vision of the future is it possible to reach every student?
TRANSCRIPT
Neuroscience & the Classroom: Strategies for Maximizing Students’ Engagement, Memory &
PotentialUC Santa Barbara: August 3-6, 2010
Is it possible to reach every student?
Did you do what our students do?
The best students miss information, even when they are paying attention…….
R = Reach Students’ Attention (RAS)
R = Reach Students’ Attention (RAS): Use changes in the environment, surprise, teachable moments, and multisensory instruction to reach the conscious brain. The RAS filters all incoming stimuli and makes the “decision” as to what people attend or ignore. The sensory input that focus the RAS and are selected for admission to the brain relate to novelty, potential threat and curiosity.
Examples of novelty include: • Music• Costumes• Change volume or cadence of voice• Optical illusions• Bizzare factoids• Discrepant Events• Making predications
A = Attitude (Amygdala)• A = Attitude (Amygdala): Attitude aims information toward the thinking brain through the
amygdala. When the amygdala filters new information, it can go one of two directions. Stress, fear and anxiety filter new information to the lower, reactive brain where the outcome is fight, flight or freeze. Positive information filters to the prefrontal cortex which is associated with the highest cognitive processes, also referred to as executive functions, including planning, decision-making, reasoning, and analysis.
Some causes of stress in school include: • Fear of being wrong• Embarrased to speak in class, answer questions, present their work in class• Test taking anxiety• Physical and language differences• Boredom from lack of stimulation due ot poor mastery of the material, lack of personal
relevance connections• Frustration with material that exceeds foundational knowledge and/or about their
inability to optimize their time for the increased demands of each subsequent school year
A = Attitude (Amygdala)
It is important, and imperative, to destress the amygdala. How to do that?
• Personalize the learning• Scaffold when needed; provide learners with cues,
hints and partial solutions to keep motivation• Offer variable player-ability based challenges• Provide goal tracking and immediate feedback in
the classroom.
D = Develop Memory with Dopamine
Dopamine is associated with pleasurable experiences, decision-making and executive function. When dopamine levels go up, the following behaviors are more prominent:
• Pleasure• Creative imagination• Inspiration• Motivation• Curiosity• Persistance and perseverance
D = Develop Memory with Dopamine
Activities and strategies that increase dopamine levels and the dopamine response include:
• Collaborating• Enjoying music• Being read to• Feeling self-appreciation- recognizing their progress to a personally meaningful goal• Acting kindly• Interacting and collaborating with colleagues/classmates• Expressing gratitude• Experiencing humor• Optimism• Choice• Movement
D = Develop Memory with Dopamine
1. Stand up 2. Use your ear or elbow to spell:
D-o-p-a-m-i-n-e
GOOD JOB!! YOU JUST GAVE YOURSELF A SHOT OF DOPAMINE!
Memory Construction
OUR GOALS:a) Connect new information input to prior
knowledgeb) Strengthen & lengthen long-term memoryc) Develop higher-level executive function
thinking
Memory Construction
We want the information, or working memory, to arrive at the hippocampus. The hippocampus takes sensory inputs and integrates them with associational patterns that already exist, thereby binding the separate aspects of the experience into storable patterns of relational memories.
What does this mean??
Memory Construction
Working Memory to Relational Memory
This is when new input connects with previously stored memory. The information moves to the prefrontal cortex- you have minutes to solidify that information in order to develop executive functioning. We do this by identifying and using patterns. New memory is now created.
Memory Construction
The process of creating new memory can occur because of neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity – Neurons that fire together, wire together
Dendrite formation and dendrite and neuron destruction allows the brain to reshape and reorganize the networks of dendrite-neuron connections in response to increased and decreased use of these pathways.
And to conclude….
Using neuroscience in the classroom will improve student engagement, memory &
potential.
Credits
Dr. Judy Willis, M.D.; M.Ed.
Malana Willis
Matt the UCSB Tech Guy