One of lucre´s presentations... very interesting material to share with everybody!

THE BIOLOGY OF LEARNING: a scalpel free tour of your amazing brain.

by Nse. Lucrecia Prat Gay

Lucrecia Prat Gay at Instituto Albert Einstein: “Heads have Hearts Too”. November, 2009.

“The greatest unexplored territory in the world is the space between our ears.” BILL O´BRIEN They say crisis also means opportunity. Well then there was a positive outcome to World War II after all: the pain and tragedy of head injuries catapulted brain research into the foreground of scientific investigation. This explosion of research gave birth to a new field of knowledge: cognitive science or brain science. In 1990 the final years of the 20th century were proclaimed as the DECADE OF THE BRAIN. More has been learnt about the brain in the last ten years than in all previous scientific history. As teachers, Heads or Coordinators, we can no longer ignore the stunning contributions of neurosciences to the field of education. Powerful concepts and discoveries including the role of emotions, gender differences and environments must force us to stop and redesign our conventional educational models. As Head of Rio de la Plata School, I have been putting into practice this “brain friendly revolution” for twelve years now and the results are astonishing: discipline problems, absentee rates and staff exodus dramatically drop in the light of this new approach. There is a need to change paradigms: from psychology to biology. Digging into the biology of learning we will be able to teach effectively, with the brain in mind. Understanding HOW we learn will ensure everyone will learn. By getting more of the brain involved, learners will understand the subject better, be intrinsically motivated, enjoy the process and remember it longer. Other than teaching the way we learnt we should design our educational systems around this solid theory. This is not another trendy approach, this is neuroscience: tested and classroom proven. Dr.Robin Fogarty claims “Brain science is about how we learn, pedagogy is about how we teach”! MEET YOUR MAGIC BRAIN 1. The brain is like a sieve: in the early stages of processing, it drops data it doesn´t need or think it will use. 2. It grows dendrites and makes connections by stimulation of a rich environment. 3. Several billion bites of information pass through each and every second of your life. 4. The brain uses 20% of the energy in your body and generates enough energy to illuminate a lightbulb (when the person is awake!). 5. It is best at learning what it needs to SURVIVE (academic success is somewhere about 53 on its list!). 6. There can be a spread in differences between 2 to 3 years in completely normal developing brains. 7. Brain plasticity continues as one ages. 8. It learns from chaos and seeks order and patterns. 9. It has 100 billion active neurons,(same amount of stars in the Milky Way!) that can grow up to 20.000 connections or branches on each nerve cell. 10. It has three distinct brains, two sides that work in harmony, at least eight different intelligence centers and… …IT HOLDS THE KEY TO YOUR OWN PERSONAL LEARNING!

Lucrecia Prat Gay (center) with J. Williams (left) and A.L. Regueira ((right) Heads of English Department, IAE, Primary School.

SOME RECENT DISCOVERIES NEUROGENESIS Dr.Gage in Salk Institute, California, is undergoing studies on the birth of new neurons: neurogenesis. It has been discovered that new brain cells can be generated in hippocampus as we age. This new cells become functional, improve memory and learning. SOCIAL-ENVIRONMENTAL NEUROSCIENCE Physical environment influences learning. The old paradigm stated that genes ran our lives, now we know that our mass brain plasticity is susceptible to social factors. (Kandel 1998, Nobel Prize) ALLOSTASIS The old paradigm believed in homeostasis, back to normal state. Scientists as Dr.David Diamond now confirm that our body and mind pay a biological prize for distress. SLEEP Without adequate sleep, decision-making is impaired and new learning is practically absent. Sleep gives your brain time to do some “housekeeping” and rearrange circuits, process emotional events and clean out mental debris. It eliminates unnecessary pathways and clears the way for new learning. Storage of information occurs during sleep. The brain is the site of language acquisition, thus a better understanding of brain structures and functions will “Let us bridge the gap between what we teach and they remember” (Dr.Spencer Kagan) The brain revolution is here to stay! Make sure you aren´t left behind! LUCRECIA PRAT GAY has been teaching for 28 years. She holds a Self-Esteem Practioner Degree and has finished her studies in Neurosicoeducation. Lucrecia also studied Brain Based Learning overseas, and has been successfully putting the model into practice for the last ten years. She is now an International Teacher Trainer for Oxford University Press.

Top