brain-based teaching & Learning
Teachers who are interested in the biological, cognitive, and developmental aspects of learning should not have to sit in their classrooms alone with Google Scholar as their only resource. Moreover, they should not have to view themselves as passive recipients of the conduit of knowledge from scientists on high to education. Instead, they should be active participants of the research process " (Fischer & Heikkinen, 2010).
When one considers the large amount of resources available to educators, two questions emerge: What practical information may be essential for middle school educators to know about brain-based learning and how can this information be translated into applicable teaching practices? To know and understand how the adolescent brain responds to different brain-based teaching practices, learning activities, and methods of teaching may help the middle school educator increase learning in a supportive environment.
This website was designed to provide the middle school educator with data, resources, and tools that may be a starting point to incorporate brain-based education in the classroom. The amount of information available to educators is mind-boggling. Sifting through it to find applicable, valuable, and recent empirical data provided by reputable sources is a task that can take up more time than educators may have to spare - especially middle school educators. Synthesizing is a time consuming but necessary process when separating facts from myths, Tokuhama (2011) explained, “Synthesizing information is a complex process that requires the ability to take in a variety of information sources, understand the main concepts within each, and then judge their applicability to the topic at hand”(para. 21). The additional time that is required to accomplish such a task may pose a problem for the middle school educator who is already occupied with the business of teaching.
The educator can use this website as a starting point to access a variety of empirical data obtained from reputable sources and research the areas that they are interested in. The teacher tutorials are self-paced and can be followed in a group setting at school, or at home independently. The data in the teaching techniques are presented in an organized, user-friendly format that offer brain-based alternatives that may be incorporated in the middle school classroom. The resource section is for those who may want to dig in deeper and continue seeking brain-based learning alternatives. Choices. Time. Go.
This website was designed to provide the middle school educator with data, resources, and tools that may be a starting point to incorporate brain-based education in the classroom. The amount of information available to educators is mind-boggling. Sifting through it to find applicable, valuable, and recent empirical data provided by reputable sources is a task that can take up more time than educators may have to spare - especially middle school educators. Synthesizing is a time consuming but necessary process when separating facts from myths, Tokuhama (2011) explained, “Synthesizing information is a complex process that requires the ability to take in a variety of information sources, understand the main concepts within each, and then judge their applicability to the topic at hand”(para. 21). The additional time that is required to accomplish such a task may pose a problem for the middle school educator who is already occupied with the business of teaching.
The educator can use this website as a starting point to access a variety of empirical data obtained from reputable sources and research the areas that they are interested in. The teacher tutorials are self-paced and can be followed in a group setting at school, or at home independently. The data in the teaching techniques are presented in an organized, user-friendly format that offer brain-based alternatives that may be incorporated in the middle school classroom. The resource section is for those who may want to dig in deeper and continue seeking brain-based learning alternatives. Choices. Time. Go.
Photograph Credit: White matter fibers HCP dataset corpus callosum bottom angle. White matter fiber architecture from the Connectome Scanner dataset. The fibers are color-coded by direction: red = left-right, green = anterior-posterior, blue = ascending-descending (RGB=XYZ). Courtesy of the Laboratory of Nuero Imaging and Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Consortium of of the Human Connectome Project www.humanconnectomeproject.org