Engaging Brains: How to Enhance Learning by Teaching Kids About Neuroplasticity

Explicitly teaching students about neuroplasticity can have a transformative impact in the classroom. A central facet of our work as teacher educators is teaching about how the brain changes during learning. Many teachers have told us that these findings have had a positive effect on their expectations for their students and on students' perceptions of their own abilities.

Engaging Brains: How to Enhance Learning by Teaching Kids About Neuroplasticity

Explicitly teaching students about neuroplasticity can have a transformative impact in the classroom. A central facet of our work as teacher educators is teaching about how the brain changes during learning. Many teachers have told us that these findings have had a positive effect on their expectations for their students and on students' perceptions of their own abilities.

Helping Your Students' Potential Blossom

Happy spring!  In many parts of the US, this season of renewal may seem long overdue—all the more reason to celebrate its arrival with a metaphor about the seeds of potential that all students possess to learn, grow, and achieve their goals in school and in life.

A favorite teaching and learning strategy among educators who participate in our brain-based teaching program is using metaphors to explain and explore new concepts. So let’s say that within each student, seeds of learning can take root, powered not by photosynthesis but by neuroplasticity, defined as changes in the structure and function of the brain as it processes new information.

Speaking Engagements in Georgia and California Focus on Brain Plasticity

I was delighted to have the opportunity to speak at two recent events on the subject of neuroplasticity in the young brain and to share practical strategies that will help children flourish in their formative years.

First up was the Early Literacy Spring Symposium, co-sponsored by the Georgia Department of Education and Georgia Reading Association, which took place March 10 at Middle Georgia State College in Macon, Ga. My topic was: “Wiring the Brain to Read: Practical Strategies for Increasing Reading Comprehension.”

Speaking to about 150 educators, I provided insights about the brain’s plasticity and the amazing ways in which young children make connections that help them develop their early literacy skills. I also shared exciting strategies that teachers can use to help students comprehend what they are reading. Those in attendance at the symposium included teachers, principals, curriculum directors and teacher educators, all of whom had gathered to learn about early literacy topics and to discuss such key issues at ‘as’ the implementation of the Common Core Standards.

Guest Blog Post: Suggested Strategies to Spark Motivation and Promote Empowered Learners

by Kara R. Morrissette
Graduate of the Ed.S. program with a Major in Brain-Based Teaching (Concentration in Teacher Leadership) at Nova Southeastern University’s Fischler School of Education

This year I left a position as a resource teacher serving gifted students to begin a new adventure as a kindergarten classroom teacher in a new charter school on Tybee Island, Georgia. Leaving the security and blissful schedule I had secured in order to experience emerging readers firsthand as part of my dissertation research left me asking myself, “Are you crazy?”

Kara Morrissette

Today, I’m happy to have the opportunity to share with other educators working to promote a positive state in their own classroom communities some suggested strategies for implementing metacognitive strategies to extend neuroplasticity in young learners.

You Have a Voice

I started by using my voice to motivate and excite my students. My low-level “good morning” was replaced with more inflection, a smile, and eye contact as every child entered their learning environment. This tiny adjustment offered immediate results, including returned smiles, increased verbal interaction, and more hugs than I could count. Use your voice. Apply it in a positive manner. Your enthusiasm will motivate both you and your learners and engender personal excitement.

Our Latest Post on Edutopia: How Teaching About Neuroplasticity Engages Brains

Our latest Edutopia blog post—"Engaging Brains: How to Enhance Learning by Teaching Kids About Neuroplasticity"—is now live. In the post, we explain how explicitly teaching students about neuroplasticity can have a transformative impact in the classroom. Here's an excerpt:

"The force behind this cycle is students' belief that they can get smarter through study and practice, which enhances their commitment to persist in the hard work that learning sometimes requires. … The same dynamic of persisting to succeed applies to teaching. Keeping the idea of brain plasticity at the forefront of your professional practice offers a constant reminder than when students struggle with lessons, it isn't because they can't learn, but because they need more practice and instructional support."

Read the full post at Edutopia.

P21 Blog Explores Ways to Support Student Learning with Educational Neuroscience

I was recently asked to be a contributor to the P21 Blog to discuss the latest mind, brain, and education research and how it bolsters the belief that all students have the potential to master the “4Cs”: communication, collaboration, critical thinking/problem solving, and creativity/innovation. Hopefully, the P21 blog will be one of many avenues to support teachers, administrators, and other community leaders who seek to make a positive difference in the schooling of children and youth.

My thanks to Jim Bellanca, who invited me to contribute to the blog along with educators David Sousa, Carol Tomlinson, and Wendy Ostroff. All of us are writing about different aspects of the theme, “Connecting the 21st Century Dots: From Policy to Practice,” as part of an examination of the practical application of brain and mind research and deeper learning.

As I write in my P21 blog entry: “The transformational power of neuroplasticity lies in how we think about students’ potential to learn and whether students believe they can get smarter if they commit to the hard work required to advance academically. Within this context, teachers, administrators, students and other community members alike can come to accept (same as was) that virtually all students have the capacity to learn when provided the supportive environment and experiences to do so.”

Read the blog entry in its entirety by clicking here.