Brain Development, Learning and Implications

Today I had the great pleasure in hearing Nathan Mikaere-Wallis share his knowledge, insight and wisdom with the Christchurch Junior School Leaders. Nathan was part of the Brainwave Trust, and is part of X Factor Education, Christchurch. He has been a lecturer at Christchurch College of Education, lecturing in human development, brain development, language and communication and risk and resilience. Nathan has a background of working with children in counselling settings relating to domestic violence, sexual abuse and childhood trauma.

There were a number of core messages in his presentation.

• Brian research is relatively new. In the 1990s there was more research than in the previous 300 years.
• Teenage brain research is 8 years old.
• Healing brain research is 3 years old.
• The frontal cortex isn't fully developed until an average of 26 - 27 years.
• First 1000 days of a human's life is pivotal to brain development.
• Historically we believed that brain development and potential was mainly due to genetics. We now know that brain can be moulded by the environment.
• What is happening at this time influences the brain stem development and frontal cortex potential.
• Other factors have an impact; gender, place in family, temperament, parent's education, poverty, extended family.
• There is an impact of the ability to learn cognitively in the future.
• Di-ad relationship in early years effects brain development.
• Relationships are the most important aspect of learning.

What can we do for children whose learning potential has been impacted?

• Ensure they have a strong relationship with a key person - this challenges the idea of a transition class.
• Extend the duration of this relationship - can they have this teacher for a longer period of time?
• Predictability in the classroom.
• Consider starting school closer to 6.
• Personalise transition to school practices.
• Reduce focus on cognitive learning and national standards in early years.
• Focus on learning dispositions (Te Whariki).
• Consider practices of mindfulness.

To hear more from Nathan you can listen or download a podcast from National Radio. You can also follow him on Facebook.

Research to Support Modern, Innovative Learning Spaces

When our school started the master planning process over a year ago we were on the hunt for research to support the move to modern, collaborative spaces. This link provides a great synopsis of research published in 2006 and whilst nearly 10 years old is still very relevant. It is well worth a read but in a nutshell discusses;

• Impact on learning
• Spaces due for an overhaul
• Power of active learning
• Facilitating focus
• Flexibility
• Comfort
• Decenteredness
• Community

The Importance of Feedback and Other Interventions

I have always believed that effective feedback is the teaching strategy that makes the most difference to learners. When asking for feedback about my teaching from my past students they often commented on this being a strength of my teaching, stately simply, "you let us know our next step or what we need to do to make it better."

There is often debate as to whether this should be written or verbal. The age of the learner and their ability to read written feedback certainly impacts this decision. The quality of the feedback is important and I reflect on this considering the work of Dweck et al when working with students. Praising effort and hard work is critical whilst given the student an indication of next steps is also crucial.

Feedback is central focus of the original article. It outlines ways of giving feedback and the writer shares their school's policy. Links to other readings related to feedback are also given. What is of interest is the graph that is also provided and the information that is linked to evidenced based interventions.

The graph from the site simply illustrates the effect of a number of interventions. It plots them on a graph considering their cost and the impact they have on student achievement. What I particularly like is that you can click on a strategy and go to a synopsis of the research that led to the placement of that strategy on the graph. For example, I had always believed that homework isn't very effective for improving student outcomes of students. When you look at the research you see that this is indeed the case and it summarises where and when homework is effective. The website where you find this information is found here.

You can visit the source used to place these interventions on the graph at the Education Endowment Foundation. It is very useful to select an intervention and then be able to connect to the research that led the author to place it on the graph. Great access to a wealth of information about solid interventions you can try in the classroom.