Presentation for brain base learning as an strategy in teaching

1. BRAIN-BASED APPROACH
Presented by:
LIEZL E. VALIENTE
MASTERS OF ARTS IN EDUCATION- CHEMISTRY

2. The Brain Based Teaching Approach
• Brain-based education has no seminal source or centrally recognized leader,
examples of commonly cited works include special issues of education
journals and popular books such as
1. How the Brain Learns: A Classroom Teacher's Guide, by Sousa;
2. Teaching with the Brain and Mind, by Eric Jensen; Making Connections:
Teaching and the Human Brain, by Renate Nummela Caine and Geoffrey
Caine;
3. A Celebration of Neurons: An Educator's Guide to the Human Brain, by
Robert Sylwester; and
Such works, invariably written by education writers rather than brain
researchers, claim to help teachers turn research on brain function into
practical lessons and activities that will enhance student learning.

3. The Brain Based Teaching Approach
• “Teaching methods, lesson designs and school programs that are
based on the latest scientific research about how the brain learns,
including such factors as cognitive development—how students
learn differently as they age, grow, and mature socially,
emotionally, and cognitively.”- The Glossary of Education Reform
for Journalists, Parents, and Community Members
• Unlike traditional methods of schooling, which is often said to
inhibit learning by ignoring the brain’s natural learning processes,
the Brain Based Teaching Approach is believed to boost learning
due to its holistic approach towards the learners. It is an approach
to learning which favors the brain’s best natural operational
principles, with the goal of attaining maximum attention,
understanding, meaning and memory (Jensen, 1996).

4. Brain-Based Education and Learning
• The application of meaningful group of principles that
represent our understanding of how our brain works in
the context of education.
• Is simply the engagement of strategies based on
body/mind/brain research.
• However, Brain-Based approach is not a panacea or
magic bullet to solve all of education’s problems.

5. Brain Based Learning Principles (Caine &
Caine, 1991, 2003)
1. The brain is a parallel processor.
--the brain performs many function simultaneously, thoughts,
emotions, imaginations interact with other brain processes such
as health maintenance and expansion of general social and
cultural knowledge.
-- teachers need a frame of reference that enables them to
select from the vast array of methods and approaches that are
available which should orchestrate all dimensions of parallel
processing

6. Brain Based Learning Principles (Caine &
Caine, 1991, 2003)
2. Learning engages the whole physiology.
--anything that affects our physiological functioning affects
our capacity to learn. Like the heart, liver or lungs the brain is a
complex physiological organ functioning according to physiological
rules.
--incorporate stress management, nutrition, exercise, drug
education and other facets of health into learning process.

7. Brain Based Learning Principles (Caine &
Caine, 1991, 2003)
3. The search for meaning is innate.
4. The search for meaning occurs through Patterning
--learners are patterning all the time searching for meaning--
--satisfy the brain’s enormous curiosity and hunger for
novelty, discover and challenge
--provide learner’s with problem solving and critical thinking
skills.

8. Brain Based Learning Principles (Caine &
Caine, 1991, 2003)
5. Emotions are critical to patterning
--emotions and cognition cannot be separated
6. Every brain simultaneously perceives and creates parts and
wholes
--teachers should make sure that emotional climate is
supportive and marked by mutual respect and acceptance.
Acknowledge the brain’s separate but simultaneous tendencies for
organizing information.

9. Brain Based Learning Principles (Caine &
Caine, 1991, 2003)
7. Learning involves both focused attention and peripheral perception.
--the brain responds to the entire sensory context in which
teaching or communication occurs.
8. Learning always involves both conscious and unconscious processes.
--students learn much more than they consciously understand.
They remember the experience not just what they are told.
--teaching should be designed to help students benefit maximally
from reflection and meta cognitive strategies.

10. Brain Based Learning Principles (Caine &
Caine, 1991, 2003)
9. We have at least two types of memory: A spatial memory system and a set
of systems for rote learning.
10. We understand and remember best when facts and skills are embedded in
natural, spatial memory.
--spatial memory is best invoked through experiential learning. The
more senses you use, the fixed embedded skills and experiences they get.
11. Learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat.
----brain learns optimally when appropriately challenged and down-
shits under perceived threat
12. Each brain is unique.
--learning changes the structure of the brain, the more we learn, the
more unique we become.

11. Implications for Eucation
• As brain development and growth is dependent on an individual’s
experiences, the challenge, really, is for teachers to vary their methods of
teaching and shift the paradigm from a “one fits all” to an “enriched
environment” for each and every student (Caine & Caine, 1991, 2003;
Jensen, 1998; Evan, 2007). The role of teachers is to provide the
appropriate classroom climate, which emphasizes on instructions that
accommodate how the brain learns, that will enhance brain functionality
in processing and constructing data properly, according to the individual
learner’s level. Although there have been a number of arguments
regarding this approach, powerful insights that are significant to classroom
learning have emerged from this brain science strategy. They include:
‘learning experiences do help the brain grow, emotional safety does
influence learning, and making lessons relevant can help information to
stick’ (Benard, [Online]).

12. Instructional techniques
Implications for best teaching practices and optimal learning
based on principles.
1. Orchestrated Immersion - creates a learning environment
that fully immerses students in many educational
experiences;
2. Relaxed Alertness - eliminates fear in the learners while
maintaining highly challenging environments; and,
3. Active Processing - allows the learner to consolidate and
internalize information by actively processing it.

13. Implementation of Brain Based Teaching
Approach