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Thor · 11-20-2009, 12:23 AM

So anyhow here are some of the keys to improved education, as we can best understand it with the great leaps in neuroscience.

Students are taught to love learning
Students learn that learning is about intrinsic curiosity and desire. Students love to learn because they see the intrinsic value of it, and not to earn a grade.

We focus all to much on testing, not about the process or to excite children into learning. Its obviously not a simple thing, but at least understanding this to be a serious issue will give us some starting points to improve education.

Parallel schedules
Because some brains are more effective during different parts of the day, there would be two schedules to match the needs of teachers and students who work better early or late.

We know clearly now that some students struggle in mornings, and others are struggling in the afternoon (same in workplaces.) Figuring this out is not as simple as it should be, one day it will be, but obviously this has a very serious impact on individuals education.

Exercise
Recess would be held twice a day. In the morning, 20-30 minutes of aerobic activity, followed later in the day with 20-30 of strength training and stretching. Students would wear gym clothes all day. Tread mills would be installed in classrooms to further increase opportunities for students to exercise while learning.

Besides the obvious benefit to society of a healthy child, exercise has massive benefits to learning, social development, and mental health. Lets start by at least removing junk food from public schools, because what our children are given at school is at best detrimental to them, at worst its utterly dangerous to their health, their future health, to their mental health and to their future lifespan.

Small Class Sizes
Small class sizes allow teacher to better understand the inner motivation of their students, easily seeing if a student is engaged or confused and if the teaching is being transformed into learning. Teachers would think of themselves as managers of minds, and the fewer minds to manage the better.

A very common issue, its something we have to deal with. While we spend billions on other social issues, its amazing to me we don't do more to focus on our children and their education. The size of classes has a lot to do with not only bad grades, but worse social outcomes for children and makes it much harder for teachers to identify problem children who would need extra help.

Lecture and Lesson Design (1)
The introduction is key. How the teacher introduces the material has a huge impact on learning. Lesson would be broken into 10-minute blocks, each of which focuses on a single subject or objective, the gist of which can be explained in 1 minute. In between each 10-minute block an Emotionally Competent Stimuli (ECS) will be place to grab the student’s attention by triggering emotion and make the subject matter relevant. During the lesson blocks, the teacher will provide a mental map of the lesson and will check with the students to ensure that they know where they have been and where they are going in the lesson.

Emotion has a serious impact on learning, its why 'boring' teaching styles always have less impact than engaging and involved teaching. We can simply look at our memories of our past to see why emotion has such a powerful influence on learning, just listen to a song from your childhood and you'll see the powerful memory it brings out.

Lecture and Lesson Design (2)
Lesson or lectures will be highly visual. Many photos and computer animations will be made use of. Lesson will be multi-sensory to the extent possible. Heavy use of real world examples will be used to help make meaningful connections.

This is so key to real learning, and why those teachers who do the basic, minimum, are not doing their jobs. Unfortunately this kind of teaching is hard to find, and I think if more teachers were aware of how effective teaching is under our better understanding of the human brain is, they would become more common.

Lesson Review
After lessons, students will be given time to talk and think about the learning. Reviews of material would be scheduled every 3-4 days. These reviews would be multi-sensory as well.

Something we do in higher education, labs, we as adults who have gone through our post secondary can attest to labs are a very effective tool to solidify our learning and help us succeed.

Teacher Evaluation
Teachers would be screened for their ability to manage minds, understand their students, and create brain focused lesson plans.

This one is huge, we cannot underestimate the importance of education, and thats why I think we need to pay good teachers a lot more than we do, which will attract a lot of new candidates who would have passed it over because of salary. What a lot of current teachers would probably not enjoy is the evaluation and accountability that would be required in such a system.

But simply put, we continue to not fund our education systems like we do now, and not pay teachers what they should be worth, it will be difficult outside of private or chartered schools to attract the right teachers and have the proper outcomes.

These points are from Brain rules, the discussions and my responses below each point, if you want to read more, this stuff is really interesting:

http://educationinnovation.typepad.com/my_weblog/brain/

http://educationinnovation.typepad.c...education.html

TED talks, for those of you who love these like I do, Sir Ken Robinson talks about "Do schools kill creativity?"

11-20-2009, 12:23 AM	#43
Thor God of Hating Twitter Join Date: Apr 2006 Exp:	So anyhow here are some of the keys to improved education, as we can best understand it with the great leaps in neuroscience. Students are taught to love learning Students learn that learning is about intrinsic curiosity and desire. Students love to learn because they see the intrinsic value of it, and not to earn a grade. We focus all to much on testing, not about the process or to excite children into learning. Its obviously not a simple thing, but at least understanding this to be a serious issue will give us some starting points to improve education. Parallel schedules Because some brains are more effective during different parts of the day, there would be two schedules to match the needs of teachers and students who work better early or late. We know clearly now that some students struggle in mornings, and others are struggling in the afternoon (same in workplaces.) Figuring this out is not as simple as it should be, one day it will be, but obviously this has a very serious impact on individuals education. Exercise Recess would be held twice a day. In the morning, 20-30 minutes of aerobic activity, followed later in the day with 20-30 of strength training and stretching. Students would wear gym clothes all day. Tread mills would be installed in classrooms to further increase opportunities for students to exercise while learning. Besides the obvious benefit to society of a healthy child, exercise has massive benefits to learning, social development, and mental health. Lets start by at least removing junk food from public schools, because what our children are given at school is at best detrimental to them, at worst its utterly dangerous to their health, their future health, to their mental health and to their future lifespan. Small Class Sizes Small class sizes allow teacher to better understand the inner motivation of their students, easily seeing if a student is engaged or confused and if the teaching is being transformed into learning. Teachers would think of themselves as managers of minds, and the fewer minds to manage the better. A very common issue, its something we have to deal with. While we spend billions on other social issues, its amazing to me we don't do more to focus on our children and their education. The size of classes has a lot to do with not only bad grades, but worse social outcomes for children and makes it much harder for teachers to identify problem children who would need extra help. Lecture and Lesson Design (1) The introduction is key. How the teacher introduces the material has a huge impact on learning. Lesson would be broken into 10-minute blocks, each of which focuses on a single subject or objective, the gist of which can be explained in 1 minute. In between each 10-minute block an Emotionally Competent Stimuli (ECS) will be place to grab the student’s attention by triggering emotion and make the subject matter relevant. During the lesson blocks, the teacher will provide a mental map of the lesson and will check with the students to ensure that they know where they have been and where they are going in the lesson. Emotion has a serious impact on learning, its why 'boring' teaching styles always have less impact than engaging and involved teaching. We can simply look at our memories of our past to see why emotion has such a powerful influence on learning, just listen to a song from your childhood and you'll see the powerful memory it brings out. Lecture and Lesson Design (2) Lesson or lectures will be highly visual. Many photos and computer animations will be made use of. Lesson will be multi-sensory to the extent possible. Heavy use of real world examples will be used to help make meaningful connections. This is so key to real learning, and why those teachers who do the basic, minimum, are not doing their jobs. Unfortunately this kind of teaching is hard to find, and I think if more teachers were aware of how effective teaching is under our better understanding of the human brain is, they would become more common. Lesson Review After lessons, students will be given time to talk and think about the learning. Reviews of material would be scheduled every 3-4 days. These reviews would be multi-sensory as well. Something we do in higher education, labs, we as adults who have gone through our post secondary can attest to labs are a very effective tool to solidify our learning and help us succeed. Teacher Evaluation Teachers would be screened for their ability to manage minds, understand their students, and create brain focused lesson plans. This one is huge, we cannot underestimate the importance of education, and thats why I think we need to pay good teachers a lot more than we do, which will attract a lot of new candidates who would have passed it over because of salary. What a lot of current teachers would probably not enjoy is the evaluation and accountability that would be required in such a system. But simply put, we continue to not fund our education systems like we do now, and not pay teachers what they should be worth, it will be difficult outside of private or chartered schools to attract the right teachers and have the proper outcomes. These points are from Brain rules, the discussions and my responses below each point, if you want to read more, this stuff is really interesting: http://educationinnovation.typepad.com/my_weblog/brain/ http://educationinnovation.typepad.c...education.html TED talks, for those of you who love these like I do, Sir Ken Robinson talks about "Do schools kill creativity?" YouTube Video __________________ Allskonar fyrir Aumingja!!