Learning and the Brain – So Much New Information!

“We are entering a new era, a knowledge age, in which information is doubling every 2.5 years…We are leaving the information age where getting the fact was what was important...We need to move to an ‘interweaving’ age…” Dr. Michelle Gothnick

A few days ago, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the ‘Learning and the Brain’ Conference in San Francisco, along with both of the Diversity Learning Leaders from our school (Tracy Southworth and Alyson Zwack). There are four LATB Conferences held each year, and the San Francisco Conference covered six categories of the latest brain-related research and findings:

-       The Science of Learning: Improving Memory, Testing & Feedback

-        The Science of Motivation & Mindsets: Empowering Engagement

-        The Science of Hands-On Making: Developing Designers & Thinkers

-        The Science of Active Inquiry: Creating Curious Self-Explorers

-        The Science of Mastery: Teaching for Expertise & Competency

-        The Power of Parents & peers: Promoting Praise & Resiliency

Each of us attended the Conference thinking we were gong to focus on one area and then exchange ideas – the amazing part of our four days in Conference together was how each area easily and intentionally connected to the others – the science of how the brain receives and expands learning is simply not reliant on any one aspect of development but on all of them!

Here is my very limited understanding of why we study the brain and the connections between the brain and learning:

Teachers understand their primary role is to help students develop learning behaviours that will allow them to be thoughtful, thinking and successful humans in the world. Learning behaviours (indeed all behaviours) are deemed to be cognitive in nature – behaviours result from decisions made by the brain.  Cognitive science – the study of behaviours – connects with and is informed by Neuro science – the study of brain processing, memory, making connections, etc.  Cognitive scientists try to understand the behaviour while Neuroscientists attempt to understand the biological reasons for the behaviour. Understanding both the behaviour and the biology behind the behaviour allows for targeted support and intervention when learning becomes interrupted, slows or seems to become more challenging.  Teachers look to both kinds of scientists to inform and shape practice in purposeful, intentional ways that best support student learning.

Neuro-Scientists study the brain using a wide variety of strategies to better understand the brain’s behaviour.  These strategies include MRIs, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), EEG, and observational behaviour and sensory assessments, as well as other less-familiar techniques. The purpose of studying the brain from an educational perspective is to develop a biological awareness of how behaviour is influenced by brain development in an effort to be more intentional with teaching and learning strategies in particular circumstances or with specific learners.  Cognitive scientists, neuro-scientists and educators all have different interests but our work intersects with a shared interest in influencing behaviours effectively to help students adapt, think and act with increasing levels of consideration, intention and achievement.

Perhaps the most exciting and exhilarating findings in current brain research that we encountered reflects new, compelling evidence that the brain continues to develop all through the adult years – there is no ‘stopping point’ or ceiling to be placed on the capacity of the human brain to learn. Our brains have high capacities for plasticity as well – the brain is extremely adaptive, can learn new and complex things at all ages and when the brain is involved in solving or figuring out complex thinking it begins making many connections that in turn result in further additional growth in brain adaptations and capacity for flexible thought.

Conversely, a human brain routinely engaged in repetitive tasks that is not required to think flexibly or engage in alternative thought patterns does not develop the same levels of neural plasticity for problem solving, thinking critically, asking questions, creativity or innovation.  Perhaps Researcher Daniel Ansari framed the intersection of cognitive neuro-science and education best when he asked:

            “If you were given the choice right now of visiting a doctor who had memorized a list of symptoms and their linked treatments, or a doctor who understood the reasons why diseases happen in the first place and how they are linked to treatments and health…which would you choose?

And, would you prefer to have a teacher who has a memorized list of programs and curriculum or one who understands students and learning as a process?”

In the coming weeks, I will try to make sense of some of the new findings in brain research that impacts learning and how these findings, in turn, might impact teaching and learning for the children of Eric Harvie School.  This will include examining a few ‘neuro-myths’ about the brain and learning that have persisted for a long time in education, as well as exploring some new strategies that might optimize student learning.  There was just so much to learn and discover!!

I am also just returned from the TLP ‘Canada’s Outstanding Principals’ Alumni Conference and Celebration in Toronto where I was privileged to work alongside almost 100 of Canada’s top administrators – both past and current winners - and with several of Canada’s top researchers and practitioners in mental health and aboriginal reconciliation. These topics also overlap in significant ways with the themes of the LATB Conference and I expect to use this blog to actively explore all these new findings and the ways in which they connect to each other.  My goal, as always, is to continue exploring best ways to maximize student growth in learning!

Lorraine Kinsman, Principal