Lesson Plan 7.4 – Growth Mindset Neuroscience …€¦ · Lesson Plan 7.4 – Growth Mindset...

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MY NOTES

LEARNING OUTCOMES

! To learn that a Growth Mindset is supported by neuroscience.

! To understand that your brain enables you to become more intelligent.

! To use this knowledge to achieve more of the things you want.

SKILLS

► Self-awareness

► Knowledge

VALUES

► Trust

► Effort

► Reward

PREPARATION

Ensure you are familiar with the lesson content and are ready to deliver the exercises below.

TIME NEEDED

This lesson can be delivered in 60 minutes, though depending on the range of abilities in the class and the level to which you want to embed learning you can take longer and deliver this over two lessons.

This is a guide and will depend on the extent to which you would like to adapt the lesson.

Lesson Plan 7.4 – Growth Mindset Neuroscience


MY NOTES

Before starting this lesson you should make sure there has been a review of the learning logs being filled in (after the previous lesson). This is something you may want to do as an extra lesson or through other means such as tutor time, when there may be the opportunity for more individual focus.

EXERCISE 1: THE NEUROSCIENCE BEHIND A GROWTH MINDSET (20 Minutes)

You may want to show one or more of the videos about brain plasticity that are listed on the resources sheet to support this lesson.

You may also want to start by assessing the current knowledge of your students.

This will allow them to use the knowledge they have gained from the first three lessons.

The answer we are looking for is that all of us are able to get better and improve at things – to develop greater understanding, learn more, apply it and as a result improve grades or be more successful in different activities.

As a follow up you might ask them to give examples of when they have been able to do this.

To support their learning and improve their belief about this we will introduce them to the neuroscience behind a Growth Mindset.

Your students may or may not have knowledge in this area, depending on their age, previous learning or current level so you may have to prompt or share the answer. As an alternative you may want to show what happens to your students and then ask them for their thoughts and feelings about this.

Many people still believe that humans are born either smart or not (or somewhere in the middle). And it is only in fairly recent times that we are able to show this isn’t true as we have been able to use MRI and PET scans and other techniques to show what goes on in the brain.

Ask, “What happens to your brain when you learn something new?”

Ask, “Can you grow your intelligence?”


MY NOTES

Parts of the brain change and grow larger when new learning takes place.

The answer is you get fitter and are able to lift heavier weights – you grow your muscles. In this case in the period after you have lifted additional weights, your muscles tear slightly and then repair themselves.

The body repairs or replaces the damaged muscle fibers through a cellular process - it fuses them together to form new muscle strands (called myofibrils). These repaired muscles increase in thickness and number to create muscle growth and as a result you can lift heavier weights and objects.

And we can think about the brain in the same way. If we consistently exercise it, brain cells grow, just like muscle and they get stronger as you use them.

The reverse is also true. If you don’t use it or give up on things easily, the cells shrink and get weaker.

Researchers have called this brain plasticity.

THE SCIENCE

As a way to help students begin to understand this better you can ask them, “What happens to your body if you start to exercise and train with weights?”


MY NOTES

The human brain is about the size of an average grapefruit and weighs around 1.36kgs or 3lbs. The cerebral cortex, also known as the cerebrum, is the largest portion of the brain, located right under the forehead and it is divided into two parts, a right and a left hemisphere. It is responsible for many of our learning functions and inside it are around 100 billion neurons. These are very small nerve cells that have branches that connect them to other cells to make up a network.

It is the connections between these cells and the way they communicate with each other that allows us to be able to think, learn and solve problems.

Depending on the age and abilities of your students you can choose how much science and detail you want to use in this lesson. You can refer to the accompanying Brain Factsheet (see Lesson 7.4 – The Brain Factsheet).

As alternatives (and particularly for younger children, you might do one of the following two activities (these will take more time and could form part of a longer project on the brain).

1. Ask students to draw a picture of the brain and what they think might happen when they learn something new – you can share some of the key points to help them.

Or ask them to carry out their own research or carry out research as a class. There are many resources freely available through the Internet and deciding on those that are most helpful can be part of the project.

2. Ask them individually to make a brain or one of the parts discussed, such as a neuron. This might be combined with an art class or project. They can illustrate the model showing what happens when they learn. This might be using papier-mâché, pottery (older students), or any other materials you use in school.

Students now need to understand what the changes in the brain during learning might mean for them.

Ask your students, “What do you think these changes in the brain might mean for you?”


MY NOTES

They can discuss in pairs or groups and then as a class (or continue to draw or illustrate as part of an alternative approach).

Areas you might cover include.

• That the brain creates more capacity for you to keep learning.

• That it doesn’t matter what your initial position is, if you practice something you will get better.

• However, they need to do the groundwork. If they haven’t had the opportunity to grow the foundation dendrites for a new topic or skill, they won’t have the basis from which to grow the dendrites for the higher levels of skill and knowledge they may need. For example, if they learn something new and do it only once or twice, the dendrite connection is very fragile and can disappear within hours.

Within 20 minutes, they may remember only 60% and within 24 hours, only 30%. But if they practise within 24 hours, and then practise again later, they will remember much more - probably around 80%.

• So students should not judge themselves as incapable or of less intelligence or talent and throw away their potential because they didn’t take the initial opportunity to build the foundation and then practice.

• It is important they understand that no one can understand anything if it isn’t connected in some way to something they already know.

• They grow their dendrites for the things they are practising. So if they listen to someone else solving a problem the dendrite growth is for listening and watching but if they solve the problems themselves they grow dendrites for solving.

• The more students therefore challenge themselves to learn and solve their own problems, the greater the brain cell growth and the stronger the pathways along the neurons become.

• This is why, with perseverance, things they once found difficult do become easier – doing maths, learning a foreign language, learning a new sport, dancing or any activity.


MY NOTES

• It is why a belief in a growth mindset is so important. Taking action in line with this belief creates a self-fulfilling prophecy and performance improves.

• The same is true if you have a fixed mindset as you do not give your brain the opportunity to grow in the same way and therefore you do not learn as effectively or achieve better results.

No one suggests that a baby that can’t talk isn’t intelligent. We just know they haven’t learned to talk yet. But we may label children at school because they cannot solve a sum or write an essay.

Those students that people think of as most clever are more likely to have been encouraged to read before starting school and their parents may have engaged them regularly in conversation and practice.

Too many people miss out on delivering a better performance and developing a stronger brain because they think they cannot do something (fixed mindset).

Whatever the starting point, if we can help students to understand they simply don’t know how to do something yet and that focus, effort and practice are important; there is a chance for many more people to raise their attainment.

So when they want to achieve something they need to make sure they learn the foundation of the knowledge or skills they want and then set out what effort they will put in (and as teachers we need to praise this effort and not simply any achievement).

There is much more to learn about the brain and in the next lesson we are going to look at the importance of memory in learning and the things students can do to help keep their brain healthy.


MY NOTES

EXERCISE 2: USING THE NEUROSCIENCE TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE (15 Minutes)

Some suggestions might be to consider what happens each time they:

• Write an essay

• Complete a maths problem

• Answer a science question

• Undertake a sporting activity

• Take part in a hobby or something they enjoy

We will cover the first example and the principles apply for all of the others, and other examples of learning.

When you write an essay on a new subject the connections in your brain cells multiply and the dendrites grow. But this only works well if you first make sure you have a base knowledge of the subject and then make effort and practice. By doing this you increase your capacity to learn and improve your knowledge and skills, so that every time you write a new essay you will find it easier.

Without this you will not have the same effect on your brain and when you make no effort or fail to practise the dendrites reduce in size and your capacity to learn and improve falls.

So what happens if you are forced to learn something you don’t enjoy or don’t want to do?

The chances are that you never make the initial connections and as a result there isn’t a strong pathway created by the neurons in the brain. Dendrites don’t grow, the pathways are easily removed and there is nothing for new learning to attach to and as a result students are very likely to find it difficult and also believe that it is something they are unable to do.

Now ask your students for some examples of learning and how this neuroscience might work for them (or pick your own to examples to share and use for this exercise).


MY NOTES

EXERCISE 3: GROWING YOUR BRAIN (25 Minutes)

The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate to students how focus and practise will lead to improvements by creating stronger pathways in the brain.

Possible activities:

• Juggling with 2 and then 3 balls/bean bags

• Throwing a beanbag into a receptacle or onto a piece of paper a few feet away.

• Playing a game, solving a puzzle, completing a crossword or Sudoku, etc. (See the brain stretching activity links below).

You can visit either of these websites and have students choose games and puzzles to use that will gradually get harder.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/results/braintestbritain/4_brain_training_games.html

http://www.mindgames.com/game/The+Brain+Game

Ask them to work in pairs or groups and to continually take it in turns to complete the chosen activity.

They should record results after each turn and discuss their learning. What do they need to do better with each new turn?

By the end of this session most students should see an improvement in their performance. Finish the lesson by discussing this as a class.

This improvement will only come if students take the activity seriously and put in effort to the activity. Discussing how they are doing and the improvements they are making will help them to see the importance of focus and practice.

So much for the theory! We will spend the rest of the lesson putting this into practice. You can choose one of the tasks below, choose your own or let students choose from them (so either everyone is doing the same thing or you have multiple tasks going on – whatever works best for you)?


MY NOTES

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Finish the lesson by referring back to the learning outcomes and whether they have been achieved.

! To learn that a Growth Mindset is supported by neuroscience.

! To understand that your brain enables you to become more intelligent.

! To use this knowledge to achieve more of the things you want.

EXTENSION TASKS

1. Students to carry out further research on the changes the brain makes when undertaking new tasks. Ask them to consider what happens when these tasks become easy? They can write up their findings or draw an individual or class picture that show the changes taking place.

2. Create a poster for the noticeboard showing the neuroscience behind a growth mindset.

3. Pick a specific area, such as solving a problem or completing homework and create a step-by-step approach that can be followed by everyone in the class.


MY NOTES

THE SCIENCE

The human brain is about the size of an average grapefruit and weighs around 1.36kgs or 3lbs. The cerebral cortex, also known as the cerebrum, is the largest portion of the brain, located right under the forehead and it is divided into two parts, a right and a left hemisphere. It is responsible for many of our learning functions and inside it are around 100 billion neurons. These are very small nerve cells that have branches that connect them to other cells to make up a network.

It is the connections between these cells and the way they communicate with each other that allows us to be able to think, learn and solve problems.

Figure 1 – A Nerve Cell (Neuron)

Lesson 7.4 – The Brain Factsheet


MY NOTES

So learning is a very natural process as follows:

• Dendrites (the fibres you can see in figure 1) grow out of the neurons when you learn something (this could be through listening to, writing about, talking about or practising something).

• Dendrites are like twigs from a tree, growing out from a branch (the knowledge) that is already there.

• They grow higher and denser (again like a tree) – see figure 2.

• New dendrites take time to grow, so it usually takes a lot of practice to learn things well (which is why homework and revision can be so important).

• When two dendrites grow close together, a contact point is formed and a small gap at the contact point is called the synapse (figure 1).

Figure 2 – Dendrite Growth (as we learn)

• Messages are sent from one neuron to another as electrical signals that travel across the synapse from neuron to neuron. These messages fly around at incredible speeds of up to 120m per second.

• As we learn, specific dendrites grow so that specific neurons connect at specific synapses to create large and more complex pathways and networks.

• There can be as many as 10,000 connections (synapses) per neuron (and remember there are around 100 billion neurons in a typical brain).


MY NOTES

• Synapses can change in number minute by minute. Some of them are strong, and some are weak (so weak they may not even send a signal).

• It is through learning that the weak synapses can become stronger and no matter how many synapses a neuron has, it can grow more.

So the brain creates new pathways and strengthens them as we continually practice. In fact

• When you continue to practice the dendrites grow thicker with a fatty coating. The thicker the dendrites, the faster the signals travel. The coating also reduces interference.

• With enough practice, the dendrites build a double connection and faster and stronger double connections last a very long time. You are much more likely to remember what you have learned!

Lesson Plan 7.4 – Growth Mindset Neuroscience …€¦ · Lesson Plan 7.4 – Growth Mindset...

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