The brain is better viewed as a sieve, rather than a sponge. We are bombarded with so much sensory information on a regular basis the brain must limit what it pays attention to. In order to help students focus their attention so that sensation can become perception we can engage them using multiple intelligences and learning modalities of the students. ⁴ To be effective at this, we must know our students and relate to them. Once we have perception, the student is working in short-term memory. This memory is limited. It is purged easily. It allows for simple evaluation and/or rehearsal. It readies information for transition to long-term memory. Conscious effort must be taken to move it to the filing cabinet (long-term) from sticky notes (short-term). There are many strategies to aid this transition. ⁵ The process of putting information into long-term memory literally changes the neurons. Dendrites increase in both size and quantity. ⁶ Emotion has a strong influence on the transition of knowledge. It can add meaning and context. However, if the learner is threatened, retention and recall is decreased. ⁷

I have certainly learned through my retreat experiences and working with at-risk youth how important is the emotion and state of mind of the student. Relationship is a big part of education. Brain research also indicates this by illustrating how our brains are wired for social interactions and this has important implications for education. ⁸ It is easy to see that people are social creatures. “We are constantly reading each others’ actions, gesture and faces in terms of underlying mental states and emotions, in an attempt to figure out what other people are thinking and feeling, and what they are to do next.” ⁹ In other words, students do pay attention but our lectures and notes aren’t that interesting most of the time. Research in comparing learning through video/audio and control groups have shown that people learn best when there is a real person present. ¹⁰ A striking thing about the social brain is how late it develops. Adolescents still have difficulty taking another person’s perspective as a way of directing their own. Adolescence is a key time to develop these skills of social cognition and self-awareness. ¹¹ This illustrate how important the “unwritten curriculum” is in helping youth grow their abilities of internal control, multi-tasking and planning along with the social cognition and self-awareness.

Other research reaffirms the importance of emotive state. “The emotional system tells us whether something is important.” ¹²  And to learn something we simply must be paying attention. Eleven principles are listed for brain-based learning:

1. the brain is a parallel processor
2. learning engages the entire physiology
3. the search for meaning is innate
4. the search for meaning occurs through patterning
5. emotions are critical to patterning
6. the brain processes parts and wholes simultaneously
7. learning involves both focused attention and peripheral attention
8. learning always involves conscious and unconscious processes
9. we have at least two different types of memory: spatial (autobiographical) and rote learning (taxon memory)
10. learning is developmental
11. learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat ¹³

Overall, I see many supports for what we do at Vermilion Outreach. I also see support for the Learning Cycle and Coyote Mentoring counseling and teaching practices.