Brain compatible teaching & learningHow can we encourage Japanese students to speak in English language class?

Kaori Nonoguchi

Japanese students tend to

• Not speak in class• Have a lower listening skill (Shimizu)• “Be better writers than fluent speakers because

they trust the eyes more than the mouth or ears” (Shimizu)

• Like group works (Leestma & Walberg)• Control their emotions very well (Nonoguchi)• Like humor (Nonoguchi)• Display a lack of creativity (Leestma & Walberg)

Contents• Characteristics of “brain-compatible” teaching

and learning.• General guidelines for my own teaching• How to stimulate brain-compatible learning through questioning and graphic aids emphasizing essential questions and inquiry

process incorporating Web Quests and the Internet

Characteristics of “brain compatible”

teaching and learning

• Facilitate pleasure• Facilitate learning

• Facilitate improved health

Facilitate learning

Facilitate improved health

Facilitate pleasure

Characteristics

PLEASURE• Emotions are the gate keeper to learning Memory

• Emotional intelligence by Daniel Goleman

Self awareness, managing emotions, motivation, empathy, and social art

• Enriched environment Safe and secure environment challenging experiences Lighting and temperature “Creating a respectful, caring and intentionally inviting learning

environment is the surest way to encourage student achievement.” (Puckey & Aspy)

• Multiple Intelligences• Learning styles• Whole brain teaching• Knowledge about how we learn• Thinking curriculum

LEARNING

Multiple Intelligence by Howard GardnerIn everyday life, people can display intelligent originality

in any of eight intelligences

• Communication intelligences 1. Verbal/Linguistic 2. Musical/rhythmic• Intelligences relate to objects in our world 3. Visual/spatial 4. Bodily/kinesthetic 5. Logical/mathematical 6. Naturalist• Intelligences relate to the self 7. Interpersonal 8. Intrapersonal

Learning styles

Visual learners

Auditory learners

Kinesthetic learners

Whole brain teaching

• Each person has a thinking preference

• Ways of thinking often change as a result of significant emotional experiences, life transitions and other important insights.

Knowledge about how we learn 1In the world of the future, the new illiterate will be the person who

has not learned how to learn - Alvin Toffler

Knowledge about how we learn 2Information processing

Thinking curriculum

• In-depth Learning• Learning tasks stimulate

complex thinking• Students are engaged in

whole tasks• Connects content and

process to learners’ background

Successful

intelligence

Habits of Mind

Successful intelligence by Robert Sternberg

Analytical Intelligence

Creative Intelligence Practical Intelligence

The ability to solve problems and make choices and judge critically.

The ability to think “outside the box”

The ability to read and adapt to the contexts of everyday life

Habits of Mind by Costa & Kallick

Traditional Vs. Thinking curriculum

• Students acquire content as they plan, evaluate, solve problems, make decisions, critique arguments and compose essays

• Student masters knowledge

• Students use knowledge after graduation

IMPROVED HEALTH

• Movement (physical activities)- Oxygenate the brain function

• Water – maximized brain • Music – Inspiring, motivating, or calming

• Challenge• Choice• Humor• Feedback• Novelty• Color

General guidelines for my own teaching

Get along with students

Sensitivity to students’ emotional intelligence

Use music

Use many visual aids

Develop and nurture the intelligence of every learner

Every brain is unique

“When music is playing,

students may be more apt to speak in their small groups”

(Allen,2002)

“Students trust their eyes more than the mouth or

ears” (Shimizu)Develop students’ thinking skills

How to stimulate brain-compatible learning through

questioning and graphic aids

Why questioning?

• Diagnose students’ level of understanding• Involve students• Test students’ knowledge• Review key points• Stimulate creativity• Modify students’ perception of the subject• Develop higher order thinking skills

Questioning Technique

• Scaffolding • Graphic organizers • Wait time – “The brain can access information stored in

the unconscious long-term memory.” (Gregory, 2005)

Quality thinking

Next

Scaffolding for Japanese students

• Provide visual aids• Write key words on the white board• Provide a hint or a cue for answering• Body language

Back

Graphic organizers

• Graphic organizer (included in nonlinguistic representations) increase students achievement with the possibility of 37 percentile gains. (Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock, 2001)

• Help students thinking visible (support or develop visual learners).

• Integrating visual and verbal activities enhances understanding of concepts. (Sousa, 2006)

Why do we use graphic organizers?

Back

How to stimulate brain-compatible learning emphasizing

essential questions & inquiry process

Essential questions• Heart of the curriculum Essence of what students should examine and know• Help students structure a unit or lesson• Provocative and arguable• May not have a right answer• Initiators of creative and critical thinking Bloom’s Taxonomy Encourage a good doubt Curiosity, Wonder and Wander • Spark meaningful connection with prior knowledge• Allow transferring to other subjects

Essential questions

Students’ centered classroom

Students must

TALK

Empower students

How to stimulate brain-compatible learning incorporating

Web Quests and the Internet

Web quests• Short term designed to be completed in one to three class

periods knowledge acquisition and integration deal with a great amount of new information and

make sense of it • Longer term

designed to take between one week and one month extending and refining knowledge

analyze a body of knowledge, transform it, and demonstrate understanding

Web Quests & Internet

• Motivate students• Require authentic materials• Develop thinking skills • Broaden students’ imagination• Scaffolding• Cooperative learning• Use time well • Use information rather than looking for

Web quest & internet meet Japanese students’ needs

Web quest

& Internet

Visual

Humor

Creative thinking

Cooperative Learning

References• http://knono.tripod.com/~ozpk/higher• http://www.utoronto.ca/tatp/questioning_edited.pdf• http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/science/sc

4think.htm• Gregory, G. (2005) Differentiating instruction with style.• Leestma, R. & Walberg, H. (1992) Japanese educational productivity. • Nonoguchi, K. (2008). “A survey of Japanese students who study

English language at Kumamoto University.”• Shimizu, J. (n.d) Why are Japanese students reluctant to express

their opinions in the classroom?• Sousa, D. (2006) How the brain learns.• Sprenger, M. (2008) Differentiation through learning styles and

memory.