Educational Leadership:Revisiting Teacher Learning:Brain-Friendly Learning for Teachers

Michelle Krill's personal annotations on this page

Mmkrill bookmarked on 2009-06-17 brainbased adultlearning pd ascd

How can we create professional development that engenders deep learning?

Our brain pays more attention to stimuli and events that are accompanied by emotions.
How we feel about a learning situation often affects attention and memory more quickly than what we
think about it.

This link has been bookmarked by 32 people . It was first bookmarked on 17 Jun 2009, by Jennifer Dorman.

13 Sep 09

Mike Fisher
brain education PLN teachers Instructionalcoaching coaching collaboration PD
19 Aug 09

Rena Shifflet
Brain-Friendly Learning for Teachers

David A. Sousa

How can we create professional development that engenders deep learning?

brainlearning
21 Jul 09

Kay Tibbs
13 Jul 09

Karen McMillan
brain learning articles
Carla Arena
brain education PLN pd teachers professional professionaldevelopment digitalmagic
11 Jul 09

A Strang
PLN pd Professional Development brain
Joan Vandertie
brain research stafff development
- Four key factors affect the intensity of a learner's intrinsic motivation in any
  given situation: emotions, feedback, past experiences, and meaning
- Feedback is a key contributor to motivation. The need to be valued is a potent
  emotional force, and positive feedback fills that need
- 7 more annotations...
- - Effective feedback is timely. The sooner an observer provides
    reinforcement for a teacher's desirable behavior (such as trying out a new
    instructional strategy), the more likely that teacher is to repeat that
    behavior. Using peer coaches (teacher pairs who observe in each other's
    classrooms) is one way to provide frequent job-embedded professional development
    that uses nonthreatening feedback.
  - You're doing a nice job" doesn't help that person's brain explore and apply
    modifications to behavior that might lead to continued success
  - A better example of positive feedback might be, "Your students seemed engaged
    when you had them create graphs using data from their online survey."
  - Specific, positive feedback stimulates the prefrontal cortex to reflect on ways
    to improve performance
  - Use instruction modalities other than "telling." Participants need to see the
    strategy modeled and then apply it themselves soon thereafter. When teachers
    actively participate in a demonstration of the primacy-recency effect, for
    example, they more clearly recognize that the brain remembers best the first and
    last items presented in a learning episode—and they are more likely to sequence
    instruction with this phenomenon in mind
  - Promote in-school study groups around the topic. As group members exchange new
    research and share in-class experiences, they can analyze why—and under what
    conditions—a strategy is effective. Participating in study groups helps teachers
    who are reluctant to try out new ideas gain confidence
  - The field of education is strewn with the corpses of well-intentioned programs
    that failed to lead to action because developers failed to give teachers
    motivating feedback; connect new learning to relevant past teaching; establish
    long-term supports (such as peer coaching or action research); or consider how
    the program's approach might interact with teachers' emotions. In
08 Jul 09

d major
RT @Larryferlazzo: RT @kdwashburn: GREAT! Brain-Friendly Learning for Teachers by David Sousa: http://is.gd/1mdQE [from http://twitter.com/daylemajor/statuses/2452694458]

brain teaching
06 Jul 09

Heidi Chaves
Adult learning

professionaldevelopment
A. T. Wyatt
Article on how to maximize learning for adults. Quite a lot of scientific background, which is very good. Rather like the book "How People Learn".

education teachers professional professionaldevelopment professional development instructional design
Mardy McGaw
brain education PLN teachers professional tech_integration technology
Anne Van Meter
education PLN teachers professional pd brain
Carey Pohanka
professionaldevelopment
04 Jul 09

karen Janowski
- As teachers participate in learning activities, how do their brains determine what—if anything—to take away? And how can we use insights into the brain's workings to improve learning activities for teachers?
03 Jul 09

Ryan Bretag
professionaldevelopment articles brainbased
02 Jul 09

Ms. Rowley
Educational Leadership: Article from ASCD discussing the brain and professional development

professional_development pln ascd AdultLearning article teachers
28 Jun 09

Jordy Whitmer
ASCD

ProfessionalDevelopment
22 Jun 09

twiggy44
However, the efficiency of these mechanisms varies with the degree of development of the brain regions involved (Shaw et al., 2006). Emotional and social factors and past experiences also enter into play in terms of the brain's efficiency and an individual learner's motivation. Because these factors are more developed in adults than in children, they have greater influence over adults than they have over children.

brain education
- The brain's biological mechanisms responsible for learning and remembering are roughly the same for learners of different ages. However, the efficiency of these mechanisms varies with the degree of development of the brain regions involved (Shaw et al., 2006). Emotional and social factors and past experiences also enter into play in terms of the brain's efficiency and an individual learner's motivation. Because these factors are more developed in adults than in children, they have greater influence over adults than they have over children.
- maging studies show that regions in the brain's emotional and cognitive processing areas are activated when an individual is motivated to perform learning behaviors.
- 8 more annotations...
- - Four key factors affect the intensity of a learner's intrinsic motivation in any given situation: emotions, feedback, past experiences, and meaning.
  - How we feel about a learning situation often affects attention and memory more quickly than what we
    think about
  - Adults may also come to a learning activity with strong emotions. But a fully developed prefrontal cortex enables most adults to consciously dampen their emotions.
  - Negative feelings, on the other hand, cause the hormone cortisol to enter the bloodstream. Cortisol puts the brain into survival mode; this shifts the brain's attention away from learning so it can deal with the source of stress. Instead of learning, the brain remembers the pressure and registers these kinds of situations as unpleasant.
  - Feedback is a key contributor to motivation. The need to be valued is a potent emotional force, and positive feedback fills that need. In our professional development with West Orange teachers, each participant presented a minilesson and received constructive feedback.
  - Past experiences always affect new learning. As we learn something new, our brain transfers into working memory any long-stored items it perceives as related to the new information. These items interact with new learning to help us interpret information and extract meaning, which is part of the principle called transfer (Sousa, 2006).
  - Working memory draws on the individual's past experiences to help it answer two questions: Does this new information make sense? and Does this information have meaning for me personally? When both sense and meaning are present, the likelihood of long-term storage is high.
  - When teachers actively participate in a demonstration of the primacy-recency effect, for example, they more clearly recognize that the brain remembers best the first and last items presented in a learning episode—and they are more likely to sequence instruction with this phenomenon in mind.
Paul Bogush
brain
20 Jun 09

John Turner
# Gene expression. Certain genes express themselves only when provoked by circumstances in the environment, such as social interactions (Rossi, 2002).
# Mirror neurons. These networks of neurons fire either when a person acts or when that person observes the same action performed by someone else, mimicking the actions of the one being observed (Iacoboni et al., 2005). The discovery of gene expression and mirror neurons highlights the importance of schools' social environments in motivating students to learn.
# Neuron regeneration. Contrary to a long-standing belief, neurons can rewire themselves and establish new networks through in-depth learning in a low-stress, creative environment (Kempermann, Wiskott, & Gage, 2004).
# Memory capacity. New discoveries show that (1) working memory has age-related capacity limits that should not be exceeded by "cramming" in content, and (2) people can hold items in working memory longer than previously thought—up to several weeks (Crone, Wendelken, Donoue, van Leijenhorst, & Bunge, 2006).
# ADHD, autism, and dyslexia. New understandings are leading to successful interventions (Shaywitz, 2003).
# The role of exercise. Exercise is central to brain growth, mood regulation, and cognitive processing (Hillman, Erickson, & Kramer, 2008).
# The arts. Participation in the arts contributes to brain development, including visual-spatial ability, attention, concentration, and creativity (Ashbury & Rich, 2008).
# Body rhythms. Daily body rhythms affect learning, particularly for adolescents (National Sleep Foundation, 2000).

jturner56 jturner56learning
Dr. "TKA" Kulla-Abbott
Brain Friendly Learning
19 Jun 09

Angela Stockman
PLN PLC staff development literacy coaching
18 Jun 09

Brett Campbell
This is a poor explanation of "brain-bsed research" guiding educational practice
The logic is absent and faulty emotional experience leads to motivated student followed by academic achievement
This is repackaging old ideas

brain-based research
- the efficiency of these mechanisms varies with the degree of development of the
  brain regions involved
- attention to stimuli and events that are accompanied by emotions
  - Brett Campbell on 2009-06-18
    
    Learning MUST be emotional? salient
    What a toll on teachers and students?
  - A. T. Wyatt on 2009-07-06
    
    I think this is one reason why multimedia is so powerful. Adding all the visual cues, facial and body language, as well as audibles add a huge amount. I do an exercise with my class where we READ the Gettysburg Address and then watch a video that has the same text paired with photographs of the carnage of war. There is no comparison in terms of the effect produced.
- 4 more annotations...
- - (the limbic area
    Brett Campbell on 2009-06-18
    
    Limbic system not limbic area, the system includes the prefrontal cortex, while the limbic area could be considered in "more primitive" area of the brain
    Let's not forget the the role of neurotransmitters which is more than endorphis, cortisol and dopamine (i.e. responder to crack)
  - Endorphins provide a feeling of euphoria
    Brett Campbell on 2009-06-18
    
    When the student is heavily involved in physical education, maybe
  - Are teachers excited about this initiative
  - the release of cortisol
    Brett Campbell on 2009-06-18
    
    Cortisol is released from the adrenal glands atop your kidneys in times of severe stress,
    as in fight or flight. Not something to be promoted in a classroom
Pam Shoemaker
pd brainresearch edleadership article
John Evans
education technology learning PLN PLC teachers professional brain
Danielle Edmunds
adult_learning
Chris Atkinson
pd
Cary H
professionaldevelopment
17 Jun 09

Noelle Kreider
pd adult_learning
- Emotional and social factors and past experiences also enter into play in terms of the brain's efficiency and an individual learner's motivation. Because these factors are more developed in adults than in children, they have greater influence over adults than they have over children.
- This inherent desire to learn to do something simply for the satisfaction of doing the job well is an intrinsic motivation. Four key factors affect the intensity of a learner's intrinsic motivation in any given situation: emotions, feedback, past experiences, and meaning. These factors are all connected and influence one another to some degree.
- 2 more annotations...
- - When people feel positive about a learning situation, chemicals called endorphins and dopamine become active. Endorphins provide a feeling of euphoria. Dopamine stimulates the prefrontal cortex, keeping the individual attentive, interactive, and likely to remember what he or she experiences. Negative feelings, on the other hand, cause the hormone cortisol to enter the bloodstream. Cortisol puts the brain into survival mode; this shifts the brain's attention away from learning so it can deal with the source of stress. Instead of learning, the brain remembers the pressure and registers these kinds of situations as unpleasant.
  - Does the program offer learning experiences associated with moderate challenge, excitement, creativity, and joy so teachers will be more likely to remember what they learn and implement it in the classroom?
    Does the program speak to a problem that teachers identified rather than some outside entity? If not, can we connect this content to teachers' concerns?
    Are teachers excited about this initiative?
    Have we included opportunities for hands-on participation and activities that address a variety of learning styles?
    Will participants give leaders feedback on the program—and receive regular feedback?
Michelle Krill
How can we create professional development that engenders deep learning?

brainbased adultlearning pd ascd
- Our brain pays more attention to stimuli and events that are accompanied by emotions.
- How we feel about a learning situation often affects attention and memory more quickly than what we
  think about it.
Jennifer Dorman
education technology learning PLN PLC teachers professional brain
15 Jun 09

Nancy Caramanico
"Wow, that really made me think!"

read oceplp21 prof_development tech_leadership