PBS is broadcasting a series of shows called Brain Fitness Program. If the initial program is any indication, the series should be outstanding! Several neuroscientists and effective graphics convey information about the brain in easy-to-understand language. Check with your local PBS affiliate for scheduling information. It's scheduled to run on Thursday evenings with repeats over the weekend on our local station. Additional descriptions and some scheduling information can be found at this website.
Later this week I will post an entry featuring insights from research on "mindfulness" that are catching the attention of business leaders and have implications for teaching and learning.
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Monday, March 10, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Childhood Play, Today's Toys, and Executive Functions
If you've been a teacher for several years, you've noticed the changes in children. As I've visited early childhood education programs, I've seen countless Show-and-Tell (or as I like to call it, "Bring-and-Brag") sessions devoted to children holding up the latest toy—you know, the one causing shoving matches at the local We-Be-Toys store—with almost nothing to say about it. It's evident what the toy "does" or the role that it is supposed to fill in a child's unstructured time. What's disheartening is that a look around the classroom often reveals a cache of similar toys. (And don't even get me started on church nurseries!) What's wrong with toys that serve a limited purpose?
If you didn't hear the report "Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills" on NPR this morning, it is worth a listen. (You can click the link to connect to the webpage featuring the report.)
When I was in college, one of my professors advocated much closer cooperation between educators, parents, and medical professionals. She suggested that we consider establishing relationships with local pediatricians and spend time educating them on the importance of things like reading to children and childhood play. She also suggested we make materials for parents available in the doctor's office (e.g., pamphlets) that emphasize these same ideas
I'm not trying to be "Chicken Little" here, but if the research clearly indicates what this report suggests, we may want to give that professor's suggestions some serious thought. Like I said, if you've taught long enough, you've seen these changes—and they're not educationally good for our children.
If you didn't hear the report "Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills" on NPR this morning, it is worth a listen. (You can click the link to connect to the webpage featuring the report.)
When I was in college, one of my professors advocated much closer cooperation between educators, parents, and medical professionals. She suggested that we consider establishing relationships with local pediatricians and spend time educating them on the importance of things like reading to children and childhood play. She also suggested we make materials for parents available in the doctor's office (e.g., pamphlets) that emphasize these same ideas
I'm not trying to be "Chicken Little" here, but if the research clearly indicates what this report suggests, we may want to give that professor's suggestions some serious thought. Like I said, if you've taught long enough, you've seen these changes—and they're not educationally good for our children.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Better Feedback, Increased Learning
I came across an interesting blog posting this morning. It details the thinking behind a charter school working with students who have significant educational challenges.
Review my blog posting "Framing Feedback for Continued Learning"
They are finding that “A classroom environment that welcomes error as a gateway to learning contributes to better feedback responses,” and better feedback increases learning!
Review my blog posting "Framing Feedback for Continued Learning"
and then check out the summary of this school’s approach and results: The First Step Is Failure.
They are finding that “A classroom environment that welcomes error as a gateway to learning contributes to better feedback responses,” and better feedback increases learning!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
"Hands-on" Thinking
The current edition of Scientific American Mind summarizes a fascinating finding. Researchers at the University of Chicago found that children who used gestures while explaining how they approached a math problem developed new problem-solving strategies and became more responsive to additional instruction. Talking “with their hands” prompted new thinking and prepared subjects for new learning.
This is an intriguing finding. Researchers have believed for some time that connections between the cerebellum, which coordinates physical action, and other brain regions may play a role in coordinating thought. Imagine watching a figure skater just learning a new move contrasted with a figure skater who has performed that same move for years. The smoothness with which the veteran performs the move is due in large part to the cerebellum. So, if smoothness of physical movement and fluidity of thought share neural geography, it would not be surprising to find one positively influencing the other.
However, what’s fascinating here is the increased receptivity to additional instruction. Gesturing actually influenced learner motivation and eagerness for additional teaching. Makes me want to ask students to show (with their hands) and tell more often. Apparently, “hands-on thinking” has its advantages!
This is an intriguing finding. Researchers have believed for some time that connections between the cerebellum, which coordinates physical action, and other brain regions may play a role in coordinating thought. Imagine watching a figure skater just learning a new move contrasted with a figure skater who has performed that same move for years. The smoothness with which the veteran performs the move is due in large part to the cerebellum. So, if smoothness of physical movement and fluidity of thought share neural geography, it would not be surprising to find one positively influencing the other.
However, what’s fascinating here is the increased receptivity to additional instruction. Gesturing actually influenced learner motivation and eagerness for additional teaching. Makes me want to ask students to show (with their hands) and tell more often. Apparently, “hands-on thinking” has its advantages!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Music, the Brain, and Learning
Relax and let the music flow through you.
Wait! Is that really what happens? What does listening to your favorite music reveal about your brain? Quite a bit, actually! In This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, author and neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin traces the brain’s processing of heard music.
Two cognitive processes, feature extraction and feature integration, create the experience of hearing music. Interestingly, these processes mirror two processes, comprehension and elaboration, that enable learning.
Feature extraction happens in the brain’s posterior regions. As sound waves cause the eardrum to vibrate, the brain receives sensory input. “The brain extracts basic, low-level features from the music, using specialized neural networks that decompose the signal into information about pitch, timbre, spatial location, loudness, reverberant environment, tone durations, and the onset times for different notes (and for different components of tones)” (p. 103). As feature extraction begins, feature integration also activates.
In the brain’s frontal areas, feature integration integrates the extracted features “into a perceptual whole” (p. 105). According to Levitin, the brain constructs a “represenation of reality” from the component features identified during feature extraction (p. 103). That representation is what you experience, the music you actually “hear.”
What can this tell us about learning? First, note the basic processing of music. Individual components of sensory data are identified first as the brain perceives “elemental or building-block attributes of a sensory stimulus” (p. 104). The brain first identifies, sorts, and labels new sensory data. This “low-level processing” is followed by “higher-level” processing. The brain’s frontal regions construct meaning from the sensory data’s “building blocks.” The basic elements form patterns that the brain recognizes, attributing meaning and significance to the sensory data. The brain receives data, sorts and identifies data, and constructs meaning from the data.
Second, note the necessity of both processes for the sensory data to become meaningful. If the brain only engaged in feature extraction, listening to music would generate a frustrating amount of isolated data. Coherence and meaning would be lost, and music as we experience it would not exist. Now transfer this to learning. Memorizing data on its own, void of any higher-level processing, produces the elemental building blocks of understanding. However, understanding cannot be achieved solely through feature extraction. As the brain must engage both processes to experience music, the brain must also engage both process to construct understanding of new instructional material.
And you thought the music just flowed through you!
Levitin, Daniel J. (2007). This is your brain on music: The science of a human obsession. New York: Plume.
Wait! Is that really what happens? What does listening to your favorite music reveal about your brain? Quite a bit, actually! In This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, author and neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin traces the brain’s processing of heard music.
Two cognitive processes, feature extraction and feature integration, create the experience of hearing music. Interestingly, these processes mirror two processes, comprehension and elaboration, that enable learning.
Feature extraction happens in the brain’s posterior regions. As sound waves cause the eardrum to vibrate, the brain receives sensory input. “The brain extracts basic, low-level features from the music, using specialized neural networks that decompose the signal into information about pitch, timbre, spatial location, loudness, reverberant environment, tone durations, and the onset times for different notes (and for different components of tones)” (p. 103). As feature extraction begins, feature integration also activates.
In the brain’s frontal areas, feature integration integrates the extracted features “into a perceptual whole” (p. 105). According to Levitin, the brain constructs a “represenation of reality” from the component features identified during feature extraction (p. 103). That representation is what you experience, the music you actually “hear.”
What can this tell us about learning? First, note the basic processing of music. Individual components of sensory data are identified first as the brain perceives “elemental or building-block attributes of a sensory stimulus” (p. 104). The brain first identifies, sorts, and labels new sensory data. This “low-level processing” is followed by “higher-level” processing. The brain’s frontal regions construct meaning from the sensory data’s “building blocks.” The basic elements form patterns that the brain recognizes, attributing meaning and significance to the sensory data. The brain receives data, sorts and identifies data, and constructs meaning from the data.
Second, note the necessity of both processes for the sensory data to become meaningful. If the brain only engaged in feature extraction, listening to music would generate a frustrating amount of isolated data. Coherence and meaning would be lost, and music as we experience it would not exist. Now transfer this to learning. Memorizing data on its own, void of any higher-level processing, produces the elemental building blocks of understanding. However, understanding cannot be achieved solely through feature extraction. As the brain must engage both processes to experience music, the brain must also engage both process to construct understanding of new instructional material.
And you thought the music just flowed through you!
Levitin, Daniel J. (2007). This is your brain on music: The science of a human obsession. New York: Plume.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Elaboration: Thinking Differently to Deepen Learning
Wiggins and McTighe (2006) define understanding as “a realization that the learner experiences about the power of an idea” (p. 27). Understanding enriches a learner’s ability to function successfully, influencing decision making, critical thinking, evaluation, and several other beneficial cognitive processes. The potential power of an idea is only available to the individual who understands the idea.
Understanding differs from knowledge. For example, common knowledge recognizes that conditions on the moon differ from those on earth, but only understanding those conditions can create the craft and clothing needed to explore the lunar surface. Knowledge recognizes facts; understanding constructs a web of connections that give knowing practical and creative value.
Unfortunately, the typical cycle of teaching, testing, and moving to new topics can overlook elaboration, the cognitive process that constructs understanding. Learners construct deep understanding when they process the same ideas in multiple representations. Howard Gardner’s (2006) multiple intelligences offer one index of representational variety. Gardner’s nine intelligences include:
During elaboration, teachers can engage understanding’s constructive processes by engaging students in rethinking new content via alternate representations. For example, linguistic intelligence likely provided the means of content transmission as students heard the spoken words of the teacher’s lectures and read the written words of the textbook. During elaboration, the teacher could engage the students in reviewing the new content’s critical details in preparation for re-presenting the ideas in an alternate form. How would the phases of the American Revolution sound musically? How would a model of the human ear look if constructed from students’ bodies? How would a spatial representation of a mathematical equation look?
Note what the learner must do in response to such challenges. The original material must be reviewed in such a way that connections between it and elements of the new representation emerge. These connections, which arise from the learner’s life experience, create a web that forms the infrastructure of understanding. In transforming the resulting representation back to linguistic forms via an explanation, the same processes recur. The connections strengthen, the understanding deepens, and what was merely knowledge becomes beneficial apprehension.
While rich with possibility, Gardner’s multiple intelligences present only one of many possible tools for developing instructional activities that engage elaboration. Research indicates that memory formation and creative thinking activate similar brain structures (Miller, 2007). Creative experiences can form effective reference points for constructing new understanding, and processes of creativity can spark elaborative thinking.
In a penetrating study, Robert and Michèle Root-Bernstein (2001) identify thirteen “thinking tools” employed by creative individuals. These tools cross disciplines, and creative breakthroughs in multiple professional fields illustrate their influence. The tools include:
observation: perceiving fully through “concentrated attention” (p. 32)
imaging: visualizing or imagining things not in the immediate environment
(p. 51)
During elaboration, teachers can engage understanding’s constructive processes by engaging students in creative thinking processes. For example, the teacher could engage the students in reviewing the new content’s critical details to identify possible material for creative considerations, such as:
Again, note the processing such thinking requires. The learner must explore connections between the original material and elements of the creative form. These connections, which arise from the learner’s life experience, deepen understanding and move the learner forward from knowledge toward valuable conceptualization.
Within the Architecture of Learning Instructional Design Model (see www.clerestorylearning.com), recurring elaboration “cells” and an entire “strand” of elaboration engages students in such processing. The model enables teachers to design learning that matches the brain’s needs for deep understanding.
Without elaboration, instruction tends to engage only low levels of thinking, confusing “fast answers with wise answers, ignoring that quality thinking takes time” (Zaltman, 2003, p. 17). Why is this so important? Because we are educating students for successful living in a time and place we cannot currently know. Therefore, students need “deep understanding” so they can “apply the knowledge they gain from data to new situations” (p. 17). As students re-form ideas via elaboration, deep understanding develops, increasing the likelihood that the learning is for a lifetime.
Gardner, H. (2006). Changing minds: The art and science of changing our own and other people’s minds. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Miller, G. (2007). A surprising connection between memory and imagination.
Science 315, 312.
Root-Bernstein, R. & Root-Bernstein, M. (2001). Sparks of genius: The 13 thinking tools of the world’s most creative people. Boston: Mariner Books.
Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2006). Examining the teaching life. Educational Leadership 63(6), 26-29.
Zaltman, G. (2003). How customers think: Essential insights into the mind of the market. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Understanding differs from knowledge. For example, common knowledge recognizes that conditions on the moon differ from those on earth, but only understanding those conditions can create the craft and clothing needed to explore the lunar surface. Knowledge recognizes facts; understanding constructs a web of connections that give knowing practical and creative value.
Unfortunately, the typical cycle of teaching, testing, and moving to new topics can overlook elaboration, the cognitive process that constructs understanding. Learners construct deep understanding when they process the same ideas in multiple representations. Howard Gardner’s (2006) multiple intelligences offer one index of representational variety. Gardner’s nine intelligences include:
- linguistic: ideas represented in spoken or written language
- logical-mathematical: ideas represented numerically or in an analysis of “what has happened, and what may happen, under various scenarios” (p. 32)
- musical: ideas represented through heard or produced music
- spatial: ideas represented in spatial organizations, such as flow charts and concept maps
- bodily-kinesthetic: ideas represented through physical stances and movement
- naturalist: ideas represented in taxonomies of natural elements
- interpersonal: ideas represented in characterizations, exploring individuals’ distinctives, motivations, and needs
- intrapersonal: ideas represented in self-awareness elements, such as “feelings, goals, fears, strengths, and weaknesses” (p. 39)
- existential: ideas represented in “the biggest questions,” such as those found in “religious, artistic, philosophical, and mythic” systems of thought (p. 41)
During elaboration, teachers can engage understanding’s constructive processes by engaging students in rethinking new content via alternate representations. For example, linguistic intelligence likely provided the means of content transmission as students heard the spoken words of the teacher’s lectures and read the written words of the textbook. During elaboration, the teacher could engage the students in reviewing the new content’s critical details in preparation for re-presenting the ideas in an alternate form. How would the phases of the American Revolution sound musically? How would a model of the human ear look if constructed from students’ bodies? How would a spatial representation of a mathematical equation look?
Note what the learner must do in response to such challenges. The original material must be reviewed in such a way that connections between it and elements of the new representation emerge. These connections, which arise from the learner’s life experience, create a web that forms the infrastructure of understanding. In transforming the resulting representation back to linguistic forms via an explanation, the same processes recur. The connections strengthen, the understanding deepens, and what was merely knowledge becomes beneficial apprehension.
While rich with possibility, Gardner’s multiple intelligences present only one of many possible tools for developing instructional activities that engage elaboration. Research indicates that memory formation and creative thinking activate similar brain structures (Miller, 2007). Creative experiences can form effective reference points for constructing new understanding, and processes of creativity can spark elaborative thinking.
In a penetrating study, Robert and Michèle Root-Bernstein (2001) identify thirteen “thinking tools” employed by creative individuals. These tools cross disciplines, and creative breakthroughs in multiple professional fields illustrate their influence. The tools include:
observation: perceiving fully through “concentrated attention” (p. 32)
imaging: visualizing or imagining things not in the immediate environment
(p. 51)
- abstracting: reducing “complex visual, physical, or emotional ideas” to their essence, “revealing, through simplicity, the power of purity” (p. 72)
- recognizing patterns: discerning “connections between things previously perceived as being unrelated” (p. 94)
- forming patterns: merging two or more elements to compose a “synthetic pattern that may be much more than, and far different from, the sum of its parts” (p. 115)
- analogizing: identifying “a functional resemblance between things that are otherwise unlike” (p. 137)
- body thinking: attending to “the feel of muscle movement or physical tension or touch” (p. 162) (Note the similarity to Gardner’s bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.)
- empathizing: perceiving, feeling, thinking, and/or acting as if one were someone else (p. 182) (Note the similarity to Gardner’s interpersonal intelligence.)
- dimensional thinking: “moving from 2-D to 3-D or vice versa; mapping, or transforming information provided in one set of dimensions to another set; scaling, or altering the proportions of an object or process within one set of dimensions; and conceptualizing dimensions beyond space and time as we know them” (p. 204) (Note the similarity to Gardner’s spatial intelligence.)
- modeling: rendering concepts “immediately perceivable in abstract, dimensionally altered terms” (p. 226)
- playing: “doing and making without responsibility…wandering according to the whims of curiosity and interest” (p. 248)
- transforming: using multiple imaginative tools serially or simultaneously so that “one (set of) tool(s) acts upon another (set)” (p. 273)
- synthesizing: using thinking tools in such a way that “first, we synthesize sensory impressions and feelings and, second, we fuse our sensory synthesis with the abstract knowledge that exists in our memories as patterns, models, analogies, and other higher-order mental constructs” (p. 297-298)
During elaboration, teachers can engage understanding’s constructive processes by engaging students in creative thinking processes. For example, the teacher could engage the students in reviewing the new content’s critical details to identify possible material for creative considerations, such as:
- dimensional thinking (scale): What if the American Civil War occurred literally within an actual “house divided”?
- abstracting: If each step of the sequence for finding the quotient for long division problems were a color, what color sequence would result?
- analogizing: What are well placed adjectives like and why/how?
Again, note the processing such thinking requires. The learner must explore connections between the original material and elements of the creative form. These connections, which arise from the learner’s life experience, deepen understanding and move the learner forward from knowledge toward valuable conceptualization.
Within the Architecture of Learning Instructional Design Model (see www.clerestorylearning.com), recurring elaboration “cells” and an entire “strand” of elaboration engages students in such processing. The model enables teachers to design learning that matches the brain’s needs for deep understanding.
Without elaboration, instruction tends to engage only low levels of thinking, confusing “fast answers with wise answers, ignoring that quality thinking takes time” (Zaltman, 2003, p. 17). Why is this so important? Because we are educating students for successful living in a time and place we cannot currently know. Therefore, students need “deep understanding” so they can “apply the knowledge they gain from data to new situations” (p. 17). As students re-form ideas via elaboration, deep understanding develops, increasing the likelihood that the learning is for a lifetime.
Gardner, H. (2006). Changing minds: The art and science of changing our own and other people’s minds. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Miller, G. (2007). A surprising connection between memory and imagination.
Science 315, 312.
Root-Bernstein, R. & Root-Bernstein, M. (2001). Sparks of genius: The 13 thinking tools of the world’s most creative people. Boston: Mariner Books.
Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2006). Examining the teaching life. Educational Leadership 63(6), 26-29.
Zaltman, G. (2003). How customers think: Essential insights into the mind of the market. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Fitness & Learning
“Exercise is medicine,” claims researcher John Ratey (2007). Exercise impacts the brain, both at the system and cellular levels, and promotes new cell growth within the brain. Additionally, according to Ratey, exercise positively influences:
(Oh, and fit teachers make better teachers, too!)
Give this some thought on that afternoon walk or run!
More information can be found at Dr. Ratey's website: www.johnratey.com.
Ratey, J. (2007, Nov.). SPARK: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. Presented at Learning and the Brain: Using Brain Research to Enhance Cognitive Abilities and Achievement.
- attention and motivation
- impulsivity
- mood
- the ability to overcome learned helplessness
- norepinephrine levels (neurotransmitter associated with mood, self-esteem, and perception)
- serotonin levels (neurotransmitter associated with mood, impulse control, and learning
- dopamine levels (neurotransmitter associated with memory, attention, and problem-solving)
- beta-endorphins associated with stress and pain management
- brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein released during exercise, that promotes the growth of neurons and synapses
(Oh, and fit teachers make better teachers, too!)
Give this some thought on that afternoon walk or run!
More information can be found at Dr. Ratey's website: www.johnratey.com.
Ratey, J. (2007, Nov.). SPARK: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. Presented at Learning and the Brain: Using Brain Research to Enhance Cognitive Abilities and Achievement.
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