Brain-based Learning Mr. Habib Rezzouk – Ms. Wadha Al-DousariMonday, December 26th ,2011.

Let’s

Task One!

•Take out the paper [task one] from your files. • Interview your colleague; answering

the questions in the paper entitles [Task One]

[You have 2 minutes to do it, a minute to introduce him/her = 3 minutes].

Why such task?

• Such tasks are perfect for raising the level of feel-good/positive amines and hormones in the brain, like dopamine and norepinephrine. In the right amounts, these biological “uppers” improve working memory and cognition.

What do you know about the brain? Its structure? Function? What do you know about the learners’ brains at the stage you teach?

Task Two!

Leave everything … write down your expectations and some

anticipatory questions related to the workshop. They will be

put in a jar and answered later. [You have 3 minutes to finish this task]

Here's what you're going to learn in this "Brain-based Learning" workshop

•Kindly check your hand-outs.

Overview: •Theories, theories, theories…•What is brain-based learning? •Where did the idea come from?

•Why brain-based learning/teaching?

Because …

Brain-based learning philosophy offers strategies that:

• Eliminate a sense of threat. • Facilitate complex, real-life learning. • Respect the uniqueness of each learner. • Engage learners’ emotions. • Provide specific, immediate feedback. • Understand the limits of the brain’s attention span. • Utilize patterns during instruction. • Promote active, relevant, choice-driven learning. • Apply meaning to abstract concepts.

Task Three!

• Let’s play the: “if I had a million dinars…” game.

Brain-based learning philosophy offer strategies that:

• Utilizes patterns during instruction. • Promotes active, relevant, choice-driven

learning. • Applies meaning to abstract concepts.

Brain-Based learning encompasses such educational concepts as:

• learning styles (What are they?) • multiple intelligences (What are they?) • emotional intelligence (What is ..?)• cooperative learning • problem-based learning • experiential learning • Critical-thinking [Critical reading [Task –

forming questions]. • movement education (What is …?)

Grow out, Not fill up! • Filling students’ brains with knowledge by

planning every last detail of their content instruction is going about the wrong way. • Brain-friendly teachers plan for learning by

helping students branch out from knowledge they already have, extending the knowledge, reframing it or presenting it in a new context.(Student-centered, learner-compatible and very user-friendly). • The only meaningful starting point for student

learning is what they already know. (so…)

Task Four! (2 minutes)

•Add together each of the defined words to get a whole new word.

Example: to shout + what you say when you feel pain = a color = yellow.

The ABC’s of brain-based learning

Eric Jensen

Atmosphere

•The atmosphere you create for your students has a great influence on their learning. To get the most potential from out brains, we must set up atmosphere that is conductive to maintaining a positive, successful environment.

Brain-fitness• Simple activities and movements that will

create opportunities for whole brain learning. Learning through movement can increase blood flow to the brain, which helps improve memory, concentration, physical coordination, and organization. • Left/right side of the brain. [ Task four

Which hemisphere?]

Choice• Offering students choices can affect their overall

involvement and understanding of the material. (offer multiple forms of assessments, let them choose their own seats, allow them to choose partners).

Challenge

• Complex learning is enhanced by challenge And inhibited by stress!

• Surprisingly, many common games are good for the brain, but solving problems is the number one, all-time best activity for brain growth. • The best problems to solve meet the

following conditions: 1)they are novel. 2) They are challenging (Make sure the difficulty level is appropriate for your audience). 3) They are non-threatening (everyone should want to contribute). 4) They stimulate emotions (Learners should feel anxiety, joy, anticipation, surprise or celebration).

Differences• Multiple-intelligences. • Learning-styles: make sure that your lessons

benefit the learning styles of your learners. • Keep as much movement in the classroom as

possible. This will help keep the active learners more interested. • Try using concrete objects during your lessons to

benefit the hands on learners in your classroom.

Emotions! • = the gatekeeper to learning • Put learner into positive state before learning. Activate their

curiosity, trigger past feelings of success or create anticipation for the fun they are about to have.

• Research tells us that cognition and emotions, although they originate in different parts of the brain, are so interwined that they influence each other.

• Pay close attention to students’ feelings before starting a lesson. Emotional states trigger either activity or inactivity.

• Learning is much more memorable if it is attached to strong feelings. If students have a good feeling about what they’ve learned, they’ll recall it later and will want to come back for more!

Fun!

• Fun is the major puzzle piece in brain-based learning that links the other concepts together. • Fun can give motivation and ownership to

a student’s learning. • Laugh and learn! Laughter increases the

flow of neurotransmitters that are required for alertness and memory, lowers stress and strengthens the immune system.

Goals: •You are responsible for instructing the students on how to establish goals. •Help students form their own goals, use a Goal Chart, make the goals SMART, let students see how goals are implemented in the real world.

High Expectations: • Expectations can make or break a student’s

willingness to learn. • When your expectations and attitude are high,

the students will feel safe and will live up to those expectations. • By having a happy and lively mood, students are

more likely to mirror the attitude and become full of life as well.

TASK FIVE! (2 minutes)

Look at the following words for (60 seconds) then write as many words as possible on the dotted lines ONLY,

(30 seconds).

Brave Scarf Fairy Mount SidesGuess Trade Feels Drugs WhoseArmed Pilot Strip Crowd LargeMaria Risks Price Crazy CrackVisit Tyres Times Japan GreenPlain Vague Raise Angry Stuck

Today Dozen Swear Worry Valuecases Child given mount CriedCliff Doors Route Ports Metal

Giant Peace Shock Faded Clerk

Interests: •Finding a common interest among your learners can be very difficult. •Have your students pair up/group up according to common interests.

Just like home: •Students should feel as comfortable in your classroom as they do at home. •Creating a zone where students feel like they can relax, be successful, and be safe keep them coming back for more learning.

Kinaesthetic:

• It is a learning style where students learn best by experiencing or touching the world around them. •Make learning come alive. •Move. Incorporate movement in daily lessons.

Lighting:

• Studies have shown that letting natural light in increases attention and promotes a positive attitude, especially in winter months. •Allow as much natural light as

possible into the room through windows.

Music• Recent research has shown that some students may

actually need sound to concentrate. • Music in the classroom can awaken the brain and affect

the pulse, blood pressure, muscle tension and brain waves. • For a more upbeat lesson with lively activities, listen to

music with quick tempo and a steady fast. • For quiet work time, play a calming music, such as

classical or instrumental. • Having a variety of music selections in the classroom will

keep you ready whenever the music is needed.

Nutrition:

•Healthy functioning of the neurons in the brain is essential to each student’s mental performance and alertness. • Encourage your students to eat “close

to the earth”, which would include fresh fruits and vegetables.

On-line learning: • You always must work to find tools

that can reach a variety of students and provide flexibility in the classroom. • Encourage students to blog. •Use new technology to allow students

to share what they have learned on a subject.

Patterns: • The brain has a need to group, make categories,

and create structure to learn. • Cells in the brain are always firing new

information by sending and receiving messages. • When the new information has a pattern or link,

the information has more meaning and understanding. • The whole process of teaching should be given in

small parts, so the learner can connect them into a bigger picture.

Patterning strategies? • Discuss the relevance of a topic by correlating the pros and

cons. • When reading a book to learners, ask them higher level

thinking questions to make them see problems and resolutions, cause and effect, as well as patterns.

• Provide hands-on activities where students are using building blocks, sewing and or playing cards to create patterns.

Questioning: • The brain is more receptive to questions about new knowledge

than it is to answers. Why? • Curiosity is a distinct physiological state that triggers changes in

our posture and eye movements and promotes chemical reactions that are advantageous to learning and recall.

• When we ask ourselves questions, the brain continues to process them even after they’re answered.

• To your brain, the process is far more important than the outcome.

• In short, you increase your capability of learning when you ask questions and your brain will continue to ponder the questions even after answers are found.

Questioning: • Questioning techniques can highlight the differences

between boys and girls. • While boys tend to shout out answers, girls can be more

timid in their responses. Bearing that fact in mind a teacher should vary his/her questioning strategies. • Boys benefit from being allowed to discuss responses

before committing themselves to an answer. • Girls do much better when story problems are used. • Allow at least a 3 second wait time after asking the

question.

Rewards: • In the world of education there are two types of

rewards:

1. Extrinsic: Incentives that are external (candy bars, money

and grades). They are often used for short-term motivation.

2. Intrinsic: Internal and generally come in the presence of a

good feeling after accomplishing something.

Classroom strategies (Rewards):

• Develop tasks and assessments that students enjoy doing. This will promote intrinsic motivation. (Role-playing, skits, projects, creative writing.)

• Make sure that any positive feedback you give is specific and immediate.

• Provide opportunities for students to generate and give praise (specific, positive, immediate feedback) to each other (Handshakes, notes, team-cheers).

• Teach students how to give feedback in a way that respects personal feelings. Model the difference between comments that address a person’s work (You made great eye contact with the audience) and those that refer only to the person (You’re very good at giving oral presentations).

Social brain?

•Yes. The brain is social. •It develops better in concert with other brains.

Technology: • Technology can never replace you as a facilitator,

but it can make learning more effective. • During independent work, encourage students to

access technology, such as computers, to go beyond the assignment. • Use video clips, to create sensory experiences for

the student. • Create the methods to assess students that

integrate technology. (Excel, powerpoint… ).

Use it or lose it! • Memory works in a unique form when it comes to the

working brain. Some students can remember every detail, while others have a difficult time remembering what was learned at the start of the day. • The use of creative repetition will help the students with

memory and recall! • Memory Use complex memory strategies involving

changes of location, intensity of emotion , movement , rest, art performances, writing, sketching, etc., to engage multiple memory pathways and strengthen memory connections.

Use it or lose it ..

• Repeat the learning or knowledge through various methods long term memory. • Organize info. Graphically : the brain is

designed to learn and develop patterns of thinking which can be replicated quickly. • Be aware that all learning is mind body:

movement, foods, attention cycles, and chemicals modulate learning and affect memory.

Visuals: • The human brain can register more than 36,000 images per

hour; your eyes can absorb thirty million bits of information per second.

• It makes sense to take advantage of these amazing organs hungry for pictures and moving images!

• Display colourful pictures, posters, graphically organize the content of the lesson, accompany learning with short video clips.

Water!

•Water does not make us smarter, yet dehydration makes your brain cells stop functioning well. •When water is restricted the stress

hormone increases, allowing for overreactions and anger.

Xx and Xy

• Did you know that female’s brain is smaller than the male’s, yet they have more connections between their hemispheres? •We obviously notice that there are many

physical differences between men and women. However, there may be more genetic and emotional differences than we think.

You can do it!

• It is always up to the teacher to begin the change, not only in the classroom, but in the school as well. Once fellow colleagues witness the benefits of brain-based learning they too will begin modifying their lessons to better suit their students’ needs and wants. • You are the most important aspect in this

entire transformation.

Zzzzzz’s …

•Without adequate sleep one can become irritable or have trouble concentrating in class. • If your students are falling asleep in

class it may be due to the lack of movement and/or excitement in the classroom.

Limitations of the brain:

• It rarely gets it right the first time. • Too much, too fast won’t last! •Difficulty of altering representations

formed in early life. •Memories are malleable!

Sum up what you have learned. Use

your favourite graphic organizer.

Now, stand up. Shake your head. Leave the room