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The Science of Teaching

Teachers are brain changers as they are tasked with changing students’ brains every single day.

David Sousa, 2008

WHAT THE BRAIN CAN TELL US

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Loading www.ted.com⁠

Neuroscientists have calculated that the human brain contains between 68-100 billion neurons, each of which can connect with 1,000-100,000 other brain cells, making for a total of about 100 trillion possible connections.

The brain cells consist of three main parts: the cell body, dendrites branches, and the axon.

Cell communication is critical to thinking, and it operates through electrical and chemical processes facilitated by neurotransmitters that help send signals from one neuron to another.

Educational insights from neuroscience are that each learner has billions of neurons, which can grow new connections (dendrites) through experiences they encounter, and all learners' brains are unique and different. Schools and teachers should feel empowered and responsible for influencing the formation of a person, especially during the years that children are in school, when they experience the most significant growth and development.

Educators must understand that learners learn in different ways.

ROLE OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE IN CLASSROOM PRACTICE

Forgetting is a challenge that teachers face, as humans tend to forget more than they learn. Cognitive psychologists believe that forgetting serves a useful function as it allows the brain to move incoming information first to awareness, next to short-term memory, and finally to long-term storage.

Ways to assist the brain to minimize forgetting and to maximize long-term memory for our students:

Using Targeted Sensory Input:

The three most commonly employed channels are auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Teacher talk still appears to dominate most classrooms as the primary sensory input channel.

Research shows that all students learn best when taught in a variety of modalities. Using multiple modes of instruction allows the brain to store learning in many areas of the brain.

Make Input Meaningful:

Learners are more likely to remember information that is personally meaningful to them. Therefore teachers should design learning activities that evoke personal meaning.

Peer-to-peer discussions, reflective writing, and creating graphic organizers can help students find connections and make the learning more meaningful.

Adding simple choices to assignments may increase students' ability to create personal meaning.

Activate Emotions:

Neuroscientists informed that the notion that learning has an emotional component. Strong emotions make learning memorable.

Learners pay attention to what actively engages them and is accompanied by strong positive emotions.

Teachers infuse novelty into their lessons can help students remember longer and learn better.

BRAINY TEACHING & RESOURCES

Learning Through Narrative: Using narrative (or story) to deliver content can positively affect student retention.

Language Arts. Using narrative to teach even as far back as ancient Greece where poems, like the Iliad, were used as teaching tools for students to learn history, geography, and science.

History. Goodwin (2018) lists book titles for various grade bands:

Elementary Grades 1- Chang’s Paper Pony by Eleanor Coerr: This story is about Chang, who is the son of Chinese immigrants living in San Francisco during the 1850s Gold Rush. 2- Come Morning (Adventures in Time) by Leslie Davis Guccione: Set in the American Civil War period, this book is about a boy and his father helping slaves escape via the route known as the “Underground Railroad.”

Middle School 1- Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise Jarvis McGraw: This story takes place in ancient Egypt and recounts a fictionalized tale of Queen Hatshepsut’s rule. 2- Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan: Set in Mexico in the 1930s, this story is about a 13-year-old girl and her immigration to the United States with her parents during the Great Depression. 2- Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson: Isabel, a 13-year-old girl living in New York, helps the patriots during the Revolutionary War.

High School 1- A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs: This story is set in London during the Edwardian era and shows the challenges for women at that time. 2- Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix: One of the deadliest work-related tragedies to happen in the United States, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, is recounted from the perspective of two girls, one rich and one poor. 2- Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith: This is a beautiful story of Ida Mae Jones, a young Black woman in the 1940s who wanted to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II.

Science. Each year the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) publishes a list of

Outstanding Trade Books for Teaching K–12 Science⁠

Elementary 1- Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts 2- Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts 3- Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts

Middle School 1- Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine by Laurie Wallmark 2- The Fantastic Ferris Wheel by Kraft, Salerno, and Holt 3- Magnificent Minds by Pendred Noyce

High School 1- The Octopus Scientists by Sy Montgomery 2- Food Engineering: From Concept to Consumer by Michael Burgan 3- Home Address: ISS by James Buckley, Jr.

Mathematics. Teachers could include crafting a narrative context for a real-world problem that needs solving via mathematical thinking.

Learning Through Experience: experiential learning is one of the most powerful avenues for the brain to store information for long-term retrieval.

Language Arts. Students may create plays that teach a concept.

History and Social Studies.

Mock trials:

For older students:

The Aztec People of the State of Mexico v. Hernan Cortes. Through a mock trial students will decide whether or not Cortes and his men were guilty of stealing the lands of the Aztec people.

The Papal States of Rome v. Galileo. - Students will act out the opposing sides of the Papal States of Rome and Galileo to determine the guilt or innocence of Galileo for the act of treason by advocating and teaching theories about planets and stars that destroy the authority of biblical law.

Robin Hood. Students examine whether or not it is illegal to steal from the rich to give to the poor.

For younger students:

Goldilocks v. the Three Bears. Goldilocks is put on trial for breaking and entering the home of the three bears and performing acts of vandalism.

Jack and the Beanstalk. Students will take opposing sides of Jack and the Giant to decide the guilt or innocence of Jack for stealing the golden harp and the hen that lays golden eggs.

Simulations:

Immigration 1880. A senate committee is the setting for this simulation where senators hear the testimony of immigrants who have recently arrived in the United States and must decide their fate.

There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe. The problems of finding suitable housing for a family with children is considered at a City Hall meeting.

Historical plays:

The Great Tea Party. Students become the Sons of Liberty and set in motion the actions before, during, and after the Boston Tea Party.

The Gold Rush. Through creative drama, students improvise dialogue that depicts the 49ers and the reasons they decide to come to California and the difficulties they encounter.

The Sit-in. Students reenact scenes from the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

Science Examples.

Source: National Research Council. (2011). A framework for K–12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. Committee on Conceptual Framework for the New K–12 Science Education Standards

NGSS Science and Engineering Practices

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Claim Evidence Reasoning (CER) Template

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Mathematics Examples.

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Eight Common Core Mathematical Practices⁠

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Learning Through Visuals: Judy Willis (2011), engaging students through visuals is critically important. She even suggests the power of having students use different colors when taking notes and making each color mean something different.

Language Arts. Teachers know the power of pictures to convey information in both fiction and informational texts. Students may use timelines, mindmaps, venn diagrams, matrices, etc.

Science. Teachers instruct students to write and draw or illustrate the results of scientific investigations in science notebooks. These self-drawn visuals (particularly when colors are used) enhance student learning.

Mathematics. All math could be considered visual in nature. Teachers can have their students compute numerical answers to mathematical problems, draw, diagram, and illustrate their mathematical solutions.

Resources:

Websites

Brain-based Learning (

Homepage - Brain Based Learning | Brain Based Experts⁠

). Teachers will find many articles and classroom resources in order to teach with understanding of how the brain works.

Brain-based Learning:

Resources on Learning and the Brain⁠

. This collection on the main Edutopia website hosts articles, videos, and other links for exploring the connection between education and neuroscience.

Books/Articles

Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Damasio, A. (2007). We feel, therefore we learn: The relevance of affective and social neuroscience to education. Mind, Brain, and Education, 1(1), 3–10.

Sprenger, M. (2018). How to teach so students remember (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Whitman, G., & Kellaher, I. (2016). Neuroteach: Brain science and the future of education. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Wolfe, P. (2010). Brain matters: Translating research into classroom practice (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Videos

Blakemore, S.-J. (2012, June).

The mysterious workings of the adolescent brain⁠

[Video file]. Cognitive neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore compares the prefrontal cortex in adolescents to that of adults, to show us how typically teenage behavior is caused by the growing and developing brain.”

Grainger, C. (Producer), & Yellin, P. B. (Speaker). (n.d.).

Mind, brain, and education⁠

[Video file]. In K. Fischer, M. H. Immordino-Yang, & M. H. Schneps (Course developers), Neuroscience and the classroom: Making connections: A course for K–12 teachers. Retrieved from “Paul B. Yellin, Associate Professor at New York University School of Medicine and Director of the Yellin Center for Mind, Brain, and Education, talks about the need for an equal partnership among neuroscientists, teachers, and clinicians. His goal is to create a language and vocabulary that enable everyone to discuss how different brains work differently.”

Grandin, T. (2010, February).

The world needs all kinds of minds⁠

(TED Talks) [Video file]. “Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism as a child, talks about how her mind works—sharing her ability to “think in pictures,” which helps her solve problems that neurotypical brains might miss. She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids.”

Harvard Education. (2014, October 8).

Beyond Wit & Grit: Howard Gardner's '8 for 8'⁠

[Video file]. This video presents Howard Gardner’s ideas on effective use of one’s wits (Multiple Intelligences) and grit (courage and resolve; strength of character; perseverance) to be a good, responsible person.

McElheny, T. (Producer), & Immordino-Yang, M. H. (Speaker). (n.d.).

Emotion and cognition: A neuroscientist’s perspective⁠

[Video file]. In K. Fischer, M. H. Immordino-Yang, & M. H. Schneps (Course developers), Neuroscience and the classroom: Making connections: A course for K–12 teachers. “After attending a presentation on the inseparable connection between emotion and cognition by Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, teachers from the Sacred Heart Preparatory School in Atherton, CA, and the surrounding area discuss the implications for understanding learning in their classrooms.”

Merzenich, M. (2004, February).

Growing evidence of brain plasticity⁠

(TED Talks) [Video file]. “Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich looks at one of the secrets of the brain’s incredible power: its ability to actively re-wire itself. He’s researching ways to harness the brain’s plasticity to enhance our skills and recover lost function.”

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