Brain Rules 6 Ways to Improve Brain Function

Brain Rules 6 Ways to Improve Brain Function Improving Academic Performance In Brain Rules, John Medina, a molecular biologist and student of the brain, dissects the way our brains work, providing practical tips and advice for how to harness your brain’s ability to learn and grow to be more successful in every avenue of life from school to work and more. Oftentimes, students feel that the only way they can improve academically or enhance their performance on exams is by taking an expensive course or hiring a tutor, someone else to teach them. While seeking-out academic help is certainly important and can help you make great strides, there are many things you can do on your own to improve your brain function and ability to better comprehend and recall information. SURVIVAL Overtime, human’s brains have evolved as a survival mechanism from initially being used for necessities such as breathing and keeping us alive to a brain ideal for dissecting complex subjects and problem solving. Humans’ ability to relate to each other became our chief survival tool. By building relationships and creating alliances with others we are best able to learn, grow and problem solve. The same way that humans in the past worked together to survive the environment and a changing ecological landscape, today those same relationships serve us both at school and in the workplace. In our learning environments relationships are equally as important. How many times has a teacher or professor you perceive as being condescending led you to clam up and not seek out help. Under such a circumstance the student does not feel trust, but rather judgement and isolation. Obviously, this is not the ideal scenario for a productive learning environment. When choosing a private tutor or even study partner, you must feel comfortable, you’ll be unable to work successfully with someone who makes you feel self-conscious or insecure GENDER Male and female brains are different. Even something as simple as our gender can affect the ways we process information. Anatomically, male and female brains are different. Due to the different make-up of their brains men and women process information differently. Men tend to take in information and get the gist of it, while women are more inclined to recall more details about any given subject. On the surface, this may not have much to do with learning and retention, but students can put this knowledge to great use. We all recognize that over the course of our educational careers we have a greater affinity for certain professors or instructors over others. Think back to your favorite teacher, was she a big picture type of instructor or did she use plenty of details to paint a picture of the course material? In general, when reading a passage or watching a presentation, are you more likely to recall the main idea of the reading or do certain descriptive details stays with you? By recognizing how you absorb and retain information you can become more efficient while studying. SHORT LONG-TERM MEMORY Once you recognize the ways you absorb information you can work on methods to help you retain this information. We forget much of what we hear within 30 seconds if it’s not repeated. Therefore, it’s imperative to repeat the information in a variety of ways to remember it. This could be as simple as hearing a phone number and repeating it to ourselves over and over until we can jot it down, this goes into our short-term memory. We are essentially encoding the information in our brains to be retrieved later. If we no longer need the information, its purged from our brain. The more intricately we encode information the better it will be remembered. During infancy and childhood, we often learn songs or chants to remember parts of our body, manners, multiplication tables etc. As we grew we began to employ mnemonic devices to help us remember things like the order of operations when working an algebra problem. These mechanisms are more elaborate tools used to help us encode data into our brains. Eventually, if we repeat information long enough and consistently, we can commit it to our long-term memory. But, this takes much more time, sometimes as long as years. It’s said that information learned in the first grade is not completely formed until your sophomore year of high school! Use tools such as repetition and mnemonic devices to help you retain information. STRESS Our bodies were built to handle stress for short periods of time, as we encounter obstacles which will heighten our stress only so long as we problem solve to find a solution. The human brain and body are not built to endure on-going or chronic stress and eventually this type of stress can have a dangerous impact on our brains leading to such serious health events as cardiac arrest, stroke or damage to the hippocampus region of the brain leading to memory problems. Outside of chronic stress, there are forms of emotional stress which can leave you feeling hopeless when things are beyond your control. This type of stress hampers out ability to learn or perform at work. Take measures to keep your stress levels in check, it is hard enough to study and retain information when we are in the right frame of mind. It can prove almost impossible to concentrate when we are under a lot of stress. How can we limit stress? By being vigilant about those things we do have control over. Don’t procrastinate, when we wait until the last minute to cram for a test or pull an all-nighter to complete an assignment we are not only putting ourselves under emotional stress but our bodies under physical stress, this includes a lack of sleep or poor eating habits as we skip meals or fill up on junk and caffeine as we try to power through cram sessions. VISION Vision trumps all our other senses, we remember most, what we see. If you hear a piece of information, 3 days later you will only remember 10% of it. If you are introduced to that information with an accompanying picture, 3 days later you will remember 65% of it! It’s as if our brain takes a snap-shot of the picture and stores it, allowing us to recall the information we have associated with the picture. How do we incorporate this into our studying and retaining of information? When taking notes incorporate more diagrams and flow charts, whenever possible use a picture representation of an event or process. This way, when studying you can quickly pick out visual cues to help jog your memory about the subject matter.

Optimizing Flipped Classrooms For Students With ADHD

Optimizing Flipped Classrooms For Students With ADHD Flipped classrooms turn the traditional model of instruction upside down by migrating in-person classroom lectures into videos that are watched independently by students on their own time. Class time that had traditionally be spent listening to lectures is now replaced with interactive assignments designed to reinforce the previously-viewed video presentations. In effect, the activities of homework and class time are flipped lectures are watched at home and assignments are completed during class. For students with ADHD who struggle to complete homework assignments efficiently and consistently, the flipped classroom model is appealing for two reasons: Classroom-based lectures are not an optimal strategy for teaching students with ADHD. Didactic instruction via lectures is rarely an effective teaching style for students with ADHD. Many students with ADHD struggle to focus and process verbal information quickly during lectures, and have poor note taking skills. They often leave class having missed key points from the lecture and have sparse, ineffective notes to refer to when completing assignments or studying for exams independently. Homework is a struggle for students with ADHD. As any parent or teacher of a child or teen with ADHD knows, homework is an ongoing struggle for these students. Even under the best of circumstances kids and teens with ADHD have difficulty completing their homework efficiently and consistently. This is due in part to the time of day when homework is completed (in the evening when fatigue is setting in and ADHD symptoms are worsening and when ADHD medication has worn off) and the lack of support from peers and teachers during homework time. Flipped classrooms at least partially address both of these problems for students with ADHD. When lectures are provided in video format, students can watch them at their own pace. They can rewind if their attention drifts and they can listen again to catch key points that they may have missed. Taking notes becomes easier when they are able to slow down the pace of the lecture, and notetaking may become less essential if teachers and classmates can serve as resources when assignments are completed during the class period. When assignments are completed in class instead of at home, students with ADHD may be less fatigued, will have the advantage of their ADHD medication still being in effect, can receive individualized instruction from the teacher as needed, will have the social and intellectual support of their classmates, and ideally, the assignments will be more interactive and less tedious than in traditional homework. Even with these clear benefits, optimizing flipped classrooms for students with ADHD requires special considerations: Homework will continue to be a challenge for students with ADHD. In flipped classrooms, homework does not altogether disappear, it is simply replaced by video lectures. Students with ADHD will still struggle to focus on the videos, they will still procrastinate, and they will still miss key points during the lectures. Optimize the use of video lectures by incorporating elements that are known to increase engagement and compliance for students with ADHD: Keep the videos as brief as possible. Small, digestible chunks of information will be absorbed more readily than lengthy presentations. Incorporate interactive features. Insert pop-up questions and activities throughout the lectures and grade students on their responses. Provide immediate feedback to students about the accuracy of their responses. Set due-dates and measure progress. Set clear due dates for lecture viewing, and monitor progress. If a student skips a video, follow-up and brainstorm strategies for getting back on track. Reward students for meeting deadlines. Give students points for watching videos, and tie these points to meaningful rewards. Allow students to track their progress toward earning rewards, and incorporate game-like features whenever possible. Remember that praise is also very rewarding! When you notice that a student is consistently watching videos and meeting deadlines, let them know that youre impressed and encourage them to keep up the good work. Encourage the development of notetaking skills. Notetaking remains an essential skill for students throughout high school and college. Since students with ADHD struggle to take effective notes, provide specific instruction on notetaking, and require students to take notes during video lectures. Review the notes and provide feedback about things the student has done well and areas where he or she can improve. Flipped classroom assignments present unique challenges for students with ADHD. Students with ADHD who struggle to complete assignments at home will also have challenges with classroom assignments. Provide individualized instruction whenever possible. One of the benefits of flipped classrooms is increased opportunity for individualized instruction. Students with ADHD dont always stand out as needing individualized attention, particularly when they are bright students who can compensate relatively well for their weaknesses, and when they are more inattentive than they are impulsive or disruptive. Seek out these students and aim to give them a boost in areas where they may not be reaching their full potential. Encourage effective teamwork and collaboration skills. Group-based assignments are more common in flipped classrooms. While there are many benefits to group-based learning, students with ADHD are more likely than their peers to have difficulty participating effectively in these learning activities. Students with ADHD often lack confidence in their knowledge and abilities. As a result, they may hang back from the group and fade into the background. Conversely, their insecurities may drive them to act out and become disruptive. Focus on teaching strategies that will help them become confident, engaged members of their team, and participate in ways that enhance the group as well as their own learning process. Flipped classrooms have the potential to be far more engaging for students with ADHD than traditional instructional models. Tailoring flipped classrooms to meet the needs to students with ADHD can have a positive impact on their ability to learn and their motivation to participate in the learning process. ABOUT DR. MARY ROONEY Mary Rooney, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco. Dr Rooney is a researcher and clinician specializing in the evaluation and treatment of ADHD and co-occurring behavioral, anxiety, and mood disorders. A strong advocate for those with attention and behavior problems, Dr. Rooney is committed to developing and providing comprehensive, cutting edge treatments tailored to meet the unique needs of each child and adolescent. Dr. Rooney's clinical interventions and research avenues emphasize working closely with parents and teachers to create supportive, structured home and school environments that enable children and adolescents to reach their full potential. In addition, Dr. Rooney serves as a consultant and ADHD expert to Huntington Learning Centers. ABOUT HUNTINGTON Huntington Learning Center is the tutoring and test prep leader. Its certified tutors provide individualized instruction in reading, phonics, writing, study skills, elementary and middle school math, Algebra through Calculus, Chemistry, and other sciences. It preps for the SAT and ACT, as well as state and standardized exams. Huntington programs develop the skills, confidence, and motivation to help students of all levels succeed and meet the needs of Common Core State Standards. Founded in 1977, Huntington's mission is to give every student the best education possible. Call us today at 1.800.CAN LEARN to discuss how Huntington can help your child. For franchise opportunities please visit www.huntingtonfranchise.com. This website does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The material on this site is provided for educational purposes only.