The goal is to create a learning environment according to how the brain learns and is written Influencers of influencers, people like Teachers. This booklet should prove useful to teachers of all kinds, be their learning environment the classroom, Sunday School, church, the workplace (Human Resource developers), educational institutions (staff developers in charge of training teachers), or the home. Parents should find this booklet beneficial as well, because parents are, after all, their child’s first teachers. The format is designed to be brain-friendly as well. Section One contains a concise, catchy phrasing of the brain rule. On that same page, directly underneath, a brief description is given of the rule itself. Section Two contains a synopsis of the related brain research to add weight and veracity to the rule itself. On that second page, the answer to the question of “So what?” is provided in the form of a teaching tips. Brief and to the point, ideas are provided for instant application to any and all setting where one person is seeking to influence others (teachers!). Section Three contains what Sousa (2006) calls the Practitioner’s Corner. Here is where the rubber meets the road and invariably at this point, the reader must decide to take the next step, if indeed he or she plans on “obeying” this rule. A self-assessment questions begins the process to help the reader discern where he is on the map, then an exercise is provided to help him progress and plan changes and finally, some mechanism of accountability is suggested. The title of the booklet and a number of the rules themselves come directly from a book by the same name, written by John Medina, 2008, Seattle, WA: Pear Press.

1. 52
Ebbinghaus, H. (1885). Über das Gedchtnis. Untersuchungen zur experimentel-
len Psychologie. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot; the English edition is Ebbing-
haus, H. (1913). Memory. A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. New
York: Teachers College, Columbia University.
Gottman, John. 1997. Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child: the Heart of Par-
enting. NY, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Kim Jeansok and Diamond, David. 2002. The stressed hippocampus, synaptic
plasticity and lost memories. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3: 4534-4562.
Medina, John. 2009. Brain Rules. Seattle, WA: Pear Press.
Perry, Bruce. 2009. How the brain learns best. http://teacher.scholastic.com/
professional/bruceperry/brainlearns.htm (assessed January 5, 2010).
Robinson, Sir Ken . 2006. Do schools kill creativity? TED Talks. http://
www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html (assessed
January 10, 2010).
Rosen, Christine. 2008. The Multi-tasking myth. The New Atlantis: A journal of
technology & Society (spring): 105-110.
Sierra, Kathy and Russell, Dan. Multi-tasking makes up stupid? http://
headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/03/multitasking_ma.html
(assessed January 6, 2010).
Sousa, David. 2006. How the brain learns, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press.
Wallis, Claudia. 2006. The Multitasking Generation. Time, Sunday, Mar. 19,
2006. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1174696-
4,00.html#ixzz0brFEVPVU (assessed January 6, 2010).
Whitehead, Alfred. 1929. The Aims of Education and Other Essays. NY, NY:
Free Press.
Reference List
Brain Rules
Creating a learning
environment according to
how the brain learns.

2. 2
Table of Contents
Physical activity is cognitive candy.
5
Page
We don’t pay attention to boring
things.
#1
#
Don’t stuff the geese!
Multi-tasking makes us stupid!
Use real-life examples to illustrate
the content!
Practice does not make perfect.
Practice makes permanent!
Teach the content in the right
(corresponding) context
First few minutes and the last few minutes of a
class are “cognitive holy ground”
Sleep well. Think well.
9#2
13#3
17#4
21#5
25#6
29#7
33#8
Stress hurts our brain!
37#9
41#10
Emotions help learning!
Be curious and explore.
45#11
49#12
(and a lot more
than that!)
51
Medina (2008, 1) shares the following true stories, reminding us that we only use 2 percent
of our brain, yet look at the amazing things it can do!
 Go ahead and multiply the number 8,388,628 x 2 in your head. Can you do it in a few
seconds? There is a young man who can double that number 24 times in the space of a
few seconds. He gets it right every time.
 There is a boy who can tell you the precise time of day at any moment, even in his
sleep.
 There is a girl who can correctly determine the exact dimensions of an object 20 feet
away.
 There is a child who at age 6 drew such lifelike and powerful pictures, she got her own
show at a gallery on Madison Avenue.
Yet none of these children could be taught to tie their shoes. Indeed, none of them have
an IQ greater than 50. The brain is an amazing thing. Your brain may not be nearly so odd,
but it is no less extraordinary. Easily the most sophisticated information-transfer system on
Earth, your brain is fully capable of taking the little black squiggles on this piece of bleached
wood and deriving meaning from them. To accomplish this miracle, your brain sends jolts of
electricity crackling through hundreds of miles of wires composed of brain cells so small that
thousands of them could fit into the period at the end of this sentence. You accomplish all of
this in less time than it takes you to blink. Indeed, you have just done it. What’s equally in-
credible, given our intimate association with it, is this: Most of us have no idea how our
brain works” (Medina 2008, 2).
But, if you have read through this booklet, you now know more than you did before.
There is so much more to explore, so much more to discover, and so much more to be
curious about. How can you grow in your fascination for the brain God created?
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
How can you encourage others to join you in this journey of exploration and discovery?
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
S E L F - A S S E S S M E N TOf the 12 Brain Rules, you may have studied thus far:
What Brain Rule fascinated you the most? __________________________________
Which Brain Rule has piqued your curiosity and prompted you to further exploration?
_________________________________________________________________________
O B E Y T H E RU L E
A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y

3. 50
Therefore:
Discovery brings joy. Like an addictive drug, exploration creates the need
for more discovery so that more joy can be experienced. It is a straight-up
reward system that, if allowed to flourish, will continue on and on. As a
teacher, do all you can to fight against a scholastic system that tends to break this cycle of
joyful discovery, anaesthetizing both the process and the child. By first grade, for exam-
ple, children learn that education means an “A”. They begin to understand that they can
acquire knowledge not because it is interesting, but because it can get them something.
Fascination can become secondary to ’What do I need to know to get the
grade?’” (Medina 2008, 273).
Work with the powerful instinct God has given us to be curious, to explore and discover,
and help your students overcome society’s message to go to sleep intellectually, coast and
just get by.
Encourage lifelong learning! Encourage lifelong curiosity!
As much as possible, give your students consistent exposure to the real-world and the
relevancy of what they are learning. Arrange to give them consistent exposure to people
who operate in the real world and daily apply the information you are trying to teach them
in class. Make it plain to them that there are still unanswered questions to be explored,
new horizons to discover and that their help is needed to push back the frontiers of what is
currently known. (Medina 2008, 275-276)
The reason behind the rule:
“Until five or six years ago, the prevailing notion was that we were born
with all the brain cells we were ever going to get and they steadily eroded in
a depressing journey through adulthood to old age. We do indeed lose synaptic connec-
tions with age, but the adult brain also continues creating neurons within the regions
normally involved in learning. These new neurons show the same plasticity as those of
newborns. The adult brain throughout life retains the ability to change its structure and
function in response to experience…. However, we don’t always find ourselves in envi-
ronments that encourage such curiosity as we grow older” (Medina 2008, 271).
Sir Ken Robinson (2006) bemoans the fact that schooling has to a large degree mined our
minds like a commodity strips mines. Medina, on his website (http://www.brainrules.net/
exploration) notes that “the desire to explore never leaves us despite the classrooms and
cubicles we are stuffed into. Babies are the model of how we learn—not by passive reac-
tion to the environment but by active testing through observation, hypothesis, experi-
ment, and conclusion. Babies methodically do experiments on objects, for example, to
see what they will do. Google takes to heart the power of exploration. For 20 percent of
their time, employees may go where their mind asks them to go. The proof is in the bot-
tom line: fully 50 percent of new products, including Gmail and Google News, came
from ‘20 percent time.’”
Teacher
Tips
3
Who should use this book:
Teachers! Influencers of influencers!
This book should prove useful to teachers of all kinds, be their learning environ-
ment the classroom, Sunday School, church, the workplace (Human Resource
developers), educational institutions (staff developers in charge of training teach-
ers), or the home. Parents should find this booklet beneficial as well, because
parents are, after all, their child’s first teachers.
The format is designed to be brain-friendly as well. Section One contains a con-
cise, catchy phrasing of the brain rule. On that same page, directly underneath, a
brief description is given of the rule itself. Section Two contains a synopsis of
the related brain research to add weight and veracity to the rule itself. On that
second page, the answer to the question of “So what?” is provided in the form of
a teaching tips. Brief and to the point, ideas are provided for instant application
to any and all setting where one person is seeking to influence others (teachers!).
Section Three contains what Sousa (2006) calls the
Practitioner’s Corner. Here is where the rubber meets
the road and invariably at this point, the reader must
decide to take the next step, if indeed he or she plans
on “obeying” this rule. A self-assessment questions
begins the process to help the reader discern where he
is on the map, then an exercise is provided to help him
progress and plan changes and finally, some mecha-
nism of accountability is suggested.
Credits:
The title of the booklet and a number of the rules themselves come directly from
a book by the same name, written by John Medina, 2008, Seattle, WA: Pear
Press.
Creator and compiler of the booklet: Lisa Anderson-Umaña, 2010. PhD stu-
dent enrolled in Trinity Evangelical Divinity School: Brain-based learning class.
“Educators are not
neuroscientists, but
they are members of
the only profession
whose job is to change
the human brain every
day!” (Medina 208, 10)
Go to this link: What Brain Research Tells Us About Teaching Children
www.ilivebig.com/downloads/Adults/LdrArticlesPpsT3.pps, download the powerpoint,
take the test (takes approx. 3 min.). Note your score here: ____
After finishing this booklet, retake the test and compare your scores: ______

4. 4 49
Rule #12
Be curious and
explore!
Promote fascination,
exploration, and
discovery.

5. 48 5
Rule #1
Physical activity is
cognitive candy.
Exercise boosts brain power.

6. 6
Therefore:
“The gold standard appears to be aerobic exercise, thirty minutes a day, two
or three times a week” (Medina 2008, 15).
Do not reduce recess time or play time for children or for young people. Due
to the pressure of academic demands and test scores some schools are reducing recess time
or physical education classes. “Cutting off physical exercise—the very activity most likely
to promote cognitive performance—to do better on a test score is like trying to gain weight
by starving yourself” (Medina 2008, 25).
Even short, moderate physical exercise can improve brain performance, like doing jumping
jacks in the classroom or using energizers or quick active simple games.
During study times, make room for exercise breaks, to improve your thinking skills—
move! “When we sit for more than twenty minutes, our blood pools in our seat and in our
feet. By getting us and moving, we recirculate that blood. Within one minute, there is about
fifteen percent more blood in our brain” (Sousa 2006, 34). “At some point in every lessons,
students should be up and moving about, preferably talking about their new learning. Not
only does the movement increase cognitive function, but it also helped students use up
some kinesthetic energy—the wiggles, if you will—so they can settle down and concentrate
more” (Sousa 2006, 233).
The reason behind the rule: Physical activity is cognitive candy.
“Exercisers outperform couch potatoes in tests that measure long-term mem-
ory, reasoning, attention, problem-solving, even so-called fluid intelligence
tests… Physically fit children identity visual stimuli much faster than seden-
tary ones. They appear to concentrate better. Brain-activation studies show that children and
adolescents who are fit allocate more cognitive resources to a task and do so for longer peri-
ods of time” (Medina 2008, 14, 18).
“The brain’s appetite for energy is enormous. Their favorite food is glucose and water (water
gets the sugar into the bloodstream faster and hydrates the brain). The brain represents only
about two percent of most people’s body weight, yet it accounts for about twenty percent of
the body’s total energy usage. When the brain is fully working, it uses more energy per unit
of tissue weight than a fully exercising quadriceps. So, the brain needs a lot of glucose and
oxygen soaked blood. At the same time the blood is delivering foodstuffs to your brain tis-
sues, the blood is also carrying the oxygen which takes away the toxic waste—carbon diox-
ide—back to your lungs, where the carbon dioxide leaves the blood and you breath it
out” (Medina 2008, 20).
“Studies indicate that physical activity increases the number of capillaries in the brain thus
facilitating blood transport. In also increases the amount of oxygen in the blood, which the
brain needs for fuel” (Sousa 2006, 232).
Teacher
Tips
Believe it or not links: http://brainrules.net/exercise; http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/
hartsong.htm; http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17050486/
47
What kinds of emotions in school or church could interfere with cognitive processing (i.e. have a nega-
tive effect on learning)?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
What strategies and structures can schools/churches and teachers use to limit the threat and negative
effects of these emotions?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
What factors in schools/churches can foster emotions in students that promote learning (i.e. have a posi-
tive effect)?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
In reflecting on your past experiences with emotions in a learning setting, might there be
someone you need to ask forgiveness from? Someone whom you may have unintentionally
harmed with sarcasm, teasing or ridicule?
____________________________________________________________________________________
What concrete steps might you need to take to remedy this situation?
____________________________________________________________________________________
And what can you do in the future to help others from making the same mistakes? ________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
S E L F - A S S E S S M E N TWhat strategies have you used to encourage the positive emotions that promote learning?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
O B E Y T H E RU L E
A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y

7. 46
Therefore:
Help student make associations:
Help the students makes as many associations with the information as pos-
sible, remembering that “whenever two events, actions, or feelings are
learned together, they are said to be associated or bonded, so that the recall
of one prompts the spontaneous recall of the other. New connections are formed between
neurons and new insights are encoded. Much like a tree growing new branches, every-
thing we remember becomes another set of branches to which memories can be attached.
The more we learn and retain, the more we can learn and retain” (Sousa 2006, 145)
Connect emotions to content:
Use strategies that get students emotionally involved with the learning content, like simu-
lations, role-playing, journal writing, and real-world examples.
Create an emotional healthy learning climate:
Intentional protect the classroom atmosphere from competition which inevitably fosters
hostility and rivalry. Prohibit teasing and ridicule; refrain from using sarcasm which tends
to inhibit participation and the freedom of expression needed to discuss, think out loud and
rehearse the information.
The reason behind the rule: Emotions help learning!
“Our ability to learn has deep roots in relationships and is deeply affected by
the emotional environment in which the learning takes place. The quality of
education may in part depend on the relationship between student and
teacher since it creates the emotional climate present at the time of learning” (Medina
2008, 45). At which point, “endorphins are released in the brain, producing a feeling of
euphoria and stimulating the frontal lobes, thereby making the learning experience more
pleasurable and successful. Conversely, if a negative, threatening, stressful learning cli-
mate is created, cortisol is released and activates defense behaviors such as fight or
flight” (Sousa 2006, 84).
Research has shown that emotionally arousing events tend to be better remembered than
neutral events. This may be true because several senses may be involved all at once dur-
ing an emotionally arousing event. We absorb information about an event through our
senses, translate it into electrical signals (some for sight, others from sound, etc.), dis-
perse those signals to separate parts of the brain, then reconstruct what happened, eventu-
ally perceiving the event as a whole. The brain seems to rely partly on past experiences
in deciding how to combine these signals, so two people can perceive the same event
very differently. Smells have an unusual power to bring back memories, maybe because
smell signals bypass the thalamus and head straight to their destinations, which include
that supervisor of emotions known as the amygdala (Medina 2008, 219). The amygdala
is heavily involved in processing emotional learning and memory.
God created all five senses to work as a team (plus being open to sensing His supernatu-
ral intervention!). The brain is literally wired for our five senses to work in tandem—just
imagine a five-man tag team getting in the ring! There’d be a knock-out every time!
Teacher
Tips
7
Write the name of another teacher with whom you will comment this Brain Rule, teaching
him or her the brain-related principles behind the rule. _____________________________
Commit to experimenting with the strategic use of exercise and reduction of sedentary time
in order to prove or disprove this principle. Start by sharing with her your action plan (pun
intended) and asking her to hold you accountable to implement it, as well as inviting her to
join you in experimenting as well.
S E L F - A S S E S S M E N T
T F Exercise is just for athletes.
T F Your body wasn’t made just to carry your brain from meeting to meeting.
Your body and brain are integrally connected.
T F Movement in a classroom setting will only distract the students from learning.
The value of this book is more about what you eventually apply or influence oth-
ers to apply than providing you with interesting information. What do you know?
Using a calendar format, draw an outline of the time you invest in your students, be they
your children or student teachers. Schedule in opportune times when they can engage in
physical activity (see following example of a 75 min. class)
O B E Y T H E RU L E
9:00-9:40 Lesson 1
9:40-9:50 Energizer
break
9:50-10:15 Lesson 2
Describe your context (the sphere of your influ-
ence) ____________________________________
_____________________________________________
and draw your example below.
A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y

8. 8 45
Rule #11
Emotions help
learning!
Learning is not all mental

9. 44 9
Rule #2
We don’t pay attention
to boring things.
If the teacher is not providing
the needed novelty, the brain
will go elsewhere ….. Our brain
is the ultimate novelty seeker.

10. 10
Therefore:
Use novelty in lessons: Humor, Movement, Multi-sensory instruction,
Drama/role play, Games, Music, Stories, etc..
This counsel requires clarification however, since the inclusion of novelty
must relate directly to the facts and concepts being taught. An audience will
quickly disconnect if they sense they are being entertained at the expense of being taught
and once attention is lost, so is retention or the long-term storage of that information.
Humor (not sarcasm or teasing which creates a threatening environment which in turn
stops down the brain) causes an endorphin surge, gets their attention, laughter reduces
stress, creates a positive climate, increases retention and recall because of the good emo-
tions associated with the learning.
Movement and multi-sensory instruction appeals to all the learning style preferences
(visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners).
Games, used frequently in elementary school are underutilized in secondary and higher
learning but fun is an emotion and an emotionally charged event is the best-processed kind
of external stimulus ever measured. When the brain detects an emotionally charged event,
the amygdala releases dopamine into the system. Because dopamine greatly aids memory
and information processing, it’s like the brain puts a Post-It note that reads “Remember
this!” (Medina 2008, 81).
The reason behind the rule: We don’t pay attention to boring things.
“Learning requires attention. And attention is mediated by specific parts of the
brain. Yet, neural systems fatigue quickly, actually within minutes. With three
to five minutes of sustained activity, neurons become "less responsive"; they
need a rest (not unlike your muscles when you lift weights). They can recover within min-
utes too, but when they are stimulated in a sustained way, they just are not as efficient. Think
about the piano and the organ; if you put your finger on the organ key and hold it down it
will keep making noise, but the piano key makes one short note, and keeping your finger
there produces no more sound. Neurons are like pianos, not organs. They respond to pat-
terned and repetitive, rather than to sustained, continuous stimulation. When a student is in a
familiar and safe situation, his or her brain will seek novelty. So, if this child hears only fac-
tual information, she will fatigue within minutes. Only four to eight minutes of pure factual
lecture can be tolerated before the brain seeks other stimuli, either internal (e.g., daydream-
ing) or external (Who is that walking down the hall?). If the teacher is not providing that
novelty, the brain will go elsewhere. Continuous presentation of facts or concepts in isolation
or in a nonstop series of anecdotes will all have the same fatiguing effect — and the child
will not learn as much, nor will she come to anticipate and enjoy learning” (Perry 2009).
“Interest or importance is inextricably linked to attention. But attention can also create inter-
est, something that marketing professionals have known for years. Novel stimuli—the un-
usual, unpredictable, or distinctive—are powerful ways to harness attention in the service of
interest” (Medina 2008, 76).
“Sight is only one stimulus to which the brain is capable of paying attention. Smell, noise
and physical contact are external stimulus but the brain has the capacity to pay attention to
internal events and feelings, mulling them over again and again with complete focus, with no
obvious external sensory stimulation” (Medina 2008, 78).
Teacher
Tips
43
What measures have you taken to reduce the sources of harmful stress in your life?
__________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
Why do you think these measures are your best choice of action? How effective are
they being? ________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
Learning from your own experience dealing with stress, what lessons are you pre-
pared to teach others, like your students? ________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
With whom can you share your plan to help others deal with harmful stress?
__________________________________________________________________
S E L F - A S S E S S M E N T
O B E Y T H E RU L E
A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y
Source: http://www.brainrules.net/stress
According to this three-
part definition of stress,
are there currently
stressors in your life
that might be jeopardiz-
ing your mental and
physical health? _____
___________________
___________________

11. 42
Therefore:
One of the greatest predictors of performance in school turns out to be the
emotional stability of the home. Yet ironically many teachers consider
discussions regarding their students’ home life to be “none of their business
or off-limits”. Yet study after study has shown that children find unre-
solved marital conflict deeply disturbing, and for many, a chronic source of stress. Teach-
ers must put this reality on their radar screen! How?
 By working with the school counselors and the parents to investigate possible causes
of misbehavior and changes in personality in order to treat the deeper issues. John
Gottman’s (1997) research has spawned highly successful prevention/intervention
strategies readily available for use in public, private, secular or Christian schools to
treat both marital and child rearing issues.
 Address issues of stress as a part of classroom discussions, recognizing that some
degree of stress is normal and even helpful and that stress effects people differently.
Explain the above definition of stress that damages the brain, the body, relationships,
learning, memory and so much more. Medina (2008, 194) notes that there’s plenty of
books discuss how to manage stress; some are confusing, other extraordinarily in-
sightful. The good ones all say one thing in common: The biggest part of successful
stress management involves getting control back into your life. So, in order to help
the students (who in all likelihood are unaware of stress and its impact) detect stress-
related problems, prompt them to examine the situations where they feel most help-
less or out-of-control. Then, suggest ways they might assert some control.
The reason behind the rule: Stress hurts our brain (and a lot more than
that)
Stress defined:
Three-part definition which if all three are happening simultaneously, a per-
son is stressed. (Kim and Diamond 2002, cited in Medina 2008, 173-174)
1. Part One: There must be an aroused physiological response to the stress and it must
be measureable by an outside party. For example, a student who had formerly got-
ten only A’s now is getting failing grades and is acting out angrily in class over
minor incidents and everyone in the class notes the change.
2. Part Two: The stressor must be perceived as aversive. This can be assessed by a
simple question: If you had the ability to turn down the severity of this experience
or avoid it altogether, would you? Continuing the example of the ailing student, she
has shared with the teacher that her parents announced over Christmas break they’re
getting a divorce. She would do anything to avoid the heated arguments.
3. Part Three: The person must not feel in control of the stressor. The student is inca-
pable to bringing back the “good old happy days” as hard as she tries.
When this trinity of components can be found all together, you will have clinically meas-
ureable stress! Under chronic stress, adrenaline creates scars in your blood vessels that
can cause a heart attack or stroke, and cortisol damages the cells of the hippocampus,
crippling your ability to learn and remember (Medina 2008, 195).
Teacher
Tips
11
Action Research: One of the best ways to assess the value of these Brain Rules is to try them
out in your own classroom or in any other location where you are teaching. The practice of
these rules will provide you with consistent feedback for self-evaluation. Admittedly, in the
test-saturated environment of today, trying out new ideas may seem difficult but why continue
practices that run contrary to how the brain learns? (Medina 208, 9-10). As professionals it
greatly behooves us to reflect on our practices and refine our skills as practitioners in light of
how God created our brain to learn. Use the steps below as a guide to plan your action re-
search.
S E L F - A S S E S S M E N T
1—2—3—4—5
When lecture is used, short groupings of facts are followed by numerous
examples, anecdotes, and related applications and activities, thus allowing
time and help for the students to process the information.
From week to week, any observer would note new and novel approaches
to teaching being used.
If given a “boredom scale” test, how would the students rate their learn-
ing experience on a scale of 1 to 5?
On a scale of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest), circle the number that indicates the degree to which your teaching/
school/church does the following. Connect the dots to see a profile of where you are at.
1—2—3—4—5
1—2—3—4—5
O B E Y T H E RU L E
A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y
Identify the
problem related
to my use of
novelty
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
Systematically
collect data and
analyze it
Take action
based on the
data
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
Share the data
with colleagues
from your action
research
Together, try out
new ideas from
on-line sources
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
Believe it or not links: http://www.sciencedaily.com/
releases/2006/08/060826180547.htm; http://www.teach-nology.com/ideas/

12. 12 41
Rule #10
Stress hurts our brain!
(and a lot more than that!)
Stress kills grey matter!
Stress kills neurons!
Stressed brains don’t learn the same way!
Stress hinders learning!

13. 40 13
Rule #3
Don’t stuff the
geese!
Teach less and teach it better. The
goal is not to “cover” information
but to allow the students to “dis-
cover” and learn it.

14. 14
Therefore:
Teach less and teach it better (Whitehead 1929). Less is more!
If the textbook does not provide a summary or abstract of the most essential
points of the lesson, distill the content to respond to these two questions: (1)
What real-life problem will my students be able to solve if they know this
information? (why do they have to know this?) (2) If my student were to only remember
two key concepts from this information, what would they be?
Organize your content:
Association: “Teach the Big Ideas first, then form the details around these larger notions. If
you want to get the particulars correct, don’t start with the details. Start with the key ideas
and, in hierarchical fashion, form the details around these larger notions” (Medina 2008,
84).
Provide process time: Your brain needs time to process the information and stimulus is
receives. Make ample use of “closure activities” which are designed to help the learner’s
working memory (part of short-term memory) summarize for itself its perception of what
has been learned. If you can attach sense (does it make sense?) and meaning (why do I
have to know this?) to the new learning it is most likely to get stored in long-term memory
(Medina 2008, 48, 69).
The story behind the rule: Don’t stuff the geese!
The “Don’t stuff the geese” rule
comes from an abhorrent prac-
tice used by farmers to make a
gourmet food called pâté de foie gras (stuffed
goose liver). Farmers literally stuff food down
the throats of geese, then, when the poor
animals want to regurgitate, a brass ring is
fastened around its throat, trapping the food
inside the digestive tract. This jamming is
done over and over until the nutrient
oversupply eventually creates a stuffed liver.
The geese are sacrificed in the name of
expediency (Medina 2008, 88).
Teachers, trainers, speakers often fall prey to the same abhorrent practice of overstuffing
their students. In an attempt to cover all the material, they end up force-feeding the student
with information, leaving little time for digestion or connecting the dots. The brain needs to
make sense (order & understanding) and meaning (relevancy, interest, “so what?”) of the
information in order to pass it from working memory into long-term storage. So, sadly like
the geese, i.e. “the students’ learning”, is sacrificed in the name of “covering the material”.
Teacher
Tips
Believe it or not links: http://www.bellinghamcooperativeschool.com/
writing_brainresearch.html
39
3. What changes would you have to make in your schedule or daily routine to sleep the num-
ber of hours your body (and mind) needs to sleep?
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
S E L F - A S S E S S M E N T
1. How well would you rate yourself in regards to this particular rule, Sleep well, Think well?
__________________________________________________________________________
2. Describe a experience you may have had personally or heard of where someone has per-
formed below par due to lack of sleep.
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
O B E Y T H E RU L E
A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y
4. Who can you encourage to sleep well and think well? ____________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
5. What arguments could you use to convince them to make the necessary changes?
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

15. 38
Therefore:
Teachers beware not to schedule a critical exam nor impart vital informa-
tion anywhere near “siesta time”.
Weigh the amount of homework assigned with the student’s biological
need to get a full night’s sleep. How much each person needs to feel fully rested but gen-
erally young children need 10-12 hours and adults approx. 8 hours. Teenagers typically
need more sleep due to rapid growth so when adolescents do not get enough sleep (they
usually need around 9 hours of sleep), this affects their ability to store information, in-
creases irritability and leads to fatigue which can cause accidents.
Discourage students from “pulling an all-nighter” in order to cram for tests, which on one
hand cramming has been proven to be an ineffective method for encoding information into
memory and secondly, the subsequent loss of sleep hurts attention, executive function,
working memory, mood, quantitative skills, logical reasoning and even motor dexterity
(Medina 2008, 168).
Unabashedly encourage your students to take naps when their body signals the need for it,
explaining that the biological drive for an afternoon nap is universal.
The reason behind the rule: Sleep well. Think well.
“During rest, the brain is unbelievably active, with legions of neurons crack-
ling electrical commands to one another in constantly shifting patterns—
displaying greater rhythmical activity during sleep, actually, than when it is awake. The
only time you can observe a real resting period for the brain is in the deepest parts of
what is called non-REM sleep” (Medina 2008, 152, 168).
“The encoding of information into the long-term memory sites occurs during sleep. This
is a slow process that can flow more easily when the brain is not preoccupied with exter-
nal stimuli. When we sleep, the brain reviews the events and tasks of the day, storing
them more securely than at the time we originally processed them” (Sousa 2006, 102).
One NASA study showed that a 26-minute nap improved a pilot’s performance by more
than 34 percent. Another study showed that a 45-minute nap produced a similar boost in
cognitive performance, lasting more than six hours. In another study with students, the
group that was given a night to sleep eight hours after the initial training performed 60
percent better in solving subsequent math problems. The sleep group consistently outper-
forms the non-sleep group about three to one (Medina 2008, 160-161). Many people
report feelings of inspiration after having spelt, so there is much wisdom in the adage:
Let’s sleep on it!”
Teacher
Tips
15
Here are five simple closure activities that help in improving comprehension, mark with an
X the activity that best coincides with your subject matter. Note the date(s) you will use it as
well, recognizing that the goal is to establish a habit or consistent practice of giving your
students time and help to process.
1. Have students keep a learning log. At the end of class have them write something
that they learned (or found interesting) from class that day.
2. When running short on time simply have students pair and share the answer to a
couple of questions based on the lesson's objective.
3. Have the students draw a picture that somehow shows that the lesson's objective
was met.
4. Write a letter. For example, in social studies you can have students write a short
letter to the person being studied.
5. Write a journal entry. Similar to having to students write a letter, this closure
activity also allows the students to be creative and add their own flare to the assign-
ment.
Source: http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/lessons/index.pl?read=2729
Now, choose one of the closure activities above and practice it on yourself in regards to the
first three Brain Rules you have studied thus far.
Which Brain Rule did you choose to review? ____________________________________
Which closure activity did you use? ___________________________________
Study your own thought processes. Are you aware of an increase in your own understanding
due to having realized that closure activity? _____________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
Share with a fellow teacher your little experiment and together determine to provide more
time and help for students to make sense of the content and perceive its meaning (relevance).
S E L F - A S S E S S M E N TRecall a time in your schooling that you felt like a “stuffed goose”, when the teacher was clearly trying to
cram as much information down your throat as possible. Perhaps it was self-induced as you were
“cramming for a test”. How much of that information did you really learn? ______________________.
Short-term memory includes immediate memory (like a clipboard where we put info briefly— ~30 seg.—
until we make a decision on how to dispose of it) and working memory of the brain can hold around seven
chunks of information for less than an hour. Since your brain cannot recall information that your brain
does not retain, make a “guess-timate” of how much your current students are learning? ______________
O B E Y T H E RU L E
A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y

16. 16 37
Rule #9
Sleep well.
Think well.
Sleep loss means mind loss
because they have discovered
that the brain performs some kind
of offline processing at night.

17. 36 17
Rule #4
Multi-tasking
makes us stupid!
The brain is a sequential
processor, unable to pay
attention to two things at the
same time.

18. 18
Therefore:
Teach your students study habits based on solid brain research—Create an
interruption-free zone while you study. Turn off your e-mail and the
“You’ve got mail!” alert, turn off the TV, cell phone, overly stimulating background mu-
sic and guaranteed you will get more done. Admittedly it may take a while to “wean” off
the constant e-stimuli you have grown accustomed to but your brain needs rest and recov-
ery time to consolidate thoughts and memories.
Stop the deception! Admit that we can’t talk on the phone and answer e-mail at the same
time. We can’t do our homework and watch a movie at the same time. Not without sacri-
ficing time, quality, and the ability to think deeply (Sierra and Russell 2009).
“Decades of research (not to mention common sense) indicate that the quality of one's
output and depth of thought deteriorate as one attends to ever more tasks”
(Wallis 2006).
Prove this point to your skeptical students by doing this simple exercise from The Myth of
Multitasking: How Doing It All Gets Nothing Done (_______ ). With timer in handOn a
piece of paper
The reason behind the rule: Multi-tasking makes us stupid!
“We are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultane-
ously. The brain is a sequential processor, unable to pay attention to two things
at the same time (Medina 2008, 85, 93).
“Businesses and schools praise multitasking, but research clearly shows that it reduces pro-
ductivity and increases mistakes. What people call multitasking is really task-switching.
Studies show that a person who is interrupted takes 50 percent longer to accomplish a task
not only that, he or she makes up to 50 percent more errors” (Medina 2008, 93).
The best you can say is that people who appear to be good at multitasking actually have
good working memories, capable of paying attention to several inputs one at a
time” (Medina 2008, 87) (italics in original). They have become good at rapid toggling
among tasks rather than simultaneous processing.
However, neuroscientists have discovered that very automatic actions or what researchers
call "highly practiced skills," can be easily done while thinking about other things but this
ability decreases with age.
“While listening to background music enhances the efficiency of those working with their
hands, one must exercise caution in selecting the type of background music, since overly
stimulating music serves as a distraction and interferes with cognitive performance” (Sousa
2006, 224-225)
Teacher
Believe it or not links: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000691.html; http://
tiny.cc/uQ2yf ; http://tiny.cc/8Puhe; http://tiny.cc/QYcsK
35
S E L F - A S S E S S M E N T
O B E Y T H E RU L E
A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y
KEF 1. _________
LAK 2. _________
MIL 3. _________
NIR 4. _________
VEK 5. _________
LUN 6. _________
NEM 7. _________
BEB 8. _________
SAR 9. _________
FIF 10. _________
Here’s a simple activity to demonstrate the primacy-
recency effect. Give yourself 12 seconds to study the list
of ten words to the right. Now, cover the word list and in
the space provided next to each word, write down what
you remember. Don’t worry if you can’t recall each word,
skip to the next line if you can’t remember it.
Uncover the list again and circle the words that were cor-
rect. To be correct, they must be spelled correctly and be
in the proper position on the list.
Look at the circled words, chances are you remembered
the first 3 to 5 words and the last 1 or 2 words (lines 9 and
10), but had difficulty with the middle words (lines 6-8).
Exercise taken from Sousa 2006, 89
Choose one of these considerations regarding Prime-Time 1 and Prime-Time 2 and Down-
Time, and make an action plan explaining how you will “respect this holy ground!”
Teach the new material first or re-teach any concept that students may have difficulty
understanding.
Avoid using precious prime-time periods for classroom management tasks. Do these be-
fore you get focus or during down-time.
Use the down-time to have students practice the new learning or to discuss it by connect-
ing it to concepts they are familiar with.
Do closure during prime-time 2. This is the learner’s last opportunity to attach sense and
meaning to the new learning, to make decisions about it and to determine where and
how it will be transferred to long-term storage.
Try to package lesson objectives (sublearnings) in teaching episodes of about 20 minutes.
Link the sublearnings according to the total time period available (for example, two 20-
minute lessons for a 40-minute teaching period, three for an hour period, and so on.)
Why do you think you got the results you did?
_____________________________________________
What implications do you see for teaching?
_____________________________________________
My Action Plan

19. 34
Therefore:
Make a compelling introduction:
If you are trying to get information across to someone, your ability to create
a compelling introduction may be the most important single factor in the
later success of your mission.
Keep in mind you stand on holy ground, don't misuse prime-times:
Waste of Prime-Time 1: “After getting the focus by telling the class the day’s lesson objec-
tive, the teacher takes attendance, distributes the previous day’s homework, collects that
day’s homework, requests notes from students who were absent, and reads an announcement.
By the time the teacher gets to the new learning, the students are already at the down-time.
As a finale, the teacher tells the students that they were so well-behaved during the lesson
that they can do anything they want during the last five minutes of class (during prime-time
2) as long as they are quiet.
Make good use of Down-Time with guided practice or small group discussion: Have
students rehearse (elaborative) information, try out (practice) the new learning or discuss it
by relating it to past learnings.
Teacher
Tips
The reason behind the rule: First few minutes and the last few minutes
of a class are “cognitive holy ground”
“When an individual is processing new information, the amount of informa-
tion retained depends, among other things, on when it is presented during the learning
episode. At certain time intervals during the learning, we will remember more than at
other intervals. More recent brain research helps to explain why this is so. The first items
of new information are within the working memory’s functional capacity so they com-
mando our attention, and are likely to be retained. The later information, however, ex-
ceeds the capacity and is lost. As the learning episode concludes, items in working mem-
ory are sorted or chunked to allow for additional processing of the arriving final items,
which are likely held in working memory and will decay unless further re-
hearsed” (Sousa 2006, 88-89).
The figure shows how the primacy-
recency effect influences retention
during a 40-minute learning episode.
The times are approximate and aver-
ages. The first or primacy mode is
called prime-time 1 and the second
mode prime-time 2. Between the two
modes is the time period in which it
is most difficult or requires the most
effort for retention to occur, called
down-time.
Prime-time 1
Prime-time 2
Down-time
0………..10…….20………..30……...40
Time in minutes
Degreeofretention
19
What might be one area of your life where you can apply the counsel Lord Chesterfield offered to his son
in the 1740s: “This steady and undissipated attention to one object, is a sure mark of a superior genius; as
hurry, bustle, and agitation, are the never-failing symptoms of a weak and frivolous mind.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Who might be the person most excited and enthused about any decision related to a reduc-
tion in your multi-tasking? ____________________________ Why might that person be
enthused about a change? What have he or she said to you? _______________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
Share any decision you’ve made with him or her and plan how to make this decision stick
over the long haul.
S E L F - A S S E S S M E N T
Prove this point to yourself (or maybe your skeptical students) by doing this simple exercise
from The Myth of Multitasking: How Doing It All Gets Nothing Done (_______ ).
With stopwatch in hand, time how long it takes to write out two lines. The first line contains
the letters of the alphabet, written out letter by letter. The second line are numbers
The manner in which you are to write these two lines is alternating
between writing letter “A”, then directly below it, number 1, then con-
tinuing the alphabet on the first line with letter “B”, then writing di-
rectly below it, number 2. Continue until the end of the alphabet. Do
this as quickly and errorless as possible, you will be timed.
Time for First attempt: ________Count your number of mistakes: _____
Now, for the second attempt, repeat the same activity, but this time, first write out the entire
alphabet and then directly below it, write out the corresponding numbers below. Time it!
Time for Second attempt: ________Count your number of mistakes: _____
To what might you attribute the differences in time and number of errors? ______________
__________________________________________________________________________
O B E Y T H E RU L E
A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y
A B C D E F …..
1 2 3 4 5 6….

20. 20 33
Rule #8
First few minutes and the last
few minutes of a class are
“cognitive holy ground”
Primacy-recency rules! During a
learning episode, we remember
that which comes first, second
best that which comes last, and
least that which comes just
past the middle.

21. 32 21
Rule #5
Use real-life examples
to illustrate the
content.
The greater the number of analogies,
metaphors, figures of speech and
real-life examples provided, the more
likely the information will be
remembered.

22. 22
Therefore:
“Make sure your students understand exactly what the information you are
teaching means. Conversely, if they do not know what the learning means, do
not expect them to memorize it anyways in the hopes that the meaning will
somehow reveal itself” (Medina 2008, 114-115). (Misnomer: Someday this information will
be useful to you!)
Use real-life examples:
As my son prepared to go to school that day, I inquired: Victor, what’s your Bible memory
verse for today’s test? Like a machine gun, he spewed out the words to me, which incidentally
were correct. Great, son, what does that mean? Can you say that verse to me in your words?
Aghast, Victor turned and said: Oh no Mom, we don’t have to understand it, we just have to
memorize it! It was my turn to be aghast, as I thought to myself: We’re in danger of creating
little Pharisees, who know the word but not the spirit (meaning and application) of the Word.
Oh incidentally, by the time Victor had gotten into the car, he had completely forgotten his
memory verse.
Make liberal use of relevant real-world examples embedded in the information, constantly
peppering main learning points with meaningful experiences. In one experiment they tested
three groups of students, one read a 32-paragraph paper about a fictitious foreign country with
no examples. Group two’s same reading contained one example. Group three’s contained
three examples of the main theme. The results? The greater the number of examples, the more
they remembered (Medina 2008, 115).
The reason behind the rule: Use real-life examples to illustrate the con-
tent!
Working (Short-term) memory has two types: “Declarative”—which in-
volves something you declare like “The grass is green”—and involves con-
scious awareness and “Nondeclarative”—which are those which we are not consciously
aware of like the motor skills necessary to ride a bike. Research has discovered that declara-
tive memory involves four stages of processing: encoding, storage, retrieval and forgetting.
The first stage of encoding happens in the first few seconds of learning and determines to a
large degree whether what you’re learning will also be remembered.
“Your brain is not a tape recorder. You cannot push “record” to learn something and then
push “playback” to remember it. Nothing could be further from the truth. The little we do
know suggests the metaphor of a blender left running with the lid off. The information is
literally sliced into discrete pieces as it enters the brain and splattered all over the insides of
our mind” (Medina 2008, 104). “The brain has no central happy hunting ground where
memories go to be infinitely retrieved. It is not like a computer with a central storage device
like a hard drive and one input detector like a keyboard. Storage is a cooperative event.”...So,
the more elaborately we encode the information (associate it with other knowledge the stu-
dents may already possess) at the moment of learning, the stronger the memory.
Why do examples work? They appear to take advantage of the brain’s natural predilection
for pattern matching. Information is more readily processed if it can be immediately associ-
ated with information already present in the learner’s brain” (Medina 2008, 112-115).
Teacher
Tips
31
Identify the problem: Lack of student participation in class.
Systematically collect data and analyze it: I made a tally of student responses before I
made a change in wait time. I noted the initials of those who participated as well.
Take action based on the data: Increase the “think time” from my current average wait
time of 1.5 seconds to 5-7 seconds.
Evaluate and reflect on the results of those actions: Prior to making the change, I had an
average of 3-4 students (the same ones!) participating in class discussion. After waiting more
time for students to process their responses, student response has increased to 8-10 students.
If needed, redefine the problem and continue the cycle: Given the fact that students were
answering in their second language, we needed to lengthen the “think-time” as well as re-
phrase the question for greater comprehension.
Share the data from your action research:
I have decided to share my experiment with my colleagues and compare notes on how many
more responses they get in class due to increasing the wait time.
Try new practices:
We have done some additional research on-line- http://atozteacherstuff.com/
pages/1884.shtml
and decided to try adding pause-time for our own responses to the students’ answers.
If you are a parent, consider the vital role you play in
your children’s lives as a teacher. Share the above
experiment with a fellow parent and decide how you
can apply the concept and practice of “think time” in
discussions with your children.
S E L F - A S S E S S M E N T
In the last three months, how often have you modi-
fied your learning environment to align the content
of what you are teaching with the context where it
will most likely be applied? Describe what you did
in the space provided.
O B E Y T H E RU L E
A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y
A team of teachers decided to perform some “action research” in their classroom and came
up with these results. On a separate sheet of paper, take note of the steps involved and cre-
ate your own action plan.
___________________________
___________________________

23. 30
Therefore:
Teach where the student will most likely apply the learning:
Teacher, as you prepare your lesson, determine first what context this con-
tent will be used or applied, then create the corresponding context in your
classroom or better yet, move the students into that context directly. Teach
students about engine repair in the actual shop where repairs are made.
Teach students the properties of wind, water and fire outside in those very elements or at
the least in a simulated environment that closely parallels it.
Increase “think-time” (amount of time you wait before calling on students to respond
to questions)
Given the other factors related to rate of retrieval, teachers should not call on the first
hands that go up in class since that inadvertently signals to the slower retrievers to stop the
retrieval process. This then results in the slower retrieving students getting less teacher
recognition and by not retrieving the information into working memory, they miss an op-
portunity to relearn it.
The reason behind the rule: Teach the content in the right
(corresponding) context.
Retrieval: “It takes less 50 milliseconds to retrieve an item from working
memory. Retrieving a memory from long-term storage, however, can be complicated and
comparatively time-consuming. The brain uses two methods to retrieve information from
long-term storage sites: recognition and recall. Recognition matches an outside stimulus
with stored information like when you take a multiple-choice test, you need only to rec-
ognize the correct answer. Recall is different and a more difficult process whereby cues
or hints are sent to long-term memory, which must search and retrieve information from
long-term memory storage sites, then consolidate it (remember it’s not all stored in one
location) and decode it back into working memory” (Sousa 2006, 106-107). The rate at
which retrieval occurs depends on a number of factors, three of which are:
A. The mood of the retriever since studies show that people in a sad mood more easily
remember negative experiences, likewise, those in a happy mood tend to recall
pleasant experiences.
B. How good the cues or hints are to stimulate the retrieval of information
C. The context of the retrieval, which is the factor that most pertains to this Brain Rule.
When the encoding environment (where the information was first learned) and re-
trieving environment (where the information needs to be applied or retrieved from
the memory) are equivalent the rate of retrieval is far higher (Medina 2008, 113).
The learning that takes place in a formal setting, like a classroom, is by its very nature
“de-contextualized” from where that information is most likely to be used. For example,
children are taught about the properties of water without a drop of water in sight. The
power of what educators call “non-formal learning” lays in its alignment with providing
the brain both the ideal encoding context for new learning and thus an increased rate of
retrieval for when the student needs to apply this learning.
Teacher
Tips
23
Take a Post-It note and draw a simple sketch of the real-life
example or story you wrote above. You need not make an
elaborate drawing, provide just enough details to yourself to
remind you of your example or story. Then place that note on
your lesson plan or sermon notes to remind you to include it in
your teaching.
S E L F - A S S E S S M E N TQuiz: Re-read the previous page and answer the following questions:
What analogies were provided to reinforce this “Brain Rule”? _______________________
__________________________________________________________________________
What real-life examples were provided to reinforce this “Brain Rule”?
________________________________________________________________________
Reflect on the last teaching you gave or the last piece of advice. What analogies or real-
life examples did you provide to the listeners to possibly increase retention (retention refers
to the process whereby long-term memory preserves learning in such a way that it can locate,
identify and retrieve it accurately in the future)? _________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
O B E Y T H E RU L E
A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y
Consider your next teaching session. What is the theme? ___________________________
What is one of main points you will try to convey? _________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
If providing examples is the cognitive equivalent of adding
more handles to the door, what real-life example or story can
you embed into your teaching since the more handles one cre-
ates at the moment of learning, the more likely the information
is to be accessed at a later date?
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________

24. 24 29
Rule #7
Teach the content in the right
(corresponding) context
The learning that takes place in a
formal setting, like a classroom, is
by its very nature “de-
contextualized” from where that
information is most likely to be
used, non-formal education has
strong advantages.

25. 28 25
Rule #6
Practice does not make
perfect. Practice makes
permanent!
There is almost no long-term
retention of cognitive concepts
without rehearsal.

26. 26
Therefore:
“Rehearsal deals with the repetition and processing of information whereas
practice generally refers to the repetition of motor skills” (Sousa 2006, 86).
Reserve rote rehearsal only if the learner needs to remember and store
information exactly as it entered into working memory, like for the multiplication tables,
telephone numbers, the lyrics and melody of a song and steps in a procedure. Keep in
mind the limitations for rote rehearsal are that students are unable to use that information
to solve problems or apply their knowledge to new situations or answer higher-order ques-
tions.
Practice elaborative rehearsal:
Get the students thinking and talking about an event/information immediately after it has
occurred since it will greatly enhance memory for that event (Medina 2008, 131). Practice
with the students and teach them study habits where they deliberately re-expose them-
selves to the material in fixed, spaced intervals—no cramming allowed! (Remember Rule
# 3: Don’t stuff the geese!).
Guided practice: “Since practice does not make perfect, it makes permanent, you should
monitor the students’ early practice to ensure that it is accurate and to provide timely feed-
back and specific correction if it is not. This guided practice helps eliminate initial errors
and alerts the students to the critical steps in applying the new skills” (Sousa 2006, 125).
The reason behind the rule: Practice does not make perfect. Practice
makes permanent!
Brain research has identified two type of retrieval systems which are com-
pared to: (a) Library system—tends to be the one used at early periods of
post-learning, say minutes to hours to days. Like a library the memory is stored almost
like a book and gives us a fairly specific and detailed account of a given memory.
(b) Crime scene model—as time goes by, our brain switches to a style more reminiscent
of Sherlock Holmes model. “The reason being that the passage of time inexorably leads
to a weakening of events and facts that were once clear and chock-full of specifics. In an
attempt to fill in missing gaps, the brain is forced to rely on partial fragments, inferences,
outright guesswork and often (most disturbingly) other memories not related to the actual
event” (Medina 2008, 128ff).
Memory is not fixed at the moment of learning. But both new and old research done over
one hundred years ago (Ebbinghaus 1885-English 1913) shows the power of repetition,
doled out in specifically timed intervals, helps remedy that reality. “Retention requires
that the learner not only give conscious attention but also build conceptual frameworks
that have sense and meaning for eventual consolidation into the long-term storage net-
works” (Sousa 2006, 86).
“Long-term memories are formed in a two-way conversation between the hippocampus
and the cortex, until the hippocampus breaks the connection and the memory is fixed in
the cortex—which can take years!” (Medina 2008, 147).
Teacher
Tips
27
Take the notes your made above to another colleague, someone with whom you team teach
or is in the same school or training department. Who could that be? __________________
Cover over the Brain Rule, ending with sharing your plan, requesting that they ask you about
the results on having implemented your plan on a certain date.
What date have you decided he or she will ask you about the results? __________________
S E L F - A S S E S S M E N T
Test question: Increased time on task increases retention of new learning. True?-or-False?
Answer: False.
Simply increasing a student’s time on a learning task does not guarantee retention if the stu-
dent is not allowed the time and help to personally interact with the content through rehearsal.
O B E Y T H E RU L E
A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y
Paraphrasing
Selecting and
note taking
Predicting
Questioning
Summarizing
Students orally restate ideas in
their own words. Example:
Explain Bible memory verse.
Your example:
Students review texts, deciding which
portions are critical based on sound
criteria. Then they paraphrase the idea
and write it into their notes. Example:
Study Bible story passage.
Your example:
Students study content, then predict the
material to follow or what questions
the teacher might ask about that con-
tent. Example: Predict how biblical
King David’s reign might have ended
had he not committed adultery with
Bathsheba.
Your example:
Rehearsal is teacher initiated and teacher directed, at first. However, our long-term goal is to
teach students to be lifelong learners. “In the world of the future, the new illiterate will be the
person who has not learned to learn” (Alvin Toffler). Lest we unknowingly create “illiterates”,
we must daily model, teach and practice strategies (Sousa 2006, 119) like the following for
elaborative rehearsal. Note in the empty box, exactly what material you can practice that
strategy with.
Students generate questions about the
content after studying it. Students
should create their questions based on
Bloom’s taxonomy. Example: Study
the 10 Commandments (Ex. 20).
Your example:
Students reflect on and summarize in
their notes, a drawing, song, poem,
acrostic (closure activity). Example:
Study the 10 Commandments (Ex. 20).
Your example: