What does recent research say about the mind, memory, and learning? How can we, as educators, translate these findings into engaging and enriching classroom learning? In this session you will learn hands-on classroom techniques to enrich student learning and strengthen student memory.

1. SMART PRACTICE:
BRAIN-BASED APPROACHES
TO TEACHING
SARAH LYNN
TESOL 2016

2. GUIDING QUESTIONS
a. What does recent research tell us
about the mind and learning?
b. What teaching practices enrich
student learning and enhance
student memory?

3. SMART PRACTICE
1. Make connections.
2. Use multiple modalities.
3. Recycle and vary.
4. Challenge students to think.

4. Learning is
about making
connections.
PRINCIPLE 1:

5. THE HUMAN BRAIN
100, 000, 000, 000
The number of neurons we have at birth.

6. One neuron can make up to
10,000 connections through its
dendrites.
By Matt Lee on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/razorsmile/526249719

7. NEURAL PATHWAYS DEVELOP
CCLicense:Corel,JL.Thepostnataldevelopmentofthe
humancerebralcortex.
HarvardUniversityPress;1975.

8. RECAP: THE HUMAN BRAIN
Each neuron carries one memory.
True or False?

9. Learning happens when neurons make
new connections.
True or False?

10. Our brains change over our lifetimes.
True or False

11. Neural connections never atrophy and
disappear.
True or False?

12. THE LIMITS OF
LEARNING
“There is virtually no limit
to how much learning we can remember,
as long as we . . .
relate it to what we already know.”
~Brown, Roediger, McDaniel (2014) Make It Stick

13. WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW . .
also known as
. . . . prior knowledge
. . . . mental models
. . . . schema

14. SCHEMA: WHY IT MATTERS
“If a schema is triggered near the
moment of learning, that learning is
more permanent.”
~ John Medina, Brain Rules, 2014

15. ACTIVATE SCHEMA:
SHOW A PICTURE
Credit:SciencePhotoLibrary-KTSDESIGNBrandXPicturesGettyImages
What do you
see?

16. ACTIVATE SCHEMA:
ASK A QUESTION
What do you know
about [the brain]?

17. ACTIVATE SCHEMA
PRE-TEST
Students who are given a pre-test
improve their learning by
_________.
a. 11%
b. 22%
c. 33%
d. 44%
Richland, Kornell, Kao (2009)
Make Connections

18. ACTIVATE SCHEMA:
PRE-TEST
At the start of a lesson, give a short test.
•True/False.
•Multiple choice.
•Open questions: who, what, where, when,
why, how.

19. Connect
classroom learning
to life experience.

20. MAKE CONNECTIONS
Why are we
learning this?
Let the students connect the learning!
When and where
will you use this
outside of class?

21. MAKE CONNECTIONS
Give an example
from your life.
Let the students connect the learning!

22. SMART PRACTICE . . .
1. Show a picture to activate schema.
2. Ask an opening question.
3. Pretest.
4. Have students make explicit connections
between classroom learning and their
lives.
MAKE CONNECTIONS

23. SMART PRACTICE
1. Make connections. ✓
2. Use multiple modalities.
3. Recycle and vary.
4. Challenge students to think.

24. Language learning
engages many
regions of the brain.
PRINCIPLE 2:

25. LANGUAGE LEARNING
A Whole Brain Experience
http://www.intropsych.com/ch02_human_nervous_system/pet_scan.html

26. COMBINE MODALITIES.
“Our senses are designed to work
together, so when they are combined .
. . the brain pays more attention and
encodes the memory more robustly."
~ Medina, Brain Rules, 2014

27. WHAT ARE THE
MODALITIES?

28. COMBINE MODALITIES
Colin Macleod tested recognition of words.
a. Read a word silently.
b. Read a word and say it aloud.
Read aloud.

29. THE PRODUCTION EFFECT
MacLeod (2012)

30. SMART PRACTICE
Read Aloud
Combine Modalities
Cup Your Ear
http://www.yzzy.co.uk/author/yzzy/
Whisper Phones
http://www.edutopia.org

31. CUP YOUR EARS
“The human brain is a wonderful organ.
It starts to work as soon as you are born
and doesn't stop until you
get up to deliver a speech.”
~ George Jessel

32. COMBINE MODALITIES
Hear a piece of information, and 3 days
later we will remember 10% of it.
Add a picture, and we will remember
65%.
~ John Medina, Brain Rules, 2014
Reading + Visuals

33. HUMANS ARE
VISUAL LEARNERS.
More than half the human brain is
involved with processing
visual information.
http://imgpics.gq/study-tips-for-the-visual-learner

34. COMBINE MODALITIES
a. What are examples of visuals?
b. What visuals do you use in class?
c. How can you get more visuals in the
classroom?
Use Visuals

35. MULTIMODAL TEACHING
Use a checklist to bring as much
variety as possible into your
classroom.

36. Did the students . . .
look at pictures ? 
look at charts or graphs ? 
read print ? 
listen & speak ? 
write? 
move ? 
work individually ? 
work in groups ? 
do structured activities ? 
do open-ended activities ? 
Checklist

37. COMBINE MODALITIES
1. There is one area of the brain that
controls our language functions.
2. Reading aloud reduces our memory
of what we read.
3. When we think about words, we use
the frontal cortex of the brains.
4. Our dominant sense is visual.
True or false?

38. SMART PRACTICE
1. Make connections. ✓
2. Use multiple modalities. ✓
3. Recycle and vary.
4. Challenge students to think.

39. Learning
requires varied
practice.
PRINCIPLE 3:

40. LEARNING & RETRIEVING
CCPublicDomain

41. THE FORGETTING
CURVE
In 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus determined:
Information is lost very quickly
after it is learned.
TheCommons:Wikimedia.org

42. THE FORGETTING CURVE &
THE LEARNING CURVE
http://www.lincolnguitartuition.com/Guitar_Lessons_Lincoln_10.htm

43. HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU
REPEAT?
Increase the interval
length over time.
“Spaced Repetition”
CCO Public Domain

44. VARY WITH EACH
REPETITION
How?
With modalities!

45. SMART PRACTICE
• Spiral and recycle content.
• Use different modalities with each
repetition.
• Teach this content to your students so
they space out their practice and do
more repetitions.
Varied Repetition

46. RECAP
1. Why do we forget our learning so easily?
2. Why is repetition important?
3. Why is variation in repetition important?

47. SMART PRACTICE
1. Make connections. ✓
2. Use multiple modalities. ✓
3. Recycle and vary.✓
4. Challenge students to think.

48. Learning
requires effort.
PRINCIPLE 4:

49. Easy learning leads to
easy forgetting.

50. CHALLENGE YOUR
STUDENTS TO THINK.
“When we work hard to understand
information, we recall it better; the extra
effort signals to the brain that this
knowledge is worth keeping.”
~ Anne Murphy Paul, Time Magazine, 2011

51. A STUDY:
REVIEW VS. RECALL
Group A was asked to recall their learning
without notes or prompts.
Group B spent the same amount of time
studying the material and reviewing notes.
Two days later: Which group performed better?
A week later:
Which group remembered 48% of the material?
Which group remembered 90%?
Roediger and Karpicke (2006)

52. REVIEWING VS. RECALLING
When you review material, you are
recognizing material that looks familiar.
When you recall material, you are
remembering it. Recall strengthens your
memory.

53. LEARNING & RETRIEVING
CCPublicDomain

54. TOTALRECALL
Remember your Learning!
1. Read.
2. Read again.
3. Close the book.
4. Write what you remember.
5. Open the book.
6. Check your work

55. RECAP:
If you practice one concept single
mindedly you will burn it into your
memory.
True or False?

56. Varying the way you practice material
confuses your memory.
True or False?

57. The harder you think about something, the
better you remember it.
“Memory is the residue of thought.”
~ Daniel Willingham
True or False?

58. GUIDING QUESTIONS
a. What does recent research tell us
about the mind and learning?
b. What teaching practices enrich
student learning and enhance
student memory?

59. SMART PRACTICE
1. Make connections. ✓
2. Use multiple modalities. ✓
3. Recycle and vary.✓
4. Challenge students to think.✓

60. THANK YOU!
SARAH LYNN
BLOG: TEACHERTWOTEACHER.WORDPRESS.COM