Author: Andrea Spears and Leslie Wilson
Definition
Brain-Based learning is a comprehensive
approach to instruction based on how current research in neuroscience suggests
our brain learns naturally. This theory is based on what we currently know
about the actual structure and function of the human brain at varying stages of
development. This type of education provides a biologically driven framework
for teaching and learning, and helps explain recurring learning behaviours. It
is a meta-concept that includes an eclectic mix of techniques. Currently, these
techniques stress allowing teachers to connect learning to students’ real life
experiences. This form of learning also encompasses such educational concepts
as:
• Mastery Learning, • Learning Styles, •
Multiple Intelligences, • Cooperative Learning, • Practical Simulations, •
Experiential Learning, • Problem-Based Learning, • Movement Education.
History
For 2,000 years there have been primitive
models of how the brain works. Up until the mid 1900’s the brain was compared
to a city’s switchboard. Brain theory in the 1970’s spoke of the right and
left-brain. Later the concept of the triune (3 in 1) brain (a term coined by
Paul McClean that refers to the evolution of the human three part brain) was
introduced. In this theory McClean hypothesized that survival learning is in
the lower brain, emotions were in the mid-brain, and higher order thinking took
place in the upper brain. Currently, we embrace a whole system, complex brain
model. During the last two decades
neuroscientists have be doing research that has implications for improved
teaching practices. Neuroscience is based on information obtained through
autopsies, experiments, and different types of scans -- MRIs, EEGs, PET and CAT
scans, as well as the most recent brain research lab studies in neuroscience.
Neuroscientists construct clinical studies that use double blind, large,
diverse, multi-age, multicultural groups of people to gather reliable
information. This information has helped determine how human learning actually
occurs. In essence these scientists have been peering into the “black box” in
order to determine how the brain processes and retains information. Thus,
technology in medicine has paved the way for many new learning innovations.
Specifically based on conclusions from research
in neuroscience, professors from major universities have taken this information
and incorporated it into books about learning. In accordance with these
suggestions classroom practices can be modified by teachers applying new
theories of teaching and learning based on recent findings. Some noted authors
in this area are Marian Diamond, U. C., Berkeley; Howard Gardner, Harvard
University; Renate and Geoffrey Caine; Thomas Armstrong; Candace Pert, Eric
Jensen; etc.
Core
principles directing brain-based education are:
1. The brain is a parallel processor. It can
perform several activities at once.
2. The brain perceives whole and parts
simultaneously.
3. Information is stored in multiple areas of
the brain and is retrieved through multiple memory and neural pathways.
4. Learning engages the whole body. All
learning is mind-body: movement, foods, attention cycles, and chemicals
modulate learning.
5. Humans’ search for meaning is innate.
6. The search for meaning comes through
patterning.
7. Emotions are critical to patterning, and
drive our attention, meaning and memory. 8. Meaning is more important than just
information.
9. Learning involves focused attention and
peripheral perception.
10. We have two types of memory: spatial and
rote.
11. We understand best when facts are embedded
in natural spatial memory.
12. The brain is social. It develops better in
concert with other brains.
13. Complex learning is enhanced by challenge
and inhibited by stress.
14. Every brain in uniquely organized.
15. Learning is developmental.
What then can educators do to enhance learning
in classrooms?
Implications
for best teaching practices and optimal learning
There are interactive teaching elements that
emerge from these principles.
•
Orchestrated immersion: Learning environments are created that immerse
students in a learning experience.
Primary teachers build a rainforest in the
classroom complete with stuffed animals and cardboard and paper trees that
reach to the ceiling.
Intermediate teachers take students to a school
forest to explore and identify animal tracks in the snow and complete
orienteering experiences with a compass.
Junior high teachers take a field trip to an
insurance company to have students shadow an employee all day.
High school teachers of astronomy have students
experience weightlessness by scuba diving in the swimming pool.
•
Relaxed alertness: An effort is made to eliminate fear while
maintaining a highly challenging environment.
Teachers play classical music when appropriate
to set a relaxed tone in the classroom.
Bright lights are dimmed. Vanilla candles are
used to calm students and peppermint scents are used to stimulate the senses.
All students are accepted with their various
learning styles, capabilities and disabilities. A relaxed accepting environment
pervades the room. Children are stretched to maximize their potential.
•
Active processing: The learner consolidates and internalizes
information by actively processing it. Information is connected to prior
learning.
The stage is set before a unit of study is
begun by the teacher preparing the students to attach new information to prior
knowledge so the new information has something to “latch onto.”
Twelve
design principles based on brain-based research
1) Rich, stimulating environments using student
created materials and products are evident on bulletin boards and display
areas.
2) Places for group learning like tables and
desks grouped together, to stimulate social skills and cooperative work groups.
Have comfortable furniture and couches available for casual discussion areas.
Carpeted and areas with large pillows who prefer not the work at a desk or
table.
3) Link indoor and outdoor spaces so students
can move about using their motor cortex for more brain oxygenation.
4) Safe places for students to be where threat
is reduced, particularly in large urban settings.
5) Variety of places that provide different
lighting, and nooks and crannies. Many elementary children prefer the floor and
under tables to work with a partner.
6) Change displays in the classroom regularly
to provide a stimulating situations for brain development. Have students create
stage sets where they can act out scenes from their readings or demonstrate a
science principle or act out a dialogue between historical figures.
7) Have multiple resources available. Provide
educational, physical and a variety of setting within the classroom so that
learning activities can be integrated easily. Computers areas, wet areas,
experimental science areas should be in close proximity to one another.
Multiple functions of learning are our goal.
8) Flexibility:
This common principle of the past is relevant. The ‘teachable moment” must be
recognized and capitalized upon. Dimensions of flexibility are evident in other
principles.
9) Active
and passive places: Students need quiet areas for reflection and retreat
from others to use intrapersonal intelligences.
10) Personal
space: Students need a home base, a desk, a locker area. All this allows
learners to express their unique identity.
11) The
community at large as an optimal learning environment: Teachers need to
find ways to fully use city space and natural space to use as a primary
learning setting. Technology, distance learning, community and business
partnerships, all need to be explored by educational institutions.
12) Enrichment:
The brain can grow new connections at any age. Challenging, complex experiences
with appropriate feedback are best. Cognitive skills develop better with music
and motor skills.
Optimizing
learning through different mediums:
Music:
Music can lower stress, boost learning when used 3 different ways:
• as a
carrier - using melody or beat to encode content,
• as arousal - to calm down or energize,
• as a primer - to prepare specific pathways for learning
content) impacts the immune system, and is an energy source for the brain.
Art:
Art is an important part of brain-based education in that it provides many
learners with avenues of expression and emotional conduits for learning and
retaining information. Art is important in technology to aesthetically create
pleasing power point presentations and multi- media displays to showcase work.
Multicultural awareness is improved through the study of art. Due to the
diverse power of art, some educators think the “arts” should be named as the
fourth “R.”
Diverse
forms of assessment: Maintaining portfolios is important for
reflective improvement and self-assessment. These help teachers, parents and
students observe demonstrated growth over time. Teachers also need to maintain
appropriate content mastery through regular testing programs. And,
demonstrations, writing and art are ways of assessing students’ progress, as
are pre and post surveys and tests useful in assessing students’ progress. Both
verbal and written self-assessments are important parts of proving academic
growth, and interdisciplinary and cross-curricular projects provide realistic
assessment tools. In essence, students should be exposed to multiple assessment
methods.
