Brain Research

While still in relatively early stages, brain research can be applied to education and learning. Understanding where students are in their physiological development can help us both understand some student behaviour, and help us structure lessons so that they are developmentally appropriate. This research is also useful for parents!!
Here are some resources I particularly enjoy.

(1) "Please excuse the mess" was originally publised in the Globe & Mail. It's available at: http://www.educ.uvic.ca/epls/faculty/rowles/please.htm
My favourite part of the article is the finding reported that "while being shown the face of a man in fear [,] The part of their brains that lit up the brightest as their minds worked to make sense of the image was not the prefrontal cortex, the centre of rational judgment used by the adult brain to sort out complex nuances of emotions. It was the amygdala, an almond-shaped knot in the middle of the brain that is one of the key areas for instinctual reactions such as fight or flight, anger or "I hate you, Mom."" So, as a teacher, I must remember that a teen may not accurately interpret my facial expression, so I should also articulate what my facial expression attempts to covey (e.g., "That's funny").


(2) PBS Frontline - inside the teenage brain - watch it for free, or read about the research at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/

(3) Time Magazine's "Secrets of the Teen Brain" - a great article, loaded with practical tips that can be applied to the classroom. http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101040510/
To me, a particularly useful finding was that teens are unable to internalize long-term goals - so a statement like, "This is good for your future career" is meaningless at their developmental stage. They understand the sentence, but they canot internalize this. Rather, focus on short-term goals or consequences to be effective. See examples in the article.

(4) "Mind Tricks" (an article in New Scientist) describes some simple experiments you can do to understand how your own brain processes certain types of information. See http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19526221.300-mind-tricks-six-ways-to-explore-your-brain.html?full=true