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  • Stephen Braybrook

Its time for Brain-based learning in the classroom

According to Avci (2007), there have been different models of how our brain works throughout the years but one of the most popular in brain culture is that of brain localisation (Corballis, 2014.) More than 2,000 years ago, Hippocrates, observed that our brain had two sides, a left and a right, and later Roger Sperry in 1968 (Sperry, 1961) researched this ideology with his findings helping format the left or right-brained model (Jensen, 1998; Jenson, 2008). Although each hemisphere is dominant in certain activities, they are both skilled in all areas, with these skills identified by Sperry distributed throughout the cortex (Sperry, 1961). Levy's 1983 research confirmed that both sides of the brain are involved in nearly every human activity (Ellamil et al., 2012) with Jenson (2000) suggesting the events occurring in one hemisphere can influence developmental events occurring at the same time in remote parts of the other hemisphere. This occurs via what Ellamil et al (2012) suggest as left-handed ways of knowing, which is now referred to as right hemisphere knowing; the crossover from hand to hemisphere is understandable since their right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body and vice versa (Chance & Crow, 2007; Gabrieli et al., 1998). However, there appears to be controversy among some researchers regarding the left and right brain with some classifying this idea as a Neuro myth (Papadatou-Pastou et al.,2017). This said, the left and right brain model is still being researched today with great success (Webster et al., 2015) and many researchers adding to this model, especially in ways the brain can help people learn (Webster et al., 2013). By the 1990s, brain-based learning gained attention and acceptance, and the domain of cognitive science was recognized by educators and linked to mind, brain, and education degrees; journals; and peer-reviewed literature (Degen, 2014). Teachers and education stakeholders are constantly striving to find effective instructional strategies that meet the educational needs of their students. Alongside teachers and educational stakeholders sieving to find an effective way of teaching, researchers are finding out more about how the brain grows, develops, and learns within the classroom environment. Through the evolution of brain brain-based research, education is providing educators with useful information concerning the improvement of teaching strategies (Tokuhama-Espinosa, 2010). Brain-based research refers to teaching strategies that are used to improve the ability of students to process and to integrate information in meaningful ways (Bruer,1999) and is a learning approach that is based on current research in neuroscience, psychology and education and is what is known as transdisciplinary studies (Koizumi, 1999; Samuel, 2009). Rees et al. (2016) has mentioned for the need for educators and neuroscientists, psychologist to work together. The professionals from these two fields can work to analyse findings and find transdisciplinary benefits to continue this process (Rees et al.,2016). According to Jenson (2000 the biology of learning is following the way the brain is naturally designed to learn and with the growing amount of research stating that brain-based learning is essential for our students and supporting the use of brain-based teaching and learning methods within the classroom, brain-based methods of teaching and learning are thought to be necessary for all classrooms (Larson & Marsh,2005; Gee,2001; Wissman,2007; Dyson, 2008). The objectives of brain-based research are looking at the natural learning processes (Gülpınar, 2005; Tileston, 2005; Zadina, 2004) of the brain and according to Zull (2002) without knowing the working system of the brain, it is not possible to understand the nature of learning.

The simple premise behind brain-based according to Fratangelo (2015) is that the brain is intricately involved in and connected with almost everything educators and students do at school with the art of teaching being to understand the art of changing the brain. Disconnecting the brain from the teaching, learning, socializing, relationship building, culture, and climate of the school result in an obstruction to the learning process. According to Jensen (2008), brain-based education can most effectively be described in three words: engagement, strategies, and principles and since research from the 1990s increased educator awareness and interest in the implications of brain-based education has become understood (Caine and Caine,1990). There is a substantial amount of literature exists that delineates an array of ways students learn (Jensen, 2008) who also states that the brain does not have only one learning style and learns best in a complex, immersion-style, multi-path learning environment. According to Jensen, (2008), this is because the brain is continuously functioning on many levels of consciousness, simultaneously processing internal and external sensations. However, even though the research is strongly suggesting the importance of using brain-based best reflecting the way the human brain is naturally designed to learn, Caine and Caine (1990), mention that not all educators fully understand the brain-based implications within education. Caine and Caine (1990), suggest that the utmost difficulty educators must conquer regarding brain-based research is not understanding the functioning of the brain and its anatomical design, but it is the ability to transfer this knowledge from research to application within the classroom. Wolfe and Brandt (1998) state that educators in turn have substantial power to influence the direction of student learning by equipping themselves with updated neuroscience knowledge regarding learning and it is seen as their reasonability in doing so. According to Willis (2008), knowledge of neuroscience research can help teachers evaluate and apply effective classroom practices that support how the brain learns best as any impact upon neuroscience and psychology has a direct impact upon education and how learning is achieved within a classroom. Brain-based learning not only speaks about the structures of the brain (Sperry, 1961) and the brain architecture direct relationship to how the brain learns naturally (Bas, 2010), but it also provides a framework for creating effective practice (Maeda & Randall, 2003; Jenson, 1998; Jenson, 2000). Brain-based learning is a meta-concept that includes an eclectic mix of techniques that allow teachers to connect the brain to students learning. Such brain-based learning strategies can range from practical simulations, experiential learning, problem-based learning, movement in the classroom and taking brain breaks (Jenson, 2000).

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