Neuroscience in Education: Braining-Up Your English Lessons
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Session Outline
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Abstract
Learning happens in our brains. It's a physical and biological process. Brain-based teaching and learning focus on how the brain learns best and how language teachers can learn to understand and use this knowledge to help students learn English effectively. Much is already known about brain functioning during learning processes to orient the practice of teaching. The brain and learning are the bridge that teachers can and must cross with knowledge that effectively connects them to learners.
In this five-week online workshop offered through the Electronic Village Online, participants will explore how the brain works during the learning process and they will be introduced to helpful tips to enhance their teaching practice. By the end of the workshop, participants will have had an overview of how neuroscientific research findings can positively impact educators' pedagogical approach to spice up their lesson plans to promote students' creativity, engagement and learning. We promise it will be madly fun and informative!
Target Audience
Any educator willing to step up to understanding how neuroscience in education can enrich and enliven their classrooms with sound pedagogical approaches based on the knowledge on how our brain works. Participants are assumed to have skills necessary for basic communication via a discussion group and Internet browsing skills (tutorials will be made available for those with difficulties in areas that may prevent participation).
Interest Section Sponsors
TESOL CALL IS, BrazTESOL, EFL IS and NNEST IS
Syllabus
Weekly Outline
By the end of this workshop, participants will have
- learned important principles about how the brain works
- explored various pieces of information about how the brain learns best, enhancing their teaching practice
- understood the potential of brain-based lessons to enhance language learning
- practiced preparing brain-based activities
- suggested activities based on the brain concepts they explored
- networked with other participants interested in improving their practice based on credible brain research
- had the chance to curate resources related to brain and education for further explorations
- explored the different brain-based pedagogical approaches as a sandbox for future classroom use
Week 1 (Jan 14 - 20, 2013) - INTRODUCTION & BRAIN BASICS
During the first week of the course, participants will
- Join the group online meeting place
- exchange introductions and become familiar with the group environments
- create and/or share their digital portfolios
- explore and understand some basic principles of brain functioning
- have some initial discussions on how brain research affects our teaching
- start digitally curating brain-related resources
Week 2 (Jan 21 - 27, 2013) - THE EMOTIONAL BRAIN & MOTIVATION
During this week, participants will
- understand how the emotional brain can trigger or hinder learning
- come up with activities that promote the effective use of emotion to enhance learning
- explore if different types of reward (intrinsic X extrinsic) can trigger motivation equally
- share their findings and ideas with the group
- continue digitally curating brain-related resources
- share ideas on how educators can enhance learning taking into account what they've learned about the emotional brain & motivation
Week 3 (Jan 28 - Feb 3, 2013) - ATTENTION & MEMORY
During this week, participants will
- learn about attention & memory in the brain
- explore brain-based strategies that may trigger attention and memory
- share ideas on how educators can enhance learning taking into account what they've learned about attention and memory
- analyze a case study and propose ways to help students focus based on the understanding of the emotional brain and attention issues
- continue digitally curating brain-related resources
- share their findings and ideas with the group
Week 4 (Feb 4 - Feb 10, 2013) - WE ARE ALL WIRED DIFFERENTLY
During this week, participants will
- learn that all brains are wired differently and explore the implications of this concept to learning
- watch and discuss a movie segment that exemplifies the concept that brains are wired differently
- experience themselves how schemas can shape how we learn
- learn about the importance of triggering existing neuronal networks in the EFL classroom
- share their findings with their peers
Week 5 (Feb 11 -17, 2013) - WRAPPING UP - TEACHING THAT CHANGES THE BRAIN
During this week participants will
- explore how effective teaching causes changes in the brain
- watch a video of a classroom activity, decide if it is compatible with the principles of how the brain learns best and share their opinions with other participants
- discuss what they have acquired for their teaching toolkit and assess their own learning during the session
- evaluate the workshop
Join this session
Sign up for the session starts on Jan 7th, 2013 at our Edmodo Neuroscience in Education group (hottopicsELT) Group Code: r1x8tp
Also, request access to our session WIKI at http://hottopicselt.pbworks.com/
The action starts on Jan 14th, 2013.
Moderators
Carla Arena
I'm a Brazilian EFL educator who's passionate about teaching. I'm curious and always in search of online tools that can add value to my teaching practices and hook up students to learn. I truly believe in the transformational power education holds when we find the right means to engage, enchant and motivate our learners.
I'm a teacher trainer at a Binational Center in Brasilia. I've been more and more involved in e-learning projects, devising online sessions and teaching them. I'm a blogging fan (or addict!) and enthusiastic Webhead.
I'm really excited about this online journey. For the past four years, I've co-moderated the Blogging4Educators , Images4Educationand digitalstorytelling sessions, but I'm up to this challenge of another session with wonderful souls.
More about me at BrazilBridges
I blog at http://collablogatorium.blogspot.com and am a collaborator of a wonderful multicultural blog: http://pocketcultures.com
Cheryl Oakes
Hello, I am a Special Education Teacher for our high school in our school district of 1460 students Wells Ogunquit Community School District, Maine. In 2005, I completed a course during the online Electronic Village, Becoming a Webhead. That one course opened the door to so many opportunities that I am happy to "pay it back" by being part of this collaborative course. I am also a Webcaster at EdtechTalk, blogger at TechLearning.com, member of SEEDLINGS,a presenter and lover of technology, parent, kayaker and skier! Nice to meet you!
http://cheryloakes.com
http://www.techlearning.com/blog
Denise De Felice
I am an EFL teacher, a teacher trainer and an Academic Coordinator at an EFL institution in Brasilia, Brazil. My field of study relates to bridging neuroscientific research and education because I do believe that understanding about how the brain learns can positively impact our teaching practice. I am a member of the Society for Neuroscience, whose Annual Meeting I attend regularly, and a member of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language. I am currently the EFL-IS Chair at TESOL. I am really excited about joining this amazing team of Webheads and I am sure that we will all share great experiences and learn a lot together!
Nina Liyulkun
I come from Ukraine and teach Business English for students at the Khmelnitskiy National University. Since joining the online community of webheads I’ve learned a lot from and with the dedicated educators whose major interest is IT for teaching and learning online. Annual TESOL’s EVO sessions give everyone a good chance to get knowledge and experience in integrating technology into educational process. I am happy to be part of the moderating team of EVO sessions since 2007 at Blogging for Educators, Images4Education and Digital Storytelling 2011. The sessions have given an impulse to continue improving skills in this area. More info about my activities can be found at collaborative WorldCALL 2008 wiki,
Jane Petring
I teach at Collège Édouard-Montpetit near Montreal, Québec. It seems that I have been involved with foreign language education my whole life as a student, teacher, administrator, author or online moderator and find all of those roles constantly intersecting. I have authored three ESL textbook series that are widely used in Quebec colleges and universities and have co-moderated a number of online sessions such asCollaborative Blogging, Images4Education, digitalstorytelling among others. I have also wrestled with the relative advantages of using online tools or textbooks in several articles (e.g. Textbook and Web 2.0: Collision or Collaboration?) and created a number of blogs to help my students explore online tools: Discovering, Deducting and Digging, Exploring 19th Century Literature and English CEF Blog. I look forward to exploring more digital tools and making sure they have a purpose!
Ana Maria Menezes
I'm Ana Maria Menezes. A Brazilian EFL teacher, teacher trainer and the technology coordinator at a Language Institute. I love searching the net for new learning possibilities and publish my "discoveries" and "trials" in my blog LIFE FEAST. Since 2006 I've been trying out different webtools with my students and organising the tools according to the skills they favor. The result of this work can be found in my two books, Webtools applied to teaching and Developing the 4 Skills with Webtools. At the moment, I've started an MA in Applied Linguistics and have been writing about how technology has influenced my development as a teacher.
Mary Hillis
I am an EFL teacher at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan. I'm enthusiastic about language teaching and learning and have been exploring the use of web tools for personal and professional use since participating in the 2006 EVO session Becoming a Webhead. I have been part of the moderating team for several previous EVO sessions, including Blogging4Educators and Images4Education. You can learn more about me at Education Connections.
Our Session Online Spaces
Edmodo: main environment, message board for announcements and discussions
Our Wiki: syllabus, weekly tasks, weekly discussion threads and tutorials
Our Diigo Group: online social bookmarking space where we keep all the resources being shared by the group
Pinterest: visual content aggregation.
The Electronic Village Online is a project of TESOL's CALL Interest Section
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