Learning and The Brain Conference Fall 2019 - Friday

These are my personal notes, so be warned that they are written in a way that makes sense to me and not necessarily in a way that makes sense to you.  They will also include personal reactions, so there will be no effort to be unbiased.  As long as you are cool with all of that, enjoy reading.

Keynote: Learning How to Learn: Helping Students Succeed in School 
Barbara A. Oakley, PhD

• People are starved for fresh, solidly sourced information about how we learn. 
• I was never good math, and I didn't see much use for it, so I gave up on it.  I am now a full professor of engineering.  A student asked how did you change your brain after you gave up on it.
• She wanted to learn another language, so she joined the army.  She learned Russian and went to the South Pole, where she met her husband.  She literally went to the end of the earth to meet him.
• When we tell students to follow their passions, we are teaching them to be selfish.  Only do what feels good to you.  We should be telling them to broaden their passions to see what they can contribute to the world. 
• She decided to make math a "new adventure," so she took a remedial algebra course.
• Using metaphor is something all the great professors do because it works.  When a metaphor breaks down, throw it away and find a new one.  It doesn't have to be the same metaphor all the way through to work.  It gets students on board so much faster than not using one.
• The brain works in Focused mode and Diffuse mode.

The focused mode involves well-established patterns.  It's what we use when we are doing something we are good at, something we already know how to do.

When you are trying to solve a problem, you have trouble breaking out of those patterns.  You keep returning to the same patterns until you give up and go do something else.  Then, your brain switches to diffuse mode.

This is why you often have the "click" when you are falling asleep or taking a shower.  It allows your brain to leave the patterns behind and get new perspective.

When you return to it, the thing is easier because the new knowledge has made a new pattern, so you are now in focused mode with the new skill.

Classroom note:  Little active breaks will allow students to switch from Focused to Diffuse mode.  (Think Pair Share and the like will allow this to happen.)

Procrastination:  We procrastinate because thinking about something we don't like activates the part of the brain that processes pain.  When we do something else, we feel better.  When we do this too many times, we train the brain to keep doing it and de-rail our potential for success.

Use the Pomodoro Technique for studying. - Turn off all distractions.  Set a timer for 25 minutes.  Focus.  When your brain starts telling you that it can't do 25 minutes, let that thought go by and return to focus.  Anyone CAN do 25 minutes.  Rest for 5 minutes (but not with your phone because the new input will override what you have just learned).  The rest a critical time for your brain to deal with what you took in.  The ideal is 3 rounds of focus and rest.

• You have 86 billion neurons in your brain.  They each have dendrites (like legs) covered with little spines (like toes), and they like to reach out and tickle the toes of other neurons.

• Everything you learn creates a new set of links.  Practicing makes the links stronger.  Practicing in different contexts connects those connected neurons with other sets of connected neurons.
• Techniques to help with these connections
• Re-read
• Highlight
• Retrieval Practice
• Concept mapping
• Of the four, retrieval practice is the MOST effective, and not by a little.  It is far more effective.  Input creates very weak links.  Retrieval practice is what allows the neurons to strengthen their connections.  Each time, the connection becomes even stronger.  
• Using metaphor is so powerful because it connects one set of connections (which are already established) to the neurons that are now connecting because of what you are trying to teach.
• When you sleep, your brain will strengthen some connections and clear out others.  If the connection is weak, it will get rid of it.  If it is already strong, sleep will grow dendrites.
• Spacing out the learning also matters.

• Not spacing out learning is like not allowing mortar to dry before adding another layer of bricks.  If you did that, you would not have a strong wall.
• The difference between Working Memory and Long Term Memory
• Working memory is what you can hold in your mind while you are doing something. (You can hold about four pieces of information in it.)
• Long term memory includes things you remember for a long time, like your friends' names and where things are in your house and, hopefully, stuff you learn in school.  It's like a locker room, where each locker is filled with sets of linked neurons.

• Too much cognitive load keeps you from making links.  New information should be taken in during a time of light cognitive load.  Then, studying will allow those links to be connected together, so when they get to a test, the links are already made.
• An expert is someone with lots of sets of interconnected links.

• People with poor memories are often very creative because when some information falls out, it leaves space for other things to come in.
• Slow learners are often making more connections in the neurons than those who have the answer quickly because they are experiencing more during the time of learning.  They can achieve more if they are
• Persistent
• Flexible (Those who have been smart and successful from an early age don't know how to change their minds when proven wrong.)

Keynote Address: Teaching for Deeper Learning: Implications of Science of Learning and Development  - Linda Darling-Hammond, EdD

• Journal of Applied Developmental Science has put out three works on the implications of brain research on education.
• Teachers have been figuring it out through trial and error.  Understanding brain research will allow us to design schools and curricula with more confidence.
• Only about 10% of genetic material ever gets expressed.  It's about what gets nurtured.
• At the neurological level, there are dozens of environmental factors and experiences that influence our brain's malleability, and interactivity.  Emotions can have physical consequences that can trigger or block learning, meaning emotion and learning CANNOT be separated.
• Experiences and relationships activate neural pathways.
• Learning is social.
• Authentic tasks motivate effort.
• Feedback shapes learning.
• Language generates thinking as well as representing it.
• Adult to child relationships matter in learning.  Creating positive attachment, having positive regard, and stress-buffering supports sense-making.
• Brain development is fostered by experiences.  Brains need social interaction, rich environments, green space, physical activity (you have better ideas when you are moving), cognitive rest, and emotional and cultural well-being.
• Brain development is impaired by toxic stress (some stress is good, too much or the wrong kind is fatal), anxiety, loneliness, sleep disruption, dietary deficiencies, toxins, and social identity threats.
• School can be the place where these are reduced.  Our response matters.  We can counteract the negative environmental impacts if we are intentional about it.
• We can affirm their value, commit to equal access to curriculum and tools for all students (eliminate tracking), build relationships, and implement social-emotional learning.
• Cortisol vs. Oxytocin
• Cortisol is released during stress and interferes with dendrite connections.
• Oxytocin is released by physical touch (appropriate hugging is vital) and wipes away cortisol.
• Cognitive flexibility is enhanced by the teaching of music, art, and world languages.
• In Alzheimers' research, those who are multilingual average a 5-year delay in symptoms.
• Finland is now considered the model for education because they dumped their previous system which was inherited from their Soviet connections.  It had involved testing, diagnosis of ability, and tracking.  They changed teacher training to emphasize teaching all types of learners with performance-based assessments.  They have no standardized tests, and all test questions are open-ended.  They have music every day, go outside every hour, create cultural clubs, and create procedures based on brain research.
• The dilemma:  The skills that are easiest to teach and test are the easiest to digitize and automate.  We must teach how to connections between skills and knowledge.
• Google found that test scores and transcripts had no correlation to the success or performance of their employees.  Learning ability was the predictor of success.  
• Can we transfer and apply knowledge, evaluate our own learning, plan and implement, take initiative, find and use resources?

No Child Left Behind was well-intentioned, but it implemented the exact opposite of what the research shows is good for brain development.  We lost ground for that generation.

• Kids do better the fewer times they transfer from one school to another.  This means K-12 schools are ahead and kids having the same teacher for more than one year have an advantage.  (It also means Wake County's constant reassignment is toxic to the brain development of our students.)
• We need to give them the right amount of challenge.  We can achieve the standards without overwhelming them with HOW we do it.
• Integrate both inquiry and direct instruction.  Support metacognition and growth mindset with reflection and feedback.
• Inquiry has to be framed well.  It can't be random exploration.
• Anchor charts reduce cognitive load, so there is space for higher-level thinking.
• Assessment for Learning:  Welcomes errors and allows for revision, supports growth mindset, incorporates peer feedback by having students use the rubric to grade themselves or each other, and are not used for ranking.
• Performance assessment (Labs, STEM, problem-based projects, Manor Faire) - Students have real audiences for their work, get feedback when they are most ready to receive it, and remember what they learned because it is connected to an experience.  It makes assessment a motivator for learning instead of a demotivator.
• What you think about what you can learn and what you are able to do has a massive impact on motivation.
• Explicitly teach behavior skills.  Encourage students to take responsibility.  Provide opportunities to make amends and contribute to their community.
• Provide opportunities to work away at something with independence and perseverance.

(Note:  The above set of notes is not close to complete.  She gave what I am certain is 3 days of information is just over an hour, so I could not keep up with the note-taking.)

Session 1 –  Digging Deeper Into the Science of Learning Barbara A. Oakley, PhD

(I chose this session before I heard Barbara Oakley earlier today, but after seeing her this morning, I would have changed to this session if I hadn't already chosen it.  She is spectacular.)

• Gave two examples of meta-analysis that came to opposite conclusions about direct instruction v. inquiry learning.  How did that happen?
• Direct instruction is not the same thing as lecturing.
• Do some lecturing.  Do some activities.  What's the right ratio?  NOBODY KNOWS
• The hippocampus is pretty useful because a lot of the information we try to put into long term memory goes through the hippocampus into the neocortex.  The hippocampus can't hold much at once, but it thinks quickly.  The neocortex can hold a lot, but it processes slowly.  When it gets a break, the hippocampus repeats information, so the neocortex can pick up on it.
• While you are talking, you are filling up the hippocampus and very little is getting to the neocortex.  

• When you pause, the hippocampus starts communicating to the neocortex.  Give short breaks during instruction.  As little as 30s can be effective.

• Cooperative exercises including retrieval practice and teaching others
• Humor gives the hippocampus a break.

• WE ARE DOING A DISSERVICE TO OUR STUDENTS IF WE DON'T GIVE THEM A SCAFFOLD OF FACTS IN THEIR BRAIN.  (Stop saying you can just look it up. You can't do higher-level thinking, like comparing the French and Russian Revolutions, if you don't have a base knowledge of the facts in your brain.)
• When you learn facts, each one goes through the trisynaptic pathway into the long term memory.  Each one also goes through the monosynaptic pathway, which helps you understand the relationship between the facts.  If you don't get facts, you don't get an understanding of the patterns and relationships.  You will cripple a child's ability to do higher-level thinking if you don't ask them to memorize!!!
• Focus ability in older adults can be enhanced with action-style video games.  If you aren't sure when someone will pop out from behind a tree and try to kill you, your brain will maintain its focus.  It improves it more than when they were young.
• Brain HQ actually is research-proven game-based brain training.  It is helpful but also tiring.  Action video games can do the same thing without exhaustion.
• Spending too much time in focus mode can suppress the diffuse mode.
• The average working memory is 4 items, but some students have less (they should not listen to music while studying) while others have more (and for them, music has a neutral impact).  This is why we turn the music off when we are driving in an unfamiliar environment.  The working memory may not be able to process the music while trying to focus.
• 97.5% of students should not multi-task, but 2.5% of the population are supertaskers (fighter pilots, world-class chefs, emergency room doctors).  Almost everyone believes they are the exception.
• We have made STEM so fun in middle and high school that kids drop out of math and science majors after their first calculus course (She calls it the math and science death march).
• Different types of knowledge, from that which is easy to pick up without explicit instruction to the hard stuff that the brain is not naturally designed to do (like reading, writing, and math).  
• The hard stuff can't always be fun because the brain has to repurpose some of those neural circuits.
• It is important to scaffold our methods as well as our instruction.  They can't go from all fun in science and math all the way through elementary, middle, and high school and then suddenly find out that it's hard in college.  
• John Hattie has ranked 252 factors that influence learning achievement.  Those with a .4 or more effect size are best.
• Growth mindset alone is not effective.  Its efficacy is at 0.08.  However, its efficacy can be much higher if it is coupled with practical suggestions for how to improve.  Don't use growth mindset wrong.
• Social psychology has a replicability crisis because the human mind is difficult to study in scientifically sound ways and has difficult to define results.  When a study is done, there is only a 1/3 chance that it is true.
• The harder the material is, the more direct instruction you need.  
• For those with a lower capacity of working memory,  student-centered inquiry is not helpful.  It's great for those with high working memory.  Use your judgment to know the right balance.  Don't assume one thing will always work.

When we neared the end, she asked if we wanted to ask questions or for her to give us a grab track of research supported practices.  We unanimously voted on grab bag.

Grab Bag of Practices

• Tell students to do the hardest questions first so you have not wasted your focus energy on the easy questions before you get to the hard questions.  When they get stuck, go to another easier problem.  This allows the brain to go into diffuse mode on the hard problem. (This may be the best piece of advice I've ever heard.)
• When a student gets scared, the response is fight, flight, or freeze.  Those in the "freeze" mode may have stopped breathing (or are breathing very shallowly).  During a test, students may not be getting enough oxygen.  Practice diaphragm deep breathing at the beginning of a test (or just before public speaking).
• Stress and excitement have the same physical symptoms.  Change your verbiage from "this test has me stressed" to "I'm excited to do my best."
• Sleep washes metabolic toxins out of your neurons.  They build up during the day and give you mental fatigue.  Tell your students why they need good sleep.
• Exercise make your dendrites grow.  Julius Yego (of Kenya) learned to be a javelin thrower from YouTube because there were no coaches in Kenya.  Onions, cabbages, nuts, and dark chocolate make dendrites grow as well. 
• Interleaving has exponential benefits.  Teach multiple concepts at once so the brain can figure out the difference between them.  Interleaved formative assessments are far more effective for the memory than any other tool.
• Practice must be deliberate.

Session 2 – How Knowledge of Learning Sciences Has Influenced Teacher Practice & Efficacy Beliefs Mariale M. Hardiman, EdD

(I was hoping to attend a session on Neuromyths, but that presenter was not able to get here.  This was my backup session.)

• Neuroeducation - Bridging learning sciences and education
• How research that comes from brain science impacts classroom practice. 
• In Search of Memory by Eric Kandel (how learning changes your brain)
• Stop pursuing the flavor of the month in education.  Focus on how the brain learns.
• Braintargetedteaching.org
• Emotional Climate
• Physical Environment
• Big Picture and Patterning, Part vs. Whole, Concept maps
• Knowledge Mastery
• Application
• Evaluation
• Arts Integration Improves Long Term Retention because it involves all of the memory effects.
• Rehearsal
• Elaboration
• Generation
• Enactment
• Production
• Effort
• Arousal
• Picture superiority
• The impact of arts integration is even more profound with traditionally low performing kids and kids in poverty.
• You can't be creative about something you don't know.  "Fresh solutions result from disassembling and reassembling the building blocks in an infinite number of ways, but that means you must really know the blocks."
• Divergent thinking can be encouraged using open-ended questions, unfinished stories, problems to solve that don't have one right answer.

• Anything above D=0.4 is considered effective.  The low performance of growth mindset may come from it being applied in poor ways.  It's all well and good to say, "You aren't good at math yet," but if you don't provide concrete steps for improvement, you are not helping them grow.  If you just congratulate them for trying, you are going back to the self-esteem nonsense that Carol Dweck was speaking against.
• Frequent quizzing (retrieval practice) is more effective than studying.
• Teacher Efficacy is the Most Effective Factor (D = 1.9).  Efficacy involves two things.
• I believe all children can learn from good teaching.
• I believe I have the skills to teach.
• "If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito." - African Proverb