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The Brain Research Behind
the Importance of Teaching with Interactive Multimedia
an article by Neil MacQueen,
Sunday Software
based on the book "Brain Rules" ...summary of the latest brain
research
by Dr. John Medina, a developmental molecular biologist
It's more than "just
hype."
There is now an extensive
body of peer-reviewed brain science supporting the reasons why interactive
multimedia should be part of our teaching and learning.
Interactive computer
software attracts the learner's attention and promotes
better retention of content because it delivers content the
way the brain is WIRED to learn and love it. And as new
research continues to unlock the secrets of how the brain learns
and remembers, the case for multimedia-based learning only gets
stronger. Thus for teachers, the only question is this:
how can we take advantage of this tremendous opportunity?
This is the question I encountered when I first began teaching
with software in 1990. I could see that the kids (and adults)
were fascinated. In each version of my book, Teaching with
Computers in Christian Education and numerous articles and
teaching guides at this website -I have continued to refine my
insights based on classroom experience and the research. This
article is about some of the latest research.
Some of the latest Brain research is summarized in an easy-to-read entertaining book
by Dr. John Medina
titled:
"Brain
Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work,
Home and School."
It could have been
titled "12 things you need to know about how the Brain
really works."
Dr. Medina, is a developmental molecular
biologist, University of Washington professor, and award
winning brain
researcher, with a special interest in explaining and
applying the brain research to benefit teachers, students, and parents.
His website, www.brainrules.net,
is also very informative.
Outline of this Article
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First, I want to
tell a little bit about how, as a minister, I got
interested in Brain research, and how it has affected my
ministry.
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Second, I will summarize
what the research says, and offer some of my comments.
-
Lastly in this
article, I've created a list of Brain Rules for Teachers and
Preachers.
1. How a minister got interested
in
Brain Research
I first got interested in
how
brain science informs and enhances our teaching and preaching while
serving as a pastor for Christian education at a Chicago area church
in the early 90's. The Chicago Tribune ran a series of articles on the
early brain research coming out of the the University of Chicago,
...much of it being funded by Alzheimer's research. Like many
teachers, I intuitively knew that creative teaching wasn't just
"entertainment," it was essential, and the research was
beginning to put good science behind it. I was particularly
interested in how our memories work --mostly because I was tired of
my students forgetting half of what I taught them! But also
because I was interested in how I as a preacher and teacher could
help my students remember sermons, Bible stories, and verses.
While at that Chicago church, I
helped create a new model and movement for Sunday School called
The Workshop Rotation Model.
The Rotation Model is a multimedia informed re-design of
the
traditional program, --which also addresses how teachers can get
more creative and teach better without tons of training or prep
work.
At about the same time I read about Harvard University professor
Howard Gardner's groundbreaking
work in the theory of "multiple
intelligences." Gardner's insights and research
into how we learn provided the scientific basis for our leap
into the Rotation Model. In that model, one story is taught through
a series of different media over several lessons in several
different rooms with several different teachers. The Model has now
spread to thousands of churches. (to learn more go to
www.sundaysoftware.com/rotation.htm or
www.rotation.org)
Most of all through
these years, I was fascinated with WHY and HOW students couldn't get
enough of whatever we put on the computer in our Rotation Model
Computer Workshop. In 1996 I started a company
to share what I was learning and help churches learn how to find and teach
better with software. Some churches DIDN'T CARE
"why" or "how" --they just wanted to see the kids "happy." But
"happy" wasn't good enough for me.
I wanted to know "why" they couldn't leave the computer alone, and how we
could better harness the computer's attention grabbing power to improve our
teaching. So I continued to read the research, and I began to
more closely examine my own software teaching experiences.
In 2000, I began
designing a
whole new kind of Christian education software, --applying what I
knew from experience and from the research. Throughout the years I
continued to teach through other media and I continued to preach
---trying to apply what the science was telling us about our
learners. (See below for my Brain Rules for
Preaching)
And that quest
continues....
2. So what DOES the research say?
Brain Rules summarizes what the research is
telling us
about how the brain works, learns and remembers. Much of the research is very recent due
to the advent of new scanning techniques and funding sources. And
there is a lot of it. Dr. Medina's 12 Brain
Rules are not the conclusions of one study, but of many.
Some of
the conclusions are surprising, but others
only confirm what creative teachers have known
for years and can now say "told you so." But rather than
only say that, we also should be using the research to improve our methods,
as well as,
using
the research to address critics in the church who think some
of our creative
methods are superfluous "entertainment."
So here's a short summary of
the 12 "Brain Rules". You can
see them
creatively presented at
www.brainrules.net. The
following
are excerpts, and I have modified some of the wording in order to
condense them here. The book is much more expressive and full of
stories and examples which illustrate the points.
Below, I've added my own comments
in
RED.
The 12 "Brain Rules"
...what the body of
research says -so far...
Brain Rule #1: To improve your thinking
you must move. Our brain organ evolved for a walking animal
not a sedentary one.
Exercise is required to bring your brain the large amounts of
glucose it needs, and the oxygen it requires to soak up toxic
electrons. Exercise also stimulates the proteins that keep neurons
connecting to one another. Aerobic exercise twice a week cuts the
risk of Alzheimers by 60 percent.
Getting the kids moving in the morning is a good thing. The case for
active learning and for recreational breaks continues to grow.
Sitting and listening to someone talk is not what the brain likes to do.
Brain Rule #2: We have three brains in our
head, not one, and each has a distinct structure, with rather
distinct functions. And each competes to a certain extent with the
other. The "lizard brain" handles automatic functions, such as
breathing. The "mammalian brain" handles the four "human needs"
::: feeding, fighting, fleeing, and reproduction. This second brain
includes the amygdala and hippocampus which are critical processing
centers, especially for memories and emotions. The Cortex is the
third brain --where logical,
creative and symbolic thinking happens. All three parts of the brain
have evolved to help us survive in a complex world.
Smart teaching recognizes the total student. When we lead a class, each student is processing the
experience at many different levels, -with different parts of
their brain recording and reacting. Traditional approaches have over-emphasized
cognitive-cortex learning, and underestimated the degree to
which other parts of our students' brains were ALSO forming
opinions.
As a child, my mammalian brain wanted to flee Sunday
School. As a youth minister, I saw the tug-o-war between between
my students' brains cortex and their reproductive hormones. It
made me a much more sympathetic teacher.
A
great lesson plan in a bad smelling room or threatening
environment doesn't work.
Brain Rule #3: Every brain is wired differently.
Even
twin's brains. What we do and experience and learn constantly
changes how are brains are wired. The various regions within the
brain develop at different rates in different people. No two
people's brains store the same information in the same way or in the
same place in the brain. We have a great number of ways of being
intelligent (more than even Gardner's 7 intelligences), many of
which don't show up on IQ tests.
The current educational system is founded on
a series of expectations that certain learning goals should be
achieved by a certain age. Yet there is no reason to suspect
that the brain pays attention to those expectations. Students of
the same age show a great deal of intellectual variability. pg
67
These 'variations' are why I'm a
proponent of the Rotation Model...where we teach the same story
several weeks in a row but through different media each week,
and with a different teacher. This provides our students with
multiple ways to connect over an extended period of time, rather
than shoving one lesson into one time period with one teacher
with a limited number of activities.
It's also why I
like smaller class sizes, and as many teachers and helpers as we
can put in a computer lab --to work with "individuals" and not
just groups.
Rule #3 also
points up the folly of "8th Grade Confirmation Class." No
way they are all ready or at the same place.
It's one of the
reasons I like software too... students can work in groups at
their own pace. There's some individuality to it, and
differences the way a program presents its material appeals to
various parts of each learner's brain. Some response to the
interactivity while others pick up on the music or animation a
little better.
Brain Rule #4: We don't pay attention to
boring things. Emotional arousal helps the brain learn.
Audiences check-out after about 10 minutes, and you must grab them
back by telling stories and creating events rich in emotion.
Emotional content gets our attention very quickly. The brain is better at seeing
patterns, changes, and abstracting the meaning of an event -than it
is at recording details. The brain is built to grasp the meaning
of story more quickly and memorably than the details of the story.
And with regard to multi-tasking and distractions... the brain can only pay attention to one thing at a time.
Studies continue to show that the brain cannot multi-task and is
easily distracted from content -if the content isn't engrossing.
What we pay attention to is
profoundly influenced by memory. We use previous experience to
predict where we should pay attention. Different environments
create different expectations. pg 75
A person who is interrupted takes
50% longer to accomplish a task. pg 87
The brain needs a break. (We have
a) need for timed interruptions. pg. 88
It's key that the instructor
explains the lecture plan at the beginning of the class, with
liberal repetitions of "where we are" sprinkled throughout the
hour. pg 90
Every ten minutes in my lecture I
give my audience breaks from the firehose of information and
sent them a "hook" (a story or joke) pg 91
When a student is
focusing on content, we need to make sure we are reducing
distractions from other students, other activities in the room,
or other computers.
Software is
certainly "fun" ...but it's more than just that. Sometimes people
ask us why we make some of our software using 3D game engines,
or drop mini-games into the middle of content (like Bongo slinging bananas at
"surf mummies" in Bongo Loves the Bible, or Super Kenz flinging
donuts in Attack of the Sunday School Zombies). These playful
game elements break up content and give the brain a mini-break,
-which rather than interrupting learning, refreshes the mind.
You'll
notice that most of our software programs are broken into
smaller lesson pieces, rather than one long presentation. And
the pieces are varied
in terms of how they look and how the students interact with
them, After seeing a story presentation, they may find a
quiz or a set of pop-up study questions, or a game about
content.
Brain Rule
#5: Short-term Memory: Repeat to Remember
Our brain has many types of memory systems. Your ability to
remember something grows the more often you retrieve the memory. A
memory is stronger if the event was meaningful,
elaborate (rich in detail) and the context of learning was rich.
Memories are more easily retrieved if the context of the original
memory is recreated.
The majority of forgetting
happens within the first few hours after class. pg 100
The more elaborate we encode
information at the moment of learning, the stronger the memory.
...especially if we personalize it. pg 110
Making something more elaborate
or complicated should be more taxing to the memory system,
...but in fact, complexity means greater learning." pg 111
Recreating original context is
helpful. Learn something when you are sad, and you will better
be able to remember it at retrieval if you are sad.
pg 113
Information is best remembered
when it is elaborate, meaningful, and contextual (learned in a
rich environment). pg 114
The more a learner focuses on the
meaning of the presented information, the more elaborately the
encoding (into memory) is processed. pg 114
Introductions are everything. pg
116
Yes, we're trying
to grab their attention...because that's what the brain needs in
order to learn. Many of our
programs have eye-catching introductions, elaborate openings,
music, key animations at the beginning. You'll also see us
"salting in" extra content at key points in a story. The pop-up
study notes in Jonah or in the Creation Story (Awesome Bible
Stories CD) ADD/elaborate on content.
The complexity of
some of the software environments...the navigation and hunting
for things on the screen... these help create that emotional
connection (I wanna do this, I wanna win this!)
We need to train
parents to "go over what happened" in Sunday School that day.
Such rituals are important to memory storage.
Brain Rule #6: Remember to Repeat:
Most memories
disappear within minutes unless they are complex or have
emotional content. Memories which survive this fragile
early period of time strengthen over time if they are
recalled. Long term memories are
formed by the conversation between the
hippocampus and cortex as the memories are periodically recalled, and can take
years to become "fixed." This periodic recollection at
regular intervals is essential to long term memory development. Memory is dynamic: our brains
reinvent/rewire past memories each time they are recalled or mixed
with new knowledge. Memorization for the long-term requires recall
spaced at periodic intervals, rather than 'studied' in one short
period.
A great deal of research shows
that thinking or talking about an event immediately after it has
occurred enhances memory for that event. pg 131
The probability of confusion is
increased when content is delivered in unstoppable waves poured
into students as if they were wooden forms. pg 132
You must deliberately expose
yourself to the information (again) in fixed, spaced intervals,
if you want to retrieve it later. pg 133
Now you know why
many of our programs have quizzes, and why we often recommend
"going back" to your previously taught-with software... because
the kids will gladly "do it again" on the computer,
and it's VERY important to their long-term memories. If you're
only teaching things ONCE, then it's not important enough to
teach at all because the odds a very much against your students
remembering such.
When I first
started teaching with computers, we did a lot of quizzing, and I
still promote the use of quiz programs to reinforce previously
taught content. Computer labs are great at getting that
accomplished!
Brain Rule #7: Sleep well, think well. Numerous
and extensive sleep studies show that sleep
loss negatively affects: attention, executive functions, working memory, moods,
quantitative skills, logical reasoning, and motor dexterity. Sleep
appears to be the brain clearing and organizing itself. People vary
in how much sleep they need, but there is a universal biological
drive for taking an afternoon nap. 20 to 30 minute naps (and no
more) significantly improve post-nap higher brain
functions. It's not just a matter of "getting rest" ...it's about
giving your brain a chance to rest and clear itself. This process
does not happen if you are awake and just resting.
Two things that don't
help our kids' learning: Kids having late-night sleepovers on Saturday,
and Sunday School that's too early on Sunday morning.
Brain Rule #8: Stressed brains don't learn the same way as
non-stressed brains. Stressful events are not
conducive to learning because the brain goes into a stress mode. The
presence of adrenaline in the bloodstream inhibits certain types of
memory and learning functions. Chronic stress, such as hostility at home,
deregulates the brain's system which has evolved only to deal with
short-term stress through the release of adrenaline and cortisol.
Chronic stress scars blood vessels which can lead to plaque
build-up. The regular release of cortisol (a stress chemical)
damages cells in the hippocampus which can cripple learning and
memory. This is why the testimony of witnesses to a stressful event
is often considered unreliable. This is why children having trouble
at home most often have trouble in school.
A student coming
into your classroom who is under pressure, unhappy, experiencing
(or expecting) peer problems, having separation anxiety, and other
such stressful problems, will not be able to participate, learn
and remember lessons nearly as well as those who are happy to be
there.
Students who
create stress for others in the classroom bring everyone down.
Yeah, we knew this...but here's the research!
These are some of
the reasons why computers are such great teaching tools:
The kids want to be there and use them. The computer gets them
looking at a screen, rather than feeling like others are looking
at them. The intense focus on the computer helps them to forget
some of their problems for a while. i.e. it removes
distractions.
Brain Rule #9: Stimulate more of the senses.
Our senses
are not separate, but rather, they have evolved to work together. Vision for
example is influenced by hearing. Smells have an unusual power to
bring back memories because they bypass the thalmus and tie into the
supervisor of emotions called the amygdala. Past experiences affect
how we perceive current sensory information so that two people can
perceive the same event quite differently.
Groups in multisensory
environments always do better than groups in a unisensory
environments. pg 208.
When touch is combined with
visual information, recognition learning leaps forward by almost
30 percent. Simply put, multisensory presentations are the way
to go. pg 208
Cognitive psychologist Richard
Mayer's rules for multimedia presentations: pg. 210
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Students learn better
when words and pictures are combined, rather than just words alone.
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Students learn better
when words and pictures are presented at the same time
(like a movie with subtitles), rather than successively
(like in an old silent movie).
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Students learn better
when words and pictures are presented near to each other
rather than apart from each other on the page or screen.
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Students learn better
when extraneous/unnecessary visual and auditory material is excluded rather than
included.
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Students learn better
from animation and narration, rather than just animation with
text.
The brain connects associates
smell with emotional memories. This is known as the Proust
Effect. pg 211
Brain Rule #9 is a
commercial for why interactive multimedia software WORKS better
than sitting around a table listening to the teacher talk. It
also stresses the important of the learning environment. How
well do we learn in a MUSTY BEIGE Sunday School room?
 Brain Rule #10: Vision trumps all other senses.
Vision takes up over half the brain's resources. Study after study
shows that we learn and remember best through pictures and not
written or spoken words.
If information is presented
orally, people remember about 10 percent when tested 72 hours after
exposure. That figure goes up to 65 percent if you add a
picture. pg 234
Reading creates a bottleneck of
pictures,....choking our cortex. This happens not because text is not enough
like pictures, but because text is too much like pictures! To
our cortex, there is no such thing as "words," or "text" versus
pictures. (Text is just another form set visuals which the brain
must interpret). pg 234
This is why
especially to some young learners, reading is NOT as helpful to
their understanding of a Bible story as "seeing" it. When we ask
them to struggle with Bible text, especially text not written at
their reading level, their cortex is focused on trying to read,
rather than trying to comprehend what they are reading. And to
those who are stressed by having to read in front of others, we
know from Brain Rule #8 that the stress of reading in front of
others releases brain hormones that can dampen learning and
memory. What they will remember will be the stress.
Simple two-dimensional pictures
are quite adequate; studies show that if the drawings are too
complex or lifelike, they can distract from the transfer of
information. pg 238
Pictures are a more efficient way
to glue information to a neuron. pg 239
And now you know why we
like to create rich visual environments in our software.
#10 also explains
the attraction of cartoon characters. Animated Bible characters
get "glued" in our memories because they are not "just like"
every other person we see throughout the day.
Brain Rule #11: Male and Female Brains are different
structurally and biochemically, but the jury is still out on the
significance of these differences. Men, for example, process
serotonin faster. Men and women process acute stress differently.
Under stress women activate the left hemisphere's amygdala (the seat
of emotions) and remember the emotional content of events more
vividly. The research suggests that both nature and nurture are at
work in the differences.
There is on-going research into the
need and results of same-sex learning environments. Girls appear to
perform better in math, for example, when taught in an all-girl
setting.
Is there an application of some of
these preliminary findings for Sunday School? Perhaps. What Sunday
School teacher hasn't noticed the difference between how boys and
girls interact in the classroom. Some of it is nature, some nurture,
but regardless, the differences need to be addressed by our teaching
methods and environments.
 Brain Rule #12: The Human Brain has evolved to make us
powerful and natural explorers -from birth. Babies are the model
for how we learn throughout our lives: actively testing our
environment and relationships by observation, hypothesis,
experimentation and conclusion. Some parts of our adult brains stay
as malleable as a baby's brain, so we can create neurons and learn
new things throughout our lives.
Many of our
software programs function like explorations...or what I have
called scavenger hunts. Clicking on an object to make something
happen helps feed our need to explore and manipulate
environments to see what happens. When we do this: the brain
focuses and remembers. Flying over the Galilee
terrain in Galilee Flyer or Exodus Adventures, or meeting
Pharaoh in Joseph's Story CD (pictured) i.e. ... trying to
discover how to make things happen, how to open up things...
these things can frustrate a teacher who has limited prep time,
but they EXCITE the EXPLORER's mind.
Rule #12 also
points out the importance of having high quality infant and
toddler care at the church. The children ARE learning whether
the church is good place to be, -or not.
3. Brain Rules for
Teachers and Preachers...
Some highlights from the research/book from Neil
A Quick Summary for
Sunday School:
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Atmosphere
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Multimedia
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Low Stress
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Interactivity
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Creative variety
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Mini-breaks
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More individualized instruction
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Repetition during the lesson, and afterwards at spaced intervals
for long-term memory.
"Neil's Brain Rules for
Teachers & Preachers"
Here are some of the things from the book
that stuck out to me as a teacher and preacher...
Create compelling
introductions. According the research, compelling intros bring
the listener's brain on-board to hear your message.
Stories!
...because they speak with images and emotion, and thus are one
of the easiest things for the brain to remember.
Don't be afraid
of eliciting emotional responses in your listeners. The research
says that triggering emotionals biochemically
helps content get remembered.
Be visually
interesting as a speaker. MOVE! (the eye and mind is built to
pay attention to whatever moves). Stand still and speak in a
measured way switches off their brain.
Emphasize meaning
over details. Details are harder to remember and have a limited
memory shelf-life. Don't get bogged down in argument and story
details.
Break up your
sermon/teaching into more digestible parts for the brain. According to
numerous studies, the brain seems "wired to wander" after ten
minutes. It needs a cognitive break, moment of refreshment, a
change up to bring it back on line. Dr. Medina spends quite a
bit of time in his book describing how he structures his
lectures to reflect this basic wiring. His advice: Remember to bring
the brain back on
track with a fresh compelling content "restart" at least
every 10 minutes. Sermonizers should plan for pauses to let the
brain ponder and have a break.
Craft sermons
that reinforce the main point, rather than meander through a
shopping list of un-reinforced, unrepeated points. The brain is
wired to better remember repeated content, rather than single
unrepeated instances of content. Repeat, repeat, REPEAT.
Refer to
important points in previously preached sermons in order to
force the brain's memory functions to recall and re-cement the
memory of your content more deeply.
Get plenty of
sleep before preaching, it will sharpen your mind and delivery.
Same goes for the listeners. Be careful not to put their
bodies back to sleep with a room that's too warm, or a stretch
in the service where they have gotten a little too comfortable
or sedentary.
Having trouble writing your sermon? Go get some exercise.
Keep
a pen and pad of paper by your bed. Sleep researchers have long
noted that the brain is still processing while you think you are
asleep, and that the experience of being awaken with a clear or
creative thought or solution is not an accident. In fact,
sleep researchers suggest thinking about your subject before you
go to bed in order to load it in to the mind for processing.
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