Teacher in Development

Via think:lab Can Adult Brains Retain Childlike Capability?

Teachers need to pay attention to the brains of their students.
How friendly are our classrooms, and our teaching styles to the human brain? In many cases, I think we often invite students to subject themselves to "learning environments" and teaching styles and methods that are actually contrary to how the brain likes to process and learn new information.

Consider this:

• In many ESL classrooms, course books/text books are the core diet.The book is erroneously considered to be the gateway to the next level - Intermediate level learners will be considered Upper Intermediate level language speakers upon successful completion of their intermediate level course book - usually between 60 and 100 hours of study. In many situations, teachers and students are faced with a deadline - you’ve got six months to move up a level. While it is good to have objectives and goals, these kinds of constraints promote ball and chain coursebook work. It’s the book and nothing else.

• Little to no physical engagement, where bodies actually stand and move about the classroom. Most classes remain seated 100% of the time.

• (ESL specific) Most in company classes are in corporate meeting rooms or empty offices. Most companies have environments that have a high focus on "seriousness" or "professionalisim" = a depressing lack of visual richness.= The classroom is often a boring place to be in.

Embracing the Brain in My Teaching Practice
The brain governs movement. Exercise, physical movement, internal organs in constant motion and activity - the brain seems to love activity. Having your students remain still for the duration of your class, which is how most classrooms function today, seems to actually work against your teaching efforts.

"Teachers who continually require students to sit still and stop talking apparently prefer to teach a grove of trees rather than a classroom full of students."("Skulls and School Boxes: Student Brains That Want Out" by Robert Sylwester)

Welcome Modeling and Mimicking Activities
Harness the power of "Mirror Neurons". Brains seem to like modeling and mimicking.

"Scientists are also exploring the relationship between mirror neuron activity and our ability to imagine our own planned actions, be empathetic, and develop articulate speech by merely hearing it. A preliterate child’s mirror neuron system seemingly activates the same speech mechanisms that the speaker activates. Speech involves very complex movements, and so infants can only babble initially within a verbal environment, but they eventually develop articulate speech." ("Skulls and School Boxes: Student Brains That Want Out" by Robert Sylwester)

The quote is pointing to a strategy around  how prelit children take on language, but does it matter to adult learners? I think so. Specifically with basic level adult learners, I’ve noticed that they often like to focus around a specific chunck of language. They listen carefully to how you, the teacher, says it, and then they attempt their own reproduction. The process often repeats multiple times until the student is able to correctly reproduce the target chunk of language successfully.

If you’re working inside tight deadlines, chances are you won’t have enough time to create and effectively deploy activities where students have extended opportunities to listen and repeat. (Miss Profe over at It’s A Hardknock Teacher’s Life blog, writes about an interesting exercise. Brain friendly? I think so…how about you?)

Mission Impossible? Rescue your Student’s Neurons
Fascinating: the hippocampus (vaguely remember that word from university bio class) is a spot in our brain that is heavily involved in learning and memory. According to an article on the SharpBrains blog,  which points to some pretty fascinating research:

"Thousands of new cells are produced there (hippocampus) each day, although many die with weeks of their birth. {…}"It is clear that learning can enhance the presence of new neurons in the adult brain," says Shors, implying a "use it or lose it" phenomenon. "I want to stress that the cells that are rescued from death by learning were born before the learning experience. It is not the case, at least as far as we can tell, that learning produces more cells," she says. Rather, their data indicate that the cells that were already there at the time of the training experience are affected by learning and thereby rescued from death."(Neurogenesis and How Learning Saves Your Neurons)

Our students have the necessary cells for learning a new language, but are we actively attempting to craft learning experiences which "rescue" and activate them? Neurons could be our greatest classroom allies…but how well do we use and engage them?

At the end of the SmartBrain article, there are some interesting tips to help save neurons: I wonder at one’s application in the ESL classroom…

"The simplest and most complete methods are the computer-based programs that challenge you mentally with a variety of new stimuli."(Neurogenesis and How Learning Saves Your Neurons –emphasis mine.)

How to Step on Neurons