A Model for the Creation of
Meaningful Community College Learning Experiences

Model Conclusion

A Teaching and Learning Metamorphosis

We hope this discussion of our theoretical model has given you ideas you can use in your college community. Our Classroom Applications section of this website features activities and strategies developed with the model. We welcome your questions and comments and invite you to join our Dialogue on Learning email discussion group. In addition, we invite you to submit for publication (on this website) your own classroom applications developed/revised with the use our our model.

Below, we've summarized each section of our theoretical model and suggested approaches we hope will inspire your own personal and institutional metamorphosis!

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Creating a Learning-centered Environment

We have seen that the brain initially processes incoming data in a hierarchical manner. The first priority is survival. If any kind of threat is perceived, the brain shifts into a reflexive mode in order to deal with the threat quickly. Second in processing priority is data that has associations with strong emotions, whether positive or negative. Only when there is no perceived threat or emotional connection does the brain switch into the slower reflective mode, which enables us to learn, reason rationally and solve problems. Since all incoming data is taken in from the environment through the five senses, we need to pay attention to the environment in our classrooms. We looked at three aspects of the environment: physical, emotional and social. Each of these aspects can at times appear threatening or evoke past emotionally-ladened experiences and, therefore, inhibit learning. As educators, we need to first ensure that the environment is safe for all of our students. We have also seen that an enriched environment can promote the growth of new dendrites and neural pathways, resulting in even more learning. So we have considered various ways to enrich the learning environment for our students.

In summary, we need to keep the following in mind to provide a learning-centered environment:

• A safe physical environment is characterized by
  • good light, temeprature and air quality
  • the appropriate use of color on walls and in instructional materials
  • the arrangement of furniture to allow movement and small group work
  • encouraging students to take care of themselves by drinking lots of water, eating healthy foods and getting enough sleep
  • providing short breaks for standing, stretching, and deep breathing
  • respecting learning rhythms in learners and planning instruction accordingly: instruction during the first 15-25 minutes, followed by elaboration or application during the middle of the class, and ending with a quick review for the last 10 minutes of the class
  • using priming and rehearsal to promote learning and retention
• An enriched physical environment is characterized by
  • providing for peripheral learning with pictures, posters or other graphics
  • planning complex authentic learning experiences
  • providing tools for creative expression such as markers, construction paper, clay, pipe cleaners, building blocks, etc.
  • Using games, music, movement, humor and multisensory activities to introduce novelty
• A safe emotional environment is characterized by
  • reducing the perception of threat and stress as much as possible by
    • being sure that students are properly prepared for assignments and that they have necessary resources
    • providing models of expected outcomes
  • promoting a sense of "relaxed alertness"
  • giving students of self esteem and empowerment by
    • providing lots of positive feedback
    • making expectations clear
    • giving choices as much as possible
    • guiding students toward becoming self-directed
  • avoiding the use of extrinsic rewards in favor of intrinsic motivation
  • making good use of silence and wait time
  • managing emotional states through the use of movement, change of activity, or music
• An enriched emotional environment is characterized by
  • using rituals to ease the perception of threat or stress
  • intentionally engaging emotions in learning experiences with movie clips, field trips, hands-on activities, demonstratons, etc.
  • providing time for reflection
  • encouraging playfulness and risk taking
• A safe social environment is characterized by
  • making use of collaborative learning with small group work, projects, etc.
  • instilling a sense in all activities that every individual is respected and valued
• An enriched social environment is characterized by
  • a strong sense of community in which all members of the community feel included and supported
  • helping students build consensus and deal with conflict

Finally, we must recognize the significant role that teachers play in the instructional process. We must be careful to model all of those behaviors that we know enhance learning and that we expect from our students.

 

Valuing the Unique Learner

What do we know about the biophysiology of learning? We know it's all about connections and is not a product, but a dynamic process that occurs when new neuronal connections are made, when one neuron (or a group of neurons) creates dendritic connections with another. As these pathways are used and thus strengthened, the learning is also strengthened. As is often said - "Neurons that fire together wire together."

Since learning is created through connections between neural pathways, the pathways our students initially bring into our classrooms become the foundation for the learning we hope will occur. And what our students bring! They bring their prior knowledge of our disciplines and their misconceptions of our disciplines; they bring their prior academic and cultural experiences; they bring their sensory and processing strengths and challenges; they bring their personal belief systems related to academic success and their assumptions about our belief systems related to their success. And all of this is embedded in the neuronal networks contained in the brains entering our classrooms. Every one of those brains, and therefore learners, is unique, shaped by its own genetics and experiences (experiences that began in the womb and continue to a moment ago). Therefore, we must look for the common elements in how our students learn and then facilitate experiences with sufficient flexibility to allow each student to construct his or her own learning in order to achieve our identified goals and outcomes.

"This is one of the most important, and yet simple, ideas that biology can give teachers. We must let our students use the neuronal networks they already have. We cannot create new ones out of thin air or by putting them on a blackboard. And we cannot excise the old ones. The only recourse we have is to begin with what the learner brings." James E. Zull, The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning

But I don't have time to do something different for every student. Of course not, and that is why we need to also change the frame in which we consider our art. We must stop thinking in terms of accommodation, i.e. making changes after the fact to meet the needs of individual students (often multiple changes to meet multiple needs) and think in terms of designing our curricula, methods, and assessments for access by the largest number of students, leaving few, if any, who need individualized accommodations.

Let us follow the lead of architecture and shift our perception of the educational system from one designed in a uniform way forcing students without access to fail or request accommodation (e.g. blind student can't access print textbook, but many others can't as well) to designing for universal access through application of technology and the wealth of information we have and will have about how the brain actually learns.

By definition, the number of ways learners can be unique is infinite. To simplify our task, the model includes discussion of the following general categories:

• Prior knowledge - We make sense of new information from our personal mental models - i.e. our sense of patterns, vocabulary, contexts, references, and prior understanding (whether or not correct).
• Intelligence/Multiple Intelligences - What we define as a valued ability (and therefore a devalued disability) or intelligence is a social/cultural construct. While some problems or the creation of certain end products may lend themselves more easily to a particular mode of processing, no concept and few problems can be approached in only a single way. A final product may require a particular format, e.g. written or mathematical; however, development of the underlying conceptual knowledge necessary to create that product can always be accomplished in multiple ways.
• Learning Styles and sensory preferences
• Cultural background (academic, ethnic/social, political), for example
  • types of patterns we have been taught to value and recognize (likely to apparent in MI strengths)
  • roles within classroom, including verbal and nonverbal behavior
  • how cultural experience and learning informs our approach to education, for example, the place of time, the relative importance of academic work vs. family, and individual vs. group achievements
• Individual educational goals
• Personal circumstances, for example
  • work and/or family responsibilities which interfere with participation in face-to-face group work outside the classroom, and
  • the aging of our student demographic that shows an increased prevalence of physical, sensory, and thus cognitive disabilities due to medical conditions, accidents, and just plain aging.

Constructing Individual Meaning

As we suggest with our theoretical model for teaching in the community college, the unique learner, in a learning-centered environment, constructs individual meaning. In our model, the word "meaning" refers to the level of expertise that allows the learner to make connections between concepts within a field and to make connections to other disciplines. This "expert" can move smoothly between the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy and can function easily at the highest levels. The learner who can make these connections fluently is engaging in meaningful learning. In addition, learning is active, not passive. This constructivist view of learning is supported by what researchers are learning about the physical processes in the brain. We can improve student learning by creating complex learning experiences that are designed to take advantage of what we know about how the brain learns.

• Connections - Learning that can be connected to prior (personal) experience is more likely to be retained and more likely to be applied/connected to future learning. We can improve learning by helping students use their existing mental maps to create new maps. In addition, we can help them build bridges between these newly formed maps and future learning.
• Paying attention - Although learning doesn't increase the number of brain cells, it does strengthen the brain's ability to form complex neural networks. The brain changes structure and function in response to experience. Moreover, willful attention, or mindfulness, acts on the physical structure and activity of the brain. We can help students learn by creating complex learning experiences that hold their attention.
• Metacognition - Learning improves with metacognition (awareness and control over one's own thinking). Critically reflective learners examine their assumptions and apply what they discover to future learning experiences. We can improve student metacognition by modeling critical reflection ourselves and by embedding critical reflection pieces in classroom experiences.
• Assessment - The process of designing complex learning experiences includes identifying core concepts and developing appropriate assessment tools that will help students connect content to core concepts. The use of formative and summative assessment pieces improves student learning.
• Creativity - Student learning is improved when students are given the opportunity to develop the creativity they bring with them to our classrooms. We can help students develop their creativity by designing complex learning experiences that encourage divergent problem solving approaches and by rewarding creative risk-taking.
• Patterns - All knowledge is embedded in other knowledge. Furthermore, the brain's ability to search for patterns is innate. This recognition of meaningful patterns (and the ability to make connections) can lead to new ways of understanding the world. Creating complex learning experiences that require students to recognize meaningful patterns and make connections will help them construct individual meaning.
  

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Conclusion

We can't control all aspects of the learners that come our way; each student brings in his or her own learning strengths and challenges, concept of self, and so on. We can, however, change ourselves -- the change begins within. It is a metamorphosis that begins from within the instructor, moves outward to the classroom (or learning center), on to the students, and then to rest of the college community - all shifts in self and mental models that will require time.

We can't control all aspects of the environment, but we can control some. For example, we might not have control over course scheduling or other institutional policies; however, we can control ourselves, our space to some extent, and the way we design our curricula, methodologies, and assessments. We can design our courses and learning experiences to provide access to the broadest possible number of students. We can help the learner construct his or her own meaning by nurturing metacognition and by creating appropriate learning experiences. Teaching is truly "the art of changing the brain."

Additionally, all aspects of planning, design, and development within a learning-centered institution, not only decisions related directly to the classroom, but also decisions outside the classroom (including, for example, facility design, development of orientation activities, advisement procedures, residential life programming, and budget allocations) can be and should be informed by these principles of brain-based learning and subjected to the three lenses:

How will this decision foster a learning-centered environment?

How are the needs of unique learners considered?

How is the design facilitating the construction of individual meaning?

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We are committed to improving the learning experiences we share with our students. Our own professional development is nurtured by the support we provide each other as evolving professionals. If we can help you, please let us know.

Annette Bell

Lisa Ford

Khaki Wunderlich