Brain Research to Education

Education and Schools.

Brain Research to Education

"The purpose of thinking is to arrange the world (in our minds) that we can apply emotions effectively. In the end it is emotion that makes the major decisions". Edward deBono

The Brain is the most complex organ known to humans. Humans have about 100 billion cells, yet when all are linked together the number of connections our brain can make is variously estimated to be as much as ten followed by millions of zeros, more than the estimated number of atoms in the known universe. The Amazing Brain. Ornstein and Sobel

"Each of the ten billion neurons in the human brain has a possibility of connections of one with twenty sight zeros after it. If a single neuron has this potential, we can hardly imagine what the whole brain can do." Professor Kouzmich. Moscow University.

We have been vastly underestimating the capacity of the learner. Our expectations have been too low for both the average and the best students.

Teaching in different learning styles so the potential of every learner can be accessed and using alternate forms of assessment to provide avenues for those who learn differently, is to provide a climate where every learner is respected, with multi-status, multi-age and multi-teamwork being utilized.

Nutrition and the Brain.

Proper nutrition can definetly boost thinking and learning. The ingredients in protein are critical to the brain. Tyrosine enhances thinking, and tryptophan slows it down.

Low income learners typically have carbohydrates for breakfast,(toast, bread, cereal) and this may impair thinking. Middle and upper income learners often have the more costly yoghurt, eggs, cheese, fresh fruits or lean ham, which provide the nutrients that can enhance learning. Managing your Mind and Mood Through Food. J. Wurtman.

"In study after study, convicts and inmates who had diets low in refined carbohydrates had significant reductions in disciplinary nehaviours....the complex carbohydrates and proteins in their diet seemed to be a ppositive factor.

....An experiment by Simeon and Grantham-Macgregor with 9-11 year olds showed that they became impulsive and had shorter attention spans when they skipped breakfast.

.....There are strongly fluctuating levels of blood sugar among the Qolla Indians of Peru, who are known as the most violent and aggressive tribes in the world. The Learning Brain. Eric Jensen. p153.

Students showing behaviour problems or weak learning skills may actually be exhibiting dietary problems.

Diet affects attention span, ability to focus and activity levels. Sugar affects behaviour, and when eaten with carbohydrates, the effect on the learner was worse.

When sugar was eaten with protein, the sugar was beneficial to the brain.

Carbohydrates are essential to the brain, but only when part pf a well balanced diet.The protective role of protein prevents overloading in the brain by various sugars and carbohydrates.

Many students under perform because of diet. Feeding the Brain. Connors

Water enhances Optimal Brain Function.

The average learner is often dehydrated. This dehydration leads to poor performance. Students drinking a glass of water before each lesson or having water bottles in class also have improved behaviour.

Brain specialists recommend 8-15 glasses of pure water a day depending on your size, weather and activity level. Athletes have learnt to boost water consumption for peak performances.

Students who are bored, listless, drowsy or who lack concentration may in fact be dehydrated. Learning to Learn. Ward and Daley.

Studies have also shown that students permitted to snack on protein and fresh fruit and vegetable snacks had better performance, but the counterpart snack of sugar adds to hyperactivity and poor performance. Sweets and processed fizzy drinks are usually consumed by inattentive, poor performance students.

Diet Programs need to be implemented in schools on a regular basis, with facts showing the community, in and beyond the school ,the detrimental effects of bad diet in brain areas as well as the body, with a view to educating as to what a good diet can do.

This article is an excerpt from the book Starting Out, The Beginning Teacher's Companion

© Focus Education, 2001.

(The full edition is available for purchase from the BrainShop)

Student Behaviour Management

The key to successful student behaviour management lies primarily in the student's capacity to engage with the classroom curriculum. Classroom behaviour and curriculum learning outcomes are influenced by a number of factors including:

learner States

teaching styles and learner modalities

diet, water, sleep, exercise, posture, environment, poverty

relevance of topics

connectedness to peers and teachers

feedback/assessment practices

prior experiences

threat, rewards and punishment

labelling and grading

time

Teachers may have major influence over some of these factors, ranging to very little influence. Whatever, influence and responsibility are most effective when shared. When picturing students who exhibit chronic patterns of disruptive classroom behaviour a compound of contributing factors usually arises. For example, a student may come into the classroom in an angry mood due to an incident at home. She may have no recess or lunch, be teased by classmates and find the science lesson irrelevant. Teachers may label this person a trouble-maker and use time-out extensively so that others in the class are not disrupted. How does a student in this situation find the internal character and resources to create new, positive dispositions? There are literally tens of thousands of students who attend schools on a daily basis that fit this kind of scenario. Where do teachers find the time and resources to construct attachment and learning programs for these students?

In this section we will address two key areas - an understanding of how behaviour is learnt and some classroom strategies for managing low to medium level disruptions. Students who consistently disrupt classrooms require skilled and persistent intervention programs. These programs are beyond the scope of this paper.

If students keep using poor behaviour and teachers keep using the same methods of exclusion and punishment, who is really the slow learner?

Understanding how behaviour develops

Human behaviour is complex and the subject of hotly contested oppositional views. We take the view that all behaviour is learnt, and through consistent use, eventually committed to long-term memory to be drawn on in times of crisis. Behaviour is purposeful. It is employed to respond to current scenarios. What may appear as a poor choice to one person may also appear as the only solution to another. Another major factor emerges when considering behaviour - that of the current chemical mix in the brain. Behaviour may move rapidly from logically sequenced steps to irrational, impulsive actions. When the human brain needs to react emotionally to a crisis situation it finds it difficult to engage the rational mind at the same moment. Hence behaviour has a duality:

Past experience in solving a particular problem

The current mix of chemicals in the brain

Students may be unwilling to change patterns of behaviour simply because it does not fit with a teacher's view of appropriateness. Further, those who develop patterns of disruptive behaviour may want to change their response but be trapped in negative chemical mixes that only allow them access to past experience when facing new crisis. This helps us to explain why some people are able to clearly articulate better responses when they are being counselled, but move back into old patterns when the real crisis emerges again.

Chemicals such as cortisol, adrenaline and dopamine serve multiple roles but they do act as memory fixatives. It is relatively easy to influence their release in the human brain, in fact thought can trigger it. Imagine that you are standing in the open doorway of a plane, parachute folded, ready to jump. Cortisol and adrenaline and being released, yet you have not made the jump. Do you think that you would ever forget such a moment? It is highly unlikely. The whole event may be over in a matter of half an hour yet the memory will last a lifetime. Imagine if every classroom lesson was such a memorable event! High energy, aggressive or violent human behaviour has a similar memory pathway. The episode is stored in a part of the brain called the amygdala - responsible for our intense emotions, and processed in our frontal lobes - the area of the human brain with the highest concentration of receptors for emotions.

Where behaviour that is likely to upset others is concerned, emotions filter our rational thinking. Depending on the extent of the situation, the capacity of sensory information and rational thinking to get processed is weakened, severely in extreme cases. Each particular emotion activates a series of memories and physical responses, inhibiting the flow of some chemicals and creating surges with others. To understand behaviour and to support students who act out their life's frustrations at school, we need to deeply understand the causes and reactions of our own and our students negative triggers. Let's explore that notion further.