Brain%20Based%20Research%20Strategies

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Brain Based Research Strategies

• Analisa Gerig-Sickles Heidi Schubert
• September 2011

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Basic Brain Anatomy
Taken from http//www.neuroskills.com/brain.shtm
lmap
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Neurons
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The terminals make contact with the dendrites of
other neurons and allow connections, or synapses,
to form between neurons.
In this way, complex neural networks can be
created.
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Frontal Lobe Most anterior, right under the
forehead.

• Functions
• Consciousness
• Initiation of activity in response to our
  environment
• Judgments we make
• Controls our emotional response
• Controls our expressive language
• Assigns meaning to the words we choose word
  associations
• Memory for habits and motor activities.

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Parietal Lobe near the back and top of the head.

• Functions
• Location for visual attention.
• Location for touch perception.
• Goal directed voluntary movements.
• Manipulation of objects.
• Integration of different senses to understand a
  single concept.

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Occipital Lobes Most posterior, at the back of
the head.

• Functions
• Vision
• Observed Problems
• Defects in vision
• locating objects in environment.
• with identifying colors
• hallucinations/visual illusions
• Word blindness
• Difficulty in recognizing drawn objects.
• Inability to recognize the movement of an object
• Difficulties with reading and writing.

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Temporal Lobes Side of head above ears.

• Functions
• Hearing ability
• Memory acquisition
• Some visual perceptions
• Categorization of objects.

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BRAIN STEM Deep in Brain, leads to spinal cord.

• Functions
• Breathing
• Heart Rate
• Swallowing
• Reflexes to seeing and hearing
• Controls sweating, blood pressure, digestion,
  temperature
• Affects level of alertness.
• Ability to sleep.
• Sense of balance

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CEREBELLUM Located at the base of the skull.

• Functions
• Coordination of voluntary movement (balance and
  equilibrium)
• Some memory for reflex motor acts.
• Observed Problems
• Loss of ability to
• coordinate fine movements.
• to walk
• reach out and grab objects.
• To make rapid movements.
• Tremors dizziness
• Slurred Speech

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12 Brain-Based Learning Principles

• Caine Caine

These principles are interrelated.
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The brain is a parallel processor

• The brain does many things at once
• However, there is the Cocktail effect-
• You cannot consciously focus on more than one
  thing at a time
• Develop automaticity of tasks
• YouTube

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Learning engages the entire physiology

• Things that affect learning
• Healthy eating, emotions, physical activity
  hydration, sleep
• Exercise allows more circulation

The search for meaning is innate

• Connections made with dendrites
• 1st lessons should have connections
• Need routine, but some curiosity invoked

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The search for meaning occurs through patterning

• Meaningful patterns and connections are made
• Teachers can influence how students make patterns
  and connections

Emotions are critical to patterning
How students feel affects their learning
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Every brain simultaneously perceives and creates
parts and wholes

• Left and right brain work together at the same
  time with different functions
• Each side has its own job (parts), to make
  learning (whole)

Learning involves both focused attention and
peripheral perception
Brain absorbs direct information but also
sensory information
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Characteristics of Sensory Memory
Information Processing
It receives all information coming into the brain
through the senses. It discards approximately
99 of this incoming sensory data. Attends to
relevant information
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Learning always involves conscious and
unconscious processes

• We learn much more than we are consciously aware
  of
• The brain and body learn physically, mentally,
  and affectively
• Processing time, reflection and metacognition are
  important in the classroom

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We have at least two types of memory

• Spatial-where connections and meanings take place
• Rote-where things are stored by memorization

The brain understands and remembers best when
facts and skills are embedded in natural spatial
memory
Learning is given meaning when embedded in
everyday occurrences
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Learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited
by threat

• Safe environment with learning challenges

Each brain is unique
Although processes are similar, every brain is
different
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Group discussion

• Read the Pat Wolfe article in your Cooperative
  Learning Exercises packet.
• With your group, discuss how Pat Wolfes
  generally accepted list of potential classroom
  applications of brain research correspond with
  the 12 Brain-Based Learning Principles. How are
  they similar and where do they diverge? What are
  the classroom implications of both lists?

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Reading is an unnatural act

• Oral language is natural
• Babies born able to hear abundance of sounds
• Natural Pruning
• People need to be explicitly taught to read, not
  to speak

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How do we learn to read?

• Plasticity-allows the brain to make new
  connections among structures and circuits
  originally made for vision or oral language
• Learning to read actually changes the brain
• Not in genetics- each person needs to learn to
  read

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The pathway for language
The pathway for learning to read
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Pathway for reading
The pathway in the brain for memorized words
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Research on Dyslexia
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Research on Dyslexia 2 Studies

• Neural deficits in children with dyslexia
  ameliorated by behavioral remediation Evidence
  from functional MRI Elise Temple et al. - with
  Fast ForWord program
• Dyslexia-specific brain activation profile
  becomes normal following successful remedial
  training P.G. Simos et al with Phono-Graphix
  program with Lindamood Phonemic Sequencing
  program

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Caution!

• Much of current brain research is only of the
  level 1 type be careful that the research was
  done in classrooms and check with which types of
  populations the research was conducted.
• Left brained/Right brained fiasco