Brain-Compatible Classrooms

Robin J. Fogarty

• Publisher: Corwin
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781452239699
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Méthodes pédagogiques

Summarizing research from theorists such as Robert J. Marzano and Daniel Goleman, this revised volume helps educators understand and utilize brain research to build high-achievement classrooms.

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Part I

Physiology and Brain Science

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1

Brain Science

THE BRAIN IS THE UNIVERSE WITHIN

She’s a brain! You’re a numbskull! That’s a harebrained idea! Have you lost your mind? Are you out of your mind? Put on your thinking cap. Use your noodle. I’m having a brain drain. Use your gray matter. I think I’m brain dead today. It’s an idea that is swirling around in my mind.

These are just some of the remarks one hears in everyday references to the brain and the mind. In fact, these sayings offer concrete evidence for the common understandings people have, and have had for some time, about the human brain. Yet with the avalanche of information available through brain imaging technologies, interest in the brain is on the increase. As brain research explodes following what was known as the Decade of the Brain (Klein, 1997), parents, teachers, educators, and students themselves are now genuinely intrigued with the emergent knowledge of how their brains remember and learn.

HOW TO BE A CRITICAL CONSUMER OF RESEARCH ON THE BRAIN AND LEARNING

There is reason to be cautious and considered when reading and pondering ideas that are emerging about the human brain. Brain science, brain fiction is how Bruer (2002) refers to this fascination with research on the brain and learning. He has been the dissenting voice in the field, cautioning educators that it is far too early to make direct connections between research findings on how the brain learns and implications for teaching and learning. He specifically discusses and offers insightful comments about three big ideas: (1) in the early years of life, neural connections form rapidly, but we don’t know if neural branching offsets neural pruning; (2) critical periods occur in development, but this may be a “myth of the first three years,” as he calls it in the title of his book, because people seem able to acquire culturally and socially transmitted skills such as reading, mathematics, and music at any age; and (3) enriched environments have a pronounced effect on brain development, but our appeals to this research are often naïve and superficial, as neuroscience says nothing, really, about which environments are more or less enriched than others.

To be fair, in response, Wolfe (1996, 2001) argues with Bruer (2002) that brain/mind research supports sound pedagogy, as Brandt (1988) argues that educators need to know about the human brain and that it is not too early to search for the implications for education. While both Wolfe and Brandt rebut Bruer’s view, it seems prudent, as consumers of current and ongoing information about brain physiology and brain functioning, that readers consider both sides of the issues whenever possible. Bruer provides a needed service by playing the devil’s advocate, and readers need to seek out his writings as well as other dissenting voices. By reading opposing viewpoints, educators are forced to become more discerning consumers of cognitive and neuroscience research findings.

JUST THE FACTS! WHAT ARE THE FACTS ABOUT THE BRAIN?

Scientists have discovered numerous facts about the 100 billion nerve cells, called neurons, that make up the organ that is the human brain. This unique organ is protected by the cranium, or skull. The average brain weighs approximately three pounds (one and a half kilograms), is about the size of a small grapefruit or a cabbage cut in half, appears wrinkled like a walnut, and feels somewhat like a ripened avocado.

While the brain accounts for only 2 percent of a person’s body weight, it uses 20 percent of the energy in the body and generates 25 watts of power (enough energy to illuminate a light bulb) when a person is awake. Messages travel within the brain through 30,000 miles of neural connections in the cerebral cortex at speeds of up to 250 miles per hour, and several billion bits of information pass through your brain each and every second of your life.

The study of the brain is considered science—biology, neurology, biochemistry, or neurochemistry—while the study of the mind is considered psychology or cognitive psychology. Both the neurobiological evidence and the cognitive-psychological findings offer scientists and researchers a better understanding of the brain and the mind and of their inner workings. While most educators are interested in how the mind works and what they can do to enhance learning, knowing how the brain itself works is an important prerequisite in shaping what is referred to here as brain-compatible classrooms: classrooms in which the teaching-learning process is structured to parallel the ways the brain obtains and retains information (Sousa, 2000; Wolfe, 2001).

To begin, let’s focus on the brain and what is known about this amazing organ. Read the statements in Figure 1.1 and either agree or disagree with them in terms of your first thought or intuition. Then review the discussion comments immediately following the list of statements in Figure 1.1. Be aware that there are often differing opinions on these issues. They are presented here to stir up your prior knowledge about the brain and how it functions. This interactive reading is intended to precipitate a robust discussion about the human brain.

1. The brain is more like a sieve than it is like a sponge.
2. Critical periods (windows of opportunity) are not that critical.
3. Enriched environments grow dendrites.
4. Humans use only 10 percent of their brains.
5. The brain and the mind are one.
6. Memory is stored throughout the brain and must be reconstructed.
7. Brains are as individual as fingerprints.
8. Nurture rules over nature in brain development.
9. Experience affects how the brain is organized.
10. Our brains are plastic.
11. Alcohol kills brain cells.
12. Reasoning rules over emotions.
13. The brain “rewires” itself.
14. Male and female brains are different.
15. Music enhances general cognitive abilities.
16. The brain is not that much like a computer.
17. The brain is like a jungle ecosystem.
18. Pruning is a process that occurs in teenage brains.
19. “That added a wrinkle to my brain” means you just aged.
20. The brains of identical twins are not identical.

Discussion of the Statements

1. The brain is more like a sieve than it is like a sponge.
   The brain is more like a sieve because it is designed to let go of information that is not important. It chunks information as it searches for connections that help keep the information in the sieve. The brain pays attention when the input is novel, relevant, or meaningful. Think of the implications for teaching . . . and the need for getting the attention of the learner.
2. Critical periods (windows of opportunity) are not that critical.
   While there are sensitive periods when the brain seems more ready to learn some things, such as language and vision, the brain is able to learn those things beyond what is considered the sensitive period (Bruer, 2002).
3. Enriched environments grow dendrites.
   Diamond and Hobson’s (1998) Magic Trees of the Mind demonstrates the changes in the growth of dendrites when exposed to enriched environments. A key to this enriched environment with children is time to engage in that environment (Wolfe, 2001). It’s not just about having a lot of stimuli.
4. Humans use only 10 percent of their brains.
   Neuroscientists consider this idea a myth. If this were the case, the brain would compensate easily when damaged. However, some cognitive psychologists suggest that humans do not use the full power of their brains/minds, which might be where this 10 percent idea comes from (Gardner, 1999b).
5. The brain and the mind are one.
   Scientists often say, “Yes, the brain is the brain is the brain is the brain.” Psychologists often say, “The brain is physiological, the mind is psychological; the brain is the hardware, the mind is the software. They are different.” Be aware when reading about the brain/mind and the language used. Think critically about authors’ perspectives. Are they talking science or psychology? Do they use the term brain or mind?
6. Memory is stored throughout the brain and must be reconstructed.
   Yes, it is now believed that memory is stored throughout the brain and is reconstructed in the mind. Different types of memory lanes are available to sort memory and to spark memory reconstruction. Memory is the only evidence we have of learning, according to Sprenger (1999).
7. Brains are as individual as fingerprints.
   Yes, this is generally accepted. Each brain has its own unique wiring based on genetic codes and life experiences; each has a jagged profile of intelligences, according to Gardner’s Frames of Mind (1983) and Intelligence Reframed (1999b).
8. Nurture rules over nature in brain development.
   This points to the nature-versus-nurture question about brain and intellectual development. It is generally accepted that both are responsible, not one or the other (Sousa, 2000; Wolfe, 2001).
9. Experience affects how the brain is organized.
   Yes, the organization of the brain is impacted by the environment. Read Inside the Brain, by Kotulak (1996).
10. Our brains are plastic.
    The concept that the brain is dynamic and ever changing, continually forming new neural networks and pruning dendrites that are not being used, is called plasticity (Diamond & Hobson, 1998; Kotulak, 1996).
11. Alcohol kills brain cells.
    Alcohol can cause extensive damage to the fetal brain, causing fetal brain syndrome. It is unclear whether alcohol kills brain cells in developed brains (Wolfe, 2001).
12. Reasoning rules over emotions.
    Emotions seem to hijack other systems in the brain and take over momentarily. But cognitive functions may be alerted through signals from the emotions. There seem to be visceral reactions that cue the cognitive functions (LeDoux, 1998).
13. The brain “rewires” itself.
    There is much evidence that the brain does rewire itself based on the experiences it has through sensory input of all kinds. Again, Kotulak’s (1996) book Inside the Brain is one resource. Another is Diamond and Hobson’s (1998) Magic Trees of the Min...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Introduction
• Part I Physiology and Brain Science
• Part II Principles for Teaching and Learning
• Part III Brain-Friendly Strategies
• Appendix A: Suggested Videos to Illustrate the Four-Corner Framework
• Appendix B: The Brain
• Glossary
• References and Suggested Readings
• Index