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Using the Developments of Neuroscience for Neuro-logical Teaching Strategies Using the Developments of Neuroscience for Berkshire Community College May 26, 2010 Judy Willis, MD, M.Ed www.RADteach.com With thanks to Dori Digenti, MSOD, Director, Center for Teaching and Learning, for her dedication to teaching and learning and support, suggestions, and planning to make this presentation possible and pertinent ,

Goals for This Presentation Learn Neuroscience Research- Compatible Strategies to: Sustain students’ attention & memory with curiosity & prediction Motivating sustained interest Increase participation for memory

Knowing the Neuroscience Helps You Evaluate “Brain-Based” Claims AVOID SELECTING BAD CURRICULUM RECOGNIZE NEUROMYTHS

Brain Oxygen-Boosting Miracle Pill Energizes Mind, Mood, & Memory

“Brain Oxygen-Boosting Miracle Pill Energizes Mind, Mood, & Memory. Memory pill lights up aging brain like a Christmas Tree. 100% Energizing.”

Which of the following possible Neuromyths do you think is TRUE ? Predict with magic pad

Hold up magic pad with the first letter of a possible neuromyths do you think is TRUE and not a neuromyth?

Knowing the Neuroscience Helps You Use strategies more effectively & flexibly

BECAUSE YOU KNOW MOST OF THESE NEURO-LOGICAL STRATEGIES ALREADY, YOU WILL WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER

Is Your Brain Personally Connected? Not Yet

Two Tasks to Prepare for Active Listening because The person who thinks, LEARNS

1. Look through your handout to see the detail of the notes and locate major sections You will be prepared to find pages that coincide with the slides

2. Write down in your notes a topic or unit you teach (consult, supervise) for which students have difficulty sustaining attention Then hold up a “magic pad”with the first letter what you wrote in your notes

R.A.D. R = REACH ATTENTION RETICULAR ACTIVATING SYSTEM A = ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR AMYGDALA D = DEVELOP MOTIVATON WITH DOPAMINE

Where We Are Where We’re Going Novelty & curiosity Prediction for Participation Stress of boredom/frustration Emotional positivity Awareness of making progress Preassessment Personalization

Reaching Problem: Reaching students’ focused attention & engagement Solution: Get through RAS filter

Before anything can be learned and retained in memory it needs to be attended to (selected) by the brain

All learning comes through the senses

The input must then reach the “higher brain” for long-term conscious memory to be constructed

Let’s see what your RAS chooses and edits to let into your conscious brain

Attention is a process of selection. The things you don’t attend to, don’t are unlikely to become retrievable memory

YOU DIDN’T “SEE” THE SENSORY INPUT YOUR RAS DIDN’T SELECT

Count the number of times the letter “F” appears in the following slide

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF MANY YEARS

6 times. Your RAS didn’t care about the “f’s” in “of”

Your RAS edited which sensory input got your attention

Millions of bits of sensory data available every second a basil gimlet Ray of Light Only about 2000 bits of sensory data can get through the RAS each second

To get to the conscious brain, sensory input must be R.A.S. “selected” 35

What is primary purpose of a brain? Keep the body alive Preserve the species

For Survival Why a sensory filter? To limit information intake Preserve the brain’s survival function

For Survival What would that filter select for sensory intake? Something that changed, is novel

For Survival First, is the novel input a danger? If not, can it improve survival in the future?

When students are not paying attention to the lesson it doesn’t mean they are inattentive

They are paying attention to sensory input, just not the sensory input of the lesson

What sensory input gets in the fox’s RAS?

Survival RAS filter is programed to alert to novel input because it correlates with survival

Only when threat is not perceived is other change/novelty admitted through the RAS

Now curiosity alerts the RAS to attend to other changes and novel input Because changes and novel input may also improve survival

RAS The RAS gives priority to threatening input Therefore, if students feel threatened or stressed, their RAS prioritizes the threatening input at the expense of any academic content you would prefer they absorb.

RAS Summarize with choice of method such as a narrative first an example, then Your Turn-Collaborate and try several if time permits

RAS 1. Pair-Share: What is the RAS and why is it important. or 2. Sketch your image of the RAS or 3. Create a simile The RAS is to ...... as ....... as to .......

What information gets through the RAS and where does it go?

How can you influence what gets through your students’ RAS?

RAS Interventions Help students feel SAFE! Then stimulate their curiosity with change & novelty S

Novelty & curiosity Prediction for Participation Stress of boredom/frustration Emotional positivity Achievement Priming Awareness of making progress Preassessment Personalization

Using Novelty or Change to promote memory associations

CURIOSITY is necessary to persue new experiences

PERSUIT OF NEW EXPERIENCES & EXPLORING IS NECESSARY FOR SURVIVAL Text LEARNING ONE’S ENVIRONMENT

Prediction Increases Curiosity, Attention, & Memory

Prediction builds curiosity and motivation to know if their prediction is correct Prediction invests TOP DOWN ATTENTION THE INFORMATION IS SELECTED FOR RAS INTAKE & SUBSEQUENTLY for MEMORY

CURIOSITY and DISCOVERY promote the brain to acquire new information, correct inaccurate networks, andpredict the best future responses

Participation with Prediction = Active Learning & Memory Building

To be surprised by or interested in the curiosity provoking experience or question, students must make a prediction in the first place Then when predictions are wrong there is a true element of surprise. The unexpected results are powerful stimuli to curiosity so... There is more value/memory placed on the feedback of the correct information

ADVERTISE to promote CURIOSITY & PREDICTION

CURIOSITY ABOUT ADVERTISEMENTS Predict what ADVERTISEMENTS have to do with a coming lesson Attention investment to find out if prediction is correct The INFORMATION that supports or refutes the prediction IS VALUED FOR INTAKE & MEMORY

Advertise in Advance for Curiosity

“The force will be with you” TOMORROW

Hold up your magic pad with first letter of your idea

Forceful verbs opening sentences exclamation points forces of nature forces that change history

What topic could these photos advertise?

Time (What a Split Second Looks Like) Gravity Probability Motion

Advertise for curiosity and prediction with videos

Video advertising science or math formulas

Animoto to make your own videos http://animoto.com/education

Discrepant Events Are Novel & Unexpected so RAS lets & they Promote Prediction

Show or tell things that challenge students’ assumptions or prior beliefs.

HOW MANY FINGERS DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE?

Allowance Question Would you rather have one cent doubled everyday for 30 days or $100,000.00 ? HOLD UP MAGIC PAD

One cent because... Day 15: $163.84 Day 16: $327.68 Day 17: $655.36 Day 18: $1,310.72 Day 19: $2,621.44 Day 20: $5,242.88 Day 21: $10,485.76 Day 22: $20,971.52 Day 23: $41,943.04 Day 24: $83,386.08 Day 25: $167,772.16 Day 26: $335,544.32 Day 27: $671,088.64 Day 28: $1,342,177.28 Day 29: $2,684,354.56 Day 1: $.01 Day 2: $.02 Day 3: $.04 Day 4: $.08 Day 5: $.16 Day 6: $.32 Day 7: $.64 Day 8: $1.28 Day 9: $2.56 Day 10: $5.12 Day 11: $10.24 Day 12: $20.48 Day 13: $40.96 Day 14: $81.92 Day 30: $5,368,709.12

PARTICIPANT ACTIVITY Pair Share: Something you have done or could do to promote student curiosity and prediction?

Syn-naps Relate new information with something unusual

Write the first letter of a lesson you could connect with one of the next photos. Hold up the card when ready iceberg.jpg iceberg.jpg

BINGO Activation of Prior Knowledge Sustained Curiosity/Attention Personal Interest Content Specific Vocabulary

Students copy 25 words onto individual boxes on your grid in any order for BINGO

When they hear one of the words spoken or see it projected on the screen they cross it out on their BINGO grid When they have 5 in a row (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) they call out BINGO

AS WE GO THROUGH THE UNIT, MAKE PREDICTIONS ABOUT WHAT THE RADISH HAS TO DO WITH WHAT YOU LEARN. MAKE PREDICTIONS ANY TIME AND CHANGE THEM IF YOU’D LIKE.

Investigation: Grow Radishes and Observe Influence of Planting Distance, Sun Exposure, Soil, Water

Cross-Curricular-Science & Math of Agriculture Influences Historical Events TRIBES THAT FARMED NEEDED GOOD SOIL AND RAIN, BUT WERE GIVEN THE WORST LAND. THEIR HARVESTS MADE THEM BITTER LIKE RADISHES. THE NEW WORLD PEOPLE KEPT THE BEST LAND FOR THEIR OWN FARMING AND GREW GREEN, LEAFY CROPS LIKE THE LEAVES NEXT TO THE RADISHES.

TRIBES THAT NEEDED LARGE TERRITORIES TO HUNT WERE FORCED TO LIVE CLOSE TOGETHER, BUNCHED UP LIKE THE RADISHES. IN THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT, THE NATIVE AMERICANS WERE TREATED UNFAIRLY. LIKE THE RADISHES, THEY WERE CALLED MEAN NAMES LIKE “RED SKINS.”

Predict: What Memory Challenge common to most educators and students could be represented by the following 3 photos?

Survival and Safety First Participating in new learning requires students to take risks beyond their comfort zones Before students can attend to higher-order thinking they must meet lower-level needs like survival and safety (MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS)

Information (sensory input) destination isdetermined by metabolic state of the amygdala Reflective PFC or Reactive Lower Brain

Amygdala determines where input goes PFC Reflectivebrain Reactivebrain Amygdala

Prefrontal Cortex Conscious, Reflective, “THINKING” Brain Reactive, Lower Brain Fight/Flight/Freeze

Students’ emotional states (comfort or stress) impact pathway through amygdala Reflective or Reactivebrain

Negativity & Stress block information transport for processing in the thinking brain (PFC) so students are not engaged in & don’t remember the lesson

Images of threatening faces or friendly faces viewed before memory task.

PFC AMYGDALA Subjects performing a memory recognition activity A: During the relaxed state increased activity in prefrontal cortex and memory storage regions. B: Stressed subjects show heightened activity in the amygdala and much less cortical activity. Wang, J., et al (2005) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 102, 17804-9.

PFC AMYGDALA A: Positive emotional state – opens amygdala to PFC = memory B: Stressed state – no passage to PFC = Low MemoryAdapted from Hamman, et al., Cognitive Neuroscience

AMYGDALA blocks Entry to PFC in Response to NEGATIVE EMOTIONS Fear STRESS FROM frustration Stress from boredoM

Survival First: React with Fight-Flight-Freeze

Fear/Stress Amygdala to Lower Brain for Fight, Flight, or Freeze

The Brain In Stress/Fear State Admits Sensory Input to Lower Involuntary, Reactive Brain for SURVIVAL Stressed Brain flight fight freeze

Causes of Stress in School fear of being wrong test-taking anxiety physical and language differences frustration with difficult material boredom from lack of stimulation

Consequences of flight from Boredom or Frustration

The U.S. is now the only country in the developed world where young people are less likely to graduate than their parents

Dropouts Reason #1 BOREDOM 75% “Material wasn’t interesting” 39% “Material wasn’t relevant to me” 31% Bored in class because they have “No interactions”

40% of U.S. high school students don’t take any science beyond general biology 55% of U.S. h.s. students don’t take math beyond geometry Donald McCabe and Jason Stephens

Consequences of Passive Learning Where Facts and Procedures are memorized without the engagement to achieve conceptual understanding

Novelty & curiosity Prediction for Participation Stress of boredom/frustration Achievable Challenge & Awareness of Incremental Progress Personalization Emotional Positivity Achievement Priming Awareness of making progress Preassessment

The PULL of the Achievable Challenge of Video Games He’s so close to Level 10 to even care about going for pizza

Like video games achievable challenge with incremental progress is motivating

Planning Units for Achievable Challenge Preassess Frequent Sustained Assessment Timely Feedback

Benefits of Pre-tests of Content Knowledge Preview of key concepts Predictions (hypotheses, answers) motivate interest in knowing if they are correct Memory of correct answer more sustained because of prediction Stimulate circuits with related prior knowledge to connect with subsequent new learning

You Have Information for Planning Misconceptions Mastery or deficiency in prerequisite concepts, facts, procedures and/or skills

Students correct their own quizzes in class - Immediate corrective feedback - Insight about their own foundational knowledge - what they need to review in preparation for the unit - Accountability: possibility of same quiz

Preassessment RAD WITHOUT Your Handout Write a word that relates to the each of the letters of RAD 1. R 2. A 3. D 4. Sensory input that is __________ alerts attention and that input passes the first filter to enter the brain.

5. During high stress, information is conducted through the emotion sensitive affective filter to the lower, reactive brain. There are limited sets of instructions this involuntary brain uses to direct behavior. These include: ___ ____ _____? 6. Syn-naps (brain breaks) are needed to _______? 7. The prefrontal cortex is place we want our input to reach because this 17% of the brain controls ____________________ ?

Preassessment Answers RReach Your Students (input must pass through the Reticular Activating System or RAS) AAttitude that aims information toward thinking brain through the Amygdala D Develop Memory with Dopamine: Dopamine is associated with pleasurable experiences and increases focus and memory 4. Sensory input that is novel (threatening, curiousity provoking) alerts attention and that input passes the first filter to enter the brain.

5. During high stress, information is conducted through the emotion sensitive affective filter to the lower, reactive brain. In that lower brain there are limited sets of instructions this involuntary brain uses to direct behavior. These include: Fight, Flight, Freeze 6. Syn-naps (brain breaks) are needed to replenish neurotransmitters, cool down amygdala, process new learning for memory 7. The prefrontal cortex is place we want our input to reach because this 17% of the brain controls higher thinking, long-term memory, executive functions, emotional control

Personalization for Active, Memorable LEARNING PARTICIPATION MOTIVATION

Personalization Students need to value the information so they Want to Learn what you Have to Teach

The “So What?” In planning your lessons, consider: “How can I help students value the information?”

PERSONALIZE A PERSON OR PLACE CONNECTED TO THE UNIT

Book author anecdote about Charlie

ratio and proportion Dubai Towers 2000 ft Empire State Building 1250 feet Crown Plaza Pittsfield 140 feet

Active Personalized Reading (It’s all about “me”...Talk back to the Text) Before Reading Predict What do I already know about this topic? As You Read Interact How is this different from what I already know? What new ideas are here for me to consider? Make notes in the margin or on a post-it when You disagree Something is not what you expected You get an idea or new insight What you predict comes next

PARTICIPANT ACTIVITY More Open Ended: 1. As a group, select a stress reducing or motivation enhancing strategy related to the amygdala you LIKE. 2. With your group develop a plan to apply the strategy to your work (especially a challenge) 3. Individually: Fill in ideas in the “A” section RAD for your “challenge” topic in your notes

AMYGDALA opens pathway to PFC in response to activation of prior knowledge prediction Curiosity Personal relevance pOSITIVE MOOD INDUCTION aCHIEVEMENT PRIMING ....AND THE BRAIN REsponds WITH LEARNING AND MEMORY

Positive Mood Induction In an experiment students were asked to think about the happiest day of their lives and then given math problems. The number of math problems solved accurately in five minutes was greater in the group that remembered the happy time.

Achievement Priming Activates a goal to achieve and inhibits a goal to have fun in individuals with high-achievement motivation In students with low-achievement motivation, a goal to have fun was activated and a goal to achieve inhibited Hart, W. (2009). The Effects of Chronic Achievement Motivation and Achievement Primes on the Activation of Achievement and Fun Goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol. 97, No. 6, 1129–1141

Appropriate Challenge Selection is Neuro-logical for Survival Expending effort only when there is a reasonably high probability of success is more adaptive than indiscriminately expending effort

Progress & Motivation A Harvard Business School analysis of nearly 12,000 diary entries, together with the writers’ daily ratings of their motivation and emotions, showed that awareness of making progress—even incremental progress—had more impact on positive emotions and motivation than any other workday event

Facilitate Motivation Provide meaningful goals Support with resources, rubrics, guidance Encouragement: Help students recognize and acknowledge their incremental progress

Note YOUR incremental progress

Covered Novelty & curiosity Prediction for Participation Stress of boredom/frustration Emotional positivity Achievement Priming Awareness of making progress Preassessment Personalization

NEXT Dopamine Boosting Neuroplasticity Narrative Memory Making Mistakes for Memory

My Articles Especially Useful for College Level Teaching Memory Enhancing Teaching and Learning. Solutions, Kappa Delta Pi Journal Brain-Based Teaching Strategies for Improving Students’ Memory, Learning, and Test Taking Success. Childhood Education.. Highlighting for Understanding of Complex College Text. The National Teaching and Learning Forum. 14(6): Collaboration is a Brain Turn On (2006)

R.A.D. R = REACHING ATTENTION (RETICULAR ACTIVATING SYSTEM) A = ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR (AMYGDALA) D = Develop Memory & Motivation with Dopamine

Dopamine-Pleasure The brain remembers best when LEARNING is accompanied by positive emotion!

Dopamine Produces/Stimulates Positive feelings Creative imagination Inspiration Motivation Curiosity Persistence Perseverance

Dopamine Produces/Stimulates Pleasure Curiosity & Inspiration Motivation Persistence and perseverance Creative imagination

Dopamine Release Increases With...

Moving Enjoying music Being read to Feeling self-appreciation

Acting kindly Interacting well with peers Expressing gratitude Experiencing humor Optimism Choice

Examples of Increasing Dopamine with Choice Movement Positive peer interactions

CHOICE Two groups of students were given a battery of tests to take. Experimental group: option to select which tests to take in what order. That group reported less anxiety and scores were higher. STOTLAND E, BLUMENTHAL A. THE REDUCTION OF ANXIETY AS A RESULT OF THE EXPECTATION OF MAKING A CHOICE. Canadian Journal of Psychology.

CHOICE = Ownership on the part of the learner Allowing students choice, even small choices, will increase dopamine. For example: Students choose how they will demonstrate mastery Choose a goal to connect learning to doing

See if you can recognize three ways humor increases dopamine.

Humor increases dopamine in 3 ways Movement Positive Interaction With Peers Intrinsic Reinforcement

MOVEMENT for dopamine MEMORY BOOST

Moving Multiple Choice Each wall in the classroom is an answer to a question. Students move to the region of the room that has the answer they think is correct.

Let’s do a Ball-tossto review dopamine activating activities Scaffolding on next slide

Moving Enjoying music Being read to Feeling intrinsic satisfaction Acting kindly Interacting well with peers Expressing gratitude Experiencing humor Optimism Choice

PARTICIPANT ACTIVITY Collaborate about a DOPAMINE RAISING STRATEGY that could be applied to one of your challenge topics

Judy’s Neuroplasticity “Advertisement”

Neuroplasticity Mental Manipulation Strengthens Neural Pathways (more myelin, dendrites, and synapses) Memories are more durable and stored information is more efficiently retrieved. Practice Makes Permanent

Neurons that fire together, wire together = plasticity

Experience Your Neurons that are WIRED TOGETHER 1. While sitting, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles 2. Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with your right hand. Your foot changed direction, and it will do it again if you try again

Repeatedly activating those networks (mental manipulation, practice) increases strength and permanence

The drop in dopamine-pleasure with a recognized mistake is the way the brain changes itself to avoid future mistakes

•Timely feedbackis needed to provide students with the accurate information with which to change their misdirecting neural networks. Then they need opportunities to use the revised network & build understanding to maintain the correct long-term memory.

You miss 100% of all the shots you don’t take Wayne Gretzky

Increasing Participation Changes the BRAIN but...

How can we increase active learning when Students Fear Mistakes?

Reduce Mistake Fear To Increase the Risk-taking of Participation

Reduce Mistake Participation Fear with no wrong answer questions such as.....

226 Is the next slide a PROFILE OF MAN OR A Man on Horseback?

229 PROFILE OF MAN & WOMAN OR SEATED COUPLE WEARING SOMBREROS?

Students need opportunities to develop multiple and flexible perspectives.

People or houses watching the guitar player? Text

To Increase the Risk-taking of Participation Explain the brain changes that let us learn from mistakes

Brain Owners Manual Explain the brain changes that let us learn from mistakes (its how they learned to walk, talk, ride a bike)

Once the information gets to the conscious, cognitive brain - PFC it must can be mentally manipulated to become ,[object Object],2. Conceptual, Transferable Knowledge

Mental ManipulationRecognizing PATTERNS & making associations meshes withNEUROPLASTICITY Similarities and differences Put data into Categories Analogies Graphic Organizers

MY WEBSITE FOR ACCESS TO ARTICLES I’VE WRITTEN, BOOK CHAPTERS, AND TO MY EMAIL www.RADTeach.com WEBSITE FOR VISUAL ILLUSIONS www.weirdomatic.com

Video Addresses A Vision of Students Today –Cultural Anthropology class at Kansas State Universityhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o Ball Pass Video:www.dothetest.co.uk/basketball.html

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