Differentiation and the Brain - David A. Sousa

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ways to refine learning environments to benefit student growth.

      Differentiation advises teachers to respond to student needs with invitation, investment, opportunity, persistence, and reflection.

      There was a time long ago when prevailing wisdom suggested every child was born as a blank slate—a tabula rasa. As adults wrote on those slates, so the theory went, students would learn what they needed to know. Although that theory has long been discredited, classrooms often still function as though the teacher’s job is to tell students what they need to know, and the students’ job is to absorb what they hear. Creating a learning environment to support that theory of learning is relatively simple. All that is needed is a room with rows of desks, a teacher who is prepared to tell students what they need to know, and students who learn to sit in the rows of desks and listen quietly to what the teacher has to say.

      If psychologists had not already discredited that approach to teaching and learning, simply observing classrooms would relieve any sentiment that the tell-and-absorb approach works. Students in such a setting may (or may not) sit and listen, but they typically do not retain, recall, or transfer what they hear. Neither do they generally become engaged with learning. What we now know about how students learn requires quite a different and more complex learning environment.

      Brain-imaging studies provide increasing evidence that stimulating learning environments may be responsible for more rapid and robust neuron development in children and adolescents. Although genetics certainly play a role in brain growth, many neuroscientists suspect environmental influences probably play an even greater role (Plomin, Shakeshaft, McMillan, & Trzaskowski, 2014; Rao et al., 2010; Shaw et al., 2006). Maintaining a rich learning environment, of course, should be the goal of all schools, but the research studies cited earlier imply school experiences for children and adolescents may have a significant impact on an individual’s brain development and eventual level of intelligence. That bears repeating—what happens in classrooms may actually raise or lower a student’s IQ!

      Exercise 2.3 (page 45) invites teachers and administrators to reflect on a summary of what we know about learners, the nature of their learning, and the kind of environment necessary to support each student’s ability to learn (National Research Council, 2000). Among the qualities of learning environments conducive to developing student cognition, we know three are particularly important.

      A stimulating learning environment may have a significant impact on an individual’s brain development and eventual level of intelligence.

      1. Our best knowledge and understanding of the nature of the learning process points to learner-centered classroom environments. That is, teachers teach better when they systematically study their students to increase their understanding of both the age group as a whole and the individuals within that age group. This understanding enables them to focus the content on student needs. Texts, as well as thoughtfully developed content outlines and pacing guides, can be helpful in determining what teachers should emphasize and how much time they should allot to various curriculum aspects. Scripted texts may be carefully planned to cover content, but they are poorly suited to addressing the varied learning needs of the students who use them. These common tools should never drive the teaching and learning process.

      2. Our best knowledge of how people learn leads to the conclusion that learning environments must be flexible in order to maximize students’ cognitive development. That is, teachers must be prepared to use time, space, furniture, materials, groupings, strategies, and other classroom elements in multiple ways to address students’ multiple developmental trajectories. To assume all students in a particular class will benefit from trying to learn the same thing in the same way over the same time period and with the same support systems rejects what we know about student variance in aptitudes, interests, and motivation.

      3. Our best knowledge of how people learn indicates rich and stimulating environments serve as catalysts for students’ cognitive growth. That is particularly true today, as students are digital natives accustomed to engaging with their learning. Thus, the learning environment provides materials, models, and human interactions that tap into and feed students’ natural interests, learning preferences, curiosity, and desire for successful autonomy. Because students have different interests, inclinations, strengths, weaknesses, and approaches to learning, instructional resources will necessarily have to be both varied and matched to student needs. Remember, the brain is a strong pattern seeker, continually looking for ways to weave new and past learning into a conceptual pattern that makes sense and has meaning. Rich and stimulating environments are the places where such connections, pattern development, and retention of learning best occur.

      Classroom environments with these three qualities are mindfully designed to promote student responsibility, self-awareness as a learner, and learning for the satisfaction of learning. They are not about creating cute bulletin boards or protective cocoons but rather about building a context that capitalizes on the human inclination to learn to achieve one’s potential and contribute to the time and place in which one lives. Exercise 2.4 (page 47) offers some questions to help teachers think about the relationship between student cognitive needs, learning environment, and differentiation, and reflect on ways to refine learning environments to benefit student development.

      Differentiated classroom environments are designed to promote student responsibility, self-awareness as a learner, and learning for the satisfaction of learning.

      As you read about the components of differentiation and the ways brain research supports and amplifies those components, it is helpful to continue thinking about the impact of a teacher’s mindset and the learning environment on each component. No sharp lines exist between the four classroom elements; they are both overlapping and interdependent. Strengthening any one of them makes the others more robust, while failure to attend to any of them results in some deterioration of the others.

       A Better Scenario

      Ms. Atcheson tells her students on the first day of class the two most important things being a teacher has taught her are every student in her class can be a successful student, and it is her job to make sure that happens.

      “You all come to class with different strengths and different experiences,” she tells them, “so you won’t learn everything in the same way or at the same time. But each one of you will learn more than you ever thought you could in this class.”

      She tells the students the one thing she will insist on is they come to class every day ready to work as hard as they possibly can. “I promise you I’ll come every day to work with you as hard as I can.”

      “Each day,” she says to them, “I’m going to ask each of you to take your next step toward success. It won’t necessarily be the same step as the person next to you, but it will be what you need to do in order to grow as a learner that day.”

      Carlos is suspicious. He has, after all, never been a good student. Liza is worried. She is not sure she knows how to work hard. Both students find the class to be very challenging. Both students hit a wall from time to time, but Ms. Atcheson always makes sure they have the support to get up and try again. At the end of the year, Carlos says it is the first time he has ever felt smart in school. Liza says this is the first class she has ever really earned the good grade she made.

       Questions for Teachers About Mindset, Learning Environment, and Differentiation

      Respond to the following questions. After you finish, review your responses and reflect on how your mindset affects your classroom decisions. Building administrators can use this activity at a faculty meeting to discuss how teacher mindset can affect students’ progress in the school. Both groups should consider ways the school environment and procedures generally reflect a fixed or growth mindset in teachers and students, and the implications of their conclusions.

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