The Scientifically Substantiated Art of Teaching MBHE Principles and Tenets. January 2018

Background
• Professor, Harvard University Extension School: Psych 1609 “The
Neuroscience of Learning: Introduction to Mind, Brain, Health and Education
science”
• OECD: Member of the expert panel on Teachers New Pedagogical
Knowledge based on contributions from Technology and Neuroscience
• Latin American Social Science Research Faculty, Ecuador: Educational
Researcher and Professor
• Interdisciplinary researcher in neuroscience, cognitive psychology and
education (cultural anthropology and linguistics).
• Associate Editor of the Nature Partner Journal Science of Learning
• Boston University: BA, BS, magna cum laude; Harvard University:
Master’s in International Educational Development; Capella University: Ph.D.
In Professional Studies in Education (Mind, Brain and Education Science)
• Former Director of the Teaching and Learning Institute at the Universidad
San Francisco de Quito Ecuador
• Former Dean of Education at the Universidad de las Américas, Quito,
Ecuador
• Teacher at all levels of education (K-University, continuing education) with
more than 29 years of experience in 34 countries.
1

The Scientifically Substantiated Art of
Teaching:
Mind, Brain, Health and Education
Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Ph.D.
tracey.tokuhama@gmail.com
www.thelearningsciences.com

• “Designing educational
experiences without an
understanding of the brain is
like designing a glove
without an understanding of
the human hand.”
-Leslie Hart (1983)
“Education is not the
filling of a pail, but the
lighting of a fire.”
-William Bulter
Yeates (1923)
3
Tokuhama-Espinosa Aug 2016

Today:
1. Definitions
2. Useable Knowledge from
Neuroscience that can be
applied in Classrooms
3. Ten Things Learners Should Know
About Their Own Brains
4. (Neuromyths)
Tokuhama-Espinosa 4

9 April 2018 Tokuhama-Espinosa 5

Better knowledge about the brain and
learning
• Improvements in technology since The Decade of the Brain (1990s) have yielded
greater insights about healthy brain functioning. Early models promoted
neuromyths.
6

Refined technology (healthy
subjects)
Simple models
Replicas of connections
The Connectome Project 8

Downward learning spiral

The enemy of correct teacher attitudes:
Unconscious prejudices
• Teacher prejudices about intelligence influence student learning
(Hattie, 2009; 2012).
Paul Howard-Jones: “sense of brain” = 8 years old

Contact:
12
-Attributed to John Cotton Dana

3-2-1
• 3: Three things you didn’t know before
• 2: Two things you will continue to research or talk about
• 1: One thing you will change in your personal or professional life based
on the information that was shared

Definitions

Mind, Brain, (Health) and Education
science
Tokuhama-Espinosa, 2008; 2011, p.15Tokuhama-Espinosa 2017

EDUCATIONAL
NEUROSCIENCE
vs.
(NEURO EDUCATION)
THE LEARNING
SCIENCES
SUB- OR SECONDARY FIELD + PRIMARY FIELD
Educational Neuroscience
Neuro Education
Tokuhama-Espinosa 2017

EDUCATIONAL
NEUROSCIENCE
vs.
(NEURO EDUCATION)
THE LEARNING
SCIENCES
MIND, BRAIN, AND
EDUCATION SCIENCE
The focus is not on Learning or Teaching, but rather
“THE TEACHING-LEARNING DYNAMIC”

MBE: Balance between learning and
teaching
• "We know a little of what goes on in
the brain when we learn, but hardly
anything about what goes on in the
brain when we teach," (Blakemore & Frith, 2008,
p.118).
19

We see with our
brain, not with
our eyes…
Doidge, N. (2007). The brain that changes
itself: Stories of personal triumph from the
frontiers of brain science. New York, NY:
Penguin.

“…the most
complex living
structure in the
universe.”
“The Teachers’
Organ”

“One-minute paper”
• Left side: Everything (at least
one thing) you KNOW about
the “the brain and learning”
• Right side: Everything (at
least one thing) you WISH
you knew (or have heard but
are not sure about).

Why do the “one-minute paper”?
• Helps put the finger on the pulse of the sophistication of the group
(know what you already know).
• Helps identify what issues or concepts are of most interest to the
group.
• Highlight the point that despite using our brains every day and all
day to learn, most of us have only a rudimentary understanding of
how the brain works.

Guerrero, S. (2017).
Pedagogical Knowledge and
the changing nature of the
teaching profession.
Educational Research and
Innovation. Paris,
France: OECD Publishing.
Ansari, D., König, J., &
Tokuhama-Espinosa, T. (2017).
Developmental cognitive
neuroscience: Implications for
teachers’ pedagogical
knowledge. Pedagogical
Knowledge and the Changing
Nature of the Teaching
Profession.

Neuroscience is important for teachers to
know…
•But what, exactly,
should educators be
taught?

International Delphi Panel on Mind, Brain, and
Education science 2016-2017
• One-hundred and nine (109) invitations were sent to experts in the fields of
neuroscience, psychology and education who were asked to answer these
questions, 41 of whom complied.
• These experts came from 11 different countries (Argentina, Australia, Austria,
Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Holland, Slovenia, USA, and UK).
• Six Research Questions
• (Follow up of original Delphi 2006-2008)

Six Research Questions
1. Are there accepted principles in MBE (rules that govern practice: things that are
true for all brains)?
2. Are there accepted tenets in MBE (beliefs about the brain and learning which
are true, but have a large range of human variation)?
3. What are the Research, Practice and Policy goals of MBE?
4. What are the most important advancements in MBE since 2006?
5. What is (or remains) the great challenges to MBE?
6. Are there summary statements found in the educational literature that can be
used in MBE Teacher Education?

Six principles about human learning …
1. UNIQUENESS: Human brains are
unique as human faces. While the
basic structure of most humans’
brains is the same
(similar parts in similar regions), no
two brains are identical. The genetic
make-up unique to each person
combines with life experiences and
free will to shape neural pathways.

How does this information impact
teaching?
• Lesson plans?
• Testing requirements?
• Standards vs. Mastery or Standards and Mastery?
• In a related principle, the flipped classroom addresses the fact that
not all brains are equally good at all things, and therefore some will
need more rehearsal on certain concepts, while others will need more
attention to different points.
29Tokuhama-Espinosa Feb 2017
Policy change: Differentiated evaluation processes; flipped classroom flexibility?

2. DIFFERENT POTENTIALS: Each
individual’s brain is differently
prepared to learn different tasks.
Learning capacities are shaped by the
context of the learning, prior learning
experiences, personal choice, an
individual’s biology and genetic make-
up, pre-and peri-natal events, and
environmental exposures.

teaching?
• Differentiation? Inclusion?
31
Tokuhama-Espinosa Feb 2017

3. PRIOR EXPERIENCE: New learning is
influenced by prior experience. The
efficiency of the brain economizes
effort and energy by ensuring that
external stimuli are first decoded,
compared, both passively and
actively, with existing memories.

• Do you know your students
well enough to capitalize on
their past experiences and
make the teaching moment
authentic in their lives?
teaching?

4. CONSTANT CHANGES IN THE
BRAIN: The brain changes
constantly with experience. The
brain is a complex, dynamic,
integrated system that is
constantly changed by individual
experiences. These changes occur
at a molecular level either
simultaneously, in parallel, or even
before they are visible in behavior.

teaching?
• Are we permitting learning cycles to run
their course, or do we expect too much
too fast?
• Are we providing enough
opportunity/time for rehearsal for all
students in the class, even those with
little prior knowledge?
http://courseimage.com/90224-learning-cycle

5. PLASTICITY: The brain is plastic.
Neuroplasticity exists
throughout the lifespan
though there are notable
developmental differences by
age.

How does this information impact teaching?
• More important than chronological
age is the order of experiences.
• Do you believe that all of your
students can learn (and that few, if
any, are incapable of
improvement)?
• Learning is fluid, not fixed.

My potential is
not limited to my
biology
“… students who
believed their
intelligence could
be developed (a
growth mindset)
outperformed
those who
believed their
intelligence was
fixed (a fixed
mindset),”
(Dweck, 2015).

6. MEMORY+ATTENTION=LEARNING: There is no
new learning without some form of memory
and some form of attention. Most school
learning requires well-functioning short,
working and long-term memory systems and
conscious attention. However, procedural
learning, habituation, sensitization and even
episodic memory can occur without
conscious attention.

teaching?
• Are you choosing activities that facilitate memory
(e.g., authentic?)
• Are you creating the appropriate learning
environment in class to ensure that positive
emotions rein and that negative ones are reduced
to a minimum? (That interest is kept high and
boredom low?)

Evidence for how learning occurs: 21 Tenets
(true for all but with wide range of human variation)
1. Motivation
2. Emotions and cognition are mutually influential.
3. Stress
4. Anxiety
5. Depression
6. Learning is influenced by both challenge and threat as
perceived by the learner
7. Reactions to facial expressions are highly individualized
8. The brain interprets tones of voices unconsciously and
almost immediately
9. Humans are social beings who learn from and with
each other.
10. Attention
11. Most learning does not necessarily occur linearly
12. Learning involves conscious and unconscious
processes
13. Learning is developmental
14. Learning engages the entire physiology
15. Sleep and dreaming
16. Nutrition
17. Physical activity
18. Use it or lose it
19. Feedback
20. Individually relevant and meaningful contexts
21. Novelty and patterns
42

Example of the Tenet of Sleep

Question:
a. Rest and eat
b. Review and sleep
c. Sleep and eat
d. Do exercise and sleep
e. Do exercise and eat.
• To really learn
something, information
needs to get to long-
term memory. To get to
long-term memory, what
do you need?

ALL! But more than anything, review and sleep
well (practice, rehearse)
• While some memories
can be created without
sleep, long-term
memory depends on
sleep.

Sleep and Dreaming Have an Impact on the
Brain’s Ability to Learn
• Memory + Attention = Learning
• (Dreaming) + (Sleep) = Learning
Stickgold & Walker, 2013 50

Sleeping Less Than (Your) “Normal”
• “When we do sleep less than normal, we
are able to compensate very well,
especially if the stakes are high.
• If we are very motivated—either by award
or the need to avoid disaster—we can
usually manage to squeeze a little more
cognitive competence out of our weary
brains.”
• Be this can’t be maintained long-term.
Hobson, (2002, pp. 79-85) 57

Results of sleep derivation
• Sleep curtailment compromises one’s abilities to be attentive and
to organize mental activity efficiently and effectively. To read, to
write, to listen, and to tell, one needs a good night’s sleep.
• Additionally, lack of sleep leads towards a tendency of:
• Physical illness
• Intense and bizarre dreams
• Higher risk of infection
• Loss of temperature regulation of the body (Hobson, 2002, pp.
79-85)
Benedict, C., Brooks, S. J., O'Daly, O. G., Almèn, M. S., Morell, A., Åberg, K., ... & Larsson, E. M. (2012). Acute sleep deprivation enhances the brain's response to hedonic food stimuli: an fMRI study. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 97(3), E443-E447.
Greer, S. M., Goldstein, A. N., & Walker, M. P. (2013). The impact of sleep deprivation on food desire in the human brain. Nature Communications, 4.
Haus, E. L., & Smolensky, M. H. (2013). Shift work and cancer risk: potential mechanistic roles of circadian disruption, light at night, and sleep deprivation. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 17(4), 273-284.
Irwin, M. R., Olmstead, R., & Carroll, J. E. (2015). Sleep disturbance, sleep duration, and inflammation: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies and experimental sleep deprivation. Biological Psychiatry.
McEwen, B. S., & Karatsoreos, I. N. (2015). Sleep deprivation and circadian disruption: stress, allostasis, and allostatic load. Sleep Medicine Clinics,10(1), 1-10.
Wright, K. P., Drake, A. L., Frey, D. J., Fleshner, M., Desouza, C. A., Gronfier, C., & Czeisler, C. A. (2015). Influence of sleep deprivation and circadian misalignment on cortisol, inflammatory markers, and cytokine balance. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 47, 24-34.
Wu, J. C., Gillin, J. C., Buchsbaum, M. S., Hershey, T., & Johnson, J. C. (2014). Effect of sleep deprivation on brain metabolism of depressed patients. Sleep, Circadian Rhythms, and Metabolism: The Rhythm of Life, 319.
58

Diagnosis and Treatments to Learning,
Health and Well-being
ADD? Or
bad sleep
hygiene?

Good Diagnosis is the Key!
• Why is misdiagnosis all too common?
• Why do people misdiagnose the “root cause(s)” of their
own problems or those of others?
• People often misinterpret roadblocks based on the lens with
which they are using (i.e., doctors look for physical
problems; psychologists look for mental problems;
educator look for learning problems; [nutritionists often
look for eating disorders], etc.)

Good Sleep Hygiene
• The Importance of Good
Sleep Hygiene, Dr. Jacques
Hebert, Montreal
(Longueuil), Canada
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE2Jv5_0m_U
Week 13 62

To Know Is Not Enough

Memory Systems

Attention Systems

Flicking lights on and off
Learning

“Old” versus “New” Vision of a
Teacher

The Teaching Profession
“Learning Scientists”

Change

• False
information
about the brain
and learning
Attitudes and
Predujices
(Neuromyths)
• Universal
aspects of
learning true for
all humans
Principies • Individual aspects
of learning; true for
all but lots of
human variation
Tenets
•Social influences
on pattern and
category
recognition
•Affective aspects of
learning
Culture
• What should
happen in the
classroom
Instructional
Guidelines
The “new first steps” in teacher professional
development
117
1
2
3
4
5
For example: Some people are “right-brained”
and others are ”left-brained”
For example: “All new learning passes through the
filter of prior experience”
For example: “Sleeping and dreaming
are vital for learning”
For example: Numeric symbol
representation
Example: “50 Practical Applications of Mind,
Brain, and Education science”

3-2-1
• 3: Three things you didn’t know before
• 2: Two things you will continue to research or talk about
• 1: One thing you will change in your personal or professional life based
on the information that was shared

Contact:
Quito, Ecuador
www.traceytokuhama.com
338
-Attributed to John Cotton Dana

The Scientifically Substantiated Art of Teaching MBHE Principles and Tenets. January 2018

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