12 Things Teachers Must Know about Learning
By Bill Page
In the midst of the worldwide psycho-neurological revolution, knowledge about the brain and learning is exploding. Teachers don’t need to wait until new brain-mind research reaches down to practical teaching, here are facts teachers can use—now.
When information is presented to students, it goes into the working memory of their brain, but the information quickly fades away unless something is done to trigger its move into the brain’s long-term memory, where it can be stored and recalled later. Multiple neurons in various regions of the brain need to fire simultaneously, repetitively, and strongly for information to be readily retrieved and used. Memory is a vital part of school learning. For this reason, the shift to student-centered learning is crucial. Activities such as rhyming and rhythm, physical movement, multi-modality input, hands-on lessons, discussion, participatory experiences, constructivism, emotional experiences, personal meaning, and relevance, must become an integral part of every teacher’s daily lessons. Following are established facts, understandings, and practices which teachers can use immediately to teach so students will learn and remember.
1. Learning is personal. Learning is a private individual experience that must be internalized and integrated by each individual. When teachers present to the class, each student must adapt and apply the lesson to his/her own existing knowledge. This is the reason for pairing, small groups, and interactive activities. Teachers can provide lessons that students must then personalize to make lessons individually meaningful. Every bit of knowledge that each student possesses must have meaning that relates to other meaningful knowledge s/he possesses. Each student has millions of bits of information available to him/her, but each can only