On pages 118-119, Branson talked about alternations in the brain and how experiences positively affect the brain. “Alterations in the brain that occur during learning seem to make the nerve cells more efficient or powerful” (p.118). Furthermore, “In this way, experience increases the overall quality of functioning of the brain” (p.118-119).  In concluding the conversation of animals in caged groups, Branson goes on to say, “Overall, these studies depict an orchestrated pattern of increased capacity in the brain that depends on experience” (p.119). 

It’s clear from the reading that experience promotes brain function, so much teaching is based on experience.  Each year, we grow in our craft, make changes, and implement new strategies, all of which increase our brain’s capacity. I think back to my first year of teaching, which at the time was extremely rough. I could not wait to start over the next year. To my surprise, the decisions I made in year one greatly influenced what I did in year two, exemplifying the above quote that more experience made me better in my profession. 

One thing I question from the quote is what about a negative experience. As I was reading it, it seemed like the author was implying that all experiences positively affect the brain. Is that true even with negative experiences? For example, if a child has a negative experience with learning, albeit with a teacher, new skill, classmate, etc., will that still positively affect their brain? The quote also made me think about students with trauma. I teach in a low SES school district outside of Chicago. My students have a lot of traumas that they carry with them into the classroom. I realize the quote was explicitly talking about learning experiences. Still, I cannot help but wonder how specifically those traumatic experiences learning related or not, alter the function of the brain, especially when those experiences are negative. 

This quote really interested me because I didn’t realize memory functioned through two processes. It completely makes sense, given how different the two types are, but I think it’s also important to keep in mind as I identify learning targets for my students. A lot of the things I need students to remember in language arts fall under procedural memory; I need students to remember how to complete particular tasks or how to approach a problem. Often, however, I think we associate learning more with declarative memory, especially in regard to standardized testing. While I think it’s important and helpful for students to know parts of speech, I also think it’s way more important that they learn how to reason and defend their perspective using evidence. Even though the latter is more likely to show up on a standardized test, it will frequently be tested in a “declarative” way, creating a gap between the skill itself and the way it is assessed. Students also expect to be assessed on their declarative memory; procedural memory takes much more time and nuance to access and assess. 

My question is this: Which type of memory do you notice is prioritized in your school/learning environment? And also, how do we address issues in students accessing these processes?

 

I found this interesting since I work in the dental field. Often, thumb sucking is a stress response for most infants or children. Some children continue to thumb suck for much longer than needed, well after breast feeding or bottle feeding. The issue with continued sucking is that it changes how to the teeth erupt at an angle, and this can cause crowded teeth or a bite that is off. Long term, this has the potential to cause jaw and clenching or grinding issues later on in life or a higher risk for cavities and gum disease if the teeth are misaligned. All I could do when reading this was think oh no, I hope they didn’t encourage these little ones to do this for very long to develop these bad habits! 

 

Hearing these studies made me think of positive reinforcement. Infants were conditioned to improve a movie picture clarity by sucking harder, creating a cause and effect. It’s interesting that infants responded this way and were able to adjust accordingly to what they wanted. The second study about different speech sounds increasing the sucking sounded more like a stress response to me. It made me think about if any of us have a nervous twitch that we involuntarily present with when we are met with something new and unknown. I wonder if this was the same for the infants? 

 

 

Works Cited: 

 

Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (2000).  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C: National Research Council: Committee on Developments in Science of Learning. National Academy Press.

 

(p 124) : “Different features of learning contribute to the durability or fragility of memory. For example, comparisons of people’s memories for words with their memories for pictures of the same objects show a superiority effect for pictures. The superiority effect of pictures is also true if words and pictures are combined during learning (Roediger, 1997)”

 

This quote resonates to me because of my experience as an English Learner. I can definitely say that combining words and visuals helped me tremendously during the learning process, in my case, trying to achieve proficiency in a new language. One of the first pieces of advice I give to my English Learners students is to watch shows and movies with subtitles on. Until now, I didn’t know how to explain my students why watching TV with captions will benefit their learning. Reading how the processes of memory and brain work will be very helpful in order to understand and apply different strategies for a more successful learning process. Definitely, It has been very interesting to read this chapter. 

 

 

Question: 

 Based on the superiority effect for pictures in the learning process...should educators implement more visuals in their lessons?

From what I know and have experienced about how children learn, they often need to learn with their peers and be offered multiple opportunities to learn new content/skills. I teach 1st grade and I also have a 5 year old daughter who just finished kindergarten. This section of this chapter (Experiences and Environments for Brain Development), and this quote in particular stuck out to me because it reminded me of teaching this year all online (CDL) versus teaching in the classroom. I noticed from both my class and my daughter that the learning taking place was much more significant when the students were in the classroom with their peers and with more differentiation. Just like the rats studied, the brain development was greater when learning was happening in a social context and when they were exposed to many different learning opportunities (versus an isolating environment on the computer and only 1-2 ways to learn: live zoom and written assignment). Also to be noted, my observations were measurable through assessments. My question is this: Do ALL students (primary grades specifically) need to learn in a social context and with multiple learning experiences in order for greater brain development? Or is it possible that some students thrive with learning independently and with limited learning opportunities like CDL? If this is the case how do we accommodate both types of learners?

I personally think many if not all young students need to learn in a social context like the classroom and be given many different learning opportunities in order for healthy brain development. I believe this because in my experience teaching in classroom vs CDL my students' learning and engagement was MUCH greater when they were in the classroom than during CDL. When the students are in the classroom they are in an engaging environment, have manipulatives to scaffold their learning, can learn through small groups, one-on-one, partner, and whole class instruction, and can learn from each other! When they were in CDL, they were often alone, isolated, strived for social connection, struggled with online worksheets, or paper worksheets without teacher instruction, struggled with staying engaged during a zoom lesson and had a difficult time navigating the online classroom. However, there were SOME students who actually thrived with CDL! What is different in their brain development that made them successful with that type of learning? And how can we accommodate them when we go back to the classroom full time?

Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (2000).  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C: National Research Council: Committee on Developments in Science of Learning. National Academy Press. 

This quote reminds me of our research around trauma and the brain. In another course I took through the Northwest Innovative Teacher in 2018 called “Trauma Informed Teaching,” we explored trauma’s effects on children’s readiness to learn. When children are convinced by a family member or friend that some type of abuse or neglect is an act of love, it can directly affect their memories of the experience. Trauma’s impact on the prefrontal cortex limits children’s ability to interpret the thoughts and feelings of others.

In Chapter 5, Bransford describes how different parts of the brain may be ready to develop at different times. For example, the time required for synapses to form, then disappear selectively takes from 2-3 years in the visual cortex to 8-10 years in the frontal cortex (p. 116). Similar to sculpting or pruning, the brain is overproducing synapses at a young age and then determines which ones to keep. I’m noticing more with my teaching experience that my learners with trauma are not meeting developmental milestones for both physical and neuro-development. I’m wondering how we can support our learners with trauma who’s brains may not be ready to learn?

The quote that stood out to me is, “In an act of efficiency and ‘cognitive economy’ (Gibson, 1969), the mind creates categories for processing information. Thus, it is a feature of learning that memory processes make relational links to other information” (Bransford, 2000, p. 124).

I chose this quote because it relates to a lot of what I have learned previously about how people gain knowledge. In addition, it is easy to take this information and apply it to the developing instruction. In previous courses we have learned about the importance of connecting new concepts to ones previously covered in our instruction. We have also learned that we should connect what students are learning with their previous experiences and interests. In addition, when developing equitable instruction we have learned that we should provide instruction that all of our students can relate to. All of these are backed up by the quote above. By setting up the connection in our lessons it is easier for students to complete the process of organizing information as described in the quote above. When this process is easier they will be more likely to remember the content covered. I also think it is important to recognize that our brain tries to make sense and categorize things because it will help us recognize when we are jumping to conclusions about a situation, topic or person.

What are some questions that we can ask students to help facilitate them making connections between the content in a lesson and their own lives or previous knowledge? 

Reference:
Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (2000).  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C: National Research Council: Committee on Developments in Science of Learning. National Academy Press. 114-127

As we learn, it is not just that our brains store more information. Our brains change their functional organizations as we learn. I can see how this relates to what we read in Chapter 2 about experts vs. novices. It’s not that experts know more information than novices, they actually change they way they structure their knowledge. What this quote from Chapter 5 tells me it’s not just our the organization of our knowledge that is improving, but our entire brains are as well. 

As I think about my own experiences, this makes sense. I’ve heard the saying, “the more you learn, the more you can learn.” I’ve seen this to largely be true as I’ve observed my students. Those who spend time at home reading and having educational discussions with their families are often quicker to understand new concepts. Their brains have organized themselves in a way that new information comes more easily. They also have more knowledge and experiences to build new information on. I also find that when I’m in school or even just spending my time reading, my mind works more quickly than those times when I just sit in front of the tv at the end of the day. The more I use my mind, the more easily it seems to work.

My question is: Summer break is a common time for students to stop using their brains in an intellectual way. What are some good experiences for them to have over the summer that will keep their brain functioning well when they return to school in the fall?

Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (2000).  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C: National Research Council: Committee on Developments in Science of Learning. National Academy Press.

Through my experience with children, as a babysitter, teacher, and now mom, I have seen the natural process of brain development and milestones hit. The quote I chose resonates with me as I have watched many children change, grow, and develop. Specifically speaking with observing my son and the changes he has experienced. Parts of our development are in fact a natural process; however, I believe that a big part of development and advancements have to do with experiences and exposure to things. Language for example - yes it is a natural process, however, if my son had not been read to, listened to others conversate, be spoken to by us, he would not have had the opportunity to develop and improve his language skills. Lack of exposure would have been a limiting condition in this situation. Another example of a natural process that I have noticed is the concept of walking, this is a natural process guided by a timetable with limiting conditions. I believe that there are so many stages of life (especially in those early years) that are a part of a natural process and develop over time!

As adults, what are some developmental stages that we experience that are part of a natural process?


Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (2000).  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C: National Research Council: Committee on Developments in Science of Learning. National Academy Press.

Reading this chapter I found several of the studies fascinating on how the brain receives information and “chooses,” which synapses to grow based on culture, need, and biological development. When looking at the information on the ability to create memories I always found it strange when people experienced what we call “The Mandela Effect,” or recalling information incorrectly and claiming it was what one experienced. I had always wondered how this idea of experiencing something inherently wrong could occur to many people. An example of this would be last year when I was teaching about Tiananmen Square. I have the famous poster in my classroom, but was required to cover it during state testing. Even though my students had learned of the event, and saw the image most days in my classroom, they thought I had changed the image after I uncovered it. The students had encoded into their memories the idea that the man was standing with a group of students as they had learned about the civil unrest that was occurring among the Chinese Students.

Now after reading this chapter and seeing the evidence, it becomes clear that humans learn through experience- even if that experience is not their own- they will create the same connections as if they themselves have lived the events in their memories encoding to long term memory. I had asked my students to place themselves among the Chinese Students and feel as if they had, meaning that they with simple recall believed that there had been many students in the Tiananmen Square picture.

I find the connections between experience and memory to be helpful going forward in teaching as the chapter stated, “Memory processes treat both true and false memory events similarly,” (Page 125) meaning that I as a Social Studies teacher have a duty to not only give students accurate information historically, but also to make sure I am checking for understanding at higher levels as students “experience” history. If I fail to make sure students understand and eventually encode incorrectly, I am teaching historical experiences that could leave a path of fallacies behind in a group of learners. 

Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (2000).  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C: National Research Council: Committee on Developments in Science of Learning. National Academy Press.

I have selected this quote by Bransford about the importance of experiences and environments for brain development because it seems to directly relate to how learning happens in our schools and classrooms today.  I feel that this chapter on the mind and the brain helped me further understand how “experience increases the overall quality of functioning of the brain.” (p. 118) Learning how neuroscience and research provides baking evidence for the importance of a “stimulating physical environment and an interactive social group” (p. 126) to encode learning in the brain is fascinating.  By providing learning opportunities, activities, and projects that encourage children to collaborate and interact physically and emotionally with each other we can create classrooms environments that foster rich cognitive development and new learning possibilities.   These ideas harmonize with my own ideas of best practice when teaching early learners in prek and kindergarten.  I believe it is important to offer children choice in learning activities where they are able to engage with others collaboratively.  This can often look like the “choice time” part of the school day, that involves sensory activities, visual artistic expression activities, games and imaginative play activities, where children can pick what and who they want to engage with.  I wonder what types of social learning activities work best in higher grade levels?  What types of activities can we foster in upper elementary and middle and high school that allow us to tap into the neurological growth directly that happens with stimulating environments and social interactions?  

Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (2000).  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C: National Research Council: Committee on Developments in Science of Learning. National Academy Press.

“Research has also indicated that the mind is not just a passive recorder of events, rather, it is actively at work both in storing and in recalling information. There is research demonstrating that when a series of events are presented in a random sequence, people reorder them into sequences that make sense when they try to recall them (Lichtenstein and Brewer, 1980). The phenomenon of the active brain is dramatically illustrated further by the fact that the mind can “remember” things that actually did not happen.” (Bransford, 2000, p. 124).

When I read this quote, I immediately thought about learners making connections or fill-in-the-blanks when it comes to word problems or reading comprehension. As an English teacher, I teach inference and context clues before diving deep into a text so students can be able to fully understand the author’s purpose and reason for writing. It also makes sense that we as humans tend to think something happened very clearly although it very much did not happen. Our brain actively works to recall information while recording the information itself. 

In lessons, this can be seen when students make observations and connections from previous material or knowledge. By making these connections, students will better recall information in the future, which can help with development and “exercising” the brain. The brain is truly a wonder since it automatically wants to organize thoughts into different categories. 

My question is: “What are some strategies teachers can use to better promote inference skills or making connections?” Some students may not have a fully developed skill or understanding when it comes to this. 

References

Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (2000).  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C: National Research Council: Committee on Developments in Science of Learning. National Academy Press.

The second method of synapse formation is through the addition of new synapses—like the artist who creates a sculpture by adding things together until the form is complete." (pg.116)

I chose this quote because I really enjoyed the analogy the text used to describe the formation of synapses. This painted a very clear picture in my head to what was going on and really helped me understand what was going on in my students' brains during development. It is very important to realize that at an early age students are going through a wide variety of experiences, and will result in an experience overload in their brain, so not everything will be able to be held on to. However, once students' brains sift through what is valued as important, then additional information can be added onto those previously developed synapses.


Question: what are some of the most important experiences students can have that will decide which synapses are "shaved" away and which stay? What are some important experiences students can have later on in life that will be added to what has already been developed?

I chose this quote because I feel that it highlights the importance of nurture in the nature vs. nurture debate.  As educators, “nature” is beyond our control, but we do have a certain degree of control over the learning environment in our classrooms.  The way in which we set up our learning environments can have a profound impact on how our students learn.  This quote also reminds me to take into account the environments that my students have already experienced.  I teach in a trauma-informed school, so we are aware that many of our students grow up in homes that have environments that may not support healthy neurodevelopment.  This then makes it even more essential for us to create classroom and school environments that maximize brain and psychological development. 

My question is: How do you set up your classroom environments in order to maximize brain development?

References:

Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (2000).  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C: National Research Council: Committee on Developments in Science of Learning. National Academy Press.

Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (2000).  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C: National Research Council: Committee on Developments in Science of Learning. National Academy Press.

This quote resonates with me because not only has research proven the benefits for learning through experience, but it’s also more engaging for students and teachers when we can supplement learning with experience. However, as teachers, we also know there are limitations to the experiences we can offer. That’s when we get to creatively combine words and visuals to build categories of information and hopefully produce memorable experiences working with what we have access to. In some aspects, we try to bring the outside world into our classrooms. The challenging part for myself, is that I struggle feeling like I can truly create “categories of information,” or schemas, with my students due to the vast amount of content needed to be covered. In result, my students get very little practice with “complex cognitive processing” skills. 

QUESTION: If you were able to redesign curriculum with what we know about teaching with experiences and schemas in mind, what must we sacrifice in order to give students more opportunities to practice “complex cognitive processing on a repeated basis”? Or perhaps, how have you been able to successfully implement this within current structures?

Reference:

Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (2000).  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C: National Research Council: Committee on Developments in Science of Learning. National Academy Press.

 

I chose this quote because it brought to mind an experience I had when I met a student I had in my class who had been severely neglected. Having a child experience the level of neglect my student had endured is similar to an animal being caged and denied the opportunity to engage in a stimulating environment. When I met my student, I was overwhelmed by her inability to communicate using language I could understand, and my heart was overwhelmed with the amount of love I instantly felt for this child. I was heartbroken to learn that she was homeless, had a mouth full of missing and rotten teeth, and her clothes, hair, and body were unkempt. I collaborated with my school counselor and speech therapist, and the three of us adults felt an incredible level of responsibility to provide our new kindergartner and her family with as much love, care, support, and interventions as we could possibly muster up. 

 

Meeting my new student was the first time I had a deep feeling that I was responsible for advocating for and serving a child who had been so severely neglected that she did not have the same neurodevelopment one would have if provided with a different background. What I will never forget is this amazing child’s immediate trust in me and her deep desire to communicate and learn. To say she flourished by being provided a class full of peers who cared for her deeply, and a team of educators and specialists who were wholeheartedly committed to helping her reach her fullest potential, is an understatement! I saw firsthand the difference a complex environment can make on a child’s brain and mind when this precious child was provided with opportunities that align with what Bransford touched upon on page 119 when he stated, “Overall, these studies depict an orchestrated pattern of increased capacity in the brain that depends on experience.” 

 

My question is:  What strategies have you found to be successful in supporting families and students who are homeless that have resulted in students reaching their maximum neurodevelopment potential? 

 

Reference:

Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (2000).  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C: National Research Council: Committee on Developments in Science of Learning. National Academy Press.

My question for you guys is: How can we provide lessons that allow students to work on their language skills independently when we hardly have time during the day to teach our required standards? 

Reference:

Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (2000).  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C: National Research Council: Committee on Developments in Science of Learning. National Academy Press.

“The finding illustrates the active mind at work using inferencing processes to relate events. People “remember” words that are implied but not stated with the same probability as learned words. In an act of efficiency and “cognitive economy” (Gibson, 1969), the mind creates categories for processing information. Thus, it is a feature of learning that memory processes make relational links to other information.” (Bransford, 2000, p. 124)

The power of contextualizing information was made very clear by this finding and the following paragraphs about false events being identified as true after weeks of discussion. Although I already knew about categorization and false memories, placing this information into the context of teaching and learning made me realize how important context truly is for learners. Humans categorize information naturally as a skill for increasing short term memory, whether intentionally or not. I know many strong teachers who also naturally include personal stories, connections to shows or movies that kids watch, or other ways of contextualizing information for their students. I do this as well, and it is helpful to understand why this practice is so effective. Toddlers do this as well- it’s very common for a young child to call an object or animal by the name of a similar item with a modifier. For example, when a toddler calls a zebra a “stripe horse” they are using a familiar category to connect to the new animal they are seeing. This is a simple example of a strategy I can use more intentionally as a teacher.

A question I have is, how do we combat the false memory aspect of this phenomenon? I have many students who come to me and share a did-you-know fact or an urban legend that I know is false. However, they believe this because they’ve heard it many times or they have connected it to other true stories or facts they know. Usually I will say, “Let’s look it up together!” but I would love to hear other ideas about how to respond when those moments occur.

References: Bransford, J., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School (Expanded Edition). National Academies Press. 

I really connected with this quote as I have always struggled with memory problems and it is more proof that learners must be invested in learning. The mind does not just passively record events with no real direction, it takes practice and focus to retain what one has already learned. To this, my mind jumps directly to Project Based learning and how this might be an interesting fit for learners who struggle to focus and actively remember facts. The reading also indicated that when a series of event are shared with someone ein no random order, our minds in fact put them into some sort of order to better remember them. I am finding this oddly interesting and it actually gives me some ideas about the way we sequence lessons in my classroom. 

Creating memories and student involvement in their learning very clearly go hand-in-hands. Students won’t care to remember if they are not invested in what they are learning in a meaningful way. My question about this is how can we integrate what we know about how memories are created into our lesson planning? What about our students who do struggle with memories - specifically our ADD or ADHD students who struggle with this?

Reference:

Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (2000).  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C: National Research Council: Committee on Developments in Science of Learning. National Academy Press.

The quote from Bransford that resonated with me is under the memory and brain process summary. “Research has also indicated that the mind is not just a passive recorder of events, rather, it is actively at work both in storing and in recalling information. There is research demonstrating that when a series of events are presented in a random sequence, people reorder them into sequences that make sense when they try to recall them (Lichtenstein and Brewer, 1980). ”(Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000, p. 124).  

I chose this quote under this topic of memory and brain process because my son is autistic but it seems that he has an amazing memory especially when it comes to songs and videos he has seen and places he has been too. Though the series of events are in random order like the quote mentions he is able to reorder them into sequences that makes sense to him so he is able to recall back to what he remembers he is going or needs to do. As I also connect this to my students in class I think about the students learning math and reading. Especially during retelling what the story was about. Though there are students who have a great memory and can tell you every single thing that happened in the book almost word by word there are other students who start recalling information of order of events from previous books they have read and are sure it is from the story they just read. This is so amazing to me how their brains are able to recall various events though not in order or from the same book and have them thinking it is. 

My question is: What type of activities, games, strategies we can use to promote a more active memory brain that students are able to fully understand and remember order of events from stories they are reading or read? 

References:

Bransford, J., Brown, A. & Cocking, R. (Eds.) (2000).  How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C: National Research Council: Committee on Developments in Science of Learning. National Academy Press.

In my experience with children, I have seen how what they experience lives a mark in their brains. Then later they will remember something that they have experienced and make a connection with their new learning experience. Then as the quote says that experience is important for the development of brain structures. This reminds me of sometimes when I start teaching a new concept and the students do not know what it is. Then, I need to go back and teach them what it is so during the class they can make connections to it. Moreover, sometimes it takes longer than plan to teach something new to students if they don’t have the background knowledge or experience

What is the best way to learn something new without having the background knowledge or experience?