Brain Based Education

*What is a brain?

-The human brain is the central organ of the human nervous system.

*Function of the brain

-Controls body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing.

-It accepts sensory input from the world around.

-It handles physical motion.

-It allows you to think dream, reason, and experience emotions.

*Brain based Education

-refers to teaching methods, lesson designs, and school programs that are based on the latest scientific
research about how the brain learns, including such factors as cognitive development—how students learn
differently as they age, grow, and mature socially, emotionally, and cognitively.

- as a teacher what we know how the brain works has a significant impact in curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

- Brain-based learning is motivated by the general belief that learning can be accelerated and improved if educators
base how and what they teach on the science of learning, rather than on past educational practices, established
conventions, or assumptions about the learning process. For example, it was commonly believed that intelligence is a
fixed characteristic that remains largely unchanged throughout a person’s life. However, recent discoveries in
cognitive science have revealed that the human brain physically changes when it learns, and that after practicing
certain skills it becomes increasingly easier to continue learning and improving those skills. This finding—that
learning effectively improves brain functioning, resiliency, and working intelligence—has potentially far-reaching
implications for how schools can design their academic programs and how teachers could structure educational
experiences in the classroom.

Brain based learning is an innovative way to engage, develop, and deepen students’ understanding. And it’s at the
cutting-edge of the evolution of teaching methodology.

Brain based learning combines psychology, technology, and neurology to “actively teach students”. It revolves around
the question: How does the brain of a student actually function? Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this.
Every single student is unique. But, the reason why brain based learning is so exciting is that it isn’t a complete
overhaul of teaching methodology. Instead, brain based learning looks to take what teachers already do so well, and
help to make small changes and modifications so that teachers can be more effective when working with diverse
students.

*12 Principles of brain based education.

-Educators, Renate Caine and Geoffrey Caine developed 12 principles that they say summarizes this mind, body and
brain integration; they are the foundation for the theory of brain based learning.

-They called this principles: “Brain/Mind Learning Principles of Natural Learning”

1. LEARNING ENGAGES THE ENTIRE PHYSIOLOGY

- When we say Physiology is the study of how the human body works.

-This means that the physical health of the child -- the amount of sleep, the nutrition -- affects the brain. So do
moods. We are physiologically programmed, and we have cycles that have to be honored. An adolescent who does not get
enough sleep one night will not absorb much new information the next day. Fatigue will affect the brain's memory.
 - Neuron growth, nourishment, happiness, stress, and threat affects the brain

- Anything that affects our physiological functioning affects our capacity to learn.

- IMPLICATION : brain-based teaching must fully incorporate stress management, nutrition, exercise, drug
education, and other facets of health into learning process.

2. THE BRAIN IS A SOCIAL BRAIN

- the brain develops better in connect with others.

- our brain performs many functions simultaneously, like our thoughts, emotions, imaginations,

3. THE SEARCH FOR MEANING IS INNATE (innate meaning natural/inborn)

- This means that we are naturally programmed to search for meaning. This principle is survival oriented.
The brain needs and automatically registers the familiar while simultaneously searching for and responding to
additional stimuli. What does this mean for education? It means that the learning environment needs to provide
stability and familiarity. Provision must be made to satisfy the hunger for novelty, discovery, and challenge. At the
same time lessons need to be exciting and meaningful and offer students an abundance of choices.

- educators should be able to satisfy the brain’s enormous curiosity and hunger for novelty, discovery, and
challenges.

4. THE SEARCH FOR MEANING COMES THROUGH PATTERNING

- PATTERNING - refers to the organization and categorization of information.

- The ideal process in learning is to present information in a way that allows the brain to extract patterns
rather than attempt to impose them. The brain is capable of taking in enormous amounts of information when that
information is related in a way so the brain can pattern appropriately.

- teachers should provide problem solving and critical thinking activities/skills.

5. EMOTIONS ARE CRITICAL TO LEARNING

- emotions are crucial to memory because they facilitate the storage and recall of information.

- In the brain you can't separate out emotion from cognition. It is an interacting web of factors. Everything
has some emotion to it. In fact, many brain researchers now believe there is no memory without emotion. Emotions
are what motivate us to learn, to create. They are in our moods. They are our passion. They are a part of who we are
as human beings. We need to understand more about them and accept them.

- what we learned is influenced and organized by emotions mind-sets involving expectancy, personal biases
and prejudice, self-esteem, and the need for social interaction.

-IMPLICATION: teachers should make sure of that the emotional climate is supportive and marked by
mutual respect and acceptance. Reflection and meta-cognitive approaches should be encouraged.

6. EACH BRAIN PERCEIVES AND CREATES PARTS AND WHOLE SIMULTANEOUSLY

- There are differences between the left and right hemisphere of the brain.

- left brain, analytical and methodical n your thinking; performs tasks that have to do with logic such as in
science and mathematics.

- right brain, creative or artistic.

- as educators is that we need to engage both sides, which in real life we do anyway. As educators, we want
learners to use both the left and right hemispheres; we want whole brain strategies.
 -IMPLICATIONS: good teaching builds understanding and skills over time because it recognizes that
learning is cumulative and developmental.

7. THE BRAIN IS PARALLEL PROCESSOR

- Thoughts, intuitions, pre-dispositions, and emotions operate simultaneously and interact with other modes
of information. Good teaching takes this into consideration. That's why we talk about the teacher as an orchestrator of
learning.

- the brain performs any functions simultaneously.

8. LEARNING INVLOLVES CONSCOIUS AND UNCONSIOUS PROCESSES.

-we remember what we experience, not just we are told. We learn much more than we ever consciously
understand.

- This is why we say that learners become their experience and remember what they experience, not just
what they are told.

- What we call "active processing" allows students to review how and what they've absorbed so they begin
to take charge of their learning and of the development of personal meaning. Meaning is not always available on the
surface. Meaning often happens intuitively in ways that we don't understand. So that, when we learn, we use both
conscious and unconscious processes. In teaching, you may not reach a student immediately, but two years later he
may be in another class and say, "I get it now." You are a part of that, but you are no longer present.

9. WE HAVE ATLEAST TWO TYPES OF MEMORY

- spatial memory system – we have natural spatial memory system which doesn’t need rehearsal and allows
for instant memory experiences. This memory registers our experiences.

-EX: remembering what we had for dinner last night doesn’t require the use of memorization.

- rote memory system – works for facts and skills that are dealt in isolation and which need rehearsal and
memorization.

-IMPLICATION: educators are adept at focusing on memorization of facts. Common examples include:
multiplication tables, spelling and sets of principles in different subjects. Teachers should not overemphasize the
focus on memorization because it doesn’t facilitate the transfer of learning.

10. THE BRAIN UNDERSTAND AND REMEMBERS BEST WHEN FACTS AND SKILLS ARE EMBEDDED IN
NATURAL SPATIAL MEMORY.

- Our native language is learned through multiple interactive experiences involving vocabulary and grammar.
It shaped both by internal processes and by social interactions.

- Spatial memory is best invoked through experiential learning.

- IMPLICATIONS: teachers should use great deal of real life activity including classroom demontrations,
projects, field trips, stories, metaphors, drama, and interaction of different subjects.

- Vocabulary can be experienced through skits

- Grammar can be in process through stories of writing.

11. LEARNING IS ENHANCED BY CHALLENGE AND INHIBITED BY THREAT

- teach the student without threatening them

- the brain learns optimally when appropriately challenged and down-shifts under perceived threat.

- the brain is most sensitive to stress.

- under perceived threat, we literally lose access to portions of our brain .

 - The learner must be engaged in learning. Not that we throw performance objectives or tests out, but we
need to understand what we are doing to the human brain under these conditions.

- Many children come to school downshifted because they come from an environment of threat. There is
threat in the home -- threat related to abandonment of one form or another is probably the most destructive of all.
Children from a stable home can take a little downshifting in school and are fine. Children that come from a home
where there is instability and a sense of abandonment cannot take short-term downshifting. They need more stability
in the classroom.

- IMPLICATIONS: teachers and administrators should strive to create a state of relaxed alertness in
students. This means that they should provide an atmosphere that is low in threat and high in challenge.

12. EACH BRAIN IS UNIQUE

- although we have the same set of systems, including our senses and basic emotions, they are integrated
differently in each and every brain.

- We need to understand how we learn and how we perceive the world and to know that men and women
see the world differently.

- because learning changes the structure of the brain, the more we learn, the more unique we become.

-IMPLICATIONS: teaching should be multifaceted in order to allow all students to express visual, tactile,
emotional, or auditory preferences. ; choices should also be variable enough to attract individual interests; education
needs to facilitate optimal brain functioning.

3 INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUES ASSOCIATED WITH BRAIN-BASED LEARNING

In order to apply brain-based learning, teachers should make use of three instructional techniques: 1) Orchestrated
immersion 2) Relaxed alertness 3) Active processing.

- Orchestrated immersion: Orchestrated immersion means to create learning environments that fully
immerse learners in an educational experience. The idea is to take information off the page and
blackboard to bring it to life in the minds of students. Orchestrated immersion provides learners with rich,
complex experiences that include options and a sense of wholeness. Creating learning environments that
fully immerse students in an educational experience. This implies creating an environment where a
student feels like he/she is a part of the process and is living it. Teachers must immerse learners in complex,
interactive experiences that are both rich and real. One excellent example is immersing students in a foreign
culture to teach them a second language. Educators must take advantage of the brain's ability to
parallel process. in short, learners need to be put into a carefully constructed context that will enable them to
focus on the information and experience necessary to achieve the learning outcomes
- Relaxed Alertness: Trying to eliminate fear in learners, while maintaining a highly challenging environment.
Relaxed alertness is the idea of keeping a student's fear in check while still providing a challenging
environment. Students must have a personally meaningful challenge. Such challenges stimulate a
student's mind to the desired state of alertness. Relaxed alertness means to try to eliminate fear in learners,
while maintaining a highly challenging environment. Relaxed alertness is not the same as being calm and
unchanging. It is a dynamic state that is compatible with great deal of change. Relaxed alertness ensures
that students are being challenged within a context of safety. It also includes a personal sense of well-being
that allows students to explore new thoughts and connections.
- Active processing: Allowing the learner to consolidate and internalize information by actively
processing it. Active processing is the means by which a student is given the opportunity to continually
and actively process information to internalize, consolidate, and relate it. In order for a student to gain
insight about a problem, there must be intensive analysis of the different ways to approach it, and
about learning in general. Active processing means the consolidation and internalization of information by
the learner in a way that is both personally meaningful and conceptually coherent. It is the path to
understanding, rather than simply to memory. Active processing necessarily engages emotions, concepts
and values. the brain needs to work things out for itself rather than be 'spoon fed' information.
LEARNING STRATEGIES COMPATIBLE WITH BRAIN BASED LEARNING

Multisensory learning, for example, is a learning theory that uses neuroscience to reach students. By engaging
multiple senses in your lessons, like touch or sound, students may be more likely to understand and retain
information. This strategy can be particularly useful for students with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia. The
definition of multisensory learning, then, is using the neuroscience behind how we learn to teach lessons that engage
two or more senses. Most educators add audio or visual multimedia into their assignments, but multisensory learning
can also include tactile, smell, and taste-related materials.[6] As long as the activity engages multiple areas of the
brain, it can help students develop stronger memories around how to do it.

Social-emotional learning, SEL refers to the way a student learns how to manage their thoughts, feelings, and
actions. If you teach students these management skills in class, you can help them approach challenges inside and
outside of school with a healthy attitude. Teaching them SELF-AWARENESS, SELF-MANAGEMENT,
RESPONSIBLE DECISION MAKING, SOCIAL AWARENESS, RELATIONSHIP SKILLS. you can make sure you’re
teaching students critical skills for cognitive and social-emotional development.

Multiple Intelligence, As with the mindset of brain-based learning, multiple intelligences theory helps teachers
remember that every child’s brain is different and may respond better to certain activities.[11] Because multiple
intelligences is still undergoing research, however, this is best used as a classroom management strategy and not as
a neuroscientific fact.

Experiential Learning, (also known as “hands-on” learning) is another strategy developed using cognitive
research.[12] This strategy encourages students to put concepts they learn in class to the test and both practice and
reflect on them. This can help students develop critical thinking skills that extend far beyond a single lesson.

ADVANTAGES
STUDENT DIFFERENCES - Students have different learning styles, performance abilities and knowledge levels.
Children and adults learn differently, boys and girls develop skills at different rates/levels. Knowing the differences
benefits educators in their professional duties.

LESSONS- Using the levels of intellectual development of students, lessons are developed from concrete to abstract
concepts. Lessons are built around what students already know with additional information to build new levels of
knowledge.

LEARNING STRATEGIES- Designing learning strategies from an understanding of how the brain works involves
students' interaction with learning materials, other students, teachers, family and society. Adults are more self-
directed than children. Teaching methods are designed to meet these student characteristics.

NUTRITION AND EXERCISES - The benefits of brain based learning include knowing what foods the brain requires
for optimum functioning and how physical exercise relieves stress that inhibits learning. Educators use this
information to make decisions on nutritional programs for students, and physical/health education classes.

ASSESSMENT- Multiple types of feedback that are specific and task oriented allow the brain to grow. Success
should be rewarded and opportunities provided for self- assessment.

LIMITATIONS AND CHALLENGES

Background - Brain-based learning requires the use of teaching strategies that utilize the brain's natural
ways of learning. Teachers are encouraged to use multiple methods/media that are not always accessible. Also,
some students may be reluctant to make the extra effort to do exercises leading to deep thinking.
Application- Educators who support brain-based learning advocate using relevant teaching resources,
multiple methods/media, and appropriate teacher training. Effective application of brain-based learning can
therefore be costly.

Limited Resources-The time and material resources required for applying individualized teaching strategies
that enable students to learn in an equitable manner are sometimes very limited. Teachers of very large
classes may not be able to address the needs of students with different cognitive levels and learning
styles/preferences at all times.

BRAIN-BASED TEACHING TIPS

1. When you present a new topic, stand to the right of learners (right side of the classroom from their point
of view).Brain Technology: When our eyes look up and to the right, this indicates that the brain is creating
new pictures/new ideas. By standing on the right side of the kids, we allow our students easy access to
creation of new pictures and ideas in their minds.
2. When you are reviewing topics with your students, stand to their left side (from their point of
view).Brain Technology: When our eyes look up and to the left, we are doing visual thinking of stored picture
memories. By standing on towards the left side of their view, we allow them easy access to their schema
and stored pictures.
3. When giving a test, have the students spread out. Avoid having them sit next to each other very closely.
If their eyes are not allowed some freedom to move, we are depriving them to tap into their ability to access
information in their brain.Also, by having the students spread out, it lowers their stress levels making it
easier for them to access information in their brain.

TIPS TO MODEL YOUR CURRICULUM AFTER HOW CHILDREN LEARN

-Brain-based learning is not only theoretical but practical, too. Model your assignments in ways that mirror
challenges students may face in real life.

-Keep in mind that brain-based learning also encompasses social-emotional development. Plan lessons that teach
students social and team-building skills.

-A child’s learning environment can enhance or impair their academic achievement. Avoid creating lessons or
situations that make students feel overly anxious, threatened, or helpless

-Lessons shouldn’t just involve memorizing words or facts. Use activities and lessons to help students learn how
to problem solve and develop critical thinking skills that will benefit them for their entire academic career.

-Not every brain-based learning strategy will be a good fit for your students. Try out a variety of different
strategies to find the best ones for your class

EDUCATIONAL BENEFIR OF BRAIN BASED LEARNING

The benefits are both clear and significant. Not only can brain-based learning boost your students’ academic
progress, but it can even improve classroom behavior and promote a positive learning environment in school.

On the superficial, grades-based level, using psychological or scientific theories of learning can have profound
benefits. Researchers found, for example, that teachers who implement brain-based learning often see both
increased knowledge retention and academic performance.[7] Not only do students score higher on test scores, but
they also remember the skills they’ve learned and can use them beyond the classroom.

Brain-based learning can also affect social-emotional development, or a student’s ability to understand and regulate
their emotions. Studies have found that brain-based learning strategies can improve a student’s motivation and
attitude.[10] When students develop an intrinsic love of learning and approach class with the right mindset, your
entire class will be better prepared for a successful school career.
Ultimately, this is the goal of brain-based learning: to create a learning environment and classroom strategy where all
students can thrive.[9] Because the scientific and psychological fields are always evolving, however, take each
strategy with a grain of salt.[2] You may need to try a few different theories or strategies before you find those that
best align with your classroom needs.