All Children Can Learn:

Our Biological Imperative

Encephalon• 78% water, 10% fat, 8% protein• Cerebral cortex: Latin for “bark” or “rind” is 4

– 8 neurons thick (thin orange rind)• Gyri and sulci allow the covering to

maximize the surface area• Laid out, cortex is the size of an unfolded

single page of a newspaper

Energy for Learning• Consumes 20% of body’s energy• Receives about 8 gallons of blood per hour,

about 198 gallons per day• Needs 8 – 12 glasses of water per day for

optimal functioning• Dehydration leads to lethargy and impaired

learning• Nutrition critical to optimal functioning

Did you know?

• The average adult lungs can hold nearly two gallons of air. Due to chronically shallow breathing patterns, however, most adults only inhale between two and three pints of air per inhalation.

Learning.com

• Learning rewires the brain• Memory stored in all parts of

encephalon• Learning = long term potentiation =

myelination• Teachers are actually “facilitators of

myelination”

Learning• Involves our entire

body, • our emotions, • our attitudes, • our beliefs, • our developmental

rate, • our gender and• our health

LearningSimultaneously processes all at once a world of color, movement, emotion, shape, intensity, sound, taste, weight

Learners• Require novelty. A slower, more linear

pace actually inhibits learning• Need quiet periods to process newly

obtained information. • Learning is maximized by alternating

focused attention and diffused activities

The Student: • Is typically starved for information, experience and stimuli in a traditional classroom

• May be subject to the “Six hour retarded child syndrome” (Mercer)

• Is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat (complex learning) (Caine)

• Thinking style may often be confused with quality of intelligence (Sternberg)

Mercer, J. R. (1973). Labeling the mentally retarded; clinical and social system perspectives on mental retardation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Caine, R. N. (2009). 12 brain/mind learning principles in action: developing executive functions of the human brain (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA.: Corwin Press.

All students can learn• OLD : Teacher teaches, students

perform, teacher assesses.

• NEW: Teacher is a catalyst for student learning and student self-assessment.

Everything that we have discovered about the brain in the

last 20 years suggests that we need more stimulus, more

change, more movement and more perspectives in the

classroom. All the world is a classroom, with the most vivid

lessons found in nature. Eric Jensen

Jensen, E. (2005). Teaching with the brain in mind (2nd ed.). Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Many learning problems could be eliminated if teachers examined more carefully the mismatch between their teaching style and their student’s thinking style. Sternberg

All students are discoverers• OLD: Student as subject; teacher

identifies, measures and demands desirable outcomes, based on reward and punishment.

• NEW: How does the human brain naturally learn best; and what can we do to provide it the optimal environment?

All students have gifts

• OLD : Teacher tests students to find out if they are gifted or not.

• NEW: Teachers believe their job is to bring out the giftedness in each of their learners.

All learners love success• OLD : Avoid mistakes – they’re bad.

Mark down students for poor results.• NEW: Mistakes provide valuable

feedback and an opportunity to grow. We can use them positively and learn from them.

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you

help them to become what they are capable of being.

Johann W. von Goethe

All students can succeed• OLD : Some students are going to fail no

matter what is done. That’s just the way it is.• NEW: Teacher instills an attitude of

success. By being flexible and judicious, student success rates soar.

Relationship3

• OLD : Label students based on their classroom performance.

• NEW: Treat negative classroom behaviors as temporary and every student as having unlimited potential.

Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend’s forehead.

Chinese Proverb

Teaching is a 110% effort• OLD : Teaching is a safe,

easy, low-risk profession.

• NEW: Successful teaching in today’s climate requires vigilant personal growth, rigorous professional growth and calculated risk-taking.

We are all teachers and learners

Teaching and learning is a lifelong process, not an event, or a class, or a

day at school. One does not simply become a great teacher; one simply

commits to it as a path. Eric Jensen

Jensen, E. (2005). Teaching with the brain in mind (2nd ed.). Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

The Biological Imperative• The brain is designed for learning.• The brain is dynamic, complex, changing

organ that houses the mind.• Most learning takes place unconsciously.• It is never too late to learn.

“Children need a flood of information, a banquet, a feast.” Martha Pearson

Become the lesson you would teach.

Leonard Roy Frank