Willis

Using the Developments of Neuroscience for
Neuro-logical Teaching Strategies
Using the Developments of Neuroscience for
Berkshire Community College
May 26, 2010
Judy Willis, MD, M.Ed
www.RADteach.com
With thanks to Dori Digenti, MSOD, Director, Center for Teaching and Learning, for her dedication to teaching and learning and support, suggestions, and planning to make this presentation possible and pertinent
,

9-10:30 Session A
10:30 Break
10:45 – 12:00 Session B
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
1-2:30 Session C
2:30 Break
2:45-4:00 Session D

Goals for This Presentation
Learn Neuroscience
Research- Compatible Strategies to:
Sustain students’ attention & memory with curiosity & prediction
Motivating sustained interest
Increase participation for memory

Knowing the Neuroscience
Helps You
Evaluate “Brain-Based” Claims
AVOID SELECTING BAD CURRICULUM
RECOGNIZE NEUROMYTHS

Brain Oxygen-Boosting Miracle Pill Energizes
Mind, Mood, & Memory

“Brain Oxygen-Boosting Miracle Pill Energizes
Mind, Mood, & Memory. Memory pill lights up aging
brain like a Christmas Tree. 100% Energizing.”

Teacher Myths & NeuroMyths
TEACHER MYTHS
Great hours: Finished at 3pm
Summers off – with pay
“Those who can, do
Those who can’t, teach”

Which of the following possible Neuromyths do you think is TRUE ?
Predict with magic pad

Possible
NEUROMYTHS

Hold up magic pad with the first letter of a possible neuromyths do you think is TRUE and not a neuromyth?

They are all neuromyths

Knowing the Neuroscience
Helps You
Use strategies more effectively & flexibly

BECAUSE YOU KNOW MOST OF THESE
NEURO-LOGICAL
STRATEGIES ALREADY,
YOU WILL WORK
SMARTER,
NOT HARDER

Judy’s “Advertisement”

Are You Curious?

Is Your Brain Personally
Connected?
Not Yet

Two Tasks to
Prepare for
Active Listening
because
The person who thinks,
LEARNS

1. Look through your handout to see the detail of the notes and locate major sections
You will be prepared to find pages that coincide with the slides

2. Write down in your notes a topic or unit you teach (consult, supervise) for which students have difficulty sustaining attention
Then hold up a “magic pad”with the first letter what you wrote in your notes

R.A.D.
R = REACH ATTENTION
RETICULAR ACTIVATING SYSTEM
A = ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR
AMYGDALA
D = DEVELOP MOTIVATON WITH DOPAMINE

Where We Are
Where We’re Going
Novelty & curiosity
Prediction for Participation
Stress of boredom/frustration
Emotional positivity
Awareness of making progress
Preassessment
Personalization

Reaching
Problem: Reaching students’ focused attention & engagement
Solution: Get through RAS filter

Before anything can be learned and retained in memory it needs to be attended to (selected) by the brain

All learning comes through the senses

The input must then reach the “higher brain” for long-term conscious memory to be constructed

Prefrontal cortex
33

Pathway to Conscious Thinking in the Prefrontal Cortex

Let’s see what your RAS chooses and edits to let into your conscious brain

Attention is a process of selection.
The things you don’t attend to, don’t are unlikely to become retrievable memory

YOU DIDN’T “SEE”
THE SENSORY INPUT
YOUR RAS DIDN’T SELECT

Count the number of times the letter “F” appears in the following slide

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF MANY YEARS

6 times. Your RAS didn’t care about the “f’s” in “of”

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF MANY YEARS

Your RAS edited which sensory input got your attention

Millions of bits of sensory data available every second
a basil gimlet Ray of Light
Only about 2000 bits of sensory data can get
through the RAS each second

To get to the conscious brain, sensory input must be R.A.S. “selected”
35

What is primary purpose of a brain?
Keep the body alive
Preserve the species

For Survival
Why a sensory filter?
To limit information intake
Preserve the brain’s survival function

For Survival
What would that filter select for sensory intake?
Something that changed, is novel

For Survival
First, is the novel input a danger?
If not, can it improve survival in the future?

When students are not paying attention to the lesson it doesn’t mean they are inattentive

They are paying attention to sensory input, just not the sensory input of the lesson

What sensory
input gets in the fox’s RAS?

Survival RAS filter is programed to alert to novel input because it correlates with survival

Only when threat is not perceived is other change/novelty admitted through the RAS

Now curiosity alerts the RAS
to attend to other changes and novel input
Because changes and novel input may also improve survival

When students are not paying attention to the lesson it doesn’t mean they are inattentive

They are paying attention to sensory input, just not the sensory input of the lesson

RAS
The RAS gives priority to threatening input
Therefore, if students feel threatened or stressed, their RAS prioritizes the threatening input at the expense of any academic content you would prefer they absorb.

RAS
Summarize with choice of
method such as a narrative
first an example,
then Your Turn-Collaborate and try several if time permits

RAS
1. Pair-Share: What is the RAS and why is it important.
or
2. Sketch your image of the RAS
or
3. Create a simile
The RAS is to ......
as ....... as to .......

Summarize
with
COMIX.com

Strategies that
influence RAS information
intake and flow

What information gets through
the RAS and where does it go?

How can you influence what gets through your students’ RAS?

RAS Interventions
Help students feel SAFE!
Then stimulate their curiosity with change & novelty
S

Novelty & curiosity
Achievement Priming
Preassessment
Personalization

Using Novelty or Change to promote memory associations

Music
Changed room
Costume

CURIOSITY
is necessary to persue new experiences

PERSUIT OF NEW EXPERIENCES & EXPLORING
IS NECESSARY FOR
SURVIVAL
Text
LEARNING ONE’S ENVIRONMENT

Prediction Increases
Curiosity, Attention, & Memory

Prediction builds curiosity and motivation to know if their prediction is correct
Prediction invests TOP DOWN ATTENTION
THE INFORMATION IS SELECTED FOR RAS INTAKE & SUBSEQUENTLY for MEMORY

CURIOSITY and DISCOVERY
promote the brain to
acquire new information, correct inaccurate networks,
andpredict the best
future responses

Participation with Prediction =
Active Learning &
Memory Building

To be surprised by or interested in the curiosity provoking experience or question, students must make a prediction in the first place
Then when predictions are wrong there is a true element of surprise.
The unexpected results are powerful stimuli to curiosity so...
There is more value/memory placed on the feedback of the correct information

ADVERTISE
to promote
CURIOSITY
&
PREDICTION

CURIOSITY ABOUT ADVERTISEMENTS
Predict what ADVERTISEMENTS have to do with a coming lesson
Attention investment to find out if prediction is correct
The INFORMATION that supports or refutes the prediction IS VALUED FOR INTAKE & MEMORY

Advertise in Advance
for Curiosity

“The force will be with you”
TOMORROW

Hold up your
magic pad with
first letter of your
idea

Forceful
verbs
opening sentences
exclamation points forces of nature forces that change history

Your Turn
to
Predict

What topic could these photos advertise?

Hold up your
magic pad with
idea

Time (What a Split Second Looks Like)
Gravity
Probability
Motion

Advertise
for curiosity and prediction with videos

Video
advertising
science or
math formulas

Advertise
slope

Advertise
water
cycle

Animoto
to make your own videos
http://animoto.com/education

Discrepant
Events
Are Novel & Unexpected so RAS lets & they Promote Prediction

Show or tell things that challenge students’ assumptions or prior beliefs.

HOW MANY FINGERS
DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE?

Allowance Question
Would you rather have one cent doubled everyday for 30 days or $100,000.00 ?
HOLD UP MAGIC PAD

One cent because...
Day 15: $163.84
Day 16: $327.68
Day 17: $655.36
Day 18: $1,310.72
Day 19: $2,621.44
Day 20: $5,242.88
Day 21: $10,485.76
Day 22: $20,971.52
Day 23: $41,943.04
Day 24: $83,386.08
Day 25: $167,772.16
Day 26: $335,544.32
Day 27: $671,088.64
Day 28: $1,342,177.28
Day 29: $2,684,354.56
Day 1: $.01
Day 2: $.02
Day 3: $.04
Day 4: $.08
Day 5: $.16
Day 6: $.32
Day 7: $.64
Day 8: $1.28
Day 9: $2.56
Day 10: $5.12
Day 11: $10.24
Day 12: $20.48
Day 13: $40.96
Day 14: $81.92
Day 30: $5,368,709.12

PARTICIPANT ACTIVITY
Pair Share: Something you have done or could do to promote student curiosity and prediction?

Sustain
Attention

Syn-naps
Relate new information with something unusual

Write the first letter of a lesson you could connect with one of the next photos.
Hold up the card when ready
iceberg.jpg
iceberg.jpg

BINGO
Activation of Prior Knowledge
Sustained Curiosity/Attention Personal Interest
Content Specific Vocabulary

Students copy 25 words onto individual boxes on your grid in any order for BINGO

synapse
amygdala

When they hear one of the words spoken or see it projected on the screen they cross it out on their BINGO grid
When they have 5 in a row (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) they call out BINGO

AS WE GO THROUGH THE UNIT,
MAKE PREDICTIONS ABOUT
WHAT THE RADISH HAS TO
DO WITH WHAT YOU LEARN.
MAKE PREDICTIONS ANY TIME AND CHANGE THEM IF YOU’D LIKE.

Investigation:
Grow Radishes and Observe
Influence of Planting Distance, Sun Exposure, Soil, Water

Cross-Curricular-Science & Math of Agriculture Influences Historical Events
TRIBES THAT FARMED NEEDED GOOD SOIL AND RAIN, BUT WERE GIVEN THE WORST LAND. THEIR HARVESTS MADE THEM BITTER LIKE RADISHES.
THE NEW WORLD PEOPLE KEPT THE BEST LAND FOR THEIR OWN FARMING AND GREW GREEN, LEAFY CROPS LIKE THE LEAVES NEXT TO THE RADISHES.

TRIBES THAT NEEDED LARGE TERRITORIES TO HUNT WERE FORCED TO LIVE CLOSE TOGETHER, BUNCHED UP LIKE THE RADISHES.
IN THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT, THE NATIVE AMERICANS WERE TREATED UNFAIRLY. LIKE THE RADISHES, THEY WERE CALLED MEAN NAMES LIKE “RED SKINS.”

Novelty & curiosity
Achievement Priming
Preassessment
Personalization

Predict: What Memory Challenge common to most educators and students could be represented by the following 3 photos?

Hold up your
magic pad with
idea

OVERPACKED CURRICULUM

Survival and Safety First
Participating in new learning requires students to take risks beyond their comfort zones
Before students can attend to higher-order thinking they must meet lower-level needs like
survival and safety (MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS)

Amygdala -Directs input flow

Information (sensory input) destination isdetermined by metabolic state of the amygdala
Reflective PFC or Reactive Lower Brain

Amygdala determines where input goes
PFC
Reflectivebrain
Reactivebrain
Amygdala

Prefrontal Cortex
Conscious, Reflective,
“THINKING”
Brain
Reactive, Lower Brain
Fight/Flight/Freeze

Students’ emotional states (comfort or stress) impact pathway through amygdala
Reflective or
Reactivebrain

Negativity & Stress block information transport for processing in the thinking brain (PFC) so students are not engaged in & don’t remember the lesson

Images of threatening faces or friendly faces viewed before memory task.

PFC
AMYGDALA
Subjects performing a memory recognition activity
A: During the relaxed state increased activity in prefrontal cortex and memory storage regions.
B: Stressed subjects show heightened activity in the amygdala and much less cortical activity.
Wang, J., et al (2005) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 102, 17804-9.

PFC
AMYGDALA
A: Positive emotional state – opens amygdala to PFC = memory
B: Stressed state – no passage to PFC
= Low MemoryAdapted from Hamman, et al., Cognitive Neuroscience

AMYGDALA blocks Entry to PFC in Response to
NEGATIVE EMOTIONS
Fear
STRESS FROM frustration
Stress from boredoM

Prefrontal cortex

Survival First:
React with
Fight-Flight-Freeze

Fear/Stress
Amygdala to Lower Brain for Fight, Flight, or Freeze

The Brain In Stress/Fear State Admits Sensory Input
to Lower Involuntary, Reactive Brain for SURVIVAL
Stressed Brain
flight
fight
freeze

Causes of Stress in School
fear of being wrong
test-taking anxiety
physical and language differences
frustration with difficult material
boredom from lack of stimulation

Frustration IS STRESSFUL

BOREDOM IS STRESSFUL

Consequences of flight from
Boredom or
Frustration

The U.S. is now the only country in the developed world where young people are less likely to graduate than their parents

Dropouts Reason #1
BOREDOM
75% “Material wasn’t interesting”
39% “Material wasn’t relevant to me”
31% Bored in class because they have “No interactions”

40% of U.S. high school students don’t take any science beyond general biology
55% of U.S. h.s. students don’t take math beyond geometry
Donald McCabe and Jason Stephens

Consequences of
Passive Learning
Where Facts and Procedures are memorized without the engagement to achieve conceptual understanding

25 divided by 5
= 14

Novelty & curiosity
Achievable Challenge &
Awareness of Incremental Progress
Personalization
Emotional Positivity
Achievement Priming
Preassessment

The PULL of the Achievable Challenge of Video Games
He’s so close to Level 10 to even care about going for pizza

Like video games
achievable challenge
with incremental progress
is motivating

Novelty & curiosity
Achievement Priming
Preassessment
Personalization

Planning Units for
Achievable Challenge
Preassess
Frequent Sustained Assessment
Timely Feedback

Benefits of Pre-tests of Content Knowledge
Preview of key concepts
Predictions (hypotheses, answers) motivate interest in knowing if they are correct
Memory of correct answer more sustained because of prediction
Stimulate circuits with related prior knowledge to connect with subsequent new learning

You Have Information for Planning
Misconceptions
Mastery or deficiency in prerequisite concepts, facts, procedures and/or skills

Students correct their own quizzes in class
- Immediate corrective feedback
- Insight about their own foundational knowledge - what they need to review in preparation for the unit
- Accountability: possibility of same quiz

Preassessment RAD
WITHOUT Your Handout
Write a word that relates to the each of the letters of RAD
1. R
2. A
3. D
4. Sensory input that is __________ alerts attention and that input passes the first filter to enter the brain.

5. During high stress, information is conducted through the emotion sensitive affective filter to the lower, reactive brain. There are limited sets of instructions this involuntary brain uses to direct behavior. These include: ___ ____ _____?
6. Syn-naps (brain breaks) are needed to _______?
7. The prefrontal cortex is place we want our input to reach because this 17% of the brain controls ____________________ ?

Preassessment Answers
RReach Your Students (input must pass through the Reticular Activating System or RAS)
AAttitude that aims information toward thinking brain through the Amygdala
D Develop Memory with Dopamine: Dopamine is associated with pleasurable experiences and increases focus and memory
4. Sensory input that is novel (threatening, curiousity provoking) alerts attention and that input passes the first filter to enter the brain.

5. During high stress, information is conducted through the emotion sensitive affective filter to the lower, reactive brain. In that lower brain there are limited sets of instructions this involuntary brain uses to direct behavior. These include: Fight, Flight, Freeze
6. Syn-naps (brain breaks) are needed to replenish neurotransmitters, cool down amygdala, process new learning for memory
7. The prefrontal cortex is place we want our input to reach because this 17% of the brain controls higher thinking, long-term memory, executive functions, emotional control

Personalization for
Active, Memorable LEARNING
PARTICIPATION
MOTIVATION

Personalization
Students need to value the information so they
Want to Learn
what you
Have to Teach

The “So What?”
In planning your lessons, consider:
“How can I help students value the information?”

PERSONALIZE
A
PERSON OR PLACE
CONNECTED TO
THE UNIT

Book author anecdote
about Charlie

Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist

ratio and proportion
Dubai Towers 2000 ft
Empire
State Building
1250 feet
Crown Plaza
Pittsfield
140 feet

Active Personalized Reading (It’s all about “me”...Talk back to the Text)
Before Reading Predict
What do I already know about this topic?
As You Read Interact
How is this different from what I already know?
What new ideas are here for me to consider?
Make notes in the margin or on a post-it when
You disagree
Something is not what you expected
You get an idea or new insight
What you predict comes next

PARTICIPANT ACTIVITY More Open Ended:
1. As a group, select a stress reducing or motivation enhancing strategy related to the amygdala you LIKE.
2. With your group develop a plan to apply the strategy to your work (especially a challenge)
3. Individually: Fill in ideas in the “A” section RAD for your “challenge” topic in your notes

AMYGDALA opens pathway to PFC in response to
activation of prior knowledge
prediction Curiosity
Personal relevance
pOSITIVE MOOD INDUCTION
aCHIEVEMENT PRIMING
....AND THE BRAIN REsponds WITH LEARNING AND MEMORY

Positive Mood Induction
In an experiment students were asked to think about the happiest day of their lives and then given math problems.
The number of math problems solved accurately in five minutes was greater in the group that remembered the happy time.

Novelty & curiosity
Achievement Priming
Preassessment
Personalization

Achievement Priming
Activates a goal to achieve and inhibits a goal to have fun in individuals with high-achievement motivation
In students with low-achievement motivation, a goal to have fun was activated and a goal to achieve inhibited
Hart, W. (2009). The Effects of Chronic Achievement Motivation and Achievement Primes on the Activation of Achievement and Fun Goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol. 97, No. 6, 1129–1141

Appropriate Challenge Selection is
Neuro-logical for Survival
Expending effort only when there is a reasonably high probability of success is more adaptive than indiscriminately expending effort

Novelty & curiosity
Achievement Priming
Awareness of
making progress
Preassessment
Personalization

Progress & Motivation
A Harvard Business School analysis of nearly 12,000 diary entries, together with the writers’ daily ratings of their motivation and emotions, showed that awareness of making progress—even incremental progress—had more impact on positive emotions and motivation than any other workday event

Facilitate Motivation
Provide meaningful goals
Support with resources, rubrics, guidance
Encouragement: Help students recognize and acknowledge their incremental progress

Note YOUR incremental progress

Covered
Novelty & curiosity
Achievement Priming
Preassessment
Personalization

NEXT
Dopamine Boosting
Neuroplasticity
Narrative Memory
Making Mistakes for Memory

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My Articles Especially Useful
for College Level Teaching
Memory Enhancing Teaching and Learning. Solutions, Kappa Delta Pi Journal
Brain-Based Teaching Strategies for Improving Students’ Memory, Learning, and Test Taking Success. Childhood Education..
Highlighting for Understanding of Complex College Text. The National Teaching and Learning Forum. 14(6):
Collaboration is a Brain Turn On (2006)

R.A.D.
R = REACHING ATTENTION (RETICULAR ACTIVATING SYSTEM)
A = ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR (AMYGDALA)
D = Develop Memory
& Motivation with
Dopamine

Dopamine-Pleasure
The brain remembers best when LEARNING is accompanied
by positive emotion!

Dopamine Produces/Stimulates
Positive feelings
Creative imagination
Inspiration
Motivation
Curiosity
Persistence
Perseverance

Dopamine Produces/Stimulates
Pleasure
Curiosity & Inspiration
Motivation
Persistence and perseverance
Creative imagination

Dopamine Release
Increases
With...

Moving
Enjoying music
Being read to
Feeling self-appreciation

Acting kindly
Interacting well with peers
Expressing gratitude
Experiencing humor
Optimism
Choice

Examples of Increasing
Dopamine with
Choice
Movement
Positive peer interactions

CHOICE
Two groups of students were given a battery of tests to take.
Experimental group: option to select which tests to take in what order.
That group reported less anxiety and scores were higher.
STOTLAND E, BLUMENTHAL A. THE REDUCTION OF ANXIETY AS A RESULT OF THE EXPECTATION OF MAKING A CHOICE. Canadian Journal of Psychology.

CHOICE =
Ownership on the part of the learner
Allowing students choice, even small choices, will increase dopamine. For example:
Students choose how they will demonstrate mastery
Choose a goal to connect learning to doing

See if you can recognize three ways humor increases dopamine.

Humor increases dopamine in 3 ways
Movement
Positive Interaction With Peers
Intrinsic Reinforcement

MOVEMENT for
dopamine
MEMORY BOOST

Moving Multiple Choice
Each wall in the classroom is an answer to a question.
Students move to the region of the room that has the answer they think is correct.

Let’s do a Ball-tossto review dopamine activating activities
Scaffolding on next slide

Moving
Enjoying music
Being read to
Feeling intrinsic satisfaction
Acting kindly
Interacting well with peers
Expressing gratitude
Experiencing humor
Optimism
Choice

Collaborate about a
DOPAMINE RAISING STRATEGY
that could be applied to one of your challenge topics

SYN-NAPS

May I be
excused?
My brain
is FULL.

Brain breaks are needed after about ten minutes of intense concentration
Amygdala has a chance to “cool down”
Neurotransmitters replenished

SYN-NAPS Activity:Consensus Building for active engagement
Increase Achievement Priming
Activate Prior Knowledge
Review Previous Material

Consensus Building
also increases communication skills, tolerance, and memory

MEMORY
Encoding

NEXT TO THE AMYGDALA
IS THE
HIPPOCAMPUS

IN THE HIPPOCAMPUS NEW INFORMATION IS ENCODED WITH PREVIOUSLY STORED RELATED KNOWLEDGE
CONSOLIDATION

The brain finds relational memories using
PATTERNING
See for yourself.....

You can help PATTERNING when you activate prior knowledge

WHEN PATTERN MATCHING IS SUCCESSFUL
THE HIPPOCAMPUS ENCODES
SENSORY INPUT INTO RELATIONAL MEMORY

Prediction Activities
Make Stronger and More Accurate MEMORIES

New experience
Pattern extension
Better prediction, answers
Better survival

The survival function of these networks is accurate prediction.
Neuroplasticity strengthens networks that are used most.
The strongest networks are the patterns the brain uses to predict.

Prediction increases memory encoding
ACTIVATION OF THE PREFRONTAL CORTEX PREDICTION REGION (LEFT)
RESULTED IN GREATER ACTIVITY IN MEMORY FORMING HIPPOCAMPI
Hippocampus
PFC

Which is greater?
The number of six-letter
English words having n as their fifth letter or......
The number of six-letter English words ending in “ing”?
__ __ __ __ __ __

Allsix-letter words ending in “ing” have “n” as their fifth letter.
__ __ __ _I_ _N_ _G_
_

Why did you predict “ing”?
Prediction uses existing patterns (categories of prior related knowledge) to analyze new information

Using past experience to predict outcomes the brain gives more importance tomemories that are:
-Most frequently used
-Most available for retrieval

The brain uses prior knowledge to PREDICT best response to new experiences

Intelligence is the superior use of prior knowledge to predict the future
(answers/solutions/hypotheses)

ACTIVITIES FOR
PRIMING-PREVIEWING- PREDICTION-PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ACTIVATION

Class discussion starting with current events of high interest that connect to the unit or topic
Ask (or find out in advance) what they learned about the topic in other courses taught at the college

BOOK CHAPTER PREVIEW
ESTIMATION
SCIENCE HYPOTHESES
PLOT PREDICTION
Bulletin Boards
Guest speakers
ASSESSMENTS THAT PREVIEW
PRIMING-PREVIEWING- PREDICTION

Judy’s Neuroplasticity “Advertisement”

Neuroplasticity
Mental Manipulation Strengthens Neural Pathways (more myelin, dendrites, and synapses)
Memories are more durable and stored information is more efficiently retrieved.
Practice Makes Permanent

Neurons that fire together,
wire together
= plasticity

Experience Your Neurons that
are WIRED TOGETHER
1. While sitting, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles
2. Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with your right hand.
Your foot changed direction, and it will do it again if you try again

Your foot changed direction, and it will do it again if you try again

Long-Term Memory Making
1. Incorporation of new learning into a neural network with related information (pattern matching and other mental manipulation)
2. Repeated stimulation of that network to strenghen and increase the connections....and the memory

Long-term Memory builds when new information is linked to existing
neural networks of related information (categories, concepts)

Repeatedly activating those networks (mental manipulation, practice) increases strength and permanence

Narrative Transport MEMORY
POSITIVE MOOD
EMPATHY
NARRATIVE PATTERN IS STRONG SINCE CHILDHOOD
PREDICTION IS PART OF THAT PATTERNED RESPONSE TO STORIES

Example of narrative to increase memory
MEET MY FRIEND OLI

Oligodendrocyte
Oligodendrocyte
or “Oligo” lays down new myelin in response to increased activity in the neural network
Myelin wrapped around axon

OLI HELPS OUT

ACTIVE LEARNING REQUIRES PARTICIPATION

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS
THE GREATEST FEAR REPORTED BY STUDENTS?

MAKING A MISTAKE
IN WHOLE CLASS SETTING

Neuroplasticity constructs neural networks, but without active participation and making mistakes, faulty networks will not be revised
That faulty foundation can severely restrict future learning.
Mistakes are critical to learning

Nucleus Accumbens
Dopamine
Reward-Center
Dopamine release to PFC drops with error recognition
Dopamine release to PFC increases from intrinsic reward of correct response

Neuroplasticity constructs or prunes faulty neural networks

Correct Predictions
Dopamine related pleasure increases
Networks used for that prediction are reinforced

Incorrect Predictions
Dopamine related pleasure dips
Mistake negativity (when not extreme such as with support) reconstructs networks
Timely corrective feedback allows networks to be accurately revised

The drop in dopamine-pleasure with a recognized mistake is the way the brain changes itself to avoid future mistakes

•Timely feedbackis needed to provide students with the accurate information with which to change their misdirecting neural networks.
Then they need opportunities to use the revised network & build understanding to maintain the correct long-term memory.

Mistake Video Advertisement

You miss 100% of all the shots you don’t take
Wayne Gretzky

Increasing Participation
Changes the
BRAIN but...

How can we increase active learning when
Students
Fear
Mistakes?

Reduce Mistake Fear
To Increase the Risk-taking of Participation

Reduce Mistake Participation Fear
with no wrong answer
questions such as.....

How many legs?

282
bird head or rabbit head?

283
Is the next slide a
PROFILE OF MAN
OR
A Man on Horseback?

286
PROFILE OF MAN & WOMAN OR SEATED COUPLE WEARING SOMBREROS?

HOW MANY HORSES DO YOU SEE?

Students need opportunities to develop multiple and flexible perspectives.

People or houses watching the guitar player?
Text

To Increase the Risk-taking of Participation
Explain the brain changes that let us learn from mistakes

Brain Owners Manual Explain the brain changes that let us learn from mistakes
(its how they learned to walk, talk, ride a bike)

Once the information gets to the conscious, cognitive brain - PFC
it must can be mentally manipulated to become
Preserved, Retrievable Long-term Memory
2. Conceptual, Transferable Knowledge

Mental ManipulationRecognizing PATTERNS & making associations meshes withNEUROPLASTICITY
Similarities and differences
Put data into Categories
Analogies
Graphic Organizers

Transfer of knowledge
photos

IF SOMETHING IS MOVING
IT IS TIME FOR A
SYN-NAPS

299
Concentrate on the cross in the middle, after a while you will notice the moving purple dot will turn green!
Look at the cross
a bit longer and
all dots except
the green one
will disappear.

MY WEBSITE FOR ACCESS TO ARTICLES I’VE WRITTEN, BOOK CHAPTERS, AND TO MY EMAIL
www.RADTeach.com
WEBSITE FOR VISUAL ILLUSIONS
www.weirdomatic.com

Video Addresses
A Vision of Students Today –Cultural Anthropology class at Kansas State Universityhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o
Ball Pass Video:www.dothetest.co.uk/basketball.html

The End...
for now

Willis

by digenti on Jun 01, 2010

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Willis — Presentation Transcript