Teaching With the Brain in Mind

Teaching with the Brain in Mind
Social position changes both attitude and behaviors.
Part of the body and brain’s reaction to
these changes are elevated serotonin levels and
changes in neural structure. This evidence suggests
the value of varying the leadership in class groups.
A stressful physical environment is linked to
student failure. Crowded conditions, poor student
relationships, and even lighting can matter.
Optometrist Ray Gottlieb says that school stress
causes vision problems. That in turn impairs academic
achievement and self-esteem. He says that, typically,
a stressed child will constrict breathing and
change how he or she focuses to adapt to the
stress. This pattern hurts learning in the short and
long run. Under stress, the eyes become more
attentive to peripheral areas as a natural way to
spot predators first. This makes it nearly impossible
to track across a page of print, staying focused on
small areas of print. Is this an exception or typical?
To find out, psychiatrist Wayne London
switched the lighting in three classrooms at a
Vermont elementary school. For the test, half had
regular fluorescent bulbs and the other half had
bulbs that simulated natural light (full-spectrum
lights). The students in the full-spectrum classes
missed 65 percent fewer school days from illness.
Why? The regular fluorescent lighting has a flickering
quality and barely audible hum that are
scarcely noticeable but very powerful. Apparently
the brain reacts to that visual-auditory stimulus by
raising the cortisol levels in the blood and causing
the eyes to blink excessively, both indicators of
stress. In another study, elementary school children
in rooms with the natural and full-spectrum lighting
missed fewer school days and reported better
moods (Edelston 1995).
Using classroom computers or watching videos
also may be stressful for the eyes. It’s tough on all
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ages but for a different reason when students are
young. Their eyeballs are very soft and can get distorted
by the continual near focusing, which is
harder on the eyes than the more relaxed, distant
vision. Neurophysiologist Dee Coulter says the task
of keeping the eyes focused on a flat backlit screen
is stressful (McGregor 1994). Many children spend
up to five hours a day watching television, playing
video games, or using a computer. As a result, adolescents
and teenagers need glasses years earlier
than they used to, Coulter says.
Social situations can be a source of stress, too.
While stress hormones like cortisol are commonly
released during stress, serotonin levels are affected,
too. Diminished serotonin levels have been linked
to violent and aggressive behaviors. For example,
students who are “top dog” in their home life and
just “one of many” in a classroom become more
impulsive. Some of these students suddenly flourish
when given roles like a team leader. Studies suggest
that classroom status or social hierarchies can and
do change the brain’s chemistry. This makes a good
case for the importance of changing roles often to
ensure everyone has a chance to lead and follow.
Another source of environmental stress is the
fact that our predictions rarely match reality. For
adults, it’s a day full of dissatisfaction with noise,
erratic drivers, broken copy machines, colleagues
who forget their promises, and computer glitches.
It’s no different for students. A typical schoolday is
filled with expectations and disappointments, projects
that don’t work out, scores that are lower than
usual, and classmates who don’t act the way predicted.
All of these “glitches” can be a source of
stress. The brain often reacts to these as threats.
What is the solution? Provide predictability
through school and classroom rituals. A predictable
event like a graded paper returned when