Teachers are the caretakers of the development of students’ highest
brain during the years of its most extensive changes. As such, they have
the privilege and opportunity to influence the quality and quantity of
neuronal and connective pathways so all children leave school with their
brains optimized for future success.
This introduction to the basics of the neuroscience of learning
includes information that should be included in all teacher education
programs. It is intentionally brief such that it can be taught in a
single day of instruction. Ideally there would be additional
opportunities for future teachers to pursue further inquiry into the
science of how the brain learns, retrieves, and applies information.
Teaching Grows Brain Cells
IQ is not fixed at birth and brain development and intelligence are
“plastic” in that internal and environmental stimuli constantly change
the structure and function of neurons and their connections. Teachers
have the opportunity to help all children build their brains beyond what
was previously believed to be fixed limits based on learning
disabilities or the predictions of test scores or achievements.
It was once believed that brain cell growth stops after age twenty.
We now know that through neuroplasticity, interneuron connections
(dendrites, synapses, and myelin coating) continue to be pruned or
constructed in response to learning and experiences throughout our
lives.
These physical changes of brain self-reconstruction in response to
experiences including sensory input, emotions, conscious and unconscious
thoughts are so responsive that human potential for increased
knowledge, physical skills, and “talent” in the arts is essentially
limitless. There are conditions associated with the most successful
strengthening of neural networks, such as guided instruction and
practice with frequent corrective feedback. As neuroscience research
continues more information will be available to guide teachers providing
the brain with the experiences best suited to maximize its learning and
proficiency.
High Stress Restricts Brain Processing to the Survival State
The prefrontal cortex, where the higher thinking processes of
executive functions (judgment, critical analysis, prioritizing) is also
the CEO that can manage and control our emotions. Like the rest of the
PFC it is still undergoing maturation throughout the school years.
Students do not have the adult brain’s developed circuits of reflection,
judgment, and gratification delay to overcome the lower brain’s strong
influence.
Neuroimaging research reveals that a structure in the emotion
sensitive limbic system is a switching-station that determines which
part of the brain will receive input and determine response output.
Brain-based research has demonstrated that new information cannot pass
through the amygdala (part of the limbic system) to enter the frontal
lobe if the amygdala is in the state of high metabolism or overactivity
provoked by anxiety. It is important for teachers to know that when
stress cuts off flow to and from the PFC, behavior is involuntary. It is
not students’ choice in the reactive state when they “act out” and
“zone out”.
Through interventions to go beyond differentiation to
individualization (see article about video game model) it is possible to
decrease the stressors of frustration from work perceived as too
difficult or boredom from repeated instruction after mastery is
achieved. Further information from neuroscience research reveals other
causes of the high stress state in school and suggests interventions to
reduce the stress blocking response in the amygdala.
Memory is Constructed and Stored by Patterning
The brain turns data from the senses into learned information in the
hippocampus. This encoding process requires activation or prior
knowledge with a similar “pattern” to physically link with the new input
if a short-term memory is to be constructed. The neuroimaging research
supported by cognitive testing reveals that the most successful
construction of working (short-term) memory takes place when there has
been activation of the brain’s related prior knowledge before new
information is taught.
When teachers work to clearly demonstrate the patterns, connections,
and relationships that exist between new and old learning (e.g.
cross-curricular studies, graphic organizers, spiraled curriculum) the
probability of encoding increases.
Teachers can help students increase working memory efficiency through
a variety of interventions correlated with neuroimaging responses. For
example, with opportunities to make predictions, receive timely
feedback, and reflect on those experiences. These experiences appear to
be increase executive function facilitation of working memory, such as
guiding the selection of the most important information hold in working
memory.
Memory is Sustained by Use
Once and encoded short-term memory is constructed it still needs to
be activated multiple times and ideally in response to a variety of
prompts for neuroplasticity to increase its durability. Each time
students participate in any endeavor, a certain number of neurons are
activated. When they repeat the action, the same neurons respond
again. The more times they repeat an action, the more dendrites grow
and interconnect, resulting in greater memory storage and recall
efficiency.
Retention is further promoted when new memories are connected to
other stored memories based on commonalities, such as
similarities/differences, especially when students use graphic
organizers and derive their own connections. Multisensory instruction,
practice, and review promote memory storage in multiple regions of the
cortex, based on the type of sensory input by which they were learned
and practiced. These are distant storage centers are linked to each
other such that triggering one sensory memory activates the others.
This duplication results of storage increases the efficiency of
subsequent retrieval as a variety of cues prompt activation of different
access points to the extended memory map.
The construction of concept memory networks requires opportunities
for students to transfer learning beyond the contexts in which it is
learned and practiced. When information learned and stored in its own
isolated circuit it is only accessible by the same stimuli through which
it was obtained. These transfer activities activate memories to new
stimuli and with other knowledge to solve novel problems. These
simultaneous activations promote extended connections among memories
that are the larger concept memory networks most applicable to future
use.
Pattern recognition facilitation and opportunities for knowledge
transfer extends the brain’s processing efficiency for greater access to
and application of its accumulated learning. These teaching
interventions will prepare graduates for future incorporation and
extension of new information as it is becomes available. Students who
have the guided learning experiences needed to construct concept memory
networks will be have the best preparation for their futures. As the
information pool expands, these students will continue to comprehend new
information, consolidate it into their neural networks, and recognize,
develop, and globally disseminate its new applications.
The Future
As the research continues to build, it will be the obligation of
those who prepare our future teachers to insure they understand and can
apply the best current and future teaching strategies. This includes
insuring that the teachers who graduate from their programs have the
foundational neuroscience knowledge to use the fruits of the expanding
pool of research to the betterment of all their own future students.
That is a fascinating and exciting challenge to meet at a pivotal time
in the evolution of education.
scritto da: Dr. Judy Willis Phd in Education.
