5 Ways to Dramatically Improve Your School

This summer, I have continued to visit many schools. The funny thing is nobody ever asks me how I would improve their school. It seems like leadership is pretty sure they are “checking the right boxes” because we need “such and such.” This month’s blog post begins a 5-month reveal of my top 5 all-time best ways to improve your school. Ready to get your mind boggled? This post starts you with our first solution option.

Background

Here is this month’s insight. Staff often feel as if they never have enough time with students. Yet evidence tells us that amazing results are possible in far less time. Unfortunately, most educators are a bit short in the brain-based learning department. Why?

Expertise is time-consuming, and few have the time for deep dives. How about a ‘lifeline’ instead? This month’s lifeline will be a case study instead of our usual format. But it begins with just one essential background item.

For a moment, consider what a basic model of brain-based learning might look like. Beginning with step 1 (cellular response) to the learning environment, all the way through to testing. I’ll call my rough draft the “Nucleus Nine.” Your brain’s ideal learning model for school might look like this:

1. Cultivate a positive environment (physical, high expectations, encouraging, cultural acceptance, temperature, emotions, hope, safety, etc.) Every cell in your body is either in growth mode or defensive mode. To optimize learning, allow your 80 trillion cells to be on your side… in growth mode.
2. Foster learner agency (mindsets, skills, identity, camaraderie, systems, habits, support, and vitality.) Most learners need support in “running their own brain.” Ensure they get what they need to succeed.
3. Activate the brain (prior knowledge, expose biases, choose the learning, boost physical energy with energizers, movement, or PE.) This process helps use prior understandings and erases misconceptions to grow. Movement and social contact bump up dopamine, noradrenaline, cortisol, and serotonin.
4. Create hooks to foster curiosity, anticipation, and gain buy-in. Brains are wired to take action for survival and relevancy. Make the learning attractive to both staff and students.
5. Start with a new or existing platform (or structure) such as a schema, graphic organizer, story, prior learning, a video, or analogy. Brains don’t do ‘random’ learning very well. By using a structure to hold and share the learning, there’s a better chance for meaning-making, coherence, and momentum.
6. Begin content with concrete ideas. Make them easy to remember as mental signposts. Most learners can hold 2-3 items without memory practice. Once the students have exposure to those concrete ideas, you can begin building 8-12’ content chunks. Your template for learning has begun.
7. Enhance, elaborate, deepen & shape the new learning w/ discussion, error-correction, graphics, gesturing, re-organizing (from a memory to a graphic, or from text to a story), concrete examples, quizzes, self-explanation (explain the content to a first-grade version of you), and meaning-making. Keep this segment relevant.
8. Consolidation, interleaving, and spacing. Consolidation is time away from the new learning (about 10 minutes for every 20 minutes of content.) Interleaving occurs when you engage different ideas or problem types than the prior versions of the same problem. Energizers, physical games, or slow stretching can fill the ten minutes. Any additional content must have a twist to avoid ‘contamination’ or disruption in the synaptic process that’s strengthening the earlier learned content. For example, students might learn a math principle and then sit back and listen to a YouTube story of the person who invented that concept 200 years ago.
9. Retrieval and error-correction days and weeks later. How strong is retrieval (vs. studying)? It’s so good; even if you fail at it, you get better! Some research has shown that retrieval practice is more effective with simple, core concepts (vs. highly complex material.) Other research suggests that when doing standard retrieval at the K-5 level, performance was low (<10%). But using graphic organizers with prompts helped improve retrieval. Additionally, including targeted questions was helpful too.

That’s my nucleus nine. Couldn’t we simplify the nine steps? Two things to keep in mind. These nine steps are not for every type of learning. There are at least a dozen different ways to learn (imitation, for example). Some are easier, but for school, you have the accountability, context, and constraints which vary dramatically across all the environments. This is just one way of learning typical school-based content.

A second way to frame this list is that everything worth having in life is hard when you first begin (even crawling, eating, and walking.) But maybe you discovered one (or more) of the nine above steps that you may be leaving out in your own classroom or school. I did, and I teach these principles!

The most common mistake is not including consolidation and spacing time away from the new learning. Why? There’s a constant judging by certain ‘authority’ figures who want students ‘on task’ every minute. It’s as if we want to get our money’s worth by having students ‘absorbing’ content constantly. Unfortunately, anyone who insists on students having a constant input is showing their ignorance.

When students forget much of what they’re taught, it is not brain-based teaching. When the teaching is done differently and with consolidation, it sticks.

Why Should We Do Consolidation and Spacing?
Did you ever notice that many kids ‘have got it’ on Monday or Tuesday but forgot it by Wednesday? Did you ever have to re-teach something? Of course, it’s a commonplace event in most classrooms. Students often have no idea at recall time the next day (or the next week). Much of the original learning episode was incomplete. Lock in and read carefully; it’s not the kids’ fault they forget. It’s a lack of understanding by staff about the way the brain works.

Here’s a summary that may change your teaching or training. There are many types of memory (taste, episodic, procedural, semantic, etc.). Most classroom-based learning requires the fundamental acquisition of semantics (content learning). Scientists call this original learning moment “synaptic tagging,” or LTP (long-term potentiation), a molecular or synaptic tag.

It is the moment a student gets it: “Ah-ha!” That intense stimulation (LTP) triggers the formation of a memory by activating neurons, making a connection with synaptic efficacy, and forming the ‘moment’ of success. The student and teacher say, “Hooray!” Physically, a new synapse is formed (axon and dendrite touching), and the student feels good about the learning. But this new memory may not last unless it is a novel and highly salient event. It may fade away like other short-term memory events.

Why? For long-term memory, your main goal is to build not one but two specific types of memories in the student’s brain. Again, for students to do well, you’ll want to initiate the LTP (long-term potentiation, the “I got it” moment). Most teachers would be pretty happy with those “woo-hoo” moments when students get it. But there’s more.

The second type of memory is long-term memory (LTM). LTM means the memory has been consolidated and will likely stick around. Long Term Memory that says, “I can retrieve it later.” (Vishnoi & Raisuddin, Parvez, 2022). It is the transformation of a short-term memory induced by common experiences into a lasting long-term memory (Nomoto & Inokuchi, 2018). The physical process is solidified where the synapse becomes part of overlapping and connected neuronal assemblies. In short, it is “wired” with other neurons in place. So, how does this play out in the classroom?

Consolidation and Spacing: How to do this?
Neuroscientists suggested we do no more than 20 consecutive minutes ‘of being taught’ or ‘input time.’ The amount of time (from 5-20 min.) varies by students’ age, content complexity, recency, priming, details, and prior knowledge. Then, our brain needs time to consolidate. So, what do we do with the constant 10-minute brain breaks?

The challenge is that you’d have to design a study within schools with two groups. In this study, the first group of secondary teachers taught their usual, more traditional way, and the second experimental group of teachers taught the way I described above; they added the spacing. Teachers in the experimental group had concerns (rightfully so), which was healthy considering the type of changes needed, demands, and risks of failure.

Their concerns were: 1) how would we create, organize, and set up a plan, 2) how would it be deployed effectively, and 3) how would we measure the results in varied contexts. But an even bigger concern was, “Will the change to using spaced learning demonstrate significant learning results on the same tests that the other group would be given?

STUDY DESIGN:

This Spaced Learning Experiment was used with experimental science groups (all secondary level) under three conditions to deliver the Biology (or Physics) courses structured in the National Curriculum.

In Conditions 1 and 2, students took a biology (or physics) course through traditional teaching for a semester over four months (the usual). This control group had over 1,730 students (ages 13-15). Classes were 45 min each, twice a week.

In condition 3 (experimental group), students took the biology (or physics) course (typically lasting for eight months) with a single, spaced learning session of 60 min. This 60 minutes replaced the entire course, including an end-of-course review. You read this correctly; the experimental group attended only one class for 60 minutes. The three groups were tested using the same standard exam over the same material.

Each accelerated, spaced class was fast, using 5-10 slides per minute with teacher descriptions and complimentary visuals. What did secondary teachers do in class for the ten-minute brain breaks twice an hour? Each group of teachers developed their own material and then shared it with others. That eased the difficulty of what (and how) to do it. Ultimately, here are ideas they considered (most, but not all, were used) for the 10-minute gaps in their secondary schools.

• Downtime may be used to practice mindfulness, de-stressing, or keep eyes closed while staying in the present. The teacher should lead these at the start.
• Structured movement options If the students are above K-3, students can lead team movements. Examples are Follow the Leader, or have students pair up, then take a walk within the classroom to catch up on different topics, or the team leader leads the team with an energizer.
• Alternative content Give sneak previews of upcoming content or do retrieval of yesterday’s content (vary the style).
• Use the day’s natural breaks Recess, lunchtime, passing time between classes and the end of the day. These ‘breaks’ are perfect for the consolidation of learning.
• Interleaving content means switching sources, types, and variety of content (show a video, students share stories about the people involved, graphic organizers used for partners, teams, and whole class.)
• Student generated retrieval practice. In each class, two students volunteered and presented using four learning strategies (dual coding, elaboration, concrete examples, and interleaving). To use the time optimally, 51% saw students create worksheets with items to label or short quizzes, 34% used games (e.g., Kahoot, Jeopardy), and 15% went to ‘other’ options.

STUDY SET-UP:

This experiment was done with full support. Nationally standardized, high-stakes testing for all groups in the study was analyzed by the national data center. The multi-choice test data allowed for a clear comparison of experimental vs. control groups. Over 1700 students participated in this study. The experimental group’s scores were based on just 60 minutes of instruction, while the control group’s scores were on teaching over four months (2x/wk. x 12 sessions) with 24 hours total of direct instruction. It almost seems unfair, doesn’t it?

A measure of the impact on learning in relation to instructional time was calculated for all groups to quantify the impact difference: a test score percentage gain per hour of instruction. There was a highly significant difference between the experimental and control groups in learning per hour of instruction. The one hour’s instruction replaced four months of instruction, demonstrating far greater learning efficiency. The effect size was = 4.97.

STUDY RESULTS:

Notably, the final compilation of test scores showed that the control and experimental groups tested out equally. And remarkably, experimental subjects acquired long-term memories of complex material as required by the national curriculum in just one hour of brain-based teaching. Students adjusted easily to Spaced Learning’s very intense learning and exceptional speed of delivery (7-8 slides per minute) of the biology (and physics) courses (Kelley & Whatson, 2013).

Spaced Learning is more efficient in comparison to standard teaching. There was a highly significant difference between standard teaching and Spaced Learning as measured by the test score percentage increase per hour of instruction. It was one hour of instruction vs. 24 hours of instruction to achieve similar test results. The manipulation of time as a key variable in learning here reflects neuroscience evidence on time scales in memory processes rather than educational time scales.

CONCLUSION: You’ve likely learned something today. If you follow the rules for how the brain works, you could accelerate the course acquisition rate while leaving the accuracy intact. This experiment has worked in other, more challenging classes (biology, physics, math, etc.) but not in the classes where answers are less relevant (Gittner, A. (2010). While I am unsure if this process could be used in all classes or ages, using it in some classes would open up time for other highly crucial curriculum. Is there evidence for this brain-based success?

ACTION STEPS: If you are seriously interested, you can download the study, the data, and teacher comments – all for free. Here’s the link to the actual study in a PDF: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3782739/pdf/fnhum-07-00589.pdf
Kelley P, Whatson T. (2013) Making long-term memories in minutes: a spaced learning pattern from memory research in education. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 7:589.

That’s it for this month; it’s closing time. Now for my biggest fear. Maybe you still use the ‘time bias.’ Many will read this newsletter and respond, “I’m just too busy; I’ve got no time for those changes to help me and my students soar like eagles.” If you feel that way, I am sorry; I have failed you. I failed to activate your choice of playing the ‘long game.’ Biases are shortcuts to save time and are often about the ‘short game.’

You see, life goes by so fast that many would say, “Live in the moment, smell the roses, life is short.” And they’re right. Life is about savoring the smell of the flowers, eating a great meal, and enjoying hugs from friends and family.

But most everything in life worth having over a lifetime also requires the ‘the long game.’ At school, it includes building relationships and fostering cognitive capacity. At home, the list includes maintaining relationships, appreciating the daily blessings, and saving for retirement. Choose right now; what have you decided on… long or short? Then begin… right now.

Eric Jensen
CEO, Jensen Learning
Brain-Based Education

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