Brain Based Learning

Training & Development, July, 2000 by Ruth Palombo Weiss

There are several areas/topics that brain-based learning theories are examining. As we will see, they are interconnected in much the same way as our own complex neuronal groups.

Attention

It appears that the thalamus, in the center of the brain, plays an especially important role in attention. According to Sylwester, the thalamus is the "relay center between our sense organs and the cortex.... This process holds the important information within our attentional and short-term memory systems by ignoring the less important information, and thus seems to create the visual awareness we experience."

Eric Jensen, author of Teaching With the Brain in Mind, points out that our bodies have high-low cycles of about 90 to 110 minutes. When students are at the top of those cycles, they're more attentive. At the bottom of the cycle, people's energy drops along with their level of attention. Jensen suggests that if educators and trainers "learn to ride with the cycles," they'll have fewer problems.

Renate Caine talks about the different types of motivators and what happens in our brains depending on the source of motivation. "When we encounter high stress in learning, there is a psychophysiological response to the threat, accompanied by a feeling of helplessness or fatigue. This type of response keeps people from using their higher order, more complex thinking, and creativity."

During high-stress situations, physiologically the information takes the primary pathway through the thalamus and amygdala and then moves into the cerebellum. Memorization of isolated facts can be accomplished under high-stress conditions, but higher order and creative thinking may be lost. We tend to respond with either a primitive mode of behaving or to rely solely on early programmed behavior.

In situations that may involve stress but in which we have a sense of control or choice, the physiology shifts. The primary path is no longer directly through the amygdala but through other paths of the cortex, the parts that are involved in higher-order functioning. Thus, we avoid a "knee jerk response."

Learning situations that are low stress favor reflection and analytic thinking. Says Renate Caine, "The thalamus, hippocampus, and cortex (where stored memories are housed and higher-level thinking takes place) are involved. With this system, you can translate factual elements and make connections. Furthermore, you can make inferences based on other things you know. That higher-order thinking includes synthesizing information and integrating it to come up with new ideas."

Context and patterns

"Without context, emotions, or patterns, information is considered meaningless. There's a tendency to try to form some kind of meaningful pattern out of our learning -- this process seems innate," says Jensen.

He adds, "While the brain is a consummate pattern maker, intellectual maturity often enriches the process. PET scans indicate that a novice chess player bums more glucose (has to work harder) and uses the step-by-step sequential left side of the brain. A master chess player uses less glucose and engages larger patterns from the right side of the brain."