• These   and other findings encourage educators and parents to expose very   young children to a variety of learning experiences-providing blocks   and beads to handle and observe, talking to the child, playing peek-a-boo.
• Studies that explore the effects of attitudes and emotions   on learning indicate that stress and constant fear, at any age,   can circumvent the brain's normal circuits. A person's physical   and emotional well-being are closely linked to the ability to think   and to learn effectively. Emotionally stressful home or school environments   are counterproductive to students' attempts to learn. While schools   cannot control all the influences that impinge on a young person's   sense of safety and well-being, classrooms and schools that build   an atmosphere of trust and intellectual safety will enhance learning.   Letting students talk about their feelings can help them build skills   in listening to their classmates' comments. Finding ways to vent   emotions productively can help students deal with inevitable instances   of anger, fear, hurt, and tension in daily life.

•   Carol Dweck  

   

    

  People are born learners, but our instinct to strive, learn, and grow can be quickly derailed by the kind of praise we receive early in life. Those praised for being "smart" learn that intelligence is a fixed, innate, effortless gift, and they often fail to reach their full potential. Others learn early that effort is the key to life-long learning and go on to exceed our expectations. Those are the findings of a social psychologist Carol Dweck's extensive research into the "Fixed Mindset" vs. the "Growth Mindset."
  
  Carol separates the low-effort success from that achieved through "struggle." Contrary to conventional wisdom, she finds struggle beneficial to learning, while easily solved problems lead to lower drive and effort. She presents the findings of studies and empirical evidence that shows clear differences in effort, passion for learning, and success.

• In the 1980s she began investigating the self-theories that lie behind these behaviors, discovering along the way that students' implicit beliefs about the nature of intelligence have a significant impact on the way they approach challenging intellectual tasks:   Students who view their intelligence as an unchangeable internal characteristic tend to shy away from academic challenges, whereas students who believe that their intelligence can be increased through effort and persistence seek them out (Dweck, 1999b;
• Dr. Dweck's research on the impact of praise suggests that many teachers and parents may be unwittingly leading students to accept an entity view of intelligence.   By praising students for their intelligence, rather than effort, many adults are sending the message that success and failure depend on something beyond the students' control.

• "Three   principles from brain research: emotional safety, appropriate   challenges, and self constructed meaning suggest that a   one-size-fits-all approach to classroom instruction teaching is   ineffective for most students and harmful to some."
• The   brain is essentially curious and it must be to survive. It constantly   seeks connections between the new and the known. Learning is a process   of active Construction by the learner and enrichment gives students   the opportunity to relate what they are learning to what they already   know. As noted educator Phil Schlechty says, "Students must do the   work of learning."

• Extrapolating from the above quotations we may conclude the following:  

   
   
  • Not   all students need to be doing the same thing at the same time. Some   group work would therefore be appropriate.
   
  •   Students are not all at the same level of ability and they don't learn   in the same way. It follows that different groups within the same   class should be working at a variety of different levels of complexity   and/or difficulty  simultaneously, but at different rates.
   
  •   Students need to be actively involved in making decisions and   modifications to their learning efforts.
   
  •   Students need appropriate challenges, a secure environment, an   opportunity to explore ideas and have fun learning.
   
  •   Students need to learn to ask questions, think and interact verbally. 
   
  •   Students need to be able to construct meaning by interacting with   peers, problems, issues and with materials.
   
  •   Learning is more effective if concepts are learned in context and   related to existing knowledge. Content needs to be relevant,   integrating  multiple aspects simultaneously.

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• Everyone also has a different brain. Because of the solidarity of each individual's brain, educators have to decide what is best for each student. Brain Compatible Learning is not a "one size fits all." It is, however, an approach to learning that will change the way educators view their students and will change teaching styles for the better.
• The human brain is over 80 % water. When becoming dehydrated, the brain starts to shut down. Educators often have access to something cool to drink during the day or even in workshops. If that is not available, educators are antsy about sitting in a two hour conference and often are thinking of other things such as, what ballgame the kids have to be taken to that night, or what is on the grocery list. Students operate in the same manner. Reducing some of those feelings of searching for a basic need, such as water, the student will bring learning back into focus. Allowing students access to water bottles or jugs of water with small cups, helps the brains physiologically need respond in a productive manner instead of an adverse manne

• Our brains are wired by our experiences and our responses to our thinking, about the connections we’ve made in our brain cells.
• He also talked about the dangers of limitation by categorisation, discussing IQ tests and planting doubt in young people about their aspirations and gave some examples of messages that black students had received unconsciously (this is why streaming doesn’t work)

• Dr Don Cameron, an expert on the physical structure of the brain, and how it impacts on human behaviour, including learning.

• I suppose the take-home message was that, while our knowledge of the brain has advanced remarkably, there’s still a lot we don’t know, particularly the implications for learning in the physiology of the brain.

   

  Cameron was sceptical about curriculum that branded itself ‘brain-based’ learning and debunked other common myths like ‘we only use 10% of our brain’ and we

   

  I was amazed at the pure physicality of it all; the brain as a plastic, changing mass that grows and shrinks all our lives, all chemicals and electrical connections. And the idea that sometimes, all the various sections can sing together in some kind of harmony.

• One article this week, looks at the ‘gender’ of the brain, how girls think differently from boys, and how those differences, some of which protect girls from extreme risk-taking behaviour, may also limit girls in other ways, including the kind of risk taking that’s likely to lead to success in some areas
• As well, she says girls produce oxytocin daily, which makes them care for others. Oxytocin is best known as the hormone that surges at childbirth. “The problem is that it can make them care about the opinion of their friends too much.” Oestrogen can make girls favour co-operation over competition. Dr Deak says these factors explain the paucity of female chief executives. “For many it is a rational decision of ‘why would I want to put myself in a situation of constant conflict?’. Yet for men it’s an exhilarating experience.

• Psychologists Lisa Blackwell (Columbia University) and Carol Dweck (Stamford University) have done research showing children can improve on their studies once they learn that intelligence is something that they can develop and control. Dweck calls this a “growth mindset” as opposed to a “fixed mindset”. By simply teaching students that the brain can learn and change, in other words, that the brain can grow, the students realized their brains are malleable. This self-knowledge gave them the internal motivation to enhance their own learning.
• Blackwell’s and Dweck’s study supports the idea of neuroplasticity, and is a prime example of the power of positive thinking in influencing brain growth. Their study followed about one hundred seventh graders who had difficulty with, and were low performing in math.

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  Welcome!

  The Brainology^® program is a fun, award-winning program that helps upper elementary, middle school and high school students gain confidence and motivation to learn by teaching them about the brain, how to strengthen it, and how to apply brain-friendly study skills.  We help them cultivate a growth mindset,

• What does Dr. Dweck's research mean for parents? She suggests that we should think twice about praising our kids for being "smart" or "talented," since this may foster a fixed mindset. Instead, if we encourage our kids' efforts, acknowledging their persistence and hard work, we will support their development of a growth mindset—better equipping them to learn, persist and pick themselves up when things don't go their way. Her work also suggests that we examine our own belief systems. Do we function with a growth mindset? If not, what messages are we sending to our kids?
• Much new research from psychology is showing that genius and great creative contributions grow out of passion and dedication. They do not simply come from gifts we are born with. Finally, research with adults has shown that adults can learn a growth mindset and that when they do, they are more effective in many endeavors.
• Carol Dweck: Children love the idea that their brain is like a muscle that gets stronger as they use it to learn. They also love the image of their brain forming new connections when they work hard and learn.

• Parents should not shield their children from challenges, mistakes, and struggles. Instead, parents should teach children to love challenges. They can say things like "This is hard. What fun!" or "This is too easy. It's no fun." They should teach their children to embrace mistakes, "Oooh, here's an interesting mistake. What should we do next?" And they should teach them to love effort: "That was a fantastic struggle. You really stuck to it and made great progress" or "This will take a lot of effort—boy, will it be fun."

    

  Finally, parents must stop praising their children's intelligence. My research has shown that, far from boosting children's self-esteem, it makes them more fragile and can undermine their motivation and learning. Praising children's intelligence puts them in a fixed mindset, makes them afraid of making mistakes, and makes them lose their confidence when something is hard for them. Instead, parents should praise the process—their children's effort, strategy, perseverance, or improvement. Then the children will be willing to take on challenges and will know how to stick with things—even the hard ones.

• We did a study of premed students at an Ivy League university. They were taking their first (very challenging) organic chemistry course, and the grade in that course was very important. The students with a growth mindset, who viewed learning as their first priority, enjoyed the course more (even when they happened to get a disappointing grade on a test), bounced back from setbacks, and ended up earning higher grades in the course. It was the students with a fixed mindset who thought their intelligence was on the line and who were stressed out and debilitated by setbacks.

    

  Highlights: What has been the impact of your research on

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• I am smart, the kids’ reasoning goes; I don’t need to put out effort.  Expending effort becomes stigmatized—it’s public proof that you  can’t cut it on your natural gifts.
• . Baumeister has come to believe the continued appeal of self-esteem is largely tied to parents’ pride in their children’s achievements: It’s so strong that “when they praise their kids, it’s not that far from praising themselves.”
• In the opinion of cognitive scientist Daniel T. Willingham, a teacher who praises a child may be unwittingly sending the message that the student reached the limit of his innate ability, while a teacher who criticizes a pupil conveys the message that he can improve his performance even further

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• n one, the fixed mindset, people believe that their talents  and abilities are fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that's that;  nothing can be done to change it. Many years of research have now shown that  when people adopt the fixed mindset, it can limit their success. They become  over-concerned with proving their talents and abilities, hiding deficiencies,  and reacting defensively to mistakes or setbacks-because deficiencies and  mistakes imply a (permanent) lack of talent or ability. People in this mindset  will actually pass up important opportunities to learn and grow if there is a  risk of unmasking weaknesses. This is not a recipe for success in business, as  ultimately shown by the folks at Enron, who  rarely admitted any mistakes. What  is the alternative?

   

   
   In the other mindset, the growth mindset, people believe that their talents and  abilities can be developed through passion, education, and persistence. For  them, it's not about looking smart or grooming their image. It's about a  commitment to learning--taking informed risks and learning from the results,  surrounding yourself with people who will challenge you to grow, looking frankly  at your deficiencies and seeking to remedy them. Most great business leaders  have had this mindset, because building and maintaining excellent organizations  in the face of constant change requires it”.

   

    
• People with a fixed mindset  were only interested in whether their answers had been right or wrong. Once they  had this feedback, they tuned out. However, people who had a growth mindset  stayed tuned in to find out what the right answers actually were. As a result of  this greater interest in learning, they did significantly better when they were  later tested on the material.
• Among students with  poor English skills, those with a growth mindset were enthusiastic, but those  with a fixed mindset were not. In  a fixed mindset, people are not willing to  expose their deficiency in order to remedy it. Instead, they were willing to put  their college career in jeopardy.

• “We've seen these changes. When students go through a growth mindset  workshop, the changes can be dramatic. First, once students understand the idea  that their brain forms new connections when they apply themselves and learn-that  they are in charge of their mind and its growth-they become more engaged. Before  the workshop, many students thought of school as a place where you performed and  teachers judged you. After the workshop they saw it more as a place where, with  the teachers' help, you learned things that made you smarter. Many students said  that as they studied or paid attention in class, they pictured their neurons  forming new connections.

   

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• 02/07/2007 - The brain never loses its capacity to learn, according to a new publication from the OECD.  Contrary to the myth that “everything important about the brain is decided by the age of three,” Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a Learning Science suggests not only that learning never stops - especially if actively pursued - but that it physically transforms the brain.
• Among the conclusions of the study is that the “plasticity” of the brain - its ability to change in response to environmental demands - depends not only on the type of learning undertaken but also on the age at which it occurs and the general learning environment. Drawing on evidence that emotions re-sculpt neural tissues, it suggests that one of the most powerful motivations to learn is the illumination that comes with grasping new concepts.
• With this in mind, the report recommends that early education should ensure enjoyment from learning by providing children with such experience of “enlightenment”. Drawing on evidence provided by neuro-imaging of adolescents, in which high cognitive potential is shown to be combined with emotional immaturity, it also raises questions about the practice in some countries of streaming school students at a relatively early age, as well as about whether it would be more efficient to offer young people learning opportunities later, once they have matured.
   
   Among other things, the report suggests that new findings on how and at what age the brain processes language can usefully be applied to foreign language teaching.

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• This book provides new insights about learning. It synthesises existing and emerging findings from cognitive and brain science. It shows what the latest brain imaging techniques and other advances in the neurosciences actually reveal about how the brain develops and operates at different stages in life from birth to old age and how the brain is involved in acquiring skills such as reading and counting

• Since 1999, CERI's  “Brain and Learning” project has been working towards a better understanding of the learning processes of an individual’s lifecycle.
• One of the aims of Understanding the Brain is to encourage dialogue between educators and neuroscientists about what each can contribute to the understanding of how we learn.