1. Connecting Brain Research with Effective Teaching:
The Brain-Targeted Teaching™ Model
Dr. Mariale Hardiman
Johns Hopkins University
Roland Park Elementary/Middle School

2. Brain Target 1: The Emotional Climate
While stress impedes learning, positive emotions contribute to long-term memory. The more intense the arousal of our amygdala, the stronger the informational imprint, which, in turn, enhances recall and learning.

3. Brain Target 1: Best Practices
Predictability: Routines, rituals, consistency
Personal Connection between teacher and student
Trust and Acceptance
Safe Classroom Environment
Positive Language & Encouragement
to Shape Behaviors
Supportive Corrective Language
Peer Mediation/ Sharing Circles
Class Meetings: Control and Choice
Humor
Arts Integration
Celebration
Student self-evaluation checklist

4. Brain-Target 1 How do I feel today? circle one good tired sad mad
How do I feel today?
circle one
good
tired
sad
mad
Write how you feel right now.
__________________________________________
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
______________________________________
Draw how you feel right now.

5. Brain-Target 1 circle one tired sad mad How do I feel today? good
Brain-Target 1
How do I feel today?
circle one
good
tired
sad
mad
Why are you feeling this way?
______________________________________________________________________________

6. BT-2: Enriched Environments
The “context communicates” (Caine & Caine, 2001). From corporate offices to media events, physical surroundings are an essential part of the messages that are communicated in society.

7. Brain-Target 2: Best Practices
Use horizontal and vertical spaces to add color and beauty while reflecting the current learning unit and student work.
Change classroom displays frequently.
Establish order and engage students in routine care of the classroom.
Use soft background music when student are performing routine tasks.

8. Brain-Target 2: Best Practices
Soften harsh lights with lamps; use natural light.
Create flexible seating arrangements and design space to facilitate movement.
Allow for water breaks.
Decorate the room with plants, terrariums, or other common household items.

9. Brain-Target 2 Check your senses to see if you are ready to learn!
1. Can you see everything?
yes no
2. Does it smell okay in the classroom?
3. Can you hear the teacher/students?
4. Are you ready for class discussion?
5. Do you feel comfortable in your desk?

10. BT-3:“Big Picture” Concepts/ Concept Mapping
How do we lead students to understanding global concepts of content goals?
Use of “nonlinguistic representation” such as concept maps is one of most effective strategies (Marzano, Pinkering, Pollock, 2001).

11. Brain Target 3: Best Practices
Use content standards to design unit scope and sequences.
Use scope and sequences to design learning units.
Begin learning units by allowing students to see “big-picture” concepts.
Use concept maps to allow students to understand concepts through nonlinguistic representation.
Design broad learning goals; allow students to design a personalized learning goal.
Design specific objectives that state what students will know and be able to do as a result of instruction.

12. BT-4:Repeated Rehearsal
The most important factor determining how well we remember information is the degree to which we rehearse and repeat that information (Squire, 2002).

13. Brain-Target 4: Best Practices
Vary learning tasks that provide novelty to sustain attention and differentiate for the needs of the learners.
Use multiple modalities and technology.
Integrate arts into instructional activities to help sustain memory: The arts integrate thought, feeling, and action: Visual Arts seeing and doing; Dance movement; Drama acting out; Music listening & playing
The arts help to make a memory imprint of concept and skills.

14. BT-5:Modular Brain Systems
When we extend knowledge by examining it in a deeper, more analytical way, the brain uses multiple and complex systems of retrieval and integration.
Brain scans demonstrate that different parts of the brain become engaged when we use complex thinking and problem-solving (Sousa, 2001).
                            

15. Brain Target 5: Best Practices
Compare and contrast elements
Classify information
Inductive thinking: drawing generalities from specific parts
Deductive thinking: making predictions based on generalizations
Analyze error patterns
Analyze perspective
Create metaphors and analogies
Conduct investigations; design experiments
Solve problems using real-world contexts
Integrate visual and performing arts into curriculum

16. BT-6: Evaluation Techniques Supported by Brain Research
Provide students with immediate, frequent and relevant feedback about their performance (Marzano, Pinkering, and Pollock, 2001).

17. Brain Target 6: Best Practices
Use of a checklist
Scoring tools such as rubrics
Asking learners to self-assess using a scoring tool and then providing feedback
Collective feedback time where you discuss feedback as a group
Portfolio assessment
Written comments on documents
Conferences with guiding questions
Post examples of varying proficiency levels and have students evaluate best responses
Create a visual such as an illustration or graph to exemplify a point
Peer review

18. Research on Brain-Targeted Teaching™
For a doctoral research study conducted at Johnson & Wales University, Dr. Peter Bertucci (2006) conducted a mixed-method qualitative case study as well as a quantitative ex post facto study of the Brain-Targeted Teaching™ model.

19. Findings From Research on Brain-Targeted Teaching™
“Data suggest student outcomes include deeper conceptual understanding and better extension of knowledge, more engaged and happy students and strong state test performance.”
“The program evaluation findings validate the utilization of the Brain-Targeted Teaching Model.”—Dr. Peter Berticci, 2006

20. Findings from Research on Brain-Targeted Teaching™
In particular, striking differences were found in the percentage of students of poverty who performed at the advanced levels of reading achievement on the MSA. The study site clearly demonstrated significant gains in achievement compared to the control site.

21. www.braintargetedteaching.org Dr. Mariale Hardiman
Johns Hopkins University