Brain-Compatible Instruction for Young Learners in a Remote World
A basic understanding of neuroscience can lead to growth experiences, even across the virtual spectrum
BY LINDA L. JORDAN/School Administrator, January 2021

Linda Jordan PHOTO COURTESY OF LINDA JORDAN

Zooming into a primary classroom in the Newman-Crows Landing Unified School District in central California is a delightful experience. Students’ eyes light up, big grins appear and hands begin to wave as they see the familiar faces of their teachers and classmates.

The teacher is in a recognizable place — her or his classroom at school, surrounded by the classroom calendar, hand-drawn illustrations on the walls and real-life objects.

The teachers use these visual elements to explain vocabulary from the story they are about to read: an umbrella, a pair of boots, a dish of water. The students chat with partners in breakout rooms, which enhances vocabulary skills. Students are asked to count by twos with students holding up their two hands to be counted.

These teachers have clear routines for stimulating the pattern-seeking brains of their young learners. They are managing remote classrooms that are joyful and brain-compatible.

Enrichment Online

The Newman-Crows Landing District is one good example of schools making the remote learning a positive, brain-compatible experience for their students. Another is the Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES, serving students in 24 schools across remote northern New York. School leaders in those places point to many bright spots amidst the remote learning: better relationships with parents due to daily interactions and partnerships between teachers and parents/caregivers.

What they have in common is their use of neuroscience to enrich their online classrooms. They are applying their knowledge of how the human brain learns.

They recognize that learning is a four-phase process for students of all ages. Understanding how the brain functions for each of these phases opens the door to an array of practical curricular materials (for on-screen and in-home use), lesson plans, instructional strategies and assessments.

»Phase 1: Identifying patterns. During this phase of learning, our brains identify patterns from the attributes that make a concept or skill what it is and is not and construct an accurate and comprehensive image that is referenced throughout the learning process.

Construction of such images in the right frontal lobes of the brain is important because the brain can process visuals 60,000 times faster than words.

Creating these images is much easier when sensory input is high, that is when students can explore the real thing both visually and spatially, with as much real-world context as possible. Helping students access relevant prior experiences and knowledge also greatly speeds pattern identification.

For example, asking students to find items in their house that are examples of what is being taught invites show-and-tell comparisons that strengthen the mental image they are creating as well as relationship-building opportunities.

»Phase 2: Marking meaning. During this phase, our brains make meaning of these patterns, including their relationship to other patterns. This requires students to access their left frontal lobes to acquire the vocabulary that allows them to fine-tune the image of the concept/skill they’re constructing in their right frontal lobes.

For example, teachers might ask students to focus on descriptive words such as size, shape, actions and color.

»Phase 3: Using what’s understood. This phase uses what’s understood from Phase 2. This requires lots of opportunities to take action, using what is understood in authentic, real-world ways. Activity in the brain shifts backward into the motor areas of the brain.

The movement centers of the brain are critical to all learning. Thus, the more movement related to the learning at hand, such as bodymapping and role-playing, the better.

»Phase 4: Practicing how to use what is understood. During this phase, our brains practice using what is understood, moving from short-term to long-term memory until use of the program becomes near-automatic, even subconscious. Examples include counting by twos, starting to decode as soon as one opens a book or reading signs along the road and saying please and thank you.

Brain activity during this phase shifts further back and downward to older brain structures. To complete this phase, students need many opportunities to take action and apply understanding and skills, particularly in their own lives.

Real-Life Applications

Completion of each of these phases requires real, observable physiological growth in the brain. This takes time and massive sensory input.

Given that the time for daily remote instruction is shorter than a regular school day, teachers need to be deliberate in their planning in the remote setting. This means using the real-life objects from students’ homes. It could be silverware or socks to sort, count and place in patterns or asking students to climb over the chair, crawl under the table to learn position words and using cell phones to record themselves doing these activities.

Educators must take into account the developmental stages of the young learner. While the neuroscience-based definition of learning as a four-phase process brings clarity to the task of teaching remotely, taking into account the developmental stages of young learners is important. Particularly critical areas are social and emotional development, the primacy and need for movement, and brain maturation.

PHOTO © BY GALITSKAYA/DEPOSITPHOTOS.COM

Brain Maturation

The early years of brain development often are called “critical” as children are setting down neuropathways, the foundation for future learning. Eighty-five percent of a brain’s wiring is done by age 5, however the brain has a long way to go before being complete. For example, judgment and impulse control aren’t developed until after the teenage years. Learning to control our responses to our emotions is a lifetime endeavor.

Vocabulary takes a big jump during the primary school years. Students enter school speaking approximately 2,000 words but exit 2nd grade with an average vocabulary of 10,000 to 13,000 words and a growing ability to understand concepts and abstract words. This massive vocabulary growth comes from interacting with their world — conversing, asking questions, participating in and being read to, and through activities where they interact with their world and the objects in it.

Vocabulary is learned best when it’s embedded in their real-life experiences, which makes definitions real and their use meaning-ful. Using visuals and real-world objects in their real-world settings helps students learn and recall vocabulary.
Among our most at-risk students, vocabulary skills often are lacking. It becomes vital that teachers use tools such as breakout rooms in Zoom where students can talk with peers. Teachers need to talk a lot, sing, read and encourage students to use programs like Screencastify or cell phones to record themselves. Students can make a video recording to describe their yard, house or favorite toy, retell a story in their own words or share an event from their day.

Social-Emotional Growth

Social and emotional development takes place during this period as young students lay down templates for reacting to their emotions. Students become aware of their emotions, label their feelings and learn how to use emotions to enhance learning and how to use them properly in the decision-making process.

Students who attend school for the first time are creating emotional memories about school and education. With at least 13 more years of education before them, it becomes essential that during these first few years the foundation is built upon emotionally positive experiences, strong relationships, and understanding and controlling their response to their emotions.

As learning is highly emotion-driven, we must find ways to make remote learning support emotional development in positive ways that also grow social skills. A safe, predictable and joyous environment is key. When using Zoom in a primary classroom, I have seen teachers ask students to create a drawing of how they are feeling and helping them build vocabulary labeling the feelings, discussing how characters in a story feel and taking time to go one-on-one in breakout rooms to build relationships with students.

The importance of social and emotional learning can be seen in the Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES, serving 10 school districts along New York’s border with Canada. It’s where Shannon Pitcher-Boyea, director of instructional support services, says, “Different times calls for different actions. … Although we have always valued relationships, this year we are emphasizing the importance of all adults connecting deeply, building community and self-care with students and each other first…. Care before content. This is what matters most.”

In these schools, students keep gratitude journals and practice mindfulness, and teachers build relationships beyond each student’s academic scores so they really know their students.

Body Movement

The brain’s movement centers sequence thoughts, processes and actions. Using the physical body to mime and role-play those sequences and structures greatly speeds the creation of these mental sequences and anchors them for further reference.

Young learners have a short attention span — only 8-10 minutes or less — and they need to learn through their senses. Give brain breaks. Use those breaks to allow students to let off steam, reset emotionally, reactivate as many of their 20-plus senses as possible and cement learning using programs that encourage movement such as GoNoodle or Hops – Journey of the Tree Spirit. Encourage students to skip, jump, run in place, march or walk to the mailbox.

Preschool and primary teachers have shown their creativity in teaching remotely. School leaders like Randy Fillpot in Newman-Crows Landing have ensured success for their students and teachers by leading professional development on best practices one of which is the neurosciences.

LINDA JORDAN is a senior professional learning consultant for the International Center for Leadership in Education in Rexford, N.Y. Twitter: @jordanneuro