But...

In the light of everything said in the previous post, there is a but...

I have always tried to engage my students and make learning less stressful. That is why I am known as a "kind" teacher. That doesn't mean I never give bad marks, I just avoid shouting and intimidating. But some students think that allows them to do whatever they want at the lessons, they think that positive attitude is the synonym of anarchy, and I have to show them the opposite. Maybe, it's the feature of our educational culture, where a strict, demanding and serious teacher is a good teacher. What can be done in this respect, I wonder?

Discovering the Brain.

Now that I am reading about the brain structure and functions I realise how ignorant I was, as I knew (or remembered, as we should have touched upon it at school) almost nothing on the subject.

 

Firstly, the frontal cortex and the dopamine system responsible for reward, attention, short-term memory motivation. Dopamine limits the sensory information that comes form another region of the brain. I noticed that many of my students are able to shut down and just don't react to information coming from outside when they are tired or stressed. I wonder if their brains that developed in the conditions of overwhelming information stream adapted to such environment?

 

Secondly, amygdala, which performs the primary role in processing memory and emotional reactions. Memories ang reactions associated with emotional events are stored in amygdala. It is also involved in memory consolidation. No learning occurs without it. An important organ for us educators, isn;t it? Also, it's hardly a coincidence that the same organ is involved both in learning and emotional reactions.

 

It was also interesting to learn that amygdala is different with men and women. Then, men and women learn differently, don't they?

 

Thirdly, the limbic system, a set of organs communicating inside the brain that makes us emotional beings, amygdala being part of it. The prefrontal cortex is the part of a brain where affect and cognition, emotion and ratinale come together. Negative emotion empedes the cognitive prefrontal functioning.

 

Now that I know (and it's real science, not a myth) that emotion and learning are interwoven in the brain, I will definitely try to make the atmosphere of my lessons positive (though I always try to engage my students as much as I can).

Learning styles - a fake?

One of the participants of the workshop provided a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIv9rz2NTUk

Here Professor Dan Willingham claims that, though learning styles really exist, they hardly help teaching, because what we are realy to pass on to our students is meaning, not images or voice. But imagine reading a book to kids. I am sure it will be more engaging and memorable if you support it with images and the change of voice. And even better if they act the story out themselves. In my opinion, and from my experience, the more channels you engage, the better. It is not the question of adapting to each learner's learning style, it is the matter of providing tasks and activities that involve logic and creativity, visuals and audio, movement and relaxation.

Neuromyths.

During the first weeks we were presented a number of statements about brain that we had to agree or disagree about.

The statements I at once marked as myths were:
1) Children must acquire their first language before the second one - certainly a myth, because there are so many bilinguals and multilinguals aroud the globe.
2) The brains of boys and girls develop at the same rate - I know girls to be faster in development.
3) Brain development finishes by the time children start secondary school - I want to believe that brain develops all your life, if you put in effort, of course.
4) Learning problems associated with brain disfunctions cannot be remediated by education - I know that other parts of the brain can overtake the functions of the damaged ones.
5) When we sleep, the brain shuts down - obviously, it doesn't.
6) There are critical periods in chilhood after which some things cannot be learnt - I am sure anything can be learnt anytime you want, but there periods when some things are learnt with less effort and more effectively.
7) Mental capacity is hereditary and cannot be changed by the environment or experience - I am convinced that brain is like muscles: you have to exercise it to improve your mental abilities, but from experience I can say that parentage plays an important role here.

The statements I believed true, but was mistaken, were:
1) Shorts bouts of co-ordination excercises can improve integration of left-right hemispheric brain functions - I don't know about hemispheric integration, but I see that some exercise in class refreshes  kids and makes them work better.
2) We use only 10% of our brains - it seems to be a very wide-spread misconception.
3) If pupils don't drink enough water, their brains shrink - the shrinking may be metaphirical here, but I really read somewhere that water is indispensable for the good functioning of the brain.
4) It has been scientifically proven that fatty acid supplements (omega-3 and 6) have a positive affect on academic achievement - doctors really say this, and I remember my mother constantly repeating when I was young that to be clever you need to eat fish :)
5) Differences in hemispheric dominance (right brain, left brain) can help explain individual differences between learners - of course, there are lots of factors that build up an individual, but I have always thought that hemispheric dominance plays some part in it.
6) Individals learn better when they receive information in their preffered learning style - I will comment on this later.
7) Environments that are rich in stimulus improve the brains of pre-school children - I have always thought so, even seem to have overloaded my elder son a bit.
8) Children are less attentive after consuming sugary drinks/snaks - I thoutht to be true, judging by myself: I seem to be sleepy after dinner :)

All in all, the statements in the Myths test were quite categorical. Take the Learning Styles myth. I am sure learning styles ahould be catered for, though it would be unwise to go just for one and one only. We should construct our lessons to include visuals, audio and movement, all of them, to achieve a better result.

Anyway, the brain is a very complicated structure and I always wonder at the creativity of nature that made it. I am sure I will be able to reveal its secrets and unravel more myths during the workshop. I also hope to find more scientific proof for the myths presented above. 

Introduction.

This blog was created for participating in the EVO TESOL "Braining-up Your English Lesson" workshop:
http://hottopicselt.pbworks.com/w/page/58745260/FrontPage