The Science of Learning

I once again watched a terrific video on Edutopia called "Big Thinkers: Judy Willis on the Science of Learning."  This video was very informative and really got me thinking on how I want to integrate technology into my future classroom. 

The video is basically Judy Willis using her background in neurology to explain what does and does not work for students in the classroom.  Judy was a neurologist for fifteen years before she became a school teacher.  She explains that the reason she became a teacher was because she was getting so many referrals from teachers about students that they thought were ADHD, epileptic, or had other neurological disorders.  Curious at the increase of clients, Willis went into the schools to observe, and she said that what she saw was students being bored into acting out by teachers lecturing and using worksheets. 

Willis goes on to explain that the brain has a center of the brain, the amygdala, which is the emotional filter of the brain.  Whenever the amygdala becomes stressed, it sends all information entering the brain to the lower part of the brain.  This lower part of the brain is meant to deal with life or death situations and does not retain the knowledge that is entering it.  Willis says that boredom causes the amygdale to become stressed. 

What should teachers do to relieve boredom?  Willis recommends beginning by getting students attention in order to create curiosity.  Grabbing students' attention can be as simple as a new bulletin board, activity, or experience.  Once a teacher has the students' attention, he/she should then begin teaching.  However, there are times that teachers really want students to focus on a particular piece of information.  When this occurs, Willis recommends having a signal that says "pay attention this is important."  For Willis, she puts on a hat when she wants her students to focus or will change the color of her marker and has her students change the color of their writing utensil. 

Willis then goes on to talk about how 50% of the facts students learn will be modified.  She then asks, if it this is the case, is it important for teachers to teach a lot of fact?  She goes on to emphasize that it is more important for students to be taught application than to be given facts.  She says that students should instead be given the tools to enter the 21st century.  These tools are judgment, critical analysis, and problem solving, and by exercising the brain with the use of technology will help develop these tools.

Willis ends the video with the lessons learned from video games.  She states that video games give the brain achievable challenge levels and feedback at timely intervals.  She feels that students are so entranced with video games because of this.  She believes that teachers should implement differentiated learning in classrooms in order to emulate the benefits of video games. 

I felt that I learned a lot from the video.  I have heard a lot over the past few semesters on how students do no learn from lecture and worksheets, but I had not heard the neurological reason behind it. I am glad that research is being done to see what helps students learn and what hinders learning. It is also heartening to see schools changing from the traditional classroom that I grew up in, which was mainly lectures and workbooks.  I feel that this change will be beneficial to students, for teachers are focusing less on lectures and more on problem based learning.  However, I still see quite a few worksheets in the classroom.

I also felt that it was interesting that Willis was looking at why children find video games so interesting and is willing to take that knowledge and incorporate it into the classroom.  In my digital learning class, I have heard a lot of talk about how teachers are concerned with the amount of time students spend using technology.  I really liked how Willis was willing to take video games and use them as a guide on structuring her classroom.

Big Thinkers: Judy Willis on the Science of Learning. (2011, April 14). Retrieved March 16, 2014, from Edutopia: http://www.edutopia.org/big-thinkers-judy-willis-neuroscience-learning-video