Professional development delivered to faculty at Urban Discovery Schools March 2, 2021.

1. MorganAppel,Assistant Dean
Department of Education and
CommunityOutreach

2. Recurring
Themes
Good For Heart,
Good For Head,
Good for Hands:
UDAValues
Optimism
Empathy
Curiosity
Integrity
Innovation
Impact
Happy
Productive
Confident
Well Being

3. Wisdom from
theAncients
In ancient Egypt,
when humans were
preserved through
mummification, the
brain was discarded—
it viewed as a
superfluous organ.
Egyptians believed
that the heart was the
center of all emotion
and learning.
Learning lies at the
heart of surviving and
thriving as humans.

4. Wisdom from the
Original
Renaissance Man
“As every divided kingdom
falls, so every mind divided
by many studies confounds
and saps itself.”
“I have been impressed
with the urgency of doing.
Knowing isnot enough;we
must apply.Being willing is
not enough.We must do.”
“He who loves practice
without theory is like a
sailor who boardsa ship
without a rudder and a
compassand never knows
where he may cast.”
“All our knowledge hasits
origin in our perceptions.”

6. The Smartest
Device
Though not as sleek as the
latest and greatest from
Apple or Samsung, we are
all in possession of the
ultimate smart device.
We may not be able as yet
to download music or
respond to queries as
quickly as Alexa, but our
device is much, much older
and much more capable.
Plus, we have a lifelong
contract and the ability to
update everyday.

7. Impulse Control
Judgment
Language
Working Memory
Motor Function
Socialization
Spontaneity
Integration of
Sensory information
From different modalities
Auditory processing
Speech
Vision
Semantics
Visual
processing
Motor control
Sensory pathways
Some cognition
‘Little Brain’

8. 500 million
150 million
ModernHuman
200,000

9. How Does the
Brain Learn?
Over 100 billion nerve
endings in the brain that
process sensory
information.
Active learning creates
dendrites/fibers that bridge
across them.
As dendrites grow closer,
they create synapses
(bridges).
This is the process of
learning—the creation of
neural networks or
pathways.
Information stored in
various parts of the brain
TACTILE
VISUAL
AUDITORY
OLFACTORY

10.  Learning involves multiple parts of the brain, multiple
modalities and senses
 New informationstored in different parts of the brain,
but connected looselyby neural networks(bridges
between different parts of the brain)
 Because the brain is ‘networkbased’, it searches for
meaning and context withinto help processnew
informationand its significance
 In practical terms, the brainasks itself ‘have I seen this
before?Where?Was it important?’ ThinkGoogle.

11.  When the brain is ‘excited’ by new information (that is,
meaningful),a variety of physiological processes occur:
 Adrenalin (fight or fight) flows: harkens back to an earlier
time
 The brain says: STOP! This is important— PAY
ATTENTION!
 Digestion processes slow
 The logic/rational part of the brain begins to shut down so
that the brain may pay better attention
 Recall a time that you learned (or taught) something that
really grabbed you— were you emotionally engaged?

12. 1. The brain is a complex adaptive system.
2. The brain is a social brain.
3. The search for meaning is innate.
4. The search for meaning occursthrough patterning.
5. Emotions are criticalto patterning.
6. Every brain simultaneouslyperceives and creates parts and wholes.
7. Learning involves both focused attention and peripheral attention.
8. Learning always involves consciousand unconsciousprocesses.
9. We have at least two ways of organizing memory.
10.Learning is developmental.
11.Complex learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat.
12.Every brain is uniquely organized.
Source: Caine and Caine (1997)

13. How Does
Memory Work?
In context,searching
formeaning
Memoryis
reactivation ofpre-
existingneural
networksand
buildingupon them
(scaffolding)
The importanceof
redundancyand
reinforcement across
thecurriculum

14.  Positive feelings about a learning
experience produce endorphins
(euphoria), dopamine (stimulates
the prefrontal cortex), oxytocin
(puppy love/trust/relationships)
and serotonin (well-being)
 Negative feelings about a
learning experience produce
adrenalin and cortisol –which puts
the brain in survival mode and
causes anxiety/ stress

15. The Dynamics of Memory
Sensory Memory
• Receivedthroughthe senses:auditory,olfactoryandvisual
(immediate)
• Filtersintoshort-termmemoryby attention (whatisimportant at
thetime?)– survival mechanism
Short-Term Memory
• “ScratchPad” for recall ofinformationunderprocess(needto recall
beginningofsentencetounderstandtheend)
• 30 secondswithout repetition
• “Chunking”helps(hyphenatedtelephone numbersandcredit
cards/organizingessays)
Long-Term Memory
• Long-TermStorage(littledecay)
• EpisodicandSemanticMemory(scaffolding)

16. More About Long-Term Memory
• Three functions: Storage,Deletion,Retrieval
• Repeated exposure/rehearsaltransfers from Short-
term to Long-termMemory—encodingrepeatedly
processed in the hippocampus
• Learning is most effective over time
• Deletionthroughinterference or decay
• Retrieval: recall(reproduction)and recognition
(knowledgethat informationhas been seen before)
• Memoriesnot stored in a specific location,but spread
throughthe brain’s entire surface

17. Source: Edutopia andHarvardUniversity,2021
You are
Here
Plasticity:
The brain’sability
to formsynaptic
connectionsin
responsetolearning
or injury

18. Source: Edutopia,2021
Adolescent brain scans reveal that reward systems mature well before inhibitory systems.

19. mo·ti·va·tion is the driving desire behind all action and is the precursor and
cornerstone to learning. It is no exaggeration to say that children have
boundless energy for living and learning.
From an evolutionary perspective, behaviors that are important for survival (like
eating or reproducing) must be pleasurable to do in and of themselves.
Young children survive by exploring their world via
manipulation, locomotion, language, and social interaction. But they also love
doing these things.The immediate satisfaction of "being good at" something
also has adaptive significance for cognitive growth.
Source:ASCD, 2021.

20. Enhancing
Motivation
Habituation
and Novelty
Confidence
Play
Joiningthe
Community
Source:ASCD, 2021.

21. • Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi (1975, 1990), emerging from
positive psychology (Primal Scream therapy)
• A Zen-like, intensive state in which an individual becomes
completely emerged in an experience
• “In the groove,” OPTIMAL EXPERIENCE, “In the zone”
• Time stops (almost a meditative state) or flies
• “Seeing the seams of the baseball” or “seeing the Matrix”
• Losing oneself so that one is so focused, s/heis unaware of
distractions, even bodily needs
• A universal and cross-cultural experience

22.  Balance between individual’s ability and level of difficulty
in the challenge (cannot be too easy or difficult or flow
cannot occur).
 Goals should be clear. Expectations are foreseen and goals
are attainable.
 High degree of concentration in a limited field of attention—
person should be able to focus and become deeply engaged
in the activity.
 A loss of self-consciousness is experienced (unaware of self
and what the self is doing).
 Sense of time transcendence (subjective experience of time
is altered—passes quickly/slowly/slow motion)

23. When in the flow state,
the brain is actively
seeking out information
from multiple sources
to engage in problem
solving activities.
That is where motivation,
Persistence and creativity
make their homes.
That is where cognitive
meets affective.
That is FLOW.
Binge watching
VideoGames

24. BeingThere
When it comes right
down to it, we have an
innatesensibilitythat
pushes us forward
creatively.
Studentswantto feel
appreciated,confident
andexperience a general
sense of solaceand
successas they move
through school, career
andlife.
But in theend, it is
support thatwe offer as
educatorsthathelps to
make it through.

26. MorganAppel
AssistantDean
EducationandCommunityOutreach
UCSan Diego Extension
9500 Gilman Drive,MC 0170-N
La Jolla,California 92093-0170
mappel@ucsd.edu
858-534-9273
extension.ucsd.edu/education