Teenbrain

Creating Brain Compatible Learning Environments

Presented by

Garfield Gini-Newman

The Critical Thinking Consortium

[email_address]

Some recommended reading

Activity 1: How accurately does this cartoon capture the essence of adolescence?

Highly Somewhat Not Very Completely

Accurate Accurate Accurate Inaccurate

_______________________________________________

What is meant by a Brain-Compatible Learning Environment? Brain Compatible versus Brain Antagonistic

Activity 2: What does an enriched learning environment look and sound like? Sounds like… Looks like…

Attributes of a Brain Compatible

Classroom:

Provides a moderate to high challenge to students

Is a low threat environment

Engages positive emotions to support learning

Allows for multi-path input

Provides thinking strategies that support students in using information to create products and solve meaningful problems

Includes both novelty and predictability

Allows sufficient time for processing

Provides complex, frequent feedback

How brain-compatible is your classroom?

Think of an Adolescent You Know

Reflecting on an

adolescent you know,

how many

characteristics of the

typical teenager can you

list?

How do we learn? Communicating Neurons

Learning produces physical changes in the brain

Plasticity of the brain means that it is continually re-wired – molded by life experiences

Neurons that fire together, wire together!

Learning is a matter of making

connections.

The Process of Long Term Potentiation

When information

(stimuli) is received a trail

along a series of neurons is

blazed making it easier for

subsequent messages to fire

along the same path. The

more the path is re-fired the

more the message or new

learning becomes.

Each time an activity is repeated the bonds between neurons strengthen and expand, leading to an entire network developing which remembers the skill or information.

The Importance of Assessment for Learning

The cornerstone of brain compatible

assessment is formative feedback. By

providing students with guidance and an

opportunity to implement suggestions,

students feel secure in taking risks, develop

confidence in their ability to meet challenges

and can set their own goals.

Activity 3: How can we provide anchors for student learning in our classrooms?

Some anchors to consider:

Films, songs, field trips, photographs and paintings, evocative experiences, using manipulative, experiments…

Remember:

Learning is likely to occur if we move from the concrete to the abstract

Inquiry-based classrooms to help students take ownership over their learning

Genuine collaboration to respects the brain’s need for social interaction

Open ended assessments to provide students choice and allow them to draw on their interests and talents

Activity 4: Where does truth lie? Sandy Danny

Summer Nights

[Danny]

Summer loving had me a blast

[Sandy]

Summer loving happened so fast

[Danny]

I met a girl crazy for me

[ Sandy]

Met a boy cute as can be

[ B o t h ]

Summer days drifting away, to oh oh the summer nights

[Guys]

Well-a well-a well-a huh

Tell me more, tell me more

Did you get very far?

[Gals]

Like does he have a car?

[ Danny]

She swam by me, she got a cramp

[Sandy]

He ran by me, got my suit damp

[Danny]

I saved her life, she nearly drowned

[Sandy]

He showed off, splashing around

[ B o t h ]

Summer sun, something's begun, but oh oh the summer nights

[Gals]

Was it love at first sight?

[Guys]

Did she put a fight?

[Danny]

Took her bowling in the arcade

[Sandy]

We went strolling, drank lemonade

[Danny]

We made out under the dock

[ Sandy]

We stayed out 'till ten o'clock

[ B o t h ]

Summer fling, don't mean a thing, but oh oh the summer nights

[Guys]

But you don't have to bragg

[Gals]

Cause he sounds like a drag

[Sandy]

He got friendly, holding my hand

[Danny]

She got friendly down in the sand

[Sandy]

He was sweet just turned eighteen

[Danny]

Well she was good you know what I mean

[ B o t h ]

Summer heat, boy and girl meet, but oh oh the summer nights

[Gals]

How much dough did he spend?

[Guys]

Could she get me a friend?

[Sandy]

It turned colder - that's where it ends

[Danny]

So I told her we'd still be friends

[Sandy]

Then we made our true love vow

[Danny]

Wonder what she's doing now

[Both]

Summer dreams ripped at the seams, but oh those summer nights

Neural Pruning

...how and why is the behaviour

of an adolescent similar to that of

a 2 year old?

At both stages, the brain is responding to...

...a massive build up of connections and pruning away excess connections allowing for a more refined and efficient brain.

Brain Sculpting

Imagine you have set out to capture

the essence of who you are in a marble

sculpture. Reflect back to what life was

like at age 11 or 12. Walk yourself

through the defining experiences of your

adolescence. While doing so, imagine

yourself chipping away the excess

marble to allow for the emergence of

your adult self.

Like sculptor...

...the brain sculpts itself

through its experience with

the world.

Teenagers need to realize

that the brain is the only

organ in the body that is sculpted

through experience.

What they are doing with their

brain now is going to determine

what their brain is going to

become as an adult.

Also, remember that...

“ ...if teens are doing music and sports and academics, that’s how brains will be hardwired. If they are doing video games and MTV and lying on the couch, that will be how they are hardwired.” Jay Giedd

How effectively will the direction of new curricula in Alberta prepare students to meet the demands of the 21st century?

Fortune 500 reports that students entering the workforce in the

21st century will be expected to demonstrate mastery of the

following skills:

Teamwork/interpersonal skills

Problem solving/decision making

Oral/written communication

creative thinking

goal setting/motivation

math problem solving

organizational effectiveness

Success in all of these depend on frontal

lobe activity.

How should we respond? Remember... No matter how well planned, how interesting, stimulating, colourful or relevant the lesson, if the teacher does all the interacting with the material the teacher ’ s - not the student ’ s - brain will grow new connections.

Activity 5:How would your students respond to the following task? Which lifestyle would you have preferred - that of the habitants, priests or nuns, or the coureurs des bois? From Bain, Colin M., Canadian History 7, Pearson, 2007

The Process of Myelination

Which part of a colt’s brain do you think gets myelinated first.

The Role of Glial Cells:

A fatty, waxy substance that wraps itself around the axon called myelin

myelin insulates the electrical impulse so that it travels more efficiently

glial cells unlike neurons regenerate (makes up 90% of the brain) in response to new connection

the more you use your brain, the more glial cells you will have

Important to know

about myelination:

the neurons you need to survive will myelinate first

it makes your brain get bigger

before a neuron is myelinated it is called immature

myelination results in the creation of a more efficient brain

Important Observations for Understanding Adolescence

The frontal lobes are the last to be

myelinated occurring as late as the early

20’s.

Myelinated neurons fire 150 times more

quickly, making the brain more efficient.

Once an area of the brain is myelinated it

is much more specialized and efficient at

carrying out tasks.

But…

It appears as neurons become myelinated

they also become more rigid making

acquisition of new skills more difficult

i.e. acquiring a new language after the age 13-14

Students need to solve problems and practice decision making.

Have students apply learning to solve “real challenges”

Teach students to use decision making models

Provide a clear purpose to student learning

Have students consider purpose and audience

We need to allow students to “fail forward”

Students need to have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes without being penalized

Identifying errors is an important part of the learning process

Provide the necessary scaffolding to ensure success.

Avoid asking adolescents to multi-task until the learning has been internalized

Use graphic organizers to assist students in gathering and organizing information i.e. Lecture road maps, mindmaps

Integrate technology as appropriate i.e. Power Point, Mindjet

Assist students in seeing patterns and relationships.

Venn diagrams

Concept Formation and Concept Maps

Concept Attainment

Activity 6 In Israel, a Jew was walking down the street and was shot by a terrorist. In the United States, blacks were obliged by law to sit at the back of the bus. In some states in the U.S. if a black person killed a white person, that person was almost always found guilty. If a white killed a black, that person was almost always found innocent. In Canada, during World War II, legislation was passed that sent Japanese Canadians to special camps. In North America, it is not unusual to have all white juries hear a case of a non-white person. In Germany, during World War II, Jews were required by law to have travel passes in order to move about their community. In Canada, the First Nations People were denied access to most classy cafes. In South Africa, policy prohibited blacks from living in homes in areas designated as “white only” neighbourhoods. List B List A

Testers: Which list would each of these belong to?

In Malaysia, if your hair is longer than a certain length you will not be served until everyone else in the bank has been served.

As set out in legislation in some countries, women are not allowed to terminate a pregnancy without permission.

Concept Attainment can be used in all subjects… Math - prime numbers English - parts of speech Art - styles, movements Science - classifying living things

Movement and cognition are closely entwined, and movement can enhance thinking and learning.

How do/can you integrate

movement into your

classroom?

The Role of Emotion in Adolescent Learning

Emotions, the Amygdala and the Teenage Brain

Any information received by the brain travels first to the amygdala

The amygdala holds emotional memory - it tells you how you feel about things

In the teenage brain, the amygdala is developing faster than the frontal lobes

So teenagers tend to be reactive not reflective

Reading Facial Expressions

“ Emotion drives attention and attention drives learning”

In her book Brain Matters, Pat Wolfe

noted:

“ The brain is biologically

programmed to attend first to

information that has a strong

emotional content. It is also

programmed to remember this

information longer.”

Activity 7: So, we know positive emotions enhance learning and negative emotions inhibit learning… How can be remove unnecessary stress? How can we engage student emotions?