Brain Based Teaching and
Learning
Jenna Hallman
Based on the work of Ann Anzalone,
Renate and Geoffrey Caine, Erik Jensen,
Sean Layne, and Daniel Pink
What do you know?
BrainBased
•
http://www.thinkingmaps.com/
Today you will learn
five new ideas about
brain based learning.
Why Brain Based?
A Few Quick Facts and Some Stretches
• The brain is made up of a higher percentage of
water than any other organ.
• Until the age of 15, boys need more physical
space in which to work.
• Girls tend to learn better in groups and in
darkened rooms.
• The adolescent brain needs 9 hours and 15
minutes of sleep a night!
12 Core Principles - Renate Nummela
Caine and Geoffrey Caine
1) Every brain is uniquely organized.
Let’s take a test!
Clock Partners
2) The brain is a social brain.
And one more …
3) The search for meaning is innate.
ABCDEFGHIJKLM
NOPQRSTVWXYZ
JOBINJOB
VA DERS
NINE
CUMULUS
And yet …
• The end result is not automatic!
• You can either hold students’ attention or they
can make meaning.
• Personal processing time is required.
• New content/novice learners 2-5 minutes
every 10-15 minutes.
• Synapse between dendrites and axon
strengthen when competing stimuli is
eliminated.
Time for a Change!
• Turn to an elbow partner.
• Work together to recall the first three core
principles.
• Brainstorm three reasons why this is
important for teachers AND students.
• What are your thoughts about how you can
use this information with your students?
It’s all about patterns!
• 4) The search for meaning comes through
“patterning” (organization/categorization).
Immediate Memory –
30 seconds
Working memory – 45 minutes
Long-term memory
A Safe Brain is a Learning Brain
5) Emotions are critical to patterning.
• Students must feel emotionally safe and have
a sense of belonging in order to learn. Using
the same routines creates safety.
Helping the Brain to Learn
6) Learning involves both focused
attention and peripheral perception.
• “That’s interesting!”
• Colors, smells, shapes, rhythms
• Body Mapping
• Attention
• Brain Breaks
Time for a Change!
• Find your 6:00 partner.
• Decide on a way to practice principles 4-6.
- Walk and talk
- Create a chant
- Create a tableau with another group
- Ball toss
• Find a new place to sit.
Right Brain or Left Brain
7) We have at least two types of memory –a spatial
memory system (autobiographical) and a set of systems
for rote learning.
8) The brain simultaneously perceives and creates wholes
(big picture = right) and parts (details = left).
It’s all Connected!
9) Learning involves the entire physiology.
10) The brain is a parallel processor (colateral).
Brain Dance by Anne Green Gilbert:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Breath
Tactile
Core-Distal Stretch
Head-Tail Curl
Upper-Lower
Body-Side
Cross-Lateral
Vestibular
Balancing the Brain
11) Learning involves both conscious and
unconscious processes.
• Singing, Music, and Laughing
• Verbalize thought process
Finally …
12) Learning is enhanced by challenge and
inhibited by threat. Under stress we go to our
primary brain.
• Game Time
Random Thoughts
• We comprehend 4x higher than we can read
• Females use 25,000 words per day/ Males use 12,500
• Age + 2 minutes = how often students must share (include
visual options)
• Schedule for Long Term Memory
- 10 minutes after teaching
-1 day after teaching
-1 week after teaching
-1 month after teaching
-3 months after teaching
• The best way to get children thinking is to have them write
every day.
What do you know?
BrainBased
•
http://www.thinkingmaps.com/
Resources
• Ann Anzalone: Learning with Thinking in Mind
http://annanzalone.com/
• Renate and Geoffrey Caine
http://www.mainesupportnetwork.org/handouts
/pdf/Caine's.pdf
• Jensen, E. (1998). Teaching with the brain in
mind. Alexandria: ASCD.
• Pink, D. H. (2006). A whole new mind. New York:
Riverhead Books.
• Thinking Maps: http://www.thinkingmaps.com/
In the end,
all that matters is what you think, because
if you don’t think it,
it can’t exist for you.
• Jenna Hallman
hallmanj@cerra.org