Teaching in a Brain-Inspiring Way

These ten brain-compatible elements were developed by Susan Kovalik,

founder of The Center for Effective Learning, the ITI and the HET models of
teaching, who translated the research of neuroscience into action within the
classroom. They were then applied to settings in the home, church, and other
areas by Karen Kindrick Cox, Founder of EPIC Adventures, who worked
closely with Susan for several years.
Incorporating these brain-compatible elements into your teaching environment
can revolutionize your home or school. The ten Brain-Compatible Elements
are as follows:

Absence of Threat:
Threat, whether real or perceived, can significantly restrict or even eliminate a
child’s ability to be fully engaged in the learning process. Parents should create a safe
learning environment free of anxiety, pain, or fear, where no threat is present (either real
or perceived). Perceived threats are just as real, especially to children, as actual
threats. Have you ever awakened from a nightmare with your heart pounding and
sweating profusely? The threat you felt during the nightmare was imagined, but your
response was the same as it would have been had the threat been real.

All children should feel safe to learn, explore, and share, knowing that their contributions
will be respected. We want our children to feel comfortable and confident as they try
new things or learn new concepts. Emotions play a major role in the learning process.
Fear, frustration, embarrassment, sadness, stress – any of these emotions, as well as
others, can create a barrier between students and their own learning capabilities.
Scientists believe that emotions are the on/off switch for learning.

Create an environment filled with trust, respect, and meaning. This will invite
excitement, thoughtfulness, introspection, confidence, and the mental habit of thinking
things through.

Sensory-Rich “Being There Experiences”:

If emotions are the on/off switches for learning, our senses are the electricity that
flows through those switches. Look for opportunities to appeal to all of your child’s
senses – not just the 5 that Aristotle identified over 2300 years ago, but the 9-33 that
scientists believe we have. The majority of scientists currently agree that we have at
least 22 different senses as defined here: “The ability to convey specific types of
external or internal stimuli to the brain and perceive them. Sensory reception occurs
through a process known as transduction in which stimuli are converted into nerve
impulses which are relayed to the brain.” Medicinenet.com

"Being There" experiences are rich in sensory interaction and occur in real-world
locations where all 22 accepted senses can be activated. These are the only kind of
experiences that activate ALL of our senses. Therefore “Being There” experiences
are the ones we remember the most.

"Being There" locations act as an anchor for students. They can bring emotions,
smells, tastes, sounds, and entire events flooding back into our minds as we talk,
read or watch about these locations. They can expand our later learning as new
information is presented about these same locations. They can illustrate how
concepts and skills are used in real life.

Meaningful Content:
Meaningful Content is determined individually. It harnesses the child’s attention and
channels the power of the brain. When the content of the material being taught is
meaningful to our children, it builds understanding, thus building or expanding
dendrites in our brains.

Just about anything to learn can be fascinating, exciting, and fun. Our attitude,
however, will determine if we find it meaningful or can see an application for it in our
life. If our children cannot see a good reason to spend their precious time learning
something it will be meaningless to them. In other words, it’s boring. They will
never give it the time and attention necessary to really learn it and make it a long-
term part of their knowledge base.

Workbooks and textbooks with subjects separated and presented in tiny bits, totally
out of context with their purpose or place in a real-life setting are as meaningless
and boring to our children as they would be to us.

Show your child why what you are teaching is meaningful. Give them an opportunity
to make connections with what they already know or with the big picture you are
trying to paint for them – thus providing real-life context and engaging students in
the learning process.

Enriched Environment:
A learning environment for children should be full of variety. As often as possible,
take them for “Being There” experiences like museums, the zoo, farms, historical
sites, etc. Invite visitors into your home or classroom – people who ARE what you
are studying. A doctor, a scientist, a veteran, a politician, an artist, or a real-life
Rosie the Riviter all make great guests.
Provide an immersion area with pictures, costumes, music, and posters. Put a
timeline on the wall. Provide your children with plenty of opportunities to dress up,
have tea parties, fight pretend battles, grow plants from seeds or frogs from
tadpoles. Keep a supply of books, maps, and art supplies.

The learning environment should reflect a comfortable, inviting, and healthy setting.
Don’t limit it to your home, however. Consider doing math while sitting in a tree,
doing art while on a hike in the mountains, reading while sitting in a garden, or
writing while at the park.
.

Movement to Enhance Learning:

Current brain research has revealed that the body and mind work together as a
partnership. This has proved the importance of movement in a learning
environment. Regular physical activity improves memory, concentration, and even
our attitude. Movement is critical to all of our brain functions.

When most people think of movement they think of things like walking, running,
jumping, exercising, and other big-muscle movements. While these are all vital to
our body and brain, these aren’t the only kinds of movement that will improve our
learning. Building with blocks, doodling, throwing a ball, tracing letters with our
fingers, all can contribute to learning. Use paper airplanes to teach about the Wright
Brothers or the history of flight. Make cars out of boxes or chunks of wood to learn
about Henry Ford.

Movement also enhances a child’s imagination. Have them re-enact scenes from a
book or put on a play. Let them dance to music. Use movement as a tool in your
learning environment.

Choices:
It is a fact that all students do not learn in the same manner, nor do they have the
same interests. Parents know this, but so often forget to use this tool when teaching
their children. Children must be given the opportunity to make choices when they
are young. Not only does it teach them skills they will need throughout their lives,
but it gives them ownership of their learning.

Students can be given options or choices on how to demonstrate understanding of

the topics they have been learning about. These choices can be as simple as “do
you want to do this or that” when they are younger to “here is a list of 20 different
assignments – please do at least 3” when they are a bit older. Using Bloom’s
Taxonomy and the multiple intelligences, inquiry choices can be given for every
learning style and for all 6 levels of thinking. This will allow children to master the
chosen curriculum, acquire the skills to be lifelong learners, and even explore
possible career interests.

Adequate Time:
How many of you have a day that is broken up into 45 minute segments? How
much more will a child learn if he is given the time to complete his math instead of
putting it away when the time is up? Or how frustrating is it to be given 30 minutes
to do a writing project, only to be told – just as you had a great idea – that it’s time to
move on to another task?

It takes time to extract meaningful patterns from the information they are learning. It
takes time to acquire useful programs in our brains. Each child needs enough time
to thoroughly explore, understand, and use ideas, information, and skills. Giving
your child the gift of adequate time to sort through new information, figure out what it
means, develop a mental program for using and remembering what is learned, and
how to apply what is learned to his/her own personal life can mean the difference
between a frustrated learner and one who truly understands.

Collaboration:
The use of the word "collaboration" is intentional. Collaboration means actually
working together towards a common goal. This gives parents a vehicle for teaching
children how to share ideas, how to cooperate in making decisions, how to orally
present their thoughts, and how to contribute towards a larger project.

In the home, older children can take the lead on projects involving their younger
siblings. This can also teach them communication and problem-solving skills.
Having them work with others outside the home can teach them real-word skills of
working with different personalities, and different learning styles and work ethics.

Collaboration can mean working in groups as small as 2 or three, to working in huge

groups of 20 or more.

Immediate Feedback:
Immediate feedback is a necessary element in any learning environment. If a child
is to learn the right way to do things, the feedback needs to come before the wrong
pattern has a chance to take hold or the program-building is finished. Children who
don’t receive immediate feedback are often hesitant learners, afraid to continue the
learning process until the feedback is received because they fear finding out later
that they had been wrong early in the process.
Immediate feedback is important for both pattern-seeking and program-building (the
two steps of the learning process). Receiving feedback that is immediate and
ongoing ensures children can correctly use what is understood, allowing them to
more quickly move forward in the pattern and program building process.

Mastery:
Often parents and teachers are so focused on “covering the material” that mastery
gets lost in the process. If a student does mediocre work or kind of gets a concept,
they are not working towards mastery. In a world that wants everything now – fast
food, quick internet, same-day delivery – working towards mastery is a lost art.

At some point, the focus must be shifted to what is being learned –what the student
understands and what he can do with that understanding –rather than on what was
taught or covered by the parent or teacher. We must help our children strive for
mastery. A focus on Mastery ensures that students acquire mental programs so
they can use what they have learned in real-life situations and that these programs
get stored in long-term memory.

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