1. Making Connections: Brain-Based Learning and the Art of Teaching
You have brains in your head
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself any direction you choose! Dr. Suess
Lori Walker Rick Stepp-Bolling

2. The Developmental Education Faculty Certification Program
Three Modules
Eight Weeks each
16 Hours of In-Class Time and 32 Hours of Outside Class Time
Each Module=2 Units of Crossover Credit

3. Module One: Philosophy and Definitions of Developmental Education
Brain-Compatible Learning
Student-Center Learning
Multiple Intelligences
Emotional Intelligences
Learning Styles

4. Module Two: Facilitating a Developmental Education Approach within the Classroom
Problem-Based Learning
Project-Based Learning
Infusion of Study Skills into the Content Areas
Classroom Assessment Techniques

5. Module Three: Introduction to Learning Communities and Developing a Holistic Developmental Approach to the Classroom
Introduction to Learning Communities
Creation of a Learning Community Using DE Principles

6. Brain Basics 101

7. Today’s Outcomes
Understand the Research Foundation for Brain-based/Student-Centered Learning
Learn, Understand and Apply Effective Brain-based Practices Used in the Classroom Setting

8. Check-In

9. Brain-based/ Student-Centered Learning
How do YOU currently define:
developmental education?
developmental learners?

10. Defining our perspective...
Developmental education is a field of practice and research within higher education with a theoretical foundation in developmental psychology and learning theory. It promotes the cognitive and affective growth of all postsecondary learners, at all levels of the learning continuum. Developmental education is sensitive and responsive to the individual differences and special needs among learners.
-Adopted from NADE (National Association of Developmental Educators)

11. Remedial vs. Developmental
Remedial Perspective
Focuses on the skills that need to be learned
Assumes that students lack certain skills, and are at one particular level
Considers only the cognitive dynamic of learning
Includes outside services designed to meet only the cognitive needs of students
Focuses on learning strategies related to the specific skills that need to be learned
Helps students master specific academic skills
Developmental Perspective
Focuses on how the learner learns
Assumes students are at a variety of levels simultaneously
Considers the cognitive and affective dynamics of learning
Includes outside services designed to meet the cognitive and affective needs of students
Focuses on the development of a variety of learning strategies
Helps students master their educational/life goals and objectives

12. Developmental Student Profile
Based on the DE Definition, developmental education at Mt. San Antonio College empowers students to become independent learners by:
1. Controlling their own learning
Students can explain how they learn (metacognition)
Students take responsibility for their own learning
Students possess effective learning tools (e.g. self-assessment)
2. Persisting in achieving their educational and life goals
Students clarify their own academic/learning/life objectives
Students arrive at realistic goals

13. Developmental Student Profile, Cont.
3. Gaining academic skills
Students possess skills in reading, writing, math, speaking and study skills
Students are technologically proficient in basic software use
4. Achieving affective awareness and growth
Students understand/tolerate diverse academic cultures and systems
Students possess improved academic self-confidence
Students are intrinsically motivated to learn

14. The Reptilian Brain: the "Preverbal" Brain
The oldest and smallest region in the evolving human brain.
Controls life itself, such as autonomic brain and heart actions.
Impulses are deeply instinctual and ritualistic.
Concerned with basic survival needs, e.g., temperature,
nourishment, sleep, and etc.
_________________________________________________
Oxygen to the brain and body is the primary function
of the reptilian system.

17. The Limbic Brain: the "Emotional" Brain
Common to all mammals, it developed about 60 million years ago.
Acts as the brain's emotion factory.
Activated by music and colors.
Stores all memory information.
The Reticular Activating System (RAS) will require its needs to be met before the rest of the brain is “available” for higher order functions.
Retention of information can be significantly increased when it's presented in an emotionally charged context!

18. The Neocortex Brain: the "Thinking" Brain
Constitutes five-sixths of the total brain mass, which has
evolved over the last million years, to produce the human brain.
Controls such high-level processes as logic, creative thought,
language, and the integration of sensory information.
The Neocortex is divided into the left and right cerebral
hemispheres, described in Left/Right Brain Theory.
The Neocortex Brain: the "Thinking" Brain
This is the “motherlode”!

19. So…
...who cares?

20. Brain-based Learning and Education
Brain-based learning experiences pay attention to the power of the whole brain by simultaneously:
Responding to the learner's physical and sensory needs
Creating activities that link emotions to the acquisition of new
information
Designing curriculum that requires students to form their own
knowledge/meaning
Traditional education was designed for neocortex functions. However, this misses a basic brain fact: the reptilian brain is an interconnected pathway to the limbic brain which is an interconnected pathway to the neocortex -- you can’t skip a brain function!

21. “You can either have your learner’s attention, or they can be making meaning -- but never both at the same time.” Jensen (1998)

22. How can you create a truly brain-based/ student-centered learning environment?
Create Class/Team Norms BEFORE any work is introduced

23. Class Norms
Use our names when we speak and introduce ourselves -- nametags at first until we know one another
Have one person each week share a great moment in her/his week
Snacks/beverages permitted – optional to bring some to share 
Be respectful, prepared and ready to participate
Change seats on a regular basis
One make-up assignment
Cell phones on silent

24. How can you create a truly brain-based/ student-centered learning environment?
Create Class/Team Norms BEFORE any work is introduced
Get them up and moving every minutes

25. Now It’s Your Time to Make Meaning!
Draw a picture of what Brain-Based Learning looks like to you!

26. Now It’s Your Time to Make Meaning!
Find a partner who is currently the FARTHEST AWAY from you in the room and tell your partner two things you have learned thus far that you didn’t already know.

27. How can you create a truly brain-based/ student-centered learning environment?
Create Class/Team Norms BEFORE any work is introduced
Get them up and moving every minutes
Create environments where they can teach one another, i.e., the jigsaw classroom

29. The Jigsaw Classroom
Students form Expert Groups, each of whom has been given the same assigned topic to study.
Together, expert partners study their topic and plan effective ways to teach important information to their peers.
Participants in the Expert Groups go out and form new, Cooperative Groups.
Each expert takes responsibility for sharing their expertise with the others in the Cooperative Group.

30. How can you create a truly brain-based/ student-centered learning environment?
Create Class/Team Norms BEFORE any work is introduced
Get them up and moving every minutes
Create environments where they can teach one another, i.e., the jigsaw classroom
Allow time for silence (individual reflection)

31. Learning = Conscious + Unconscious
The Learning Pyramid = Levels of Conscious Processing
Silence/Reflection/Meditation = Unconscious Processing
Fact: Meditation/Reflection substantially increases brain activity and reduces stress levels (cortisol) in the body.
Fact: NASA Astronauts were instructed to daydream 20 minutes twice a day. Research showed that it increased their ability to create new solutions and anticipate unexpected situations by more than 40%!
Fact: After doing PET scans of more than 500 common activities, meditation was found to produce the MOST active brain waves!

32. Reflection Questions When you begin a session, ask:
What do you already know about this topic?
What do you want to know about this topic?
And the reflection…
What have you learned about this topic?

33. How can you create a truly brain-based/ student-centered learning environment?
Create Class/Team Norms BEFORE any work is introduced
Get them up and moving every minutes
Create environments where they can teach one another, i.e., the jigsaw classroom
Allow time for silence (individual reflection)
Create the structure, release the process

34. Team Member Contact List
Worksheet #1: Team Contact List
Team Member Contact List
Address
Telephone Number (s)
Name

35. Worksheet #2: Team Member Grading Criteria
The grade you receive on this project will significantly affect your overall grade in this class. You have all completed a group project, so you all know how important it is to have clear expectations of one another from the beginning. What are your expectations of one another? What is MOST important? What percentage of the grade you give one another will each criteria represent? And most importantly, how much will you grade one another if the criteria is not met? In other words, if someone is absent once, how much will you “dock” from their total 100 points? Tardy? Absent twice? And what if they don’t do a homework assignment the team has assigned? What if they say they will call (i.e., communicate) and just don’t? What if they say they will be somewhere, and simply don’t show up? What if they are late with doing their share of the work? Be as SPECIFIC as possible. (NOTE: Choose a MAXIMUM of five criteria.)
Team Member Grading Criteria
RESULT OF NOT MEETING CRITERIA
% OF GRADE
CRITERIA
As team members, we understand and agree to fulfill the expectations of our fellow team members. We also understand that our grade will be reflected in how well we uphold these expectations.
___________________________________ ______________________________

36. Worksheet #3: Team Backwards Planning Timeline
(Write down date for them)
Turn in Assignment
Date you will finish this step
Step by Step Things to Do

37. Releasing the Process: Implications for Educators
“You can either have your learner’s attention, or they can be making meaning -- but never both at the same time.” Jensen (1998)
Brain-centered = student-centered = less educator control
Self-awareness: how much control do you need?
Walking the talk

38. Now It’s Your Turn…
Choose two things you have learned today that you will commit to applying in your classroom
Share your commitments with those at your table

39. Traditional Paradigm Emerging Paradigm
1. Motivators are external
2. Aging lowers ability
3. IQ is a single-faceted, academic concept
4. There are no sex differences
5. Nurture is the main factor
6. Germs cause disease
7. Diet is unrelated to the brain
8. The brain is seen as a computer
9. Memory is retrieval of complete episodes
1. Motivators are internal
2. Use it or lose it!
3. IQ is a multifaceted, street-smart concept
4. The sexes are wired differently
5. Nature is the main factor
6. The mind controls disease
7. Diet influences mental function
8. The brain is seen as a pharmacy
9. Memory is construction of episodes from pieces of information
Owner’s Manual for The Brain by Dr. Pierce Howard

40. Want to Know More? www.jigsaw.org
The Owner's Manual for the Brain: Everyday Applications from Mind-Brain Research
- Pierce J. Howard, Ph. D.
Active Learning: 101 Strategies to Teach Any Subject Mel Silberman
-The Jigsaw Classroom
The Colour of Happiness
New Scientist Vol 178 Issue May 2003, page 44.
Brain Rules
-John Medina
How The Brain Learns
-David A. Sousa

41. Where is Rick? Rick Stepp-Bolling Mt San Antonio College
Learning Assistance Center, 6-150
Telephone: (909) , ext. 4303

42. Thank you.