Jensen Learning: Practical Teaching with the Brain in Mind. (2010). Principles of Brain Based
Learning. Retrieved from http://www.jensenlearning.com/principles.php
Jensen, E. (2010). Top 10 brain based teaching strategies: 10 Most effective tips for using brain
based teaching & learning.Maunaloa,HI.
Jensen, E. (2000). Brain-based learning. San Diego, CA: The Brain Store.
Jensen's Brain-based Principles
Emotional-Physical State Dependency
- Learning occurs through a complex set of continuous signals which inform your brain about whether to form a memory or not.
- Both emotional and bodily states influence our attention, memory, learning, meaning and behavior through these signaling systems.
Malleability/Neural Plasticity
- The ability of the brain to rewire & remap itself
- The brain chances everyday & we can influence this process if we know the rules
- Educators can make significant & positive changes in the brain though skill building strategies (reading, arts, meditation)
what a teacher with a brain in mind does:
This educator understands the principles and uses strategies in a purposeful way. This path is all about an educator who understands the reasoning behind their teaching. It is also one who stays constantly updated through continuous professional development.
Attentional Limitations
Malleable memories
- Memories are often not encoded at all, encoded poorly, changed or not retrieved.
- As a result, students do not retain information without frequency, intensity and practice.
- It suggests that teachers use several strategies to continually strengthen memory over time instead of assuming that once learned, the memory is preserved.
Reward and addiction dependency
- States that’s humans crave rewards and students need to defer gratification and develop ways to succeed without seeking rewards.
- Describes a person’s inability to maintain focus for extended periods of time.
- Capacity to orient attention when it comes to movement, emotions, or survival.
- Content must be adapted in order for students to pay more attention and become motivated to learn.
The brain seeks and created understanding
- The human brain process information according to meaning.
- The more important the meaning, the greater the attention one must pay in order to influence the content of the meaning.
Input Limitations
- Our ability to take in new information is limited.
- We can be exposed to lots of information in short periods of time, but we cannot retain much
- so we simply don’t learn it.
- Teachers should teach in small chunks, process the learning, and then rest the brain
Perception influences our experience
- It is experience that drive change in the brain
- experience can change how we perceive the world
- Classroom environment
Who is Eric Jensen?
- Eric P. Jensen is a former teacher who has taught from elementary school through university levels.
- His academic background was in English and human development, but he has a real interest in educational neuroscience.
- He is the author of Teaching with the Brain in Mind, Teaching with Poverty in Mind, Brain Based Learning, and many other books on learning and the brain.
- For over 20 years, he has been connecting the research with practical classroom applications.
- He models what he has learned, so teachers can see it, hear it, and experience the difference.
- He is an international conference speaker and conducts in-school professional development.
What is brain-based learning?
This learning theory is based on the structures & function of the brain
According to Jensen:
“Brain-Based Education is the purposeful engagement of strategies based on principles derived from solid scientific research.”
-Based research areas include: social neuroscience, behavioral genetics, psychobiology, cognitive science, neuroscience.
Jensen's Brain-Based Learning Theory