Teachers need to know about brain research!

I'm taking an online class right now where a student explained that she has learned about the importance of brain research in education but found it baffling that it was not being taught to teachers. 

Now, of course there are teachers that reach out and get this information for themselves and there might be a few quick mentions of brain research throughout the year at the building or district level, but if our profession is based on the topic of this research, how come this is not a priority?

Here's a fact I recently learned more about... We have limited space in our working memory. We cannot have someone spew information at us and remember it all. In fact, our ability to think critically and go deeper into a topic is directly related to what we have space for in our working memory! 

To me, this has many implications for the classroom. I will mention a few.


First off... why are we still discussing the importance of math facts? Of course students need to have these facts memorized! Anyone who teaches 3rd grade or above (and probably younger) can tell you how important this is! Students that have their facts memorized have more space in their working memories to solve more complex problems. Go ahead and continue to debate the best route to get students to memorize facts but I think we can move forward knowing this is important.


Secondly... We need to stop getting annoyed that we have to repeat what we say!It's part of our job and if we want to do our job well, we need to get used to repeating. Believe me, I understand how frustrating it is when a kid asks a question that you just answered but reprimanding them for asking can be extremely detrimental! Plus, next time you're at an adult meeting, pay attention to how many times you tune the speaker out and need to get something repeated (or even worse, maybe you just let it go and never know what was said). Imagine being a child and having to listen to the same person every day all day! I'm guessing you'd be looking a bit like...

How about rewarding a kid for asking you to repeat what you said? Now that's powerful! Let's teach kids to own their education and feel comfortable asking for what they need. 


Thirdly... We need to make sure we revisit concepts throughout the year. Learning does disappear from our brains, even if we dominated the test back in October with a 100%. Today I was asked to solve a high school math problem. I could've solved it back in high school but I have no clue how to solve it now. This is because I haven't had to remember it. I haven't used that information and now it's gone. This is similar to our students. Make sure to spiral back to the big concepts all year so all students have a chance to learn and maintain this information!

That is all for now! Until next time...