Brain Based Teaching and Learning with Neuroteach Author Glenn Whitman

Episode 008: Glenn Whitman, NeuroTeach
Today we talk with one of the authors of NeuroTeach: Brain Science and the Future of Education, Mr. Glenn Whitman. His dedication to understanding neuroscience and learning in order to effect change at the school building level permeates policy at the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Potomac, Maryland. Glenn speaks to us about the ways in which learning about the brain can enhance our instruction.

Connect with Glenn Whitman
Twitter: @gwhitmancttl | Website: thecttl.org | Book: NeuroTeach: Brain Science and the Future of Education

Links & Show Notes

• Out of our heads and into the classroom
• Memory Palace / Memory Journey (1:35)
  ..* Kevin Horsley, International Grandmaster of Memory
  ..* Priming (2:55)
  ..* Spacing (3:25)
  ..* Hidden Brain (3:49)
  ..* Thinking Fast & Slow / You are Not So Smart (4:11)
  ..* “The more you know, the easier it is to know more.”
  ..* Science of Success episode with Kevin Horsley
  ..* Storytelling (5:00)
  ..* Dreams as a story to create narrative from chaos
  ..* Broca’s Area (5:37)
  ..* Brain lighting up when hearing stories same as if action was happening to you (fMRI)
  ..* Stillmotion: touch the heart to move the mind
• Intro to Glenn Whitman (6:50)
  ..* NeuroTeach
  ..* CTTL
  ..* Think Differently & Deeply
• One educational truth: Every day every kid will bring his or her brain to class (7:54)
• How do kids actually learn, never trained (8:37)
• In 2007 - asked ourselves ‘What makes an Expert Teacher?’ (9:02)
  ..* Do we know enough about the organ of learning, the brain? Only 20% of teachers have been exposed to that sort of training, per Glenn’s experience
• Mind Brain Education - train St Andrews Teachers in the Learning Brain + ongoing PD in Educational Neuroscience (10:17)
  ..* Denise Pope at Stanford
  ..* Dan Willingham at UVA
  ..* Rob Coe at University of Durham in UK
• Mission-driven (12:55)
• Teacher enthusiasm for working with research (13:41)
• “Can you change the culture of a school through research?” (14:22)
  ..* We don’t intentionally use research enough in the learning space to improve instruction.
  ..* Teacher as researcher
  ..* Ready-made research (15:25)
  ..* E.g. Memory (16:00)
  ..* Spacing effect, active retrieval, dual coding, flashcards being misused
  ..* Action Research (17:01)
  ..* Original Research studies (17:25)
• Unconscionable List (18:12) - “detrimental pedagogy”
  ..* Labeling students (19:15)
  ..* Surprise quizzes that count for substantial points (19:51)
  ..* Wasting the beginning and the end of class (20:34)
  ..* Ebbinghaus Curve of Forgetting (21:55)
  ..* Exclusive Content: add 2 more to the list
  ..* No high school should start before 830 am<...