Saša Kovačević
THE ADOLESCENT BRAIN
To be inspired about how John Medina's "Brain Rules" could be implemented in the classroom, I took a quick browse to see what ideas are already being implemented in today's classroom. I stumbled upon some ideas that were relatively extreme, like this article that summarizes some of Medina's recommendations, including placing treadmills under every students desk. Although inspirational, this is probably not a necessarily practical practice. Instead, something like revisiting topics later in the day, as shown in the video to the left, seems to be more realistic.
Personally, being in a science classroom, I feel there are several ways which "Brain Rules" could be applied in the classroom setting but some would likely be more difficult than others. The idea of a walking discussion really resonated with me, and it is something that I have seen previously in my work experiences. Having 30 students walk the halls while discussing topics at hand would probably not be easy to execute, but why not having a walking circle within the classroom when having dialogue around certain topics. If we are able to move the desks to the corners of the room and free up enough floor space, the students and I could collectively walk in a circle to promote exercise with guided discussion. To add another element, we could use a ball to signify the speaker that is passed around the circle.
"Brain Rule" Friendly Classrooms and Lessons
Brain Rules in the Classroom via YouTube
A lot of evaluation is based on recall, so I do think memory is another very important "Brain Rule." Repetition is key, and I believe that this is something that can be done in every classroom. Drawing for the previously mentioned "Circle Discussion" it would be possible to review the key ideas at the end of our discussion. This could be done by going in reverse order of their initial suggestion, until we got back to the begging. Perhaps even changing the direction of the walking to symbolize this reverse order of doing things. We would stop once all the ideas were mentioned. Summarizing the ideas at the end of a lecture should assist with learning, but I would take this one step further and revisit these ideas at the beginning of the next lecture. Before moving on to new topics, we would review those from a previous day and build on the knowledge that we have.
Another common trend among is the increase of visual stimuli rather than text. This makes a lot of sense, and infographics would be extremely useful in the classroom. Recently, I discovered easel.ly which allows you to make your own infographics. I made one for my Education in Technology class, which you can see here, but I think this would be a great tool that could be used to replace powerpoint presentations. Done correctly, they can be more visually stimulating, and allow students to retain more information that is shared with them.
I have included an infographic below that summarizes the "12 Brain Rules"
REFERENCES
Brain Rules | Brain Rules |. (n.d.). Retrieved October 09, 2016, from http://www.brainrules.net/about-brain-rules
Brain Rules in the Classroom. (2008, March 13). Retrieved October 09, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lahaS6CzNgc
Medina's Brain Rules: Informing Teachers as Researchers. (n.d.). Retrieved October 09, 2016, from http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/1230