To learn, a student must let information in

In 2006, when the new high school graduation requirements were being made public, also presented to schools was the idea that the purpose of education was to eventually graduate students ready to be engaged and successful citizens of the world. To do that would require a new, more rigorous curriculum, along with a relevant education delivered by "caring" adults charged with providing positive experiences for all students.

In a memo dated Jan. 24, 2006, state Superintendent Mike Flanagan wrote that our "combined efforts should provide a strong method for improving school climate, improving student behavior, creating positive relationships between students and adults…so that students thrive in schools that equally provide challenge and support. Students who experience a school community in which each member models respect and responsibility have the best chance to internalize these values."

Today, a great challenge is to keep students in school and engaged in this process. A growing threat to our efforts to prepare students for the challenges facing them is that they might not stay to learn how to do that. Our work to provide rigor along with relevance and positive relationships is still the key to success and we have not won that battle yet.

Next September, COOR Intermediate School District and all six of its local districts will have our third annual common in-service day. The topic will follow up our workshop last August on dealing with children in poverty. The topic will be the application of brain research to learning.

Fascinating research on the brain has resulted in new ideas that can help us with both the academic learning needed and the personal, social, emotional, motivational and behavioral outcomes we need for success.

I have talked before in this column about a simple model I taught when working at the university level. I called it simply "First It Must Get In." That means no learning can occur unless a person first lets information into the consciousness. Once in, it can be thought about, connected to what is already known, and stored for later use. When needed, it can be remembered and applied to the next thing to be learned or to help solve a problem. Brain research sheds much light on this simple process.

In a book published in 2005 and about to be updated, Renate Caine wrote about the Twelve Principles of Brain-Mind Learning. The idea is that first there must be meaning and then the mind works to fit new ideas into old ones with many social and emotional factors affecting the processing of this information. The 12 principles are: 1) All learning is physiological; 2) The Brain-Mind is social; 3) Search for meaning is innate; 4) Search for meaning occurs through patterning; 5) Emotions are critical to patterning; 6) The Brain-Mind processes parts and wholes simultaneously; 7) Learning involves both focused attention and peripheral perception; 8) Learning involves conscious and unconscious processes; 9) There are two approaches to memory: archiving individual facts or skills or making sense of experience; 10) Learning is developmental; 11) Complex learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat and helplessness; and 12) Each brain is uniquely organized.

You can see that these principles show the brain as a working organ that can grow, get bigger and better and can process and store large amounts of information. You may also see that it is affected tremendously by the world around it and the feelings and forces in it. Although a long list, I gave you all 12 because it shows the wide range of factors involved.

Another author, James Zull, sheds more light on this subject. He says that the brain "carries out four basic functions: 1) Getting information, 2) Making meaning of information, 3) Creating new ideas from these meanings, and 4) Acting on those ideas. From this I propose that there are four pillars of human learning: Gathering, Analyzing, Creating, and Acting."

This is the good news for teachers because it means that we can help make the brain grow bigger and better by helping to arrange conditions for learning. Other factors in this equation are emotions, feelings, motivation, and active engagement by the student in the learning. Again, this is good news because these are factors somewhat under our control. These are simple ideas but not so simple to act upon (and first you must believe in them).

For many, that's where relevance and relationships come in. Students respond fairly well to caring, sensitive, helpful, fair, inspirational, creative and engaging adults. Plus, there are rooms full of research on the power of relevance. If information has meaning then it will probably be taken in by the learner and more thinking can occur. Making topics, ideas, lessons, units and activities relevant is directly under the control of the teacher. It's not always easy but many times a good hook can bring students into the game of learning and growing their own minds.

We will learn more next fall at our common in-service. Last year, it was attended by 630 area teachers. We are working hard to make a big bang and "Get It Into The Minds" of our teachers. First It Must Get In.