What Principals Need to Know About The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms

The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms “ All credible 21st century educational theories will be grounded in educational neuroscience, the underlying neurobiology of teaching and learning. David Sousa explores the shift from 20th century speculation and professional folklore to 21st century schools that will be mediated by biology and augmented by electronic technology. He provides educational leaders with an excellent introduction to what educational neuroscience now knows, and how educators can best use this knowledge.”

W HAT P R I N C I P A L S N E E D TO K N O W ABOUT

W h at P r i n c i pa l s N e e d t o K n o w a b o u t

—Robert Sylwester, Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Oregon

—Martha Kaufeldt, Educational Consultant and Author, Scotts Valley, California

The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms explores the latest brain research on teaching, learning, and leading.

Author David A. Sousa guides principals through the major characteristics of brain-compatible curriculum, instruction, assessment, and leadership. Using this brief and accessible overview of educational neuroscience, school leaders can construct meaningful professional development that enhances teachers’ knowledge and skills about brain-compatible learning so they can build successful classrooms for all learners.

Author David A. Sousa offers K–8 principals and administrators: • Straightforward language on how the brain learns • Comprehensive research on 21st century learning • Insightful strategies for identifying and accommodating students with special needs

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The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms Sousa

“ Sousa is masterful at summarizing complex neuroscience research into concise, accessible concepts that administrators can use immediately. Principals will gain a greater understanding of what classrooms should look and feel like when teachers plan instruction based on how their students’ diverse brains learn, remember, and create. . . . Sousa says that master teachers can be ‘brain changers.’ Veteran as well as novice principals may find their own brains changed after reading this practical overview of brain-compatible learning.”

W h at P r i n c i pa l s Need to Know about

The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms

A Joint Publication

d av i d a . s o u s a

WHAT PRINCIPALS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT

The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms

A Joint Publication

DA VI D A . S O U S A

Copyright Š 2011 by Solution Tree Press All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction of this book in whole or in part in any form.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sousa, David A. What principals need to know about the basics of creating brain-compatible classrooms / David A. Sousa. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-935542-99-5 (perfect bound) -- ISBN 978-1-935543-00-8 (library edition) 1. Learning, Psychology of. 2. Learning--Physiological aspects. 3. School improvement programs. 4.

Neurosciences. I. Title.

LB1057.S6519 2011 370.15--dc22 2011014957 ___________________________________________________ Solution Tree Jeffrey C. Jones, CEO & President Solution Tree Press President: Douglas M. Rife Publisher: Robert D. Clouse Vice President of Production: Gretchen Knapp Managing Production Editor: Caroline Wise Copy Editor: Sarah Payne-Mills Proofreader: Elisabeth Abrams Text Designer: Raven Bongiani Cover Designer: Jenn Taylor

Acknowledgments

Solution Tree Press would like to thank the following reviewers: Donna Bonarrigo Principal Donald Ross School Braintree, Massachusetts Robin J. Fogarty President and Educational Consultant Robin Fogarty & Associates Chicago, Illinois Susan Kovalik Founder and Educational Consultant The Center for Effective Learning Federal Way, Washington Renee C. Miller Principal Clifton Elementary School Clifton, Virginia Glenn Purpura Principal St. Alexander School Villa Park, Illinois Patricia Wolfe Founder and Educational Consultant Mind Matters Napa, California

iii

Table of Contents About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Chapter Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

ONE

What Do We Know About How the Brain Learns? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 A Quick Tour of the Brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 New Views of Brain Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Our Changing Memory Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Student Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Emotions and Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The Social Brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Questions for Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

TWO

What Is Brain-Compatible Curriculum? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Knowing What Students Expect of School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Deciding What Students Should Learn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Understanding the Components of a Brain-Compatible Curriculum . . . . . . .

Designing Brain-Compatible Curricula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Revising Curriculum to Include Framework Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Integrating Technology Into the Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

THREE

What Is Brain-Compatible Instruction? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Setting School and Classroom Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Deciding How Much to Teach in a Lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Getting and Maintaining Student Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Deciding on Timing in a Lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Encouraging Action Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

How Brain-Compatible Are Your Classrooms? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

21 21 22 23 25 28 32

35 35 39 41 43 48 50

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FOUR

What Is Brain-Compatible Assessment? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Using Diagnostic Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Practicing Formative Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Understanding Summative Assessment and Its Pitfalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Five

How Do We Help Learners With Different Needs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Teaching Learners With Special Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Identifying Students With Learning Difficulties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Accommodating Students With Learning Disabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Motivating Students With Learning Difficulties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Communicating With Parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Serving Students With ADHD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Teaching Gifted and Talented Learners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Teaching English Learners (ELs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Identifying Gifted and Talented EL Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

SIX

What Is Brain-Compatible Leadership? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Decision Making and the Brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Cerebral Forces That Power Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Brain-Compatible Professional Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Pitfalls of Success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

51 52 53 55

59 59 60 61 65 67 68 70 75 79

81 81 81 87 91

Resources for Learning More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

About the Author

David A. Sousa, EdD, is an author and international consultant in

educational neuroscience. His books inform educators and parents on ways they can translate current brain research into strategies for improving learning. A member of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, he has conducted workshops in hundreds of school districts on brain research, instructional skills, and science education at the preK–12 and university levels. He has presented to more than 100,000 educators at national conventions and to regional and local school districts across the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia.

Dr. Sousa is past president of Learning Forward (formerly the National Staff Development Council) and has received numerous awards, including the Distinguished Alumni Award and honorary doctorates from Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts and Gratz College in Philadelphia. He has been interviewed by Matt Lauer on the NBC TODAY Show and by National Public Radio about his work with schools using brain research.

His books include Differentiation and the Brain; How the Brain Learns, third edition; How the Special Needs Brain Learns, second edition; How the Gifted Brain Learns; How the Brain Learns to Read; How the Brain Influences Behavior; How the Brain Learns Mathematics, which Independent Publisher selected as one of the best professional development books of 2008; The Leadership Brain; and Mind, Brain, and Education.

Dr. Sousa has a bachelor’s degree from Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts, a master of arts from Harvard University, and a doctorate from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

To book Dr. Sousa for professional development, contact pd@solution-tree.com.

vii

Introduction

For thousands of years, humans have been delving into the mysteries of the human brain and trying to determine how it accomplishes its amazing feats. How fast does it grow? What impact does the environment have on its growth? What is intelligence? How does the brain learn language? How does it learn to read? Just how the brain learns has been of particular interest to teachers for centuries. Now, in the 21st century, there is new hope that our understanding of the remarkable process of teaching and learning will improve dramatically. A major source of that understanding comes from the sophisticated medical instruments that allow scientists to peer inside the living—and learning—brain.

As we examine the clues that research is yielding about learning, we recognize their importance to educational practice. Every day, teachers enter their classrooms with lesson plans, experience, and the hope that students will understand, remember, and use what teachers are about to present. The extent that this hope is realized depends largely on the knowledge base that these teachers use in designing those plans and, more important, on the instructional techniques they select during the lessons. Teachers try to change the human brain every day.

The more they know about how it learns, the more successful they can be.

Classroom teachers are often undecided on what areas of inquiry to pursue for professional growth. Principals, especially in elementary schools, play an important role in helping teachers select an area from myriad possibilities. When principals guide teachers toward understanding more about how the brain learns, they demonstrate the instructional leadership that schools will need to ensure that they are preparing students to meet the challenges of a 21st century world.

Educators in recent years have become much more aware of neuroscience’s findings in how the brain works, and they are aware that some of the discoveries have implications for what happens in schools and classrooms. There is a growing interest among educators in the biology of learning and how much an individual’s environment can affect the growth and development of the brain. Teacher training institutions are beginning to incorporate brain research into their courses, although progress has been slow. Professional development programs are devoting more time to this area, more books about the brain are available, brain-compatible teaching units are sprouting up, and the journals of most major educational organizations have devoted special issues to the topic. Several universities in North America (for example, the Mind/Brain Institute at Johns Hopkins University and MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences) and abroad have established dedicated research centers to examine how discoveries in neuroscience can affect educational practice. Harvard University now offers a master’s degree in its 1

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mind, brain, and education program. As a result, educational theory and practice will become much more research based, similar to the medical model.

There is, of course, no panacea that will make teaching and learning a perfect process—and that includes brain research. It is a long leap from making a research finding in a laboratory to the changing of schools and practice because of that finding. These are exciting times for educators, but we must ensure that we do not let the excitement cloud our common sense.

With those thoughts in mind, this book is designed to bring busy educational leaders up to date on the latest brain research that appears to have implications for both teaching and learning, as well as for leading schools as learning organizations. Indeed, the ideas in this book provide the research support for a variety of initiatives, such as cooperative learning groups, differentiated instruction, integrated thematic units, and the interdisciplinary approach to curriculum. The chapters delve into the major characteristics of brain-compatible curriculum, instruction, assessment, and leadership. Those educators who are familiar with constructivism will recognize many similarities in the ideas presented here.

Important Note The goal of this series of books is to help principals focus on the major components of the topics covered.

Thus, the title of this book states that it addresses the basics for creating a brain-compatible classroom.

The hope is that after reading this book, principals will want to pursue the topics in greater depth in order to provide their teachers with meaningful professional development activities that enhance their knowledge and skills about brain-compatible learning. In the Resources for Learning More (page 93) and references (page 99), readers will find numerous sources that will help them delve deeper into the topics presented in this book. The glossary (page 95) will explain the technical terms used in the text.

Chapter Contents Chapter 1 begins with a quick tour of brain structures and reviews some of the recent discoveries about how the brain grows, develops, and processes and organizes information.

It looks into memory and attention systems and explores the way emotions affect learning. It concludes with an examination of the fascinating discovery of mirror neurons and their impact on the development of the social brain.

Deciding what students should learn is a major responsibility of schools. However, how well does the chosen curriculum meet the expectations that students have of their schooling experience? The young brain of today’s students has been developing in a rapidly changing environment. Does today’s curriculum account for the changes, and is the curriculum evolving to meet the needs of these technologically primed students? These are the important questions addressed in chapter 2.

Students learn best in a climate that is free from threats and that promotes active participation in the learning process. Chapter 3 discusses ways to establish that positive classroom and

Introduction 3

school climate. It also offers suggestions on how much to teach in a lesson, how to get and maintain student attention, when to present important information, and how to teach for retention of learning. The procedures for conducting action research are also described.

Much of school assessment today is still summative in nature and driven by high-stakes testing and demands for student and teacher accountability. However, research reveals that students are more likely to remain involved in their learning and persist when the going gets tough if they get consistent, specific feedback on their progress through formative assessments.

Chapter 4 suggests ways that teachers can use formative assessments effectively.

Chapter 5 debunks some common misconceptions about students with special needs and suggests ways for identifying students with persistent learning difficulties. It also suggests how teachers can make simple modifications to curriculum, instruction, and assessment to accommodate students with special needs. The needs of gifted and talented students as well as English learners (ELs) are explored, and practical suggestions for helping these students succeed are presented.

Some findings from brain research have implications beyond the classroom, for school leadership in general. Chapter 6 examines how the brain influences the decision-making process, and how school leaders can use this information to build more productive and successful problem-solving teams. The components necessary for brain-compatible professional development are also reviewed as well as the pitfalls of being too successful as a leader.

What Do We Know About How the Brain Learns?

What an incredible time to be a professional educator! Oh, sure, teaching students and administering schools have never been more challenging. Our student population is becoming more diverse, the number of non-English-speaking students is growing rapidly, parents are relying more on schools to raise their children, and budgets are tighter than ever. Educators are asked to do more with less. However, despite all these challenges, we need to remember that schools are institutions of learning, and in recent years, the discoveries scientists are making about the learning process suggest that teachers can be more successful with more students—and that’s a very exciting prospect.

For a long time, researchers have been trying to determine how the incredible three pounds of tissue called the human brain can learn to speak, read, write, solve, and create. Most of our notions of how these cerebral processes operate resulted from observing behavior of a considerable number of individuals as they performed certain learning tasks. This formed the basis of behavioral psychology. With the development of brain-imaging technologies over the past several decades, researchers can now see inside the brain while it is carrying out various operations. Some of the findings from these imaging studies have given neuroscientists new and deeper insights into brain development and cerebral processing.

By now, most educators are aware that scientific advancements in brain research and imaging technology have changed cognitive psychology and neuroscience forever. However, are they also aware that some of the discoveries from this research have implications for what they do in schools and classrooms? In fact, the body of knowledge that represents this application of brain research to classroom practice has grown so much in the past two decades (Goldman, 2001; Goleman, 1995; Shaywitz, 2003) that it is now recognized as a separate area of study.

Often referred to informally as brain-compatible teaching and brain-friendly teaching, the field is now also known as mind, brain, and education or educational neuroscience. This area of inquiry looks at what we are learning about the human brain to determine if it has implications for the 5

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ONE

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The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms

curricular, instructional, and assessment decisions that teachers and building administrators make every day (Sousa, 2010).

A Quick Tour of the Brain As a building leader, you can help teachers update their knowledge base so they are better prepared to address the needs and learning preferences of a 21st century brain. However, to be successful at this task, your own knowledge base should be up to date. That is how this book can help. First, we will start with a quick-and-easy tour of the brain, highlighting those structures closely related to learning. (See the glossary, page 95, for definitions of the various brain structures noted in this book.)

Exterior Regions Figure 1.1 shows the exterior of the left hemisphere of the brain and its regions. Although the minor wrinkles in each brain are unique, the major wrinkles form a set of four lobes.

Together they represent about 80 percent of the brain’s weight and constitute the brain’s cerebrum. At the front of the brain is the frontal lobe. Often referred to as the executive control center, it is responsible for monitoring higher-order thinking, directing problem solving, and regulating emotions. Just behind the forehead is the prefrontal cortex, which does much of the frontal lobe’s processing.

Above the ears are the temporal lobes, which deal with sound, music, face, and object recognitions, and some aspects of memory. They also house the areas that process speech, although these are mainly in the left hemisphere. At the back of the brain are the paired occipital lobes, which almost exclusively process visual information. Near the top of the brain are the parietal lobes, which deal mainly with spatial orientation, calculation, and certain types of recognition.

© 2011 Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

These implications do not represent a packaged program or the strategy du jour that teachers sometimes view understandably with a wary eye. Rather, the goal of educational neuroscience is to reflect on this emerging research and decide whether it could have an impact on educational practices. After all, teachers are brain changers! Their main job is essentially to change the human brain every day through learning. Does it make sense, then, that the more they know about how the brain works, the more likely they are to be successful at changing it?

Yet ask teachers to explain two or three new things recently discovered about how the brain learns, and there will probably be an awkward silence. No doubt these teachers want to be successful with their students; in those cases when they are not successful, they may be trying to change a 21st century brain using a mid-20th century knowledge base about how the brain learns.

What Do We Know About How the Brain Learns? 7 Cerebrum

Frontal lobe

Parietal lobe

Temporal lobe

Occipital lobe

Figure 1.1: Some of the exterior regions of the brain.

Interior Structures Figure 1.2 shows some of the interior regions of the brain. The brain stem is the oldest part of the brain. It monitors and controls vital functions such as heartbeat, respiration, digestion, and body temperature. The area within the dotted rectangle is commonly referred to as the limbic area or limbic system. Three parts of the limbic area—the thalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala—are important to learning and memory.

The thalamus directs incoming sensory information (except smell) to other parts of the brain for additional processing. The hippocampus plays a major role in consolidating learning and in the construction of long-term memories as well as in the recall of facts, places, and objects.

Attached to the end of the hippocampus is the amygdala, which processes emotional information, generates emotional responses, and encodes the emotional component of a memory. Note here that the two structures in the brain responsible for long-term remembering are located in the emotional area of the brain. We will discuss the significance of this realization for teaching and learning in later chapters.

Thalamus

Corpus callosum

Limbic area Frontal lobe Cerebellum Amygdala Brain stem

Figure 1.2: Some of the internal structures of the brain.

Hippocampus

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Prefrontal cortex

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The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms

Brain Cells The brain is composed of a trillion cells of at least two known types, nerve cells and glial cells. The nerve cells are called neurons and represent about one-tenth of the total—roughly one hundred billion. Most of the cells are glial cells that hold the neurons together, act as filters to keep harmful substances out, and regulate the rate of neuron signaling. The neurons are the functioning core for the brain and the entire nervous system. They come in different sizes, but the body of each brain neuron is about one one-hundredth the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Each neuron (figure 1.3) has tens of thousands of branches, dendrites, emerging from its core. The dendrites receive electrical impulses from other neurons and transmit them along a long fiber called the axon. There is normally only one axon per neuron. A layer called the myelin sheath surrounds each axon (a process called myelination). The sheath insulates the axon from the other cells and increases the speed of impulse transmission.

Synapse

Dendrite

Axon terminal button

Soma (cell body) Nucleus

Axon Myelin sheath

Figure 1.3: Parts of a neuron.

Neurons have no direct contact with each other. Between each dendrite and axon is a small gap of about a millionth of an inch called a synapse. During a learning episode, an external stimulus, such as a light or sound wave, sends a signal to a neuron. The neuron transmits the signal along its axon to the synapse where the activity releases chemicals called neurotransmitters.

These chemicals excite or inhibit the neighboring neuron. When the first neuron fires again, a link is established with its neighbors. Eventually, the first neuron can just fire weakly to set off

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Communication between the brain’s two hemispheres occurs through a thick cable of nerves called the corpus callosum. This structure is proportionally larger and thicker in women than in men and may explain why many young girls are generally better at language processing than young boys. At the back of the brain behind the brain stem lies the cerebellum. This area mainly controls movement and is important in the performance and timing of complex motor tasks. It stores the memory of automated tasks, such as touch-typing and tying a shoelace, thus allowing the frontal lobe to attend to other mental activities.

What Do We Know About How the Brain Learns? 9

all its linked neighbors. If this happens repeatedly, these neurons form a network and will fire together in the future, thus forming a memory of the learning that caused the initial stimulus.

New Views of Brain Development Recent research findings have caused us to revise some of our views regarding brain growth and development. Of particular interest have been those findings that have implications for what educators do in schools and classrooms. Building leaders, especially at the elementary grade levels, should consider these findings because they often have a greater impact on the young brain than on the adult brain.

Nature Versus Nurture The long-held notion of nature (genes) versus nurture (environment) is obsolete. The discovery of gene expression has changed all that (Rossi, 2002). Now we believe that an individual’s development and behavior is a mix of nature and nurture. Certain genes, for example, those moderating shyness or aggressiveness, have the capacity to express themselves during the early years when circumstances and behaviors in the environment provoke them.

Implication Schools have a far greater impact on brain development than we realize, especially in the primary and intermediate grades. For example, teachers in these grade levels who consistently allow a shy student to remain detached from class discussions are establishing a learning environment that could consolidate that student’s genetic predisposition for shyness for years to come. Conversely, teachers who fail to control a student’s aggressive behavior may be establishing a climate that consolidates the student’s genetic predisposition for aggressiveness, setting the stage for continuing discipline problems in subsequent grades (Rossi, 2002). Building principals can ensure through staff meetings that teachers are aware of the impact of classroom and school climate on the developing brains of their students.

Brain Development Teachers and parents are well aware of the unpredictable and often risky behavior of preteens and adolescents. Emotional outbursts and physical aggression are common ways for these youngsters to deal with situations. We often blame these behaviors on changing hormones.

Studies of brain growth have revealed through imaging technology that the emotional areas of the brain are fully developed around the age of ten to twelve years, but the regions responsible for rational thought and emotional control mature closer to twenty-two to twenty-four years of

© 2011 Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

This brief tour of brain structures should be helpful in gaining a greater understanding of the research presented in this book. Now let’s take a look at some of the recent research findings that have implications for educational practice. A few implications are explained here, but specific strategies for translating these implications into school and classroom practice appear in the chapters that follow.

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The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms

age (Giedd, Molloy, & Blumenthal, 2003; Johnson, Blum, & Giedd, 2009). As the frontal lobe matures, more myelination occurs. In the set of images in figure 1.4, the lighter areas show the increasing myelination of the frontal lobe over a span of fifteen years (Giedd et al., 1999).

Although this finding does not excuse child and adolescent misbehavior, it helps explain it. Educators need to be aware of this process, so that they can turn to appropriate interventions, rather than simply saying, “You should have known better.” It may be more effective with younger students to explain in simple terms how the rational part of their brain does not yet fully control their emotions. Tell them they should wait (“Spell your name backward before reacting”) before committing an inappropriate act to give their slowly maturing rational brain time to assess the situation and deter them from such misbehavior (Sousa, 2009a).

Age 5

Front

Age 8

Age 12

Age 16

Age 20

Figure 1.4: Myelination over a span of fifteen years.

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Implication

What Do We Know About How the Brain Learns? 11

Neuron Regeneration

Implication Learning also causes neurons to rewire themselves and establish new networks, especially when the learning is pursued in depth, in a creative environment, and with low stress. Just as a large tree branch can give rise to smaller branches, each of the neural networks can become an area where new networks are established.

Classrooms can be places that grow new neurons! Encourage teachers to provide creative and kinesthetic learning environments, because those environments are more likely to encourage neuron development than those that are static and rely heavily on rote memorization. Rote memorization can be useful for remembering steps in a procedure, but that process merely reactivates existing neural pathways. Creative and challenging learning experiences, on the other hand, build new neural pathways, resulting in a rich forest of interconnected dendrites where new memories can form. In addition, having students actively participate and solve problems related to the real world are just two examples of how teachers can establish challenging and mind-growing experiences in their classrooms. Some teachers may feel that their administrators might frown upon these creative, unusual activities. Principals, then, should make clear that they support instructional strategies designed to encourage student engagement and promote higher-order thinking.

Brain Plasticity One of the most important recent discoveries is that experiences are continually changing the physical form and organization of the human brain—a characteristic known as plasticity (Weinberger, 2008). For example, if we start learning to play the piano, neural circuits in several regions of our brain grow and rewire in order to coordinate finger movements, recognize pitch, and learn to read musical symbols. With practice, these changes become permanent; that is, neural circuits that are continually activated are strengthened while those that are less active are weakened. Although this discovery is exciting, it is also alarming because whenever students are engaged in classroom experiences, their brains can be changed forever—for good or for ill!

© 2011 Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

One of the bedrock beliefs in human biology was that—unlike other body cells—neurons in the brain did not regenerate. But that notion was set aside in 1998 when scientists discovered that neurons do regenerate—a process called neurogenesis. It now appears that this regeneration occurs mainly in the hippocampus, that structure in the limbic area believed responsible for encoding information into long-term memory (Eriksson et al., 1998; Jessberger, Aimone, & Gage, 2008). Diet and exercise are contributing factors to this process. Exercise stimulates the production of a powerful growth factor that aids in the development of healthy tissue and encourages the development of new neurons (Pereira et al., 2007).

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The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms

Implication

Brain Structure Although the basic structure of the brain is the same, no two are identical, and each is organized differently. Thanks to the brain’s high plasticity, different brains can wire the same pieces together in various ways. Even identical twins raised in the same environment have differently wired brains. Of course, there are similarities among all individuals in how they learn and the brain areas involved in learning. Just as all human faces have common structures, each face is unique—and so is each brain.

Implication The unique organization of each brain helps explain why students learn in many different ways: because they come to us with many different experiences. This uniqueness also reaffirms the long-standing notion that not all brains are equally adept at learning the same information, process, or skill. Some learn faster than others and in different ways. Some students learn more slowly because they process information more deeply. Teachers should sufficiently differentiate instructional activities to accommodate these different learning rates and preferences.

Differentiation occurs when teachers vary their selection of content, instructional strategies, assessment techniques, and classroom environment. Principals should support differentiation, especially as the student population becomes more linguistically and culturally diverse.

Our Changing Memory Systems A common teacher remark is “I taught it, but the kids didn’t learn it.” Teachers often get exasperated when they discover how little students remember from their lessons. Consequently, the research on memory systems is of particular interest because it has direct implications for how much students remember as well as for curriculum and assessment. As principals feel the pressure of high-stakes testing and achievement ratings for individual schools, they might want to consider helping their staff understand more about retention of learning. Here are some recent findings worth considering.

Memory Capacity When students are learning something new, they process it in a temporary memory called working memory. This processing is of limited capacity and involves building, taking apart, or

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Think of the awesome responsibility this situation places on teachers who are deciding every day what activities to provide their students. This finding alone reaffirms the role of teachers as brain changers. The information that teachers present, the strategies they use during the presentation, and their assessment techniques all play major roles in determining how a student will process, interpret, and consolidate the information into the cerebral networks. This process is happening continually and affects how that student will interpret future learnings.

What Do We Know About How the Brain Learns? 13

Implication If teachers are unaware of these lower-capacity limits of working memory, they may easily exceed them when they try to cram too much information into a lesson. Curriculum cramming is now a common occurrence in this era when demands for teacher accountability and highstakes testing hold sway. Yet the research implication here is simple but important: less is more.

Principals can relieve some of the stress caused by the over-crowded curriculum by working with teachers to identify material that can be skipped, thus allowing more time to be devoted to important content. See chapter 2, pages 28–32, for suggestions on how to accomplish this curriculum pruning.

Working Memory Retention Apparently, learners can hold items in working memory longer than previously thought— up to several weeks. They then discard them when they serve no further purpose—like after they take the test (Lewandowsky & Oberauer, 2009). This explains why students can pass a test today on a topic and hardly remember the information several months later.

Implication Teachers hope students will remember forever what they are taught. The principle of retention is an ideal topic for meaningful professional development. By updating their knowledge about memory systems, teachers can design effective instructional strategies (for example, rote and elaborative rehearsal as well as massed and distributed practice) that help make long-term retention of learning possible and probable.

Meaning The search for meaning is innate. When processing new information, the brain seeks to determine whether the information has meaning. It does this by trying to connect the new learning to past learnings that are already in long-term memory and also by looking for patterns. Through patterns, it can predict outcomes. Thus, what we already know acts as a filter, helping us to attend to those things that have meaning (or relevancy) and to discard those that do not.

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reworking ideas for eventual storage in long-term memory. When something is in working memory, it captures our focus and demands our attention. Brain-imaging studies show that most of working memory’s activity occurs in the frontal lobe, although other parts of the brain are often called into action (Sousa, 2006; Sweeney, 2009). Views about working (temporary) memory are changing. We have known for a long time that working memory has age-related limits on how many items of information it can hold at the same time. Older studies placed this number between five and seven items, depending on the age of the learner. However, newer studies seem to indicate that this capacity is even less than previously thought—probably closer to four items (Cowan, Morey, Chen, Gilchrist, & Saults, 2008). (See page 31 for more information about items in working memory.)

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The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms

Implication

Movement Our brain developed its amazing capabilities partly because of our ability to move. By staying in one place on the savannah, we became some animal’s lunch. Movement helped to escape predatory animals and human enemies. Often, we had to make critical decisions while on the run in order to stay alive. It became important, too, to remember which animals and tribes were dangerous or friendly, and which land areas were fertile for crops. Thus, motion became closely tied to neural networks to long-term memory sites. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that research findings have challenged the effectiveness of the typical classroom setting where students just “sit and get.” Research shows that the brain is more active and effective when learners are moving around. Movement brings additional fuel-carrying blood to the brain (Ratey, 2008).

Implication Students at all grade levels need to be up and moving around regularly in the classroom while rehearsing what they are learning. This allows the brain to access more long-term memory areas (an ancient survival strategy), thereby helping students to make greater connections between new and past learnings, and they are, thus, likely to retain more. Teachers may be reluctant to have students moving about the classroom, however, out of concern that administrators may believe they are unable to control their students. Knowing that their principal supports appropriate movement-related activities will encourage teachers to include them in their repertoire.

Sleep Researchers have found that during sleep the brain is incredibly active, carrying out processes that help the brain to learn, make connections, remember, and clear out clutter. During certain stages of sleep—called rapid eye movement or REM—the brain encodes information that was in working memory into long-term memory. In an eight- to nine-hour sleep cycle, there are usually four to five REM stages. Recent surveys indicate that high school students typically get between five and six hours of sleep on a school night (Carskadon, Acebo, & Jenni, 2004). That reduced amount of sleep time includes just three REM stages, so these students are missing one or two more REM-stage opportunities to remember what they learned that day.

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Too often, curriculum units stand alone with little connection to students’ past learnings or real-world experiences. With such a fragile foundation, encoding new content to long-term memory becomes tedious, if it occurs at all. Students are more likely to remember new information that they can relate to what they already know and what already has meaning for them. That is why it is important for grade-level and subject-area teachers to meet regularly to discuss ways of ensuring that curriculum content is meaningful and related to their students’ prior experiences. As a building leader, are you arranging and facilitating such meetings?

What Do We Know About How the Brain Learns? 15

Implication With sufficient sleep, students have a better chance of remembering all the good information and skills they learned in school that day, and they have a better chance to come better prepared to deal with the challenges of the next day. Educators, as well as parents, need to ensure that students get sufficient sleep during school nights. The recommended time is nine to ten hours for preadolescents and eight to nine hours for adolescents and adults. Persistent lack of sleep can damage the hippocampus, leading to cognitive dysfunction and possible mood disorders (Meerlo, Mistlberger, Jacobs, Heller, & McGinty, 2009). Principals should encourage teachers to explain the benefits of sleep to their students. They should emphasize that during sleep is when the brain establishes the long-term memory circuits needed for remembering new information and skills.

Student Attention Keep this formula in mind: memory + attention = learning. The brain will remember little unless it devotes attention to it. Numerous research studies in neuroscience have looked at the characteristics of human attention and its components. Here are some fascinating findings.

Systems Responsible for Attention The cerebral systems that allow us to focus our attention seem to be a lot more complicated than we once thought (Styles, 2006). Apart from survival messages (for example, smelling smoke and hearing fire alarms) or powerful emotional outbursts, the brain is constantly searching for novelty. That is because the brain is designed to learn, and novel events usually involve new learning. We do not pay attention to boring things.

Implication Maintaining focus in a classroom where nothing is novel will require considerable mental effort. Teachers who understand the power of novelty can vary their class routines and design creative and attention-grabbing learning experiences. Playing music, using humor, getting students up and moving around, and using multisensory techniques are all ways of adding novelty to the classroom experience.

Environmental Demands Today’s students are accustomed to having numerous environmental demands for their attention. Gadgets such as smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), iPods, and DVD

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A brain that is deprived of sleep has trouble capturing all sorts of memories. Loss of sleep diminishes attention, executive functions, working memory, mood, logical reasoning, quantitative skills, and motor dexterity. Studies show that sleep-deprived students are more likely to get poorer grades than students who slept longer, and they are more likely to get depressed (Wolfson, Spaulding, Dandrow, & Baroni, 2007).

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The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms

players, along with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, all demand attention. How does the school compete, especially when many high school students report they are bored and disconnected from school? Here are some disturbing findings: suburbs, and small towns why they left school (Bridgeland, DiIulio, & Morison, 2006).

Although there are numerous reasons why students decide to drop out of school, 47 percent of the students surveyed said the main (and most frequently cited) reason they dropped out of school was that they did not find their classes interesting.

•• The 2009 annual High School Survey of Student Engagement surveyed nearly 43,000

students from twenty-seven states (Yazzie-Mintz, 2010). This survey revealed that just 2 percent of students say they are never bored in school. When asked why they went to school, less than half of the students—41 percent—said it is because of what they learned in classes, while 23 percent said it is because of their teachers.

Implication

Clearly, educators have a challenge on their hands: keeping students’ brains engaged so students are less likely to drop out of school. One way to accomplish this is to establish a braincompatible curriculum that is relevant and interesting. Such a curriculum would include simulations, case studies, scenarios, performances, projects, service options, and authentic problems.

Peripheral Perception Apart from focusing on a particular event, peripheral perception also plays an important role in learning because it divides the brain’s attention. Stimuli in the students’ surroundings can enhance or limit learning and memory. For example, if a student is focused on learning how the Vietnam War affected American politics, audio recordings of the 1960s student protests would enhance that learning and retention. However, peripheral interruptions, such as a neighboring student talking off task about yesterday’s football game, could impede learning.

Implication Teachers should consider both focused- and peripheral-attention demands when planning instructional activities. Building leaders should keep classroom interruptions to an absolute minimum as they result in a loss of students’ focus on the lesson and some decay of items in working memory.

Emotions and Learning Scientists have known for years that emotions play a crucial role in memory formation.

Research studies have now looked more closely at how the brain’s emotional system interacts with cognitive processing and the impact this interaction has on retention of learning. Here are a few of the more important findings.

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•• A 2006 study asked nearly five hundred adolescents in twenty-five different cities,

What Do We Know About How the Brain Learns? 17

Feeling Physically Safe and Emotionally Secure

Implication Administrators and teachers should work together to provide a school and classrooms that harbor a positive learning environment. This is particularly true in the upper elementary and middle school grades in which the focus shifts from child development to content acquisition.

Teachers may inadvertently allow the nurturing atmosphere to dissipate, and they may replace it with an impersonal, business-like environment centered on covering curriculum content for high-stakes tests.

Connecting Emotions to Content Emotions also affect how receptive students are to new learning. How they feel about a learning experience is often more important than the content being taught. Too often, teachers are so intent on delivering content that they overlook ways of getting students to tie into the content emotionally. Once again, this is where real-world, relevant applications of the new learning can stimulate emotions and get students motivated to pursue the learning objective.

Implication Instructional strategies should include ways to get students emotionally involved with the lesson content. For instance, it is possible to teach all the important dates, battles, and persons related to the U.S. Civil War and yet miss discussing the incredible emotional toll it took on the country—a toll so profound that we are still living with its remnants nearly 150 years later!

How to help students make emotional connections to the curriculum is another very appropriate topic for professional development for grade-level and subject-area teachers.

The Social Brain It is only since the early 2000s that neuroscientists have realized the impact that our social behavior and culture have on attention, learning, and remembering. Research studies have sought to identify brain regions that respond to social interactions and have introduced surprising findings. Here are a few of the surprises.

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Teachers of the elementary grades are accustomed to dealing with their students’ constant display of emotions. Teachers in middle and high schools, however, are trained to deliver content—and lots of it! They have little time to deal with their students’ emotional development, often assuming that they should act like adults. When educators understand the biology of emotions, especially stress, they recognize that students cannot focus on the curriculum unless they feel physically safe (from weapons, violence, or threats) and feel emotionally secure (they perceive that teachers respect them and actually care about their success).

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The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms

Mirror Neurons and Social Climate

Implication Mirror neurons also allow us to internally recreate the experience of others and to understand others’ emotions and to empathize. Schools tend to be so focused on academics and testing that they are often unaware of the powerful impact that social and cultural forces have on students and on learning. To what degree do students feel welcomed and respected by their peers and teachers? How much will they succumb to peer pressure and mimic what others do?

What risks are they willing to take to feel socially accepted?

We are social beings, and social interactions help learning. Mirror neurons are very active when students are engaged with each other. Students must not only listen to other students’ words, but also interpret their facial expressions, gestures, and tones of voice. These interactions stimulate many areas of the brain, thereby increasing the likelihood of comprehension and retention of learning.

School Culture Imaging studies have revealed the brain regions that appraise the meaning of an event and decide what emotional response to use in a social context. The diagram in figure 1.5 shows the location of two brain areas (medial prefrontal cortex and the anterior temporal lobe) that are active when an individual processes a social task (Heatherton et al., 2006). These and other findings have spawned a new field of study called social cognitive neuroscience. School culture is characterized in part by the openness of communications, level of expectations, amount of recognition and appreciation for effort, involvement in decision making, and degree of caring.

All of these affect an individual’s self-esteem.

Educators need to pay much more attention to strengthening the positive aspects of the school’s social and cultural climates and include frequent opportunities for peer and collaborative learning activities. Students who feel a close attachment to their school and feel supported by teachers and their peers tend to have higher achievement than those who do not (Stewart, 2008). Regrettably, we have seen the kinds of violent acts that students can commit when they feel disaffected from their school.

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The recent discovery of mirror neurons has shed light on our understanding of ways in which young children learn by watching others. Mirror neurons are a cluster of brain cells that activate when an individual carries out a planned movement (such as raising a hand).

Curiously, these same neurons also fire when an individual only watches someone else perform that movement. Neuroscientists believe that these neurons help us decode the intentions and predict the behavior of others (Rizzolatti & Fabbri-Destro, 2010). This is a primeval capability important for survival in prehistoric times when we needed to determine quickly whether an approaching stranger was friend or foe.

What Do We Know About How the Brain Learns? 19

Frontal lobe

Anterior temporal lobe

Figure 1.5: Two areas that are active when one processes a social task.

Implication To be effective, school principals must have a thorough understanding of how schools operate and of what they can do realistically to improve them. These recent findings about how the brain learns can help principals and their teacher leaders encourage the faculty to try new strategies that may result in greater student achievement at more brain-friendly schools.

Questions for Reflection Here are just a few questions that educational leaders should consider when deciding if their schools are compatible with today’s students. How would you respond to them? Suggestions for dealing with the topics in these questions appear in the chapters that follow.

•• Have teachers learned of the recent discoveries in neuroscience about the brain and how it learns?

•• Does the professional development program include regular reviews of new information on how the brain learns?

•• Do teachers understand the difference between learning and retention, and do they know strategies that can increase retention of learning?

•• Do teachers recognize the need for novelty in their lessons to maintain student interest?

•• Do students have regular opportunities to stand up, move, and talk about their learning during a lesson?

•• Are teachers using different types of technology in the classroom on a regular basis?

© 2011 Solution Tree Press. All rights reserved.

Medial prefrontal cortex

The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms “ All credible 21st century educational theories will be grounded in educational neuroscience, the underlying neurobiology of teaching and learning. David Sousa explores the shift from 20th century speculation and professional folklore to 21st century schools that will be mediated by biology and augmented by electronic technology. He provides educational leaders with an excellent introduction to what educational neuroscience now knows, and how educators can best use this knowledge.”

W HAT P R I N C I P A L S N E E D TO K N O W ABOUT

W h at P r i n c i pa l s N e e d t o K n o w a b o u t

—Robert Sylwester, Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Oregon

—Martha Kaufeldt, Educational Consultant and Author, Scotts Valley, California

The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms explores the latest brain research on teaching, learning, and leading.

Author David A. Sousa guides principals through the major characteristics of brain-compatible curriculum, instruction, assessment, and leadership. Using this brief and accessible overview of educational neuroscience, school leaders can construct meaningful professional development that enhances teachers’ knowledge and skills about brain-compatible learning so they can build successful classrooms for all learners.

Author David A. Sousa offers K–8 principals and administrators: • Straightforward language on how the brain learns • Comprehensive research on 21st century learning • Insightful strategies for identifying and accommodating students with special needs

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The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms Sousa

“ Sousa is masterful at summarizing complex neuroscience research into concise, accessible concepts that administrators can use immediately. Principals will gain a greater understanding of what classrooms should look and feel like when teachers plan instruction based on how their students’ diverse brains learn, remember, and create. . . . Sousa says that master teachers can be ‘brain changers.’ Veteran as well as novice principals may find their own brains changed after reading this practical overview of brain-compatible learning.”

W h at P r i n c i pa l s Need to Know about

The Basics of Creating Brain-Compatible Classrooms

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