The key to good learning

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The key to good learning
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The Brain
How Understanding the Brain helps you to learn
better
The key to good learning
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Why do you need to know about the Brain ? The
Brain controls your learning. It is sometimes
seen as a direct link between your brain and your
intelligence. It is not as simple as that though.
You can make your brain work better by
understanding how it works and by working in the
way that best suits your own brain. We will
begin by seeing how the Brain is made up. What is
inside your head ? Later we will see how this
can be used to show you the best way for you to
study. So get your grey matter into gear and
we will start to learn how to get Brainier
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The 3 parts of the Brain
Your Brain is made up of three main sections
Reptilian Brain
The key to good learning
Cortical Brain
Limbic Brain
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The 3 parts of the Brain
These three parts come together to form your
whole brain
The key to good learning
But each bit does a very different job
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The Reptilian Brain

• The Reptilian Brain is the first bit of the brain
  that developed in Humans. It is the part of the
  brain that was used in the earliest creatures to
  keep them alive. It is all about survival.
• It is the part that does the things we need to do
  without thinking them through every time things
  such as breathing
• The Reptilian Brain is the part that makes us
  respond to danger. It makes us respond
  automatically when we do not have time to think
  things through. It works the 3 Fs. When the
  school bully catches you in the playground you
  usually do one of three things
• run off ( Flee )
• hit him back ( Fight )
• stand rooted to the spot in panic ( Freeze )

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The Reptilian Brain

• The 3Fs are important in how you learn too.
• If you are trying to learn something new-
  something hard it can be seen as a threat. You
  might do one of three things one of the 3Fs
• You might find excuses not to do it try to
  walk away from the work ( Flee )
• You might argue against the teacher, the book,
  the lesson, spending your time thinking of
  arguments why you shouldnt be doing it ( Fight
  )
• Your mind might simply go blank. ( Freeze )
• These reactions might also come into play if
  there is some other sense of stress or threat
  when you are trying to study

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The Limbic Brain

• The Limbic Brain controls the emotions.
• It is this part of the brain that decides whether
  you are motivated to learn something. If it
  thinks it is not relevant then it will stop your
  brain wasting effort to try to respond.
• This part contains a thing called the Amygdala or
  the Sentry standing guard over information
  coming into your brain.
• If it thinks it is not relevant then it will
  filter it out.
• If it thinks it is useful it will let it through
  
• If it thinks it is a threat it will cut off all
  other thoughts from your brain to let all your
  brain deal with the threat
• It is this part of the brain that stores
  emotional memories so if you were made to feel
  threatened by doing a test, then it remembers
  that next time you do a test and treats it as a
  threat. This explains why some people go to
  pieces in exams and tests

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The Cortal Brain
The Cortal Brain is also called the NEO CORTEX.
It is the part of the brain that you think of
when someone says the word the layers of grey
stuff coiled around under your skull. The
Neo-Cortex is where you do your thinking. If the
Limbic Brain has the Sentry, the Neo-Cortex has
the Strategist, looking for solutions to
problems for you. If the reptilian brain and the
limbic brain let messages through, it is the
neo-cortex that processes that information and
tells your body how to react. Millions and
millions of electrical pulses jump from one part
to another of this neo-cortex to create links
that we call learning.
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The Left Brain and the Right Brain
There is a lot of evidence that the left side and
the right side of your brain do different things.

• The Right Brain
• This is where these tasks are carried out
• Vision and space
• Rhythm
• Music
• Pictures and images
• Imagination
• Relationships between facts

• The Left Brain
• This is where these tasks are carried out
• Language
• Logic and Maths
• Words of songs
• Memory of facts
• Analysing

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The Brain and Intelligence

• People usually think of those who use their brain
  well as being intelligent. Your intelligence
  would be measured by your I.Q.. Some people think
  your I.Q. is fixed and that you cant get any
  more clever. More and more people are beginning
  to think two different things though.
• Your Intelligence can be improved
• You have several different types of intelligence
  ( This is called Multiple Intelligences )

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Multiple Intelligences

• There are usually said to be 8 Multiple
  Intelligences. These are.
• Linguistic ( to do with language )
• Mathematical ( including logical thinking )
• Musical ( everything to do with patterns and
  sounds )
• Inter personal ( working with other people )
• Intra personal ( looking critically at how you
  are working )
• Visual / Spatial ( being able to judge shapes,
  distances and so on )
• Kinaesthetic ( control over your movement,
  sporting skills, drawing etc )
• Naturalistic ( sensitivity to your natural
  environment )

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Multiple Intelligences
When you know which of the intelligences you have
the most of you can use the information to play
to your strengths. If your strongest
intelligence is musical then you will probably
learn things better if you try to put it to
music, say replacing the words of a song you like
with words from what you are trying to learn. If
you strongest intelligence is kinaesthetic then
you probably learn best by sitting with someone
and doing things alongside them. Most people
have a mix of intelligences. You dont usually
have just one that is good and the rest bad. We
each have our own mix and the trick is to make
sure that you have a balance in how you try to
work. You can group the intelligences into three
main groups Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic -
this is often shortened to VAK preferred
learning styles.
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Preferred Learning Styles V.A.K.
How do you study best ? What sort of lesson do
you get the most from ?
The combination of Multiple Intelligences that
each person has means that we all learn by
different ways. The three main styles - Visual,
Auditory and Kinaesthetic suit each of us to
different degrees.

• Visual you learn by watching how to do it
  watching videos/TV programmes, looking at manuals
  and books, etc
• Auditory you learn best by being told things,
  by listening to how to do it, maybe even by
  having things put to music
• Kinaesthetic You like to learn by doing. Your
  preferred style is to get down and start messing
  with things, building models, moving things about
  etc

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Summary
What have you learned about the brain ?
The Brain is in three parts Reptilian, Limbic
and Neo Cortex
Each bit does a different job
You learn better when you are free from threat
and stress
Each side of the Brain does a different type of
thinking
The key to good learning
You can improve you intelligence
You have several types of intelligence
We all have Preferred Learning Styles through
which we learn best
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The key to good learning
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