Brain Research and Education

I attended a Quantum Learning seminar where we learned about the brain and how and where it stores certain information. I found this seminar to be very helpful. It not only gave me a better idea of how to present information to my students but, it also allowed me to explain to them why I had them partake in certain activities, besides them just being fun.

http://www.quantumlearning.com/

You pose some really good questions. I also read the same article and have sat in a few seminars about brain based learning. Some changes do need to be made to teacher prep coarse but the focus should be how different leaning strategies relate back to the how the brain works. The more I read about the brain the more I realized how teachers really do many different activities to teach their students and any good teacher finds themselves repeating information over and over until the kids get it. Some of the research is just backing up what we already do.

A course in How the brain works would indeed be an interesting course at Teachers' College. I would have welcomed such a course when I was being trained.

We have an assignment to review brain research and its implications for teaching. This area fascinates me and also frightens me. Just looking at the subject of short-term memory is daunting. Thousands of studies and conflicting theories abound. How and what are they exactly finding and what exactly was the initial theory must be carefully reread.
Because of the brains complexity and cumbersome research many of these studeis are misinterpreted. Not knowing how to correctly report and be able to put them into a larger context will hurt some the students.
Teachers need to realize the enormity of brain research to know that learning is on-going and needs to be flexible and responsive.

Reading the same articles as Maureen, they mentioned the Fast Forward program to help struggling readers rewire their brains to enable them to decode. Does anyone know about this program? It is research-based and sounded very interesting.

Sounds interesting....I look forward to someone posting information about the program.

Several years ago(1994) I attended a workshop presented by a Neurologist. At the time, I was teaching Pre-School Handicapped students. I now wonder whether the information is obsolete.

After reading Rosa's comments about Quantum Learning, I wanted to say that she is absolutely correct about it being both helpful and fun. It is DEFINITELY a worthwhile workshop. I attended a weeklong conference over the summer a couple of years ago and came away with numerous strategies for helping students learn.
I highly recommend it for any teacher looking to enhance their instruction and engage their students!

I know that this is still a work in progress but I believe it could be beneficial to us teachers and the entire community. There is so much to learn about the brain ad how it processes information it is daunting and extremely interesting. Looking through the sites that everyone posted on her, quantum learning, and brain-based learning each are filled with useful information. I have not heard of quantum learning until today. This is something I hope to continue learning about in the future.

I have always known that our experiences shape the brain. I now truly understand the importance of teachers offering meaningful and connected expeiences for students. The more relevant and repeated experiences students have, the better they are able to retain that information.