Watching the Edutopia video was surprisingly interesting (if you can listen to monotone lecturing for an hour), at first with the 'big' scientific terms being used I could feel myself getting fidgety and un engaged, I had to force myself to focus, although it has helped me understand how the brain works when it comes to taking in new information. Habits unfortunately cannot just 'be broken' in a matter of hours after watching a video, but now I can make connection as to why my brain shuts of if I am stressed, un interested or board. Strangely enough I started to make connection with the video and soon after, the not so 'big' terms became more familiar and I found myself understanding the information. Stress and uncertainty has a large impact on students learning, this is a very important aspect to understand when teaching children new information, stress can cause the brain to block the neurons from reaching the thinking part of the brain, therefore this information is only being seen or heard and therefore not transferring to learning's that stick. Stimulating the thinking section of the brain allows the students to engage in the activity and their ability to learn. By supporting a stable and familiar environment, which can help prevent stress, you are then allowing the most important information into the front cortex of the brain.
"Students learn best by connecting new, related information to their stored patters of knowledge"- Dr. Judy Willis.
CAUSES OF STRESS IN SCHOOL:
- Fear of being wrong
- Embarrassed to read aloud
- Frustration & Boredom
HOW CAN WE PREVENT STRESS?
Prevention is always better than finding a solution. Personalising content for students in the classroom can make lessons more fun and engaging, frequent feedback is a valuable way positively reinforcing your learners and asking questions to gain knowledge of students understandings, allow yourself to become familiar with each individual student, to allow successful planning to suit each and every learner to ensure 'no student left behind'.
WHAT GETS INTO THE BRAIN AND HOW?
Neuroscience is a complex field. Some further information
from the experts to help you understand the brain activity.
What you see here are four neuro images of four different brains. The main thing to notice is the metabolic activity, the most brain activity is in the neuro image on the bottom right, where it says, "Thinking about words." And that's where the activity is in the prefrontal cortex. That's the front of the brain. All the brains are facing to your left, and these are side views. The only place in the brain where conscious activity goes on, decision-making, memory storage, in terms of conscious memories, the only place where that happens significantly is in this prefrontal cortex. The lit up areas in the other brains, hearing words, seeing words, speaking words, those are all below consciousness. Those are simple responses. But in the thinking about words there's actual cognition, thinking, active mentation, thinking about things going on. And that's why it's so important to realize that there are pathways from the time there's information in the environment- environmental sounds, sights, touches- to get that information into this thinking conscious part of the brain. - Dr. Judy Willis
I Suggest anyone who has not watch the video to watch it, the information is valuable to help you understand many students in your classrooms.
From Me x
