Course Description:
Jensen (1997) says that, “While the old academic model addressed primarily the intellectual aspects of learning, the prevailing model suggests that we learn with our mind, heart and body. This more holistic view underscores the importance of considering all of the learner’s issues.”
This course examines how learning occurs and the implications for helping all students to be successful. Participants will look at the factors that identify being smart and the factors that label us as slow learners or overachievers. Participants will look at the factors that help students take in information at a more efficient rate and the factors that help students to retrieve information from long-term memory.
Information on the importance of activating prior knowledge and on providing opportunities for reflection will be discussed. Participants will learn tactics to help students learn and remember declarative knowledge and the importance of procedural tools. Participants will make connections between the information on how learning occurs to ways to prepare and teach effective lessons.
Instruction is focused on providing participants with information and practice that will lead to greater awareness of the factors that affect learning and how to maximize positive teaching tools in the classroom. The successful practitioner of How Learning Occurs will:
- Identify the importance of both explicit and indirect teaching activities and when it is appropriate to use each.
- Understand how the brain takes in information, how processes the information and how it retrieves information from storage.
- Develop a repertoire for helping students store information at a greater rate.
- Explore ways to help students become independent learners.
- Create lessons that activate prior learning.
- Identify ways to help students become independent learners.
- Have a clearer understanding of the retrieval systems of the brain and their importance to student success.
Objectives:
Participants will know: (declarative knowledge)
- The terminology related to how learning occurs.
- The differences in explicit and indirect teaching and when it is appropriate to use each.
- The implications of how learning occurs for students with learning problems.
- The research-based recommendations for helping students learn and remember.
- What is meant by “chunking” and how teachers can help students use chunking to increase brain storage capacity.
- The importance of “activating prior knowledge”.
- The importance of “reflecting on the learning”.
- Teaching strategies to help activate the retrieval systems of the brain.
- The steps to help students become independent learners.
Participants will be able to: (procedural knowledge)
- • Create lesson plans that take into account the neural learning processes of the brain.
- • Create and use teaching strategies that help students learn at a faster and more accurate rate.
- • Create and implement strategies that help students put information into long- term memory.
- • Develop and teach students strategies that help activate the memory systems of the brain.
- • Design activities that help students make connections between prior learning and new learning.
- • Design activities that help students make connections to the new learning when there are no prior experiences from which to draw.
- • Implement teaching strategies that help students to reflect on their own learning.
Procedures:
Participants will use the information on how learning occurs to build powerful lessons that motivate and teach at a quality level. Lessons demonstrate good teaching practices by including activating prior knowledge, tutorials, assignments, and Learning Log reflections. Participants will use information from the instructor along with readings from the bibliography and exploration of reference materials to build their knowledge about and use of the factors involved in quality learning. The course is designed to be interactive between and among the instructor and other participants.
Participants will design and implement several tools related to the teaching and learning involved in how learning occurs. They will use the Toolbox and Conference Center to share and compare ideas with other participants, and they will write their reflections in the Learning Log. The instructor will offer feedback through e-mail and the Conference Center.
Content:
Lesson 1 – Terminology and Concepts Related to How Learning Occurs Strategies
Lesson 2 – Terminology Test
Lesson 3 – Impact on Learning
Lesson 4 – Connections to Brain Research
Lesson 5 – Connections to Multiple Intelligences
Lesson 6 – Modeling and Guided Practice for how learning occurs
Lesson 7 – Application in the Classroom
Lesson 8 – Post Test
Lesson 9 – Reflections
Evaluation:
Assessment Tasks:
• Task 1 – The learner will complete the Terminology Test with a mastery level of 90%. (Lesson 2)
• Task 2– The learner will identify how they will build a connection to new information using emotion, relevance or patterns. (Lesson 3)
• Task 3 – The learners will identify the retrieval system most used in their classroom and will provide three ways that they can make that retrieval system stronger. (Lesson 4)
• Task 4 – The learners will name three project ideas for each of the intelligences and will respond to each others ideas. (Lesson 5)
• Task 5 – The learners will develop three declarative and three procedural objectives for a lesson. (Lesson 6)
• Task 6 – Using a chart provided as a guide, the learners will tell how they will implement the procedural and declarative objectives for a lesson using three processes for declarative objectives and three processes for procedural objectives. They will also provide examples of teaching materials used. (Lesson 7)
• Task 7 – The learner will complete the Post Test with a mastery level of 90%. (Lesson 8)
• Task 9 – The learner will reflect on the course using guided questions. (Lesson 9)
Bibliography:
Jensen, E. (1998). Introduction to Brain-compatible Learning. Del Mar, California: The Brain Store Inc.
Jensen, E. (1997). Completing the Puzzle: The Brain-compatible Approach to Learning. Del Mar, California: The Brain Store Inc.
Marzano, R.J. et.al. (1992). Dimensions of Learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Marzano, R.J. (1992). A Different Kind of Classroom: Teaching with Dimensions of Learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Payne, R.K. (2001) A Framework for Understanding Poverty. Highlands, Texas: Aha! Process Inc.
Silver, H. S. and Strong, R.W. (2002). Teaching to Different Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligence. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Sousa, D. (1997). How the Brain Learns: New Insights into the Teaching/Learning Process (Audiotape). Reston, VA: National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Sousa, D. (1995). How the Brain Learns. Reston, VA: National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Sprenger, M. (1999). Learning and Memory: The Brain in Action. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Sprenger, M. (2002). Become a Wiz at Brain-Based Teaching. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Tileston, D.W. (2000). Ten Best Teaching Practices: How Brain Research, Learning Styles, and Standards Define Teaching. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press Inc.
Tileston, D.W. (2002). What Every Teacher Should Know About How Learning Occurs. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.
Web Resources:
http://www.multi-intell.com
http://www.nwrel.org
http://www.thinkingmaps.com
http://www.newhorizons.org/blab/html
http://www.cnbc.cmu.edu/other/homepages.html
http://www.ktca.org/newtons/12/brain.html#cerebellum
http://www.pbs.org
For more information, please contact: info@whateveryteachershouldknow.com
4. What Every Teacher Should Know About Learning, Memory and the Brain