How Learning Occurs

The Body: Brain and Neurons

The Brain

-The human brain is a complex organ that controls our body and receives, analyzes, and stores information.
-The brain produces electrical and chemical signals that let the parts of the body communicate. Nerves called neurons send these signals throughout the body. There are about 100 billion neurons in the brain.
-A baby’s brain weighs less than a pound, and it grows until the child is 6 years old, at which point it weighs about 3 pounds. As we grow, the number of brain cells (neurons) remains relatively stable, but the cells grow in size and the number of connections increases.
-Although the brain is only 2% of the body's weight, it uses 20% of the oxygen supply and gets 20% of the blood flow.

Parts of the Brain

The brain has three main parts:
Cerebrum:
-Frontal lobe: behavior, attention, creativity, problem-solving, judgment, sense of smell, some movements, reflection
-Occipital lobe: vision, reading
-Parietal lobe: sense of touch, some visual and reading functions, comprehension and combination of senses
-Temporal lobe: auditory and visual memories, music, fear, some language and speech, some hearing

Cerebellum:
-Balance
-Posture
-Cardiac, respiratory, and vasomotor centers

Brain stem:
-Motor and sensory pathway to body (spinal cord and Central Nervous System)
-Vital centers: cardiac, respiratory, vasomotor

The brain can also be divided into hemispheres:
Right Hemisphere
-Controls the left side of the body
-Spatial relationships
-Analyzing nonverbal information
-Communicating emotion
Left Hemisphere
-Controls the right side of the body
-Produces and understand language

Neurons

-Neurons are the cells that transmit the chemical and electrical signals that send messages throughout the body.
-There are over 100 billion neurons in the brain, and they come in various types and sizes, according to their function. Neurons are the only cells that cannot be regenerated once they are damaged or die.
-The brain also has glial cells, which do not help with communication, but they perform functions that support the neurons and keep them working.

Memory and Learning
-Memory and learning are related concepts, but they are not the same.
-Memory is the ability to remember past experiences.
-Learning is a process that helps us modify future behaviors.
-Memory is essential to learning; it is what we remember after we learn.
-Learning also depends on memory, because we use the knowledge we already have to associate it to new things we learn, and this helps us learn more easily.

Types of Memory
Sensory memory
-Briefly and accurately retains the information provided by the senses
-Because it lasts less than a few seconds, it is often considered part of the process of perception instead of memory
Short-term memory
-Temporarily records the succession of events in our lives, but we quickly forget this information unless we make a conscious effort to retain it
Long-term memory
-Stores all the significant events that mark our lives, it lets us retain the meanings of words and the physical skills that we have learned.
-Its capacity seems unlimited, and it can last days, months, years, or even an entire lifetime. However, it sometimes distorts the facts, and it tends to become less reliable as we age.

Learning
-Learning is a process that lets us retain acquired information or impressions that can influence our behavior. It is the main activity of the brain.
-Isolated pieces of information are memorized less effectively than those associated with existing knowledge. The more associations between the new information and things that you already know, the better you will learn it.
-Learning can be influenced by various psychological factors, which we will see in the next slide.

Factors that Influence Learning
Degree of vigilance, alertness, attentiveness, and concentration
-Attentiveness is often said to be the tool that engraves information into memory. Thus, attention deficits can radically reduce memory performance. You can improve your memory capacity by making a conscious effort to repeat and integrate information.
Interest, strength of motivation, and need or necessity
-It is easier to learn when the subject fascinates you. Thus, motivation is a factor that enhances memory.
Affective values associated with the material to be memorized, and the individual’s mood and intensity of emotion
-Your emotional state when an event occurs can greatly influence your memory of it.

Factors that Influence Learning
-The entire context (location, light, sounds, smells) in which the memorizing takes place is recorded along with the information being memorized
-Our memory systems are contextual. When you have trouble remembering a particular fact, you may be able to retrieve it by recollecting where you learned it or the book from which you learned it. Was there a picture on that page? Was the information toward the top of the page, or the bottom? Such items are called “recall indexes”
-Because we memorize the context with the information we learn, when we recall the context, we can also recall the information through associations

How Learning Occurs

The Learning Cycle
-The process of learning can be seen as a cycle that becomes easier in a student-centered environment.
-The cycle shows the steps that learners must go through in order to learn new skills.

The Cone of Learning:
Active learning that involves saying and/or doing an activity produces the longest-lasting results.


Experimental Learning Theory
According to Dr. Kolb, in order for learning to occur, to be internalized, to be integrated, and to become actions, four modes of learning must happen:
Concrete Experiences: being involved in a situation, doing something
Reflective Observing: looking at an experience and thinking about it
Abstract Concept-Making: forming theories about why an experience happened the way it did
Active Experimenting: testing a theory by making a plan and following it

Caines’ 12 Brain/Mind Learning Principles
Principle 1: All Learning is Physiological
Body and brain change as a result of experience.
Therefore, teachers should keep in mind that:
Students need opportunities to move.
Students need to take some action to implement what they study. This can take any form from role playing or making presentations to working on substantial projects that incorporate some of the standards.

Principle 2: The Brain/Mind is Social
Because human beings are social creatures, the brain/mind is designed to learn by imitation and from modeling.
Therefore, teachers should keep in mind that:
It is important for students to have opportunities to sit with, talk to and work with each other.
Students benefit from imitation, modeling, and having opportunities to “live” what whatever is being learned.


Principle 3: The Search for Meaning is Innate
Everyone tends to filter input, organize information and experience, and ask questions according to what they are interested in and care about.
There is a hunger for meaningfulness and purpose.
Therefore, teachers should:
Find ways to honor and acknowledge authentic student questions and decision making in their learning.
Find ways to access student interests, purposes, and passion.

Principle 4: The Search for Meaning Occurs through Patterning
The brain/mind organizes all experience into patterns, and even tends to invent patterns or fill in information to make experiences meaningful. So meaning is grounded in how things are connected with each other.
Therefore, teachers should:
Use projects and problems that naturally organize information and experience in ways that make sense.
Use processes, ranging from questions to detailed observation, so as to help students discover links to what is already known.


Principle 5: Emotions are Critical to Patterning
Emotions are involved in every thought, decision, and response. Powerful learning is enhanced by rich emotional experiences, guided and moderated by higher order functions.
Therefore, teachers should:
Introduce new material in ways that are inviting, and make it possible for learners to establish a genuinely positive emotional link to that material.
Help students discover love for content, so that they can get beyond fun to passion.



Principle 6: The Brain/Mind Processes Parts and Whole Simultaneously
The brain is structured hierarchically. Each lower level item, which seems to be a separate part, is always integrated into a higher level whole item.
For examples, colors and lines are seen as a door, and a door is seen as part of a house, and a house is part of a neighborhood.
Therefore, teachers should remember that:
Every skill and concept is better understood and mastered when there is an interplay between the specific elements and the concept or skill as a whole.
Offer students opportunities to work with “natural” wholes in which standards are embedded. These include stories, problems, and projects.


Principle 7: Learning Involves Focused Attention and Peripheral Perception
Part of what is learned comes from paying full attention and being emotionally engaged. Another part of learning is a matter of learning by picking things up indirectly from the context.
Therefore, teachers should:
Find ways to help learners stay emotionally engaged.
Help students learn breathing and observational techniques to master the art of focusing attention.
Design the physical context, including posters, props, and the sue of seating arrangements, so that it indirectly conveys information and suggestions that support what is being learned.


Principle 8: Learning Involves Conscious and Unconscious Processes
The brain/mind continuously processes information and experiences below the level of awareness. This is sometimes called the cognitive unconscious.
Other functions of the brain, including the ability to plan, make decisions, and reflect on one’s own processes –also called metacognition – can be expanded in all students at all ages.
Therefore, teachers should:
Incorporate processes, such as the arts, that prime unconscious incubation. And allow time, and create spaces, for students to come to insight.
Create situations in which students ask their own questions, make decisions that have real consequences, and have opportunities to reflect on and learn from the consequences of their actions.


Principle 9: There are at Least Two Approaches to Memory
Scientists have identified several different memory systems, all of which interact in real life. Some systems are used to store information and routines, and other systems register and process ongoing experiences.
Therefore, teachers should:
Use projects, stories, situations, and problems that organize material into experiences that are naturally remembered.
Assist students to use in-depth observation and analysis of what transpires, and guide them to deeper understanding by ongoing and effective questioning.
Only use memorization techniques, such as creative practice and rehearsal, occasionally and as needed.


Principle 10: Learning is Developmental
There are different stages in the development of identity and maturity of people and in the development of general capacities such as the shift from concrete to abstract thinking.
There is a rough progression in the mastery of any discipline, from novice to expert. Also, natural learning is an ongoing process, so skills and capacities continuously develop.
Therefore, teachers should remember that:
Projects should be appropriate for the developmental stage of students.
There should be many opportunities to reflect on experience, and deal with regular feedback, so that insight and understanding can develop over time.
Some capacities, such as becoming independent decision makers, develop over many years and need to be continuously present in learning environments.


Principle 11: Complex Learning is Enhanced by Challenge and Inhibited by Threat Associated with Helplessness and/or Fatigue
The brain/mind becomes less effective when the person feels overwhelmed, losing control, experiencing excessive stress, and meaninglessness.
Therefore, teachers should:
Establish good relationships within a classroom or environment so that adults and students listen to each other, and students feel safe to ask questions, make suggestions, and try things out.
Use projects that make sense, and allow students to pursue their own interests within the context of the projects.
Ensure that students have adequate resources and some control over the use of their time and how they will proceed.

Principle 12: Each Brain is Uniquely Organized
We are a unique blend of experience and genetics.
For example, differences are explained by Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, the Caines’ identity profile, and research on learning styles, reading styles, sensory preferences, and more.
There are also social and cultural differences that impact how people learn.
Therefore, teachers should:
Design environments and experiences that treat everyone equally and at the same time, help individuals to capitalize on their own strengths and overcome their own weaknesses.
Incorporate various learning styles so that students can grasp some of their own predispositions and preferences.
Develop an awareness of different cultures and customs.