Brain-Based Learning

(lots of handouts)

memory is broken down into three areas (research by Marco Wienman Lear)

• procedural:
  • "how to" (eating, walking, basics)
  • usually knowledge that stays with you for a long time/forever
• systemic:
  • facts, things that fall into systems (telephone numbers, dates)
• episodic:
  • experience, events
  • captured by frontal lobe
    • after the age of 26, the frontal lobe begins to diminish (gradually at first)
    • this is why the elderly can often remember the past with so much more clarity

gender difference in memory abilities

• women are usually better at episodic
• men are usually better at systemic, spacial thinking (testosterone levels affect it)
• it's a continuum, not solely one or the other
• has nothing to do with sexual orientation; genetics

short-term and long-term memory capture all three types of memory

procedural certainly exists in both short-term and long-term

memory is self-sorting

• if you try to fill it to overflowing, it will pick things that seem unimportant and toss them out
• debatable if those memories are truly completely gone

subconscious

• "awareness of which you are unaware"
• trying to remember a name, but it pops into your head when you stop actively thinking about it
• you can remember not having done something--you didn't actively notice at the time, but your memory subconscious tracked all those actions and you can review them to see what you forgot to do

mind vs. brain

• brain is the physical aspect
• mind is less concrete; may be thought of as the consciousness, sentience, what makes us "us"
• where are emotions? -- brain chemistry that can trigger a physical reaction (laughter, tears, screams, etc.)
• difference in thinking about moving your finger (mind) vs. actually moving it (brain)
• brain can be active and alive while you're unconscious (being anaesthetized for surgery)

testing may not accurately assess memory by itself, but it is part of the memory process...

• the more often you retrieve a piece of information, the better you remember it
• testing is about retrieving information
• however, teachers often don't use it for this learning process as much as evaluation

what is your personality? where does it come from?

• brain chemistry again; think of bipolar and the "up" and "down" personality
• medication to treat this physically changes the chemistry of the brain
• discussion of Phineas Gage, whose personality drastically changed after a metal rod completely went through his head, destroying a large part of his brain

mental exercises to keep your brain's plasticity, ability to learn, memory retention, etc.

Related Thoughts

• Brenda McCoy's Civic Engagement Class (also integrated with "One Book" experience)
• service learning
• group projects, choosing projects/topics around student interests
• contextual learning/teaching-- physics & calculus, literature & history, etc.
• theme-based class where students divide project by subject (choosing which subject they will get credit for in that class)
• group discussion, rather than lecture-style class
• interdisciplinary studies with professors from different disciplines co-teaching

New Tech High @ Coppell

Mike Burns

(they have tours frequently; contact Mike about it)