BRAIN BASED EDUCATION: HOW TO APPLY IT IN OUR
CLASSROOMS
BY REBECCA PILLOWS

Brain based teaching and learning focuses on using
research about how the brain works and how teachers
can learn to understand and use this knowledge to help
second language students learn English quickly and
efficiently.  Given the fact that the human brain
emits chemicals under stress, how can the educational
institution provide an environment where the affective
domain is such that anxiety lessens and the brain
actually ceases to produce great quantities of such
chemicals?
Steven Krashen, an expert in the field of linguistics,
specializing in the theories of language acquisition
and development, researched and developed a theory of
second language acquisition.  One of the components of
his theory is the Affective Filter hypothesis.
Krashen claims, "That learners with high motivation,
self-confidence, a good self-image, and a low level of
anxiety are better equipped for success in second
language acquisition.  Low motivation, low self
esteem, and anxiety can combine to ‘raise’ the
affective filter and form a ‘mental block’ that
prevents comprehensible input from being used for
acquisition."  (Krashen, 1988)   In other words, when
the filter is ‘up’ it impedes language acquisition.
For years the only way to acquire information about
how the brain worked was from autopsy examinations.
Recent technological advances have made it possible to
study the living brain.  Two of these techniques are
the Computerized Axial Tomography  (also called CT
Scanning) and the Positron Emission Tomography (PET).
The CT scan uses a narrow beam of x-rays to create
brain images that take the form of a series of brain
slices.  The CT scan has offered neuro-scientists
their first opportunity to look inside a living brain.
 The PET scan relies on one of the brain’s properties;
it is extremely hungry for glucose and oxygen.  In
this technique position emitting isotopes, which
function as radioactive tracers are injected into the
arteries in combination with glucose.  The rate at
which specific regions of the brain use the glucose is
recorded while the subject is engaged in various sorts
of cognitive activities.  These recordings are used to
produce maps of areas of high brain activity with
particular cognitive functions (Contemporary
Linguistics 1997).
Joseph LeDoux has traced the role of fear in the
brain. Information entering the brain is processed by
the thalamus.  The thalamus only perceives a very
crude impression of what is ‘out there’.  If what is
out there does not engender panic or fear, the
information splits, going to the cortex for a clearer
impression and also to the amygdala, which deals
largely with the emotional impact of what is being
perceived by the person.  When threat and fear are
absent, the brain appears to be able to engage in more
complex processes.  Novelty, purpose, and meaning tied
to new information or experience create conditions for
exciting neurons into new patterns or connections that
challenge the individual into new ways of thinking or
behaving (LeDoux, 1997).
LeDoux found that fear short-circuits incoming
information by alarming the amygdala.  This is where
the emotions take over.  The perceiver’s brain takes
the path that bypasses many of the more sophisticated
learning and potential connections available.  The
amygdala once aroused by fear, release chemicals to
the pituitary gland, which releases a steroid hormone
called ACTH.  In small amounts this hormone is meant
to have a positive effect on fear arousal.  However,
ACTH causes the proliferation of additional stress
hormones, which flood the hippocampus and
significantly influence that organ and many others.
The hippocampus is particularly critical for taking on
broad new memories and is implicated in turning
short-term into long-term memories.  The hippocampus
is also critical to helping us see how seemingly
different ideas or concepts relate.  It maps how
things relate to each other in terms of thinking and
in actual space and time.  When the hippocampus is
flooded with ACTH and other stress hormones, it
initially tries to signal the amygdala to quit
producing ACTH.  But if the fear conditions do not go
away, the amygdala continues to produce ACTH and the
hippocampus function is compromised.

 APPLYING BRAIN BASED RESEARCH
The school district has to make a serious commitment
to educate second language learners.  Additional
training through universities and conferences must be
made available to administrative staff, teachers and
aides.  One option a school district has is to select
a team of teacher trainers to attend regional
workshops to become familiar with the newest
developments and skills to better educate students.
Then this team would be required to come back to
campus and relay the information to the district.
An orientation program for new LEP students and their
parents would help lessen the anxiety of going to a
new school.  Students would be taken on a tour of the
school; rules and expectation for the student would be
discussed.  Parents would have an opportunity to ask
questions and find out whom they would contact if
questions did arise.
The search for meaning occurs through patterning.  The
task for second language teachers is to create,
organize, and present material in a way that allows
the brain to create meaningful and relevant
connections to extract the patterns. When the brain’s
natural tendency to construct meaning from patterns is
used in second language teaching, classroom learning
can become more like learning in real-life situations
(Caine, 1994).  Graphic Organizers used in teaching
information and skills is an example of how
information can be clustered together and patterns
formed.
Teachers need to provide second language classroom
activities that are meaningful to create ideal
learning opportunities for students to learn more
information in a shorter time, with less effort.
Students can memorize large numbers of facts with out
the facts carrying any real meaning.  Students are not
able to use this information in significant ways,
except to regurgitate it.  Facts and skills that are
taught in isolation and not connected to something
meaningful cannot be remembered without considerable
practice and rehearsal.  Information that carries
meaning is handled differently in the brain and is
connected to meaning.  It is processed almost
automatically and requires little practice or
rehearsal (Gardner, 1991; Brooks and Brooks, 1993).
Novelty in the classroom for a short period is often
effective in getting attention.  It is important to
remember that the human brain can sustain concentrated
focused activity only for a short period of time.
Teachers should work to create language learning
activities that allow students time for reflection and
for processing of the information (Sylwester, 1995).

Each child has several ways of learning.  Teachers
need to learn the techniques that match their students
learning styles. Lessons used in the classroom should
be designed to utilize learning styles and both
hemispheres of the brain. The brain is divided in
half, a right and left hemisphere.  The right
hemisphere does a different job than the left.  The
right hemisphere deals more with visual activities and
plays a role in putting things together.  The left
hemisphere tends to be more analytical; it analyzes
information collected by the right hemisphere.
Lessons using emotions, music, role-play, games,
charts, bright colors, posters, and puzzles will
utilize both hemispheres of the brain (Chavez, 1999).
It would be beneficial to have students fill out the
following Learning Environment Inventory when they
first begin class.  The data would identify the
following learning styles: visual, auditory, and
tactile. Upon completing the learning environment
inventory an individual educational plan for each
student would be established based on their learning
styles (Barsch, 1997).
 Administrators and teachers using a combination of
brain based educational research, Learning Environment
Inventory, and effective teaching strategies will
provide a supporting and nurturing environment that
will lower the affective filter for second language
learners.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

REFERENCES
Barsch, J.  Barsch Learning Style Inventory.
Available:
http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/lernstyl.htm.
Brooks, J.C., and Brooks, M.G.  In Search of
Understanding.  The Case for Constructive Classrooms.
Alexandria, VA ASCD, 1993.
Caine, R.N., and Caine, G. (1994).  Making
Connections:Teaching and the human brain.  Meinlo
Park, CA: Addison –Wesley.
  O’Grady, Dobrovolsky and Aronoff.  Contemporary
Linguistics: An Introduction.  New York: St. Martin’s
Press.  1997 (3rd edition) Brain and language (pp.
415-422).
Gardner, H.  The Unschooled mind: How Children Think
and How Schools Should Teach.  New York: Basic books,
1991.
Jensen, E. (1998).  Teaching with the brain in mind.
Alexanderia, VA; Association of Supervision and
Curriculum Development.
Krashen, Stephen D.  Principles and Practice in Second
Language Acquisition.  Prentice-Hall International,
1987.
Kruse, C.A. and Krouse, G.D.  The Master Schedule:
Improving the Quality of Education."  NASSP Bulletin,
May 1995.
LeDoux, J. The Emotional brain.  New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1996.
Sylwester, Robert.  A Celebration of neurons: An
Educator’s Guide to the human Brain.  Alexandria, VA:
Association of Supervision and ent, 1995. Curriculum
Developm
 

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