fascinating part of the human body that
differentiates us from all other species
is the brain in fact the brain is the
crown jewel of the human body it is the
source of all the qualities that define
our humanity it is nature’s gift that we
have this incredible CPU central
processing unit that processes life
itself don’t you think that it’s amazing
that we can think about our own thinking
and thanks to neuroscience we can even
learn about the way we learn today I’d
like to share with you my personal
journey as an educator over 20 years
I’ve done an extensive amount of
research in neuroscience psychology and
education I started as a student of
psychology and then went on to education
administration and what I found was a
beautiful union of psychology and
education in something known as brain
compatible learning also known as brain
based learning and today I’d like to see
myself in the role of a humble
synthesizer with the great work that
already psychologists neuroscientists
and educators have done I have just
collected it and tried to see what are
the most important things that we need
to remember from this to apply to
teaching digital natives today given the
dynamic nature of teaching and learning
I’d like to suggest that this can be
hard science that we can use to make our
practices more professional and do those
things in a way that would be effective
and it’s going to arm ourselves with a
greater deal of confidence now how can
we use brain compatible learning as an
upgrade application of the teaching and
learning context in the 21st century we
all know that we need to equip our
students today with
all the C’s that include creativity
communication collaboration critical
thinking skills and let’s not forget
character but how is brain compatible
learning going to help us achieve this
actually today all adults teachers and
parents alike we have a challenge in
teaching the digital native because as a
human being within four walls we are
quite boring compared to the virtual
world that is filled with pop-ups and
loads of multimedia effects somehow we
just can’t compete with that and we’re a
little bit boring so how is it that we
can retain the children’s attention how
can we challenge them enrich them how
can we touch move and inspire them and
motivate them these are all questions
that I’d like to propose that brain
compatible learning may have an answer
in fact Eric Jensen who is the author of
brain compatible teaching strategies he
says that we need to teach with the
brain in mind in fact when we can all
learn how we learn we’re all gonna get
smarter and life pieces and from
neuroscience we know a lot of wonderful
things now that we didn’t know before
things like neuroplasticity how all our
experiences that our children are
experiencing even adults are
experiencing they’re actually physically
changing the circuitry of our brain and
we know now from neuroscience that
neurons are fire together wire together
and compose our circuitry today I’d like
to use an ABC format to set a foundation
for brain compatible learning that is
attention retention body-mind connection
and challenging the learner to start off
with a how do we get the children’s
attention in the digital age it’s
challenging enough that we cannot take
them away from their smart devices and
their digital platforms but I’d like for
all of you to consider
and ask yourselves what is it that I can
do as a human being in our human
interaction that a smart device cannot
or a computer cannot how can I touch and
move and inspire children in this human
interaction I’d like to share with you
something that is not new in fact it’s
very ancient it’s a Chinese proverb I’m
sure you all have heard of it what I
hear I forget what I see I remember what
I do I understand taking the second part
of it the digital world offers us a lot
of images and I’m not saying that
technology is bad there’s a lot of
amazing images and in fact videos that
help aid comprehension we can use that
there is a place for technology but
according to research we need to
understand that learning from visuals
retention from visuals is only about 20%
what do we do with the rest of the 80%
how do we bridge learning as a human
being in this era in this digital era
what do we do to keep the children’s
attention well what does the brain
suggest as far as attention is concerned
concerned the brain we need to remember
is like a sieve there’s millions of bits
of information that are coming in
through the senses every second of
course the brain doesn’t pay attention
to everything right the brain basically
filters out that what is that which is
meaningful to the brain in fact what
fits into the larger schema what is a
piece of information that fits into the
larger pattern of what I already know so
the brain is meaning driven that’s the
first thing that we need to understand
secondly the brain thrives and survives
with feedback when we give feedback the
brain helps us pay attention to it okay
and the other thing that we need to
remember is the brain is also looking
for a real world connection
or real world relevance to see how this
new piece of information can fit in with
what I know enhance animals my
understanding of the world another thing
that we need to remember is that novelty
sparks attention in fact it even ignites
curiosity and last but not least
emotions and drive our attention as well
as our memory and it makes learning very
meaningful
moving on to B we need to understand the
body-mind connection very essential and
we need to understand that movement
actually embeds learning and we see from
this visual over here how active
learning methods increase retention
compared to passive learning methods
what happens is that brain motor areas
they benefit from multimodal activities
because they link the visual the tactile
and the spatial and auditory skills that
one is exposed to an interactive
learning actually utilizes the body much
more than a seda Terry experience does
and when kids are in front of a screen
it’s a very passive experience but
interactive learning is not so that’s an
advantage that we have in fact the more
ways that you teach we need to remember
the more children you reach and whether
it is drawing from Montessori Waldorf or
even dr. Howard Gardner’s theory of
multiple intelligences all of these
philosophies or methodologies of
learning they endorse active learning
next we need to remember that learning
is best when it’s multi-sensorial in
fact when you get the body involved in
the learning process that really boosts
learning we need to pay attention to a
couple of things because they say that
you are what you eat so paying attention
to nutrition is important also where you
spend your time
anything that is natural natural
materials natural habitat these are all
good
next we have a lot of evidence from
research that endorses how exercise in
sports it boosts learning and memory and
retention okay and in the classroom you
can use games and play to pep up
learning even a fun ball toss or pass
the parcel revision these are all things
that are going to help our memory and
cognition better and when there’s a lot
of sitting time or there’s a lot of you
know sort of said eteri experience is
always nice to use a brain gym activity
a kinesthetic energizer that’s just
going to kind of pep you up when you’re
learning in the classroom as well next C
how do we create a challenging but
non-threatening atmosphere for the
learner and there’s a couple of things
that I’m gonna share drawing from
psychology and education but first of
all we need to understand what is the
right level of challenge because if you
give too much Challenge it’s
intimidating and too little challenge
means boredom in fact according to brain
research about 75% of your brain will
shut down from stress whether it’s real
or perceived because what happens is
that it activates the fight-or-flight
mode and that blurs your thinking
capacity which is in your frontal cortex
now we also understand about challenging
is that the brain actually craves
novelty stimulation and change but
unfortunately as adults we need to
remember that most of us adults we crave
control and predictability and that’s
not very exciting for children so that’s
just something to keep in mind so I’d
like to share with you one example from
psychology starting with Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs
we know that in Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs we have the top which is the
self-actualization at the bottom is your
physiological needs somewhere in the
middle
your intellectual needs now what is very
important for us to understand as
parents and as educators is what
precedes intellectual needs okay so
moving from your physical physiological
needs or your safety needs and it’s not
just physical safety that I’m referring
to I’m also talking about emotional
safety how emotionally safe does your
child field in your field in your
company secondly need for belonging how
inclusive is the adult how do you make
the child feel that it’s safe to
approach this adult and that I am a part
of this whether it’s a classroom or in
my home environment learning environment
after that is your need for self esteem
how is the adult making the child feel
about their capacity to learn and to
move on to the next level are we
encouraging are we building self-esteem
so these are all the things that precede
learning so if kids aren’t learning we
need to ask ourselves are we missing
something here in this hierarchy the
next example that I’d like to share is
vygotsky’s zone of proximal development
he says that there is a area that you
can do on your own for a child and then
there’s an area or skills that you can
learn with the help of an adult and
that’s the zone of proximal development
now we need to understand as an adult
what is the zone of proximal development
this is the area where the teacher or
the parent can facilitate and scaffold
so that the child can move to the next
learner to the next level and also we
need to remember that Vygotsky is a
social cultural psychologist and that
means that he suggests things like
transmitting culture values customs
skills to the next generation this is
really something that belongs to the
human interaction that we can do as
adults it’s not something that they’re
going to learn
from technology passively so we do have
a role to play now the last example 4c
I’d like to share with you is from
Bloom’s taxonomy and educators would
know this very well that there is
lowered or thinking skills and then
there’s higher-order thinking skills
also known as critical thinking and we
know that memorization of information is
not something that is going to be useful
in the 21st century it’s not about what
you know it’s about what do you know
what what can we do with the information
that we know how can we take information
that we learn how can we apply it
analyze it synthesize it evaluate it
create from it that’s what’s important
in the 21st century and information is
readily available to everybody now it’s
just you know you can just look it up
you can google anything so it’s not
about how much information it’s about
what you can do with the information and
secondly parents and educators we need
to be able to ask the right questions
the right level of right questions that
take the child a learner to the next
level and challenge them to skills or
ways in which to use the knowledge that
they did not know how to do before so
basically this ABC format that I’ve just
shared with you right now I proposed
this as an application that we can use
these info nuggets from neuroscience
from brain compatible learning and
making apply to our teaching and
learning practices and it’s going to arm
us with a greater deal of confidence and
effectiveness when we’re dealing with a
digital native and that’s to conclude
the ABCs of brain compatible learning
thank you very much
[Applause]
differentiates us from all other species
is the brain in fact the brain is the
crown jewel of the human body it is the
source of all the qualities that define
our humanity it is nature’s gift that we
have this incredible CPU central
processing unit that processes life
itself don’t you think that it’s amazing
that we can think about our own thinking
and thanks to neuroscience we can even
learn about the way we learn today I’d
like to share with you my personal
journey as an educator over 20 years
I’ve done an extensive amount of
research in neuroscience psychology and
education I started as a student of
psychology and then went on to education
administration and what I found was a
beautiful union of psychology and
education in something known as brain
compatible learning also known as brain
based learning and today I’d like to see
myself in the role of a humble
synthesizer with the great work that
already psychologists neuroscientists
and educators have done I have just
collected it and tried to see what are
the most important things that we need
to remember from this to apply to
teaching digital natives today given the
dynamic nature of teaching and learning
I’d like to suggest that this can be
hard science that we can use to make our
practices more professional and do those
things in a way that would be effective
and it’s going to arm ourselves with a
greater deal of confidence now how can
we use brain compatible learning as an
upgrade application of the teaching and
learning context in the 21st century we
all know that we need to equip our
students today with
all the C’s that include creativity
communication collaboration critical
thinking skills and let’s not forget
character but how is brain compatible
learning going to help us achieve this
actually today all adults teachers and
parents alike we have a challenge in
teaching the digital native because as a
human being within four walls we are
quite boring compared to the virtual
world that is filled with pop-ups and
loads of multimedia effects somehow we
just can’t compete with that and we’re a
little bit boring so how is it that we
can retain the children’s attention how
can we challenge them enrich them how
can we touch move and inspire them and
motivate them these are all questions
that I’d like to propose that brain
compatible learning may have an answer
in fact Eric Jensen who is the author of
brain compatible teaching strategies he
says that we need to teach with the
brain in mind in fact when we can all
learn how we learn we’re all gonna get
smarter and life pieces and from
neuroscience we know a lot of wonderful
things now that we didn’t know before
things like neuroplasticity how all our
experiences that our children are
experiencing even adults are
experiencing they’re actually physically
changing the circuitry of our brain and
we know now from neuroscience that
neurons are fire together wire together
and compose our circuitry today I’d like
to use an ABC format to set a foundation
for brain compatible learning that is
attention retention body-mind connection
and challenging the learner to start off
with a how do we get the children’s
attention in the digital age it’s
challenging enough that we cannot take
them away from their smart devices and
their digital platforms but I’d like for
all of you to consider
and ask yourselves what is it that I can
do as a human being in our human
interaction that a smart device cannot
or a computer cannot how can I touch and
move and inspire children in this human
interaction I’d like to share with you
something that is not new in fact it’s
very ancient it’s a Chinese proverb I’m
sure you all have heard of it what I
hear I forget what I see I remember what
I do I understand taking the second part
of it the digital world offers us a lot
of images and I’m not saying that
technology is bad there’s a lot of
amazing images and in fact videos that
help aid comprehension we can use that
there is a place for technology but
according to research we need to
understand that learning from visuals
retention from visuals is only about 20%
what do we do with the rest of the 80%
how do we bridge learning as a human
being in this era in this digital era
what do we do to keep the children’s
attention well what does the brain
suggest as far as attention is concerned
concerned the brain we need to remember
is like a sieve there’s millions of bits
of information that are coming in
through the senses every second of
course the brain doesn’t pay attention
to everything right the brain basically
filters out that what is that which is
meaningful to the brain in fact what
fits into the larger schema what is a
piece of information that fits into the
larger pattern of what I already know so
the brain is meaning driven that’s the
first thing that we need to understand
secondly the brain thrives and survives
with feedback when we give feedback the
brain helps us pay attention to it okay
and the other thing that we need to
remember is the brain is also looking
for a real world connection
or real world relevance to see how this
new piece of information can fit in with
what I know enhance animals my
understanding of the world another thing
that we need to remember is that novelty
sparks attention in fact it even ignites
curiosity and last but not least
emotions and drive our attention as well
as our memory and it makes learning very
meaningful
moving on to B we need to understand the
body-mind connection very essential and
we need to understand that movement
actually embeds learning and we see from
this visual over here how active
learning methods increase retention
compared to passive learning methods
what happens is that brain motor areas
they benefit from multimodal activities
because they link the visual the tactile
and the spatial and auditory skills that
one is exposed to an interactive
learning actually utilizes the body much
more than a seda Terry experience does
and when kids are in front of a screen
it’s a very passive experience but
interactive learning is not so that’s an
advantage that we have in fact the more
ways that you teach we need to remember
the more children you reach and whether
it is drawing from Montessori Waldorf or
even dr. Howard Gardner’s theory of
multiple intelligences all of these
philosophies or methodologies of
learning they endorse active learning
next we need to remember that learning
is best when it’s multi-sensorial in
fact when you get the body involved in
the learning process that really boosts
learning we need to pay attention to a
couple of things because they say that
you are what you eat so paying attention
to nutrition is important also where you
spend your time
anything that is natural natural
materials natural habitat these are all
good
next we have a lot of evidence from
research that endorses how exercise in
sports it boosts learning and memory and
retention okay and in the classroom you
can use games and play to pep up
learning even a fun ball toss or pass
the parcel revision these are all things
that are going to help our memory and
cognition better and when there’s a lot
of sitting time or there’s a lot of you
know sort of said eteri experience is
always nice to use a brain gym activity
a kinesthetic energizer that’s just
going to kind of pep you up when you’re
learning in the classroom as well next C
how do we create a challenging but
non-threatening atmosphere for the
learner and there’s a couple of things
that I’m gonna share drawing from
psychology and education but first of
all we need to understand what is the
right level of challenge because if you
give too much Challenge it’s
intimidating and too little challenge
means boredom in fact according to brain
research about 75% of your brain will
shut down from stress whether it’s real
or perceived because what happens is
that it activates the fight-or-flight
mode and that blurs your thinking
capacity which is in your frontal cortex
now we also understand about challenging
is that the brain actually craves
novelty stimulation and change but
unfortunately as adults we need to
remember that most of us adults we crave
control and predictability and that’s
not very exciting for children so that’s
just something to keep in mind so I’d
like to share with you one example from
psychology starting with Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs
we know that in Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs we have the top which is the
self-actualization at the bottom is your
physiological needs somewhere in the
middle
your intellectual needs now what is very
important for us to understand as
parents and as educators is what
precedes intellectual needs okay so
moving from your physical physiological
needs or your safety needs and it’s not
just physical safety that I’m referring
to I’m also talking about emotional
safety how emotionally safe does your
child field in your field in your
company secondly need for belonging how
inclusive is the adult how do you make
the child feel that it’s safe to
approach this adult and that I am a part
of this whether it’s a classroom or in
my home environment learning environment
after that is your need for self esteem
how is the adult making the child feel
about their capacity to learn and to
move on to the next level are we
encouraging are we building self-esteem
so these are all the things that precede
learning so if kids aren’t learning we
need to ask ourselves are we missing
something here in this hierarchy the
next example that I’d like to share is
vygotsky’s zone of proximal development
he says that there is a area that you
can do on your own for a child and then
there’s an area or skills that you can
learn with the help of an adult and
that’s the zone of proximal development
now we need to understand as an adult
what is the zone of proximal development
this is the area where the teacher or
the parent can facilitate and scaffold
so that the child can move to the next
learner to the next level and also we
need to remember that Vygotsky is a
social cultural psychologist and that
means that he suggests things like
transmitting culture values customs
skills to the next generation this is
really something that belongs to the
human interaction that we can do as
adults it’s not something that they’re
going to learn
from technology passively so we do have
a role to play now the last example 4c
I’d like to share with you is from
Bloom’s taxonomy and educators would
know this very well that there is
lowered or thinking skills and then
there’s higher-order thinking skills
also known as critical thinking and we
know that memorization of information is
not something that is going to be useful
in the 21st century it’s not about what
you know it’s about what do you know
what what can we do with the information
that we know how can we take information
that we learn how can we apply it
analyze it synthesize it evaluate it
create from it that’s what’s important
in the 21st century and information is
readily available to everybody now it’s
just you know you can just look it up
you can google anything so it’s not
about how much information it’s about
what you can do with the information and
secondly parents and educators we need
to be able to ask the right questions
the right level of right questions that
take the child a learner to the next
level and challenge them to skills or
ways in which to use the knowledge that
they did not know how to do before so
basically this ABC format that I’ve just
shared with you right now I proposed
this as an application that we can use
these info nuggets from neuroscience
from brain compatible learning and
making apply to our teaching and
learning practices and it’s going to arm
us with a greater deal of confidence and
effectiveness when we’re dealing with a
digital native and that’s to conclude
the ABCs of brain compatible learning
thank you very much
[Applause]
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