Brain Based Learning Paper

Brain-Based Learning: The Neurological Findings About the Human Brain that Every Teacher Should Know to be Effective

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to present the main neurological findings about the human brain that provide the basis for brain-based learning, and that represent a narrow field of cognitive science as a whole. The findings that are described were made primarily by neuroscientists who studied the structure and functions of the nervous system with the purpose of correcting abnormalities. Only recently have neuroscientists begun studying the brain-based learning processes of normal students in detail (Fenker, et al., 2008; Jonides, et al., 2008; Kellman, & Massey, 2010; and Swanbrow, 2011). The neurological findings
Encoding occurs at the initial moment of learning, when the student’s brain first encounters a new piece of declarative information. The brain is capable of performing several types of encoding. One type is automatic processing, which can be illustrated by asking students what they had for dinner last night. The students did not have to spend time and effort to memorize last night’s dinner experience in order to be able to tell next day about it: this because the brain deployed the type of encoding called automatic processing. However, if the students are asked to repeat a list of dates from a history textbook, it is likely that they will only able to do it if they spend time and effort memorizing this information. This kind of encoding initiated deliberately, requiring conscious, energy-burning attention, is called effortful processing. The information is not bound together well at all, and learning requires substantial repetition by the students if they wish to be able to retrieve it with the ease of automatic processing (Hasher, & Zacks,
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