 Hi, my name is Tracy Takahama Espinosa and this is a video on best practices and online pedagogy using the principles and tenets for mind, brain, health, and education. I'm a professor at the Harvard University Extension School and I'm also associate editor of Nature Partner Journal Science of Learning. And over the past decade and a half I've been diving deeply into this idea of how is what we know about the brain influential and how we teach how should we leverage that information to be better at what we do as teachers. This brings a different emphasis on what we believe teachers should then know. Not just content knowledge, not just knowing how to teach math or language or science for example, but also pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. How different teachers, for example specialized in early childhood mathematics, know and can anticipate the types of errors that students might have in that field. So pedagogical content knowledge is also important. But we now also see in a modern vision of teachers that they have to also understand the brain and how it works. So mind, brain, education, looking at psychology, neuroscience, as well as best practice pedagogies influence student learning outcomes. As does the leveraging of great technology to let machines do what machines do best and let humans do what humans do best. This is the new science in the art of teaching. Today we're going to be looking at some key terms. I just want to explain where this information comes from, where the evidence comes from. Talk about these core principles and tenets and how we can get rid of some of the neuro myths that still plague our field. And then talk about 40 best practice interventions. The field of mind, brain, now we say health and education emerged in the early 2000s as the integration of information from psychology, neuroscience and education that would bring together this transdisciplinary vision of how we should approach problems in education rather than just look at it as an educator or from a curriculum point of view. Also take into consideration perspectives that come from psychology and educational psychology and neuropsychology as well as from neuroscience to leverage the best evidence possible to understand best teaching interventions in order for our students to have the most success. Initially the information from the field was gleaned from separate studies from mind, brain, health and education from these different subfields. However now there is an emergent professional in mind, brain, health and education that actually approaches all problems from this transdisciplinary vision and there are new publications that are now coming out in this combined field. And these terms now fall under this global umbrella concept of the learning science in which you find mind, brain, health and education as subfields of this really wider look at the learning sciences which include things as diverse as linguistics to computational neuroscience to data and artificial intelligence. The main added benefit of this vision is that instead of approaching problems through these siloed visions of a molecular vision of how learning occurs or a social interaction vision or versus classroom practices you're actually trying to approach all of that together. And this leads to a kind of new first steps in the way we want to help teachers develop professionally. The first and foremost is to get rid of the neuro-myth. There's a lot of garbage out there that we have to get rid of before teachers can clear the decks for things like principles and tenets. Principles are things that are true for all brains, they pretty much function the same way. There's only six things there, we'll talk about them in just a second, as well as tenets which are also true, by the way there's no truths in science, there's just evidence or no evidence, but true for people based on a range of human variants. So while we know that things like sleeping and motivation are important for learning just how much when, how it's delivered varies by individual as far as maximizing one's potential. We also know that the role of culture and context has a huge impact on student learning outcomes which all need to be taken into consideration before we can talk about instructional guidelines or best practice and so we're going to quickly go through those first four steps in order to try to reach these forty pedagogical practices. So number one is get rid of these neuro-myths and this is my very serious book about neuro-myths which believe me is a lot more academic inside than maybe the cover would lead you to believe. This tries to debunk most of the neuro-myths that still plague our literature as teachers and I invite you all to see the other video on neuro-myths in the series from the learningsciences.com. There are no such thing as learning styles, people cannot multitask, these and seventy other neuro-myths are debunked in that video and in the book. All of this is of course due to far better technology than we've ever had and so this is allowing us to rather than just have these drawings or computational models we're now actually looking at neural networks within the brain and how different hubs and nodes are stimulated further and then this leads to these hundreds of thousands of neural pathways in the brain that underpin different knowledge skills and attitudes that are stored in the brain and so this more refined look at healthy brains is helping us dispel these neuro-myths. And one of the things the OECD has tried to do as a union of different national perspectives on this is to try to clarify the role of neurosciences as well as technology within teacher education and I'd like to invite you to have a look at their publication that makes a strong recommendation that new teacher education has to include these two fields in a stronger way. They were also the ones to suggest in 2002 that there be a division of the way we consider teacher literature. There are some things that are printed that are actually well established. A lot of high quality information, robust evidence. Then there are things that are probably so which has rather mixed evidence but it does lean towards indications of things that have human variance. For example, those ideas about sleep and motivation. Then there are things that are intelligence speculation of which there's really, you know, it's a logical presumption but there's very little evidence and then those outright neuro-myths and so what we want to focus on in Principles and Tendencies is looking at what is well established and what are those things that are probably so that are true for human brains but with a lot of human variance that we can use as platforms upon which to design new teacher interventions in the course room. This is based off of three different studies that we conducted over the past 11 years that increase the number of experts that we had involved from around the globe that participated. So we had experts from 29 different countries participate in the 2019 study which was published in 2020 and that reviewed not only what the experts thought but also considered the evidence that they supplied to see the weight of the evidence as supported by their opinions. And this led us to these six basic principles about how humans learn. The first is that the human brains are unique. While there are very typical neural pathways for the way someone might learn to read or write or do language or math there are no identical neural pathways for that and that's mainly because the uniqueness of the human brain is really grounded in our own personal and individualized experiences and since no two individuals have identical experiences, their neural pathways are not identical. However the networks appear to show patterns of how someone may typically learn how to learn new competencies. The second principle has to do with different potentials. Sadly people are born on an uneven playing field. We know that genes as well as your environment play a huge role in learning outcomes but different people are born with different possibilities of potentiating different types of skill sets throughout their lifespan. The third idea is that all new learning passes through the filter of prior experience. We know that your brain is incredibly efficient and doesn't want to try and spend the energy to learn something completely new. It always tries to look for what it already knows about something before it goes on and takes on that new learning and so all new learning passes through this filter of prior experience. We also know that the brain is in constant flux. It's interaction with its environment changes with every single new experience that we have which then changes potentially what will happen the next time you're exposed to the exact same stimulus and so we know that some of these changes occur before, during, or after a stimulus so the majority of these things appear to happen after. There's a molecular change, you will see a behavioral change so as the brain is constantly changing based on its interaction with the environment we need to take into consideration that as teachers we may have certain teaching interventions and wonder why isn't this sticking but we have to be patient, realize that each of those slow changes may be creating those neural networks necessary for that eventual observable behavior. The fifth point is one that's become common knowledge these days is neuroplasticity. The brain is neuroplastic throughout the lifespan, you learn until you die so potential for new learning really expands beyond what we thought of this maybe newborn to 18 years old or 24 years old stage to the extent that some universities such as Harvard have suggested that there should be something called a 60 year curriculum that we are always going to continue to learn and should learn because the use of those neural networks is really a protective factor for healthy aging. And finally we know that all learning depends on well functioning memory systems and well functioning attention systems. If you're missing memory or missing attention you don't have learning and so while this equation is overly simplistic what's very important to know is that there is no learning that occurs without both memory and attention and memory is broken down into multiple subsystems as is attention. We know that memory has short working long term sensory components to it, emotional components to it and attention also has orienting sustaining alerting systems. These subsystems of memory and attention need to be in the forefront of teacher's minds because different types of attention are needed for different types of learning. And when we did the study we were confronted with a lot of comments from the participants that suggested things like hey you're missing certain principles these things are actually fundamental so there were a lot of comments that said that the emotional state of an individual should be a principle. This is something that's absolutely true that learning is really social why isn't that also considered here that learning is a behavior and as such could be modified why isn't this included or that adaptation is the natural state of the brain or that the executive functions need to be primed for learning to occur or this relationship between the mind body balance. All of these things were very important but we found that given the evidence that was offered they didn't follow the same kinds of consistent neural patterning that the principles did which is why these were all taken into consideration all of those additions but they were considered tenants these are things that are true for all human brains but they have a huge range of human variability so as we said before motivation and sleep so let's look at those 21 tenants that should be considered by teachers as very important as far as the teaching and learning dynamic is concerned but that they will vary for individual different people will need different things at different times so in terms of motivation we know that people can be motivated positively or negatively intrinsically and extrinsically but what motivates one person may not motivate the next person and it may not motivate them the same way in different contexts or related to different subjects so while motivation is hugely important in learning it has a huge range of human variability we also know that emotions are vital there is no cognition without emotions this becomes very very clear however the things that trigger those emotions are highly individual different people will react to different situations with emotional output that does influence their cognition in different ways and so while emotions are important they are largely unique to the individual while there are some things that are common among all human beings reactions to very fearful situations for example other things such as what makes someone happy or feel good are very relative to the individual we can say with a little bit more degree of certainty due to neurochemical measurements stress is very important to look at when we think about student learning outcomes but there is good stress and there is bad stress there is you stress which is positive you need to be a little bit stressed in order to learn something but a little too much makes you fall into distress but what tips you to that negative is very personalized similarly with anxiety which is considered separate from stress it's a different set of neurotransmitters we know that anxiety prolonged anxiety has a hugely negative impact on student learning outcomes but what makes someone anxious may not make the next person anxious so we have to consider the individual root causes of anxiety in individuals that impacts learning we also know that depressive states prevent people from learning but what tips someone into depression is very different from what might tip another person into depression this is why it's very individualized and needs to be analyzed on a case by case basis we also know that while it's very clear that challenge and threat influence learning most humans love a great challenge and most humans hate to feel threatened what a person considers challenging and what they consider threatening varies by individual facial expressions was one that was debated a long time amongst the panels because well it seems that there are very primary facial expressions that are interpreted by all humans in a similar way such as happiness, surprise, contempt, sadness, disgust anger, fear for example there are other subtle emotions for example, intrigue, curiosity that are very very hard to read on people's faces as they are a combination of these different facial expressions we also know from the research that people recognize emotional states and facial expressions on faces that look very much like their own they do not see the subtleties for example of someone of a different gender or a different race as easily as they see people who look exactly like themselves we also know that tones of voices have a huge impact on student learning outcome and the meaning of precise words can be interpreted very differently depending on the intonation that is used telling a kid you're doing just fine doesn't carry the same weight as giving this encouraging softer voice of hey you're doing great you're doing fine in my class there's a lot to be said about intonation and it's one of the few things that teachers are not really trained in how to manage their tones of voices with students and again this is interpreted highly individually based on students prior experiences kids who have been yelled at a lot believe it or not become kind of immune to the shouting whereas kids who have never been yelled at you know react disproportionately fearful in front of threatening voices and so we know that reaction to tones of voices is also highly individualized it's very clear that learning is a social endeavor that individuals learn from and with each other and that most individuals would choose to learn with others we also know that this is this works in the positive as well as the negative and we also know that this is very separate from the content so people can learn the wrong things together as well as they can learn correct information together so this differs by individual however in the amount and context in which people enjoy those social interactions so this has a lot to do with how we devise small group learning within our classroom settings for example which we'll talk about in just a second as we mentioned before there's different attention systems but not only that, what's key is that we know that it's impossible not to pay attention when you are the focus of attention so practices such as metacognitive and self reflection activities, mindfulness, meditation these things that help students hone in on their own personal ways of paying attention is also very important but also again very individualized it's also clear that most learning is not a linear process, I teach A and the student learns B but we rather we see that there are learning cycles that each individual has that also have this unique and very personalized steps to them that has to do with understanding, rethinking, relearning, unlearning learning again, the new concepts that are presented with based on those personalized memories related to that topic at hand it's also very clear that there are conscious and unconscious processes that are involved in learning this does not mean you can learn new things in deep sleep but it does mean that taking the time to do things like going to different levels of consciousness for example mind wandering can be very positive for creative insight for example as is reflection but we know that there's different levels of consciousness that different people will leverage more or less and that we can actually create the circumstances for within our own classrooms to give students the opportunity to have that down time with the information to be able to bounce it around in their own heads and hear their inner voices you know whisper which direction they should take the information it's very important to know that we cannot just bombard people with lots of information presume that they're going to learn as we know that people need that down time as well we also know that learning is developmental as well as experiential this is that big nature versus nurture question right? if I were to ask you what's the most important thing? age, cognitive stage or prior experience when it comes down to new learning by far it's prior experience and the least important factor there is age you know a person's chronological age has far less to do with his potential to learn than the experiences that they've had in life you can see this very clearly with a kid who might have been read to from birth, ready to read at three years old where somebody who never had books in their home it's a totally new concept may not learn to read until they're seven, eight or nine so we know that prior experience plays a much bigger role than chronological age but we also know that there's other things involved in this developmental nature versus nurture concept with have to do with genetic factors as well it's also very clear that learning engages the entire physiology it's not just the brain on the shoulders working all by itself but it has to do with its interaction with the world and the environment so that we know that decisions made by the brain that impact the body also have a reciprocal effect the body's use of nutrients and sleep and physical activity for example have an impact on the brain's potential to learn and this is seen most clearly in three areas one has to do with sleep and dreaming we know that sleep helps us focus attention and the dreaming state of sleep has a combination of neurochemicals that doesn't exist in any other stage of sleep that permits the consolidation of memories but we know also that the amount of sleep an individual needs varies greatly anywhere from four and a half to 12 hours is normal maybe eight is average but those other things are not abnormal so you cannot dictate how much sleep an individual needs we also see that nutrition has a huge impact on learning and a lot of new research coming out in this gut brain access studies trying to understand how the balance the basic nutritional needs of all humans is very similar but how this balance of nutritional intake varies by individual given your genetic makeup and so we know that that has an impact what you eat has an impact on the gut brain access which sends back a different kind of a chemical balance and changes your potential to learn we also know that physical activity is necessary for good learning it's pretty clear that there is a disproportionate amount of studies that show how sedentary activities like not doing anything are very negative and far less information about exactly what kinds of physical activity are best for the individual and this is primarily due to the idea that different people need different types of physical activity to reach their peak performance in terms of intellectual activities 10-8-18 has to do with a very classic concept and by Donald Hebb he talked about use it or lose it and this has to do with your brain's ability to make these neural connections throughout the lifespan those are strengthened with use and if they are not used it becomes harder and harder to retrieve the information and so we also know that those neural connections depend on repetitive usage for continued retrieval and application in the future we know that feedback is hugely important to learning but different people like different types of feedback in different contexts, in different moments and maybe even different times of day they'll want different types of feedback for the same subject so we know that feedback is much more complicated than we once thought hearing how you're doing getting motivated to do better the next time are things that are very important within our classroom settings but how and when we deliver feedback is something that is still under new investigation a study that came out in 2021 February from the OACD pointed to the idea that teachers who spent that an additional hour of giving assessment by a teacher had a much greater impact than an additional hour of instructive practice so we know that we've short-changed feedback within typical school settings and we have to reintegrate those ideas and give it more prominence, more time for that evaluation and feedback within the classroom setting we also know that authenticity, relevant and meaningful context makes learning easier it's really hard to memorize a mathematical formula with no context but it's much easier when you can relate it to your own personal life or the measurement of this doorstop or how do we build a bridge that's necessary for your community or the time it might take if the average trash collector takes 10 minutes to run a block and we have 30 blocks how long will that take well if you've walked outside and seen the trash on your street you're more likely to take that mathematical formula use it in a meaningful context and it simply wrote memory which is not necessarily beneficial for deeper learning and finally we know that novelty as well as patterns play a huge role in learning outcomes as we said before all new learning passes through the filter of prior experience and so your brain naturally is looking for what it already knows about something and naturally gets peaked in curiosity when it sees something that's a little bit out of the ordinary so this novelty of effect has a benefit for calling our attention to new things but it's not necessarily positive but teachers can learn to leverage novelties and patterns within their classroom structures to teach in a way that continually has the students engaged based on their prior experiences so in summary the principles have to do with the uniqueness of the human brain, the different potentials we have, the role of prior experiences in learning, the fact that the brain is constantly changing and there's neuroplastic throughout the lifespan as well as that memory systems and attention systems are vital for learning and the tenets have to do with this idea of understanding the role of motivation emotions and cognition how stress, anxiety and depression can influence learning outcomes how having more challenge than threat can improve learning outcomes the role of facial expressions as well as tones of voices how the important role of learning as a social construct how and when students choose to pay attention the fact that learning is non-longier as well as unconscious processes and that it's developmental as well as experiential it involves the entire physiology including sleep and dreaming, nutrition and physical activity and that in order to maintain a fit brain we actually have to use those systems or we will lose access to those neuroconnections the importance of feedback and learning outcomes as well as teaching within authentic, relevant and meaningful context and finally leveraging an individual's perception of novelty and pattern to teach better so in this video we had a very quick review of looking over a teacher's new pedagogical knowledge that includes information from the learning sciences as well as technology we began by trying to remind people to not fall into the belief of neuro myths, negative untruths about the brain and learning but rather use the good information that comes from principles and tenets and use that as a platform upon which to talk about what teachers really do best those pedagogical interventions we have evidence behind that show learning results and now to close I'd just like to invite you to take some time to reflect do a 3-2-1 reflection were there three things we said that you didn't know before are there two things that you think are really interesting, you want to keep researching them you're curious about them now and is there one thing you might consider changing about your personal or professional practice based on that information by doing that we will have a much better jumping off point when we get together to sort of go deeper into the information and in the event that you're feeling brave and interested please send the questions on and I promise to address them when we are together face to face in our synchronous encounter thank you and take care