Teaching for the Teenage Brain

Brain based learning is a huge buzz word in education at the moment. There’s a lot of information going around about elementary aged students and aiding their development, but it is just as important in high school students. Adolescence is such an impressionable time for brain development and there are many ways that teachers can help their students learn more successfully.

Creating an Optimal Environment

Classroom set up is the foundation of creating an optimal learning environment. There are many different opinions and ways to setup a classroom. These are some of my favorites:

Declutter your walls

Adjust your seating arrangements

Too many visuals and things to look at on the walls can often be distracting to students. Placing your decorations strategically makes a huge difference! I prefer using a few posters and content on the walls so that the students are subconsciously seeing and learning the material.

Figure out what is best for you and your students. Do they work better in groups or individually? Do you want your students to have individual desks but be able to form groups easily? Think about how you run your classroom and what would make the most sense.

Reduce Fear, Increase Engagement

By creating a positive and safe environment, the students will be more apt to participate, ask questions, and be engaged. This causes students to be in a state of “relaxed alertness”, which basically means that they are calm and engaged. When students are in this state of mind, they can be challenged and problem solve in a deeper way. I have integrated many real world problems into my math classroom and challenged my students to embrace “the struggle.” However, the minute I say “word problem”, I receive a synchronous groan back. The most important part of math class, in my opinion, is problem solving and reasoning. I have found that my students fall into a pattern of watching the method, practicing said method, then reproducing it on the test. Because of this it’s been a goal of mine to discuss problem solving methods, collaborating, and making mistakes

Develop working memory

Strong memory skills are not solely innate, they can be developed over time if nurtured properly.

Allow students time to process an idea.

Make time for brain breaks.

Integrate movement and hands-on activities.

Most adolescent-aged students can only sustain their attention and process 10-15 minutes of information. It’s so important to give students the opportunity to use what they’ve learned and apply it independently.

Brain breaks benefit both processing and attention at any level. Of course, it will look different at the high school level, but there are still many opportunities for stretching, transitions, and other breaks in the lesson.

By adding hands-on activities where the students are able to learn and explore in different ways, the students process the information more deeply.

Be on the look out for my upcoming blog posts to learn more about brain-based learning in the high school classroom!