Brain Rules: How Understanding the Brain Itself Improves Learning Outcomes for EBD Students

Prompt: For this meta-reflection, please describe some of the big ideas or “take-aways” from this course. What have you learned the most about? What ideas have perhaps caused you to make changes to your practice or at the very least caused you to pause and reconsider some preconceptions you have had?  

When reflecting on what I have learned the most about as a result of my completion of Learners in Context (EDU 6132), the most valuable set of information seems to be the various brain-friendly strategies from Medina’s Brain Rules. Exploring how the brain works and learns informs so much of what I do as an educator now, or at least enables me to examine my approach more objectively and critically. In particular, I feel that this information is exceedingly useful when working with students with emotional/behavioral disorder(s) at the high school level, because it serves as a strong reminder and guide for what and how these students can best learn. Rules ranging from stress to memory to attention to even gender have helped me improve my understanding of the strategies that will best promote learning when considering specially designed instruction.

For instance, learning about the impact of stress on cognition, ranging from memory to executive function, was a critical insight. Many of my students have stressful home lives beyond their control and then are expected to come to school and perform well. But the reality is that they cannot do so to their true abilities if they are stressed. Therefore, one change I have made to my practice is making subtle inquiries into their home life when I see a student struggling. If my probing reveals something, I have several potential steps. The first is to at least lessen the amount or intensity of work required for that period. Another is to provide breaks to talk about things. I feel like this is similar to one of my peers, who described a set of students experiencing high family stress. She stated that the teachers and staff were lessening stress on their end “by not asking too much of the [students] right now, and by keeping the classroom schedule and expectations as unchanged as possible.”

Another brain rule that has changed my practice and understanding is attention. Medina notes that the average person can only stay engaged to any one thing for about ten minute before needing a change. Since I work with many students with mild to severe ADD and ADHD, I have started having students work on one thing for seven to ten minutes before changing to another thing whenever I can. It does not always work as a practice—sometimes the reality is that a student must power through an assignment for a class because we simply won’t have time to complete it later. When I design lessons, I also limit direct instruction to about ten minutes. I also try to include more emotion to engage their attention, because within those ten minutes, I really want them to engage with the material I am attempting to impart.

Exploration is another brain rule that has really changed how I think about instructional planning. It served as an important reminder that having students sit in desks and learn about a specific topic for fifty minutes seven times a day is not an appropriate match with how our brain expects and has evolved to learn about the world. Students have innate curiosity about the world, but it can be difficult to maintain in the aforementioned set up. Therefore, incorporating field trips, walks out into the courtyard, or even just “what do you want to research today” projects to explore their interests really promote that curiosity and learning.

Overall, while I enjoyed learning about the various human development theories and other concepts in this course, it was the Brain Rules that seemed to capture my own interest and offer practical, research-driven methods for instructional strategies and planning.

E1 – Exemplify professionally-informed, growth-centered practice.

This reflection relates to HOPE principle E1 because learning about the various brain rules ultimately informs my practice and also me to grow as an emerging educator. Knowledge and understanding regarding the brain and how it impacts learning provides me with the ability to select teaching practices that attempt to harness the power of the brain rather than work against its nature. Due to this knowledge, I have more research-based strategies and tools to improve my teaching and thus improving learning outcomes.

Attention and Motivation: Critical Factors in Student Learning

Showing this movie is an example of how a general education psychology teacher uses an emotions to increase student learning; the movie itself documents the emotional journey of  a mixed hearing and deaf family.

Prompt: The past few weeks we have focused on various factors that influence learning such as language development, social influences, motivation, and attention. Please choose a couple of variables and discuss implications for classroom practice that you have learned about.

In regards to student learning, motivation and attention are two significant influences in the classroom. The first, attention, has several important implications. First of all, as humans, we do not pay attention to boring things. Therefore, if a student does not find classroom content interesting or engaging, they will no longer devote their attention to it. Once it becomes boring, the attention is lost. This is a problem in the classroom because attention is a key factor in elaborate encoding—what we pay attention to remembered better and more accurately (Medina, 2008). Ways to increase attention is activating prior knowledge, promoting interest and engagement, and creating emotionally competent stimulus.

Motivation is another variable with significant influence. It is largely related to a concept known as self-efficacy, which is cited as one the “best predicators of student academic achievement” (Pressley & McCormick, 2008, p. 262). In this case, the student’s self-efficacy, or “beliefs about their competence or ability to complete a task” (Pressley & McCormick, 2008, p. 262), can often determine their performance in a multitude of ways. Role models, the opinion of others, feedback, and the big-fish-in-a-little-pond theory are factors that can help determine an individual student’s self-efficacy. Self-efficacy also relates to attention itself; a student that has a higher belief in his or her abilities and is thus more motivated will often display behaviors that promote higher performance, including paying attention.

Within the classroom, I have seen these factors play out in many different ways. Attention is a critical factor in teaching at the high school level because there is often an increased number of distractions for this peer group. The most successful method I have seen for increasing is student attention is the creation of emotionally charged events within a lesson. For instance, one social studies teacher at my internship school brings in a civil rights activist during the unit on American history in the 1960s. The activist describes many historical events during the time (the march on Washington, Martin Luther King’s death, and the personal story of an attack on a black neighbor) with incredible detail and emotion. It is the personal story that seems to root the students’ understanding. Another examples comes from a psychology class. The teacher starts the hearing unit with a video documenting the highly emotional journey of a mixed deaf and hearing family. In particular, it highlights the emotions of the family when the deaf child of two deaf parents’ wishes for a cochlea implant.

As a future Special Education teacher, there are several implications of attention and motivation that I specifically want to incorporate into my instruction, particularly those that are significant for EBD students. First instead, in regards to attention, I want to integrate emotionally charged events; I have witnessed firsthand the power of creating emotional ties to academic concepts to generate attention and thus elaborate encoding. I think this may be particularly true for students who struggle with paying attention. Another thing I plan to consider is not having instruction longer than ten minutes without switching to a break. Again, for students who specifically struggle with attention issues, setting up a schedule that is conducive to attention levels makes far more sense. To promote self-efficacy, I particularly like utilizing scaffolding and the zone of proximal development. This is critical in working with students for whom the appropriate challenge level may not match their grade level. Another way to increase self-efficacy that I can see myself using is teaching specific learning strategies. For instance, in a math class I work in, we teach strategies for approaching problems rather than just how to solve the problems themselves. Finally, I believe that capitalizing student interest is one of the best ways to increase attention and motivation.

H2 – Honor student acesss to content material.

This reflection relates to HOPE principle H2 because it seeks to find instructional strategies that increase student interest, and thus access, to content material. Instructional strategies designed around how the brain works (in particular, what it pay attention to) increase the “stickiness” of the curriculum, which increases student access. In particular, choosing instructional strategies that result in increased attention for EBD students provides them an access point of interest to engage in a lesson, which will ultimately (hopefully!) result in them learning and retaining the content.

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory in Practice

Figure 1 is an example of an assignment that I completed independently after being scaffolded on two previous assignments.

H3 Artifact Prompt: What are a few of the characteristics of Vygotsky’s sociocultural learning theory that are applicable to classroom learning? Think back on previous classes you have taken. What assignment was modeled after sociocultural learning, i.e. done in a group or with a partner?

Vygotsky’s sociocultural learning theory has several aspects that are applicable to the classroom learning environment. Sociocultural theory states that humans develop not only within the biological parameters established by their DNA, but more importantly humans develop within the context of the culture they are raised in. Therefore, understanding how to best promote student achievement in the classroom requires an understanding of the cultural context that that learning is taking place in. It also requires consideration of how social interaction and participation impacts learning. Furthermore, Vygotsky determined that children originally process the stimuli of the outside world in a very social way, as demonstrated through the shift from external social speech to inner speech. This shifts can also be important to consider in the classroom. A final contribution from Vygotsky was his conclusion that people learn best when a task rests in an ideal spot: a task must be difficult enough that the person cannot complete it independently, but not so difficult that he or she cannot complete it with help. This spot, where a task can be completed with the help of another, is known as the Zone of Proximal Development. In the classroom, it is a critical idea that helps educators frame the kind of tasks and subsequent assistance they provide.

One of my graduate courses over the summer reflected many of these ideas. The teacher employed a variety of instructional activities, ranging from independent quizzes to group reading to partner projects to a final independent project. These practices seemed designed with sociocultural theory in mind. For instance, the partner projects required two students to work together to design a lesson based on certain parameters. This reflects consideration of sociocultural theory, because the assignment was not one that students could successfully achieve at first. Therefore, the teacher paired students together so that the task could be completed through the assistance of each other, further promoting learning through social interaction. These activities used the Zone of Proximal development—allowing the students to work as pairs enabled them to complete work that they might not have been able to do individually. This built up to the final assignment, where each students was responsible for a lesson on their own. But we were able to do so successfully because we were scaffolded on two assignments before reaching the final project. I really enjoyed this class and remember feeling prepared to complete the final assignment on my own as I had already practiced with two other students and learned a great deal. Figure 1 is the front page of my final assignment, one that I could not have performed as successfully without prior scaffolding.

H3 – Honor the classroom/school community as a milieu for learning

This reflection relates to principle H3 because understanding sociocultural theory and how it impacts student learning enables me to develop and design effective lessons that promote and utilize social interaction. I want to choose instructional activities that foster social learning, thereby creating a classroom community centered on learning. In particular, I can incorporate instructional practices that acknowledge the cultural context that my students are learning in and develop and design lessons that are appropriate to a student’s abilities academically and socially. This is particularly important as many of the students I hope to work with are working on goals relating to socially appropriate language and interactions. Selecting activities that allow them to safely practice those skills is as important as choosing activities that help them master academic goals, too.

Nature vs. Nurture and Memory Processes: How They Impact Instruction

Prompt: Over the past few weeks, we have been discussing nature vs nurture, the basics of biological development, and a few different perspectives on cognitive development. Please reflect and write about the big ideas that you have learned and the implications for classroom practice. Please include ideas from your peers during discussion forums, your own experiences as well as ideas learned from class materials.

In my estimation, although all of the material we have covered thus far is important, two concepts rise above the others in regards to significance to my current and future teaching experiences. The first is the idea of nature versus nurture. While of well-known debate, the concept as it applies to teaching has a whole host of implications. When teaching my EBD students, I need to recognize that they are in a constant state of existence impacted by the complex and unique interplay of biological and environmental factors specific to them. I have to identify the factors that I can control within the educational environment (how I impart new information to them, the community we build at school and the expectations of that) and the ones that I cannot (their diagnoses, family life, and many others). For example, when presenting a lesson about human origins, I would take special care to refer to a variety of cultural origin stories rather than just the ones known to the dominant group (i.e. The Bible). I would also take time to familiarize my students with those origin stories that are less well-known. This ensures that my lesson is culturally diverse and culturally appropriate for the variety of students I teach.

The second concept that is vital to my current and future teaching experiences is short-term and long-term memory processes. Ultimately, the core of education is an attempt to impart information in a way that helps store the information a student’s long-term memory storage; then, in the future, the student can build upon that scheme as well as use it in situations to be successful in the future. Therefore, as an educator, I want to do as much as I can (within the context of nature versus nurture!) to promote long-term storage of the most important information, therefore promoting student achievement and future success. My instructional strategies should therefore focus on generating interest, engagement, and meaningful elaboration. My strategies should also consider how these processes work in general; for instance, I should choose activities and design lessons accounting for the fact that adolescents’ short-term capacity can only hold about seven items. In the previous example regarding teaching about human origins, my attempt to ensure cultural diversity also hopefully produces more interest and engagement than a lesson merely covering the one origin story of the dominant group.

In my internship, I have one particular student who highlights both of these significant concepts. In grade school, this student was identified with a specific learning disability and ADHD. Around the age of 13, he began using heroin, marijuana, and alcohol heavily and continued to do so for most of his adolescence (13 to 18). Consequently, both biological (SLD, ADHD, drug use) and environmental (home life, drug experiences) have impacted his cognitive development. Therefore, when I work with him, I have to take into account how these factors impact his learning. In particular, the student struggles with his short-term memory; he seems to have a short-term capacity more on par with a seven or nine year old. So, we structure lessons with a lot of repetition over structured intervals to help with his short-term memory struggles. However, due to his ADHD and personality, he can sometimes grow frustrated with the excessive repetition. Therefore, designing lessons with him is a complicated dance to accommodate the various factors and to find ways to increase his storing of knowledge.

P2 – Practice differentiated instruction.

This reflection relates to HOPE principle P2, which is to practice differentiated instruction for students. Recognizing the intricate ways in that students develop with relation to their own specific biology and environment is critical for a special education teacher. My job is ultimately to provide specially designed instruction that is individualized to each student and I must therefore understand how these factors have influenced and will continue to influence that student. Knowledge of these factors and their impact allows me apply different instructional strategies for these students in purposeful and effective ways that promote student learning. This remains true for my understanding of the processes of short-term and long-term memory, too. Understanding those processes and how they may be impacted in one of my students ensures that 1) I give consideration to what are the most important things to learn within a content area lesson and 2) I present that material in ways that accommodate what I know about short-term and long-term memory.

A Brief Exploration of Environmental and Biological Factors on a Teacher’s Philosophy of Instruction

Prompt: What are some general factors (Module 1) that have an impact on student development and learning? How will you adjust your philosophy of instruction to manage these factors and promote student achievement? 

Student development and learning is impacted by several different factors, most of which relate specifically to the student’s biology and environment. For instance, biological factors such as hormones, stress, and even sleep can significantly impact how a student learns. Often times, excessive of hormones and/or stress can produce difficulties in student learning, leading them to become easily distracted or unable to focus. However, it is a lack of sleep rather than excess that results in negative effects on student thinking, mood, quantitative skills, reasoning, and even dexterity. Another biological factor is gender; Medina (2008) cites research that demonstrates that men and women think differently, which thus impacts learning. On the other hand, the environment that a person with a given biology also plays a critical role in student learning. The environment can include aspects such as the culture, era, family, community, and institutions. These factors can even impact how and even what a student learns.

There are many ways that I can adjust my philosophy of instruction to account for these factors and promote student achievement. One example of adapting instruction for biological factors comes from my mentor teacher, who structures her lessons into smaller activities (independent work, computer work, ect) that are flexibly arranged and scheduled. Therefore, if a student comes into class escalated or requires a basic need (such as breakfast) be met before starting class, she can move these activities around so that the student could perhaps work on independent work while eating breakfast. Also, since these students are categorized as EBD, sometimes part of their disability to is an inability to arrive on-time. Therefore, her lesson structure also permits her to easily determine which activities are most important so that a late student can catch up with others. Another way that I could modify my philosophy of instruction is to include time for transitions, which is another common area of struggle with EBD students.

In regards to environmental factors, it can be difficult to imagine how one could adjust their philosophy of instruction to deal with the influential aspect such as culture, era, family, and community. Just like the students, teachers exist in their own specific framework of cultural, era, family, and community and it can be difficult to see beyond it. But one of the best things I can do is to vary my philosophy of instruction to attempt to reach the needs of my various students. I want to design instruction that engages a variety of learning styles and accounts for cultural, familial, and community differences as much as it can. I can expose myself to educational materials not only from my culture but from others to learn about other styles and expectations from teachers around the world. My ultimate goal needs to be to create a philosophy of instruction that is as culturally and biologically responsive as it can be in order to promote student achievement.

Figure One: This table depicts how graduation rates for minority students are lower than for non-minorities.

One of the biggest factors that impacts student development and learning is both biological and environmental in nature: race. Race is a social construct that relies on biological aspects (skin color, facial features, ect) of a person. Ultimately, these grouping have less to do with biology and more with a social perception of differences, which can often lead to real cultural differences. Figure 1 demonstrates how cultural factors can produce very real outcomes for student achievement. Certain cultural groups have graduate rates that are comparatively lower than other due to a variety of environmental factors, such as family, community, various teachers’ philosophies of instruction, socioeconomic statuses, and many others. This table ultimately shows that these environmental factors can be very difficult to manage and yet are having a very visible impact of student achievement, so we as teachers must develop instructional strategies and curriculum that engage a developmentally and culturally diverse group of students.

H1 – Honor student diversity and development.

This reflection relates to the HOPE principle H1, which is to honor student diversity and development. Through this reflection, I examined the various biological and environmental factors that significantly impact student learning and explored how my own philosophy of instruction will adapt to these factors. As an emerging educator in the field of Special Education, knowledge regarding cultural, developmental, and other diversity is critical to my success as an effective instructor. To honor student diversity and development, I must understand the variety of factors that surround it and the serious impact that not attempting to adjust for these factors can have on the futures of my students.

EDU 6132 – Preassessment Reflection Regarding Human Development

Module 1 Reflection Prompt: For preassessment purposes, tell about what you know about child/adolescent development. Also, describe how your current knowledge of development informs your philosophy of instruction.

My understanding regarding human development is fairly basic. I understand that as people develop, they move through different phases or stages that are typically based on age. The stages or phases comprise characteristics of what is considered normal in areas of cognitive, emotional, social, and motor abilities of a person. I also know about Piaget Stage Theory, though I remember little of the actual stages now beyond that there were four and they had elements of the expected cognitive, social, motor, and language development (Gargiulo and Kilgo, 2013). I recall that what I found the most interesting about the theory was the consideration of how the brain was able to think based on the stages (i.e. at which stage the developing person was able to achieve abstract thought).

I also realize that there are two major factors at play when considering what happens during development: the biological component and the environment. Biology, often referred to as nature, is related to an individual’s DNA; it is all of the genetic material that a person is working with and what determines the spectrum of potential developmental outcomes. The environment, typically called nurture, on the other hand, is all of the experiences and exposures that the developing person encounters. Biology often determines what is possible for the person in terms of development and then the environment determines that actually outcome out of the potential outcomes.

My current knowledge of human development informs my philosophy of instruction in a few ways. Firstly, what I do know is useful for devising academic standards and expectations for my students; if I understand that my student is developmentally delayed in cognitive function and know that this means he or she may not be capable of certain tasks, that enables me to design my lessons with the student’s developmental abilities in mind. On the other hand, not being in possession of the specifics of human development means that I cannot create lessons as effective as those that have a fuller, more informed understanding. Another way that my current knowledge informs my instructional practices is that I am aware of how biology and the environment have resulted in the person in front of me–I know neither is completely responsible for the person in front of me and that it is rather a complex interplay between the two that makes my student as he or she is. When I think of my student and his or her academic needs, I can recognize the biological aspects (a diagnosis, for instance) as well as the environmental factors (a low socioeconomic status and lack of resources). Knowing that these things interact helps me design lessons not just for a person who has that condition or who has limited resources, but rather for the entire student. As mentioned in the video, learning about human development also enables me to be more understanding, and thus more patient, with students.

Gargiulo, Richard M. & Kilgo, Jennifer, L. (2013). An introduction to young children with special needs: Birth through age eight (4^th ed.). Belmont, CA: CENGAGE Learning.

H1 – Honor student diversity and development.

This reflection relates to the HOPE principle H1, which is to honor student diversity and development. Through this reflection, I examined what I already know about how students develop and recognized my knowledge gaps in the specifics of human development. Understanding the process of human development is critical to understanding my own students. As an emerging educator in the field of Special Education, knowledge about normal and non-normal development is vital to how I comprehend the abilities, strengths, and weaknesses of my students, which then informs my instructional practice and strategies.