Building A Better Brain Is Within Every Student's Power By Judy Willis Summary

Have you ever thought about the choices that you have made in the past and how they have affected you as an individual? Truth is, as people grow and develop they each have their own way of thinking about what they can do or what they can learn. All of this is happening in the brain, and each person has a different way of thinking, learning, and solving problems. The study of the brain is a real puzzle that to this day, it is still unsolved. There’s study is known as Brainology, it has to do with a person 's mindset, and the idea of having a fixed or growth mindset. In the article “Brainology: Transforming Students’ Motivation to Learn” by Carol S. Dweck, she talks about different ways that our mind can be influenced and how by saying

For example, just like a child learning to ride a bike, your brain needs continuous practice and exercise in order to become larger and stronger. So when you think or solve problems you use the part of your brain called the cortex. It consists of billions of tiny nerve cells that are called neurons. The nerve cells connect together and grow dendrites (fibers) that grow when you listen write or talk, thus creating a very complex and complicated network. When you acquire knowledge and continue to challenge your mind to learn new things, the neurons and brain cells will begin to increase that enables your brain to retain more information.

Why having a growth mindset is good for someone. This helps people thrive on challenges. If people develop a growth mindset it could help them embrace their challenges. Embracing challenges could help people reach higher level of achievement. “Those with a growth mindset, on the other hand, were keenly attentive to information that could help them expand their existing knowledge and skill, regardless of whether they’d gotten the question right

I think Dweck’s concept of growth mindset can be further studied. Growth mindset is stating that people who devote their time and dedication to their abilities can develop intelligence. When facing challenges we don't always succeed the first time, but that does not mean it discourages us. Instead, we are learning from our mistakes so that we can improve with time and effort. I agree with Dweck, but it should be further studied because it can also depend on the way a person handles the outcome of the situation. Many people tend to have low self-esteem and when they fail they may feel as if they have been defeated. Rather than taking the negative feedback and turning it into a positive outlook to better themselves they become discouraged. Many of us may not have had support and

1) In the Learning Brain video many interesting concepts were brought to my attention. There were two that stood out to me the most. One of those concepts was when the narrator discussed fixed mindsets. Someone with a fixed mindset believes we are only born with a certain amount of intelligence. Having this mindset is not good because it leads us to believe that we will never be able to learn something no matter how hard we try. But, the narrator stated that the more we use our brain the more efficient it becomes since the neurons grow more pathways. Another concept in this video was stress and anxiety. Our emotions have a significant impact on how we learn. It is best to study when we are happy and relaxed because we will be able to process

Intelligence is not determined at birth, instead students can continue or delay brain development with their mindsets and health. Students with a fixed mindset are known to lack motivation to improve and puts little to no effort into their work. The qualities of a fixed mindset include giving up easily, seeing efforts as fruitless and ignoring useful feedback(Knapp). This can negatively impacts brain growth because it hinders the student from trying to achieve more. In contrast, a student with a growth mindset seeks to master skills and has the determination to keep moving forward. Someone with a growth mindset believes that intelligence can be developed, persists in the face of setbacks and embraces challenges which results in reaching ever

The growth mindset is superior because it pushes students to accomplish more than they thought possible and to pursue their dreams. The opposite of this is the fixed mindset which creates a student which needs constant validation to maintain their beliefs. At the first sign of failure, they quit to pursue something less difficult and sometimes even resort to amoral actions like cheating. A growth mindset gives

The part that I found most interesting about this article was the fact that textbooks and teachers practically promote a study strategy which does not benefit students in the long run. This study strategy is overlearning, which I, and I’m sure most students do often. I chose this article because we recently went over the knowing mind which focuses on memory, which is the retention of information over time. This specific article has to do with the retention of information, pertaining to school and studying. In The Knowing Mind chapter and the midterm reflection, there were several videos about effective study strategies and ways to improve this retention of information in the long run rather than simply trying to memorize it. Some strategies

Knowing the various forms of intelligence and learning strategies can help develop a better understanding of how you take in new information and better help your life learning.

Apart from learning style, a student’s personality will also affect their learning. A student with a quiet or shy disposition may not feel comfortable to participate or ask questions. A child in need of social skills may blurt out or not take the time to think things through; thus being unable to grasp the information in question. According to Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory, there are eight intelligences that affect the way we process information and therefore, the way we learn, (Smith, 2002 and 2008). The way each person learn affects every aspect of his or her life, specifically

Over the past week we have studied how to improve the ability to learn. I find this topic very intriguing because it focuses on how the brain functions. The brain is a breathtaking entity that functions in complex ways to let us to experience our daily lives. As a person who sometimes has difficulty learning new content, I thought the tips to improve absorbing information were very helpful.

Teachers will never be able to replicate the capacity of a child’s brain. As we discover how the brain works and the variables by which it works best, we need to let go of finding practioners who can devise strategies to take students through a manufactured learning process. We need to work smarter not harder. The teaching examples in Chapter 6 and 7 show how Magdelene Lampert, Deborah Ball, Elizabeth Jensen and Annie Keith facilitate the organic process of learning and abandoned the programmed static benchmark p. 157. These teachers are letting students find their own solutions by letting them work through how their brain works best through analysis, reason, construction, evaluation, and trial and error. Teachers do not need to tailor individual lessons for each learning modality or write specific lessons for each of Howard Garner’s Multiple Intelligences. Teachers need to teach students how to discover their own learning process and provide opportunities for them to use that process and develop their own epistemology and then just get out of the way. Chapter 6 refers to diagnostic teaching which is demonstrated by watching students as they question, make observations, interact, and reflect on new learning. This means teachers become the passive ones and the students become the active agents. Students can use self-talk and metacognitive strategies to develop their own thinking skills, while we guide them and coach them on their incremental steps towards new learning. The

Humans are all unique, yet they all learn using a similar process due to the brain’s structure. Networks of neurons work together in the brain to maintain information that people learn in stages. The neurons in these networks, or “forests”, fire neurotransmitters across synapses depending on how a person feels. Positive feelings stimulate the brain and improve its learning capabilities. There are many strategies people can use to improve their learning experiences, even when their emotions distract them. As long as the brain is continually stimulated, its “forest” of knowledge will thrive.

The only way that we can learn is to send electrical energy through our brain. While that may sound scary, the truth is that electrical chemicals are coursing through a human brain every time it is used. As people learn, feel, and do everything that people do to live their lives, the brain uses electrochemical reactions to grow additional brain cells and add to old ones. Learning is a biological process, and the biology of the human brain is similar to things that are seen and used every day. Understanding the biology of how we learn is a great tool to learning successfully.

Brain can be easily changed. Neuroplasticity describes the proven characteristic of the brain’s moldable nature.8 As an individual learns, the formation of neurons and glial cells within the brain are stimulated.8,9 Therefore, the more an individual uses “brain games”, the more likely it is that these neurons and glial cells will form in underused areas.9 Studies show that the formation of these synapses is strengthened as an individual consistently practices a task.8 8That’s why we say “practice makes it perfect” and good example for it would be someone studying for his/her calculus test on the last day, would obviously not do as well as a person who has been doing all his/her homework from the very first day. This results in improvement in their daily task.