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The Learning Brain: Learn How to Learn
- 1. The Learning Brain Dr.Frank O’Neill Frank@OnlineTeacherYOUniversity.com GrowGrayMatter on Twitter and Linkedin OnlineTeacherYOUniversity on Facebook and YouTube www.OnlineTeacherYOUniversity.com
- 2. All images inthe presentation are from Pixabay. No attribution is required www.pixabay.com
- 3. Why are YOUHere? “Learning HOW to learn is life’s most important skill.” -Tony Buzan
- 4. Why are YOUHere? • You want a better life! • You want to be a LEARNER instead of a STUDENT • You want 1 + 1 to equal 3
- 5. Why are YOUHere? • How you learned in high school will not work here • Most people are never taught about how the brain actually learns new material • What does brain science have to teach us about learning and memory?
- 6. Why am IHere? “The task of the excellent instructor is to stimulate “apparently ordinary” people to unusual effort. The tough problem is not to identify winners: it is in making winners out of ordinary* people.” -K. Patricia Cross *1 x 102,685,000 “If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn’t need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.” -Jim Rohn
- 7. What does itmean to LEARN??? “Education aims to give you a boost up the ladder of knowledge. Too often, it just gives you a cramp on one of its rungs.” -Martin H. Fischer • Has something ever stuck in your brain? • If you can learn SOMETHING, you can learn ANYTHING!
- 8. What does itmean to LEARN??? • What does it mean to learn something??? • Intake • Consolidate • Retrieve • Learning is a puzzle, and CRAMMING doesn’t fit
- 9. Learning is as“Easy” as Pie Intake 80% Consolidate 15% Retrieval 5% TRYING TO LEARN
- 10. Learning is as“Easy” as Pie Intake 34% Consolidate 33% Retrieval 33% LEARNING
- 11. How can IImprove the INTAKE? • Don’t leave before this talk is over!!! • Learn SMARTER not HARDER • Become an ACTIVE learner • Lay a solid foundation/First things First
- 12. How can IImprove the INTAKE? • Know when to go a mile DEEP, and when to go a mile WIDE • Deliberate practice versus 3 B’s mode • Pondering as a form of meditation
- 13. How can Iimprove CONSOLIDATION? • Your working memory won’t work • The enemy of consolidation is procrastination • Practice doesn’t make perfect! • Consolidation takes TIME and SLEEP • Move your downloads into your Dropbox
- 14. How can Iimprove RETRIEVAL? • Just do it! • Is it Test Anxiety or a Retrieval Deficiency?
- 15. Learning style, schmearningstyle • Learning preferences are real. Learning styles are not • They are more anchors than sails • What is the best learning style for this content at this time?
- 16. If Learning isEASY you are doing it WRONG • I am here to teach you the HARD way to study that will make your classes EASY • I was a great student, but a bad learner • Give me a hard working C student any day
- 17. If Learning isEASY you are doing it WRONG • My job is to accelerate your development by allowing you to learn from your mistakes • But wait, aren’t mistakes bad?!?
- 18. Mistakes are apart of Learning “If you can’t make a mistake, you can’t make anything.” -Marva Collins • Rule number 1 in my classroom • Secret to Success: Fail FAST and Fail FORWARD
- 19. Mistakes are apart of Learning • You can’t learn from mistakes if you aren’t making any! • Good “Students” want to look smart. Good LEARNERS want to be smart • Mistakes are opportunities to grow, learn, and improve • You didn’t fail. You now know something that doesn’t work
- 20. How do IFail Forward? • Fail at the right time • Do you want to be frustrated today or during the exam? • Fast feedback (know which bone to bone up on) • Test corrections are essential! • What did I do wrong, and how can I not do it again? • The worst mistake is the one you make twice
- 22. Spaced Practice “Whatever weplant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality.” -Earl Nightingale
- 23. Spaced Practice • Trainyour mind the way an athlete trains their muscles • How many weights do you lift today?
- 24. Spaced Practice • Nervesdevelop connections with repeated use. The more difficult it is for you to make connections the more often you must try • Neurons that fire together wire together • Grow a neural scaffold a little every day to hang your thinking on • Let the paint dry before you add another layer or start hanging up your photos
- 25. Spaced Practice • Howis your memory a lot like your blood sugar? • You shouldn’t “cram” a soda or “chug” your learning
- 26. Spaced Practice • Youmust visit a short term memory several times to move it to long term • Spaced repetition gives your brain the time and practice it needs to move memories into long term storage
- 27. Spaced Practice • Spacedrepetition isn’t hard, but overcoming procrastination is • 5 hours spread out over 2 weeks is way more effective than 5 hours at once 1 + 1 = 3 2 = 2 4 = 2 • If you create small spaces you can do a little bit over time and reap a lot of reward
- 28. Retrieval Practice “We learnmore by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.” -Lloyd Alexander
- 29. Retrieval Practice • Itis easy to make yourself THINK you know anything • Recognizing something and actually remembering it are NOT the same thing • Is this the root of most Test Anxiety?
- 30. Retrieval Practice • Don’tjust put information into your head, practice pulling it out • Forgetting helps you remember • The retrieval process enhances deep learning by building neural hooks that we can hang our thinking and new info on
- 31. Retrieval Practice • Ifwe know this works, why don’t people do it? • These techniques are shockingly powerful, BUT… • They feel like they don’t work because they are HARD • I want you to feel BAD about your progress
- 32. Retrieval Practice For thesetechniques to work you MUST: • Overcome Procrastination • Learn how to Focus • Get used to being Frustrated*
- 33. Retrieval Practice • Stretchyour boundaries without snapping • Neural hooks help you fit new knowledge onto existing knowledge. You don’t have that framework when you first get started • It WILL get easier!
- 34. Retrieval Practice • Isall this work really worth it? • I would rather you remember 30% forever than 90% for 16 weeks • Do you want today to be easy or the day of the final exam to be easy? • Dropping bombs in practice doesn’t matter!
- 35. Retrieval Practice How doI do it? • What do you know with your book CLOSED? • How many times have you tested yourself on this knowledge before the test? • Don’t forget to check for accuracy after retrieval practice. Fix any gaps and mistakes in your understanding
- 36. Retrieval Practice • Findas many ways as you can to check you understanding and test yourself • The struggle to remember is the key • After you have gone over material, look away and see what you can recall. What was the big idea? Why does it matter? • How would you explain this concept to a novice? • What did you learn in school today? • Organize your notes after class, but wait a day to review them. Let some forgetting happen
- 37. Retrieval Practice • Useflash cards, and use them correctly • Don’t cheat yourself when you are studying • Study both sides of a flash card • Shuffle them • These can be physical or digital flash cards (Anki, etc) • Study test reviews the same way
- 38. Retrieval Practice • Takepractice quizzes. If you can’t find them, make them • Trade practice exam questions with your friends
- 39. Retrieval Practice • Fillin as many blanks as possible • Turn your notes into fill in the blank notes • Print multiple copies of assignments and reviews (Sorry trees) • Start with a blank slate whenever possible
- 40. Retrieval Practice • Trya brain dump • It shows you what you know, and more importantly what you don’t
- 41. Spaced Retrieval Practice= 𝐿𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔2 • Spaced Retrieval Flash Cards are my FAVORITE study technique • Combine things you learned a day ago, a week ago, and a month ago • Study things you know well less often • Turn weaknesses into strengths • BUT, there is NEVER a never pile
- 42. Amplification “You don’t understandanything until you learn it more than one way.” -Marvin Minsky
- 43. Amplification • How canyou get more impact out of every minute you learn? • You must USE what you are learning • Memorizing a fact without a context or application makes it hard for your brain to take it out of working memory and make it fit with other concepts you are learning or have learned • You may “know” something, but do you understand it, or do you know how what to do with it?
- 44. Amplification The best wayto learn is to TEACH “To teach is to learn twice.” –Joseph Joubert What can Charlotte Mason teach you about active recall? Narration Study Sessions My goal is to teach families whether they like it or not
- 45. Amplification Talk to your5 year-old self : • Constantly ask yourself HOW and WHY • What does this really mean? • Why does it matter? • How does it really work? • How do I know this is true?
- 46. Amplification Mine deeper: • Lookfor similarities and differences • How does todays material help solve a problem, explain a disease state, connect to something that you are interested in? How can we use today’s content to make the world a better place? • This is why I LOVE Case Studies! • What do I already know that can help me learn this content better?
- 47. Amplification Mine deeper: • Whatis something that you are learning or struggling with in another class that relates to this class? • Why is this significant? What would happen to the human body if this went wrong? • What else do I need to know to make more sense of this stuff?
- 48. Amplification Mine deeper: • CanI think of a good analogy or example for this concept? • Can I make a drawing that explains this concept? • Can I weave everything I have learned so far into one big story? • WARNING: Make connections to other material in any way that is useful, not any way that you can
- 49. Enemies of Learning •Enemy number 1 is Procrastination • 1A is Distraction • 2 is lack of Sleep • 3 is lack of Exercise • 4 is Stress • 5 is lack of Time • 6 is Poor Nutrition
- 50. Your Brain onExercise • Number 1 way to improve short and long term brain health • Expands working memory • Enhances the brain cells you already have • Increases number of new brain cells • What you do with them is up to you
- 51. Why does ExerciseHelp? • BDNF (Brain Compost) • Stress reduction • Better sleep • Puts brain in 3 B’s mode
- 52. Stress and theBrain • Cortisol is the enemy of learning • The ANTI-Exercise • Shrinks Hippocampus • Decreases new brain cell production
- 53. Sleep and theBrain • Being tired makes you worse at EVERYTHING you do • Your Brain cleans up Toxins (AND IDEAS) while you Sleep • Sleep allows you to get out of your brains way while it makes sense of information • SLEEP ON IT
- 54. Sleep and theBrain • U of MN Dr. Kyla Wahlstrom surveyed 7,000 HS kids. Teens who receive A’s average 15 minutes more sleep than B students, who averaged 15 minutes more sleep than C students. Even 15 minutes counts • Dr. Avi Sadeh at Tel Aviv University compared 4th and 6th graders, and found that sleeping one hour less per night created a bigger intelligence gap than the difference between a normal 4th grader and 6th grader
- 55. Sleep and theBrain • Dr. Sadeh also found that even just shifting when you sleep on the weekends has an impact. Every hour of weekend shift costs a kid 7 IQ points • Dr. Paul Suratt at the U of Virginia found the same 7 point IQ drop. He said “Sleep disorders can impair children’s IQ as much as lead exposure”
- 56. Sleep and theBrain • Reduced sleep duration is related to a partial shutdown of the prefrontal cortex, which makes it very hard to pay attention • Drunk without the fun • A paper published in 2015 showed that poor sleep diminishes your ability to intentionally focus on voluntary things (like your teacher or textbook or spouse) while enhancing your focus on involuntary things (sniffles, keyboard typing, flickering light, people walking by door) • If we need to use our attention when we are tired, it appears to pull resources from our ability to control our behavior and be in a good mood (HALT)
- 57. Why do weProcrastinate? • Your brain craves INSTANT gratification • Goal is survival 5 seconds at a time • Dopamine says seek pleasure, avoid pain • Donut versus Diabetes • Social media versus Studying
- 58. Why do weProcrastinate? • Temporal Motivation Theory is the educational equivalent of optimum foraging strategy • Solution is to make the goal in front of you less painful and more pleasurable • Set goals your brain can agree with • Short-term, medium term, and long term rewards • Don’t save all of the dopamine for graduation day
- 59. Why do weProcrastinate? Goal Setting: • The steeper the mountain, the more basecamps there should be • How do you eat an elephant? • What can you master today??? • Rewards are SUPER important!
- 60. Why do weProcrastinate? Planning: • The number 1 problem with procrastination is that you can’t space out your learning • Eat your Frogs First
- 61. Why do weProcrastinate? • How many nights will I have to sleep on this information? • Don’t ask how long can I wait to get started • There is no such thing as a “5 minute job”
- 62. Why do weProcrastinate? Build yourself some breathing room: • Get ahead weekend • Finish line weekend
- 63. Why do weProcrastinate? Make the Juice worth the Squeeze: • Keep the Dopamine flowing! • Pomodoro rewards • End of study session rewards • Weekly rewards, etc, etc • Choose a graduation reward you can look forward to • If incentives won’t work, try disincentives
- 64. Why do weProcrastinate? Who can help hold you accountable? • Study partner • Teacher • Family • Yourself • Your future self
- 65. Why do weProcrastinate? What can you do to make it easy to study and hard to skip it? • The learning version of running shoes by your bed • I can’t do BLANK until I do BLANK • Distraction proof your study environment • Distraction free devices
- 66. The Distraction Disaster “Whatwe hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.” -Samuel Johnson
- 67. The Distraction Disaster •Do you do real studying or fake studying? • Are you a “multitasker”?
- 68. The Distraction Disaster Focus: •The goal is to have every brain cell pointing in the same direction • Do you want JOY or momentary happiness? • Concentration is a lost art in a distracting world
- 69. The Distraction Disaster •Make your big mental purchases when there is “money in the bank” • Pomodoro’s when you are fresh • What can you save for when your brain is TOAST?
- 70. The Distraction Disaster •Minimize distractions in class and your study areas • Schedule your distractions • Do you like Twitter more than your family or your future?
- 71. The Power ofthe Pomodoro
- 72. The Power ofthe Pomodoro • How would you like to learn 3-4 times faster??? • Turn yourself into Pavlov’s Dog • Oh goody, I GET to study!!! • You can’t conquer your courses today, but you can win the next 25 minutes! • Pomodoro keeps you from thinking too big for your caveman brain
- 73. The Power ofthe Pomodoro Getting started: • Think of it like meditation (victory in the effort) • Start small • 90 minutes victory versus 120 minute defeat • Cleanse your palate
- 74. The Power ofthe Pomodoro Is 25 minutes Magic? Should I stop if I am cruising? Better to stop a little too early rather than a little too late
- 75. The Power ofthe Pomodoro The power is in the “reset”: The rewarding break is CRITICAL, not OPTIONAL Your break should use different parts of your brain, or no parts at all Walk, stretch, posture work
- 76. Next Week • TimeManagement • Priorities and Productivity • The Education Paradox • The power of checklists • Gamifying Learning
- 77. What are wegoing to DO? • Create a Learning Lifestyle • Time Management • Focus (Pomodoro) • Retrieval Practice • Spaced Practice • Amplification (Intensify you Learning)
- 78. What are wegoing to STOP doing? • Procrastination • Distraction • Multitasking
- 79. Why am IHere? • I take your learning seriously • Fostering someone else’s learning is a very difficult task • I can’t teach my students everything, so I need to teach them how to learn everything
- 80. Why am IHere? • I take my learning seriously • MEsearch • I can’t do my job as a TEACHER until you become a LEARNER • I change you. You change the world!
- 81. What about PhysicalSkills? • Muscle memory isn’t in your MUSCLES, it is in your BRAIN • Turn actions into reflexes • Mix it up!