This Monday was another wonderful seminar with Chris Jernstedt. He has a great ability to teach us about the brain and connect it to the classroom and our students. Monday, he also pushed the limits of what I know about teaching.
Interestingly enough, Chris told us the ‘story’ of a father and his son. The father read Greek with the son when he was very young. Later on, the father asked the son to memorize some of the Greek that they had read when his son was younger. Although the son did not think he could do it, he could. What he had learned as a young child stuck and made it easier for him to memorize the passages. This infers the following about learning and remembering; people can learn without awareness that they are learning, we can learn without understanding and we can learn without the intention to learn. Another important take-away point from this can be linked to the classroom. Learning is not about the focus on storing information in our brains. The brain does this without any extra attempt. What teachers do need to allow time for is rehearsal of important information.
What teachers also need to know is that learning one subject can interfere with the learning of another subject. This is what pushed the limits of what I know. Chris explained two types of interference. The first is proactive interference. This type of interference means that what we learn in the morning will make it more difficult to learn new material in the afternoon. Further, there is retroactive interference. This means that what we learn now knocks out what we learned last week. The more similar the information may be, the more interference will occur. The more well-learned something is, the more difficult it also becomes. Phew! This means that as teachers, we need to take a few steps to lessen this interference.
Teachers need to find opportunities to allow students to consolidate new information. This means that if you want to really have students learn something, you must provide a little bit of new information, but then give your students times to consolidate that information by doing something that is not very cognitive. The best results for retention occurred when students slept directly after the learning occurred. Obviously this cannot happen often (if at all) in the classroom.
Ideally, what will occur is some blocks of learning time. First, teach the main message. After this, allow the students to do something that does not require much cognitive effort, such as read a story or allow students to draw. These activities do not require much effort on the part of the brain, but DO allow consolidation to occur. Whatever this activity may be, it should still be in line with the main idea of the lesson. When this time has past, give students time to rehearse what they have just learned. Rehearsing is an important part of the learning process. Chris says that this is the optimal experience for the classroom. He also notes that not only do these methods work with the brain, but it feels better for the students.
There are methods to help create meaning for the students in the classroom as well. The first is structure. As teachers, we need to help the students make sense of what they are learning. The second is imagery. Pulling in the senses, pictures, sounds and images helps students find more meaning. Finally, have the students elaborate on what they have learned. Allow time for questions and deep thinking. Using these three methods, allows for both the right and left hemisphere to be active. The most important thing we can do for our students is create meaning in what they are learning. Finding meaning and practicing/rehearsing is key to learning. This practice should be integrated into everything. Homework is part of that, but the homework should be meaningful and not just redundant worksheets. Chris stresses that practice produces mastery and this should certainly be built into class-time and home time.
The seminar really made me think about how I could create more meaning in what I teach. It also got me to think about the flow he provided to allow information to be integrated into the mind; the learning-break-rehearsal outline. How to teach and be sure to allow a type of ‘break’ in the center of the class time? I began brainstorming ideas such as children’s’ stories, drawings, journal writes and so forth. Also, how best to allow students to rehearse the information? Should they get in partner pairs and discuss it? Should we do a Jeopardy-type review? Skits or charades?! Would such a system really work? Perhaps I will try to plan at least one lesson around this schedule in this upcoming solo week. I do not know if it will work for both math and social studies, but I am going to keep these ideas flowing and consider how I could really apply this now information.