Engagement: Brain Friendly Classrooms
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.
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
If we rely solely on the listening material provided by the course, with no variety or personalized focus for our student’s tastes and interests, we’re once again stepping on neurons.
Keep students seated 100% of their time with you. No physical movement should ever occur. The class should be about you, the book, and your Ss desks or work tables.
Never spice up the drab decor of company classrooms.
Related Articles
Adult Brain Retains Childlike Capability
New Neurons in Old Brains Exhibit Babylike Plasticity
Exercise helps generate brain cells, researchers say
Neurogenesis and How Learning Saves Your Neurons
Life and death in the hippocampus: what young neurons need to survive
"Skulls and School Boxes: Student Brains That Want Out"
This is really interesting stuff. I teach reading to adults and teenagers, and I’ve been thinking about how to make reading more physically active. Every Thursday is Game Night. Maybe a nice round of Reading Charades?
Comment by Mrs. Williams — May 30, 2007 @ 12:07 am
I really like this post! I am beginning to realize the implications of brain research not only on student learning in general, but also on language acquisition in particular. Although I am in the last hours of the school year, activities I have implemented to activate the brain seemed to be making a positive difference. Especially activities where the student is worker: creating, collaborating, putting together. A case in point: Rather than me “run” the final exam review, I placed the task directly into the hands of my Spanish 2 students. They must devise a review activity of no more than ten minutes which is creative and effective. They will collaborate in pairs.
So, while they are creating and collaborating, they are able to position themselves on the floor, on the stairwell, in the hallway, at a table - wherever - as long as they complete the task. This type of teaching and learning is far messier, and, for a control monkey such as myself, far scarier, but much more meaningful for the students.
BTW: Thank you for the pingback. It is much appreciated, and I am pleased that you found something useful in that particular blog post.
Comment by Miss Profe — May 30, 2007 @ 6:36 am
Great post! It’s perfect timing for me, since I have recently begun to explore how to use brain-based research into my high school ESL teaching. I actually haven’t found much specifically written about that topic. I’m in the midst of reading three books:
Brain-Based Learning by Eric Jensen
Making Connections: Teaching and the Human Brain by Renate Nummela Caine
How People Learn by the National Research Council
Comment by Larry Ferlazzo — May 30, 2007 @ 5:37 pm
Some Good Reads
The first guest author here has posted, be sure to read Lady Sapphire's review of the 1st Annual Global EIL Conference. This is a great read and I hope you will join me in welcoming Lady Sapphire to the blog. I look forward to her future posts. Vi…
Trackback by EFL Geek: ESL & EFL in Korea — May 31, 2007 @ 12:31 am
I recently read an article in http://www.scilearn.com/results/index.php about a tenth grader that learned how to read in just 3 weeks. The private school that he attended utilized Fast ForWord® reading software. For 60 minutes everyday, the student watched the computer program and learned to read in 3 weeks. The brain is so amazing!
Comment by Christine Guenette — June 2, 2009 @ 7:46 pm