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When it comes to optimizing learning, we don’t value breaks enough, neuroscientists suggest in a new study.
Via Tom D'Amico (@TDOttawa)
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Scooped by
John Evans
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For the past six years, I have done a radio show and podcast called Two Guys on Your Head, produced by our local NPR affiliate, KUT. The show airs on Friday mornings. It is great fun to do, and we get lots of positive feedback from listeners around town. But, as with all things, not everybody likes it. We get some emails from listeners taking exception to things we’ve talked about, and we also get some snarky comments on social media.
As you might expect, no matter how many people say nice things, it’s the negative comments that really stick with me. I will find myself chewing over complaints people have made for days. Those negative thoughts bring down my mood and make me feel worse about what I’m working on.
I’m guessing you’ve had a similar experience, where you noticed that even one negative comment about you or your performance can outweigh a huge volume of positive feedback. There are several reasons why these sorts of comments have such an outsized impact on your psyche.
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John Evans
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Research around the way humans learn is booming these days. Consider viral brain-based teaching trends and explorations of how the act of teaching shapes kids’ brains.
Mariale Hardiman, vice dean of academic affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Education and and director of Johns Hopkins’ Neuro-Education Initiative. But studying how the brain learns doesn’t necessarily mean memorizing proteins and brain chemistry. Sometimes it’s about empathy—or in the case of some of the latest research coming out of Johns Hopkins, it’s about understanding how art plays a role in learning.
One person who has closely watched, and even shaped, the coevolution of neurosciences with education is Mariale Hardiman, vice dean of academic affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Education. The education professor is also the co-founder and director of Johns Hopkins’ Neuro-Education Initiative, a center that aims to bring together research on learning and neuroscience, teaching and education.
EdSurge sat down with Hardiman recently to learn about the Initiative’ recent findings around how injecting art into lessons across disciplines can boost memory and retention. (This conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.)
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John Evans
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For the first time, a new study from McGill University reports that a single fifteen-minute bout of cardiovascular exercise can optimize brain connectivity and efficiency. More specifically, the researchers found that 15 minutes of aerobic exercise on a stationary bicycle immediately after practicing a complex visuomotor skill created an optimal brain state for long-term memory consolidation of the task. The findings of this study were recently published in the journal NeuroImage.
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John Evans
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When you’re standing in front of a classroom of students who’re not quite sure they even want to be in your class, much less pay attention to what’s being said, things like neuroscience, research studies, and teaching the way the brain learns are an abstraction.
Yet, brain-targeted teaching can engage and excite students because it taps into factors that stimulate the brain, grab the attention, and set the stage for learning.
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John Evans
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Students asking questions and then exploring the answers. That’s something any good teacher lives for. And at the heart of it all is curiosity. Blackwell, like many others teachers, understands that when kids are curious, they’re much more likely to stay engaged. But why? What, exactly, is curiosity and how does it work? A study published in the October issue of the journal Neuron, suggests that the brain’s chemistry changes when we become curious, helping us better learn and retain information.
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John Evans
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"If you think about it, having a great time at the theater defies logic in many ways. We’re surrounded by strangers, bombarded with unusual images and often faced with a wordless language of symbols. Yet, on a good night, we generally laugh more, cry more and enjoy ourselves more at a live performance than when we’re watching TV at home. We may even lose ourselves and feel connected to something larger. How does this happen? Some of the answers to art’s mysteries can be found in the realm of science. Art is considered the domain of the heart, but its transporting effects start in the brain, where intricate systems perceive and interpret it with dazzling speed. Using brain-imaging and other tools of neuroscience, the new field of neuroaesthetics is probing the relationship between art and the brain. "
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John Evans
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Mindful meditation is becoming an increasingly popular tool, one that people use to manage both their emotional and mental health. The practice is, in essence, the art of not reacting—the art of finding inner stillness through the use of external stillness. It’s taking the time to close your eyes, turn your focus inward, and put all of your energy into just breathing.
Thanks to the wonders of neuroplasticity, adolescents are primed to improve their performance in school—and beyond. Here’s how to help.
Diving into a great novel can be an immersive experience that makes your mind come alive. Want to give your brain a workout? Open a foreign language novel.
Via Beth Dichter
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Scooped by
John Evans
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Exercise stimulates the growth of new neurons, Suzuki explains, in a process called neurogenesis. In addition, it increases the neurochemical BDNF, which acts as a fertilizer, strengthening neurons and making them less susceptible to breaking down. Physical activity also increases levels of serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine and endorphins that support emotional well-being, motivation and response to stress. As we age, exercise has a protective effect on the brain, says Suzuki, making it less susceptible to neurodegenerative diseases and normal cognitive decline. With exercise, “you are making synaptic connections, and you are making more synapses grow. Movement will help your brain today and protect you against neurological decay in the future
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John Evans
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Brain maps offer evidence that podcasts, audiobooks, and reading fire up our brains in very similar ways.
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John Evans
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Yes, diet and exercise matter, but so do these other simple interventions you can start doing today.
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> A teenage brain is a fascinating, still-changing place. There's a lot going on: social awareness, risk-taking, peer pressure; all are heightened during this period. Until relatively recently, it was thought that the brain was only actively developing during childhood, but in the last two decades, researchers have confirmed that the brain continues to develop during adolescence — a period of time that can stretch from the middle school years into early adulthood. "We were always under the assumption that the brain doesn't change very much after childhood," explains Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London. But that's simply not the case, she says, and educators — and teens themselves — can learn a lot from this.
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John Evans
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In today’s information-obsessed world, our minds are in constant overdrive. Your brain is a living, inventive, and rapidly renewing organ that needs all the care and maintenance it needs to function well and deliver everyday. Brain recharge can help you recalibrate your energy for better focus, creativity and resilience. Harold Kushener once said, “Think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense.” We can adapt this to making the most of our brains; the further we get into understanding and recharging our brains, the more it works better, and thus comes our creativity. Change your brain, change your life. If you want to be in control of your life, control the command center of your body.
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John Evans
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Imagine a parent telling a child, “I’m just not a reading person.” Sounds odd, doesn’t it? Now reread the same cartoon, substituting “math” for “reading.” Suddenly it doesn’t seem so absurd. But it should! As a society ever more reliant on technology and STEM-based careers, we must shatter the myth that math skill is inborn and reinforce that it is the result of intention and practice. It’s common to hear well educated adults declare themselves “not a math person,” sometimes proudly. Indeed, many people of all ages believe that mathematical ability is something you are either born with or not, rather than something to be mastered with focused effort. This belief is wrong. What’s more, it’s harmful to kids as they have their first experiences learning math; the attitude that “I can’t learn math” quickly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. As a society ever more reliant on technology and STEM-based careers, we must shatter the myth that math skill is inborn and reinforce that it is the result of intention and practice. Reforming these perceptions needs to be a priority for teachers, parents, and creators of new learning tools that align to the way these digital-savvy students learn.
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John Evans
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A slowly growing body of research suggests that our common aversion to failure is itself a failed strategy. Being curious about our mistakes is the royal road to learning. And mindful techniques can help.
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John Evans
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For years, common experience and studies have prescribed that humans learn best in their earliest years of life – when the brain is developing at its fastest. Recently, though, research has suggested that the period of optimal learning extends well into adolescence. The flurry of new findings may force a total rethinking of how educators and parents nurture this vulnerable age group, turning moments of frustration into previously unseen opportunities for learning and academic excitement. New evidence shows that the window for formative brain development continues into the onset of puberty, between ages 9 and 13, and likely through the teenage years, according to Ronald Dahl, professor of community health and human development at the University of California, Berkeley. Dahl spoke at a recent Education Writers Association seminar on motivation and engagement.
Brain, Learning, and Teaching Infographic
I hope you find the Brain Hacking infographic above useful. You can access the other Brain-Based Learning infographics I created by scrolling down my ED!Blog. Please share it with other educators, parents, and learners. I will feature additional Brain-Based Learning Infographics in my future NEWSLETTERS, so please SIGN UP if you would like to receive more tips and strategies that work in helping students become better learners.
If you find the information in the infographic useful, consider buying "Crush School: Every Student's Guide To Killing It In The Classroom", which is a book I wrote to help students learn more efficiently and effectively using proven research based strategies.
And Remember: You Have the Power to Change the World. Use it often.
Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren: http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?tag=Brain
Via Gust MEES
"David Wilcox, of Musings on the Middle Years of Education, http://bit.ly/1cWl2of and I have worked together to create an infographic about the teen brain. It is based on a blog post he wrote over a year ago (Click here for that post) http://davidw.edublogs.org/2012/10/15/forgetfulness-in-teens/ to tackle the issue of Why Teens Forget. Through lots of research, checking facts, and rechecking facts, we have found that teens forgetfulness may be due to major changes in their brain. These changes can last into the college years. While there is research that demonstrates the increased forgetfulness of “teens,” we also found that research suggests this time period is an awesome explosion of learning and discovery that takes them into adulthood."
Via Beth Dichter
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