Classroom 101
Miss Stewart, a seventh grade language arts teacher, rarely stands still. The kids’ desks aren’t lined up in single file rows listening to the lecture du jour. Instead, they learn in a vibrant environment that kids say it conducive to real learning.
“It puts you into kinda like a learning mood and it’s a comfortable environment that actually makes you want to learn,” said Lisa, a 12 year-old.
Miss Stewart, in agreement with a great deal of current research, feels that an overly structured, lecture driven class isn’t the best way for most kids to learn.
“Really, if you read a lot of research, you learn that things are best understood, or learned, or taught in a way that is either creative, useful, or emotional,” she said.
A parent can quickly gauge the learning environment of a classroom by looking for a few key things: the teacher should be respectful and warm, the walls should be covered with students projects, signs and exhibits, and classmates should be working as much with each other as with the teacher.
Miss Stewart admitted that there was a little more work involved in creating a classroom with this type of atmosphere, but the rewards are well worth the efforts, she said.
What Parents Should Know
It is no brain wave that a good night’s sleep will likely keep a child more alert in the classroom; in addition, a recent study suggested that a good nights sleep can also help a child absorb all of the information he tucked into his brain at school that day.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School have proposed that certain chemicals in the brain solidify new information during the sleep cycle. Acetycholine, norepinephrine, and serotonin are learning and memory neurotransmitters, alertness accomplices, and mood relaxers, respectively. During sleep, these brain chemicals interact and may create feedback that results in memory.
Since the study indicated that sleep may be the time the new information is further processed in the brain, researchers suggested that a review the following morning may be more effective than that evening or later in the day the following day.
A child tucking in early could benefit twofold. While he’s tucking away all of the things he learned today, he will be preparing to be alert when going back for more tomorrow.
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“It puts you into kinda like a learning mood and it’s a comfortable environment that actually makes you want to learn.” --Lisa, Age 12
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Brain-Based Learning Brain-based learning is becoming a popular research topic in the education arena. Through studying the physiological processes involved in learning and comprehension, researchers are working to better understand how the brain records information. Much of Miss. Stewart’s teaching method, using emotional, useful and creative tactics, is a derivative of what she has learned about brain-based learning.
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Human Feedback A recent study, published in the American Journal of Surgery, suggested that human feedback is a key contributor to learning. The study tested 82 medical students who were learning how to tie a square knot. The perfection of their knots was later reviewed by surgeons. One group was assisted by a computer and another was assisted by a lecture and feedback group. The results of the study revealed that discussions and verbal feedback regarding the learning of a task are more effective than computer generated feedback. Even in the computer age, humans are important. Our children also will learn most effectively when we provide feedback for them. |
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Resources
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Learning Brain– www.learningbrain.com Beware of silence, perfection in the classroom. (2000, Dec.) The Atlanta Journal Constitution |
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