Brain Based Learning
In the Mathematics Classroom
What is brain based learning?
Approaches to schooling that educators believe are in accord with recent research on the brain and human learning. Advocates say the human brain is constantly searching for meaning and seeking patterns and connections. In a brain based learning environment teachers take into account student emotions, the physical learning environment, student memory systems, the importance of movement and collaboration and feedback. https://education.alberta.ca/apps/aisi/literature/pdfs/bbased_learning.pdf
How to engage students | Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites | Marcia Tate
Specific Strategies to Incorporate Brain Based Learning into the Mathematics Classroom
Note: Many of the suggestions are from Teaching with the Brain in Mind by Eric Jensen
Emotions and Learning
All educators need to recognize the biology of emotions, especially stress and recognize that students cannot focus on the curriculum unless they feel safe and emotionally secure. They need to perceive that their teachers care about them and their success. Take the time to build a classroom community.
Movement
Provide opportunities for your students to get up and move around. Provide energizers and brain breaks within your mathematics class. Have students physically act out numbers along a number line when teaching integers. Do the number line hustle. Links to how to do it are here:http://goo.gl/35ldQf
Authentic Real World Tasks
Ensure that the tasks that students are given are relevant and meaningful to them. If tasks are meaningful they will be able to relate it to prior information and formulate their own concept maps.
Choice
Allow students to have choice in the mathematics activities they do. Whether it be through centres, choice boards or open tasks. Marian Small has some fantastic resources to help you get started.
Attention Span
To help focus students attention provide them with learning goals. Remember to limit the amount of time spent on direct instruction as the human brain is poor at non-stop attention. The brain needs time to pause, link and consolidate.
Flexible Groupings
Provide opportunities for students to work individually, in homogeneous and heterogeneous groupings within your mathematics class. Working in groups provides a great opportunity for students to teach concepts to one another and strengthen their understanding of math concepts.
Feedback
Students need to be provided with immediate feedback to determine how they are doing and to motivate them to keep going. The brain is constantly seeking feedback. Problem solving and game based activities often provide immediate feedback that our brains seek.
Manipulatives
Students should be given time to explore with math manipulatives in order to help them make meaning of mathematical concepts.
Repetition
Mathematical concepts should be reviewed in order to integrate the concepts into student's long term memory. The key is to make the repetitive activities interesting and review in a variety of ways.