Learning and the Brain Conference Fall 2019 - Saturday

Keynote: Deeper Learning for EVERY Student: Neuroscience, Technology, and Universal Design for Learning - David H. Rose, EdD

(The introduction for this man included a couple of dozen awards and honors.  He’s a delightful speaker in a way that notes cannot reflect.  He was genuine and vulnerable.)

• Flunked the first five assessments he took at Harvard (which, according to him, is hard to do because they'll usually "give you a gentleman's C").  The Dean told him he belonged and that he was important to him and chose his admission.  He called the professor and investigated why he was flunking and helped him work with the professors to be successful. (This Dean was John U. Monroe, and I want to look him up.  He left his dean position at Harvard to teach freshman English in a low performing HBCU in the South.  Then he left there to do the same at an even lower-performing college.)
• Worked with BF Skinner in 1966. They underfed the pigeons (to 85% of their body weight) so they would care about the reward for the task.  The Skinner studies weren’t about learning; they were about control.  (Personal note:  We should stop basing educational practices on his findings.)  This was where he learned about motivation.  
• Research on people with perfect pitch has given us a roadmap for how to study the relationship between anatomy and ability.
• Context determines whether something is a “disability.”  If it is interfering with a goal, we call it a disability.  If it helps get you to a goal faster than others, we call it a gift.  If the goal was different, we might reverse them.
• Neuroanatomy matters
• Phylogeny matters
•  Genes matter
• Culture, language, instruction, timing, technology, and context also matter. (It’s not just the biology)

• These same issues can be applied to the autism spectrum.  The goals they are trying to achieve determine whether autism is an advantage or a disadvantage.  Autistic people have hyper-connected brains (Newton, Mozart, Einstein). It can even make them hyperlexic.  At the other end of the spectrum, people with hypo-connected brains (like Tim Berners Lee, creator of the World Wide Web) have trouble paying attention, perhaps even in the middle of their own sentences.
• Most of what we call symptoms (motor and verbal tics, etc.) are ways of managing the anxiety that comes from frustrated goals.
• Neural networks: There are three parts to the simplest ones.  Motor, sensory, and interneurons.  They determine reflexes.  In more complex systems, there are still three parts, recognition, strategic, and affective (setting the priorities)
• Provide multiple means of representation, multiple means of action (expression), and multiple means engagement to get the most out of the different kinds of brains.
• The old way is to teach from the bottom up (e.g. phonics, words, reading sentences for meaning).  We now know that there is a lot of reciprocal connecting going on, so the levels can be interleaved.
• Kids with reading disabilities are operating in a threat state when asked to read.  That keeps them from comprehending what they read.  ALL parts of the brain are involved in effective reading.  
• It is easy to present digital text in multiple formats so different brains can decode it better.  Different colors on different backgrounds appeal to some brains better than others.  Having them give the same answers in different ways.
• StayFocused - an app that allows you to shut down things for a predetermined amount of focus time.
• He has a mild cognitive impairment, which is causing him to move a bit on the spectrum.  His hearing is declining.  He has a hearing aid app that allows him to control his hearing aids (as granular as “only listen to the person I’m looking at”).  He has to take a number of medications, and there are digital pill dispensers that track what meds he has taken when.  It's not all downside.  He has more anxiety, but it allows him to enjoy music more because he’s more emotionally open.  He has a heart rate monitor that will tell him to sit down if it reads he is getting anxious because his heart rate is too high.

Keynote: The State of the Onion: Peeling Back 20 Years of the Science of Learning and Instruction - David B. Daniel, PhD

(This guy reminds me so much of Ben Inman.  He looks a little like him, but his mannerism and speech patterns are exactly like him, even the way he is dressed in jeans and sport coat.)

• He gives a history of the development of the Learning and the Brain Conferences, of which he was skeptical.  He said, “I can’t write a book because I don’t even believe myself.”
• Brain research was originally designed to only be available and useful to researchers.
• There were scientists.  There were communicators.  These were not the same people, so people left conferences with bad science because they had only been impacted by the great communicators, who didn’t know what they were talking about.
• Learning and the Brain was developed to get the researcher information to classroom practitioners in a way that could be used in the real world.
• How do we take all of these threads and start weaving them together to knit the sweater and then give feedback to make better yarn?
• Medicine had a problem with researchers continuing to research, which made it chemistry rather than medicine.  They finally figured out how to get it into the hands of doctors and patients.  The same was happening with education, so Mind, Brain, and Education (Now Learning and the Brain) started putting them together.  
• Don’t be evidence-based.  Be evidence-generating.
• Most research had nothing to do with the classroom in the research phase.  Now, some will go to a classroom to find problems and base their research on solving those problems.
• Classroom teachers would get a summarized headline of research findings and run with it rather than realizing it required adaptation and contextualization  We are getting better at this, but we still have to be careful.  Research is narrowed and limited.  Teachers must understand and communicate the nuances of the research to their situation.

Eras in Education:  

• Learning Styles - 20,000 books about it even though the science shows they DO NOT exist.  There are individual learning differences that vary at different times of day and how hydrated you are in the same person, but an individual does not have A learning style that they are born with.  They all benefit from rich teaching in multiple modalities based on the content you are teaching.
• Multiple Intelligences - 2,000 books available even though it is being misinterpreted and terribly misapplied.  Even the author hated the way it was being applied.
• Brain-Based Learning - 4,000 books, most of which take an old idea and lay a brain diagram on it to make it relevant again.  Learning is more complex than the “brain-based” manipulators made it out to be.
• Evidence-Based - 7,000 books, which got people talking about evidence but never addressed what was good evidence.  It came from the No Child Left Behind days and was based on things people said “should work,” not things that had been tried and did work.  
• Everything works, even if I have to talk about it in terms of mice, goats, rabbits, and starved pigeons.  
• (Our skin to skin contact practice in hospitals came from research on goats.  It was “evidence-based” but led to a lot of damage for adoptive mothers or those who needed to be put in the NICU.)  
• You can be informed without becoming a zealot about it.  
• Figure out what is proof.  Is it credible or just persuasive?
• Current Era - Science of Learning - Bring together experts from different fields that impact learning.  Be careful because most research assumes a motivated learner.  When good science is used incorrectly, it doesn't work. That’s not the fault of the science.  

• It’s easy to get proof of concept (plants in a greenhouse), but it’s hard to design it to be used by other people (apply that to everyone’s yard).  You are getting the parts, but putting them together is harder.  As we learn from Frankenstein, putting good parts together in the wrong ways can lead to a whole we were not anticipating.
• We have a Science of Learning, but we do not yet have a Science of Teaching.  This is where we need to go next

• We are translators - translating research into practice. 
• Don’t run away from complexity.  Honor it.
• Best practices don’t exist because there is no such thing as a practice that works for everyone all the time.  Again, don’t run away from the complexity of learning, students, and teaching.  It’s Moneyball (putting what we need where we need it), not a silver bullet.
• Like weather prediction, it is complex and changes as it is applied.  Weather changes the weather as it passes over.  Teaching will change your students which will change your teaching.  
• All of the sciences provide ingredients.  The teacher is the person who puts it together to make something nutritional and tasty for their students.

Session 3 - Educator’s Guide to Teaching Students How to Maximize Memory - Nina Dibner, MEd and Tricia Taylor, MEd

• Strategies for talking to students about memory are important.  If they do the techniques without understanding why they do them, they will be less effective.

• What is thinking?  Gave a list of numbers (remembered in short term).  Asked to add one to each digit (takes place in working memory).  It won’t become part of long term memory unless it is revisited, retrieved, and/or practiced.  
• Cognitive Load:  If you put too much into working memory at once, you cannot process it.  You cannot learn any more.
• What is memory?  It’s a little like trying to find something in a messy closet.  If you take the time to organize it, things are easier to find.  Every time you find something in the closet, you organize it a little.  Reviewing 3 times (spaced over some time), is ideal for less forgetting.

The Bad News:  Your thinking space is limited.  We remember things that we work hard at, NOT things we learn easily.  We remember things we have recalled spaced out over time.

How effective are the strategies we use?

Re-writing notes - LOW                       Re-writing without looking - HIGH

Highlighting - LOW                              Highlighting to make flashcards - MEDIUM

Re-reading notes - LOW                     Checking after getting an answer wrong - HIGH

Retrieval Practice - HIGHEST             Spaced practice - HIGHEST

A few things need to be right at the forefront of the mind (drilling basic facts matters) so that you aren’t taking up cognitive processing space while doing higher-level skills.

The Good News:  Pictures have power.  Pair your definitions or concepts with images.  Words give you information sequentially.  Pictures give it to you all at once.  Dual coding brings in input through the ear and the eye simultaneously.  (Be Careful:  Words on a page are processed by the same part of the brain as spoken words, so it does not count as visual input.)

Steps to use Dual Coding for new vocabulary

1. Question whether you have heard the word before or if it sounds like other words.
2. Show (or tell) the definition
3. Use the word in a student-created sentence.
4. Draw something that will help you remember
5. Explain to a neighbor
6. Label the image

• A tutor should not explain things to students.  More input isn’t helpful.  Students should explain to the tutor and the tutor stops and explains where they have misconceptions.  
• Keep pictures simple.  Keep words and images together.  Be selective about which and how many images you include.  
• Having a hard time focusing may just be a sign of a smaller working memory, so their cognitive load gets met more quickly. 
• Grouping information by similarities allows more of them to go into working memory because a chunk counts as one item.  (Mind maps and graphic organizers can help with this.  So can having them categorize.)

Oliver Caviglioli - Dual Coding

Session 4 - Engaging Brains:  Increased Student Engagement in the Classroom - John T. Almarode, PhD

(Can this man be my spirit animal?  Oh, wait! I don’t believe in that.  I just love him so much. He's hysterical, but it is just to make all of his deep thinking charming.)

How do we get them to engage them in what we want them to engage in and give them permission to check out when they need to? He said about 40% of what he says can be tuned out.  He tells students they just have to listen to figure out which 40% it is.

The progression of ALL learning goes through the following steps.  It will be at different paces for different students, but all people will go through all the steps for all learning.

• SOLO (Surface Learning)
• Prestructural Thinking
• Unistructural Thinking - Yes and No, Up and Down
• Multistructural Thinking
• Deep Learning
• Relational Thinking - How the pieces fit together.  If we try to do this before we have done the first three, there will be nothing but frustration.
• Abstract Thinking - Applying learning to similar situations.
• Transfer
• Extended Abstract Thinking - Application of learning to things unrelated to the classroom.

Surface learning doesn't mean easy or simple things.  It means the introduction, the foundational pieces that they will then put together.

• To engage them, we have to first figure out where they are at the moment.  Then, we can teach where they are plus one.
• You can’t think until you have a conceptual understanding of the parts of the problems.
• Depending on your students, you will likely spend some time in surface learning (strategic, purposeful, introductory information) and the bulk of your time in deep learning (connecting analyzing).  Transfer will happen quickly once deep learning has occurred.  

Task design - 8 Characteristics of an Engaging Task

1. Clear and Modeled Expectations - What does the target looks like?
2. Emotional Safety - Can they recover if they take a risk and make a mistake?
3. Personal Response - Can they bring their own perspective into it?
4. Sense of Audience - Is it valuable to someone other than the teacher?
5. Social Interaction - Can they tell someone else what they know?
6. Choice - Perception of choice (Choose from a menu that the teacher has designed)
7. Novelty - Just because something is good doesn’t mean you want to do it 180 days in a row.
8. Authentic - It doesn’t mean real world.  It means it COULD happen.  (Don’t build an imaginary creature and design an imaginary habitat.  Instead, have them be zookeepers that have to choose and exotic animal design a habitat at the zoo where you live that will let them live in your climate.)

You don’t have to have all 8 all the time.  If they had 3 or more, there was 87% sustained engagement (in a sample of 20000 classroom walkthroughs).  If there was only 2, there was only 17% sustained engagement.  If there was only 1 of these, you have 0% engagement.

How can I make tasks related to the periodic table involve at least three of these?

• Rigor is the interaction of complexity and difficulty.  
• We differentiate by altering difficulty, not complexity.

Example of differentiation:  

• Make a brochure for the school’s nature center which will be sent to schools who want to visit on field trips.  It should tell what they will learn, what they will see and do, and give examples about what they will learn about adaptations.  Individual writing prompt:  Create a list of 5-7 questions that people might ask to be added to the brochure.
• For some students (English language learners), we will give examples of brochures, a graphic organizer, video resources, and a template.
• For some (students with processing difficulty), I will give guiding research questions, a selection of reading materials, and examples of FAQ for something unrelated.
• For some, I will provide only the library and the internet.
• If you are concerned about the perception of fairness, mix the groups and assign the tasks based on your knowledge of student needs.  We can differentiate based on the materials they give them as resources.  
• Keep the goal the same for everyone.  Adapt the support.
• (Personal thought - You probably know who will need the extra support.  Instead of giving it them right away, hover near them and listen for when they get stuck.  Then, provide the support materials.  That would also make it less likely for others to think it wasn't fair.  They won't see you planning to treat people differently.  They will see you giving people what they need when they are already past that point, so they don't need it.)

None of this works without feedback from the student and our response.  

• Remind them of goals.  
• Give a couple of steps to reach it.  
• Show me where you are stuck, so we can talk about ways to get around it.  
• Feedback should not be “Gotcha.”  It should be “I’ve got you.”

Session 5 - Science of Motivation in Learning - Christopher S. Hulleman, PhD

• Learning is hard work.  It requires energy.  How do we get energized to do the work?
• Motivate Lab Mission - To improve people’s lives through rigorous motivation research.
• We want to help you do what you already do but do it better (not change it with new curriculum).
• Teachers are the best resource for each other to get ideas.
• Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation drop as kids get older.  
• Can you make your class something you don’t want to miss?
• If you can see your phone, you learn less.

Motivation = (Expectancy x Value) - Cost

• Value is estimated by their connection of the material to things they are interested in.
• Values tell us what is meaningful and worthwhile and what is not.
• People have different values, based on the culture of their home.
• Values are something we eventually must define internally.
• Top 4 Motives for Attending College (based on survey of 12571 Georgia college students)
• Prepare for career (#1, with all the rest tied for number 2 - in white students)
• Learn about interests
• Make family proud (#1 in minority groups and students in poverty)
• Provide a better life for family

Finding or Developing Passions

• The passion isn’t out there somewhere, waiting for you to discover it.  It is something you develop by getting better and diving into something.  
• You are pretty bad at most things when you first try it.  You can’t “find the passion” by deciding after only doing things once.

Utility Value Intervention 

(This works best with students who enter the class with low confidence or expectations.  It has little effect on those who already have high confidence or expectations.)

• Select a topic that is being covered in class.
• Write one paragraph that applies the topic to your life (or the life of someone you know)
• Repeat 3-5 times during the semester.
• Sending a briefing to parents about the relevance of the topics covered in your class had an even bigger impact on the students grades. (Probably because it was being supported at home in addition to school)
• Motivation is increased if it is:
• Personalized
• Specific
• Meaningful

Google "Build Connections Character Lab" for a template that allows students to connect their interests to their learning.

Session 6 - Instructional Strategies for Deeper, Unforgettable Teaching and Learning - Marcia L Tate

(I almost went to a different session.  I’m so glad I stayed at this one.  She is awesome!)

• Greet your students when they come in - no matter what age.
• Music sets the tone as they enter
• Start every class with something positive.

• The brain learns best when it is not in high stress. Low to moderate stress is good for the brain.
• Laughter has more impact on your health than nutrition or exercise.  It releases T-cells, which build your immunity.  Fake laughter has a similar impact, so if you don’t feel tickled, fake it.

• Teach once and review twice because the brain must hear something 3 times at minimum to remember it.
• People had brains before there were schools.  Its job was to keep you alive.

Warren Phillips - Sing Along Science

20 Strategies to create deep and unforgettable learning

1. Writing - The brain remembers what it writes, but you cannot take copious notes while listening to a lecture.  Give time to write before moving on.
2. Storytelling - The brain remembers stories, especially ones that contain emotion.
3. Mnemonic devices and hooks
4. Visuals - Dual coding
5. Movement - The human body was designed to move
6. Roleplaying
7. Visualization 
8. Metaphor, analogy, simile
9. Reciprocal teaching and cooperative learning
10. Music - Changes mood, content related music helps memory
11. Graphic Organizers
12. Drawing - Causes brains to engage in analogy
13. Humor - allows the brain to go from focused attention to diffuse attention
14. Discussion / Brainstorming - One student’s idea triggers another student’s idea
15. Games - Like humor, it let’s the brain go into diffuse mode
16. Project-based or Problem-based Learning
17. Field Trips
18. Manipulatives - There’s a strong connection between the hands and the brain
19. Technology - appropriately timed
20. Work-study - apprenticeships and internships

• Don’t try to work as many as possible into a lesson.  Choose the right strategy to match the lesson.  
• Use your professional judgment.
• Everyone needs purpose (a reason to get up in the morning) and laughter.

www.developingmindsinc.com

www.drmarciatate.com