What Every Educator Needs to Know about

Brain-Compatible Teaching

Marilee Sprenger

Marilee Sprenger©2008

Human Brain

• About 3 pounds

• 78% water, 10% fat, 8% protein

• Less than 2.5% of body’s weight

• Uses 20% of body’s energy

# 1 Thing to Know :The Brain Is Changing!

Department of Internal Medicine, Rhode Island Hospital, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.

Adolescents who play more than one hour of console or Internet video games may have more or more intense symptoms of ADHD or inattention than those who do not. Given the possible negative effects these conditions may have on scholastic performance, the added consequences of more time spent on video games may also place these individuals at increased risk for problems in school.

Today’s Student Brain

• Emotionally Laden Messages

• Multi-media Bombardment

• Rapidly Changing Input

Application #1: What to do about the RAS:

1._________________

2._________________

3._________________

4._________________

5._________________

6._________________

# 2 Thing to Know

The brain is the only organ that sculpts itself through experience. (NEUROPLASTICITY)

Brain Cells Can Change Their Functions

Application # 2: Experiences that change:

1.M __________________

2.M___________________

3.C___________________

4.M___________________

# 3 Thing to Know The brain learns and remembers patterns.

Application #3: Teaching Patterns:

1.G

2.C

3.C

4.M

# 4 Thing to Know

The addition of emotion can help students remember.

Stress inhibits learning: “Reduce” Anxiety

Procedure: Something you do on a regular basis to free up working memory and allow more cognitive processing.

Ritual: Something you do on a regular basis that elicits a feeling

Procedures and Rituals

Application # 4: Release the Stress

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

# 5 Thing to Know

The brain-body connection is powerful

Sleep

• The light from a television or computer can delay both the necessary drop in core body temperature and melatonin production – and thus delaying sleep onset – by two hours.

• After just a few days of shortened sleep, the brain starts making extra stress hormone cortisol. It takes six times as long for this stress hormone to drop to a low-enough level that sleep is possible.

Application #5: Brain and body:

1.P

2.F

3.M

4.E

# 6 Thing to Know

The Brain Searches for Meaning.

The brain deletes unimportant or meaningless information.

How the brain looks at incoming information:

Is this important?– Do I need this information? (survival)– Do I want this information? (desire, goal)– Have I been successful with this type of

learning before?

Application #6: Finding Meaning1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

# 7 Thing to Know

Practice/rehearsal is critical to learning for the long term.

CEREBELLUMProcedural

Memory

HIPPOCAMPUSEpisodic MemorySemantic Memory

AMYGDALAEmotional Memory

PRE-FRONTAL CORTEXWorking Memory

CEREBELLUMNEOSTRIATUM

Automatic

28/3 Rule

• New concepts require 24 -28 engagements for long-term storage

• These engagments should be over a 3 week period

• Testing prior to the 3 weeks results in lower performance

Procedural

Conditioned Response

Emotional

Semantic

Episodic