Dr. Mel Levine, Saturday morning's General Session speaker, confirmed what educators have long understood: Brains don't develop at the same rate in every kid, and teachers had better pay attention lest they lose students who are perfectly capable of learning.
The rapid and dramatic development that happens from age 11 through young adulthood makes learning challenging, but it also makes learning happen. Levine says brain research supports education strategies that:
Avoid labels. Levine said, "The trouble with labels is that they are reductionist--they seek to name a condition and not address it. They are essentially pessimistic. The vast majority of kids who are labeled as having reading comprehension problems are probably having active working memory problems. They need to find ways to hold short-term memory in their minds. Enough with labels."
Use the most appropriate assessments. Timed tests don't have much of a place in Levine's world, nor does memorization. "It's much better to understand where you can go on the rivers of Africa rather than being able to name all the rivers of Africa," Levine said. "Better still is explaining the contributions of Africa's rivers to the people who live there."
Recognize developmental readiness. Fidgety middle-schoolers and bored high school students are behaving in ways that reflect how their brains are growing. "One of the most important things we can teach kids to do is work slowly," Levine said. "As the pre-frontal cortex develops, children are dealing with problems of impulsivity and learning not to jump to the first conclusion they draw or decision they make. What's that mean? To me it means no more timed tests. It's much better to say, 'Take as long as you need, but you can only use two pages' than it is to say 'You have an hour to tell us as much as you can.'"
Builds on strengths. Levine urged educators to match instruction not only to developmental readiness, but also to what students can actually do with their learning. "Imagine hiring an adult. Would you ask them 'How's your rote memory?' Of course not," he said. "That's not generally an important skill. Actually, it's almost irrelevant."
Getting kids to tap into that relevant learning is what education is about. Levine said young brains have a hard time filtering what's important to know.
"Problems with significance detection are probably the most common issue among high school kids," noted Levine. "They're trying to take it all in, and that is difficult to do. Many high school kids just cannot separate what's important from what's not."
He recalled a young Stanford math professor who had a firm grasp of the problem. "I asked him what it was like to teach calculus to college freshmen," Levine recounted. "He said, 'Well, you know how it is. Some of them just get it, and the others you have to teach.'"
- Explore ASCD's newest video-based staff development program, Teaching the Adolescent Brain.
- Read a chapter from the second edition of Eric Jensen's Teaching with the Brain in Mind.
Do you have experiences with students developing at different rates? What strategies have been most successful? Share with us using the "Comments" link below.
Photo Credit: Mark Regan
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