articles&abstracts
Brain Research Sheds New Light on Student Learning, Teaching Strategies, and Disabilities
Council for Exceptional Children
http://www.cec.sped.org
September 26, 2003
What Does This Mean for My Teaching?
Brain research shows us that emotions play a critical role in teaching.
Thus, one of the most important things a teacher can do, especially with
students with disabilities, is to bond with their students. Each student
should have one person in the school who will act as a mentor and help
him or her make an emotional connection. The fact is, students must feel
safe, accepted, and included if learning is to occur. Even small actions,
like the teacher standing in the door and greeting students as they come
in helps students be more receptive to learning.
Second, for students to truly learn material and content, it must be meaningful to them emotionally. To engage students’ emotions, teachers may incorporate art and/or music when teaching. Music embeds learning through rhyme and rhythm while art gives students visual images to remember, says Patricia Ray, upper school head at St. Mary's Episcopal School for Girls in Memphis, Tenn. In essence, the more senses teachers can engage in learning, the more likely students will retain the knowledge, giving support to hands-on teaching techniques.
Another way to connect to students' emotions is to make the information personally meaningful. For example, a teacher could ask the class why chemistry is important, recommends Wesson. Then peers can build on the ideas of the first student who responded. Wesson also suggests giving students an opportunity to put academic content in the context of life to give it meaning. For instance, before a math lesson, the teacher could present a situation: You go to the store, give the clerk $5.00 for an item that costs $3.00, and get .25 back. Ask: what would you say, what would you think, how would you feel?
In addition, movement should be an integral part of teaching, according to Chaloner. The brain is a pattern recognition organ, so engaging students in a movement exercise every 30–60 minutes can prevent it from going to sleep and help increase attention span.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Because the brain is quite adept at some activities and has more neuron
paths for those activities, the best way to improve student weaknesses
is to teach through the strengths. "Our goal is to identify student
strengths and use them to help students learn," says Wesson. "There
is more real estate in the brain devoted to the student's strengths. Use
the strengths as the foundation for other kinds of learning rather than
trying to build something where the brain is cortically disinvested or
underinvested already."
Therefore, if a student is poor at counting but good at basketball, have the student count how many times he or she dribbles the ball. Or, if a student is interested in cars but doesn't like reading, build a reading program around cars. By using a student's strength as a medium to develop other strengths, the cortisals in the brain will become more agitated and try to form relationships, says Halstead.
To view the complete article, click here.
For information about music therapy nation-wide, visit the American Music Therapy Association at http://www.musictherapy.org