I am convinced that empowering teachers with the appropriate knowledge of the principles of human neuroplasticity and learning will lead to better classroom practices. — Stanislas Dehaene1
More has been learned about the human brain in the past 10 to 15 years than in all of human history. While in 1990 the U.S. Congress declared the ’90s “the decade of the brain,”2 at that time some prominent educators warned that it was premature for teachers to apply findings in neuroscience to curricular or pedagogic practices. This is no longer the case. In fact, many graduate schools of education — Harvard, Cambridge, and Johns Hopkins, among others — offer advanced degrees in the relatively new and growing field called mind, brain, and education (MBE) science.
While there are components of this field that experienced educators will respond to with an affirming “I’ve been doing that for years” attitude, some of the ideas emerging from MBE science are novel and even counterintuitive. My personal journey as an educator with over 40 years of classroom experience has included decades of emphasizing metacognition with my students as well as incorporating pedagogy from the field of social-emotional learning; however, MBE science has revolutionized my teaching and emboldened me to make my classroom more student-centered than ever before.
Below I outline the approach I recommend for integrating MBE science into the classroom. While some of the steps may be interchangeable, I would always begin with teaching students a basic understanding of the brain and then of the concept of the “growth mindset.” Metacognition, mindfulness, caring for a healthy brain, and study skills can be introduced into the curriculum in any order that fits into the overall objectives of your course.
No matter what grade level or discipline, students should understand the basic workings of the human brain. The primary purpose is to empower young people with the knowledge that they can literally “grow their brains” through their actions and studies.3 As neuroscientist-turned-teacher Judy Willis says, “Explaining how the brain works is especially important for students who believe that they are ‘not smart’ and that nothing they do can change that.”4 Minimally, students should understand the direct correlation between their efforts (in sports and music as well as in the classroom) and parts of the brain such as neurons, synapses, dendrites, and axons. Emphasis should be placed on the concept of “neuroplasticity,” that is, the ability of the brain to change and adapt in response to the environment, thinking, and even emotions. If you are not a science teacher already versed in this area, a good place to start is with the website “Neuroscience for Kids” or with any of the works of Judy Willis.
Understanding neuroplasticity and how the brain works gives students the background they need to embrace a “growth mindset”5 as opposed to a “fixed mindset” that leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy (e.g., “I’m just not good at math, so there is no point in trying to learn it”). Carol Dweck characterizes the individual with a growth mindset as having five key attributes: she or he will “embrace challenges, persist in the face of obstacles, see effort as the path to mastery, learn from criticism, and find lessons and inspiration in the success of others.” Thus, Dweck points out, “If parents [and, one might add, teachers] want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning.”6
Certainly, as educators we have all done our best to encourage students to take “intellectual risks”; however, MBE science enables us to train our students to understand that challenging themselves and learning from their mistakes will literally result in their growing new synapses and dendrites. One method teachers can use to promote a growth mindset (besides preparing themselves by reading Dweck’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success) is to post a chart of “the growth mindset vs. the fixed mindset” in the classroom. (This is available from a number of online sources.)
I have taken all of my classes on a mini-field trip to the bulletin board outside my classroom where I have the chart of the growth mindset posted. Follow-up trips occur for individuals whenever they utter the words “but I am not good at . . .” Recently, my team of eighth-grade teachers added this challenge to the students’ fall semester self-evaluation: “Give evidence of ways in which you have practiced a growth mindset.” Finally, at the end of the school year when students must present a portfolio review to their parents, their academic advisor will encourage them to describe personally how they have practiced a growth mindset.
Once students embrace a lifestyle based on an understanding of the growth mindset, they will be increasingly motivated by intrinsic, not extrinsic, reasons. Put another way, they will study more for the sake of learning and less for grades or to please other people. In fact, as young people mature, this is a natural tendency. According to Daniel Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us:
The science shows that the secret to high performance isn’t our biological drive or our reward-and-punishment drive, but our third drive — our deep-seated desire to direct our own lives, to extend and expand our abilities, and to live a life of purpose.7
As any parent or teacher of a young teenager knows, at a certain point, children want to be autonomous; they don’t really want parents and teachers to tell them what to do all the time. Studies by former Harvard researcher Shawn Achor have led him to the conclusion that “Feeling that we are in control, that we are masters of our own fate at work [or school] and at home, is one of the strongest drivers of both well-being and performance.”8 Achor is not just describing mental performance; his studies indicate that people are happier when they feel in control of their lives. In fact, the title of his book in which he writes about this is called The Happiness Advantage.9
In short, both neuroscience and cognitive psychology support the view that lesson plans giving students more autonomy (i.e., student-centered learning and project-based learning) are the most effective. I have taken this approach to the point that if you ask my students whether I teach them, they will respond, “No, Mr. Ball does not teach us, he empowers us.” Modern pedagogy admonishes educators not to be “the sage on the stage” but to be “the guide on the side.” MBE science provides further evidence to support the wisdom of this approach to teaching.
In my experience, as students take more ownership of their learning, they become more interested in metacognition — thinking about their own thinking. This is important from a neuroscience perspective because, as author and child psychiatrist Daniel Siegel says:
People who use their minds to reflect on the inner nature of their mental lives grow circuits in the brain that link widely separated areas to one another. This linkage, called “neural integration,” creates the coordination and balance of the nervous system.10
Neuroscience aside, most educators intuitively know that “stimulating students’ critical thinking and metacognition are the . . . greatest of goals in modern education.”11 Salman Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, puts it well:
Since we can’t predict exactly what today’s young people will need to know in ten or twenty years, what we teach them is less important than how they learn to teach themselves. The crucial task of education is to teach kids how to learn.12
Nothing does this more effectively than fostering self-knowledge through metacognition. As MBE science expert Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa points out:
Through metacognitive practices we learn how to consciously follow self-proposed steps tailor-made to our own thinking processes, creating a cycle of improved thinking across our lifespan. Thus, metacognition is fundamental to lifelong learning.13
The best book I have found on how to teach critical thinking and metacognition is Making Thinking Visible by Ritchhart, Church, and Morrison. In particular I use a technique from the book called “connect — extend — challenge.”14 No matter the topic, I encourage students to make connections with prior knowledge. As the authors point out, initial connections may be superficial; thus, it is helpful to encourage students to “extend” their connections. As they do so, they ask themselves what “challenges” may arise in their thinking.
During the discussion, Ritchhart and his colleagues recommend we prompt deeper thinking by asking, “What makes you say that?” Of course we all know that a few students in any classroom are happy to dominate the discussion while other students prefer to remain silent. “Wait time” allows all students to ponder the topic being discussed, and I will also call out “MM” after a period of silent contemplation. My students know this means “metacognition moment,” and they must be ready to explain what they were thinking at the time. For those students who resist higher-level thinking because they have been able to earn high grades with rote memorization, it might be helpful to point out that Gallop surveys indicate that people look back on their schooling and believe that “curricular content” was less important than “knowing how to learn, how to work with other people, how to communicate well, and how to apply critical-thinking skills.”15
Mindfulness is an effective way to take metacognition to a deeper and even more effective level. The practice of centering the mind, usually called mindfulness, can be described as focusing one’s attention on feelings, thoughts, or emotions in the present moment without making any judgments. Daniel Siegel explains:
When we focus intensely, we do three things in the brain. One is that the part of the brain just above the brainstem-palm secretes an important chemical, acetylcholine, throughout the brain. A second thing is that paying close attention intensely activates specific circuits. When neurons fire together, they wire together. And this brings us to the third: When we pay close attention to one thing, the acetylcholine bathing those activating circuits works with the localized release of another neuro-chemical, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, to optimize how genes become expressed to produce the proteins necessary to strengthen the connections among those firing neurons. In short, when you pay close attention, you optimize neuroplastic changes that are the basis for learning.16
In Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain, Siegel describes an approach to mindfulness practice he calls “mindsight.”17 A simpler approach is to have students sit comfortably and follow their breathing for a short period of time, perhaps beginning with just two minutes. While the practice itself is quite simple, teachers may find it helpful to use a guide such as the one provided in Scholastic’s The Mindup Curriculum: Brain-Focused Strategies for Learning — and Living.18 Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa says, whatever approach you use,
Helping students develop mindfulness has shown positive results in general learning outcomes, including testing, social skills improvement, attention, and motivation. This points to the idea that learning communities that foster mindfulness produce better academic outcomes.19
While I cannot personally attest to academic outcomes resulting from mindfulness practices, I do know that most students enjoy starting class with a short period of meditation. One method I have used that is popular is to begin class by ringing a Tibetan singing bowl. We close our eyes as the bowl is struck and do not open them until we can no longer hear it resonating. As brief as this experience is, it always has a calming effect on the class and helps students focus their attention on the topic of the day.
An understanding of how recent findings from mind, brain, and education science have applications for classrooms and learning would not be complete without addressing the issue of caring for the brain to keep it healthy. Whether we are teaching AP students who stay up too late to get their homework done or second-graders who sleep in and then skip breakfast, we are not doing our job as educators if we ignore the importance of sleep, nutrition, and exercise. Only in recent years have studies proven the extent to which “REM [rapid eye movement] sleep is important for consolidation of procedural and spatial memory.”20
Sleep . . . doesn’t just strengthen learning and memories. Researchers at the University of Notre Dame and Boston College collaborated recently on a memory study and found that sleep not only consolidates memories but also prioritizes them by stripping them down into their components and then organizing those components according to their emotional importance.21
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, school-age children should get at least 10 hours of sleep a night and adolescents should get 9 to 10 hours.22 As we develop our lesson plans and consider the amount of homework we assign to our students, it is important to keep in mind that they are actually learning while sleeping.
Nutrition is another area where neuroscience reinforces our natural concern for our students.
Although the brain is only a fraction [about 3 to 4%] of our body’s weight, it consumes approximately 20% of our energy. This energy investment in the brain demonstrates how central nutrition is to learning. For example, skipping breakfast has been found to correlate with decreases in neurotransmitter production, alertness, and cognitive speed.23
While health teachers are likely to include a unit on nutrition on many grade levels, it is important for all teachers to reinforce the impact a good diet has on learning.
Similarly, exercise is an area we are likely to undervalue or ignore unless we have some understanding of recent studies from neuroscience.
Exercise activates learning as it elevates the respiration and blood flow feeding our brains. Exercise has also been shown to stimulate the birth of new neurons in the hippocampus and to pump more oxygen through the brain, stimulating capillary growth and frontal-lobe plasticity. Athletes possess more glial cells [that surround neurons], which support efficient neural functioning as well as higher levels of endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine aiding emotional well-being and learning . . . . Through other biochemical mechanisms, exercise also relieves stress, elevates mood, and improves attention — which further enhance learning. This may be one of the reasons why physically fit children exhibit better concentration and attention.24
It is outside the domain of the average classroom teacher to care for students’ physical conditioning; however, at the very least we should be designing lesson plans that allow students to move around the room. Even limited movement can result in a release of dopamine, thereby enhancing a student’s focus and sense of well-being. For teachers responsible for maintaining a holistic view of students’ progress (perhaps in the role of advisor), sleep habits, nutrition, and exercise are all areas that students can include in periodic self-assessments. I have found that both students and their parents are more inclined to take a healthy lifestyle seriously when they learn the neurological effects their decisions about sleep, diet, and exercise have on them.
My experiences with integrating MBE science into the classroom have proven to me that it is not another passing pedagogical fad but, rather, an exciting trend in education that has immediate applications for teachers on all levels and in all disciplines. Neuroscience and cognitive psychology can teach educators a great deal, but, just as important, as we put new findings from these fields into practice in our classroom, we can guide scientists to an understanding of the areas of research that have the most practical impact on enriching students’ lives.
Author’s Note: In addition to those sources listed in the endnotes, the following resources were also useful in the preparation of this article.
References
Brown, Peter C., Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel. Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 2014.
Carey, Benedict. How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens. New York: Random House, 2014.
Heath, Douglas H. Schools of Hope: Developing Mind and Character in Today’s Youth. Bryn Mawr, PA: Conrow Publishing, 1999.
Kaku, Michio. The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind. New York: Doubleday, 2014.
Mischel, Walter. The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control. New York: Little, Brown, 2014.
National Association of Independent Schools, “You Can Grow Your Intelligence: New Research Shows the Brain Can Be Developed Like a Muscle,” Independent School magazine, Winter 2008
Ricci, Mary Cay. Mindsets in the Classroom: Building a Culture of Success and Student Achievement in Schools. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press Inc., 2013.
Seligman, Martin. Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. New York: The Free Press, 2002.
Sousa, David A., ed. Mind, Brain, & Education: Neuroscience Implications for the Classroom. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press, 2010.
Tokuhama-Espinosa, Tracey. Mind, Brain, and Education Science: A Comprehensive Guide to the New Brain-Based Teaching. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010.
Tough, Paul. How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.
Wagner, Tony. Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World. New York: Scribner, 2012.
Wagner, Tony. The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need — and What We Can Do About It. New York: Basic Books, 2008.
Notes
1. Stanislas Dehaene, “The Massive Impact of Literacy on the Brain and Its Consequences for Education,” in Human Neuroplasticity and Education, ed. Antonio M. Battro, Stanislas Dehaene, and Wolf J. Singer (Vatican City: Pontificiae Academiae Scientiarum, 2011), p. 20.
2. The Dana Foundation, “A Decade after The Decade of the Brain,” February 26, 2010.
3. Ibid.
4.Judy Willis, “How to Teach Students About the Brain,” Educational Leadership, December 2009/January 2010.
5. Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (New York: Random House, 2006).
6. Ibid.
7. Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (New York: Penguin Group, 2009).
8. Shawn Achor, The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work (New York: Random House, 2010).
9. Ibid.
10. Daniel J. Siegel, Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain (New York: Penguin Group, 2013).
11. Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, Making Classrooms Better: 50 Practical Applications of Mind, Brain, and Education Science (New York: W.W. Norton, 2014).
12. Salman Khan, The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined (New York: Hachette Book Group, 2012).
13. Tokuhama-Espinosa, Making Classrooms Better.
14. Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison, Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011).
15. Gary Gordon, with Steve Crabtree, Building Engaged Schools: Getting the Most Out of America's Classrooms (New York: Gallup Press, 2006).
16. Siegel, Brainstorm.
17. Ibid.
18. Scholastic Press, The Mindup Curriculum: Brain-Focused Strategies for Learning — and Living (New York: 2011).
19. Tokuhama-Espinosa, Making Classrooms Better.
20. Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa, “Why Mind, Brain, and Education Science Is the ‘New’ Brain-Based Education,” New Horizons for Learning, Winter 2011.
21. Frances E. Jensen, The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults (New York: HarperCollins, 2015).
22. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Sleep and Sleep Disorders: How Much Sleep Do I Need?”.
23. Louis Cozolino, The Social Neuroscience of Education: Optimizing Attachment & Learning in the Classroom (New York: W.W. Norton, 2013).
24. Ibid.