1. Constantly make something important to their brain (say, “Wow, this is so good that…” Or, “If you learn nothing else all day, listen closely and remember this…”)

2. Get students out of their seats for a quick energizer every 8-15 minutes (it bumps up Cortisol, Dopamine and Norepinephrine, all of which help strengthen memory formation)

3. Every single key idea, repeat after me (“Now we just learned there are four seasons. How many seasons are there?”)

4. Use acronyms

5. Use priming ALL Day long (“Earlier I said we have 4 seasons and the coldest one is W-I-N________?”) They spell out the rest of the word.

6. Use partners more often. (“We just learned the four seasons. Now, please stand up. Great. Find a neighbor and point to him or her say, “You’re it!. Great. Now, between you and your neighbor, see if you can remember all four seasons.”) Then do error correction.

7. Use their body more often, like every 15-30 minutes to connect with content. (“We just learned the four seasons. Now, let’s burn them into our brain in a fun way. Please stand up. Great. With your body, show your neighbor, you wiping sweat off your forehead. That’s summer. Great. Now show your neighbor raking up leaves. That’s fall. Etc.”)

8. Put key ideas up on posters around the room. Ask kids to stand up, find a partner and take them to the poster. Then they review the material using the poster as a helper.

9. Use peg systems

10. Use spatial learning and associate concepts to places in the room. Take a key idea like cumulus clouds and go to a corner of the room with the kids. Ask them to look up in the corner and imaging HUGE rain clouds in the ceiling corner. Imaging the rain. Repeat after me: “Cumulous clouds means.. rain (or whatever).”

Knowing these are good. Actually doing them-all day long, every day of the week, is how you get miracles.

Make it happen.

photo credit: Justin Shearer

“There’s a big front coming in this weekend. Expect temperatures to drop to well below freezing. There will be icy and dangerous conditions. Winds will be near gale force. Please take all necessary cautions to protect life and property.”

Sometimes being right is just as bad as being wrong. Just ask any weatherman or weatherperson. Nobody likes to hear the messenger when the news is bad. It’s no different when the news is about our own lives.

Today, we take a look ahead. That’s always a bit dangerous. Today’s world has so many complex variables that any predictions beyond the next few weeks seem far too tenuous to “bank on.” Who would have predicted interest rates would fall to record lows in 2011? Few would have predicted the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster, which set back the space program by years (and maybe put it out of business). The events following 9/11 changed many things in politics, economics and even tourism. The point here is simple; general timelines are easier to predict, high impact events are, well, unpredictable. We’ll have to exclude in this chapter those catastrophic events (sorry, even psychics get them wrong) and stick with the likely stream of events. Based on the trends so far, there are three possible trajectories. One is the nightmare, where all that can go bad, does. Another is the dream, where most important decisions and events are positive. And finally, there’s the most likely scenario of all. That I’ll leave to the end.

The Nightmare

One plausible scenario is that of a society with decreasing enrichment for all ages. There would be widespread decreases in nutrition, quality of life, social interaction, safety, new experiences and overall learning. In this scenario we would see many changes. Included in those changes are  the eight events listed below.  To a degree, they are already happening:

Early childhood care… This would get ignored by federal and state agencies, becoming massively underfunded. Children would lack the access to pre-kindergarten resources needed to help them be ready for school. Only the wealthy would be able to afford it. The nightmare scenario is that programs of this type, the ones that have been marginally funded so far, disappear for lack of funding.

School testing narrows… In this scenario, schools would narrow the range of curriculum to be tested for. Policy-makers would increasingly narrow focus to math, reading and science. But that’s not the problem; the real problem is the stakes involved. Schools that fail established markers would lose their funding (by the thousands). In our worst-case scenario, the testing becomes even more restrictive, narrow minded and worst of all, putative.

Curriculum changes… We are seeing continued narrowing of the curriculum to meet the demands of high stakes testing. In fear of becoming labeled “unsatisfactory” many public schools have eliminated or reduced physical education, arts, electives and the vocational and career tracks. These types of programs are the very types, which have helped students, feel good about being in school. In our worst nightmare, these curriculum choices leave the public schools.

Breakdown of public schools in America… The society becomes increasingly fragmented. More and more schools are offering classes on-line. Soon, many students will have no perceived need for school. In twenty years, 95% of all secondary education could be on-line. There is less of a coherent, social-cultural glue. The social fabric that wove the strands of cooperation, support and familiarity is irreparably eroded. Social problems become more rampant. Charter schools are gaining in popularity because they can admit students preferentially, operate with less red tape, and have a different set of accountabilities. This makes them attractive to many entrepreneurs.

Impoverished or Helped by Technology… In many ways, technology could lead to an impoverished environment for humans. Instead of physically going somewhere, we travel, see friends, compete, play video games and shop all   “virtual”. Why travel or shop around the world when you can have huge color plasma screens as big as a wall bringing you the world to your doorstep. Why learn a language when technology will be able to translate it for you? Why travel to meet people when you can teleconference with anyone in the world?  In many ways, all this technology means less work for the brain. Less work means less enrichment. Or, could it lead us to a whole new world of amazing positive changes??

Managed health care rules… One of the biggest changes in society is that health care is being managed by corporations which opt to choose the cheapest (and most profitable) solution for any given problem. This does not mean the choice will be made for the safest choice, the best long-term choice or the most ecological choice. As an example, millions are given meds but are not given the training for the cognitive skills and lifestyle changes that would eliminate or support the changes needed.

The meds mean less effort on the subject’s part. The meds change the brain, but there’s no enrichment.

Quality of life… There are dozens of factors which determine our quality of life. They include good schools, healthcare and access to resources. But the quality of the physical environment continues to deteriorate. Pollution is increasing, so are the number of toxic waste sites, the volume of traffic flow, the amount of airborne particles from pesticides, pollen and dust. Food no longer has the nutrition it used to have. Along our beaches, more and more of them are closed for contamination and pollution. Countless fish are either too toxic to eat or are endangered species. In our worst case, the environment takes back seat to more pollution and lower quality of life.

Social Changes… Many factors are influencing the changes of the social fabric in America. We are seeing the gradual (over the last two generations) altering of moral, ethical, social and spiritual qualities. There is more violence in the media, more profanity used by youth, increasing drug usage, fewer social bonding activities (aside from college sports) and more virtual activities. The social institutions that foster connectedness are weaker and the society is different because of it. The use of technology has been a huge factor. Do you think the change is overall good, or does it remain to be seen?

The Dream

“I have a dream,” Dr. Martin Luther King proclaimed.

Our dreams are essential for well-being. So many of us were both comforted and buoyed by Dr. King’s speeches. He helped all of us feel saner, more human, more fair and at the same time, hopeful of better days. We all have to carry dreams. Dreams give us a vector, an angle a direction for life. They propel us to higher ground. They give us a reason to struggle. They help us feel bigger than our sometimes petty selves. It is with that spirit, that the following dreams are offered. If we don’t at least consider them, the likelihood of them happening is pretty small.

Here are some of the same scenarios listed above, but with a more positive outcome to them.

Early childhood care strengthened… The best-case scenario would be that early childhood is treated as a “highly sensitive period” in life and that we allocate significant resources and expertise to strengthen available resources. As recommended in the Report to the Nation from the Commission on Children at Risk, we ought to empower service and organizations, philanthropists, scholars, families, seniors and state and federal governments to implement to create a climate where educational assets and mental and social health is optimized for the next generation.

School testing gets smarter… The types of both national and state testing violate most of what we know about what makes for success in life. Qualities like perseverance, optimism and emotional intelligence prove to be just as critical indicators of likely future success as a single test score. We ought to include more humane assessments that value integrity, concern for sustainable environments, teamwork, social conscience, creativity and love of learning. These are just as valuable as the ability to read. Nobel Laureate Archer Martin said it was his love of learning that kept him going; that ensured that his dyslexia never held him back.

Positive Curriculum changes… In a better world, school slow down the on-line components and retain the “in-person” social climate needed for real life. At school we would see physical education, more life skills, more career options offered and better arts curriculum. This would lead to more student satisfaction and eventually better support of public schools in America.

Managed health care evolves… In a positive scenario, many new options are introduced that empower the patient. Ideally, patients work with “health coaches” who provide on-going life style support. Offering them drugs is not empowering; it’s a temporary solution. Long-term, something’s got to change internally, because the brain will adapt to the drug and it will lose its effectiveness. Better in-person support will help change lives.

Widespread support for change in prisons rehab… As you saw earlier, many prisons are becoming aware of the rehab necessary for the real world. But to get the results done in the timely way, the programs have to be enriched. Ideally, we make the nationwide commitment to enrich the ex-cons to get them up to speed.

Greater positive changes in elder care homes… This is another area where changes are on the way. With good, visionary planning, more and more care centers and homes for elderly become resources to the community. Digital technology and a wealth of experience can bring out a lifetime of positive resources and use them in a fast-moving society.

We can all have dreams; and it doesn’t make them invalid if they are low in probability. That’s actually what makes them so sexy—they’re the winning numbers on the Powerball lottery or the perfect mate at e-harmony.com.  But instead of it being an artificial game, real lives are at stake. The lives to consider are those of you, your family and the next generation.

Dream on and do your part. The dream may be wild, but it’s still worth pursuing.

The Most Likely Scenario

You might have guessed it: the most likely scenario is somewhere in between the nightmare and the dream. Why? It’s difficult to gain consensus on policies that seem more extreme, whether they’re long-term beneficial or not. But the important thing about these scenarios is that they’re not decided yet—no one has cast these in stone.

You can influence the decision-makers. In fact, any leaning towards a positive scenario may be dependent on it. Without your overt support, we may find ourselves falling precipitously towards the negative worst-case scenario.

Vote!

Eric Jensen

photo credit: Marty.FM

Researchers Discover the Most Visible Ingredient that Matters Most in School Data on Teacher Quality (and how it ties in with brain research)

In September, I shared the research that told you that feedback was the top achievement-boosting variable. in learning. This month, we’ll tie together some brain research and student achievement data to reveal the most VISIBLE ingredient in better teaching.

First, the hint: It is consistently correlated with high achievement gains and it is one of the single biggest variables in teacher quality.

What The Research Tells Us

For years, realtors have tried to help sell prospective home buyers on the neighborhood with “good schools.” You may have had parents that fixate on picking the right school for their child. But the research shows it matters far more which teacher the child gets.

Teachers had THREE times as much influence on students’ academic development as the school they attended.

Many of the factors commonly assumed to be important to teachers’ effectiveness are NOT causal or even strongly correlated with student achievement. Although teachers are paid more for experience, education and training, those are not a guarantee of better student performance.

At lunchtime, look around your staff lounge. Some teachers are working miracles every day with their kids, while others (unintentionally) are actually slowing students down. Recent studies have found that students’ race, wealth, English proficiency or previous achievement level played LITTLE role in whether their teacher was effective.

At Madison Elementary, Principal Mrs. Cameron described teacher Emily Conroe as one of her most effective staff. Even mothers of her classroom kids gushed with enthusiasm.

“Ms. Conroe was an amazing teacher,” said Christy Johnson, whose daughter was in Conroe’s class a few years ago. “She really worked with her, socially and academically.”

But years of student test scores suggest otherwise (see references at the end of this article).

In the research analysis, Conroe, who teaches third grade, ranked among the BOTTOM 10% of elementary school teachers in boosting students’ test scores. On average, her students started the year at a high level — above the 80th percentile — but by the end had SUNK 11 percentile points in math and 5 points in English (the data is real, the names and school were changed).

The teacher said she was surprised and disappointed by her results, adding that her students did well on periodic assessments and that parents SEEMED well satisfied.

Listen everyone, there’s a new assessment tool being used and we’d all better get used to it. Around the country, more and more districts are paying attention to the “value-added data” that tells whether kids GAINED or LOST as measured against their grade level peers.

Highly effective teachers routinely accelerate students from below grade level to ABOVE in a single year. There is a MONSTER gap at every year’s end between students whose teachers were in the top 10% in effectiveness and the bottom 10%. The randomly lucky students consistently will be ranked 10-20 percentile points HIGHER in reading and 20-30 points HIGHER in math.

How can you get yourself and your staff up to speed?

In September, I shared the research that told you that feedback was the top achievement-boosting variable. But there’s another factor that keeps showing up with feedback.

What is the HUGE VISIBLE “partner secret” that will help kids do better in school? This is the one quality that shows up as the single biggest variable in teacher quality.

So, what is the quality that seems to matter most?

Let’s look at some data. First, you would consider 14,000 teachers to be a pretty good sample size. You might also consider that teaching in Los Angeles Unified School District would provide a HUGE diversity of teaching situations and conditions. And, you’re right.

So, I’ll quote from the study in which the researcher said, “The surest sign of a teacher’s effectiveness was the engagement of his or her students — something that often was obvious from the expressions on their faces.”

Well, there you have it.

Yes, it’s true that it’s good to engage your students cognitively, physically and emotionally, and they will learn better.

It turns out that there is a whole slew of evidence that shows that “involve don’t tell, body-based learning, changing states, action-based learning, cooperation, project-based learning and total physical response” is more than just brain-friendly instruction. It’s effective!

But, there’s more to it.

In the field of neuroscience, engagement is a bit slippery to quantify. You see, to the brain, a certain type of engagement is ideal: engagement with feedback. That’s the ultimate teaching “tool.”

CLASSROOM APPLICATIONS:

Cognitive engagement can be simple. Use curiosity and prediction activities. Activities that challenge students at the lower levels (K-2) include sorting, grouping, comparing, associating and linking activities. Fill in the blanks are better than nothing, but vary the type of activity so the students have to work for more than only recall. At the higher levels (grades 3-12), writing is one the best cognitive activities. Ask them to explain, defend, justify, contrast, describe, critique and speculate. Each of those has feedback built into them!

Emotional engagement has to do with orchestrating and allowing emotions to enhance the learning, rather than avoiding the triggering of them. This means use suspense, surprise and celebrations. Use competition and drama.

Physical engagement is critical too. Use total physical response, body-brain experiences. Touch and say, move and learn. Use relays, games, paired activities, recess, even movement at the seat. But whatever you do, keep them in action.

Social engagement is critical, too. Kids get bored with whatever social condition you use, if it’s overused. You must have a toolbox of social options. Use small group work, impromptu-paired activities, cooperative learning, student teaching, student lead energizers, and teamwork. Use individual work no more than 50% of the total time. And you can quote me on that!

Let’s cut to the chase: everything you do in your classroom is likely to have SOME effect on the brain. Brain-based education says, “Be purposeful about it.”

Now, go have some fun and make another miracle happen!

CITATIONS:
Appleton, J. J., Christenson, S. L. and Furlong, M. J. (2008), Student engagement with school: Critical conceptual and methodological issues of the construct. Psychology in the Schools, 45: 369–386.
Buddin, Richard & Zamarro, Gema, (2009). “Teacher qualifications and student achievement in urban elementary schools,” Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 103-115, September
Buddin, Richard & Zamarro, Gema, (2008) Teacher Quality, Teacher Licensure Tests, and Student Achievement. WR-555-IES May. Institute of Education Science
Buddin, Richard & Zamarro, Gema, (2009). “Teacher Effectiveness in Urban High Schools,” Working Papers 693, RAND Corporation Publications Department
Buddin, Richard & Zamarro, Gema, (2009). “Teacher Qualifications and Middle School Student Achievement,” Working Papers 671, RAND Corporation Publications Department
Davidson DJ, Indefrey P. Error-related activity and correlates of grammatical plasticity. Front Psychol. 2011;2:219.
Ladd, Gary and Dinella, Lisa (2009) Continuity and Change in Early School Engagement: Predictive of Children’s Achievement Trajectories From First to Eighth Grade. Journal of Educational Psychology Volume 101, Issue 1, Pages 190-206
Marks, Helen M., (2000) Student Engagement in Instructional Activity: Patterns in the Elementary, Middle, and High School Years. American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Spring, pp. 153-184.
Taylor J, Roehrig AD, Soden Hensler B, Connor CM, Schatschneider C. (2010) Teacher quality moderates the genetic effects on early reading. Science. Apr.23; 328 (5977): 512-4

photo credit: billaday

There’s a revolution taking place throughout education… a revolution sparked by the explosion of new knowledge about the human brain and our practical, urgent need to gain cutting edge, paradigm-rocking teaching survival skills for this new century. Now is your chance to be part of a rare event that brings together the worlds top experts on learning, the human brain, educational innovation, and you get to be there!

Discover the New “Neuroscience of Teaching”

That’s right. At Jensen Learning, we were the originators of the Learning Brain EXPO, and to our delight, other Brain EXPOs have popped up around the world. Now the first Hong Kong Mind/Brain EXPO is coming up we are excited to be a part of it!

Click here to register for the first Hong Kong Mind/Brain EXPO

How to Tell if it’s For You

You should attend… if you’re interested in the powerful impact and practical applications of brain research on learning, teaching, training, and education. The Expo is particularly valuable for:

• Supervisors
• Classroom teachers
• Staff developers
• Principals
• Support Staff
• Trainers

Can You Find Your Area of Interest Below?

Our speaker list is highlighted by the always-popular maverick psychiatrist Daniel Amen. Amen is the author of many best-sellers, and a true pioneer in brain imaging. His sessions sell out every single time. Join the EXPO to find out his latest research on maximizing your brain health. This is critical, cutting-edge information for you AND your loved ones!

Learn how to revolutionize your teaching and learning – and make it a place of learning, discovery, collaboration, excitement, and positive transformation, with brain-compatible pioneer, the original and legendary Eric Jensen. He’s written 26 books and he will show how you turn your classroom or school into a brain-compatible event that excites students every day.

But there’s more…

You’ll get a chance to hear the legendary Art Costa, founder of the Thinking Skills movement and Cognitive Coaching movement. He is a legend and you’ll get a rare chance to hear him before it’s too late.

When you attend, you’ll…

RECEIVE dozens of specific, practical tools and strategies that they can apply immediately including the power of nonverbals with

INTERACT with leading experts in neuroscience, learning, and the arts;

LEARN proven methods for boosting student learning, motivation, and achievement;

DISCOVER how to create and sustain positive change in their local school, district, and community;

DEVELOP a step-by-step action plan ready for immediate implementation back on the job;

INCREASE knowledge base by experiencing the cutting-edge of innovations in teaching and learning; and

SKYROCKET self-confidence as they develop greater expertise with brain-compatible approaches. Who else will be there?

What Can You Expect to Learn?

• How to promote intrinsic motivation
• The intricate role emotions play in the thinking and learning process
• How to get students emotionally engaged and excited about learning
• How emotions (our body’s ‘second nervous system’) influence ability to learn
• Why movement is absolutely critical for effective and enduring learning
• Why music and the arts build better brains
• Practical suggestions for immediately boosting student learning – and teacher success

This will be the biggest learning party in Southeast Asia. It is… February 2-5, 2012 in Hong Kong.

By the way – I know you’re already on the cutting edge – after all, you’re on my list! But I still need your help! Could you help me spread the word?

Would You Do Me a Small Favor?

Please – share your enthusiasm with others. Show this material with your peers, your principal, your colleagues, school board members – in short, with anyone and everyone who could also benefit from this once-in-a-lifetime learning, networking, and personal growth opportunity.

Give this to your colleagues and supervisor so that every teacher, principal, and staff member can find out about this amazing event. Just think – the more your peers are exposed to this brave new world of brain-compatible learning, the greater your opportunities for creating profound, sustainable, positive change throughout your particular universe of influence.

Plus, when you bring colleagues with you to the conference, you’ve created a built-in support system when you go home. So, spread the word. You’ll be doing your colleagues – and the young people whose lives they impact – a great service. And to help you apply what you’ve learned, stay for the last afternoon of the last day. Why?

You’ll come away with new lesson plans and a blueprint for weaving deep learning strategies into your teaching. Gain confidence and be inspired by knowing how to make the most of your new strategies.

It’s time to quit dreaming and start taking action. You can attend an amazing conference that will absolutely BLOW YOU AWAY! Here’s how to find out more and get registered…

Click here to get the details on the first Hong Kong Mind/Brain EXPO

Every now and then I do a survey. For example, five months ago we did a survey to find out what you thought about lesson planning. Two great things came from the survey. First, we learned a great deal from your thoughtful comments. We used your comments to put together something amazing for each of you. Therefore, the second goodie is that, although only one person (Ginna Myers) won the grand prize, everyone has won something of great value.

In fact, it might be the single most important gift I could ever give you… and it’s FREE (free is good)!

RESEARCH:

For years, I have pushed a more thoughtful approach to teaching that combines the power of emotions, movement, music and the development of cognitive capacity. But the challenge to use a more brain-based approach is in the proper planning, sequencing and execution of the processes.

Why is this planning so important?

If you’re doing the wrong thing in teaching, kids lose out and either they don’t change or they change for the worse. Kids can change more quickly than you ever thought. A recent study at the Max Planck Institute for Cognitive Thinking by Dr. Draganski and colleagues stated, “…we demonstrate significant gray matter volume increases in frontal and parietal brain areas following only two sessions of practice…” (Taubert, et al. 2010).

This is crazy good!

This stunning discovery that our brain can actually change its shape within days or weeks in response to certain mental and physical stimuli is dramatically different from the “old school” fixed mindset that change happened after months or years (or, not at all.) We now know that just doing complex thinking can literally add gray mass to the brain (Aydin, K., et al. 2007). But how do we get kids to be doing the complex thinking required for high performance learning?

To answer that, let’s compare the strategies used by the teaching experts (who get very high student scores) and the average or even novice teachers (who often lower the school averages.)

The results are surprising.

As you know, there’s a process and sequence for developing competency as a teacher. At most skill levels, lesson planning helped teachers do better. The lesson planning forces the mind to develop mental milestones and signposts for key learning steps. We know that students do better with a blend of formative assessment and thoughtful, planned instruction (Crévola, et al., 2006). Some evidence suggests that lesson planning is powerful for differentiating with special needs students (Spooner, et al. (2007). We know that lesson planning can help teachers become more reflective in their thinking about teaching (Ho, 1993).

Highly effective teachers (those whose kids averaged more than one (1) year of progress per calendar school year) typically internalized the teaching at such high levels that they needed less, not more planning (Borko, and Livingstone, 1990). It was only those at the highest level who did not use lesson planning. In short, teachers have to climb the “complexity ladder” for teacher training, first, in order to get so good that they eventually didn’t need planning. Music teachers, for example, needed less planning when they were at the top of their game (Brittin, 1995). Less experienced teachers actually needed more planning.

So why does more expertise lead to less planning? It seems counterintuitive.

Once a teacher internalizes all of the usual and known variables with the necessary sequences and steps, then and only then, can the highest level of teaching rise. I suspect that the highest performing teachers know the “basics” so well that their brain is only consciously processing all the freshest, fastest moving micro details that need quick responses. These experts are actually responding only to the immediate novelty of the day, and that’s less of a cognitive load.

The result? They can allocate less brainpower to planning and more brainpower to the spontaneous things that can make for an amazing lesson!

So, how can we get you to that high level? You can do it; you may just need a little help.

When you follow the protocol for change in the human brain, it happens faster and more consistently. The powerful recent discovery that a brain can change fast and even can alter its shape and size during a very short time in response to relevant, practiced, experience-dependent activities gave me an idea.

In order to get the kids to become better learners, we first have to develop this in our teacher’s brains. We’re not in the 20th century anymore. Teachers will need to be “literally” up to speed. Teachers today need to sort, analyze, process and sequence daily lessons faster and more thoughtfully than ever before. This process is learnable, doable and it’s important.

The training to acquire this lesson-planning skill will induce experience-dependent structural plasticity in your (the teacher) brain. Let me repeat that: this process will lead to structural changes in your brain. You will be different; but, if you’re the same teacher this year as you were last year, your kids just lost out. You have to get better.

Let’s review.

In order for your students to get better, you’ll have to get better. This process is called brain-based, experience-dependent structural plasticity. It develops with relevant, long-term practice. You’re about to retrain your brain to think faster, and more thoughtfully. You’re about to learn how to analyze, sort and develop spectacular lesson plans in ten minutes or less.

In short, things are about to get very, very good for your brain.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: (Plus, an Amazing FREE Gift)

I’ll tell you about your gift in a moment. But first, you’ll need some background.

We all know there is increasing pressure on all teachers for accountability. We also know that there is evidence that lesson planning usually leads to better quality lessons. Our survey showed us that you would do more lesson planning, but it takes too much time. What if there was a way to do lesson planning much quicker without compromising quality?

The solution is simple but profound.

We have listened to your input and come up with a way to help you build a fresh, research-based lesson plan (as a teacher, principal or staff developer) in ten minutes or less.

No kidding.

However, you are not likely to do it within this 10 minute time frame on your first try, any more than you would have gotten to the expert level on Donkey Kong, Pac-Man or Angry Birds on the first try. Your brain has to learn how to pay attention, process, strategize, and remember “on the fly” very quickly. That takes a little time.

It’ll be the same thing with the Ten Minute Lesson Plan. At first, you’ll feel a bit rushed. No worries… I’ll let you edit your work and clean it up at the end. There’ll be a timer to pace you as you work through the screen prompts.

This is the first lesson planner that is scientifically designed to change your brain. The capacity of your brain to change (from repeated, relevant input) is called plasticity. You’ll learn to pay attention to more relevant factors in planning, you’ll learn how to focus, to get succinct, type fast and then, move on.

Yes, it’s true; you can learn to develop amazing lessons in just ten minutes. But I have to admit one thing: though the site is up and running, it’s far from perfect. You’ll be the “beta testing” group. We need your feedback. If you love it, tell us. If there are gaping holes in the quality, we hope you will tell us that, too. My goal is to make this the most amazing lesson planning site ever.

With your help, it can happen.

Would you please try it out? Thank you very much. Once you do try it, go ahead and bookmark it. It’s at: www.10minutelessonplans.com

Your partner in learning,

Eric Jensen
CEO, Jensen Learning
Brain-Based Education

P.S. Did I already mention that it’s free? Hope you enjoy the gift!

REFERENCES:
Aydin, K, Ucar, A, Oguz, K., Okur, O., Agayev, A, Unal, Z., Yilmaz, S., Ozturk, C. (2007) Increased gray matter density in the parietal cortex of mathematicians: a voxel-based morphometry study. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. Nov-Dec; 28 (10): 1859-64
Borko, H., & Livingstone, C. (1990). Cognition and improvisation: Differences in mathematics instruction by expert and novice teachers. American Educational Research Journal, 26, 473–498.
Brittin, R. (1995) Preservice and Experienced Teachers’ Lesson Plans for Beginning Instrumentalists. Journal of Research in Music Education Spring 2005 vol. 53 no. 1 26-39.
Crévola, C. Hill, P., & Fullan, M. (2006) Critical learning instructional path: Assessment for learning in action. Orbit, 36(2), 10–14.
Draganski B, Gaser C, Kempermann G, (2006) Temporal and spatial dynamics of brain structure changes during extensive learning. J Neurosci; 26:6314 –17
Ho, B. (1993) Using lesson plans as a means of reflection. ELT J (1995) 49 (1): 66-71.
Spooner, F., et al. (2007) Effects of Training in Universal Design for Learning on Lesson Plan Development. Remedial and Special Education March/April vol. 28 no. 2 108-116.
Taubert, M, Draganski B, Anwander, A, Müller, K, Horstmann, A, Villringer, A, Ragert, P. (2010) Dynamic properties of human brain structure: learning-related changes in cortical areas and associated fiber connections. J Neurosci. Sept.1; 30 (35): 11670-7

What should your priorities be this year? From a personal standpoint, managing your health through good food, exercise, and stress management are pretty smart paths to follow. After all, if you’re not at your best, both you and your students miss out.

From a professional standpoint, ensuring that students become strong learners should be a top priority.

Since you don’t have time for every idea on earth, what factors will support your student’s growth the most? For now, we’ll focus on just one of the top five factors that drive student achievement. The study we draw from is grounded in work from several thousand teachers, so the sample size is impressive.

Focusing on what matters most is one sure way to “disaster-proof” your teaching.

PART ONE: Research

A human being is born less able to cope on its own than any other mammal. However, this provides the brain with extraordinary flexibility to adapt to its environment. The method it uses is a monster’s appetite for environmental adaption based on experience. Yet, I’ve always said that our brain is primarily a “gist processor.” That means that we are more interested in being effective (goal acquisition) than we are being efficient, being a deep thinker, or knowing a lot of background. In the classroom, this means that most kids (unless we shape their brains differently) would much rather get quirky headlines, YouTube clips, and do activities all day.

To become effective, the brain relies on an exquisite collection of feedback processors.

It is the feedback on our experiences that help us correct our senses, thoughts, and behaviors. Learning which action leads to the most beneficial outcome in a given situation is one of the central components of adaptive behavior. But, if you offer just content all day our brains “hit the wall” pretty fast and learning goes DOWN (Russell, et al., 1984). It takes time to process the learning, so that’s another limiter (Klingberg, 2000). Some have found that it’s good to slow the pace (Wood, 2002).

This suggests that teaching “too much, too fast” is a bad idea. But, it also suggests that what kids do get, they may get wrong.

This leads us to why the classroom factor that has the greatest impact on classroom achievement is (drum roll please)… feedback (Hattie, 2009).

Many of the original studies on feedback were done using subjects in gambling paradigms, where mistakes can cost and better behaviors can bring rewards. However, recent indications suggest that the dopaminergic system (the good feelings of a reward) is also involved in tasks in which only cognitive feedback is provided (Daniel and Pollmann, 2010). If this is true, there ought to be evidence in which classroom feedback in the form of task-only (vs. teacher directed) excellence significantly raises the learning.

In fact, the factor that has the greatest effect on student achievement is on-going feedback. The type, duration, form, intensity, and developmental appropriateness of feedback could fill volumes. But on a raw level, any thoughtful feedback that students get in class is far better than none at all. This helps you understand WHY nearly any feedback-driven strategy, even quizzes, will support greater achievement (Logan et al., 2011).

PART TWO: Applications

Here are some guidelines for enhancing your results from using more feedback.

Generally, feedback is either positive to affirm or corrective to illuminate a mistake. Learning from mistakes speeds up changes in the brain. Getting affirmation for right answers helps build confidence and love of learning. These two approaches result in two different outcomes.

The question is, which is more important in your teaching moment: acting for either the general situation (e.g. correcting a test for the whole class) or for a specific student that you work with?

Those are ongoing decisions to make. As an example, in language learning, when students get the correct answer after an incorrect response, initial feedback increased final retention by as much as 494%! However, feedback after the correct responses were given made little difference either immediately or at a delay (Pashler, et al., 2005). In general, give feedback that describes the content, not the person. For example, make it specific and say, “Put the semicolon right after THIS type of phrase, not that type.”

How can you give students more feedback? The following are some practical suggestions you were waiting for.

Use Gallery walks, have students build a physical model, provide games with competition, implement using an author’s chair, small group discussion, use audio or video feedback, peer editing, student presentations, hypothesis building and testing, have students use a checklist, engage them in brainstorming, compare and contrast work, pre-testing, interim quizzes, partner quizzes, and the use of a rubric. Here’s a suggestion: it is far better to use lower-quality, less detailed feedback constantly, than to give students more detailed feedback weekly or monthly.

One last thing: each of the authors of the studies used above would like to offer this caveat: Not every study has been done with every subject, with every student age, or under every condition. Be perceptive and know your students and the situation. You can get great results, but keep after the big mission and don’t get hung up the details.

Your partner in learning,

Eric Jensen
CEO, Jensen Learning
Brain-Based Education

CITATIONS:
Daniel, R. and Pollman, S. (2010) Comparing the Neural Basis of Monetary Reward and Cognitive Feedback during Information-Integration Category Learning. The Journal of Neuroscience, January 6, 30(1): 47-55.
Hattie, J. A. (1992a). Towards a model of schooling: A synthesis of meta-analyses. Australian Journal of Education, 36, 5–13.
Hattie, J. A. (1993a). Measuring the effects of schooling. SET, 2, 1–4.
Hattie, J. A. (1993b, July). What works: A model of the teaching-learning interaction. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Australian Teacher Education Association, Fremantle, Australia.
Hattie, J.A C. (2002). What are the attributes of excellent teachers? In Teachers make a difference: What is the research evidence? (pp. 3-26). Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
Hattie J (2009) Visible Learning; a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement London; Routledge
Klingberg, T. (2000). Limitations in information processing in the human brain: neuroimaging of dual task performance and working memory tasks. Prog Brain Res., 126, 95-102.
Logan JM, Thompson AJ, Marshak DW. (2011) Testing to enhance retention in human anatomy. Anat Sci Educ. Jul 29.
Pashler H, Cepeda NJ, Wixted JT, Rohrer D. (2005) When does feedback facilitate learning of words? J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. Jan; 31(1): 3-10.
Petty, G. (2006) Evidence-based Teaching; a practical approach Cheltenham; Nelson Thornes.
Russell IJ, Hendricson WD, Herbert RJ. (1984) Effects of lecture information density on medical student achievement. J Med Educ. Nov; 59 (11 Pt 1): 881-9.
Wood, C. (2002, Mar). Changing the pace of school: slowing down the day to improve the quality of learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 83(7): 545-50.
photo credit: Pete Reed

Let’s start off on the right foot and destroy a myth.

Myth: IQ Cannot Be Changed… Students are Fixed the Way They Are

Completely false! Brains can change! In fact, the worse students are academically, the greater the upside. There are no credible studies (yet) of raising IQ in kids with high IQ already. But many, many studies show that kids with an IQ in the 70-100 range can have it raised. In study after study, we find that every single component of intelligence can be raised.

In one study (Mackey, et al., 2011) children aged 7 to 9 from poverty participated in one of two cognitive training programs for 60 minutes/day and 2 days/week, for a total of 8 weeks. Children in the reasoning group improved substantially (an average increase of 10 points in Performance IQ.) By contrast, children in the speed group improved substantially in different areas. Counter to widespread mythology, these results indicate that both fluid reasoning and processing speed are modifiable by purposeful training.

What about kids from poverty; can you raise their IQ? Yes, you can. In fact, among the poor, the heritability of IQ is far less than among middle and upper income students. The heritability of IQ among kids from low-income families from their parents is less than 10%. It’s over 60% for middle and upper income families. In other words, don’t blame the parents for a poor child’s low school performance. Before age four, the caregivers ARE the dominant influence. But once in kindergarten, school is the dominant influence.

Kids will spend nearly 13,000 hours in school from K-12. This means the IQ of the parents of poor kids is less of a factor than the environment you create at school. That’s right; it means your staff has NO excuses for students to underperform.

INSIGHT: You can change your student’s brain in the following ways: 1) strengthen working memory, 2) speed up processing activity, 3) boost patience and deferred gratification, 4) attentional skills, 5) social-emotional skills, and 6) even boost intelligence!

But, these skills all require some time and savvy, purposeful teaching. You can embed every one of the skills listed above into any subject you teach. For example, to support working memory a teacher can give brief directions to her students, then immediately ask students to repeat the directions to a neighbor.

Now this activity by itself won’t make a miracle. It takes sustained purposeful practice. But the point is, this can be embedded in any class, every day, with all your students. But how do you embed the practice of the skills? Follow the rules!

WHAT TO DO: Make this year more purposeful. Smart targeted teaching that focuses on capacity-building will help raise student performance. Any of the following activities can improve thinking, working memory and processing.

• Have students repeat the directions to a task out loud to a partner.
• Speak a sentence, ask kids to write it verbatim.
• Do more “Simon-Sez” activities.
• Do total physical response tasks like touching, and saying “Shoulders and toes, eyes and knees.” Learn to do it faster, then add variations.

To maximize skill-building, get buy-in. If the brain’s not buying into it, it’s not changing. The task must be coherent to the student. There must be a way for them to make mistakes and alter performance based on learning from the mistake. They must do the practice for 5-60 minutes a day, for 3-5X per week.

Any of the rules above can be broken or altered, but you’ll compromise the effectiveness of the practice. Make this year a great year; build your student’s brain!

Eric Jensen

ALZHEIMER’S UPDATE: Last post was on Alzheimer’s disease and the latest treatments for it. We had a huge response! This month, two additional items are worth mentioning. First, another quality, peer-reviewed study (just published) showed that the treatment I revealed to you (Galantamine) is even more effective than earlier research suggested. For each year of treatment with Galantamine, the risk of ending up in a nursing home was reduced by 31%. That’s amazing! Galantamine is available at Life Enhancement by clicking here. If it seems expensive, so are nursing homes. By the way, I never have, and never will, take any compensation for any product I recommend.

Second, some new research suggests that there may be a strong link between herpes simplex virus (very common) and Alzheimer’s disease. Two effective, safe treatments would be: 1) daily dosage of 350 mg of BHT or 2) lysine, both inhibitors of herpes. Both are available at health food stores. As I have said, I am not a doctor, nor am I prescribing anything. The research suggests BHT and lysine both suppress herpes, which has been recently implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. Again, I present the science, you make the decisions.

Research Sources of Myth Busting:
Ball K, Edwards JD, Ross LA. (2007) The impact of speed of processing training on cognitive and everyday functions. J Gerontology B Psychology Science Soc Sci.Jun;62 Spec No 1:19-31.
Bergman Nutley S, Söderqvist S, Bryde S, Thorell LB, Humphreys K, Klingberg T. (2011) Gains in fluid intelligence after training non-verbal reasoning in 4-year-old children: a controlled, randomized study. Dev Sci. May; 14 (3): 591-601.
Ceci, SJ (1991) How much does schooling influence general intelligence and its cognitive components? A reassessment of the evidence. Developmental Psychology, Vol 27(5), Sept. 703-722.
Draganski B, Gaser C, Busch V, Schuierer G, Bogdahn U, May A (2004) Neuroplasticity: changes in grey matter induced by training. Nature 427:311-312.
Duyme, M., Dumaret, A. C., & Tomkiewicz, S. (1999, July 20). How can we boost IQs of “dull children”? A late adoption study. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 96(15), 8790-8794.
Harden KP, Turkheimer E, Loehlin JC. Genotype by environment interaction in adolescents’ cognitive aptitude. Behav Genet. 2007 Mar; 37(2): 273-83.
Jonides, J. (2008) “Musical Skill and Cognition” Pgs. 11-16. In “How Arts Training Influences Cognition” in “Learning, Arts, and the Brain: The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition” Organized by: Gazzaniga, M., Edited by Asbury, C. and Rich, B. Published by Dana Press. New York/Washington, D.C. web access: www.dana.org.
Mackey AP, Hill SS, Stone SI, Bunge SA (2011) Differential effects of reasoning and speed training in children. Dev Sci. May; 14(3):582-90.
Polley DB, Steinberg EE, Merzenich MM. (2006) Perceptual learning directs auditory cortical map reorganization through top-down influences. J Neurosci. May 3;26(18):4970-82.
Turkheimer, E., Haley, A., Waldron, M., D’Onofrio, B., and Gottesman, I. I. 2003. Socioeconomic status modifies heritability of IQ in young children. Psychol. Sci. 14, 623-628).

ALZHEIMER’S CITATIONS:
Mori I. (2011) Spontaneous molecular reactivation’ of herpes simplex virus type 1 in the brain as a pathogenic mechanism of Alzheimer’s disease. Med Hypotheses. Aug.
Rubey RN. Could lysine supplementation prevent Alzheimer’s dementia? A novel hypothesis. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2010 Oct 27;6:707-10.
Scarpini E, Bruno G, Zappalà G, Adami M, Richarz U, Gaudig M, Jacobs A, Schäuble B. (2011) Cessation versus Continuation of Galantamine Treatment after 12 Months of Therapy in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease: A Randomized, Double Blind, Placebo Controlled Withdrawal Trial. J Alzheimers Disease. May 23.

photo credit: Toni Blay

Stressed? Learn From the Zebra!

Learn How You Can Cope in a World Packed with Unpredictability

In every city and state I visit lately, there’s the smell of something burning in the air. No, it’s not the usual summer brush fires. It’s the slashing and burning of city, county, state and federal budgets. It is common to hear of 5-15% of staff being given the dreaded equivalent of the “You’re fired, here’s your pink slip”. The stress levels are off the charts and there’s anger, denial and resentment. If this applies to you or your colleagues, lean in and read closely. If it does not apply to you today, it may apply in the near future.

Usually this newsletter is for teaching tips. For the next couple of months, let’s take the opportunity to look after you. There are some very brain-smart coping strategies to help you and your colleagues deal with these issues. One of them comes from a zebra.

The others are…

Understanding Stress

Most teachers define stress as, “I’m not exactly sure what it is, but I know when it happens and what it feels like.” Stress researchers define it as a mind and body reaction to adverse stimuli resulting from a perception of a loss of control (Kim and Diamond 2002). This suggests that stress embodies both the stimulus and the resulting reaction in our body.

In short, the stress in our life is not “out there.” There are no stressful jobs, no stressful people, nor any stressful situations. There is a very real response in you. But if you tell yourself a job is stressful or a person is stressful, your life will always be miserable. You have more “say-so” over your life than you think.

There are typically three ways we feel stress: the good stress (e.g. excitement, challenge, novelty), the intense stress known as acute (which is draining or even traumatic) and the ongoing and unforgiving stress known as chronic. The last two categories of stress are evil for the brain.

Why is that?

For much of our lives, we thought of education as a position of lifelong employment with a reasonable amount of security. This helped us have more certainty about our lives. But everything’s changed. No, really: read this until you really, really get it. Stop expecting things to be like they were years ago. The rules have changed!

The federal government is broke. The more money they print to “juice up” the economy, the more inflation we have. The more they fund budgets to maintain jobs, the less our paycheck is worth.

Most of the city and state budgets are in a dangerous freefall. Unemployment and under-employment means there is much less incoming revenue to pay the same bills. Those working with budgets simply don’t have the money to pay everyone anymore. Support services and key support personnel are being cut. And it will likely get worse, much worse. Since you may not have any control over this process, stress is a possibility… but, you do always have a choice: be unhappy or adapt.

Remember, stress is the body’s response (it feels real) to the perception (everyone has a different perception of the world) of an adverse person or situation in our life. In other words, it’s not what happens to us, it’s how we respond. Now, I don’t mean to trivialize anyone’s losses, but bad things do happen to all of us. All of us will lose loved ones in our lifetime, we’ll all have health issues, we all get money problems and sometimes things can get ugly.

But you do always have a choice: be unhappy or adapt.

When lasting (chronic) stress occurs in your brain, that’s very bad. Experiments have demonstrated that exposure to chronic or acute stress puts you at risk for toxic brain adversity. It actually shrinks neurons in the brain’s frontal lobes–an area that includes the prefrontal cortex and is responsible for such functions as working memory (Cook and Wellman, 2004). We also know that chronic or acute stress is associated with a loss of neurogenesis (Gould et al., 1998) and worse social skills. But it gets worse, we know you’re likely to become depressed, gain weight, lose memory capacity and get pretty cranky (McEwen 2005).

In addition, the policymakers and the taxpayers want greater accountability from teachers on student test scores, but with less support for the process. This is akin to saying, “The beatings will continue until morale improves.” Yes, this uncertainty is very tough on our brain, which depends on a certain amount of consistency for our daily sanity. But we’re just at the beginning of the change process. And, the long-term trend is not our friend. Our Congress seems incapable of fixing our economic issues. There is only one choice for you to make: adapt or be miserable. Do not count on it getting better in the short run. That means if you can’t change the bad news, what can you do?

It’s choice time. If you want to choose NOT to be miserable, how does one adapt?

Let’s go back to the zebra.

Stanford professor, Robert Sapolsky wrote a brilliant book, “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.” Like the zebra in the Serengeti, we get stressed when our lives are threatened (either a hungry lion or a job loss, it’s the same.) But zebras don’t get ulcers (Sapolsky, 2001) and humans do get them. Why?

Zebras don’t worry until they have to, then they run for their life like crazy. Here’s their two-part formula: if you CAN do something about an event, don’t complain or brood over it; take strong evasive action.

There are two solutions to the issue of chronic or acute stress in your life. Each goes at the issue from a different angle, either prevention or intervention. You do always have a choice: be unhappy or adapt.

Let’s begin with prevention.

First, identify what you do and don’t have control over, then take control of what you can. The problem for your brain is that there’s no virtual Post-it® hanging on everything in our life that says, “You can control this,” or, “Not under your control.” Your brain gets confused because your brain has no automated simple way to identify the differences. That means we can muster up stress over nearly anything! But with the zebras, the nearby lions mean acute stress and no lion means “life is good.” So, 95% of the zebra’s life is good.

It’s time to begin by identifying what you do and don’t have control of.

Every single day, when something starts to feel stressful, remember this: either you have some influence over the situation or you don’t. If you do have influence, take immediate, strong, evasive action (like the zebra.) That means, either gather information, talk to the person who can do something about it, prepare a contingency plan or make a list. In short, either do something or you’ll have to adapt and “let it go.”

How do you just “let it go” and stay sane? Use the “One week” rule: if this won’t be a big deal a week from now, drop it. It’s time to adapt and change your perception of the event or person. Say to yourself, “They’re having a bad day.” or “I can survive; I always have in the past.” Life is short. If it will still be an issue a week from now, take action. In short, let go of what you can’t control.

You do always have a choice: be unhappy or adapt.

What about interventions? What do you do if things will be a big deal in a week? What if you do need to take strong action? Just two things will matter: your capacity (resources) to deal with the problem and your will (degree of intention) to solve it.

Are you at risk of a job loss?

Start with building your capacity to deal with the stressor. But how do you strengthen your brain’s capacity to deal with life?

Keep positive routines in your life intact. Eat good food; take your omega 3s, COQ10, Vitamin B, C and D daily. Be sure to work out and get sleep. This helps your brain to stay capable.

Avoid hurting your brain. Limit alcohol to a maximum of one drink per day and get six or more hours of sleep every day.

Stay connected. You need friends and family as much as ever. Make it a personal promise to call (or talk to in person) at least two people that you love or enjoy spending time around every day.

Make a plan with a daily checklist. Write down at least 5 items a day that will move things forward. Put on the list the things that will help reduce the effects of a potential job loss. If there’s a certainty of job loss, start the research of places that are hiring. Redo your resume. Add to your checklist possible alternatives that broaden your employment options. You may be able to find work outside of education. Over 25 of the major US Corporations are hiring daily. Widen your networking circle. Attend a Toastmaster’s meeting and consider joining the group. There are always choices.

Do at least two of the five things from your list every day. Life goes on, and you can survive. You ONLY need to regulate what you have control over. You can alter your strategy, your attitude or your effort. In short, your only variables to make good things happen are: 1) more effort, 2) better effort, and 3) to shift your attitude about what you have.

We still have to make the big choice: be miserable or adapt. Brain-based approaches say, “Be purposeful about life” Now, go discover choices and make another miracle happen!

Eric Jensen

CITATIONS:
Cook, S.C., & Wellman, C.L. (2004). Chronic stress alters dendritic morphology in rat medial prefrontal cortex. Journal of Neurobiology, 60, 236-248.
Encinas JM, Vashtokari A, Enikolopov G (2006) Fluoxetine targets early progenitor cells in the adult brain. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103:8233-8238.
Gage FH (2000) Structural plasticity: cause, result or correlate of depression. Biol Psychiatry 48:713-714. Goldsteinn DS, McEwen B. (2001) Allostasis, Homeostasis, and the Nature of Stress. Stress 5:55-58.
Gould E, Tanapat P, McEwen BS, Flugge G, Fuchs E (1998) Proliferation of granule cell precursors in the dentate gyrus of adult monkeys is diminished by stress. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 95:3168-3171.
Malberg JE (2004) Implications of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in antidepressant action. J Psychiatry Neurosci 29:196-205.
McEwen BS (2000) The neurobiology of stress: from serendipity to clinical relevance. Brain Res 886:172-189.
McEwen BS. (2005) Glucocorticoids, depression, and mood disorders: structural remodeling in the brain. Metabolism. May;54(5 Suppl 1):20-3.
Santarelli L, Saxe M, Gross C, Surget A, Battaglia F, Dulawa S, Weisstaub N, Lee J, Duman R, Arancio O, Belzung C, Hen R (2003) Requirement of hippocampal neurogenesis for the behavioral effects of antidepressants. Science 301:805-809.
Sapolsky, (2001) Why zebras don’t get ulcers. Freeman Press, New York.
Thomas RM, Peterson DA (2003) A neurogenic theory of depression gains momentum. Mol Interv 3:441-444.
Zelena D, Haller J, Halasz J, Makara GB (1999) Social stress of variable intensity: physiological and behavioral consequences. Brain Res Bull 48:297-302.

photo credit: Thomas Hawk

Let’s explore how you can boost test scores by making small interventions and simple changes at the last moment.

First, a simple disclaimer: I don’t support 95% of all the testing being done on kids. I love accountability, but not crazy-making testing that gives self-serving data; data that helps you do better on the next test, instead of in real life where the tests should be targeting. Having said that, things are what they are. Let’s focus on the here and now.

Here is a plan that will help you maximize testing for your students.

Research: Recent Discovery on Testing

You have only five variables you can tweak in the days, hours and minutes before the actual test time. The biggest variable is how well kids have learned what will be on the test. If you haven’t taken care of that variable all year long, you have fewer options. It’s too late to add much content when you get real close to test time.

The single best thing you can do in the weeks and days before the testing is…have students take tests. Testing produced better overall recall than did restudying (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006). Give them small chunks of “mock tests” that will mimic the real ones. But the research gets a bit more complicated from here out.

What about getting feedback on the mock tests?

When tests are NOT accompanied by feedback, some items (i.e., those that were not correctly retrieved) might not benefit from testing (Pashler et al., 2005).

This tells you feedback has two sides: if you get it wrong, you NEED feedback. If it’s right, it’s less important to get feedback.

The debriefing should begin as a social event with the teacher and classmates involved. Then shift it to a personal assignment. Let students improve their “mock” test cores with a reflective test analysis. Here, students write about each question they got wrong: 1) what was their approach, 2) how they came up with the wrong answer, and 3) what they would do differently next time. Give students partial credit for each debriefed corrected answer. This empowers students by helping them become more thoughtful tests takers and reduces their stress by putting more of the process in their control.

Read carefully to what a team of cognitive psychologists says;

“Information that has been tested will be remembered better over time than information that has been restudied. This test-induced benefit is apparently stronger when repeated tests over the same information are provided. These results suggest that tests should be utilized often in educational contexts to maximize retention of information over long time periods.” (Carpenter, et al., 2008, page 446).

Encourage (even mandate) the asking of questions in the weeks and days leading up to the test. Students who are struggling academically are rarely asking the most questions in class. Researchers have found that low-achieving students are often the most reluctant to seek assistance and that a negative or fearful perception of “help seeking” is to blame (Ryan, et al. 1998).

The Ryan study involved 500 students and 25 teachers in 63 sixth-grade math classes throughout 10 Michigan middle schools. The researchers found that low-achieving students tend to perceive question asking as a sign of inability and associate it with feeling “dumb.” Conversely, high achievers with greater confidence are less likely to worry about what others think and tend to focus on the benefits of seeking help, notes the study.

Advise learners to take inventory of their projected goals, time-management skills, and study habits; and to reorganize them appropriately. Students who give their academic concerns top priority and allow ample time for studying (including exam preparation) often perform best (Yaworski, 1998). If help is needed in establishing a personal study schedule, or if chronic procrastination persists, encourage learners to seek the advice of a guidance counselor or related professional.

Next, in the days coming up to the testing, students often get stressed (the teachers are, of course, totally relaxed!)

The three best ways to get kids more relaxed are each about control (it’s the counterbalance to stress.) First, help them take more control over the process of making choices for when, what type of, and where to prepare. (You pre-select the options.) For example, let them choose which content sections they want to prep for first. Second, teach them self-regulation strategies such as slow deep breathing to relax. Third, teach them how to reframe the testing experience, to help them be more in charge of it. Tell your students, “Tests are a school’s way to assess their schooling success. We want to find out what we’re doing well and what we need to do differently. The tests tell us what changes we can make to develop your brain as best as possible.”

PART TWO: Applications and Contributions

Provide learners with short quizzes that ultimately lead up to the final exam. Research by Bruce Tuckman (1998) reported that students, rated as procrastinators, performed 12 percent better on final examinations when quizzed subsequent to completing each text chapter. In fact, the known procrastinators outperformed non-procrastinating students who were asked to only outline each text chapter as a homework assignment. Engage anxious students in peer study groups composed of more confident learners.

Here are the five variables that run the mind/brain at test time: 1) context: the location and circumstances, 2) mindset: how students approach the test and think about their own capacity, 3) brain health: sleep, nutrients and liquids in the brain, 4) the strength of working memory, and 5) capacity to handle stress.

Let’s walk through the variables at test time. First, do your best to match the study/rehearsal location with the testing location. At the least, do one review in the exact same location as the test. Second, remind kids that this is a test to find out how well schools are doing in helping students learn; it’s actually NOT how smart a kid is! The mindset for kids should be, “This is just a temporary reading on things. Brains can change and get better!” Third, brain health is enhanced by a good night’s sleep; that matters a great deal. As far as foods go, to take tests well, the brain needs a constant supply of energy (e.g. glucose, oxygen, nutrients.) Best breakfast would be either complex carbos (oatmeal) or proteins (eggs, breakfast meats and yogurt.) Avoid: fruits, fruit juices (fructose not helpful) and stay away from carbos that surge the sugar (e.g. processed cereals, pastries and breads) (Ross et al., 2009).

To support working memory, the brain training program has to be done over a period of weeks, so there’s only one thing you can do the morning of the test: enhance dopamine levels. Do that through fun, physical activities, brisk marching, energizers or celebrations. Finally, teach kids how to handle the stress that often comes with the test. Instruct learners how to relax and breathe with confidence. And well before tests, encourage learners to relax away from the classroom with soothing, meditative music, walking, or quiet meditation while prepping.

Tests are here to stay. Let’s go get some high scores this year.

CITATIONS:
Carpenter SK, Pashler H, Wixted JT, Vul E. The effects of tests on learning and forgetting. Mem Cognit. 2008 Mar;36(2):438-48.
Pashler, H., Cepeda, N. J., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2005). When does feedback facilitate learning of words? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 31, 3-8.
Ryan, Allison; Margaret Gheen; Carol Midgley. 1998. Why do some students avoid asking for help? An examination of the interplay among students’ academic efficacy, teachers’ social-emotional role, and the classroom goal structure. Journal of Educational Psychology. 90(3): 528-35.
Roediger, H. L., III, & Karpicke, J. D. (2006a). The power of testing memory: Basic research and implications for educational practice. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 181-210.
Roediger, H. L., III, & Karpicke, J. D. (2006b). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17, 249-255.
Ross AP, Bartness TJ, Mielke JG, Parent MB. (2009) A high fructose diet impairs spatial memory in male rats. Neurobiol Learn Mem. Oct;92(3):410-6
Tuckman, B. W. l998. Using tests as an incentive to motivate procrastinators to study. Journal of Experimental Education, Winter, 66(2): 141-147.
Yaworkski, Joann. 1998. Why do students succeed or fail: A case study comparative. Journal of College Reading and Learning, Fall, 29(1): 57-58.

photo credit: confidence, comely.