Joint Presentation with Judy Willis - NESA

Applying What We Know
What Neuroscience Reveals about the Brain and Learning
(continued)
Using pre-assessment also benefit students in the following ways:
• They provide a preview of the upcoming key concepts. Neurologically, this stimulates the circuits
of any related prior knowledge the students have. Activating this knowledge makes it easier for
students to understand and remember the new information.
• When students make a prediction (by writing down what they think the correct answer will be)
they have more buy-in when listening to the correct answers you provide following the pre-assessment.
• The teacher provides timely corrective feedback by going over all of the answers immediately
after the pre-assessment. Students correct their own quizzes (in another color). This allows them
to notice, and then correct, their misconceptions.
• To hold students accountable on these non-graded pre-assessments, you can tell students that
sometimes the pre-test will be the same as the final.
****
Promote a Growth Mindset
People with a fixed mindset believe that people are born with a certain amount of intelligence
and skill, and that is all we will ever get. Once we fail, there is no point in trying again, because we
have reached our limit. Those with a growth mindset believe that people are given a certain amount
of intelligence and skill, just as they have a certain body type, but that people have the potential to
grow their intelligence and skill with hard work, just like a muscle. Those with a growth mindset are
right, and the implications are enormous (Carol Dwerk 2007). Therefore, helping students learn from
their mistakes, and bounce back from set-backs, is essential to moving students forward in their learning.
Building Motivation
Students who feel alienated in school need additional support to regain their confidence
and feel motivated towards reaching a challenging goal. If struggling academically has always
been a source of disappointment for them, you can brainstorm times when they have been successful
towards reaching a goal (e.g. music, sports, art, making friends, cooking something new,
etc.). Students who come to you with a high level of negativity can benefit a great deal from brain
knowledge, especially about their ability to modify their brains through neuroplasticity. This can be
especially motivating for students who have been marginalized by learning differences. Information
about the brain, and how to teach students about the brain can be found in the following articles:
•
“What You Should Know About Your Brain”
(http://radteach.com/page1/page8/page45/page45.html)
and “How to Teach Students About the Brain”
(http://radteach.com/page1/page8/page44/page44.html)
©2010 Jay McTighe and Judy Willis page 16