Teaching The Student
In Front Of You
A wholly inadequate crash course in
differentiation, psychosocial development,
and neuroscience
Elements Shaping Instruction
School
Mission
Physical
Environment
The Teacher
The
Curriculum
Goals
• Become aware of the many, many ways and time
frames in which normal people unfold
• Think deeply about kids (ie. a diagnostic instinct): “I
wonder what’s going on inside there?”
• Consider how cognitive, physical, and
social/emotional growth are interconnected &
interdependent
So who are the children we teach?
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/multit
asking-help-for-kids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faIFNkdq96U
http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_suarez_a_12_y
ear_old_app_developer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BMYTD-n26s
Reflections
What did you notice about the lives of children
in 2015?
What seems different about these kids’ lives
than your life as a child?
What do you think is relatively the same about
being a child in 2015 as it was for you? Or
your parents?
What does this
student’s unique brain
need to learn best?
It turns out that optimal brain
functioning happens when a student
(and teacher)….
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Have adequate sleep
Exercise regularly
Minimize long term stress
Eat a healthy diet
Enjoy healthy and satisfying relationships
Practice mindfulness or other approaches to
deepening emotional stability and presence
First Great Period of Brain Reorganization
26 weeks: 50,000 neurons per second
At birth, same number of synapses as adults
By age 2 or 3, twice or three times the synapses as
adults
• After that, pruning based on what is used
• By 8, back to adult levels
• First years of schooling are critical!!!
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Last Great Push of Brain Development!
Several brain areas double or triple
Frontal lobe thickens11- 13, thins until 20
Pruning of unneeded childhood memories
Decides what is important based on what is used
Growth in frontal lobes (DLPFC, OFC)
Hormonal changes make the body a new machine to
learn how to work
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• Facial expressions read with the amygdala,not
fusiform face area
• Brain grows in spurts (like the rest of the body)
• Extremes of novelty seeking
• Lack of planning (hard to see consequences)
• Crowd morality (immature PFC)
• Sensitivity to reward (actual, not adult defined)
• Social context is HUUUUGGGEEE
Cognitive Development
Piaget
• Children develop in predictable
stages
• Thinking develops from
concrete to abstract
Vygotsky
• Scaffolding
• Zone of Proximal Development
• Self Regulation
Vygotsky: Zone of Proximal Development
Current Research on the Brain & Intelligence
• Howard Gardner
• Intelligence isn’t fixed
• Intelligence is expressed
in many ways
• Center for the Developing Child,
Harvard University
• Development of Neuro pathways
• Brain Plasticity
• John Medina
• Strategies to promote optimal brain
development
▫
Howard Gardner: Multiple Intelligences
Cerebrodiversity
Cerebrodiversity
• We have a collective neural heterogeneity
• No such thing as an optimal brain. Even the brain that
scores 2400
• Cerebrodiversity IS the reason for differentiation
• If Cerebrodiversity is a fact, then differentiation is not
negotiable
• Grade levels and age-specific outcomes violate what we
know about human development
• All brains are unique. Each of our brains solve wiring
problems in slightly or very different ways .
Resources for Cognitive
Development
• For more on Vygotsky http://www.toolsofthemind.org/philosophy/vygotskianapproach/
• For an overview of Piaget’s theories https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxo8zkgd07E
• For more on Howard Gardner & Multiple Intelligences Theory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2QtSbP4FRg
• More on Multiple Intelligences https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wkFGXqJxas
• Book on MI – Thomas Armstrong (2009), Multiple Intelligences in
the Classroom
For More on Brain Research & Learning
• http://www.edutopia.org/brain-based-learning-keylargo-school-video
• For a list of excellent articles http://www.edutopia.org/article/brain-basedlearning-resource-roundup
• Book on maximizing brain growth & development –
John Medina (2014), Brain Rules
• Social Emotional Learning & The Brain http://www.edutopia.org/richard-davidson-sel-brainvideo
Physical Development
– Age 5 – Age 10 – development of motor skills, need
approximately 10 hours sleep, difficulty balancing
high & low periods of energy, muscle coordination
is uneven and incomplete, eyes reach maturity
– Ages 10 – 14 – onset of puberty, rapid growth in
height & weight, uneven development among
peers, need 9 – 10 hours of sleep
– Ages 14 – 18 – boys still reaching adult height, shift
in ratio of body fat to muscle mass , need 8 – 10
hours of sleep
For More on Physical Development
• http://www.healthychildren.org/English/agesstages/gradeschool/puberty/Pages/PhysicalDevelopment-of-School-Age-Children.aspx
• Article - A Fit Body Means a Fit Mind http://www.edutopia.org/exercise-fitness-brainbenefits-learning
• Article - Active Bodies Lead to Active Minds http://www.edutopia.org/teaching-physical-activity
• Article – Teaching Kids About Healthy Eating &
Avoiding Obesity http://www.edutopia.org/blog/tackle-obesityschools-students-healthcorps
In table groups:
List characteristics of a child that you
know you will naturally like.
List characteristics of a child that you
know you will struggle to like.
Personal and Social Development
Gilligans Stages of Ethic of Care
Growth Mindset
For More on Social Emotional Learning
• For information on SEL Classroom Managementhttp://www.edutopia.org/stw-sel-classroommanagement-resources
• Resources for developing a thriving social emotional
classroom community (elementary
grades)https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/ and
(middle grades)
http://www.originsonline.org/developmental-designs
• For a list of excellent articles on growth mindsethttp://www.edutopia.org/resilience-grit-resources
• Growth Mindset Curriculum http://www.stepitup2thrive.org
Bloom: Taxonomy of Learning 2001
Research Study About Grades
• Grades only: Made no learning gains post grades
• Comments only: Made most learning gains
• Comments and grades: No learning gains
▫ Probably due to focus on grades instead of comments
Focus on Formative Feedback, Valerie Shute, Educational Testing Services, 2007
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