Inspiring Students to Dream, Learn and Grow

• May 10, 2011 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.

We educators talk a lot about student engagement. We understand that engagement is the magic key that drives the student and creates the moment when they become self-motivated. Engagement must be at the core of our goals as educators, for an engaged student finds wonder in their learning, and they not only find meaning in their studies, but they grow personally, for a lifetime, as a result of that learning.

But what do we really mean when we talk about the engaged student? What does it look like in the brain when a student is truly inspired? In the 2008 article, Engaging Students with Brain-Based Learning, the authors cite research from LeDoux, Eden and Schacter whose studies found connections between learning and 1) connections with emotions and memories, 2) relationships to real-life experiences, and 3) “activation of both the auditory and visual areas of the brain to create meaning.”^[i]In short, they are talking about what has become known as “brain-based learning,” which consists of teaching strategies that encourage the brain to make associations and “create synaptic connections and anchor learning through contextual experience.”^[ii]

In many ways, the research has confirmed what humanity’s greatest thinkers discovered long ago. How many years has it been since you slowed down and went back to meditate for a moment on some of the great axioms about learning and education? They hold wonderful hints and secrets that not only still apply, but have been proven by even the most modern research.

• “Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.” (Malcolm Forbes, 1919-1990) To engage our students, we need to teach them not only to develop answers, but also learn to ask questions. We need to engage their judgment, creativity and reason, not just their memories.
• “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” (William Butler Yeats, 1865-1939) Clearly for students to be inspired to not just succeed but also to exceed, we educators must engage their passions and, as stated above, their emotions. Our challenge is to seek out those things that are of direct personal interest to our students, and then show them how to find the connections to these passions and what we’re focusing on in the classroom.
• “There is nothing training cannot do. Nothing is above its reach. It can turn bad morals to good; it can destroy bad principles and recreate good ones; it can lift men to angelship.” (Mark Twain, 1835-1910) These words are beautiful at so many levels, but at the purely practical one, Twain reminds us of something that we need to bring to our students attention every day. We can help them develop an awareness that they are learning so much more than facts and processes; they are learning the skills that will allow them to contribute to solving the problems of humanity. In short, we need to show them how they are developing the power to change the world.

What? Who has time to instill passion, emotion and caring? Many teachers are doing this every day, but we need more! Quite often, educators are pressed more to ensure that students are able to do their multiplication tables, find the capital of North Carolina on a map of the United States and recite the chemical formula for water. 

And yet, our greatest challenge remains inextricably linked to our greatest hope for the future. We must do all we can to light those fires of inspiration and help our students find those deep personal connections to their learning. If we can do that, not only will they learn more successfully, but it will be our students who grab the reins, take charge of their learning, and maybe—just maybe—find their way toward Twain’s angelship.

[i] Kaufman, E. Robinson, S. Bellah, K. Akers, C. Haase-Wittler, P. Martindale, L. Engaging Students with Brain-Based Learning. ACTE Online. September 2008.

[ii]Ibid.

For further reading:

Pychyl , Timothy A. Don't Delay: Understanding procrastination and how to achieve our goals. Psychology Today Blogs. May 10, 2008.

Haenke, Rod. Using Brain Research to Engage Students. Engage Learner. October 3, 2008. 

Related Reading:

Using the Human Element to Make Science Fun and Approachable

Teaching Creativity in the Classroom

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Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Education Trends, Reading & Learning

Tags: brain training, elementary school learning, emotions in learning, high school learning, how children learn, learning environment, memory, middle school learning, motivating students, student reading growth, teacher impact

Opening the Classroom Through Online Collaboration: 21st Century Learning Environments

• March 29, 2011 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.

Fifteen short years ago, our classrooms were relatively closed places. When we spoke of teaching students to collaborate with one another or exposing them to the world beyond our school walls, we were usually talking about a very limited number of options: either going out into the world to experience it first hand on a field trip, or bringing the outside world in via hosting a guest speaker. In rare and wonderful cases, students had the opportunity to go on exchange programs. In this way, “collaboration” meant working in small teams with fellow classmates.

Today, such collaboration is no longer dependent upon proximity or time of day. Online tools have brought down the many barriers to communication, allowing students, teachers and professionals to interact with and learn from one another regardless of location.

The potential for learning is mind-blowing to say the least. With a savvy educator as a coach and guide, the entire world can become the classroom, and peoples who populate it can be our co-educators. Even our students have the opportunity to become the teachers.

What do our students have to gain if we take steps to embrace online collaboration in our classrooms? We need only look to a few real-life examples to see:

• Students in New Jersey are building understanding by learning about others. Through video conferencing, they have interviewed others their age in Iowa to talk about how they perceive one another and how the economic crisis is affecting their lives and families.[i] Read about the efforts that are transforming the Van Meter Community School District in Iowa, written by Superintendent John Carver.
• Teachers in the US are using free video conferencing such as Skype to facilitate international conversations. For example, educator Silvia Tolisano put together conversations in German and English by connecting her class with one in Argentina. See this and lots more examples in this article, 50 Awesome Ways to Use Skype in the Classroom.
• If you haven’t heard of it, the ePals Global Learning Community is facilitating collaborative learning across the planet. Through their network, students and teachers come together to do everything from using digital storytelling to learn about world cultures to discussing and developing solutions to global warming. Visit the Projects section of ePals for ideas and ways to plug into great work already underway.

Of course, these kinds of tools and techniques expose our students to all that the world—literally—has to offer. But just as importantly, in using these strategies we are helping our students establish the neural connections that will make these kinds of experiences second nature to them. We are strengthening their abilities to focus more on the meaningful content and creative ideas that come from these experiences as opposed to focusing on just the superficial “wow” factor. Not only that, but we are helping them develop the habits of mind for using these tools and techniques that will serve them so well as they endeavor to solve problems in the future.

For more ideas and articles about online collaboration, check out eSchool News’ collection of articles on the subject at http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/11/21/engaging-students-through-online-collaboration/

[i] Prabhu, Maya T. Will Skype eclipse fee-based videoconferencing? eSchool News. May 17, 2010. http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/05/17/will-skype-eclipse-fee-based-videoconferencing/?ast=55

Related Reading:

Creating the Optimal "Internal" Learning Environment

Ok, So You Made a Mistake. But Look What You Learned!

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Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning

Tags: digital natives, elementary school learning, high school learning, how children learn, innovation, learning environment, middle school learning, motivating students, novelty, social studies, technology in education

Teaching Creativity in the Classroom

• March 1, 2011 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.

Think about the workplace of tomorrow. What skills need to be developed in today’s students so that we can ensure their maximum success? While we might not know what their jobs will look like, we do know that tomorrow’s professionals will need to be adaptable, effective learners, and able to think critically and creatively.

To focus on one of these skills, how can we effectively teach creativity in the classroom?  More often than not, we teach students patterned thinking. We rarely focus on teaching them to break out from patterns. But we must.

Edward de Bono, author of sixty-two books, has spent his career pursuing this very subject. His books, Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step (1973), Six Thinking Hats (1999) and Six Frames for Thinking About Information (2008) amongst others, have become well-known tools for teaching people how to liberate their creative brains. For us as teachers, Lateral Thinking offers wonderful, concrete methods and tools we can use in the classroom.

Many of De Bono’s exercises do what I think of as “de-emphasizing the context” to teach students to think freely outside the box. They present students with situations free of context and ask them to work with raw information to create the context from nothingness.

In one example, he describes how a teacher shows his students a photo of people dressed in street clothes wading through water at a beach (p. 81). The teacher then asks the students to come up with interpretations as to what is going on in the picture. The teacher has de-emphasized the context; the crux of the activity is to develop the context using their imaginations.

In this situation, de Bono says that students might respond by saying that the picture shows a group of people caught by the tide, or a group crossing a flooded river, or people wading out to a ferry boat which cannot come to shore, or people coming ashore from a wrecked boat.

The fact that the photo is actually of a group of people protesting at a beach is completely irrelevant. The author stresses that the right answer is not important; generating as many interpretations as possible is. The teacher has created a safe, controlled environment and activity where students are encouraged to think outside the box and exercise creative habits of mind, free from qualitative judgment. He even goes on to suggest that if a student comes up with a particularly unfeasible interpretation, the teacher should not judge, but continue to question the student until the context for the interpretation becomes clear, encouraging cultivation of the student's creative skill.

Now, imagine how developing this kind of skill might help a student succeed in other areas. What if they were in a physics class and asked to design a car that ran on the power of a rubber band? What if they were asked to write a poem in an English class? In establishing the “habit” of thinking creatively, we have a great opportunity to affect any number of areas in our students’ lives.

At Scientific Learning, we talk a lot about improving skills through brain fitness exercises that help develop pathways and establish patterns in the brain to help transform students into more effective readers and learners. In this same vein, we as educators can help our students develop patterns and strategies for thinking creatively, a skill that will surely serve them well as they move forward into their unwritten futures.

To learn more about Edward de Bono and his work visit http://www.edwarddebono.com.

Related Reading:

Building Unstructured Play Into the Structure of Each Day

Teaching and Learning with Intent through Guided Reading Activities

 

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Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning

Tags: academic success, arts, creativity, how children learn, learning through play, motivating students, teacher impact

Ok, so you made a mistake. But look what you learned!

• January 26, 2011 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.

As an educator, I want to see students putting forth the absolute best effort they can, each and every time they attempt a task. But what might happen if we created a classroom culture where making mistakes were more integral to the learning process? What if failure were discussed openly and positively as a key part of the learning experience?

In most traditional schools today, when we look at the grade system,
A-B-C-D-F, we see the F at the bottom of the scale. It says, “You’ve attempted this task and not performed up to standards.” There is little to no upside to the grade. It is the label we give to an effort that has delivered a less than satisfactory performance. For the person who has received it, it is a dead end. It can be painful and embarrassing, dragging down his self-esteem and reinforcing an image of himself as a failure.

As educators, the trick for us is to turn each of these moments--each of these mistakes and failures--into a beginning and a learning opportunity, and cultivate that same perspective in our students’ minds as well. Scientifically speaking, at the moment of failure, the brain is primed to absorb the information needed to perform the task successfully the next time around. In short, when we have the perspective that we can learn from our mistakes, parts of the frontal lobe are engaged when we make errors and that helps draw attention to those errors. (See Motivation to do Well Enhances Responses to Errors and Self-Monitoring, Bengtsson, Lau and Passingham, 2009.)                                         

What if we became more cognizant of these ideas and harnessed their power in the classroom? 

For a moment, suspend your image of the classroom where statements like “I must always get the right answer” represent the mindset. Instead, imagine a classroom designed around statements such as:

• “While I will learn by studying and listening, I will learn the most by doing.”
• “I will demonstrate my abilities through successes, but I will learn through my mistakes.”
• “Mistakes are a way for me to get feedback so I can do it right the next time.”
• “This classroom is a safe place where I am encouraged to try, to experiment, to fail and to use those failures to learn even more.”

Interestingly, these statements embody a “growth mindset,” which we wrote about last year. In short, based on the research of Carol S. Dweck of Stanford University, if we teach students to be go-getters who face challenges as learning opportunities with open-mindedness as opposed to a fear of failing, their brains are more apt to learn effectively.                                                                                                                         

It is essential to note that in such a classroom, making mistakes would be clearly differentiated from carelessness and lack of effort, which would not be tolerated.

What would it be like to learn in such a classroom? Students would be encouraged to develop and try new ideas. Getting a wrong answer on a math test represents an opportunity to go back and learn a better way of solving the problem. Students in this classroom learn science by getting out and experiencing material directly in the field. They learn to USE the scientific method as opposed to reading about it in textbooks or performing formulaic lab demonstrations.

What kind of professional might that person grow to be?  Imagine the mindset of the student who comes out of a system founded on these ideas. This person is an innovator who has little fear of trying new ideas. This is someone who has been encouraged to think outside the box. This is also a person who, when she makes mistakes, sees them as a moment to learn and improve. Each failure represents a look ahead to the future. This person sees herself as a problem-solver.

As countless economists, sociologists and other thinkers have posited, the future will be owned by those who can innovate, to try new ideas and, certainly, risk failure. These are skills that we can and must impart to our students. And we can start doing so by more highly valuing the making of mistakes and transforming them into powerful teachable moments.

For further reading, check out:

1. The Value of Mistakes, by Jeffrey Agrell
2. You’ve Made a Mistake. Now what?, by Amy Gallo

 

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Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning

Tags: academic success, behavior, emotions in learning, how children learn, learning environment, motivating students, self-esteem, student reading growth

Beating Bullying for Better Learning

• December 16, 2010 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.

In March of 2000, nine year-old Verity Ward of Great Britain had been pushed to the limit. She had been physically and emotionally bullied by fellow students at her school. They had repeatedly kicked, slapped and otherwise abused her for over eighteen months.

At the time, after she and her family tried unsuccessfully to have the problem addressed by the school, she said, “"I just want them to stop. I can't take it anymore. I used to love coming to school, but now I hate it." (BBC News, 2000)

Sadly, Verity’s experience is somewhat common. In a 2001 survey funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, sixteen percent of U.S. school children reported being bullied sometime during the current term. (National Institute of Health, 2001) Bullying is something we tend to think of as taking place between individuals or small groups. The reality is that such destructive interactions not only affect the lives and learning of those directly involved, but those affects can ripple outward, negatively affecting the  across classrooms and even the entire school.

While bullying can encompass any number of behaviors, the general definition involves one individual using an imbalance of power to dominate another. While this imbalance can be real or perceived and exist between individuals or groups, it manifests in a combination of three ways: physical, verbal and psychological abuse. Interestingly, males tend to be bullies and/or bullied more often than females. Between males, physical and verbal bullying is more prevalent. Among females, verbal and psychological forms tend to be more common. (U.S. Department of Justice, June 2001)

Bullying can create a stressful, anxiety-filled environment where it becomes difficult for individual victims, classrooms and even the whole of a school population to learn effectively. Studies have already shown that victims of bullying are more likely to have cognitive deficits than their peers and score lower on tests that measure executive function. Researchers suspect that the lower academic performance in such individuals may be a result of the chronic stress that can actually kill brain cells. (Seattle Times, March 2010)

So what can an institution do to remedy the problem? In the 1980s, researcher Dan Olweus of Norway implemented a multi-level intervention program to address bullying:

1. At the school level, he surveyed the bullying problems, increased supervision, held school-wide assemblies, and offered staff training to increase awareness.
2. In classrooms, he helped to establish rules against bullying and helped conduct classroom meetings--including parents--to discuss the problem of bullying at school.
3. Finally, he performed individual interventions with those identified as bullies and victims. (Limber and Nation)

The results of Olweus’s work were more than promising. In just two years, reported incidents of bullying had dropped by half. What is more, students reported drops in truancy and vandalism and theft, and, maybe most importantly, they characterized their school environment as “more positive as a result of the program.” (Ibid.)

While bullying is an extremely serious and prevalent problem in schools across our nation, work such as that of Olweus gives us as educators a clear response. The fact is, we must respond. We cannot let bullying go un-addressed as it so often is. In taking actions that involve whole school populations as opposed to just the bullies and victims, we make the issue a public one. We give the victims a voice, and we give every member of the school community the tools to talk about and deal with the issue head-on.

In the end, we can relieve the victims of their pain, freeing them to take advantage of all the school has to offer. We can also help bullies build self-esteem and positive relationships. As educators, it is our responsibility to help every individual--bully as well as victim--to find their positive life path and achieve success.

For more information, check out these articles:

1. Bullying Widespread in U.S. Schools, Survey Finds, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, April 24, 2001.
2. Addressing the Problem of Juvenile Bullying, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Fact Sheet, June 2001.
3. Bullying Among Children and Youth, Limber, Susan, and Nation, Maury.

 

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Categories: Brain Research, Education Trends, Reading & Learning

Tags: academic problems, behavior, cognitive skills, emotions in learning, executive function, health and well being, learning environment, self-esteem

A Sluggish Economy’s Drag on a Generation’s Ability to Perform and Achieve

• December 2, 2010 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.

As we've recently gone through the election process, a discussion of our nation's challenged economy might appear to be a tired topic. While adult generations look toward a strong recovery in the coming years, young children may potentially experience the negative consequences of these times for the rest of their lives.

Today, research has demonstrated a clear correlation between socio-economic status (SES) and cognitive ability. In a recent article by Amy Novoteny, The recession's toll on children, the author makes a clear point that while our nation as a whole will surely recover from this downturn, the current generation of disadvantaged children may not. She says children of lower SES experience "negative education and cognitive outcomes as a result of less mental stimulation and increased stress in their living situations." (An interesting note, the same lab that uncovered the phenomenon cited by Novoteny used Fast ForWord on both typically developing children and children with language delay; they observed behavioral improvements as well as physiological evidence for the basis for these improvements. See Stevens,C., Fanning, J., Coch, D., Sanders, L., Neville, H., 2008. This video blog post also discusses Stevens' research.)

As finances put stresses on home lives and force parents to spend more time worrying about work, these same parents are spending less time and energy on their children, playing with them less and reading to them more infrequently. These children's cognitive development is suffering as a result.

Novoteny's ideas are echoed by researchers Raizada and Kishiyama who quote findings that "children from low SES backgrounds perform below children from higher SES backgrounds on tests of intelligence and academic achievement." Additional supporting research showed that these children are "more likely to fail courses, be placed in special education, and drop out of high school compared to high SES children." (Raizada and Kishiyama, 2010)

Interestingly, the data demonstrating these conclusions have historically been based on behavioral studies. The path of research pursuing the neural component-the actual physiological effects upon the neuroplastic brain-is a relatively new one. An example of one such innovative study was performed recently at Berkeley where researchers studied the developmental differences between low- and high-income children through studying the differences in their EEG recordings. The study showed that the recordings of "nine- and ten-year olds from poorer homes showed less brain activity in the prefrontal cortex than the brains of children from more well-off families." (Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Vol. 21, No. 6) According to cognitive psychologist and study co-author Mark Kishiyama, "These kids have no neural damage, no prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol... Yet the prefrontal cortex is not functioning as efficiently as it should be. This difference may manifest itself in problem-solving and school performance."

Neural studies have helped us develop effective interventions for those with learning disabilities related to the brain's neurology, such as dyslexia and stroke. This shines great hope on the potential that research will be able to draw on existing interventions, as well as develop new and innovative techniques, to help level the playing field for these young students who have developed learning difficulties as a result of SES.

Part of my excitement around this subject stems from the fact that when it comes to interventions, psychologists say that the while the brain is vulnerable to the negative influences of poverty, it is likewise able to benefit from positive stimuli and nurturing relationships. Just as these students face the possibilities of negative results, they also have all the requisite abilities-with the right interventions-to turn them into successful outcomes. Those interventions might take any number of forms; Fast ForWord represents one of those interventions that is proven to work. Still, the best early intervention is available in each and every home. Nothing can compare to the positive impact of parents spending more time regularly reading with their children.

To learn more about the impact of a down economy on cognitive development in young children, read Novoteny's article, The recession's toll on children, published this past September by the American Psychological Association.

For a deeper look into previous research as well as a survey of potential interventions for low SES children, read Raizada and Kishiyama's 2010 article, Effects of socioeconomic status on brain development, and how cognitive neuroscience may contribute to leveling the playing field.

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Categories: Education Trends, Family Focus, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning

Tags: academic problems, academic success, at-risk, child reading development, cognitive skills, early learning, intervention, learning environment, struggling students

Why Limit Screen Time? Scientific Research Explains

• November 18, 2010 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.

This past September in a blog posting about the importance of physical exercise, I opened with a comment about the powerful pull that the video screen exerts on young brains. To be sure, this useful evolutionary adaptation has served us very well. Our instinctive ability to focus and concentrate on fast-moving, bright stimuli is a survival mechanism that allowed our ancestors to escape from many a tight spot. Even so, with the advent of modern technologies such as computers and television, we are now experiencing the down side of an endless flood of engaging electronic input. Research has shown that extensive screen time has the power to negatively affect our very chemistry and biology.

As we know from brain plasticity research, the stimuli we receive over time directly affect the development and wiring of the brain. Still, these effects are only the beginning of a long list of problems that screen time engenders. This past September, British psychologist and biologist Aric Sigman published an article in the British MailOnline that pulls together the conclusions of recent research from around the globe, painting a clear picture of the deleterious effects of screen time, and that picture is far from pretty. In fact, it is one that we, as parents, as teachers and as members of a national community, must not ignore.

While screen time has been shown to have negative psychological effects, I found Sigman's run-down of the chemical and biological effects to be of particular concern:

1. Suppression of melatonin release: Healthy levels of melatonin help regulate sleep, the immune system, and the onset of puberty. When children who watched an average amount of TV had all screen time removed, their melatonin levels went up by 30 percent after one week.
2. Increased chance of coronary heart disease: A study of 290 boys aged 15 showed that those who averaged over two hours of screen time a day had "elevated levels of chemical markers related to the development of coronary heart disease in later life." A different study out of Melbourne showed that for each hour an adult watches TV a day, there is an 18 percent increase in the likelihood that this adult will die from heart disease. Says Sigman, "Those who watched four or more hours were 80 percent more likely to suffer a fatal heart condition."
3. Changes in chemicals related to hunger and feeling satisfied: After 45 minutes of screen time, subjects consumed 230 calories more than those who had no screen time. Also, women who watched TV during a meal were more likely to snack later on.
4. Elevated blood cholesterol: Individuals between five and 15 who watched more than two hours a day were more likely to have raised blood cholesterol later in life.
5. Release of dopamine: Screen time causes the release of dopamine, a chemical that contributes to learning and concentration. As a result, our brains may become desensitized to the effects of normal levels of dopamine, making it hard to concentrate and focus on non-screen-based stimuli.

Taken in sum, these studies are sending us a clear message that we as parents and educators must take to heart: the more these screen-based technologies occupy time in our days, the more vigilant we must be about maintaining our own healthy habits, as well as educating our students to the risks so they can make their own smart decisions and lead long, healthy lives.

Learn more about the effects of screen time:

• Read more about Dr. Sigman and his work on his website, http://www.aricsigman.com/
• For an overview, read Dr. Sigman's complete article, Teletubbies is as bad for your child as a violent video game, says leading psychologist (MailOnline.com, September 11, 2010)

Get the details from Dr. Sigman's February 2007 article from Biologist, Visual voodoo: the biological impact of watching TV.

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Categories: Brain Fitness, Family Focus

Tags: brain plasticity, digital natives, health and well being, video

The Inspirational—Remarkably Human—Child Prodigy

• October 21, 2010 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.

Why are we so fascinated by people like Akrit Jaswal, IQ 146, who performed his first surgery at seven years old; or Kim Ung-Yong, IQ 210, who attended university at age four and received his doctorate in physics at age fifteen; or the precocious Adora Svitak, who has become an accomplished writer, poet, teacher and humanitarian by age twelve?

We have interests and passions just like they do. Still, their abilities allow them to pursue their passions and achieve fantastic success at speeds most of us reach only in our dreams. While their talents and unique minds set them apart from the general public, they represent the best of us, with incredible abilities to learn, process and utilize information and skills. When we look at these individuals, we see life trajectories jumping effortlessly from success to success ad infinitum.

One branch of research into prodigies asks the question: What gives them these abilities? While the scientific basis is still not entirely understood, the Society for Neuroscience, in its briefing, Glia: The Other Brain Cells (September 2010), suggests that part of this capability might lie in a very high density of glia cells which support synaptic function and, ultimately brain plasticity. Studies of Albert Einstein's brain in the 1980s revealed a high density of glia cells "especially in the association cortex, an area of the brain involved with imagination and complex thinking."

Another branch of research asks another question altogether: Why is it that child prodigies often do not necessarily grow up into the out-of-this-world adult successes that we imagine they would? According to Ellen Winner, Boston College professor of psychology and author of Gifted Children: Myths and Realities, child prodigies rarely grow up to become adult geniuses. Interestingly, their young minds seem to be able to master knowledge that has already been discovered, but that does not always come with the ability to create, which "requires innovation, rebelliousness, dissatisfaction with the status quo (What Are Child Geniuses Like As Adults? (ABC News, 2005)."

Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of Blink, Outliers and The Tipping Point, summed it up when he said, "What a gifted child is, in many ways, is a gifted learner. And what a gifted adult is, is a gifted doer. And those are quite separate domains of achievement." (See APS Observer, August 2006) In Outliers, Gladwell argues that most so called geniuses (but not these types of prodigies) became experts in their fields by early and intense exposure and practice in areas that they would later excel in; his guesstimate is that it takes about 10,000 hours to become an expert. Somehow, with their mental abilities, these prodigies do what they do without Gladwell's time investment.

Research aside, they represent amazing talents, and we are right to find inspiration in them. Adora Svitak does possess that restlessness and dissatisfaction; these are the minds that I find most interesting. Through watching someone like Miss Svitak learn and succeed as she matures, I am constantly inspired to take my own learning and my own successes, and see how I can use them to make the world a better place.

Learn more about child prodigies in these articles:

• What Are Child Geniuses Like As Adults? ABC News, 2005
• 10 child prodigies (who actually ended up doing something), CNN Living, December 10,2007)
• The Myth of Prodigy and Why it Matters, Observer, Association for Psychological Science, August 2006

Finally, do take eight minutes and thirteen seconds and watch Adora Svitak's February 2010 TED talk. You will be inspired.

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Categories: Reading & Learning

Tags: accelerate learning, arts, cognitive skills, creativity, early learning, Innate abilities, innovation, intelligence

Fit Bodies Make Fit Brains: Physical Exercise and Brain Cells

• September 23, 2010 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.

The pull of the video screen is incredible, isn’t it? Students love working on computers in their classrooms, and then they go home and want to dive right back into e-mailing their friends and playing online games. Add to that the constant calling and texting on cell phones, and you might imagine we are developing a population with a fantastic intellect but a dismal future when it comes to physical health.

In the face of such technological and social forces, we as educators must not underestimate the importance of physical education and health literacy. As a nation, we are lumbering heavily down the wrong track. One in three Americans will develop diabetes, dying 10-15 years too soon. The prevalence of childhood obesity has doubled since the 1980s. And, with the abundance of processed foods, it’s getting harder and harder for students to make healthy choices.

Most everyone understands—especially those of us who have taught in the classroom—that time spent in vigorous physical activity during the school day helps students stay alert and more attentive during intensive classroom time. But I recently read an article that expanded my thinking on the subject. On June 7, 2010, the New York Times published a blog, Phys Ed: Your Brain on Exercise, by Gretchen Reynolds. The article outlines the research done in the 1990s by Dr. Fred Gage and his colleagues at the Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute in San Diego, as well as that of Dr. Jack Kessler, the chairman of neurology at Northwestern. Together, their studies show that physical exercise is not just important for building healthy muscles, hearts and lungs. It is essential for a healthy brain, too. As it turns out, maintaining a healthy noggin depends partly upon the presence of a chemical called, interestingly enough, noggin.

Dr. Gage’s research discusses the interplay of two chemicals that affect brain development: bone-morphogenic protein (BMP), which helps control cell division, and noggin, which is involved with the production of new brain cells.  These two chemicals are in constant competition, pushing back and forth and creating balance in the production of brain cells. As the years pass, our brains become less and less able to produce these cells, and BMP slows things down even more. In short, just as our muscles do not rebuild themselves as well when we get older, our brains likewise become less able to replenish their tissues.

So, how does exercise help? It does two things: it lowers the amount of BMP AND increases the presence of noggin. In Dr. Kessler’s lab tests, the mice who received more exercise not only had more noggin in their brains, but they performed better in mazes and other tests. In his words, they were "little mouse geniuses, if there is such a thing."

The research exploring the connections between exercise, BMP and noggin are ongoing. But we now know that exercise clearly helps ensure that our bodies AND brains stay healthy. For me, the science points once again to something that we as educators cannot ignore. We should not underestimate the importance of a solid physical education program. In addition, we can add to that the physical fun and play of recess, and help our students create life-long habits that contribute to maintaining healthy bodies as well as healthy noggins.

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Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Reading & Learning

Tags: childhood obesity, exercise, health and well being, physical education, play

Building Unstructured Play Into the Structure of Each Day

• August 20, 2010 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.

As educators, we carefully design connections between what we teach and our students' future success. Practically every aspect of our young people's school day is designed with a specific learning purpose in mind. Along with helping them learn foundational, essential content, we also employ classroom experiences to help students learn to apply knowledge to creative solutions, analyze situations to make smart decisions, and learn to collaborate with others.

Now, stop for a moment and think about the skills I just listed: analyzing challenges; making decisions; creating; collaborating. As it turns out, these are all benefits that young brains get out of the simple experience of good old-fashioned unstructured play.

Today, 21st century society has evolved into one where our children's time is over-scheduled and over-structured. A recent poll of 2,000 parents in the UK indicated that, after figuring in school, homework, extra lessons, after-school activities and television and computer screen time, the average child gets a seriously inadequate 69.77 minutes a day for unstructured play.

Why is unstructured playtime so essential? In the 2007 clinical report, The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds, published by The American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg outlines the key benefits of play, which include:

• The development of creativity, imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength
  
• The ability to engage, interact with and manipulate the surrounding world
  
• The opportunity to conquer fears and practice adult roles
  
• The ability to develop self-confidence and resiliency
  
• The chance to work in groups, share, negotiate, resolve conflicts and learn self-advocacy
  
• The opportunity to build healthy, active, coordinated bodies

The list goes on and on and on. And yet, even with that understanding of the importance of such play for healthy development, we find it challenging--both as parents and educators--to make that time. But we can and we must, so let us assume that you can successfully "unplan" some time each week. Once we flip the switch to the "off" position, then what? Here are a few ideas just to get you started:

• Spend a day in the park. But for goodness sake, don't plan anything! Just bring a picnic and let the rest happen. (It will, you'll see.)
  
• Pay a regular visit to the library and let those budding brains explore.
  
• Revisit your back yard. Remember that place? You will be amazed and what a few youngsters will devise with just some sticks, a garden hose and some nice, yummy mud. (Notice: Getting dirty is part of the fun and the learning. It'll be even more fun if you get into it with them.)
  
• Plan more play dates. Not only will friendships become more and more solid, but the negotiation and collaboration skills learned will be invaluable.
  
• Keep those art supplies stocked. Get a simple plastic cabinet, box or trunk that you can keep stashed in a closet, and FILL IT with art supplies. Then, maybe when it is least expected, open that treasure chest and let the magic happen.

As the grownups and educators, we want to plan with purpose. In the case of play, we need to relax and take it easy. If we can simply present some options, children and play will find their way.

Now, what about teens, who are by nature struggling to find their way? In general, teens' time is much more structured than that of younger children, considering that they are juggling school, homework, sports, music lessons, clubs, etc. While the general opinion is that teens have a greater propensity for getting into trouble when they have too much unstructured time, we must not forget that there are still benefits to unstructured time. Given reasonable boundaries, teens will continue to reap the benefits of unstructured time by stretching and exercising their mental wings. Think about all the great things that teens are doing through YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs of America and similar organizations that give them the time and space to just be themselves in a safe, stimulating environment. Home can and should be just as safe, positive and creative.

While the research available is extensive, here are a couple of articles just to get you started:

• The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds, Kenneth R. Ginsburg, MD, MSEd, American Academy of Pediatrics (January 2007)
  
• Make Way for Play, Walter F. Drew EdD, Scholastic (June 2007)

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Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Family Focus

Tags: cognitive skills, creativity, development, elementary learning, elementary school learning, emotions in learning, health and well being, how children learn, imagination, learning through play, middle school learning, play, self-esteem