SOT 2010:

Stream: Reframing Early Childhood Education

Workshop: Brain Based Learning by Tom White

As research shows Brain based learning is a combination of brain science and common

sense.

Our Aim

To try to incorporate strategies which support Brain Based Learning in our EY’s classrooms so as to provide a better learning experience to our students.

Our objectives To meet the needs of our diverse learners. To have each child reach his full potential.To become a school where students are

happy and parents satisfied.

Getting the staff on board

Briefing with parents about ‘Brain Based Learning.’

The challenges we faced:To find out more about Brain Based

strategies.To train our teachers. To make sure everyone understood this

concept. To embed these strategies in our daily

routine.To ensure availability of resources.

Some beliefs and strategies which we incorporated

A safe and caring environment - inviting the family to the classroom.

Putting up students’ work and changing boards frequently to add novelty in the classroom.

When the brain senses danger the body reacts with fight or flight.

We decided to start with improving our circle time activities: We worked on our lesson plans and took up

the following areas: bullying caring and sharingfriendship

A meaningful Circle Time Activity: Bandage the Teddy

P.Nsy B :M. Abbass and Ali Sameer

A challenge which is achievable: Panel Discussion –Saving Resources

Children will remember when they are emotionally engaged

Celebrating Achievements

The brain is a social brain…it grows with social interaction.

The human brain strives to make connections so learning is best when it is linked to prior knowledge.

Images sink in faster than words alone so we focused on providing this stimulus.

The more senses we use the more pathways we create to the brain.

Encouraging peer support

This video is available for download as a separate file.

Filename: Encouraging Peer Support

The Brain makes links when learning is meaningful.

When the children would get tired we would give them a stretching break or a jumping activity

Music is a powerful carrier of signals that activate emotion and long term memory

Projects and solving real life problems Interacting with

the environment stimulates brain development

An exciting experience for the students while doing an ICT activity on missing numbers.

Language Activity : Word MasterKhawaja Sarmad, Aairsh Suleman , Hammad Faisal KG E

Parents’ feedback

This video is available for download as a separate file.

Filename: Parents’ Feedback

Learning outcomes. Better more meaningful teaching strategies

were being used. Students were seen engaged in deeper

learning. Parental feedback was very encouraging. There is less resistance now and teachers

are understanding now that BBL is all about the strategies we normally use.

The key word here is being consistent in using them if we want to embed these practices.