Deep Brain Learning

We are feeling creatures who think!We are motivated to explain and understand

the unknown. The brain not only learns, but it looks continuously for better ways to learn.

Zeigernik Effect

• The brain desires to make meaning while a computer simply stores data.

• We desire to find answers to unsolved problems.

• 50% of cells in the higher brain are connected to vision.

Epigenetics

• Experiences turn genes off and on- shapes genes.

• Experience can activate genes to grow new neurons

• Brains are resilient and able to adapt to new challenges.

• Neuroplasticity affects the genetic expressions of our genes.

Deep Brain Learning

• What is missing in our most recent research? • Voices of youth- pain• Need to break away from narrow theories of behavior. • We need to ask, what happened? What went wrong?• Consilience• When working with troubled youth, we need to tap into

varied perspectives.• Our brains have built in attachment programs which

strongly motivate us to seek out positive bonds with caring adults .

Brain Development

• Human brain likes all of its ideas to hang together- even if this means distorting the truth to keep ideas and beliefs consistent.

• Consilience Programs- we need to look at both the biology and ecology of the child and adolescent.

• Trusting bonds with children are the most powerful force in building healthy brains and behavior.

• Focus on strengths and resilience- relationshps are reciprocal.

Deep Brain Learning

• Behavior Management manipulates surface behavior and will never build deep values and controls from within.

• Difficult problems are best solved by a consilience of perspectives. ( what resources do you have in your school and classroom that offers up an ecology of strength and resilience/) I am thinking about this this year.

• Where are the elders in your school and classrooms and communities?

Cultures of Discord

• Modern society mass produces disconnected children – our nuclear family is much smaller and peers, social media and being isolated account for 93% of our interactions…

• Detached youth are hotbeds for problem behaviors.

• Thinking errors• Disrespect justifies aggression• Private logic is expressed and beliefs

Deep Brain Learning

• Negative brain Bias- we are hypersensitive to rejection and threats ( insult) –reactive brains

• Brain spikes wild levels of testosterone and stress chemicals when in the SRS

• Reactions from cultural exposures reprogram the brain. • At the deepest levels of emotion and belief – humans

learn to either approach others with mutual respect or one feels a contest for domination.

• Cultures with attentive fathers have much lower levels of violence.

Deep Brain Learning

• The absence of fathers in child-rearing is associated with violent and depressed behavior among adolescent boys.

• AKA Cultures- measure of a good man is to being protective and affectionate to children.

• Aka children grow up in an environment of trust, love, and indulgence. Although the mother is the primary caregiver, Aka fathers provide more care to young children than fathers in many other societies. A typical Aka childhood is free of negative forces and violence. If a child hits another child, the parent will simply move the child to another area. Corporal (physical) punishment of a child who misbehaves seldom occurs. In fact, if a parent hits a child, it is reason enough for the other parent to ask for a divorce.

Read more: http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Brazil-to-Congo-Republic-of/Aka.html#ixzz3bFp3vwVG

Cultures of Respect

• Males use their power to protect• Mexican Culture- Machismo has both positive and negative

strains• Dominance- Men are superior to women, Real men never let

down their guard, It is necessary to fight when challenged. • Dominance and Respect reflect differences in brain function• Toxic levels of testosterone- when growing up in dangerous

environments- fear and aggression are contagious and can shape brain chemistry and behavior of all members.

• Zero Tolerance- translates to disposing of kids- an act of violence.

Harvard Civil Rights Project

• 3 million students were suspended and 87,000 expelled in a recent year. In Chicago, public school expulsions increased over 50% in the first 6 years after these policies were adopted.

• 40% of suspensions are due to repeat offenders- which suggests that targeted students are not learning from the punishments.

• Past suspensions is the best predictor of future suspensions. • When our bio-ecology fits our bio-social needs , we flourish. • To change the human brain is to change the experiences and

the ecologies!

Cultures of Respect

• Belonging – Feeling Felt- connected and unconditional support

• Mastery- I can do this… I'm good at something! • Autonomy- Independence- I’m capable! • Generosity- I can take care of another… • Attachment to adults is a pre-requisite to learning from

them! • Opposite of Autonomy is coercion.• Cultures of respect treat youth as respected members

of society, in and out of school.

Cultural Tail A thousand years long!

• What are the tails of your students and you, your colleagues your community?

• Education means to lead out-how do we do this? How do we help our children to emerge?

• We must begin to rely on our greatest strengths as a human species- our hearts!

•

The Brain Terrain

• Brain is the command center for all behavior- what does this mean for us as educators?

• Knowing how the brain operates guides our work with children and youth.

• Brains make meaning while computers store data…only the brain can change itself by constantly constructing new pathways.

• Networks that fire together –release a brain growth chemical so these neurons can locate the same pathway later. The chemical also stimulates myelination .

Deep Brain Learning

• The deep emotional brain is the center for motivation

• Emotion and motivation have the same root words and both mean to move…

• Children have very activated attachment systems

• They need physical presence• The social environment is imprinted in the

instructions in the first year of life!

The Gap

• What is known/ how we practice! • Brain Development depends heavily upon experience• 3 years of age- 90% of adult size• Predictable• There are critical periods• Brain grows bottom up and inside out• Breathing, heartrate, automatic responses- brain stem• Middle brain- emotion • Frontal lobes- judgment

Brain Rules/ Metaphors• Humans have special brain programs which help us cope with adversity,

survive and thrive• Eric Kandel- Learning process involves networks of neurons firing together. • Short term memory involves changes in synapses• Long term memory- activates genes to grow new synaptic connections• Brain makes meaning• Lower brain reacts• Middle brain- values• Higher brain- reasons• Amygdala reads emotion- it reads tone of voice, and facial expressions to

separate friend from foe… • Connects to the hippocampus- registers emotionally charged events-

stores them short term and files permanent memories elsewhere later on.

Right and Left Hemispheric Specializations

• Left• Speech and language• Logical analysis• Solves problems by coming up with logical

solutions and theories- even can make up stories and events to make sense out of an experience

• Holds more positive emotion

Right Hemisphere

• Sees the bigger, global picture• More fear based• Reads facial expressions and tone of voice• Activates anxiety and avoidance behavior• Reads distress from social rejection or social

exclusion

Short term and Long term Memory

• Zeigarnik Effect- our brains are wired to keep remembering uncompleted tasks.

• Visual memories are the most enduring because 50% of our higher brain cells are connected with vision! Anything can be understood in pictures!

• The deep brain is a massive storage center for key life experiences.

• Long term memory- entire patterns of behavior that are practiced!

• Thus being reared with rituals of respect or disrespect- creates deep brain learning.

Deep Brain Learning

• Our brains are resilient and able to adapt to new challenges

• 1. Stay close and present- notice• 2. Give the student a list of all you noticed

today or this morning• 3. Assign a task of service- ?• Take pictures of positive moments• Perspective exercises… neuroplasticity

Neuroplsticity

• Is the ability of the brain to lay down new pathways. We now know the brain has remarkable powers to change its own structure and compensate for even the most challenging biological and social risks. Scans only show a moment at a time!

• The young brain has remarkable plasticity and can rewire itself!

• The human brain seeks always a vital balance… emotions are our GPS

Levels of tree depicts levels of brain

Tree of Life

• Trunk- automatic brain system reflexes and regulatory systems• High trunk- areas of avoidance or pleasure to alert us to our

environment• Middle branches- deep systems designed to meet survival and

safety needs, as well as developmental needs- MAP and Service! – primary emotions- anger sadness, surprise, fear, and revulsion or disgust

• Top Branches- social emotions- empathy, embarrassment, , shame, guilt, pride, jealousy envy, gratitude, admiration, contempt- these are tied to both thinking brain and emotional brain!

Prepared Learning

• Our brains use inbuilt maps to help us learn what is most important for survival. ( Spiders, butterflies, strangers, family)

• Trust is a basic need just like thirst and hunger!• Rejection always has a malignant effect on brain

development especially in young children. Our survival depends on living in supportive groups. (Need for safety and attachment)

• Oxytocin is central for attachment in parenting, and in all relationships.

Curiosity

• This is the brain’s most pervasive human emotion.• We are mostly curious about people. The brain’s

primary design is to navigate and negotiate the social world.

• In many cultures, social intelligence accounts for more than academic intelligence

• Mirror and spindle neurons- when mirror neurons do not operate correctly, as in autism, children experience a host of developmental challenges.

Mirror and Spindle Neurons

• Spindle Neurons- switchboard of the social brain• Fastest neural circuits, track our interpersonal

interactions and guide snap social decisions. • Behind the eyes ( relationship hotline) connect in

particular to our emotional centers. • Early neglect and trauma can delay development

of these neurons. • Our brains react powerfully to faces and eye

contact…even in pictures.

Social Bonding and Trust

• Laughter• Touch• Children who have been rejected or traumatized

become highly alert to cues of danger and rejection as they develop coping strategies … what coping strategies do you see?

• Fight, shut down, oppositional, redirect of attention, laughter, manipulation

• Detecting deception is a right brain specialty

Ecology of Trust

• Relationships in the child’s ecology either provide support or produce strain.

• Tell me what could you do to enhance relationships in your buildings and classrooms?

Challenge Maps

• Intelligence is resilience! Robert Sylvester describes intelligence as a person’s ability to respond successfully to challenges and to learn from these experiences.

• What will the beginning of the school year discussion in your classrooms look like? Can we create a guideline for this area of intelligence?

• In solving a challenge, what is the youth’s private logic stating? What are the thinking errors?

Play

• Grows the brain• Constructs new pathways • Develops frontal lobe• Deep Conversations/ Can you hold Connection

Conferences in your classroom? • Only reflective thinking can develop reflective

thinking…the only way we can mature our frontal lobes is to practice reflective problem-solving and social skills

• Problems as opportunities – how do we instill this in our schools?

Language of Respect and Disrespect

• Schools matter! PP68/69• All humans by nature are self-protective and capable

of both fight and flight. But we are not by nature aggressive unless provoked or backed in a corner- or if something in our developmental history ( brain programs have gone awry!

• What do we do? • Social Bonding breeds self-control. • Baby Pictures/ Story-telling and sharing! • Peers

Cultures of respect and disrespect

• Our brains are highly attuned to sarcasm… and social rejection… state the behavior you desire to see and why from your perspective.. It is an age old ineffective myth that youth should comply because “we say so.” The compliance is not deep change… it is superficial , fleeting and not meaningful… Compliance and obedience especially with emotionally challenged and compromised youth do not have lasting effects!

Pain Based Behaviors

• The combination of trauma, neglect and “detachment” becomes deeply embedded in emotional memory and may slow brain development.

• Youth become addicted to coping strategies that are defeatist. They re-enact past pain!

• Punishment backfires on traumatized youth!

Empathy

• We are wired for great empathy• Walt Whitman- “I do not ask whether my wounded

brother suffers, I will myself be this wounded brother.”• Researchers have recognized that empathy is a central

human drive that insures our well-being and survival. • Gives life a purpose beyond self-absorption. It is the

foundation of pro-social values and behaviors. • Be fair and care for others are the brains primary moral

scripts.

Be Fair and Care

• Our brains develop brain maps for moral grammar by age four unless something has gone wrong.

• As children, we reject aggression and are deeply committed to cooperation and kindness…UNLESS… the child’s ecology has placed them in a survival brain program.

• The instinct to tend and befriend is more central to human nature than selfishness and aggression. P. 93-94

Emotion and Learning

• Emotionally charged events are potent learning opportunities!

• Repeated messages and experiences can also create deep brain learning!

• Factors influencing positive change• 30%-relationships• 40% nature of person and ecology• 15%-strategies or practices• 15%- hope

Trust and Distrust

• Distrust is sparked ay any sign of threat which arouses the amygdala.

• Trust is activated by the brain’s bonding hormone oxytocin. When someone observes that another person trusts him or her, oxytocin floods the brain.

• Floyd Starr sometimes recruited delinquent teens to be his chauffeur.

• The question is: not why youth fail to maintain positive behavior but how we develop natural settings to support the desired behaviors.

• Developmental Audit- Michael