Anxiety in the classroom
Movement enhances learning
Brain research
Aerobic exercise
- stimulates growth of stem cells
- spurs new stem cells to develop into new nerve cells
- Elevates brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that builds, protects, and maintains neuron circuitry, giving them the tools they need to learn, process, associate, put in context, and remember.
- The more complex the exercise, the more complex the synaptic connections.
AEROBIC EXERCISE = FASTER PROCESSING SPEED =
BETTER ATTENTION
Releases chemicals essential in forming new memories, and wiring into long-term memory.
Serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine are some of the chemicals that are created and balanced when doing aerobic exercise. This VASTLY improves depression, anxiety, and ADD.
Key findings
Movement is FUNDAMENTAL to the very existence of a brain. Creatures that don't move, do not possess a brain. Therefore we should move to grow our brains.
The ability to mimic is movement based, and is one of a young humans most powerful avenues of learning.
Frontal cortex is devoted to organizing ACTION, both physical and mental. "Higher" brain functions evolved from movement and are still dependent on it!
Planning and executing plans, memory, emotion, language,
and learning all hinge on movement.
Gender Differences in learning
Boys
self-expression is often physical
Perceive movement more due to eye composition
Fighting: Boys would rather punch each other and confront each other directly.
Stress: tend to do better with some stress.
More likely not to do homework unless they are directly interested in the topic.
Girls
Larger, more expressive vocabulary
Perceive center of vision more easily
Fighting: Girls tend to flight under the surface of relationships, allowing tension to build up and eventually explode.
Stress: Tend to do worse with increased stress.
More likely to do homework in general.
Emotions
Brain
Emotion is processed through the ENTIRE brain. Particularly the interconnected structures of the amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus, and cingulate gyrus (the limbic system)
Environment
Create a sense of community. Encourage and foster interrelationships between students.
Safety: Ensure an absence of threat for students, both perceived and real.
Attention
Emotions filter incoming sensory input. Modulates what the cerebral cortex attends to, processes, and stores in long-term memory.
What we attend to determines what we perceive and thus drives learning, problem-solving, and behavior.
