“If We Understand the Brain,We can influence it”

Gerry CharleboisExecutive Director of Advanced Academics

Carrollton Farmers Branch ISDcharleboisg@cfbisd.edu

Goals for Brain Based Teaching

To better understand how the brain/mind works and to explore the implications of the research for:

• You personally - your own learning• Your students – how they learn and what

you can do to increase their understanding and ability to use information.

• Your teaching – how you structure your classroom and instructional activities.

Brain Quiz1. T F We use only 10% of our brain.

2. T F For a higher level cognitive activity one uses many areas of the brain.

3. T F Complex music produces complex brain activity.

4. T F There is one specific area for arithmetic and other content areas.

5. T F Development of knowledge occurs in a ladder-like fashion.

6. T F We can grow new brain cells.7. T F Teens' brains are like a toddler's brain.8. T F Food influences our brains.9. T F Learning through repetition produces a

permanent neurophysiologic change in our brains.

10. T F Gifted teens have more developed brain maturation in the frontal lobes.

Brain Photo

Brain Photo 2

Brain Photo 3

Physical Structure of the Brain

• Cerebrum (Latin for brain) Cortex (Latin for bark)

• Mid Brain – the CEO of the nervous system (Includes thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus) – responsible for emotional functions, memory, social bonding, intuition, immunity, and healing. Sensory information passes through the thalamus before entering the cerebral cortex.

Physical Structure of the Brain• Frontal Lobes – (last to mature, develop fully) controls

consciousness, critical thinking, the ability to problem solve, plan for the future, and expressive speech.

• Parietal Lobes – (interprets where pain is coming from) receives and processes data from the senses, responsible for touch, pain, temperature, calculating, and writing.

• Occipital Lobes – (vision center) controls processing of visual images, hearing, and language

• Temporal Lobes – ( memory & who we are as an individual) interprets music and language, stores information

Brain Development

Development occurs in levels with periods of discontinuity in skill and brain organization

Occurs in clusters with emergence of a new capacity (new capacities emerge in teens and early adulthood)

In new learning, a person moves down repeatedly to low levels in order to build components to produce new high-level skills.

Neurons grow all the time - they are affected by the environment and our experiences. Cyclical growth - revisiting, relearning, explains the flexibility and plasticity of the human brain

Frontal cortex is central - leading the growthIs strongly connected to the limbic system (emotions and memory) Both interact constantly

Development continues…

Three Parts to our Brain:

Genetic wiring – highly inheritable

Environment – in our surroundings with no

conscious reactions : nutrition, drugs,

toxins, temperature

Experience – in our surroundings with

conscious reactions: people, tv, computers,

books, museums, etc.

We are whole brained!

• The brain lights up all over when we are working on varied processes

• Intelligent people use multiple areas• The more efficient the brain-task, the more

defined the area of the brain• Cross hemispheric connections

The Learning Process

The brain is continuously trying to make sense out of its world – what is meaningful in what it experiences.

The brain is a pattern making machine…

The brain becomes primed with familiar patterns (rituals)

and aroused by unfamiliar ones (novelty).”

How the Brain Learns:

The Brain takes these ‘associations’ and forms them into patterns. It is the brain’s way of making sense of the world. These patterns form the basis of all human understanding.

Brain Associationssharp injection point

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pain haystack button

eye sewing knitting

camel thread pin

We are biologically designed to solve problems and we are

happiest when we are solving them successfully.

Human beings are designed to be fulfilled.

Challenge

• The brain functions at its peak when appropriately challenged.

• Challenge engages both sides of the brain: evokes intimate communication between hemispheres.

• The way to educate the whole brain is to challenge it.

• A little bit of tension improves learning.• Verbal & analytical tasks engage the high

functional abilities of the right hemisphere.• Abstract concepts & underlying principles pulls

the two hemispheres together.

Challenge

• When the task is too hard – the whole brain wakes up.

• When it is too easy – the brain falls asleep (spacing out).

• No learning can take place when the brain is underactivated.

• The profoundly gifted rarely have difficult enough tasks to fully engage their brains.

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Perception Video

“All thinking has feeling. Emotions shape cognition.

There is no learning without emotional engagement.”

How the Brain LearnsEmotions act as ‘functional organizers.’ They move us. Biologically and at the most

fundamental level they serve as an ‘approach’/

’avoidance’ mechanism.

Challenger Space Shuttle

Inside the Teenage Brain

~ Around puberty, the brain blossoms with new brain cells

~ Frontal lobes undergo wholesale renovation extraneous neuronal branching gets ‘pruned’ back

~ Also occurs in infancy for a more efficient, consolidate circuits

~ Teens’ rational, thoughtful frontal lobes “light up” less their amygdala lights up more!!

~ Teens process information differently than adults; very emotional

~ Mid Brain processing daily info and interactions

Adolescence as Autonomy and Identity

A New Psychosocial Stage....Belonging vs. Rejection•self strongly defined by group•self defined through others’ eyes•sense of belonging essential to well being•hyper vigilance about being liked and accepted•great conflicts over divergent opinions of significant people; avoidance of anger, confrontation, and differentiation•identity, collective and interpersonal, humorously referred to as ‘we-go’ instead of ego

Biographical paths and self transformations•recursive nature, not ladder-like•every time we move forward, we always pull something from our early development.Embedded Identity• less focus on autonomy, separation, differentiation• more focus on connection, culture, relationships

Adolescence

Neuroscience of Intelligence

• Research in neurogenesis has changed idea of intelligence as a fixed trait to a set of capacities that are shaped throughout life as neurons are born and dendritic connections are made

• Intelligence is the ability to catch on, to make sense of things, and to know what to do about it

• Rich complex experiences, access to intellectual resources, good nutrition, and low stress builds neuronal connections

• Gifted people – evidence of enhanced interconnectivity and frontal connectivity

AHA! Moment

• A split second just prior to an AHA! moment - all the senses shut off and all the energy is focused

• Burst of gamma electricity, high energy, dopamine rush!

• Flow is sustained attention & continuous AHA! Experiences

• Flow comes easily to creative adolescents

The Gifted Brain

• The brain expansion during childhood – cortex and axon branching & myelination in frontal lobes – relatively earlier with gifted children

• Gifted brain exhibit superior neurophysiology in frontal areas – greater density of localization of neurons & thickness of cortical layers in frontal areas

• Some studies show gifted brains have double the number of gliocytes than the normal brain

• Gifted males’ brains shut down verbal to do spatial task• Connectivity must be robust to do difficult cognitive

activitiesNext decade: Functional Connectivity

Recommendations for Gifted Adolescents

• Monitor attention and learn mindfulness – pay attention to the present moment

• Use nutrition, exercise, sunlight, sleep to manage your mood

• Know your personality and mood styles so you can use them to your benefit rather than being controlled by them

• Visualization, go to your flow

Deep learning comes through a sequence of:

• Experiences – reading, lecture, gathering information

• Reflection – think of the idea, write the meaning in their own words; making meaning

• Abstraction – develop a theory, apply to different area; creating new ideas

• Active testing – share your information, presentation; generating new experience

The learner is in control.

Stressed

(Some white showing below iris)

When the white is showing between the iris and the lower lid in both eyes, it indicates mental or emotional stress and possible fearful feeling or worry. If there is more white showing in your left eye, the stress is about concerns in your personal life. If there as more white showing in the right eye, the stressful thoughts or feeling are related to business, professional or financial factors.

Potentially Violent

(White shows above iris)

If you see someone with the white showing above the iris,

it indicates not only stress but also that the person may react in a violent manner.

For example, a person who is approaching the psychological fight-or-flight

threshold may have white showing above the iris.

Mental Disconnect

(White is showing all the way around the iris)

If you see someone with the white showing all the way around the iris, be careful. This indicates someone who may be in a state of extreme mental disconnect and may not even be aware of his actions. You will sometimes see this in a person who is going into shock after a catastrophic event or who is under influence of dangerous drugs.

Lynne Cox (USA)Honor Open Water Swimmer

Swimming to Antarcticais a thrilling, modest, vivid, and

inspiring account of a life of aspiration and

adventure.

Four points to remember:

a. learning is biological & active – mind/body/spirit

pattern drivenbrain is encased in a bodyexercise improves cognitive function

b. emotion increases learningc. eliminate threat d. deep learning comes through reflection

and active testing

As educators we are responsible for helping students ‘guide out’

from themselves the beliefs and behaviors that

promote optimal living.When we teach our students how

to learn, we are also teaching them how to be happy.