Teaching with the Brain in Mind

I always enjoy a presenter who doesn’t lecture or speak down to the audience too many times I switch off to people whose choice of language and body language demonstrates an assumption that educators aren’t doing the right thing in their classrooms.

Eric Jensen presented a one day conference in the Limestone Coast today entitled Teaching with the Brain in Mind. The day focussed on the latest principles of brain compatible learning based on up to date brain research.

Jensen is an engaging presenter who practices the strategies he promotes throughout his presentation. Others in attendance commented on the usefulness of:

• specific strategies
• Jensen’s acknowledgement of the expertise of the attendees as professionals
• his desire to highlight to educators why the things they already do work and how teachers can optimise the learning of students in the classroom through educated use of existing strategies.

Jensen encouraged all educators to develop ESP (“the purposeful Engagement of effective Strategies")

He highlighted that Gene Expression (the capacity to respond to intense or persistent environmental input) impacts/affects/changes the brain. Gene Expression can be impacted by trauma (usually immediate in its effects) and consistency (something experienced over an extended period of time). As it is not recommended that students are traumatised in the classroom, teachers can positively affect Gene Expression to benefit student learning and in turn their success through highly consistent, effective teaching practice. Teachers need to be in it for the long haul. If teachers consistently work effectively miracles can happen; consistency = benefits.

However the same can be said in reverse a persistent exposure to ineffective teaching practices can affect students. Jensen said it would take a good teacher maybe 2 years to undo 1 year of exposure to poor teaching practice.

Another acronym used by Jensen was VRM (pronounced vroom). VRM represents the three Learning Principles Jensen states are confirmed by Neuroscience.

V = Vesting is Valuable

R = Rough Drafts need Repair

M = Memories are Malleable

Vesting (or buying in) is simply Jensen’s term for students becoming motivated toward their own and shared learning. The largest impact teachers have on students’ vested interest is by creating meaningful content. This concept promoted discussion around the effects of imposed and/or prescribed curriculum which can pose challenges to teachers. Other factors which research reveals impact upon students’ willingness to vest in their learning are:

• stress levels,
• physical environment,
• peer relationships,
• students’ health and personal assets (study skills, time management, and organisation).

The number one way teachers can foster an environment in which students will vest their interest in the learning is by strengthening their own relationships with their students.

Something I found pertinent to counselling was Jensen’s discussion around the role of hope (goals and belief that things can happen or change) and choice (within set parameters) in relation to students’ willingness to vest. Students at our site will be involved in research undertaken by Anthony Venning around hopeful thinking, adolescents and mental health. I am eager to view the results of the survey and look at how we can utilise the data to better support students’ wellbeing and learning within our site.

Jensen suggested teachers should be skilled in managing states (mind and emotional states). The optimum state for students to be in for learning is a state where they want to engage. Jensen says that by constantly involving students in small/short activities (energisers, brain storms, discussions) educators can promote a state of engagement and inturn encourage students vesting into the learning.

Rough Drafts need Repair promotes the need for trial and error and to correct errors. Learners rarely get things right on the first try. A strategy provided by Jensen is to reinforce effort rather than accuracy, so as to promote students exploration of a topic and allow students to reveal what they understand.

Example: ask students a question (in relation to the topic) and allocate a scribe to record all ideas. As students provide answers to the question posed, the teacher should respond by acknowledging the effort: “good effort, what else”, “thanks for jumping in, other ideas?” The brain storm should continue long enough to allow everyone who has an answer to contribute and should not stop once the correct answer has been obtained. The point of the exercise is not for students to guess the answer in the teachers head but rather for students to take risks in sharing their understanding/ideas. Once a number of answers have been recorded students are then asked to choose the answer they believe is most correct turn their chair to face three people closest top them and justify their choice to the people around them. Each group needs to decide which answer they agree with and feed back to the class. At which point the teacher can verify and correct as required. The strategy encourages students to think through answers and draw upon the existing knowledge they have. The opportunity for feedback allows the teacher to correct answers that are false so that students do not learn the wrong thing and students develop a breadth of information and connections which will allow them to access the correct answer again in the future.

Some interesting information in relation to learning:

• Brains require glucose to function but too much glucose impedes learning. This brings into question for me nutrition in schools, I see many students drinking 1.25 litre soft drinks on the way to school and consuming energy bars and drinks at break times. I have questioned in the past the impact of sugar highs on students emotions and concentration levels but this research says that too much glucose inhibits learning- however how do you determine the line between a moderate amount of glucose (which is optimal to learning) and too much.
• Too much new information overloads the brain. Research presented discussed the role of the hippocampus in learning and that too much learning can overload the hippocampus. The hippocampus learns quickly and has a short term memory. If too much learning occurs the brain becomes overloaded and the information stored in the hippocampus is overwritten as more and more information enters in to the short term memory.
• The working memory functions best with small chunks (between 1 and 4) of information. The working memory will store information with practice/reinforcement/revision.

Memories are Malleable – “our brain is designed to forget most of what we see, hear and do unless it has to do with survival”.

• Memories are stored in fragments and accessed as parts to create a whole.
• Our memories can be affected by new or corrected information. Revision will promote consolidation of the memories.
• The more emotional the event the more vivid the memory.
• Physical activity and emotional events stimulate glucose release within the body.
• Purposeful teaching uses energisers that raise heart rate and memory chemicals.
• Memories require maintenance.
• Information needs to be repeated, skills practiced but only after error correction (practice makes permanent so make sure the practice is correct).
• Learner reviews/repeats new information 3 to 4 times within the first hour. Revisit 24 hours on and again in another 7 days in order to assist memory.

Leaving Eric Jensen’s conference today I have gained reinforcement of strategies I already use and promote within my site and like Jensen promised I now have a base of research on which to validate the strategies I already use that experience has shown me work. I have further developed my understanding of Brain Based Teaching and have consolidated prior knowledge with the research presented by Jensen. I have been exposed to an array of strategies for a brain compatible classroom which will:

• provide opportunities to develop positive relationships with students.
• promote states for engagement.
• provide opportunities for students to develop their own motivation
• provide opportunities for correction.
• provide opportunities to consolidate memories.