Dock flowers.
Judy Willis
The realities of standardized tests and increasingly
structured, if not synchronized, curriculum continue to build classroom stress
levels. Neuroimaging research reveals the disturbances in the brain's learning
circuits and neurotransmitters that accompany stressful learning environments.
The neuroscientific research about learning has revealed the negative impact of
stress and anxiety and the qualitative improvement of the brain circuitry
involved in memory and executive function that accompanies positive motivation
and engagement.
The Proven Effects of Positive Motivation
Thankfully, this information has led to the development
of brain-compatible strategies to help students through the bleak terrain
created by some of the current trends imposed by the Common Core State
Standards and similar mandates. With brain-based teaching strategies that
reduce classroom anxiety and increase student connection to their lessons,
educators can help students learn more effectively.
In the past two decades, neuroimaging and brain-mapping
research have provided objective support to the student-centered educational
model. This brain research demonstrates that superior learning takes place when
classroom experiences are relevant to students' lives, interests, and
experiences. Lessons can be stimulating and challenging without being
intimidating, and the increasing curriculum requirements can be achieved
without stress, anxiety, boredom, and alienation as the pervasive emotions of
the school day.
During my 15 years of practicing adult and child
neurology with neuroimaging and brain mapping as part of my diagnostic tool
kit, I worked with children and adults with brain function disorders, including
learning differences. When I then returned to university to obtain my
credential and Masters of Education degree, these familiar neuroimaging tools
had become available to education researchers. Their widespread use in schools
and classrooms globally has yet to occur.
This brain research demonstrates that superior learning
takes place when classroom experiences are motivating and engaging. Positive
motivation impacts brain metabolism, conduction of nerve impulses through the
memory areas, and the release of neurotransmitters that increase executive
function and attention. Relevant lessons help students feel that they are
partners in their education, and they are engaged and motivated.
We live in a stressful world and troubled times, and that
is not supposed to be the way for children to grow up. Schools can be the safe
haven where academic practices and classroom strategies provide children with
emotional comfort and pleasure as well as knowledge. When teachers use
strategies to reduce stress and build a positive emotional environment,
students gain emotional resilience and learn more efficiently and at higher
levels of cognition.
Neuroimaging and EEG Studies
Studies of electrical activity (EEG or brain waves) and
metabolic activity (from specialized brain scans measuring glucose or oxygen
use and blood flow) show the synchronization of brain activity as information
passes from the sensory input processing areas of the somatosensory cortex to
the reticular activating and limbic systems. For example, bursts of brain
activity from the somatosensory cortex are followed milliseconds later by
bursts of electrical activity in the hippocampus, amygdala, and then the other
parts of the limbic system. This data from one of the most exciting areas of
brain-based learning research gives us a way to see which techniques and
strategies stimulate or impede communication between the parts of the brain
when information is processed and stored. In other words, properly applied, we
can identify and remove barriers to student understanding!
The amygdala is part of limbic system in the
temporal lobe. It was first believed to function as a brain center for
responding primarily to anxiety and fear. Indeed, when the amygdala senses
threat, it becomes over-activated. In students, these neuroimaging findings in
the amygdala are seen with feelings of helplessness and anxiety. When the
amygdala is in this state of stress-induced over-activation, new sensory
information cannot pass through it to access the memory and association
circuits.
This is the actual neuroimaging visualization of what has
been called the affective filter by Stephen Krashen and
others. This term describes an emotional state of stress in students during
which they are not responsive to learning and storing new information. What is
now evident on brain scans during times of stress is objective physical
evidence of this affective filter. With such evidence-based research, the
affective filter theories cannot be disparaged as "feel-good
education" or an "excuse to coddle students" -- if students are
stressed out, the information cannot get in. This is a matter of science.
This affective state occurs when students feel alienated
from their academic experience and anxious about their lack of understanding.
Consider the example of the decodable "books" used in phonics-heavy
reading instruction. These are not engaging and motivating. They are usually
not relevant to the students' lives because their goal is to include words that
can be decoded based on the lesson. Decodability is often at the expense of
authentic meaning to the child. Reading becomes tedious and, for some children,
confusing and anxiety-provoking. In this state, there is reduced passage of
information through the neural pathways from the amygdala to higher cognitive
centers of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex, where information is
processed, associated, and stored for later retrieval and executive
functioning.
Additional neuroimaging studies of the amygdala,
hippocampus, and the rest of the limbic system, along with measurement of
dopamine and other brain chemical transmitters during the learning process, reveal
that students' comfort level has critical impact on information transmission
and storage in the brain. The factors that have been found to affect this
comfort level such as self-confidence, trust and positive feelings for
teachers, and supportive classroom and school communities are directly related
to the state of mind compatible with the most successful learning, remembering,
and higher-order thinking.
The Power of Joyful Learning
The highest-level executive thinking, making connections,
and "aha" moments of insight and creative innovation are more likely
to occur in an atmosphere of what Alfie Kohn calls exuberant discovery,
where students of all ages retain that kindergarten enthusiasm of embracing
each day with the joy of learning. With current research and data in the field
of neuroscience, we see growing opportunities to coordinate the design of
curriculum, instruction, and assessment in ways that will reflect these
incredible discoveries.
Joy and enthusiasm are absolutely essential for learning
to happen -- literally, scientifically, as a matter of fact and research.
Shouldn't it be our challenge and opportunity to design learning that embraces
these ingredients?
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/neuroscience-behind-stress-and-learning-judy-willis
You can TCR music, poetry or self development
material for internal knowing.
I can Turbo Charge Read a novel 6-7 times faster and remember what I’ve read.
I can TCR an instructional/academic book around 20 times faster and remember what I’ve read.
A practical overview of Turbo Charged Reading YouTube
How
to choose a book. A Turbo Charged Reading YouTube
Perhaps you’d like to check out my sister
blogs:
www.innermindworking.blogspot.com gives many ways
for you to work with the stresses of life
http://ourbusinessminds.blogspot.co.uk/ takes advantage of the experience and
expertise of others.
http://mreenhunthappyartaccidents.blogspot.co.uk/
just for fun.
To
quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will
know.
The more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”
