4 The Brain’s Emotional Processing SystemsDann TardifBra.docx

4 The Brain’s Emotional Processing Systems
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Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
• Describe the autonomic nervous system and its functions.
• Understand the role of the amygdala in getting information to
the prefrontal cortex.
• Identify potential stressors in the context of learning and the
effects stress can have on learning outcomes.
• Define fixed mindset and explain how it interferes with
learning.
• Discuss the importance of a creating a positive emotional
climate in learning environments and methods
for fostering that kind of climate.
• Understand the components of a video game that make it
intrinsically motivating.
• Explain the concept of scaffolding and the difference between
the zone of actual development and the zone
of proximal development.
• Appraise strategies for integrating the video game model into
educational contexts.

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Section 4.1 Rewind—Fast Forward
A public high school, where dropping out and low attendance
were problematic, instituted
a guitar instruction class during the last period of the day. The
class was open to students
who attended all the day’s classes. The result, for those students
who attended the class, was
a significant increase in school attendance and graduation rates.
When the school dropped
the class, there was a significant dip in these students’ school
attendance and graduation
rates. This decline was attributed, at least in part, to
disengagement by the students who had
maintained attendance and passing grades in their other classes
to enjoy the pleasure of the
guitar class.
What is particularly distressing is that the reduction in the
subjects, activities, and clubs that
students find most appealing is taking place at a time when the
dropout rate in the United
States hovers near 40% in large cities. When surveyed about
reasons for dropping out, the
most frequent reason given is that school is “boring.” When
asked for further detail about
what makes school boring, students indicated that the
information they were taught was not
interesting or relevant to their lives (Yazzie Mintz, 2010, p. 7).
As you will discover in this chapter, positive, personally

relevant learning experiences increase
engagement and serve as powerful motivators for sustained
effort and persevering through
challenges. Even when various stressors and negativity are
reducing students’ engagement
and success in school, their motivation can be resuscitated when
they are presented with
gratifying learning experiences that can correlate with
achievement of personal goals.
This chapter explores the neuroscience of emotions and of
school-related stressors, including
boredom and frustration, followed by strategies that promote the
positive emotional state
needed for successful learning. These strategies help students
build personal connections to
topics of study so they value the acquisition of the knowledge.
4.1 Rewind—Fast Forward
As you read in the preceding chapters, emotion influences how
information is accepted into
the brain and processed into learning. Chapter 2 revealed that
the RAS, the attention intake
filter, gives priority to changes perceived in the expected
pattern of the environment. Highest
priority goes to perceived threat and that sensory intake is
directed into the lower, reactive
brain. Chapter 3 further revealed the sensitivity of the neural
processing of information to the
neurotransmitter dopamine. We saw that with increased levels
of dopamine, there is greater
intrinsic motivation, attention, perseverance, and
responsiveness to learning.
In this chapter we will once again see the influence of emotion
on the brain and how the

brain learns. Emotion can impact learning in both positive and
negative ways. It affects the
amygdala, which is the part of the brain to which incoming
information will be directed. If
sensory information successfully passes through the initial
attention filter, it must go through
the amygdala, which serves as another type of filter.
The amygdala is like a switching station that responds to the
emotional state of mammals,
including humans. It determines if information will continue up
to the higher brain for cogni-
tive processing, or if it will be routed to the lower, reactive
brain. In the neutral or positive
emotional state, the amygdala passes information into and out
of the prefrontal cortex, the
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Section 4.2 The Reactive Nervous System
highest cognitive and reflective region of the brain. However,
when the amygdala is faced with
environmental stressors, it will be more likely to send
information to the lower, more reactive
brain. Here more instinctive and animalistic behaviors will be
produced in response to the
information. The amygdala in positive or neutral emotional
states, therefore, is conducive to
better engagement and learning. We will begin the chapter with
a look at different parts of the
nervous system, so that you can understand how emotional
information affects the body and
is transmitted throughout the nervous system and brain.

4.2 The Reactive Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is a branch of the nervous
system that is primarily
concerned with completing automatic functions (hence, the
name autonomic). It is a control
network that communicates between the brain and the body,
especially related to uncon-
scious processing and emotional reactivity. The ANS is
important for emotional processing in
that as the brain processes information on emotion, it sends
feedback to the body and influ-
ences the functioning of the ANS. These influences further
change how the brain interprets
emotion.
For example, according to the James-Lange theory of emotion,
feelings of emotion are pro-
duced by feedback from behaviors and responses that are
elicited from situations. You might
think of a time when someone insulted you. You
then felt your blood pressure rise, your temperature
increase, and your muscles clench. As you experi-
ence these changes in your body, you experience
feelings of anger (Carlson, 2004). Other theories of
emotion discuss the occurrence of brain activation
and ANS activation in different order (for a com-
plete review, see Klein & Thorne, 2000); however,
the important piece here is that feedback from the
body (i.e., changes in blood pressure, heart rate,
temperature) influence how we interpret the way
we are feeling.
It is also important to note that changes in facial
expressions can change the way the ANS functions
and can change the way we feel. Ekman and col-

leagues (Ekman, Levenson, & Friesen, 1983; Leven-
son, Ekman, & Friesen, 1990) asked participants to
move their facial muscles in ways that would pro-
duce facial expressions of fear, happiness, anger,
surprise, disgust, and sadness. The experiments
illustrated that stimulating different facial expres-
sions altered the activity of the ANS and that differ-
ent facial expressions produced different patterns of
activity. For example, increased heart rate and skin
temperature were found with expressions of anger.
Cordelia Molloy/Photo Researchers, Inc.
Which four of the six emotional expres-
sions identified by Ekman and col-
leagues is this man showing?
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Also of relevance here is that when we see a facial expression,
we tend to imitate it. This imita-
tion is perhaps something that helps us experience the same
emotion that others are feeling
(Carlson, 2004). As we change our facial expressions, we
experience changes in ANS activity
that produce different emotions. In the classroom or workplace,
this is important because our
students and co-workers and their ANS will be attuned to the
emotions that we convey while
teaching or working. In the next section, we will continue to see
how emotions are processed
by examining the amygdala and its connection to the ANS.

The Amygdala: Emotional Switching
Station
Some of the cues that the ANS receives from the brain
are based on sensory information that is passed through
the RAS attention filter (see Chapter 2). We know sen-
sory intake that is immediately interpreted as threat is
sent to the lower reactive brain and impacts the ANS
reactions. However, even sensory input that makes it
through the RAS into the next highest level of the brain
may still be diverted to the reactive processing systems.
Input that reaches the next highest level of brain neural
processing now faces the hurdle
of the amygdala with regard to which cerebral architecture it is
next granted access to. The
amygdala is part of the brain’s emotional core, a connection of
neural centers deep in the
brain near the temporal lobes. The amygdala is part of the
limbic system, which includes the
medial temporal lobe, thalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, and
part of the frontal lobes. The
limbic system is a processing center of emotional intake and
response, including stress. All
components of the limbic system are duplicated on both sides of
the brain.
The metabolic state of the amygdala influences the destination
to which incoming informa-
tion will be directed. In the neutral or positive emotional state,
the metabolic state of the
amygdala is not unusually high. In this neutral state, without
high fear, high stress, or the per-
ception of imminent threat, the amygdala allows information to
flow up into the prefrontal

cortex and also down from the prefrontal cortex to the lower
brain. When a person experi-
ences high stress, however, the metabolic demands on the
amygdala are such that it won’t
allow information clear passage to the prefrontal cortex for
higher-level processing. Learning,
therefore, is impeded.
Humans are the only creatures that have the higher brain
capacity to analyze our thoughts
and reflect on our emotions and then act in accordance with
interpretation of these experi-
ences to achieve goals. This includes our unique ability to
experience an emotionally stressful
event and choose to ignore it or resist acting out in favor of a
thoughtfully considered appro-
priate response. This ability is largely controlled by the
prefrontal cortex.
The prefrontal cortex includes specialized neural networks that
communicate with almost
all the other parts of the brain. It is in the prefrontal cortex
where long-term memory circuits
Ask Yourself
Describe an occasion on which you found
yourself influencing or being influenced
by another person’s mood. What do you
think was the primary reason for such a
change, and how drastic was it? How much
of an influence do you think the mood of
an educator has on the overall emotional
climate of a class?
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 96 7/21/14 1:45 PM

are constructed and emotions can be evaluated reflectively and
consciously before being
acted upon. Networks in the prefrontal cortex respond to
unfamiliar situations or decisions
that need to be made by activating information that is already in
stored memory. It then uses
this memory to make informed predictions and decisions in
response to the sensory input,
allowing for emotional and behavioral self-control. This flow of
information between the ANS,
RAS, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex is important to
understand because as an educator, you
want to be able to get information to the prefrontal cortex.
Understanding how it gets there
will help you remove any roadblocks that come in the form of
negative emotion or stress.
Stress-Reactive Response
Stress related to school or work comes in many forms for
students. Boredom and frustration
are examples of stressors that can come about when the
excessive demands of overpacked
curricula are addressed by extended periods of direct instruction
and repetitive drills. These
experiences have little personal relevance to students and do not
motivate the brain to main-
tain focused attention and construct understanding, just like
monotonous tasks in the work-
place that do not require much creativity or engagement.
Frustration, in particular, can become a stressor when students

don’t understand the lesson
and feel they lack the capacity to do so. This is especially
stressful when students repeatedly
have difficulty with topics or subjects that classmates seem to
understand. In the online envi-
ronment frustration can often occur with technology issues. This
is also true in the work-
place. Individuals will be frustrated if they do not understand
what their task is or if they feel
inadequate to complete it.
For other students, class discussions add to stress
when they have made previous mistakes, feel confused,
or know they are falling behind. The stress increases
when students are called on without volunteering, as
they are in constant fear of making mistakes in front of
classmates. Other stressors that can impede passage of
information through the amygdala to the higher brain
include test-taking anxiety, fear of oral presentations,
and physical and language differences.
The stress of boredom builds when students have
already mastered topics still being explained and
drilled in class. As the boredom builds, individuals will begin to
direct their attention else-
where, which can lead to negative consequences for learning.
Studies indicate that when
attention is withdrawn from a particular stimulus or object, it is
evaluated as more nega-
tive (Eastwood, Frischen, Fenske, & Smilek, 2012; Damrad-
Frye & Laird, 1989). Overall, the
result is that the lack of attention associated with the boredom
disrupts the flow of informa-
tion through the brain, creates a negative emotional evaluation
of the situation, and can lead
to cognitive errors. Rather than students or workers having

positive emotional experiences,
they end up feeling that tasks are horrible and that they are
dissatisfied with the situation
(Eastwood, Frischen, Fenske, & Smilek, 2012).
Ask Yourself
Was there ever a time in your educational
or working life when you simply gave
up due to frustration? What were the
circumstances that led up to this point, and
what were the outcomes? Was it something
you gave up on forever, or did you
eventually try again, and what conditions
do you think contributed to this decision?
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An example of how this would play out in the classroom might
be as follows. A student has
mastered the concept of multiplication, yet the teacher
continues to practice drills associated
with multiplication. As a result, the student stops attending to
the drill and begins to evaluate
it negatively. She begins to feel bored and angry. These feelings
lead to a lack of information
processing in the classroom and lead to more challenges for the
student later on. She now has
a negative association with learning multiplication.
Similar situations can and do exist in the workplace. Stress in
the workplace can occur from
a variety of factors, including changing technological

environments, isolation, work hours,
role ambiguity, interpersonal relationships, or job security
issues. Colligan and Higgins
(2005) report that workplace stress is associated with physical
disorders like heart disease
or chronic pain. They also note that stress in the workplace can
lead to hostility in the work
environment, decreased productivity, and increases in employee
absenteeism. The damaging
effects of stress suggest that managers and employers should
work to reduce stressors in the
workplace.
As in the classroom, boredom also provides another source of
stress for workers. Boredom
in the workplace has often been associated with monotonous
tasks (Fisher, 1993); however,
Matthews et al. (2000) found that employees reporting high
work strain and severe stress
at the end of the day reported more boredom at home and at
work, indicating that boredom
does not just occur when tasks are monotonous, but also when
tasks are too difficult. Perhaps,
then, there is an optimal level of challenge that will decrease
boredom and stress in work-
ers. This idea would follow with the Yerkes-Dodson law.
According to the Yerkes-Dodson law,
individuals perform best when they have an optimal level of
stress or arousal. Too little or too
much stress or arousal leads to decreased performance. Consider
a competition or test tak-
ing. Being a little nervous helps you prepare and perform well;
however, being overly anxious
interferes with your ability to perform.
When the stressors associated with boredom and frustration put

the amygdala in that hyper-
metabolic state, incoming information is diverted to the lower,
involuntary, reactive brain
(see Figure 4.1). Without access to the prefrontal cortex, there
is failure to form long-term
memories, and behavioral reactions are now involuntary and not
mediated by judgment. This
routing to the lower reactive brain makes sense for survival in
mammals living in unpredict-
able environments where real threats exist and survival requires
quick shifts of information
processing and reactions to the autonomic nervous system.
However, today’s students and
workers do not live in that type of precarious environment and
do not benefit from having a
highly reactive system that shifts control to the lower brain
when stress increases. Neverthe-
less, the human brain has not evolved much beyond that of other
mammals regarding the
stress response.
Figure 4.1: The effect of stress on information flow
An individual’s level of stress when processing information will
determine where it goes next.
REACTIVE lower brain
automatic fight, flight,
or freeze responseInformation enters
the amygdala
REFLECTIVE “thinking brain”
(prefrontal cortex)

conscious thought, decision
making, judgment
Amygdala
Prefrontal
cortex
stress
no stress
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An example of how this would play out in the classroom might
be as follows. A student has
mastered the concept of multiplication, yet the teacher
continues to practice drills associated
with multiplication. As a result, the student stops attending to
the drill and begins to evaluate
it negatively. She begins to feel bored and angry. These feelings
lead to a lack of information
processing in the classroom and lead to more challenges for the
student later on. She now has
a negative association with learning multiplication.
Similar situations can and do exist in the workplace. Stress in
the workplace can occur from
a variety of factors, including changing technological
environments, isolation, work hours,
role ambiguity, interpersonal relationships, or job security
issues. Colligan and Higgins

(2005) report that workplace stress is associated with physical
disorders like heart disease
or chronic pain. They also note that stress in the workplace can
lead to hostility in the work
environment, decreased productivity, and increases in employee
absenteeism. The damaging
effects of stress suggest that managers and employers should
work to reduce stressors in the
workplace.
As in the classroom, boredom also provides another source of
stress for workers. Boredom
in the workplace has often been associated with monotonous
tasks (Fisher, 1993); however,
Matthews et al. (2000) found that employees reporting high
work strain and severe stress
at the end of the day reported more boredom at home and at
work, indicating that boredom
does not just occur when tasks are monotonous, but also when
tasks are too difficult. Perhaps,
then, there is an optimal level of challenge that will decrease
boredom and stress in work-
ers. This idea would follow with the Yerkes-Dodson law.
According to the Yerkes-Dodson law,
individuals perform best when they have an optimal level of
stress or arousal. Too little or too
much stress or arousal leads to decreased performance. Consider
a competition or test tak-
ing. Being a little nervous helps you prepare and perform well;
however, being overly anxious
interferes with your ability to perform.
When the stressors associated with boredom and frustration put
the amygdala in that hyper-
metabolic state, incoming information is diverted to the lower,
involuntary, reactive brain

(see Figure 4.1). Without access to the prefrontal cortex, there
is failure to form long-term
memories, and behavioral reactions are now involuntary and not
mediated by judgment. This
routing to the lower reactive brain makes sense for survival in
mammals living in unpredict-
able environments where real threats exist and survival requires
quick shifts of information
processing and reactions to the autonomic nervous system.
However, today’s students and
workers do not live in that type of precarious environment and
do not benefit from having a
highly reactive system that shifts control to the lower brain
when stress increases. Neverthe-
less, the human brain has not evolved much beyond that of other
mammals regarding the
stress response.
Figure 4.1: The effect of stress on information flow
An individual’s level of stress when processing information will
determine where it goes next.
the amygdala
(prefrontal cortex)
making, judgment

Amygdala
Prefrontal
cortex
stress
no stress
Learning requires students to take risks as they are stretched
beyond the comfort zone of
things they already know. The brain needs to expend effort to
manage attention and develop
understanding of new information. In contrast to the example of
boredom and attention
above, when individuals successfully manage attention, fluent
information processing can
occur. This might refer to a state called “flow.” When flow
occurs, an individual is absorbed in
the activity and experiences positive affect and intrinsic reward
(Nakamura & Csikszentmi-
haly, 2002). When students or workers don’t have opportunities
to build positive connections
to new learning, they are more susceptible to shifting into the
stress-reactive state. As you’ll
read in the following sections, their brains will then often seek
ways to escape from the stress
of frustration or search for other sources of stimulation.
Stressors and the Fixed Mindset
One of the ways the brain seeks to escape from stress is to shut
down. The brain conserves its
resources. The expenditure of its voluntary effort is linked to
the expectation of positive out-
comes such as the pleasure reward of the dopamine response. Its

response to repeated effort
without positive outcomes prompts subsequent withholding of
effort for similar endeavors
in the future.
the amygdala
(prefrontal cortex)
making, judgment
Amygdala
Prefrontal
cortex
stress
no stress
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 99 7/21/14 1:45 PM
The human brain has a similar survival mandate as that of the
fox we met in Chapter 2. In
survival terms, effort is withheld when past experiences predict

failure. This is a beneficial
response for survival of our fox that lives in a region where
prey is limited. Recall that his den
is surrounded by two hills to which prey escape. One of those
hills is particularly steep and
covered by dense underbrush in which the prey hides such that
the fox’s pursuits of prey up
that hill generally fail. It would not be to his survival benefit
for the fox to repeatedly chase
prey up that hill. To do so is to exert effort, in this case energy,
without likelihood of achieving
the goal of an energy-restoring meal. It is in the interest of his
survival that his brain ulti-
mately develops a mindset that deters him from chasing prey up
that hill.
Some students have economic, familial, psychological, or
physical hardships and come to
school already burdened by these stressors. This further reduces
their resilience in response
to overcoming school stressors. For other students, past
experiences of embarrassment or
mistakes due to difficulties with language, speech, or learning
that have inhibited their suc-
cess present school stressors that heighten their susceptibility to
the stress reaction.
Student negativity grows progressively year after year with
repeated failures or frequent or
sustained boredom or frustration. Their stress reactions become
more frequent, and their
effort, as well as their knowledge acquisition, diminishes.
Through the work of Carol Dweck
and her colleagues (Dweck, 2007), this problem is identified as
a fixed mindset of beliefs that
students acquire when their efforts toward goal success

repeatedly fail. As expectations of
failure increase, students develop the belief that their
intelligence and skills are predeter-
mined, limited, and unchangeable; they come to believe effort is
fruitless. Their brains become
less likely to extend the effort necessary to persevere, and they
fall behind in knowledge
acquisition. Without the needed foundation of knowledge to
understand subsequent instruc-
tion, the gap widens further and they become even more
susceptible to the onset of the stress-
related blockade.
The fixed mindset is similar to learned helplessness that
was investigated by Overmier and Seligman (1967).
In their experiment dogs were subjected to repeated
shocks without the opportunity to escape. Later the dogs
were put in a similar situation; however, this time the
dogs had the opportunity to successfully escape. Rather
than escape, though, the dogs gave up and accepted the
shock, suggesting that the exposure to the inescapable
event taught the dogs to give up; they learned to stop
trying. Your students or workers may go through a simi-
lar experience if they experience repeated failures.
A later experiment by Seligman, Maier, and Greer
(1968), though, found that learned helplessness in dogs
can be alleviated by physically manipulating dogs. In
this experiment the dogs were first exposed to the inescapable
shock. Later, when they were
exposed to the condition where they could escape the shocks
and did not, the experimenters
pulled the dogs out of the shock area and into a safe area. Once
the dogs discovered that they
could escape the shocks, they began escaping on their own. This

experiment would seem to
suggest that learned helplessness and fixed mindsets are
changeable. By showing individuals
Ask Yourself
Most people have a fixed mindset about
something; some people believe they are
horrible at math, or that they can’t dance or
play sports, and so they simply stop trying
to get better at those things. What have you
developed a fixed mindset about? What
were the circumstances that led to this
mindset? What circumstances would need
to change in order for you to feel that you
could succeed?
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 100 7/21/14 1:45 PM
that they have the power to improve and providing opportunities
for them to succeed you can
reduce the feelings of helplessness they may have.
Fixed mindsets or learned helplessness can exist for individuals
across the lifespan and are
not classroom specific. They generally begin to develop when
people are exposed to events
that are unpredictable, inescapable, or uncontrollable (as
evidenced in the study on dogs and
shock). This is because these types of events leave an individual
feeling like they have no con-
trol over outcomes. As a result, fixed mindsets may develop in
students at any point during

the school years, or they may develop at any point during an
individual’s career. Recognizing
this type of mindset in learners or employees is important.
When you recognize a fixed mind-
set, you can provide experiences that are predictable and
controllable and begin to change an
individual’s mindset.
Meeting the Needs of Individual Learners: Emotional Issues
In the best of circumstances, children and adolescents would be
surrounded by love,
nurturance, good friends, intact families, stellar genetics, and,
well, good luck. Too often,
however, this is not the case. Children and adolescents are faced
with many internal and
external stressors while they are developing, such as divorce,
moving, or death or illness in
the family, just to name a few. When these stressors are coupled
with genetic predispositions
to mental illness, various medical disorders, and poor coping
styles, managing life can
become difficult. Even with all the positive experiences a child
might have, situations may
become overwhelming such that depression, anxiety, thoughts
of suicide, addiction, eating
disorders, and mental illness can set in.
It is estimated that approximately 3–5% of children and
adolescents are affected by
depression, and recent evidence has found clinical depression in
children as young as 3
years old (Bhatia & Bhatia, 2007; Luby, 2009). According to
the National Institute of Mental
Health (NIMH), approximately 8% of teens 13–18 years old
have an anxiety disorder with

symptoms evident around the age of 6. Additionally, eating
disorders such as anorexia
nervosa and bulimia, substance abuse, and suicidal thoughts and
tendencies are generally
more common in individuals with anxiety and depressive
disorders.
Academic performance and cognitive functioning are impacted
in children who are
depressed and anxious. Children with depressive
symptomatology often display decreased
attention span, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and poor
memory. Additionally, children
displaying anxious, depressed, and withdrawn symptoms can
demonstrate a decrease in
general intellectual functioning for both verbal and nonverbal
abilities, language, visual
construction skills, attention and processing speed, executive
functioning, verbal learning
and memory, and psychomotor speed (Lundy, 2010). Generally
speaking, children who
demonstrate symptoms of depression and anxiety may have
difficulty learning new
information and require additional attention, care, and
consideration in the classroom.
Educators and professionals working with individuals who may
have mental health issues
should understand the warning signs and presenting symptoms.
Depression often presents
as a change in appetite, mood, and sleep as well as fatigue,
guilt, lack of interest, and feelings
of worthlessness. In adolescents, depression might present with
additional symptoms such
as increased anger, agitation, and acting out behaviors
(substance use, running away, or

stealing). Oftentimes, children who are acting out and
experiencing significant issues are
(continued)
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 101 7/21/14 1:45 PM
Section 4.3 Emotional Climate
“crying out for help.” Try to get to know these children and
develop a relationship with them.
These children are often looking for someone to care about them
and talk to them. Children
or adolescents with anxiety may show excessive worry or fear,
significant distress over
school or social situations, and somatic complaints such as
stomachaches or headaches.
Professionals must understand their needs and symptoms and
make appropriate referrals
and recommendations. This may include referrals to the school
psychologist, clinical
psychologist, social worker, or other mental health providers in
the community. Be flexible.
Given the research above, sometimes these children or
adolescents may need extra time
to finish an assignment or take a test. Without compromising
your standards, allow for
modifications. Provide these students with education about their
symptoms. They might not
know what they are experiencing. Discuss healthy lifestyle
choices and offer some positive
coping and problem-solving strategies. Work on setting goals
with these students and find

what motivates them. Positively reinforce any action these
individuals are taking toward
improvement. These children and adolescents need to know that
they have support to get
through their difficult times—that support can start with you.
Joanna Savarese, Ph.D.
Meeting the Needs of Individual Learners (continued)
4.3 Emotional Climate
A positive emotional state is essential to sustain successful
learning and performance. Fred-
rickson (1998) proposed that positive emotions broaden an
individual’s thoughts and actions,
and help build personal resources for individuals. In a review on
how positive emotion can
influence cognition, Ashby, Isen, and Turken (1999) report that
positive emotion has the abil-
ity to increase cognitive flexibility. Thus, increasing positive
emotion in your classroom or
workplace can help individuals think about problems they face
in different ways. Ashby et al.
(1999) also report that in many studies examining positive
emotion and cognition, positive
emotion is induced in ways that individuals can experience
every day—for example, through
humor, receiving an unexpected gift, or having success on a
small task. The following sec-
tions will focus on interventions and strategies that can promote
a positive climate and build
internal emotional resources to prevent or reduce the stress
blockade that interferes with
learning and behavior.
Community

A supportive class community is one with trust between the
educator and the students and
among the students. Students in a supportive class community
do not harbor the fear that
their instructor or classmates could harm their emotions,
property, or bodies. Students in
these classrooms are more self-confident, participate even when
mistakes are possible, and
collaborate successfully. In a study examining the relationship
between classroom environ-
ment and student outcomes in geography and math classes,
higher student achievement was
associated with greater classroom cohesiveness. Additionally,
the research illustrated that
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 102 7/21/14 1:45 PM
teacher support, task orientation, and equity in the classroom
was associated with more posi-
tive attitudes and self-esteem (Chionh & Fraser, 2009).
Enhanced student learning and the
ability to translate knowledge into practice are associated with
the development of learning
communities in higher education (Cross, 1998; Shapiro, 1998).
In positive classroom climates
students are able to exchange ideas, are motivated by interest
and relevance to acquire the
available knowledge, and actively participate in learning.
The findings that positive environments are associated
with better learning and performance are not limited

to the traditional classroom. Research in online learn-
ing suggests that a consistent course structure, a valued
and dynamic discussion in the course, and an instructor
who frequently interacts with students in a construc-
tive way can all increase course success (Swan, 2001).
Additionally, as previously noted, research has illus-
trated that stress in the workplace is associated with
decreased performance (Fairbrother & Wern, 2003).
However, Bono, Foldes, Vinson, and Muros (2007)
found that transformational leadership in the workplace
produced more optimism, happi-
ness, and enthusiasm in employees. Transformational leadership
is a leadership style that
encourages creativity, offers support, and provides motivation.
It would appear, then, that
positive interactions with supervisors can promote positive
emotions and perhaps influence
overall work climate and customer satisfaction (Bono et al.,
2007). Similarly, these same types
of positive interactions with educators could also promote more
success in the classroom.
Strategies for building classroom community include beginning-
of-the-year peer interviews,
interest and expert charts, and the development of student
mindfulness. With some adapta-
tion, these strategies can also be applied in the workplace.
Peer Interviews
Peer interviews, usually held at the beginning of the year, are
appropriate for all grade lev-
els and subjects. They provide a unique opportunity for students
in the class to get to know
each other. In general, the peer interview occurs between
students who did not previously
know each other, or did not know each other well. Pairs
interview each other and spend time

together discovering one another’s interests, talents, and travel
experiences, as well as favor-
ite things, from foods to films. Allowing students to meet in
pairs helps reduce some of the
fears that they might have interacting with a larger group of
individuals. It also promotes
community by teaching students to take the time to get to know
each other.
For younger students, peer interview presentations would be
done as short introductions
of partners to the class. Older students would also “introduce”
partners to the class and use
subject-related tools or topics of study in their introductions. In
math class, introductions
could include pie graphs to illustrate the amount of time
partners spend in a typical day on
each activity (sleeping, eating, listening to music, doing
homework, playing sports, check-
ing Facebook, and practicing a musical instrument). In history
class, interests and cultural
background or customs could be represented as if illustrations
for the coat of arms that rep-
resented families during medieval times.
Ask Yourself
What was the best class you’ve ever had?
Describe the emotional climate. Conversely,
think of the worst class you’ve ever had,
and its emotional climate. How big of a role
do you think this played in your fondness
or dislike for these particular classes?
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 103 7/21/14 1:45 PM

Online class discussion boards can be used to complete the peer
interview process. Students
can be placed into groups of two or more and can be instructed
to interview each other. After
the initial interview is conducted, students could “introduce”
their partner or partners to the
entire class in a larger group discussion. The peer interview
process can also be made more
in-depth by completing class interest charts.
Class Interest and Expert Charts
Class interest charts are similar to the interview in terms of
building individual student com-
fort and starting off the year promoting student bonding. The
goals of forming these class
interest charts include creating the opportunity for students to
be recognized for expertise
and to find classmates with whom they share common interests,
and providing a springboard
for follow-up conversations and friendships.
Depending on the grade of students, either the instructor or
groups of students working
together would indicate lists or collages of
photographs/drawings of students who share
commonalities, such as We love computer games, Our Class
Musicians, Check out our class-
mates who have special collections, Our Class Cartoonists
(webpage designers, skit writers,
bloggers, etc.).
Part of the reason for the emphasis on student experts is to help
individual students experi-

ence their own self-worth through the eyes of classmates.
Particularly for students who may
be challenged by traditional academics, when seen as an expert
in art, computer technology,
or dramatic flair for participating in skits, these students feel
more appreciated and valued by
their group mates when they are assigned to collaborative group
activities.
While interviews and interest charts are not necessarily
appropriate for the workplace, other
similar activities might be. For example, peer mentorship is a
process by which two indi-
viduals exchange knowledge and skills in a nurturing and
respective atmosphere (Bryson,
2005). Establishing this type of relationship between new and
old employees could be a way
to reduce stress and negative emotion that might exist when
starting a new position. New
employees could be paired with older employees, who could
provide support and advice for
dealing with common workplace issues. In this way, new
employees would get introduced to
the workplace by older employees. Bryson (2002) suggests that
the encouragement and sup-
port that are provided during peer mentoring enhance self-
esteem and self-confidence.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness refers to narrowing one’s focus to the experiences
or sensory input occurring
in the present, such as recognizing and evaluating one’s own
emotional state. Mindfulness
also refers to the building of one’s emotional self-awareness
and self-control with skill sets

that can be used to reduce stress and promote reflecting before
reacting. Mindfulness can be
an effective tool to help students manage the stress associated
with being a student and to
help students develop better focus and attention in the
classroom (Mapel, 2012). Schonert-
Reichl and Lawlor (2010) found that a mindfulness intervention
in pre- and early adolescents
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 104 7/21/14 1:45 PM
improved teacher-rated attention and concentration and social
emotional competence in
students. Additionally, the students in the program had an
increase in optimism. Mindful-
ness has also been found to decrease anxiety in students
diagnosed with learning disabilities
(Beauchemin, Hutchins, & Patterson, 2008).
Two critical aspects to building mindfulness involve building
focus on the moment to help
students recognize that they can identify their emotional states
and having them evaluate
when their emotions are increasing in intensity. Recall from the
literature on the ANS and
emotions that feelings of emotion are generally interpreted
when we get feedback from
changes in bodily systems, such as heart rate and blood
pressure. As such, being aware of how
the changes in our bodies are influencing us can be an important
tool for controlling emo-
tions. Recall from Chapter 3 that being aware of your thoughts

is referred to as metacognition.
Metacognition is also important in emotional regulation because
we need to be aware of our
feelings to control and understand them. The amount of time
and frequency of the mindful
activities would vary depending on students’ age and grade in
school.
An example would be a fifth-grade class for which this first part
of the awareness training
could take place over 2 weeks. During the first week, a timer
would indicate on the hour that it
is time for students to check in on their current emotional state.
To help with this you can have
a wall chart showing various emoticons of faces with a single
word describing the emotional
state. For younger children, there will be fewer choices and
with older grades more choices.
The choices of the fifth-grade class could include the emotions
of anger, frustration, sadness,
happiness, and boredom. For older individuals, the more
complex range of emotions shown
in Figure 4.2 may be appropriate. With the prompt of the timer,
students would simply look at
the wall chart and either copy the face or write down the word
representing their emotional
state. There would not need to be any discussion, and routine
activities would continue.
After doing this for approximately 1 week, the next step would
be for students to build their
awareness of the level of their emotional state. Particular
attention is given to whether a neg-
ative emotion is increasing in intensity. The timer would still go
off every hour, and students
would identify their emotional state using the wall chart. The

difference would be that now if
they were experiencing the same emotion as the previous hour,
they would make an arrow to
indicate whether the intensity of that emotion increased,
decreased, or remained the same.
During these 2 weeks, there would also be discussions in which
students would increase their
awareness of their abilities to recognize their own emotional
states, something that many
students do not actually recognize as an ability they possess.
The other discussion would be
about recognizing when they have negative emotional states,
especially if these are increasing
in intensity, so that they could employ strategies they learn to
stop that negative trend.
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 105 7/21/14 1:45 PM
Other strategies can be employed as well, such as mindful
breathing and calming visualiza-
tions, which can also help students improve their emotional
self-control. It’s important to
practice these strategies when students are in neutral states so
that students can employ
them when situations call for them. The choice of which
strategy to utilize would be up to the
students.
Figure 4.2: Plutchik’s wheel of human emotions
Psychologist and professor Robert Plutchik originally devised a

“wheel of human emotions” in 1980.
Students or individuals can reference a similar wheel to stay
mindful of their feelings both in and out of
class.
Adapted from Plutchik, R. (2001, July–August). Wheel of
human emotions. American Scientist, 89(4), p. 349.
grief
terror
admiration
ecstasy
joy
trust
fear
vigilance
rage
loathing amazement
surprise
sadness
disgust
anger

anticipation
acceptance
apprehension
distraction
pensiveness
boredom
annoyance
interest
serenity
lo
ve
subm
issio
n
awe
disapproval
con
tem
pt
re

m
or
se
aggressiveness
optim
ism
grief
terror
admiration
ecstasy
joy
trust
fear
vigilance
rage
loathing amazement
surprise
sadness
disgust

anger
anticipation
acceptance
apprehension
distraction
pensiveness
boredom
annoyance
interest
serenity
lo
ve
subm
issio
n
awe
disapproval
con
tem
pt

re
m
or
se
aggressiveness
optim
ism
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 106 7/21/14 1:45 PM
Even without a formal program of mindfulness, strategies are
available that may suit stu-
dents’ needs for situations that are discovered to be stressors
that limit their cognition and
behavioral self-control. For example, if students seem to act out
or zone out when listening
to classmates during shared reading or when students give
reports, consider ways to engage
those students in listening to the content for the benefit of their
learning and also, more
importantly, to reduce the downward spiral of their stress
reactions. Such an instance could
be an opportunity for them to sketch or make diagrams that
reflect their interpretation of the
content of what their classmate is reading or reporting. Not only
can this increase engage-
ment, memory, and behavioral self-control, but it can also
reduce other consequences that

take place when the lower reactive brain is in control and
unproductive behavior ensues, such
as writing on desks and books or frequently getting up out of
their seats, or worse.
In the online world incorporating mindfulness into your
classroom would be more difficult
because you are unable to observe students while they are
working; however, it is possible. In
fact, some mindfulness programs are even taught online. First,
students will need to be edu-
cated about mindfulness. This could be done through the use of
embedded video clips, lec-
ture material, or readings. After students understand how
mindfulness can be important, you
can provide opportunities for it in your course design. For
example, at the beginning of your
lecture material, you might include some instructions for
students to engage in meditation
for 5–10 minutes before beginning the lecture—or the
instructions to engage in meditation
could come in the middle or at the end of the lecture, or they
could precede tests or exams.
Another option might be to conduct a weekly Skype™ session
with students. You could check
in with them about course concepts and understanding and
provide a quick 5- to 10-minute
mindfulness session.
The benefits of mindfulness have also been evaluated in the
workplace. Dane and Brummel
(2013) found that mindfulness in restaurant service workers was
positively associated with
job performance. Mindfulness and meditation trainings have
also been found to increase
work engagement (Leroy, Anseel, Dimitrova, & Sels, 2013).

These findings suggest that mind-
fulness would be an important skill to increase in workers.
However, in a review of research
on mindfulness in the workplace, Dane (2010) argues that
mindfulness produces a state of
consciousness that can either inhibit or foster task performance,
depending on the situation.
For example, mindfulness leads to increased breadth of
attention. Although this might seem
helpful, individuals attending to so many details may miss
critical elements while focusing on
more trivial pieces of information. Additionally, individuals
lacking expertise may attend to
their own intuitions that are incorrect or biased, which would
again lead to decreased perfor-
mance. Experts, though, would be influenced in the opposite
direction. By paying attention
to their intuitions that are based on experience, their
performance would be more effective.
In contrast, there could be situations where being aware of a
wide variety of stimuli is helpful.
Dane argues that situations that are dynamic or changing could
be improved by an increased
breadth of attention. To support this idea, Dane provides the
examples of a professor engag-
ing in and moderating a discussion. This provides a dynamic
situation, where attention to
multiple sources of information is necessary. As a result, it may
be important to consider the
type of job individuals are performing and their level of
expertise to determine if mindfulness
is an appropriate intervention. To implement mindfulness in the
workplace, training could be
offered before or after the workday or during the lunch hour. A
variety of mindfulness pro-

grams exist, including those designed to reduce stress.
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 107 7/21/14 1:45 PM
Brain Breaks
The use of a brain break is quite valuable to keep stress from
getting too high. Especially after
more directed-type lectures, drills, or tests, a 3- to 5-minute
brain break provides an opportu-
nity for neurotransmitters to be restored in the part of the brain
that was particularly active
in processing the information of the preceding 15 to 20 minutes.
The brain break also allows
the amygdala to decrease its metabolic activity. It is not
necessary for the brain break to be a
termination of learning, but only an opportunity to process
information in a different way. For
example, if students were listening to a lecture, the brain break
synapse after 15 or 20 minutes
could be for them to mentally manipulate the learning with a
peer-share discussion or with a
representation of the learning through a diagram, a sketch, or
physical movement.
Dopamine boosters also provide excellent brain-break tools.
You can tell an anecdote, ask
students about their experiences that relate to the subject area,
or connect the topic to areas
of general student interest. A 2- to 3-minute mental vacation to
enable students to self-calm
can be simply a quiet time of listening to the birds or the wind

blowing outside; listening to
you read a few pages of a book they enjoy; an opportunity to
use guided visualization to think
about the information they just learned; or standing up,
stretching, and having a drink of
water.
Another use of the brain break is the opportunity to mentally
process information by taking
notes. If students are required to take notes on a lecture, their
focus is on catching the infor-
mation and getting it down in writing. Note taking that students
try to perform while simul-
taneously listening to directed lecture tends to be a passive
process whereby data just passes
from the instructors’ words to students’ pens without being
mentally processed.
As a general rule, use the brain break to keep students’ brains
alert in elementary school after
5 to 10 minutes of concentrated learning from directed lecture
or drills. In middle school or
high school, that could be increased to longer intervals,
depending on the complexity of the
topic. No more than 20 minutes maximum should elapse before
a brain break is provided.
Brain breaks can also be used in the online teaching
environment and in the workplace. In the
online world, questions could be inserted at different points of
lecture materials to give stu-
dents a break from readings. Students could also be instructed
to access different interactive
websites that allow them to see how the concept you are
discussing works. Neuroscience for
Kids (http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html)* is a

great website for students
of all ages that provides information, curiosities, and interactive
games to build understand-
ing about the brain and how knowledge relates to a child’s own
life. For example, in a biologi-
cal psychology class that is discussing the blind spot on the
retina, students could be instructed
to visit the following website to find their blind spot:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/
chvision.html.* At work employees could be given brief breaks
to assess where they are at
and how they should move forward. For example, after working
for an hour, employees could
be instructed to take note of what they have accomplished and
what they need to do next.
Links used by permission of Professor Eric Chudler.
The Brain at Work
The restorative effects of a brain break are crucial in many lines
of work, such as
manufacturing and assembly. For factory workers, focusing on a
complex task of
connecting small pieces onto a circuit board repeatedly
activates the same neural
networks that hold that procedural memory, as well as networks
of motor control that
direct their muscles to perform the correct actions. Even in a
low-stress situation where
the factory workers are experienced, the repetitive activation of
the same neural networks
will eventually reduce the amount of neurotransmitters in those
areas, such as dopamine,
and the tedium can become an amygdala-blocking stressor after
the sustained repetition

of the task. After an appropriate physical and mental brain
break, the assembly line
workers will return to their tasks with their amygdalas at lower
stress levels and with
restoration of their neurotransmitter levels so that efficiency is
regained.
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 108 7/21/14 1:45 PM
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chvision.html
Section 4.4 The Video Game Model
Brain Breaks
The use of a brain break is quite valuable to keep stress from
getting too high. Especially after
more directed-type lectures, drills, or tests, a 3- to 5-minute
brain break provides an opportu-
nity for neurotransmitters to be restored in the part of the brain
that was particularly active
in processing the information of the preceding 15 to 20 minutes.
The brain break also allows
the amygdala to decrease its metabolic activity. It is not
necessary for the brain break to be a
termination of learning, but only an opportunity to process
information in a different way. For
example, if students were listening to a lecture, the brain break
synapse after 15 or 20 minutes
could be for them to mentally manipulate the learning with a
peer-share discussion or with a
representation of the learning through a diagram, a sketch, or
physical movement.

Dopamine boosters also provide excellent brain-break tools.
You can tell an anecdote, ask
students about their experiences that relate to the subject area,
or connect the topic to areas
of general student interest. A 2- to 3-minute mental vacation to
enable students to self-calm
can be simply a quiet time of listening to the birds or the wind
blowing outside; listening to
you read a few pages of a book they enjoy; an opportunity to
use guided visualization to think
about the information they just learned; or standing up,
stretching, and having a drink of
water.
Another use of the brain break is the opportunity to mentally
process information by taking
notes. If students are required to take notes on a lecture, their
focus is on catching the infor-
mation and getting it down in writing. Note taking that students
try to perform while simul-
taneously listening to directed lecture tends to be a passive
process whereby data just passes
from the instructors’ words to students’ pens without being
mentally processed.
As a general rule, use the brain break to keep students’ brains
alert in elementary school after
5 to 10 minutes of concentrated learning from directed lecture
or drills. In middle school or
high school, that could be increased to longer intervals,
depending on the complexity of the
topic. No more than 20 minutes maximum should elapse before
a brain break is provided.
Brain breaks can also be used in the online teaching

environment and in the workplace. In the
online world, questions could be inserted at different points of
lecture materials to give stu-
dents a break from readings. Students could also be instructed
to access different interactive
websites that allow them to see how the concept you are
discussing works. Neuroscience for
Kids (http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html)* is a
great website for students
of all ages that provides information, curiosities, and interactive
games to build understand-
ing about the brain and how knowledge relates to a child’s own
life. For example, in a biologi-
cal psychology class that is discussing the blind spot on the
retina, students could be instructed
to visit the following website to find their blind spot:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/
chvision.html.* At work employees could be given brief breaks
to assess where they are at
and how they should move forward. For example, after working
for an hour, employees could
be instructed to take note of what they have accomplished and
what they need to do next.
Links used by permission of Professor Eric Chudler.
The Brain at Work
The restorative effects of a brain break are crucial in many lines
of work, such as
manufacturing and assembly. For factory workers, focusing on a
complex task of
connecting small pieces onto a circuit board repeatedly
activates the same neural
networks that hold that procedural memory, as well as networks
of motor control that

direct their muscles to perform the correct actions. Even in a
low-stress situation where
the factory workers are experienced, the repetitive activation of
the same neural networks
will eventually reduce the amount of neurotransmitters in those
areas, such as dopamine,
and the tedium can become an amygdala-blocking stressor after
the sustained repetition
of the task. After an appropriate physical and mental brain
break, the assembly line
workers will return to their tasks with their amygdalas at lower
stress levels and with
restoration of their neurotransmitter levels so that efficiency is
regained.
4.4 The Video Game Model
What can be done to improve the mindset of students who had
experienced negativity, fail-
ure, and the eroding away of their confidence? To answer this
question, consider what activi-
ties young people do participate in where despite repeated
failure, setbacks, and increasingly
challenging work, they persevere—yes, video games. The
elements of the video game model
are such that they can be deconstructed from the video game
and reconstructed for class-
room instruction.
What are the components that make the video game so
intrinsically motivating? The most
popular video games, in which players persevere despite
setbacks and increasing challenge,
have three major elements: goal buy-in, achievable challenge,
and frequent feedback en route
to the final goal. Essentially, when playing a video game, the
player is usually at her achiev-

able challenge level; that is, the level is both achievable and
challenging. While playing at
that level to acquire mastery, there are frequent opportunities
for players to use trial and
error and have immediate feedback as to whether their choices
were successful or not. They
can then use that feedback to immediately make adjustments
and alter their actions and find
out if the new choices are successful. When their choice or
prediction is wrong, they know
they will always have a chance to immediately make another
choice. Through experience,
they have found that despite frequent errors they do eventually
improve and make incremen-
tal progress to their goals.
One of the primary reasons that individuals report engaging in
video games is to enhance
positive and learning-productive emotional states (Granic,
Lobel, & Engels, 2014). Increased
relaxation and decreased anxiety have been noted after playing
games that are highly acces-
sible and that have short-term commitments (Russoniello et al.,
2009). As a result, you can
increase positive emotion in your classroom by applying some
of the principles of video games
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 109 7/21/14 1:45 PM

in your teaching. As previously described in this chapter,
positive emotion can be important
in helping decrease the brain’s stress response and helpful in
getting information to the pre-
frontal cortex.
Consider an example of a video game player. The player
engages in a game with levels 1 to 10
and is clear on what the goal is with respect to what happens
when each level is mastered.
The player also knows the ultimate goal of the game—for
example, saving the earth from a
devastating asteroid collision. Goal buy-in is clear and it is
motivating even though it is merely
fantasy.
The next aspect of their perseverance is the achievable
challenge. Recall that achieving a
challenge results in a big boost from the dopamine-reward
system. Gameplay starts for all at
level 1, but if the players already have mastery of the task
required at level 1, they will, within
a few moves, be automatically advanced to level 2. There is no
waiting for other game players
in their room or across the country to master level 1; it is
simply the player’s individual mas-
tery that results in the immediate progression to level 2. The
player then attempts mastery of
level 2, and then level 3. Each level will escalate in difficulty,
and the player will likely fail an
increasing number of times before attaining mastery. But
perseverance is high because the
goals of each level are clearly defined, and the player has been
taught from previous game-
play that the initial difficulty can be overcome with continued
effort. The player knows, in

short, that each new task is achievable with practice.
With goal clarity and the recognition that the mastery they need
to achieve is within the realm
of possibility, players begin to make predictions in the form of
choices. They will move in one
direction and have immediate feedback that it was not a
successful prediction. They may lose
points or they may not progress. However, rather than
interpreting that error as inability to
achieve mastery, they actually use the feedback to adapt their
next move. If their aim was too
far to the left, they may alter their predictions and move more to
the right. Seasoned players
continue to persevere even when the predictions or choices that
they’re making as they build
mastery are incorrect up to 80% of the time!
The dopamine reward has now occurred through two aspects of
their play. They’ve made
predictions as they were building mastery. Although many
predictions were incorrect, when
they did make a correct prediction, they immediately
saw that it was correct because they advanced. You’ll
recall that another big booster of dopamine is making a
prediction and finding out that it is correct. Thus they
have the frequent mini boosts of dopamine with cor-
rect predictions and at least 10 times during a 10-level
game as they receive feedback that they have achieved
a challenge and are now at a new level of play.
Further evidence of their desire for challenge can be
seen in what happens if players are promoted to a new
level when their brains do not recognize challenge. If

when the player begins a new level, despite the differences in
some of the avatars and back-
ground, the actual task that needs to be mastered is recognized
even unconsciously as a task
that has already been mastered, the motivation to keep playing
drops. Their brains respond to
Ask Yourself
Have you ever become addicted to a video
game? If so, what game was it, and why do
you think that is? If you’ve never become
addicted to a video game, what are some
aspects that you found off-putting or
disengaging?
Michael H/Photodisc/Getty Images
Video games give players immediate positive feed-
back upon achievement, such as a banner saying,
“Congratulations, you won the race!” How will you
translate this dopamine-boosting reward into your
learning environment?
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 110 7/21/14 1:45 PM
in your teaching. As previously described in this chapter,
positive emotion can be important
in helping decrease the brain’s stress response and helpful in
getting information to the pre-
frontal cortex.
Consider an example of a video game player. The player

engages in a game with levels 1 to 10
and is clear on what the goal is with respect to what happens
when each level is mastered.
The player also knows the ultimate goal of the game—for
example, saving the earth from a
devastating asteroid collision. Goal buy-in is clear and it is
motivating even though it is merely
fantasy.
The next aspect of their perseverance is the achievable
challenge. Recall that achieving a
challenge results in a big boost from the dopamine-reward
system. Gameplay starts for all at
level 1, but if the players already have mastery of the task
required at level 1, they will, within
a few moves, be automatically advanced to level 2. There is no
waiting for other game players
in their room or across the country to master level 1; it is
simply the player’s individual mas-
tery that results in the immediate progression to level 2. The
player then attempts mastery of
level 2, and then level 3. Each level will escalate in difficulty,
and the player will likely fail an
increasing number of times before attaining mastery. But
perseverance is high because the
goals of each level are clearly defined, and the player has been
taught from previous game-
play that the initial difficulty can be overcome with continued
effort. The player knows, in
short, that each new task is achievable with practice.
With goal clarity and the recognition that the mastery they need
to achieve is within the realm
of possibility, players begin to make predictions in the form of
choices. They will move in one
direction and have immediate feedback that it was not a

successful prediction. They may lose
points or they may not progress. However, rather than
interpreting that error as inability to
achieve mastery, they actually use the feedback to adapt their
next move. If their aim was too
far to the left, they may alter their predictions and move more to
the right. Seasoned players
continue to persevere even when the predictions or choices that
they’re making as they build
mastery are incorrect up to 80% of the time!
The dopamine reward has now occurred through two aspects of
their play. They’ve made
predictions as they were building mastery. Although many
predictions were incorrect, when
they did make a correct prediction, they immediately
saw that it was correct because they advanced. You’ll
recall that another big booster of dopamine is making a
prediction and finding out that it is correct. Thus they
have the frequent mini boosts of dopamine with cor-
rect predictions and at least 10 times during a 10-level
game as they receive feedback that they have achieved
a challenge and are now at a new level of play.
Further evidence of their desire for challenge can be
seen in what happens if players are promoted to a new
level when their brains do not recognize challenge. If
when the player begins a new level, despite the differences in
some of the avatars and back-
ground, the actual task that needs to be mastered is recognized
even unconsciously as a task
that has already been mastered, the motivation to keep playing
drops. Their brains respond to

Ask Yourself
Have you ever become addicted to a video
game? If so, what game was it, and why do
you think that is? If you’ve never become
addicted to a video game, what are some
aspects that you found off-putting or
disengaging?
Michael H/Photodisc/Getty Images
Video games give players immediate positive feed-
back upon achievement, such as a banner saying,
“Congratulations, you won the race!” How will you
translate this dopamine-boosting reward into your
learning environment?
this absence in novelty and challenge
with what many young people express
frequently: boredom. Recall from ear-
lier in the chapter that boredom is
associated with negative emotional
states and a lack of attention. Addition-
ally, the lack of attention can lead the
individual to evaluate the stimulus in
a negative way. So, individuals begin
to evaluate the game in a negative way
when they become bored. The player
will stop wanting to play the game as
the brain becomes aware that there
will be no possible dopamine reward
because there will be no challenge to
overcome.
What the brain and therefore the
player is looking for at each new level
is harder work and greater challenge

so that there is the renewed opportu-
nity to achieve that goal and get the big
dopamine boost of intrinsic satisfaction for having done so.
Additionally, the positive emo-
tions created by the dopamine boost and the feelings of
satisfaction in playing the game will
help information reach the prefrontal cortex. Recall that when
the amygdala is highly active,
it is likely to activate the lower, more reactive brain. However,
when positive emotions are
being processed, information is more likely to be passed to the
prefrontal cortex. This chain of
information processing allows the individual to solve problems
more effectively because the
prefrontal cortex has access to memory and can guide the
decision-making processes.
The Video Game Model in Learning Context
When is the video game model most useful as classroom
instruction? Stepwise progression
and individualized development of mastery with frequent
feedback are particularly impor-
tant when classroom instruction is primarily foundational for
the ultimate construction of
conceptual understanding and memory.
The strategies of the video game model for the development of
foundational facts and proce-
dures are especially valuable for students with negativity and
fixed mindsets that have devel-
oped because of repeated failures or frequent stressors of
boredom or frustration. It is in
these students that the achievement of challenges and
recognition of incremental goal prog-

ress can build resilience and growth mindsets. A growth mindset
is the opposite of a fixed
mindset. Rather than feeling helpless about their abilities,
students with a growth mindset
feel confident in their ability to learn and change their brains.
The next three sections detail
how the components of the video game model can be
reconstructed in the classroom by way
of buy-in, achievable challenge, and frequent feedback.
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 111 7/21/14 1:45 PM
Buy-In
Goal buy-in is the first step. What we need to make clear at the
beginning of a new unit in the
classroom is what the goals are and what it will take to achieve
them. This principle can also be
applied in any type of organization. Individuals at work or who
join a weight loss program or a
mindfulness program should be aware of what the goals are and
what they need to do to achieve
these goals. Students and individuals will be more likely to
participate when they have clear
instructions about goal achievement and if they understand how
these goals relate to them.
Goal buy-in is important for all learning in order to motivate
the brain to extend its limited
resources of energy. The brain has the self-preservation
programming such that its resources
are most likely to be applied when there is recognition that the
effort will result in a desired

goal. Desired goals in the video game model offer the intrinsic
satisfaction of dopamine-reward
pleasure. Let’s consider how you can modify the presentation of
topics that are unlikely to be
recognized by students as having the potential to yield pleasure.
Fostering Personal Connections
Buy-in can often be achieved by relating the material
to students’ personal interest. By making information
more interesting, you decrease the likelihood that indi-
viduals will become bored with the material and evalu-
ate it negatively. You also increase the likelihood that
students will be able to experience flow in the class-
room and that information being presented will be able
to pass through the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex.
For example, if you know that a student is particularly
interested in all things about boats, if the topic of study
is buoyancy or the navigators to the New World, you
can make it clear at the beginning that part of the unit
will include boats or navigation. Using the students’ interests,
you can let them know how
some of the ways that they will be practicing or building upon
their understanding of the
information will be through their interests. If they have interest
in navigation and the topic
is the Civil War, you could let the students know that part of the
learning will include looking
at original source material—sketches and newspaper articles—
about the naval battles that
were pivotal in the war.
Of course, to relate learning to students’ individual interests
means knowing what your
students find interesting. Some of the more formalized ways of
acquiring this information

include the peer interviews described earlier and the use of
interest inventories whereby
students report their interests, hobbies, types of books they like
to read, collections, club
memberships, occupational interests, and what other educators
have done that made learn-
ing interesting in the past. The data can also simply come from
observations of students gen-
erally, such as comments students make about their weekends,
past experiences that relate to
current learning, etc. In the online environment you can use
information that students pres-
ent in discussions to help you determine their interests.
An example of using the data you collect on students would be
using the information to create
sample problems in a math lesson. It will be of high interest to
the class when they hear you
enrich the problem with things you’ve learned about their
classmates, including the names
Ask Yourself
In what aspects of your life beyond
education has buy-in been important for
your involvement? Examples could be
deciding to go along with friends to do
something on a weeknight, or taking a
job that you were at first hesitant about.
Describe the circumstances that led up to
your decision, as well as what ultimately
prompted you to “buy in.”
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 112 7/21/14 1:45 PM

of siblings, sports they play, and organizations they’re members
of. Here’s an example: When
Sofia left for soccer practice with her team, the Falcons, she
was disappointed she had to bring
her younger brother, Manny, along with her. It made taking
Manny just a little bit less annoy-
ing when her parents said that he could sit on the sidelines with
Sofia’s dog, Bingo. They also
told her that she would not have to watch her brother for the
whole game, but just enough
time for them to drive 10 miles each way to visit a friend and
drop off a birthday present. If
they drive an average speed of 40 miles per hour and spend 10
minutes visiting their friend,
how long will Sofia need to keep an eye on Manny during
soccer practice?
Other ways to help students recognize that some of the
upcoming topics of study will relate
course material to their lives or the world around them include:
• watching a video clip on a website such as the Futures
Channel that relates math and
science to interesting phenomena.
• discussing a topic of general interest to the students and then
connecting that with
the coming unit.
• reading a few paragraphs from the chapter students will be
reading in any subject
area. Select a paragraph that is particularly engaging or curious
and stop after read-
ing the one paragraph. Be prepared with the second paragraph to

be equally curious
and engaging so that when students ask you to read one more
you’ll be ready to fol-
low up with another one they find enjoyable.
• posting photographs of the students in previous years’ classes
engaged in some activ-
ity that will be part of the learning that takes place in the
upcoming unit. They will
also be excited to recognize students in the photos, who are a
year ahead of them,
engaged in the activity they will do. This is the positive peer
influence of the “older
kids” doing something that they’ll be doing. Before posting
photographs, though, you
should check with your district. Some school districts may
require appropriate paper-
work to be completed before photos of students can be posted.
Previewing Fun and Engaging Activity
Everyone is more engaged in an activity when they have
something to look forward to. Know-
ing that there will be a related and enjoyable activity as part of
a unit of study will increase
students’ receptiveness to the lessons. Letting students know
that they will create a video as
part of building understanding or they will be watching the
animated version of Romeo and
Juliet after reading the book will increase buy-in.
Employees, too, will benefit from knowing that something
enjoyable will come from their
efforts. For example, appreciation parties could be held when
workers reach a certain goal.
Employees could work toward an extra sick day, time off, or
any number of rewards that are

appropriate for a particular job or occupation.
Clearly Defined, Authentic Goals
Goals themselves need to be clear and relevant to students for
them to have the goal buy-in
that motivates avid video game players. It is especially valuable
to be clear from the start
what the goals of the learning will be and to communicate these
goals early, including your
expectations. Incorporate the goals you develop for student
relevance into the goals you are
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 113 7/21/14 1:45 PM
required to achieve based on the curriculum. Merge these as
much as possible so they want
to know what you have to teach, with goals they feel are worthy
of their effort and achievable.
If possible, invite students to consider their personal goals
related to the topic and how they
would like to see the instruction incorporate their goals. When
students create goals to include
their interests and desires, they will approach learning
experiences with more perseverance.
One way to start out a unit so that students are able to consider
sharing their personal goals
for learning is with a KWL chart. For a review of this strategy,
see “KWL and Need to Know
Boards” in Section 3.5. As learning progresses, the mobility of
items on this student-created

chart shows students their progress and how their requests as to
learning topics are being
addressed.
Goals that are authentic in terms of real-world problems also
increase motivation. For exam-
ple, while studying ecosystems, it is important for students to
know they will be working on
a project that actually can reduce local ecosystem damage such
as pollution or overdevelop-
ment. It boosts goal buy-in further for them to know there will
be an authentic audience to
receive the information they compile, such as a local
commissioner or the editor of the local
newspaper.
Make Students the Instructor
Having students teach the lesson to students in a lower grade
can also be a motivating source
of buy-in, as long as students feel that the task is achievable.
There can be variations in the
level of difficulty in planning based on the grade level of the
students to which your students
will teach the lesson. There could also be an increase in their
comfort zones when they plan
and teach the lessons with a buddy or small group. This project
gives students the options
of different ways of teaching the information to the younger
students with opportunities to
engage through their strengths.
Students can also be assigned to teach lessons to students in
their class. In an examination of
peer teaching in an anatomy lab, 100% of students reported that
teaching the topics increased
their understanding. Additionally, 92% of students also felt the

experience increased their
communication skills (Krych et al., 2005), illustrating that peer
teaching can have benefits
that might apply to other areas of life as well. Gregory, Walker,
McLaughlin, and Peets (2011)
examined the effects of preparing to teach and teaching peers in
medical students. Their
results illustrated that both preparing to teach and teaching were
related to increased reten-
tion of material in comparison to students in a nonteaching
group. Moreover, this retention
persisted in a delayed post-test that was administered 60 days
after the teaching occurred.
Peer teaching can also occur in the online environment. Many
course management systems
offer opportunities for students to prepare and present
information on a course topic. Each
student could be assigned to teach a concept from the course by
creating a presentation.
These presentations could be done synchronously, if possible
for your class, or asynchro-
nously using video or voice recording. Other students could be
assigned to watch and critique
the presentations as part of their grade.
Jetta Productions/Photodisc/Thinkstock
Encouraging students to present to the class will help
both their memory and their communication skills.
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 114 7/21/14 1:45 PM

required to achieve based on the curriculum. Merge these as
much as possible so they want
to know what you have to teach, with goals they feel are worthy
of their effort and achievable.
If possible, invite students to consider their personal goals
related to the topic and how they
would like to see the instruction incorporate their goals. When
students create goals to include
their interests and desires, they will approach learning
experiences with more perseverance.
One way to start out a unit so that students are able to consider
sharing their personal goals
for learning is with a KWL chart. For a review of this strategy,
see “KWL and Need to Know
Boards” in Section 3.5. As learning progresses, the mobility of
items on this student-created
chart shows students their progress and how their requests as to
learning topics are being
addressed.
Goals that are authentic in terms of real-world problems also
increase motivation. For exam-
ple, while studying ecosystems, it is important for students to
know they will be working on
a project that actually can reduce local ecosystem damage such
as pollution or overdevelop-
ment. It boosts goal buy-in further for them to know there will
be an authentic audience to
receive the information they compile, such as a local
commissioner or the editor of the local
newspaper.
Make Students the Instructor

Having students teach the lesson to students in a lower grade
can also be a motivating source
of buy-in, as long as students feel that the task is achievable.
There can be variations in the
level of difficulty in planning based on the grade level of the
students to which your students
will teach the lesson. There could also be an increase in their
comfort zones when they plan
and teach the lessons with a buddy or small group. This project
gives students the options
of different ways of teaching the information to the younger
students with opportunities to
engage through their strengths.
Students can also be assigned to teach lessons to students in
their class. In an examination of
peer teaching in an anatomy lab, 100% of students reported that
teaching the topics increased
their understanding. Additionally, 92% of students also felt the
experience increased their
communication skills (Krych et al., 2005), illustrating that peer
teaching can have benefits
that might apply to other areas of life as well. Gregory, Walker,
McLaughlin, and Peets (2011)
examined the effects of preparing to teach and teaching peers in
medical students. Their
results illustrated that both preparing to teach and teaching were
related to increased reten-
tion of material in comparison to students in a nonteaching
group. Moreover, this retention
persisted in a delayed post-test that was administered 60 days
after the teaching occurred.
Peer teaching can also occur in the online environment. Many
course management systems
offer opportunities for students to prepare and present

information on a course topic. Each
student could be assigned to teach a concept from the course by
creating a presentation.
These presentations could be done synchronously, if possible
for your class, or asynchro-
nously using video or voice recording. Other students could be
assigned to watch and critique
the presentations as part of their grade.
Jetta Productions/Photodisc/Thinkstock
Encouraging students to present to the class will help
both their memory and their communication skills.
Peer teaching can also be an optimal
method for adult learners. As a result,
it would be a great method to imple-
ment in higher education with non-
traditional students, in training, or in
the workplace. Adult learners bring an
array of life lessons, experiences, and
learning to the classroom (Donnelly-
Smith, 2011). Peer teaching provides
an opportunity for adult learners to
show their expertise in the classroom,
which can benefit all students. Similarly
in the workplace, more experienced
employees could train new employees
on difficult concepts. These training
sessions can be beneficial in terms of
learning new knowledge, brushing up
on skills, and enhancing social interac-
tions between employees.
Achievable Challenge

Achieving challenges is a powerful motivator when students
perceive the task is achiev-
able and yet the challenge is difficult enough that students must
exert enough effort to be
rewarded via the dopamine-reward system. In describing how
learning occurs in children,
Vygotsky (1978) discusses a zone of actual development and a
zone of proximal development
(Figure 4.3). Vygotsky defines the zone of actual development
as the level of development
that the child’s mental functions are currently at. This level is
determined by activities that
the child can complete on his own. In contrast, the zone of
proximal development is the
distance between the child’s actual development and the child’s
potential to develop under
the supervision of an adult or capable peer. Vygotsky (1978)
writes that the zone of proximal
development illustrates the functions of the child that have not
yet matured. Rather, they are
in the process of maturing. Understanding someone’s actual
development or development
that has already occurred and understanding the zone of
proximal development or the skills
that are in the process of developing can help us select tasks
that will be both achievable and
challenging to the individual.
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 115 7/21/14 1:45 PM
In the most popular video games, the level of challenge is
individualized and appropriate for

the player, based on the preceding performance of tasks that
demonstrate the skill mastery.
As players improve and challenges are achieved, players move
on to the next challenge level.
At each of these level progressions, players are able to
recognize the task mastery goal they
need to achieve and know that with effort and practice they are
capable of winning the chal-
lenge. In the classroom, students need learning challenges to be
appropriate to their abilities
and background knowledge if they are to remain motivated to
persevere.
When one of these two elements—either the achievability or the
difficulty—is inappropriate,
student motivation is diminished. Differentiation allows
students to work at their achievable
challenge level. The students who understand the new topic, if
required to keep reviewing
with the group, may become bored and therefore stressed. If it
is too challenging, students will
become frustrated. By participating in learning opportunities
within their range of achievable
challenge, students engage through expectation of positive
experiences.
Consider the following examples in which there is either
inadequate challenge or the chal-
lenge is perceived as unachievable.
• You are dropped off at the top of a ski resort’s steepest run
when you’ve only had
experience on the beginner slopes.
• You have to spend your day on the bunny hill when you’re an
expert skier.

Figure 4.3: Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development
Recognizing which tasks may be outside a student’s reach will
help you implement appropriate and
achievable challenges.
Source: Based on Vygotsky, L. (1978). Interaction between
learning and development. In M. Gauvain & M. Cole (Eds.),
Readings on the
development of children (pp. 29–36). New York: W.H. Freeman
and Company. (Reprinted from L. Vygotsky, Mind and society
[pp. 79–91].
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.)
What the
student can
achieve alone
What the
student can
achieve with help
What the
student cannot
yet achieve
Zone of Actual
Development
Zone of Proximal
Development

What the
student can
achieve alone
What the
student can
achieve with help
What the
student cannot
yet achieve
Zone of Actual
Development
Zone of Proximal
Development
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 116 7/21/14 1:45 PM
• You play a game of darts with the target 2 feet away.
• You play a game of darts with the target 200 feet away.
• You are a sophomore in high school doing fourth-year
undergraduate work.
• You are an adult doing a crossword puzzle designed for
children.
In these situations putting in the effort would not be appealing.
If there were no other options,

boredom or frustration would prompt the stress response and
eventually a negative feeling
for the activity. A way to think about individualized achievable
challenge for students is as an
opportunity for students to recognize their capability to be
successful at an ambitious goal.
If a challenge is too easy, a student will become bored, which
leads to stress and ultimately
disengagement from learning. If a challenge is too difficult, a
student will experience frustra-
tion and hopelessness, which also leads to the stress state.
Especially when the goal is to over-
come negativity with motivation, students need opportunities to
progress at their individual
levels of achievable challenge so they avoid detrimental states
of stress blocking the passage
of information through the amygdala. In heterogeneous
classrooms, educators face difficulty
in engaging all students in tasks that are achievable challenges
to them. One way to solve this
problem is by providing differentiation. Differentiation allows
you to use different tasks for
different levels of development in students. This process will be
discussed later in the chapter
when we discuss scaffolding.
Transform Textbook Subtitles Into Learning Steps
In planning for students to recognize achievable challenge, the
textbook can provide a
resource. Chapters in textbooks are usually broken down into
smaller subunits identified by
chapter subtitles. These can be presented to students at the
beginning of the unit to show that
the unit goal will be one that is progressively achieved, with
each new section building upon
knowledge and skills learned in the preceding section. The

problem is that most textbooks
do not plan the subtitles to reveal a progression of achievable
challenges. You, however, can
rephrase the chapter subtitles and present these to students at
the beginning of a unit in a
way that enables them to see a stepwise progression of how they
will build their understand-
ing. The following example shows how subtitles in a unit on
tectonic plates can be rephrased
to be recognized as achievable challenges to students rather
than individual incomprehen-
sible or boring topics.
Original Chapter Subtitle Rephrased Chapter Subtitle
Driving forces of plate motion⟶Ever break a dinner plate?
Floating continents and
paleomagnetism⟶
Even huge barges can float.
Continental drift⟶What happens to boats not
anchored?
Formation and breakup of
continents⟶
Do the continents fit together
like puzzle pieces?
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 117 7/21/14 1:45 PM

Scaffolding
As previously mentioned, levels of mastery are rarely the same
for every student in a class at
the same time. It is likely that there are students in your classes
for whom the level of general
instruction will at times be beyond their level of comfort,
foundational knowledge, or lan-
guage comprehension (referred to as their level of actual
development). Just as likely, there
will be students who already have reached mastery regarding
the unit of study and will not
be engaged by whole-class instruction. Additionally, not only
are your students likely to be
at different levels of actual development, but they are also
likely to have different zones of
proximal development. Some individuals will be able to solve
problems well beyond their
actual development with the help of an adult or peer, while
other students will not be able
to complete such tasks even with the help of an adult. Both
groups of students are likely to
become frustrated without the opportunity for achievable
challenge, resulting in elevation
of their stress levels to block effective learning and potential
behavior problems. The process
of development described by Vygotsky occurs throughout the
lifespan. So, these principles of
actual development and proximal development are important to
understand in all types of
classrooms, including online environments. You will always
have some students who require
more instruction and other students who require less instruction.
Pre-testing can be an important concept in your class to
determine where your students are

developmentally. Pre-testing allows you to discover what your
students do and do not know
about an upcoming lesson. Pre-testing can help you determine
how to use your instruction
time effectively as well. If all the students in your class are
familiar with a topic, a pre-test can
show you that you only need to briefly review the topic rather
than lecture endlessly on it.
Finally, using pre-testing in your lessons can help you
determine how to differentiate achiev-
able challenges for specific students. For example, a spelling
pre-test may indicate that sev-
eral students already know how to spell all of the upcoming
words in the lesson. Rather than
have these students participate in upcoming activities with the
words, they could serve as
peer tutors or help you plan some other aspect of the lesson.
This idea of providing different
tasks or different levels of assistance to different students based
on their needs is referred to
as scaffolding and was first discussed in Chapter 3.
Scaffolding is critical to support students’ perception that the
challenge is achievable. Scaffold-
ing can be used for building up foundational knowledge as well
as for providing opportunities
for more advanced work so that students with mastery can also
enjoy the positive emotional
state that comes from achieving challenges. Within Vygotsky’s
theory of development, the
zone of proximal development, or the difference between where
individuals are and their
potential, is considered the instructional level. This is the level
where our teaching should be
aimed to provide the greatest learning (Lui, 2012). Scaffolding
provides the opportunity for

us to target instruction to individual zones of proximal
development in our classrooms.
Examples of scaffolding included in this section are informing
students about frequent stu-
dent mistakes, priming with previewing, and using strategies
that increase reading compre-
hension, flexible groupings, online learning games for building
basic foundational knowledge,
and flipped lessons.
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 118 7/21/14 1:45 PM
Priming
Some students, as a result of previous failures to achieve
success or understand information
about a certain topic, will have such high stress when a related
topic of study is introduced
in your class that they will not be responsive to your
instruction, however brain-friendly it
might be. You’ll often recognize these students when in their
stress state they call out, “I don’t
get it” even before you finish a statement or explanation.
Students who need more confidence or more activation of their
prior knowledge to avoid
the stress state when new information is introduced benefit from
previewing or priming of
the lesson in advance. In some cases the students can do this
independently, but others will
need help from their parents at home. The recommendation is
for the student, with or with-

out parental guidance, to simply read through or skim the
chapter pages of the text that will
be the topic of the next day’s class instruction. Explain to them
that they are not expected to
understand the information and that simply experiencing the
single exposure of hearing it or
reading it will decrease their stress when the instruction does
start in class. Let them know
how even that superficial familiarity will set their brains to be
ready to receive new informa-
tion because the previewing activates prior knowledge and
introduces the unfamiliar words
or terms so that they will hear them during instruction.
This strategy could be used in higher education as well.
Struggling students could be
assigned to complete readings early with tutors. In online
learning you could post an
announcement or email students additional read-
ings that have concepts explained in more simple
terms. For example, if students are to read an in-
depth journal article, you could email a summary
of the journal article that has been published in a
magazine or an article on the same topic that was
published in a magazine. Completing the reading
will introduce them to the topic and activate any
prior knowledge they have about the topic.
Often after using the previewing strategy for sev-
eral weeks, students build their confidence and no
longer hit their high stress levels at the onset of
instruction. They gradually withdraw the preview-
ing scaffolding as they realize that they can keep up
with new information in class if they stay attentive
and don’t give in to frustration the very instant they

feel the slightest confusion.
Reading Comprehension
For students who can read independently, there
are several strategies of scaffolding comprehension
for all subject areas. One of these involves the use
of general reading comprehension strategies in a
manner that engages students to actually use these
Westend61/Superstock
When you reread information that you
have already read or skimmed before,
your brain activates that memory and
strengthens neural connections associ-
ated with the topic.
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 119 7/21/14 1:45 PM
valuable strategies—as opposed to just telling them the
strategies and leaving it to them to
use them.
Sticky-Note Dialogue and Think-Alouds “Talking Back to the
Text” with sticky notes is
about students using the general principles that increase reading
comprehension: prediction,
activating prior background knowledge, making personal
connections with reading, prioritiz-
ing importance, and evaluating pictures and diagrams. To
actually get students to use these
strategies for independent reading homework, have them

promptly fill out sticky notes in
class. Their homework is to place the sticky notes in the
textbook on what they feel is the
appropriate page and to complete the sentences they have
already started on sticky notes
with you in class. Examples of prompts that could serve as
ready-made sticky notes include:
• “I think you’ll be telling me about . . .”
• “I already know things about YOU, so I predict . . .”
• “I see that you are similar to what I have learned before,
because you remind me
of . . .”
• “I would have preferred a picture of . . .” (sketch/download
your own)
• “I predict this will be on the test because . . .”
Students are unlikely to use the strategies of reading
comprehension such as predicting and
making personal connections before and during reading unless
you ask them to. When the
assignment is to simply complete the statements they started out
on the sticky note in class,
they will be more likely to do so because there are no wrong
answers and the assignment
requires very little writing. In short, this activity is low stress
but high reward because it pro-
motes the general principles of reading comprehension.
Another strategy that can be used to improve reading
comprehension is the “think-aloud”
strategy. In this strategy students are instructed to say out loud
what they are thinking while
reading, solving a problem, or answering questions. You can
model this process for students

while teaching. While reading text in the classroom, you might
pause to illustrate to your
students what you are thinking as you are reading the text. This
takes the covert process of
reading comprehension and makes it overt to students. Students
can then use metacognition
to become more aware of how to interact with text.
As students become more skilled readers, they will be able to
use the strategies that you
have demonstrated to increase their ability to understand the
text. They will understand how
to think about the text. Block and Isreal (2004) list some
strategies for performing effec-
tive think-alouds. They write that expert readers use strategies
such as overviewing the text,
looking for important information, connecting to big ideas,
activating relevant knowledge,
putting themselves in the book, revising prior knowledge and
predicting, anticipating the use
of the knowledge, and relating the book to their lives. The use
of think-alouds has been asso-
ciated with increased understanding, obtaining more
information, and increased pleasure
from reading (Block & Israel, 2004). Thus, think-alouds should
be able to help get informa-
tion flowing through the amygdala and onto the prefrontal
cortex by engaging higher mental
processes such as understanding and also by creating positive
emotions in students.
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 120 7/21/14 1:45 PM

Redacted Notes When students need to take notes on material to
be read independently,
they can be scaffolded as they build their understanding of what
information should be
included in notes. All this requires is some copies and
corrective fluid. You’ll begin by giving
them a previous year’s student’s notes to guide them in their
building of note-taking skills.
Take a set of notes from a student this year who takes
exemplary notes and make copies of
these notes.
To provide differentiated levels of scaffolding, use the
corrective fluid to omit varying amounts
of the scaffolding outline that you provide to students. For
students needing a great deal of
guidance, you would erase only a small portion of the master
outline that you give them and
leave spaces for them to fill in more obvious pieces of the note
taking. For example, if there
is a chapter about the three causes of air pollution, you could
omit one cause from the notes.
The students beginning to learn how to take notes would look at
the section of their books
that describes three causes of air pollution and recognize that
the first two have been included
in the notes and there is a space for them to write the third one,
which they can easily find in
that section of their textbook. As students need less scaffolding,
you would have copies of the
exemplary outline with more lines redacted so the learners
would have the opportunity to fill
in more and more as they build their note-taking skills.

Flexible Groups
Flexible grouping opportunities for students are sessions in
which you meet with small
groups to address a specific topic on which they need guidance.
Flexible groups can also be
used to introduce new concepts, teach new skills, or even to
practice reading comprehension.
This type of scaffolding is particularly useful for promoting
students to be at their achievable
level of challenge when they have different skill levels in a
single classroom.
In designing flexible groups it should be clear to the students
that they are not permanent
but rather that they are temporary and that students will be
moved in and out groups when
they have mastery to go back into the full class. You can also
vary the types of groups that you
use. For example, sometimes you could have a mix of
developmental levels in each group. In
this case the advanced students could provide scaffolding for
less advanced students. Or you
could have all advanced students working together on a more
advanced task.
In an examination of the effects of flexible grouping on literacy
assessments, Castle, Deniz,
and Tortora (2005) found that over 5 years of using flexible
grouping in a high-needs school
the percentage of students at mastery level increased. This
success of flexible grouping was
attributed to focused instruction to specific needs, increased
student attention on the instruc-
tional task, and increased student confidence.
Course management systems also allow for the use of groups in

the online environment. Stu-
dents can be assigned to different groups and then assigned to
work on a specific discussion,
assignment, or project within their group. Later, if needed, each
group can present their work
to the entire class. This can also be an effective way to increase
community in the online
world. In online education students are not generally
accustomed to working together; how-
ever, by assigning them to groups, you ensure that they have
someone to work with or ask
questions when working on assignments.
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 121 7/21/14 1:45 PM
Groups can also be used in the workplace. Employees can be
assigned to groups based on skill
level or expertise. Different aspects of a project can be
completed by different groups.
Online Games
When students are deficient in foundational knowledge that is
essentially fact memorization
but is still needed to progress with the big ideas of the unit,
they can work independently with
online learning games for acquisition and practice of the
specific foundational mastery that
they need.
The best online learning games are ones that first evaluate the
players’ levels of understand-
ing and then proceed with activities that build up from their

baseline levels. Just like the best
video games played for recreation, the best online learning
games have the buy-in of some
type of fun interaction, offer the achievable challenge by having
students progress as they
achieve mastery, and provide the frequent feedback of goal
progress through point systems
or other frequent feedback recognition as the learner jumps to a
higher level of play. Many
of these online learning games can be preset by educators to
focus on specific areas in the
curriculum and can even be matched up to standardized test
foundational fact knowledge
requirements.
Graphite.org is a free service from Common Sense Media. It
lists many apps, games, websites,
and digital curricula that can provide the foundational
knowledge building in game form.
Here you’ll find reviews and ratings for apps, console and PC
games, and websites for school
subjects including the arts as well as hobbies from pre-K to
grade 12 and clearly designated
as “free,” “free to try,” or “paid.”
Flipped Lessons
Similar to a combination of online learning games and flexible
groupings are flipped lessons.
The flip is that students are assigned an instructional video to
watch before the class that
“teaches” the topic. In that way, students are prepared to
progress in class in flexible groups
based on the mastery they attain independently. All students,
even those who did not fully
understand the video, are more likely to benefit from the lesson
because they have some prior

knowledge of the topic from watching the video.
There are multiple types of flipped lessons, but an example of
one type is Kahn learning,
where students go online and watch instructional videos about
the traditional concepts that
they will be studying further in class. Kahn learning is available
at http://www.kahnacademy
.com. The website provides free interactive challenges,
assessments, and videos for anyone
to use. Thus, the website can be used across a variety of ages,
including in higher educa-
tion, online education, or the workplace. Because students can
work at their own pace on
the website, Kahn provides a great opportunity to differentiate
challenges for students. More
advanced students will be able to tackle more advanced
concepts and problems, while less
advanced students will be able to focus on learning the basics.
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 122 7/21/14 1:45 PM
http://Graphite.org
http://www.kahnacademy.com
http://www.kahnacademy.com
Your Achievable Challenge
Providing individualized levels of achievable challenge takes
effort and is time consuming. It
is important to realize that you will not be able to do this for all
students all of the time. You’ll
need to find your own level of achievable challenge with regard
to how much and for which

students you will provide more individualized attention by
differentiating each unit of study.
Because it is important to recognize your goal achievement,
start out with one or two students
for whom to provide more individualized levels of achievable
challenge. Consider selecting
students whose behavioral response to the stress is a type of
acting out that is disruptive to
their classmates. Individualizing instruction and homework will
help you better serve these
students and will allow you to more closely monitor and
measure the efficacy of your efforts.
Plan ahead about how you will evaluate the impact of the
strategies you employ. Take time
to look for changes in your students that you might otherwise
miss, such as decreased num-
bers of questions about instructional information and increased
questions that are indeed on
topic. Look for students participating in discussions and
students volunteering to respond to
questions who usually resist any risk of making mistakes.
Frequent Feedback
Students who believe their effort increases their likelihood of
succeeding at goals are more
likely to persevere and exert the effort necessary to achieve
those goals. As discussed earlier,
progress in video games includes the frequent short-term
responses to each move and the
distinctive feedback accompanying level advancement that
acknowledges ongoing progress
to the ultimate goal.

Individual Response Devices (IRDs)
You can promote the positive emotional response by providing
opportunities for your stu-
dents to experience both the short-term instant feedback and the
stepwise goal progress feed-
back in classroom learning. As is described in Chapter 2, IRDs
used to make predictions and
followed by feedback are powerful at sustaining attention.
These are also excellent resources
for students to receive that frequent feedback regarding the
predictions that they make in
response to more specific questions about content.
In contrast to using these predictions to sustain attention
throughout class, IRD assessment
and immediate response feedback is also a way to evaluate
mastery of sections in a unit. When
you have completed instruction on a segment and students have
practiced new foundational
information, you can ask students several questions in sequence
to ascertain who in fact does
need more instruction and who is ready to move on because
mastery has been acquired.
Students who make correct choices and receive that feedback
saying so experience the posi-
tive dopamine-reward response of pleasure. Students who
receive the feedback that their
predictions are incorrect are still willing to persevere because,
as in the video games, they
know from experience that they will receive the needed
scaffolding and you will give them
more chances to make predictions very soon.
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 123 7/21/14 1:45 PM

Analytic Rubrics
Analytic rubrics provide very specific information regarding
what elements of student work
will be used to determine grades for products, reports, or
semester work. These rubrics also
detail levels of success along a continuum for each category of
assessment (Figure 4.4 offers
an example). Students will see what mastery goals will be used
to determine their individual
component grades and how these are all parts of their overall
grades for any specific project
or semester.
Students who have developed a fixed mindset and have low
confidence that their effort will
result in any improvement in a particular topic can benefit most
from rubric feedback. When
using rubrics, these students may also need the additional
support of regular conferencing,
starting with individual explanations of how the rubrics can
guide them to achieve success.
Especially the first time rubrics are used, you can guide
students through the multiple criteria
and the range of quality levels within those criteria. For
example, if the student has a low suc-
cess rate and low confidence regarding writing assignments, you
can point out how a writing
assignment might include grammar, punctuation, topic
sentences, spelling, supporting evi-
dence, and concluding sentences, each with their own levels of
quality. Students who possess
strongly fixed mindsets may need encouragement to even select

the criteria for which they
are willing to extend the additional effort with the goal of
stepwise improvement. If they’ve
always done poorly on all aspects of writing assignments, they
may need guidance as to what
is most achievable for them.
The next step is for them to recognize what it will take to
achieve the next level of success. If
they select punctuation, you would show them how, at their
current level of zero, there are
more than five punctuation errors. You can also show them that
level 1 requires no more
than four punctuation errors. You would then encourage them
with ways they can improve
their punctuation. Starting with more concrete criteria, such as
punctuation and spelling,
will help guide students to higher levels in areas that perhaps
are more subjective than
the number of punctuation errors, such as concluding sentences
and supporting evidence.
Sample papers that demonstrate the different levels of
proficiency criteria are also helpful
at this stage.
When the submitted written work is returned, all students would
receive rubrics without
their number or letter grades. There would be circles around the
boxes within each criterion
that reflect students’ achievement. Now, students who were
pessimistic as to any possible
improvement will see, perhaps for the first time, that effort
toward a goal resulted in improve-
ment. Often the first progress step, such as a jump of one level
in one of the components of the
rubric, is not enough to change the letter grade that students

will receive after they first see
their rubrics. However, students who had no confidence in the
possibility of any improvement
will have received the feedback that improvement is possible
for them. Even a change such as
going from zero in punctuation to level 1 can inspire further
effort.
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 124 7/21/14 1:45 PM
Rubrics can also be employed in online teaching. Course
management systems, such as Black-
board, offer you the opportunity to create rubrics online and
connect them to any assignment
that you wish to use them for. This can simplify the grading
process for you and also provide
more specific feedback to your students. You can give students
a score for a particular cate-
gory and also provide them with feedback about that category.
It is also a good idea to instruct
students to go through the rubric themselves after they have
finished an assignment to see if
they have met all the criteria for the assignment.
Rubrics can also be used in the workplace. During any
employee evaluation, you could pro-
vide them with a list of categories that they will be evaluated
in. The list could also provide
different levels of achievement for the employees to attain.
Providing specific criteria for each
level will help employees understand how to improve their
performance.

When students and employees understand exactly what you are
looking for in an assignment,
they are more likely to meet your goals. Additionally, providing
specific criteria and feedback
to students can help decrease some of the stress of completing
homework. If students are
confused about what to do, the amygdala is likely to activate the
lower reactive brain, and
students will have difficulty completing the assignment.
However, when students have clarity
about what to do, they can active the higher centers of the brain
and produce better results.
Figure 4.4: Writing rubric
A writing rubric will spell out your expectations clearly so that
your students will know exactly how to
meet or exceed them.
On Time Elementary School
Essay Scoring Rubric: Sixth Grade
Student_____________________________________
Teacher_____________________________________
Criteria 4 = exceeds
standard
3 = meets
standard
2 = approaches
standard

1 = below
standard
Focuses on
main topic
Main idea is clear;
no extraneous,
irrelevant material.
Main idea is clear;
includes unrelated
ideas.
Can detect the
topic but lacks
development.
Topic is unclear;
mostly unrelated
ideas.
Is interesting
and clearly
written
Uses captivating
language; holds
reader’s attention
with compelling
ideas.
Quite interesting;
good use of
language; some
irrelevant and less

interesting ideas.
A mixture of
interesting and less
interesting ideas.
Some ideas are
clear, others not.
Lacks cohesion
and interest;
many ideas
are unclear.
Uses
appropriate
vocabulary
and
grammar
Advanced use of
language and
sentence structure;
no word usage or
grammatical errors.
Good use of
language; correct
sentence structure;
few word usage or
grammatical errors.
Complete
sentences
with some word
usage and
grammatical

errors.
Many errors in
language usage;
repeated
grammatical
errors; incomplete
sentences.
On Time Elementary School
Essay Scoring Rubric: Sixth Grade
Student_____________________________________
Teacher_____________________________________
Criteria 4 = exceeds
standard
3 = meets
standard
2 = approaches
standard
1 = below
standard
Focuses on
main topic
Main idea is clear;
no extraneous,
irrelevant material.
Main idea is clear;

includes unrelated
ideas.
Can detect the
topic but lacks
development.
Topic is unclear;
mostly unrelated
ideas.
Is interesting
and clearly
written
Uses captivating
language; holds
reader’s attention
with compelling
ideas.
Quite interesting;
good use of
language; some
irrelevant and less
interesting ideas.
A mixture of
interesting and less
interesting ideas.
Some ideas are
clear, others not.
Lacks cohesion
and interest;
many ideas

are unclear.
Uses
appropriate
vocabulary
and
grammar
Advanced use of
language and
sentence structure;
no word usage or
grammatical errors.
Good use of
language; correct
sentence structure;
few word usage or
grammatical errors.
Complete
sentences
with some word
usage and
grammatical
errors.
Many errors in
language usage;
repeated
grammatical
errors; incomplete
sentences.
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 125 7/21/14 1:45 PM

Effort-Goal Progress Graphs
The most effective learners set personal learning goals and
employ strategies they have found
successful in similar learning experiences to achieve these goals
and assess their progress
along the way. You will be able to help students build self-
sufficiency and self-assessment of
progress by guiding them through the use of the effort-goal
progress graphs such as those
you can create and download from www.onlinecharttool.com
(Figure 4.5). It is particularly
valuable for students to see that there is a direct relationship
between their effort/practice
and their progress outcomes.
Both the horizontal and vertical axes start with zero. The
vertical axis has number designa-
tions reflecting the amount of improvement. In this way,
students at different levels of start-
ing proficiency in the area of fact acquisition or study skills
being measured would have the
same starting point. For example, if the vertical line
measurements were of the number of
accurate responses made on flashcards for multiplication, the
progress would begin at zero
for students who are ready to learn the sevens times table, as
would the starting zero place
represent the beginning for those who are on the twos.
The horizontal axis corresponds to the amount of time that is
cumulatively spent reviewing
or practicing the information. The horizontal axis designates

time spent in cumulative
fashion so that after 1 day there might be 5 minutes of total
practice. If the procedure is to
spend 5 minutes each day practicing, the cumulative amount of
time spent practicing would
be 10 on day 2, 15 on day 3, etc. For each day the vertical axis
would indicate the number
of flashcards to which students responded correctly at the end
of the day’s review.
Figure 4.5: Effort-goal progress graph
Visualizations like graphs help students track their progress and
motivate them to improve their skills.
Cumulative time spent studying (in days)
Im
p
ro
ve
m
en
t
(f
la
sh
ca
rd
s

co
rr
ec
t)
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
6 6 6

3
4 4
2
0 0 0 0 0
10 10
7
9
8 8
12
1515 15
17
20
15
Tyler Aisha Peter Luke Emily
Cumulative time spent studying (in days)
Im
p
ro
ve
m

en
t
(f
la
sh
ca
rd
s
co
rr
ec
t)
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
10

8
6
4
2
0
6 6 6
3
4 4
2
0 0 0 0 0
10 10
7
9
8 8
12
1515 15
17
20
15

Tyler Aisha Peter Luke Emily
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 126 7/21/14 1:45 PM
www.onlinecharttool.com
These graphs reflect the type of incremental goal progress we
see in the video game model
where players get feedback that they progressed from one level
of play to the next. Your stu-
dents will see through bar graphs that their levels of
achievement are progressively increas-
ing in response to their effort. Because the starting points for all
students are at zero, students
with fixed mindsets and lower beginning mastery often have the
opportunity to see that their
rates of progress correspond to those of students they consider
more academically success-
ful. Because these students are all being challenged at their
achievable challenge level, there
is now equalization of opportunity to have visual confirmation
of their effort to goal
progress.
Assessment Variety
In general, two types of assessments exist. They are summative
assessments and formative
assessments. Summative assessments generally evaluate
learning at the end of a unit. They
might include things like a midterm, a paper, a final project,
etc. They are often overempha-
sized with high point values in terms of determining final

grades. In contrast, formative
assessments monitor student learning and provide ongoing
feedback throughout learning.
Examples of formative assessments might include turning in a
draft of a research proposal for
feedback or drawing a concept map to represent a topic. They
often have lower point values,
although they are more appropriate representations of student
understanding and progres-
sion of learning.
Using only one or two types of assessment limits opportunities
to use assessment informa-
tion to correct deficiencies and does not give learners enough
frequent feedback of incre-
mental goal progress to build a growth mindset. In addition,
summative assessments at the
end of the learning unit do not benefit the learners with
deficiencies if, regardless of their
results, the whole class moves on to the next unit without any
opportunity for these students
to achieve the mastery they need.
Limiting assessment to final tests fails to evaluate what learners
have achieved with regard to
understanding, but rather highlights the information learned that
they are able to reproduce
The Brain at Work
You have probably seen motivating examples of graphic
representations of progress
displayed in areas such as the main lobby of a school or office
building. These charts
often have a dynamic symbol used to measure progress toward
achieving a goal, such

as a thermometer or hikers going up a mountain. A school
fundraising drive for a new
playground structure might show frequently updated
documentation of the amount of
money raised. Another type of progress graph posted to
represent goal progress might show
the increasing number of employees signing up to donate at
blood drives. These frequent
changes in the tabulation that reflect increasing funds donated
or the number signed up for
the blood drive give dopamine-boosting feedback of ongoing
goal progress to motivate more
people to participate or to encourage their colleagues to make
donations.
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 127 7/21/14 1:45 PM
in the manner that the test requires. If, for example, a single
assessment will be an oral pre-
sentation, students with fear of oral presentations due to
experiences of frequent failure in
previous oral presentations will be less emotionally responsive
to the learning throughout
the unit and the effort they put into their oral report because
they expect failure regardless
of their efforts.
When students participate in a variety of assessment modalities,
including opportunities to
demonstrate understanding through their strengths, their effort
and perseverance increase.
It is important for students to know from the very beginning of

the unit how their particular
strengths will be part of the opportunities for them to
demonstrate learning.
The variety of assessments can range from informal assessments
with more immediate feed-
back to more formal but still fairly frequent assessments where
feedback is provided in a
timely fashion so that remediation or revision can take place,
allowing all students to make
mastery progress. Examples of informal assessments include
homework started in class,
exit slips, and observational notes of students’ participation in
whole-class or small-group
activities. More formal assessments include quizzes, in-class
tests with scaffolding of notes or
open books, and traditional closed-book classroom testing.
Evaluation of projects or research
papers when completed also constitutes formal assessment,
whereas frequent evaluation
and formative, corrective feedback of their progressive steps
from notes to outline and first
draft are more informal assessments that can guide progressive
improvement.
Feedback Characteristics That Promote Growth Mindsets
Characteristics of corrective feedback to which students respond
successfully include provid-
ing information that is specific and actionable. Students need to
understand specifically what
it is they need to work on and how they can do so. In addition,
supportive feedback of prog-
ress needs to be recognized by students as they proceed in their
realms of achievable chal-
lenge. This means not giving so much correction at one time
that students are overwhelmed

and also including guidance about specific ways students can
build their proficiency in these
areas. This also means focusing on the effort that the student
has put forth. Students should
be aware that their grade is not always the most important
factor; rather, their ability to work
toward a goal and reach milestones along the way is.
Certainly, to follow the video game theme, the feedback and
opportunities for students to
respond to that feedback need to be designed so that students
will see a positive progression
en route to an ultimate goal achievement. This includes
providing feedback not just for areas
where further work is needed but also about areas of
improvement and strengths that you
identify through your assessments.
The effort you put into planning and carrying out frequent
formative assessments and pro-
viding feedback that allows students to progressively recognize
their incremental goal prog-
ress and improve at achievable challenge levels can match that
of the most compelling video
games. When students are able to recognize progress as a result
of their incremental efforts
along the route toward a final goal, they will increase their
resistance to amygdala-blocking
stressors, such as participation and mistake fear. These students
will begin to experience
the response of their dopamine-reward systems. They will not
only have increased pleasure,
motivation, curiosity, and engagement, but they will also
develop stronger confidence in their
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 128 7/21/14 1:45 PM

Summary and Resources
own abilities and develop resilience, intrinsic motivation,
perseverance, and the ability to
learn from mistakes.
• Emotions influence where new information is processed in the
brain.
• The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is responsible in part
for emotional influences
on learning.
• For learning to become memory it must be directed through
the emotional filter
(amygdala) along the route to the reflective, higher brain, e.g.,
the prefrontal cortex.
• When students fail to find relevance in class content or have
learning experiences
that are repeatedly below or above their achievable challenge
level, they are likely to
experience the stress state from sustained frustration or
boredom.
• In the high stress state, information cannot pass successfully
through the amygdala.
High stress reduces information flow through the amygdala
(emotional filter) to
and from the cognitive/reflective brain (prefrontal cortex).
During high stress, the
survival instinct takes reactive control and responses are

directed by the involuntary
“lower” brain with output limited to fight/flight/freeze
responses (act out/zone
out). The mammalian brain is wired to withhold effort when
experience predicts a
low probability of success.
• Students may withhold effort when previous experiences have
repeatedly failed to
achieve success.
• The human brain can be “rewired” to exert effort rather than
withhold it when
instruction follows the video game model. Buy-in, achievable
challenge, and frequent
feedback of incremental goal progress are the three main
components of the video
game model.
• The power behind the video game model motivation and
perseverance is the intrin-
sic reinforcement of the dopamine-reward response to accurate
predictions and
feedback of challenges achieved.
• Employing educational strategies that replicate video game
playing promotes a suc-
cess cycle for students due to intrinsic gratification that induces
stress reduction and
creates a positive emotional state and a growth mindset.
Web Resources
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html*
Neuroscience for Kids is a great website for students of all ages
that provides information,
curiosities, and interactive games that build understanding

about the brain and how this
knowledge relates to a child’s own life.
http://www.graphite.org
Graphite.org is a free service from Common Sense Media. It
lists many apps, games, web-
sites, and digital curricula that can provide foundational
knowledge building in game form.
Here you’ll find reviews and ratings for apps, console and PC
games, and websites for school
subjects including the arts as well as hobbies for pre-K to grade
12 and clearly designated as
“free,” “free to try,” or “paid.”
Link used by permission of Professor Eric Chudler
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 129 7/21/14 1:45 PM
http://ierg.net/lessonplans/unit_plans.php
This website shows multiple examples of curriculum contents
adapted to the video game
model.
http://www.4teachers.org under the “RubiStar” tool link on the
right side of the page
RubiStar is a tool for teachers to generate their own rubrics.
This site provides a tool for generating various kinds of charts
and graphs.

Questions for Review and Discussion
1. How can you use your understanding of the brain’s emotional
processing network to
reduce the stressors that limit access through the amygdala to
the prefrontal cortex?
2. How can you create a positive environment that facilitates
interaction, learning, and
productivity?
3. Select at least one strategy to build students’ resistance
against going into the invol-
untary, reactive state of high stress.
4. How will you help students see value and relevance in what
they are learning—so
they want to know what you have to teach? Or, how will you
help your employees
or clients see the value or relevance in what they are working
on—so that they will
want to improve their performance?
5. What buy-ins will connect your students from the beginning
and what goals will sus-
tain their interest in learning and understanding? Or, what buy-
ins will connect your
employees and help them work together to achieve goals?
6. How will you tailor instruction to address students’
differences in readiness, learn-
ing strengths, and interests?
7. How will you provide incremental goal progress feedback for
students or

employees?
8. How will you use formative assessments to gain feedback
about students’ develop-
ing understanding and about areas where they need corrective
feedback? How will
you then provide opportunities for revision or reteaching?
9. Select a topic of instruction and write one strategy from each
of the three aspects of
the video game model that could promote a positive emotional
state so the instruc-
tion becomes learning.
10. How will you plan for your achievable challenge, and how
will you look for evidence
that your effort resulted in positive change?
wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 130 7/21/14 1:45 PM
http://ierg.net/lessonplans/unit_plans.php
http://www.4teachers.org
Key Terms
achievable challenge A level of difficulty
for goals that is challenging for the individ-
ual yet still attainable.
amygdala An almond-shaped structure
located in the medial temporal lobe that is
implicated in the experience of emotions,

memory, and processing complex socio-
emotional communication. The amygdala is
a structure within the limbic system.
autonomic nervous system (ANS) A
division of the central nervous system
that sends and receives messages through
neurons and peripheral nerve connections
in the brain, spinal cord, internal organs,
and skin. This system regulates the heart
rate and the movement of food and waste
through the digestive system and influences
the release of glandular secretions and the
cardiac muscle, smooth muscle, and glands.
buy-in Positive climate and prevention of
high stressors promote information pas-
sage through the amygdala to the prefrontal
cortex. Motivation and effort increase when
the brain expects pleasure. Buy-in examples
include personal relevance, prediction, and
learning activities connecting to students’
interests and strengths.
flow A mental state whereby an individual
is fully immersed in what he is doing. The
individual experiences positive affect and
intrinsic reward while in the flow state.
formative assessment An assessment
to monitor ongoing student learning and
provide feedback to the student about his
learning. They are usually more frequent
and worth fewer points than summative
assessments.

growth mindset A mindset in which an
individual feels confident in his abilities to
learn and change his brain.
limbic system This core of the emotional
response centers receives and directs brain
input about the emotions, including stress
and fear, as well as positive emotions.
prefrontal cortex A hub of neural networks
with intake and output to almost all other
regions of the brain. In the prefrontal cortex,
long-term memories are constructed and
emotions can be consciously evaluated.
summative assessment An assessment
designed to evaluate learning at the end of a
unit. They generally have high point values.
zone of actual development A child’s
developmental level (or mental age) based
on activities that the child can perform by
himself.
zone of proximal development The differ-
ence between a child’s actual developmental
level and his potential to develop is referred
to as the zone of proximal development. This
zone represents abilities in the child that are
in the process of maturing.
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wiL81639_04_c04_093-132.indd 132 7/21/14 1:45 PM

2 The Attention Filter
©Naufal MQ/Moment/Getty Images
Learning Objectives
• Explain sustained (or focused) attention.
• Describe the difference between bottom-up processing and
top-down processing.
• Understand how the reticular activating system (RAS) works.
• Analyze how changes in patterns, threats, and novelty
influence the RAS.
• Assess how the classroom climate can influence learning.
• Discuss the importance of building respectful, trusting
relationships with and among students, and detail
strategies for doing so.
• Evaluate different strategies that can be used in the classroom
to promote student attention and activate
the RAS.
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 35 7/17/14 3:30 PM

Section 2.1 Rewind—Fast Forward
It was one of the hottest days of early summer, and I was in a
stuffy, ancient classroom with
steep, elevated levels of seating. Also in the room were about
another hundred college stu-
dents. We were all there for the first day of Physics 101–102,
the introductory college physics
course offered in an intensive six-week summer program as an
alternative to the usual full-
year course.
We did not know one another, but had in common fairly low
interest in the study of physics.
Almost all of us were taking the class for the same reason: It
was a prerequisite for medical
school. I sat there dreading the hours of listening, reading, and
irrelevant problem solving
that would begin momentarily. What happened next was so
powerful that more than three
decades later I remember not only the events of that class
opening, but also the physics for-
mula and principles that Professor Baez presented so powerfully
that morning.
The doors to the lecturer’s level below opened and a man
wearing a wizard’s hat and holding
a fire extinguisher was pushed into the room, compressed into a
toy red wagon. Professor
Baez then activated the fire extinguisher so its contents shot
against the now closed door
from which he’d entered. I stared open mouthed as he and his
wagon were rapidly propelled
backward across the lecture floor. His words resonate to this
day: “As you see and is stated
in Newton’s Third Law, for every action, there is an equal and

opposite reaction.” Professor
Baez captivated my attention to such an extent that the memory
of his lesson remains vivid
40 years later.
In the last chapter we looked at the reasons indicating that a
better understanding of neuro-
science and the brain can lead to more effective teaching
strategies and consequently better
learning outcomes. We started to become more familiar with the
general anatomy of the brain
and the way the brain functions. In this chapter we will look
more closely at one particular
function of the brain—how it processes information to focus our
attention.
All learning begins with sensory information, but not all the
sensory information available
to the brain is accepted for admission. Every second, millions of
bits of sensory information
from the eyes, ears, nose, taste buds, internal organs, skin,
muscles, and other sensors are
generated and travel to the brain. The brain cannot process more
than a few thousand of the
millions of bits of sensory information available each second.
The brain has filters that determine which sensory information
gets admitted and allowed to
proceed to the highest areas of the brain. Often this
determination is made in relation to pat-
terns and potential pleasure or threat. You’ll discover that
attention is a process by which the
sensory intake filter “selects” which information gains access at
the primary intake region of
the brain.

When you understand what criteria for selection are, you’ll be
at a prime position to guide
your students’ attention filters to give admission to the things
they need to learn.
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 36 7/17/14 3:30 PM
Section 2.2 What Gets Our Attention
2.2 What Gets Our Attention
Scientists in anthropology and related fields usually describe
evolutionary adaptations as
changes that take place in animals and species that proved
beneficial to the survival of the
animal and the species. This is a central tenet of Darwin’s
theory of natural selection, and it
proves a useful framework for understanding how the
mammalian brain evolved. In order to
survive in harsh and at times dangerous environments, the
mammalian brain needed to filter
sensory information in terms of priority—some sensory
information would need to take pre-
cedence over other, less important information. Here we have
the seeds of the brain’s atten-
tion filter.
Attention can be thought of as the brain’s spotlight.
As we scan our environment, we are taking in various
types of information. However, the brain selectively
processes information in the environment to bring it to
our attention or to focus a spotlight on it. The process-
ing of information can be both conscious and uncon-
scious. That is, you can search your environment for

the information you are looking for or information can
be processed without your being consciously aware of
it. As we engage with information in the environment,
we are activating a series of networks in the brain that
involve both cortical and subcortical structures that
help us determine what information we should focus
on. An essential part of this system is the reticular activating
system. This structure will be
described later in the chapter. In the classroom, students are
exposed to many different stim-
uli. They need to be prepared to orient to relevant stimuli for
learning and be able to block out
stimuli that are not important.
Focusing on one stream of information requires sustained or
focused attention. Sustained
attention is the ability to intentionally focus on a specific
stimulus. As a student becomes
alert to important information in the classroom and focuses on
this information, increased
activation is found in the brain’s attentional networks.
The ability to intentionally activate the higher brain areas is
essential to sustaining voluntary
focus. This “top-down” control is related to learners’ attentional
control abilities and cogni-
tive capacity in general (Sarter, Givens, & Bruno, 2001).
Impairments in the ability to engage
in sustained attention can have a negative impact on learning in
the classroom and also in
daily life. In the classroom, implications might include a lack of
ability to listen to instruc-
tions, a lack of ability to follow a story or lecture, decreased
capacity for taking in information
while reading, or even missing social cues that are related to
learning. As an educator, you can

help students activate higher brain attention control systems by
increasing student engage-
ment, curiosity, and motivation. For example, attentional
responsiveness to learning could
be enhanced by having the students get up and walk around the
room or by participating in
other activities involving movement.
Students could participate in a game whereby they are each
assigned a particular course
topic. Next, they would be required to gather information on
their topic from classmates. As
they walk around the room and interact with others, their brains
will become more active.
Ask Yourself
As a student, what is apt to get your
attention in a learning context—both in
constructive and not-so-constructive ways?
What classroom configurations or teaching
methods are likely to draw your attention
to the lesson at hand? Understanding what
gets your own attention will help you to
better identify what might be distracting or
engaging to others.
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 37 7/17/14 3:30 PM
Section 2.2 What Gets Our Attention
Additionally, as they seek out information, they will be using
sustained attention to focus on
the information they are gathering.

Motivation can be increased by making the information or
concepts meaningful to students.
You can incorporate examples into your lessons that apply
concepts to life, sporting events, or
popular television shows. If students understand why they need
the information, they will be
more likely to focus their attention on you. Additional concepts
of attention can also help us
better engage students in the classroom. One of these concepts
is pattern seeking.
The brain processes information according to patterns in its
environment (Beitman, 2009).
Information that is consistent with a pattern in a given context
will receive less attention from
the brain than information that is inconsistent with a particular
pattern. It’s not difficult to
see the utility of such a filter from an evolutionary standpoint.
Noting discrepancies in one’s
environment might serve as a signal that danger is near. For
example, think of hiking alone
through the mountains. You hear the wind blowing through
trees, birds chirping, the occa-
sional rustling of leaves from small woodland creatures. It
wouldn’t take long to start ignoring
these sounds. You would quickly become desensitized to the
auditory “pattern” of the moun-
tain trail. But your attention filter would likely quickly process
any discrepant sounds, such as
a large stick cracking a few feet away or a flock of birds flying
away all at once from a nearby
tree—each of which could be a sign of potential danger.
Stimuli such as these grab our atten-
tion and are referred to as salient. A
salient stimulus is one that stands

out among the rest. For example, a
red dress in a sea of black is salient.
When something in the environment
is salient, it activates the attentional
systems of the brain and is processed.
However, this processing occurs at
low levels of the brain (i.e., the brain
stem) and does not ensure that the
individual will consciously process the
stimulus. This type of processing is
referred to as bottom-up processing.
It is so termed because the processing
begins at lower levels of the brain, or
within subcortical structures. It is also
referred to as sensory-driven process-
ing because the information comes in
from the senses and then determines where our attention will go
(Goldstein, 2007). In order
for the stimulus to reach conscious processing, increased neural
activity at higher levels of the
brain (i.e., the cortex) would have to occur (Carter, 2009). In
the case of threat, it is highly likely
that it will be sent through to higher areas of the brain because
it is important for survival.
In contrast, there also exists top-down processing. This type of
processing refers to knowledge-
based processing, and occurs when we direct our attention
toward a certain stimulus or event
in the environment (Goldstein, 2007). It is called top-down
because higher levels of the brain
determine where attention will go. While bottom-up processing
is more related to patterns of
Scothth/iStock/Thinkstock

Visual information that stands out from an expected
pattern is more likely to get the brain’s attention.
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 38 7/17/14 3:30 PM
Section 2.3 The Reticular Activating System (RAS)
stimuli in the environment, top-down processing is more related
to activation of different areas
of the brain and illustrates that we have the ability to influence
where our attention is directed.
Many strategies described in this text will first grab the brain’s
attention by using bottom-up
processing; however, if you keep the information interesting
and continue to use the strategies,
your students will begin to keep their attention focused on you
in the classroom by using top-
down processing.
However, the brain also seeks patterns that prove pleasurable.
Mammalian brains use pat-
terns based on memories of previous experiences to interpret
new sensory information.
These memory patterns are activated to predict the best
response to new objects, experi-
ences, or sensations. If we go back to the mountain trail for a
moment, it’s likely that if you
found the peace and tranquility of the trail pleasurable, the hike
is something you would seek
to do again, or perhaps you would seek to replicate that sensory
experience in other ways.
Perhaps you would download nature sounds to play at home, or
maybe you would pay more

attention to the sounds of birds chirping in your backyard or at
a local park. Either of these
activities might serve to provide you the same pleasurable
feeling of the mountain trail. This
is assuming, of course, that the sound of the cracking stick was
just an old branch that fell out
of tree and not a 1,000-pound bear because, just as the brain
seeks pleasure, it also seeks to
avoid experiences that have been associated with pain or similar
negative experiences.
Pleasure can also be connected with motivation. The brain finds
things that are pleasurable
to be highly motivating. Early research in psychology illustrated
that when animals were
forced to choose between food and water and electrical
stimulation of brain areas associated
with pleasure, they choose brain stimulation (Routtenberg &
Lindy, 1965). Pleasure was so
highly motivating to the animals that they starved themselves.
This behavior is also evident
in humans if you consider the case of drug addicts who will
choose their drug of choice above
basic life needs. This pleasure-motivation connection is
important because we can use it in
the classroom. If learning can be made pleasurable, students
will seek it out above other dis-
tracting stimuli in the classroom.
The patterning response is quite logical when considered from
an evolutionary standpoint.
We seek what seems to benefit us and avoid that which does
not. This same principle is some-
thing that we thankfully can translate into the classroom
experience.

2.3 The Reticular Activating System (RAS)
Everything we learn enters the body from sensory nerves.
Information constantly comes to
the body through the sensory receptors that provide access to
millions of bits of sensory
information from sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch,
movement, and more every second. We
couldn’t possibly negotiate all of this data on a conscious,
voluntary basis; our brains, in fact,
have to do a lot of this processing for us, without us even
knowing, which is what makes much
of the attention selection process involuntary. And the brain
isn’t taking this task lightly! It’s
very selective about what sensory information is admitted and
which of that information is
given access to the highest brain. In short, it selects what is
worthy of our attention and what
is not.
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 39 7/17/14 3:30 PM
The reticular activating system (RAS) is the sensory intake
filter key to our attention and is
an important structure in information processing in the brain.
Information comes to the RAS
from the sensory systems. The RAS (shown in Figure 2.1) has
many projections and connec-
tions with the cerebral cortex (Carlson, 2004). As a result it is
able to activate other areas of the
brain and pass the important information on. The admission
criteria for passage through the
RAS are more exclusive than any club or university because for

every one bit of data accepted
for admission, thousands are rejected. Understanding the
admission criteria, however, puts
you in a prime position to better access and hold your students’
attention in the classroom.
We often hear students criticized for not paying attention, but as
you learn about the RAS,
you’ll recognize that they may indeed be paying attention, just
not to the information the edu-
cator, parent, coach, etc., is providing in the form of sensory
input. The RAS is essentially
always paying attention, in the sense that it is always allowing
bits of sensory input to pass
through into the brain each second. Students’ RAS may
therefore be attentive in the class-
room, but that attention may be selecting information about
their neighbors’ whispering,
their too-tight pants, or their growling stomachs.
Figure 2.1: The reticular activating system (RAS)
Sensory information from the body and spinal cord is first
filtered by the RAS before being relayed
outward to other parts of the brain to be further processed.
Hippocampus
Amygdala
Nucleus
accumbens
Cerebral cortex
RAS

RAS
Reticular
formation
Sensory inpu
tSensory inpu
t
Sensory input
Hippocampus
Amygdala
Nucleus
accumbens
Cerebral cortex
RAS
RAS
Reticular
formation
Sensory inpu
tSensory inpu
t
Sensory input
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 40 7/17/14 3:31 PM

The human RAS, like most of our other lower brain structures,
has not evolved much beyond
that of other mammals. The RAS still prioritizes for our
attention information that is most
valuable for survival purposes. Think back to our earlier
discussion on pattern seeking; it is
our RAS that is doing most of the work in assimilating to
patterns or pleasure or processing
information that could be potentially harmful or dangerous to
us—that is, stimuli that breaks
from an expected pattern. If it weren’t for the RAS filter, our
brains would be overwhelmed by
information input. With so much information to choose from, it
makes sense that the RAS and
the amygdala (discussed in more detail in Chapter 4) each have
programmed priorities that
select what is admitted into our perception.
In the context of formal learning environments, much of what is
accepted for intake is not a
voluntary, conscious choice by students who may seem to be
willfully ignoring direct instruc-
tion. The problem is that if the information in your lesson is not
selected by this primitive
filter (the RAS), it stands far less of a chance of reaching the
higher brain. Finding ways to
play off of the instinctual tendencies of our RAS—that is, to
find ways to break from some of
the classroom patterns that students have come to expect—is
central to getting and keeping
their attention.

Detects Changes in Expected Pattern
The RAS is key to arousing or “turning on” the brain’s level of
receptivity to input. The RAS
response to the sensory information that it receives impacts the
speed, content, and type of
information that is given entry into the higher-thinking regions
of the brain. Our RAS acts in
accordance to the directives it has developed for all mammals:
Preference is for sensory input
regarding changes in the expected pattern of the animal’s
environment. For an animal, the
consideration might be: What has changed from the last time the
animal was in this field or
tree? For a student, it might be: What has changed in the
classroom from the last day or the
last week?
The RAS selections based on environmental changes perceived
as pleasurable also allow the
animal to survive and thus are more likely to gain attention.
Likewise, a student who per-
ceives pleasurable changes is more likely to readily engage in
that environment.
Detects Perceived Threats
As we discussed earlier, the RAS remains alert first for things
that have changed in the environ-
ment that are associated with perceived threat. When
threatening sensory intake is selected
from the environmental cues, there is interference with the flow
of most other information
provided by the sensory nervous system.
Consider a fox coming out of its den in the morning, for an

example of how sensory intake is
prioritized. If there are several changes in the usual pattern of
sensory information from its
environment, what will its attention filter let in? If there is the
sound of an unfamiliar animal’s
barking and also the new scent of a female fox, the novelty that
receives the highest priority
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 41 7/17/14 3:31 PM
is the barking because it is potentially a threat. Input interpreted
as potentially threatening
blocks intake of other information.
Since the fox’s RAS intake is directed to a source of threat,
the other sensory information related to that intake also
gets priority passage through the RAS at the expense of
other new stimuli. Once our fox is on attention-intake
alert to unfamiliar barking, the rustling in the brush
coming from the direction of the barking will also take
precedence over any other novel, but nonthreatening,
sensory stimuli, such as a potential mate, a new source
of food, etc.
As long as this state of perceived threat persists, it is
unlikely that any other potentially vital valuable infor-
mation will reach the highest parts of the brain. Unless
the perception of threat is reduced, the brain persists in doing
its primary job—protecting the
individual from harm. During fear, sadness, or anger, neural
activity on brain scans predomi-

nates in the lower brain, where the involuntary response is not
to think, but to react—fight,
flight, or freeze.
When we apply this to a learning environment, we can see how
critical it is for learning to cre-
ate a friendly, inviting atmosphere for students. If students feel
uncomfortable or threatened,
their RAS will begin to go into survival mode, cueing up on
stimuli the student perceives as a
source of potential harm and thereby shutting out other
potentially valuable information—
most notably your lesson! The sensory
input of important items, such as the
content of the day’s lesson, is reduced
by the perception of possible threat,
presenting a significant challenge for
educators and learners. It is also impor-
tant to note that students might be dis-
tracted by a variety of events. These
can include things in the classroom or
events that have taken place before
they entered the classroom. For exam-
ple, stressors at home including trou-
ble with parents, hunger, bullying, child
abuse, or chronic health issues can
occupy students’ minds and keep them
from focusing on the task at hand. Edu-
cators may not have the ability to reduce
these threats; however, noting their
existence can help educators relate to
their students.
Ask Yourself
Recall a social situation when you said
something you didn’t intend to, or heard

something unexpected, or ran into
someone you hadn’t planned on seeing.
Did you become embarrassed, fearful, or
otherwise distracted? In what ways do
recall being affected, and how did it affect
your ability to engage with others?
Tim McCaig/iStock/Thinkstock
Emergency vehicles use salient stimuli such as
sirens and lights to make sure their presence takes
priority over other sensory information.
Meeting the Needs of Individual Learners: Stress and Trauma
Almost everyone has experienced stress and trauma in their
lives and has been impacted
by incidents that elicit great emotion, deep pain, and intense
fear. As professionals, we must
understand that anyone who walks through our doors or into our
classrooms could be
fighting some type of battle. The ability to cope with and
process stress and trauma depends
partly on our individual psychological, physical, and biological
makeups, and partly on the
support we receive from outside resources.
Exposure to trauma, fear, unpredictability, and consistent or
repetitive negative experiences
reinforces our brains’ stress and trauma response to “fight or
flight,” which is characterized
by increased heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate. This
repeated activation of the
stress response promotes a heightened baseline state of arousal
in an individual, so that even
in the absence of an external threat, he or she must navigate the

world in a continuous state
of fight or flight.
The impact of stress and trauma on the developing child is
particularly poignant.
Traumatized children are at a significant risk for mental health
problems and psychiatric
disorders, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse, self-
destructive behaviors,
PTSD, and personality/eating disorders, as well as various
medical illnesses such as
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), liver disease,
fibromyalgia, immune system
dysfunction, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The
etiology of these symptoms, may,
in part, be due to the structural, chemical, and physiological
effects of stress and trauma
on the brain and body (Center for Disease Control, 2013b;
Gabowitz, Zucker, & Cook, 2008;
McCollum, 2006; Van der Kolk, 2005).
When a child is exposed to persistent fear and trauma, the
development of the brain
changes both structurally and chemically. These changes
include decreased volume of the
hippocampus, amygdala, and corpus callosum; irregular levels
of the neurotransmitters
dopamine and serotonin (discussed in Chapters 3 and 6,
respectively); and overproduction
of neural connections associated with fear, anxiety, and
impulsive responses (Carrion,
Weems, & Reiss, 2007; McCollum, 2006; National Scientific
Council on the Developing
Child, 2005/2014, Teicher, Anderson, & Polcari, et al., 2002.
The child’s ability to learn,
retain information, and become a successful student is

compromised. Significant cognitive
problems have been demonstrated in children exposed to stress
and trauma, such as
deficits in overall cognitive functioning, academic achievement,
school performance,
attention/executive functioning, memory, visual-spatial skills,
and language (Gabowitz,
Zucker, & Cook, 2008).
When working with or teaching a child who has been exposed to
stress and trauma, you
must stay calm and demonstrate patience and empathy. These
children need to feel safe and
comfortable in your presence. It is also key to recognize how
these children view stress;
begin to understand stressful situations from their perspective
and give them time to reflect
on their experiences and feelings. Lessons and/or sessions can
focus on identifying and
expressing feelings. Teach the children positive coping
mechanisms and ways to handle their
stress. Depending on the age of the child, recommending
relaxation techniques, journaling,
and exercise is generally a good place to start. By understanding
how they perceive stress
and trauma and learning new coping strategies, you can mitigate
the internal pain these
children will have to endure.
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 42 7/17/14 3:31 PM

is the barking because it is potentially a threat. Input interpreted
as potentially threatening
blocks intake of other information.
Since the fox’s RAS intake is directed to a source of threat,
the other sensory information related to that intake also
gets priority passage through the RAS at the expense of
other new stimuli. Once our fox is on attention-intake
alert to unfamiliar barking, the rustling in the brush
coming from the direction of the barking will also take
precedence over any other novel, but nonthreatening,
sensory stimuli, such as a potential mate, a new source
of food, etc.
As long as this state of perceived threat persists, it is
unlikely that any other potentially vital valuable infor-
mation will reach the highest parts of the brain. Unless
the perception of threat is reduced, the brain persists in doing
its primary job—protecting the
individual from harm. During fear, sadness, or anger, neural
activity on brain scans predomi-
nates in the lower brain, where the involuntary response is not
to think, but to react—fight,
flight, or freeze.
When we apply this to a learning environment, we can see how
critical it is for learning to cre-
ate a friendly, inviting atmosphere for students. If students feel
uncomfortable or threatened,
their RAS will begin to go into survival mode, cueing up on
stimuli the student perceives as a
source of potential harm and thereby shutting out other
potentially valuable information—
most notably your lesson! The sensory

input of important items, such as the
content of the day’s lesson, is reduced
by the perception of possible threat,
presenting a significant challenge for
educators and learners. It is also impor-
tant to note that students might be dis-
tracted by a variety of events. These
can include things in the classroom or
events that have taken place before
they entered the classroom. For exam-
ple, stressors at home including trou-
ble with parents, hunger, bullying, child
abuse, or chronic health issues can
occupy students’ minds and keep them
from focusing on the task at hand. Edu-
cators may not have the ability to reduce
these threats; however, noting their
existence can help educators relate to
their students.
Ask Yourself
Recall a social situation when you said
something you didn’t intend to, or heard
something unexpected, or ran into
someone you hadn’t planned on seeing.
Did you become embarrassed, fearful, or
otherwise distracted? In what ways do
recall being affected, and how did it affect
your ability to engage with others?
Tim McCaig/iStock/Thinkstock
Emergency vehicles use salient stimuli such as
sirens and lights to make sure their presence takes
priority over other sensory information.

Meeting the Needs of Individual Learners: Stress and Trauma
Almost everyone has experienced stress and trauma in their
lives and has been impacted
by incidents that elicit great emotion, deep pain, and intense
fear. As professionals, we must
understand that anyone who walks through our doors or into our
classrooms could be
fighting some type of battle. The ability to cope with and
process stress and trauma depends
partly on our individual psychological, physical, and biological
makeups, and partly on the
support we receive from outside resources.
Exposure to trauma, fear, unpredictability, and consistent or
repetitive negative experiences
reinforces our brains’ stress and trauma response to “fight or
flight,” which is characterized
by increased heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate. This
repeated activation of the
stress response promotes a heightened baseline state of arousal
in an individual, so that even
in the absence of an external threat, he or she must navigate the
world in a continuous state
of fight or flight.
The impact of stress and trauma on the developing child is
particularly poignant.
Traumatized children are at a significant risk for mental health
problems and psychiatric
disorders, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse, self-
destructive behaviors,
PTSD, and personality/eating disorders, as well as various
medical illnesses such as
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), liver disease,
fibromyalgia, immune system

dysfunction, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The
etiology of these symptoms, may,
in part, be due to the structural, chemical, and physiological
effects of stress and trauma
on the brain and body (Center for Disease Control, 2013b;
Gabowitz, Zucker, & Cook, 2008;
McCollum, 2006; Van der Kolk, 2005).
When a child is exposed to persistent fear and trauma, the
development of the brain
changes both structurally and chemically. These changes
include decreased volume of the
hippocampus, amygdala, and corpus callosum; irregular levels
of the neurotransmitters
dopamine and serotonin (discussed in Chapters 3 and 6,
respectively); and overproduction
of neural connections associated with fear, anxiety, and
impulsive responses (Carrion,
Weems, & Reiss, 2007; McCollum, 2006; National Scientific
Council on the Developing
Child, 2005/2014, Teicher, Anderson, & Polcari, et al., 2002.
The child’s ability to learn,
retain information, and become a successful student is
compromised. Significant cognitive
problems have been demonstrated in children exposed to stress
and trauma, such as
deficits in overall cognitive functioning, academic achievement,
school performance,
attention/executive functioning, memory, visual-spatial skills,
and language (Gabowitz,
Zucker, & Cook, 2008).
When working with or teaching a child who has been exposed to
stress and trauma, you
must stay calm and demonstrate patience and empathy. These
children need to feel safe and

comfortable in your presence. It is also key to recognize how
these children view stress;
begin to understand stressful situations from their perspective
and give them time to reflect
on their experiences and feelings. Lessons and/or sessions can
focus on identifying and
expressing feelings. Teach the children positive coping
mechanisms and ways to handle their
stress. Depending on the age of the child, recommending
relaxation techniques, journaling,
and exercise is generally a good place to start. By understanding
how they perceive stress
and trauma and learning new coping strategies, you can mitigate
the internal pain these
children will have to endure.
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 43 7/17/14 3:31 PM
Section 2.4 Perceived Threat Interventions: Calming the
Nervous Fox
Responds to Novelty and Curiosity
Just as neuroscience research suggests the environmental
stimuli that can restrict learning,
neuroimaging has also given us information about which
sensory input gets through the RAS
when no threat exists.
In the unthreatened state, RAS sensory intake priority is drawn
to changes in the expected
pattern that are novel and arouse curiosity. In the next section,

we will consider strategies
and interventions that reduce perceived threat, which will lay
the groundwork for exploring
strategies that, in the absence of perceived threat, are
particularly attractive for RAS intake
because of their novelty and curiosity.
2.4 Perceived Threat Interventions:
Calming the Nervous Fox
In this chapter, we have explained how the human RAS is very
similar to the RAS of other
mammals in that it first selects for attention stimuli most
critical to survival in an unpre-
dictable environment. This process exists in the young brain as
well as more mature brains.
However, as predatory tigers are rarely a threat in classrooms
and students do not have to
chase down lunch, the priorities of sensory intake of what might
be perceived as threat by
animals in unpredictable environments have not really kept pace
with human evolutionary
development.
Nevertheless, to consider the priority given by the RAS to
perceived threat, it serves us well
to think of our students’ RAS as responding much like that of
our fox. When the fox comes out
of its den in the morning, alerted to changes in the expected
pattern, there is likely to be more
than one change or novelty. Both the howling of a predatory
wolf and a rabbit running by could
be two novel events—changes in the daily expected pattern. The
howling of the wolf would get
first priority, and only when that sound is gone would the RAS
grant entry to the nonthreaten-

ing changes in sensory input such as the sights and sounds of
the rabbit running by.
Educators in the classroom need to reduce the perception of
threat so that the intake filter
does not persist in giving priority to the prime directive in order
to protect the student from
harm. As you will soon see, without the maturation of executive
functions of the prefrontal
cortex, schoolchildren’s brains do not have the clear perspective
with which to evaluate the
world around them and voluntarily select the most important
sensory input. It is also impor-
tant to note that the prefrontal cortex does not completely
mature until after adolescence
(Giedd et al., 1999), so even in college-age students, these same
principles will also hold true.
The prefrontal cortex is often the first area of the brain to
deteriorate in aging (Raz, 2000).
So, if you are teaching older adult learners, you may be dealing
with some of the same issues
that younger children face. Additionally, even in a fully
matured brain, picking out important
information in the classroom can be difficult due to the amount
of information that is coming
into the brain and the stressors that might exist in the learning
environment. Thus, the strate-
gies provided below will help you teach to any brain—young or
old.
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Nervous Fox

What students might perceive as threat that could take over the
sensory intake are things
such as fear of being embarrassed in front of classmates by
making mistakes, anxiety of being
called upon for a homework answer when they forgot their
homework, being the last person
chosen to be on a team, or making mistakes in the use of
English when it is not their first lan-
guage. Adult learners are subject to the same threats in the
classroom. Although their brain
systems are more mature, providing them with better social and
attentional skills, they are
still embarrassed by not knowing answers or by making
mistakes in the classroom. Addition-
ally, some of them may feel shame in being far behind younger
students (Doherty, 2012) or
may have already had bad experiences with education, which
would make them more respon-
sive to threats in their environment.
With the goal of promoting the RAS intake of your instructional
information, as well as of
other important cognitive and social sensory cues from the
classroom, we need to keep our
young foxes feeling safe and prepare them to avoid the
misperceptions of threat. Perceived
threats exist both in and out of the classroom for students. As a
result, it might also be impor-
tant to help your students calm their nerves in areas outside of
the classroom. For example,
if you have a student who you suspect is having family trouble,
you could recommend further
school-based evaluation. School guidance counselors can be of
great help in this area. For
example, Lapan, Gysbers, and Petroski (2001) reported that

seventh graders who had coun-
selors who were more engaged in providing support and
services to students had stronger
relationships with educators, better grades, and a belief that
education was important and
relevant. Additionally, conferences with parents could be an
opportunity to discuss potential
issues. You could even provide families with a little education
on how their brains work to
help them understand why it is important to reduce threats and
provide a safe environment.
Once we can establish a safe environment for learning, our
young foxes will be able to attend
to the more positive sensory input, just as the fox in the wild
becomes aware of the potential
yummy meal scampering by—once the howling stops.
Classroom Climate
One of the most fundamental ways to quell students’ potential
fears is to provide optimal
learning climates. Basic classroom management can go a long
way toward serving this end.
You’ll keep your young foxes feeling unthreatened by
consistent enforcement of class rules
and maintaining a supportive classroom community. This means
not only providing students
a learning environment in which they feel safe from potential
threat but also increasing their
comfort about taking the risk of participating and even making
mistakes.
The most important of classroom rules regarding the perception
of safety by students are
those that assure them that their physical person, property, and
feelings will not be hurt.

Especially young children, but truly across the spectrum
through high school and at the col-
lege level as well, students count to a large degree on adults to
enforce the rules that are
in place. A way to assure students that you will indeed be there
to enforce the rules is by
demonstrating early on that you are aware of times when their
property, person, or feelings
are perhaps being threatened and that you will intervene
promptly. For example, let’s say
you have two students, Terrell and Josh, sitting side by side in
the classroom. You see Josh is
antagonizing Terrell by drawing all over his artwork. You can
invite Terrell to help you with
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 45 7/17/14 3:31 PM
Nervous Fox
the next activity or to distribute items to the class, thereby
addressing your first priority,
which is for the student’s safety. After removing Terrell from
the threat to his property, make
your way back over to his desk and move the artwork and his
other personal items away from
the reach of the perpetrator, Josh. Perhaps, move Josh’s desk
further away from Terrell’s. At
that time you can quietly tell Josh that he is to meet you after
class. This example is applicable
at all levels of education. It is always important to reinforce the
idea that you will keep the
student safe.

As early as possible in the year, make it a point to show
students that your class is one in
which they can feel safe participating, comfortable asking for
help, and aware that you will
listen to them and be fair. When you take these opportunities to
show students that you’re
serious about protecting them from perceived threat, they will
grow more comfortable.
Threats to students also exist in the ever-growing online
environment. Just as in the class-
room, it is important to address potential fears early on. Some
issues reported with online
education include social isolation or a lack of a learning
community and technology issues
(Chee Mang & Werner, 2004). Social isolation can occur as a
result of a lack of face-to-face
interactions with others. Educators play an important role in
reducing the fear of isolation in
individuals. Reaching out to students or parents through emails,
discussions, and/or phone
calls can be effective ways to maximize the student-teacher
relationship. Additionally, educa-
tors should promote collaboration between students to decrease
the fears of isolation and
increase community in the classroom.
Technological fears can be reduced by providing students with
appropriate resources for help
with technology. Educators should also be prepared to monitor
student use of technology.
Students who are not using the technology should be reached
out to in order to ensure they
do not fall too far behind. It can also be helpful for students and
faculty to engage in training
before beginning an online class. Wagner, Schramm, and

Werner (2001) report that students
had a higher satisfaction with their online courses when they
received necessary training.
Finally, the virtual environment provides more ano-
nymity to students. Thus, exchanges between students
might be more emotionally charged (Clark, Werth, &
Ahten, 2012). As a result, students might pose a threat
to each other. It is important for the educator to lay out
a set of rules for online communication at the begin-
ning of the course. Most students report that they pre-
fer to hear from the instructor before the class begins
(Conrad, 2002). So, instructors could post an introduc-
tory message that helps individuals understand the
rules of the course and lets students know that they
will be monitoring their comments. Additionally, any
inappropriate comments should be removed from the
online environment, and students who make the com-
ments should be addressed. Just as in the live classroom,
students should be aware that you
will keep them safe and that inappropriate behavior will not be
tolerated.
Ask Yourself
The use of new technology in learning
environments can be challenging to adult
students or anyone who has not had much
exposure to the digital world. Can you think
of a situation in which you were unfamiliar
with the tools, equipment, or even the
language? How did this lack of basic
knowledge affect your ability to perform at
your normal capacity, and in what ways did
you attempt to bridge this “digital divide”?

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Nervous Fox
This information can also be applied in settings outside of the
classroom. For example,
employees need to feel safe in order to perform well and focus
on their jobs. Bullying from
co-workers could interfere with performance. In 2010, the
Workplace Bullying Institute
reported that half of all Americans have experienced workplace
bullying. Bullying in the
workplace may include things like intimidation, name calling,
or exclusion. These behaviors
have the ability to decrease worker confidence and efficiency
(Cowie, Naylor, Rivers, Smith,
& Pereira, 2002). Additionally, feeling like there is no one to
turn to in times of stress can
also be a problem. Like educators, employers, bosses, and
managers should strive to cre-
ate a safe place for individuals to interact. Taking note of
potential bullies and making sure
workers are protected and safe can be critical to fostering a
constructive and productive
work environment. Human resource professionals can also play
a role in helping create a
safe workplace environment.
Building Relationships Between and Among Students
You might have noticed in classes you’ve been a part of that
students’ moods often seem to
reflect the mood of the instructor. Instructors who are confident

and respectful of their stu-
dents, encouraging, with a good sense of humor without being
sarcastic have a positive influ-
ence on students’ resilience to perceived threat as well as
displaying more positive moods
overall. Even the expressions on your face can influence
students’ resilience to negative
experiences.
This social influence can be explained in part by what scientists
have termed mirror neurons.
Mirror neurons are the neurons in the brain that respond when
we perform an action and
when we see that action being performed. These neurons were
first discovered in monkeys
who were watching food being picked up and then picking up
the food themselves (Di Pel-
legrino et al., 1992). See Figure 2.2 below for more detail about
one such experiment. How-
ever, research in humans has also illustrated the existence of
mirror neurons (Iacoboni et al.,
1999). Mirror neurons also respond to emotional cues, often
from the facial expressions and
other nuances of people. It turns out that when we observe
someone smiling, the same neural
networks activated by smiling in their brains activate the
corresponding neurons in our
brains. Although we may not be producing a smile, the
activation of these neurons results in
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Nervous Fox

an emotional state that reciprocates that which we see. When we
see someone smiling, it
likewise triggers in us a more pleasurable emotional state.
Figure 2.2: Mirror neuron systems
An experiment on a monkey shows that the same areas of the
brain’s premotor cortex that are activated
when grasping an object are also activated when observing an
object being grasped via mirror neuron
systems. This suggests that whatever actions or expressions you
make will turn on these areas of your
students’ brains, too.
Reprinted from “Motion, emotion, and empathy in esthetic
experience” by David Freedberg and Vittorio Gallese in
TRENDS in Cognitive
Sciences, 11(5), 200, Fig. 4. Copyright 2007, with permission
from Elsevier.
500 msec
(c)
(b)
(a)
500 msec
(c)
(b)
(a)

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Nervous Fox
This research suggests two practical strategies as we navigate
our daily relationships with stu-
dents. One is to be conscious that when our facial expressions
reflect dismay with ourselves,
our students might misinterpret these expressions as a negative
emotion directed at them.
On the flip side, we want to remember that our smiles can have
a positive impact on their emo-
tional states and perhaps ward off the perception of threat.
Students not only see and hear
our actions and emotions, but also our actions and emotions
evoke an internal representa-
tion of the particular action or emotion in them (Gallese,
Keysers, & Rizzolatti, 2004), making
it important to evoke positive emotions in the classroom
through the use of positive actions
and expressions. This same principle holds true in the
professional environment. Actions and
emotional expressions influence how co-workers perceive each
other and interact with one
another. To employ a strategy in the online classroom suggested
by the mirror neuron phe-
nomenon, try using Skype™ at different points in the term to
check on your students.
A great way to start the year in terms of letting students know
that you respect them and

are responsive to their feelings is to invite them to tell you what
characteristics they find in
their best teachers. Student lists are often quite similar in that
most students seek the quali-
ties in their teachers that they also seek in friends. Lists often
contain characteristics such
as being fair, not showing favorites, being honest, being
prepared, listening to their perspec-
tives, and having a good sense of humor without being
sarcastic. To demonstrate your value
of the students’ opinions, you could let them know that about
every six weeks they will have
an opportunity to give you a report card with grades on the
items from the class list that was
generated. You can take into consideration their responses and
report back to them where
there seemed to be the greatest overlap and how you hope to
improve in those areas. With
some modification, this activity can be completed in any
classroom, whether it is a kindergar-
ten class or online employee training. Older students could be
asked to describe what they
think being fair is, and they can also be asked about what
characteristics are best in successful
students. In online environments, anonymous discussion boards
can be created so that stu-
dents can have the opportunity to evaluate the course or
instructor without the fear of being
penalized for their comments.
Maintaining consistent classroom routines also fosters a safe
learning environment. The class
community is certainly one in a state of flux that can change
with situations schoolwide, in the
world, or community; with individual families and friendships;
and with academic stressors,

such as tests. Although curiosity and novelty are powerful
attention grabbers, the value of
some consistent routines should not be overlooked, especially in
times of stress. Classroom
meetings held once a week are a great way to start building a
consistent and cohesive routine.
Simple strategies can and should consistently be employed in
conducting these meetings, such
as passing a talking stick when someone has something to say,
sitting around a lit candle that
represents a campfire, or being sure that students acknowledge
one quality they appreciate
in a classmate prior to expressing a concern. You’ll find that
these class meetings build trust
and also give you feedback about the amount of trust that is
developing through your efforts
at community and relationship building. Wong, Wong, Rogers,
and Brooks (2012) note that
effective teachers have classroom management plans. They refer
to classroom management
as all the things teachers do to support or organize students so
that learning can take place.
Consistent routines and class meetings mentioned above would
be part of classroom manage-
ment. When a class is well-managed, it is safe, predictable, and
focused on learning. Wong et
al. (2012) stress the importance of establishing procedures for
classroom management during
the first few weeks of class. Once rules are put in place,
students will be better able to learn.
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Section 2.5 Implement Novelty and Promote Curiosity

Relationship building could also be used to increase employee
performance and productivity.
Employees could be encouraged to build relationships with each
other and their supervisors
at company events. Collaboration on projects could be another
way to increase interaction
between employees. Supervisors should work to create positive
relationships with employ-
ees as well. Some of the above strategies could be used in this
avenue. For example, super-
visors could ask employees for feedback or a report card on
their performance. Consistent
workplace routines could also be used to help promote a safe
environment for employees.
In a study examining leadership styles and safety behaviors in
workers, Mullen, Kelloway,
and Teed (2011) note that passive leaders have employees that
are less likely to comply with
safety rules. They note that consistently promoting and
engaging in safety behaviors will pro-
vide the best benefits for employees. Additionally, the study
noted that the effects of passive
leaders were stronger for younger workers. These results
highlight the need for leaders in the
workplace to focus on safety behaviors and be positive role
models for employees (Mullen,
Kelloway, & Teed, 2011).
2.5 Implement Novelty and Promote Curiosity
Once there is not the attention deflector of perceived threat,
curiosity will prepare students’
attention intake to know more about novel sensory input and
seek explanations for the curi-
ous changes in the pattern of their environment. Humans have a
desire to seek out new

knowledge. This desire is evidenced in our numerous
explorations and inventions over the
course of time. This desire for knowledge shows up in behavior
as small changes, such as ori-
enting to a new sign, or as big changes, such as inventing
electricity, and seems to indicate that
humans find learning reinforcing on its own (Gottlieb, Oudeyer,
Lopes, & Baranes, 2013). One
important thing to remember is that students cannot be curious
outside of what they know.
Students need some background knowledge in order to set the
stage and create curiosity
(Gottlieb, Oudeyer, Lopes, & Baranes, 2013).
Even without red wagons and fire extinguishers, you can
promote flow through your students’
RAS with changes in the brain’s expected pattern. Using color,
music, movement, advertise-
ments, curious photographs, unexpected objects, and even
aromatic sensations for upcoming
units, as well as holding class outdoors, you can alert the RAS
to pay attention through posi-
tive expectations.
A memorable inspirational poster proclaims, “A brain stretched
to new limits never regains
its original shape.” Educators can stretch their students’ brains
to new limits beginning with
strategies that stimulate sensory intake through the use of
novelty and curiosity. These strat-
egies include the use of movement, sound, visual change,
discrepant events, extremes, and the
use of advertising.
Movement in the Classroom

The perception of movement in the environment or movement of
one’s body itself is a prior-
ity RAS sensory intake. You can provide both types of
movement pattern change in the class-
room. An obvious strategy is to have students perform some
kind of movement—i.e., standing
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 50 7/17/14 3:31 PM
up and stretching, switching seats, gathering in groups—before
receiving direct instruction.
In the professional environment movement can be created by
having workers collaborate on
projects.
Another option might be to have students work at different
stations throughout the class-
room. For example, in a specific lesson, you might hang posters
around the classroom with
different headings on them. Students could walk around the
room adding information to each
poster. For young students, you could have them add pictures.
For older students, you could
have them connect ideas or principles
as well as add content. The idea of sta-
tions could also be used in the work-
place environment. Rather than having
workers conduct all their work from
the same office or cubicle, work envi-
ronments could have specific rooms
or stations where employees complete

specific tasks. Moving between the
rooms would help activate the RAS to
intake more sensory input and help
keep the workers focused.
As you create movement in the class-
room, it is important to remember that
movement helps with focusing atten-
tion, but it does not ensure that learn-
ing will take place (Wolfe, 2001). Students should be actively
engaged to make the movement
most meaningful. Having students follow rules, respond to cues,
or concentrate during the
movement will make the movement more meaningful
(Blakemore, 2003).
However, students do not need to even get out of their chairs to
have the stimulus of move-
ment promote attention. When you yourself move to different
parts of the classroom during
your instruction, they will be moving their torsos, necks, heads,
and eyes to follow you. In
addition to this movement itself, they will receive new visual
sensory stimuli because the
visuals behind you changed with your new place in the room.
Movement is tricky in the online environment because you are
not directly interacting with
your students; instead they are sitting in front of their
computers. There are several things
you can do in the design of the course to increase the student
interaction with the course and
thus, create the impression of movement. Lectures and readings
should be supplemented
with videos, pictures, or interactive quizzes that can break up

the monotony of continuous
reading. Requiring students to move from one website to
another can be another way to cre-
ate movement.
Beyond this more general type of movement, another strategy
you can employ along these
same lines is curiosity-boosting movement. These types of
movements can be employed as
primers for a specific lesson. An example of curiosity-boosting
movement would be for you
to be walking backward when the students enter the room. They
would become curious as
to why you’re walking backward and perhaps start making
predictions. Now their curiosity
would be a primer as you embark on a lesson in negative
numbers, going back in time, plot
petrograd99/iStock/Thinkstock
Getting students up and out of their seats will also
get their attention and promote better learning.
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 51 7/17/14 3:31 PM
events in the book they are reading with negative consequences,
or positive and negative
charges in atoms. In higher education it might be associated
with positive or negative rein-
forcement in a psychology class.
Finally, using novel presentation tools can create movement in a

variety of classrooms. Prezi
is an online presentation tool that allows you to place
information into a format that creates
movement for students. The presentation moves from one piece
of information to the next,
different than a typical PowerPoint. Individual nodes of
information can be connected to each
other so that students not only see movement, but they see
connection as well. It is a free tool
that is available at prezi.com. Students in the online
environment can view links to your pre-
sentation as well, so you don’t have to be in the live classroom
to use the tool. Prezi could also
be used to present information in the professional environment.
Employ Sound Effectively
It makes sense for animals in the wild to alert to changes in
sound, and you can also provide
these environmental changes in the classroom. Although the
sensory discrimination of the
RAS does not respond to verbal language in mammals,
including humans, other qualities of
your verbalizations can provide novel stimuli. You can
modulate your voice pitch or cadence
in different ways to emphasize material in the lesson. You can
imitate robot speak or even
Yoda with sentence structure reversal phrases such as, “Happy I
am when I see the word
pleasant spelled with an ‘ant’ at the end.”
You can also stimulate attention to the input that follows the
absence of sound. If you stop
talking midsentence and look around with a pleasant expression,
so as not to give the mes-
sage that you are impatiently waiting for students to quiet down,

you are activating attentive
intake with that suspenseful pause in your speech. Silence is a
novelty in the classroom, and
the RAS will alert to your unexpected pause with increased
students’ attention to what you
say or do next.
The Brain at Work
A summer camp director orienting new counselors to the camp
could use the game of
Bingo to employ novelty. The goal would be for the counselors
to sustain attention while
the director orients them to the names of important buildings
and facilities on the camp
grounds and where to find important supplies. A list of these 25
names and places would
be available on a whiteboard, and the future counselors would
have 5 × 5 Bingo cards
without anything written in boxes. They would then write the
names from the board
onto their blank grid boxes in any order they choose. While the
director is giving the
new counselor orientation, each time they hear one of the words
they would check off
that Bingo box. The winner would be the first person to have
five of the boxes filled in a
horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row. This game promotes and
sustains attention as an
unusual experience during the meeting, and the personal
relevance of the counselors’ own
Bingo boards adds the motivation to sustain attention.
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 52 7/17/14 3:31 PM
http://prezi.com

Music also provides an opportunity for alert and attentive
intake. Listening to music creates
physiological changes in the brain. Increased synchronization in
the alpha band is noted while
listening to music (Wu, Zhang, Ding, & Zhou, 2013). The alpha
band is a brain wave that is
noted in individuals while they are awake and relaxed. Others
have suggested the alpha band
is related to attention (Klimesch, 2012; Schürmann & Başar,
2001). Benedek et al. (2011) sug-
gest that increased synchronization in the alpha band wave is
associated with top-down pro-
cessing of information, suggesting that the increased
synchronization of the alpha band seen
during music processing can help the brain direct and focus
attention. Playing music before
the introduction of a lesson may prepare the brain to direct its
attention. Additionally, Menon
and Levitin (2005) found that listening to music activated the
brain’s reward system and
increased pleasure in participants. Recall that increasing
pleasure can be a way to increase
motivation for learning in students.
If you have a song or instrumental piece playing when
students enter the classroom, they will be curious as to
why the music is playing and why that particular music
is playing. They will know, because you have provided
curiosity and novelty before, that they will have the
opportunity to evaluate the reasons for that music as
the lesson goes on (see Chapter 3). Recall from earlier
in the chapter that students cannot be curious outside

of what they know; you need to set the stage. Music can
help you set the stage by providing students with key
information about what the lesson will be. For example,
you might choose to play “The Star-Spangled Banner”
for a certain history lesson. You can select the music with links
to instruction in the tempo,
musician, timing of when the piece was first written, or with
unusual instruments playing a
familiar song. Students will be attentive to the music and
pleasantly alert to find out how it
links to the lesson.
This information might be applicable to the workplace as well,
due to the fact that many work
environments play background music. Research on listening to
music in the workplace has
found mixed results (Huang & Shih, 2011). However, the type
of music might be the influ-
encing factor. In an experiment examining the effects of music
on attention, Huang and Shih
(2011) found that music that workers strongly liked or disliked
had a negative effect on atten-
tion. Strong like or dislike was thought to deter attention from
the task at hand. Additionally,
music with lyrics is noted to reduce worker attention (Shih,
Huang, & Chiang, 2012). This
would suggest that relatively neutral music with no lyrics would
be the most beneficial in the
workplace. Oldham et al. (1995) report that when doing
relatively simple jobs, music might
be able to increase performance by counteracting boredom and
monotony.
One caution to using music might be not to use it too much. If
music is used on a daily basis,
it will become less novel and invoke little curiosity to students.

Additionally, music can be
associated with state-dependent learning. State-dependent
learning refers to the process by
which memory retrieval is aided when individuals are in the
same state while recalling the
information as they were in when they learned the information.
The effect was demonstrated
in a classic experiment where divers learned a list of words on
land or under water. Later
they were tested on land or under water. The results indicated
that recall was better when the
divers were in the same environment as when they learned the
material. For example, if they
Ask Yourself
In what contexts do you find music helps
you be more productive? In what contexts
do you find music distracting? Is there a
particular type of music that lends itself to
one or the other outcome? Do you think you
would employ music to enhance learning?
If so, how would you do it? If not, why?
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 53 7/17/14 3:31 PM
learned the list on dry land, recall was better on land; however,
if they learned the list under
water recall was better under water (Godden & Baddeley, 1975).
This same effect might occur
with music. If students learn information with music and then
are tested without music, their
performance may be hindered.

Visual Stimuli
Visual stimuli provide a strong sensory cue pattern, as the
human brain has the most recep-
tion area for input from the visual system. Approximately 20–
30% of the brain is devoted
to visual processing (Van Essen & Drury, 1997); therefore using
visual stimuli in teaching is
important. The use of color to designate importance is certainly
a way to alert attention, but
additional opportunities include varying the font or the spacing
used in a text.
Your visual appearance is a powerful visual prompt if you alter
it, such as by wearing a cos-
tume, an odd accessory, or other curious apparel. Alterations
that are visual novelties can also
be made in the classroom, such as a new display on the bulletin
board, change in the furniture
arrangements, or curious photographs with subtle links to the
upcoming instruction. A lit
candle when students enter the classroom or a box that is gift
wrapped that they can shake
and make guesses about will prime attention.
One of my favorite visual prompts is one that I would offer just
before the Presidents’ Day
holiday weekend. The students would enter the classroom and
find a one-dollar and a five-
dollar bill tacked to the ceiling above them. I would build on
their curiosity as I led them into
discussions such as how the bills relate to the coming holiday,
who is on the one-dollar and
five-dollar bill, or math warm-ups such as what can be done
numerically with the numbers

one and five or with the numbers that coincide with the number
of the president on each bill
(e.g., Washington was the first president). Students in the lower
grades will be able to use
arithmetic, such as addition, subtraction, division, and perhaps
fractions to create as many
combinations as possible with the numbers one and five. Older
students will be able to add to
those exponents, decimals, and square roots. In even older
students who have more experi-
ence with money (high school or college), rather than put bills
on the ceiling you could have
them attempt to draw a picture of the bills. This will not only
invoke curiosity (they will be
wondering why they are doing it), but it will engage their
memory systems and get them
actively engaged in the classroom.
In online learning, visual stimuli can help make the
environment richer. Using diagrams, vid-
eos, etc., to explain content can be especially important because
the students will primarily
be interacting with the information in a visual way. It can direct
overall attention to an impor-
tant concept, and new images change the expected pattern of
information presentation and
increase the flow of information through the RAS. In a study
that looked at how animations
influence learning in a biology class, O’Day (2007) found that
undergraduate students prefer
animations to reading the textbook and that these animations
improved long-term memory
of the information in comparison to simple graphics.
Animations on almost any subject exist
on the Internet. Finding an appropriate animation and
embedding it in your online course can

be a great help to students.
Visual stimuli can also be added to the workplace environment
to improve employee atten-
tion to certain practices. Posters could be placed at different
stations with instructions on
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 54 7/17/14 3:31 PM
how to properly complete a task. Emails with different diagrams
could be sent to employees
to help them learn new policies or procedures. Presentations and
training should also incor-
porate visual stimuli to boost worker attention.
Radishes
Recall how, as a child, you felt about radishes as garnish on
your plate. Now, imagine walk-
ing into your childhood classroom to find a radish on your desk
and additional radishes on
the desks of your classmates. One of my favorite RAS primers
was placing a radish on each
student’s desk before class. Instead of the disdainful looks
radishes usually receive when on
a salad plate, these radishes were sources of novelty and
delight. Students even asked if they
were theirs “to keep” and if they could eat them when we were
finished.
Students’ RAS were opened through their curiosity about these
mundane objects because

they were on their classroom desks and not in the expected
“pattern of location” on their
lunch plates. They were engaged and motivated to discover the
reason the radishes were
there. Predictions abounded as their attention was sustained and
during the subsequent his-
tory unit.
An unexpected result of the radish was to have students
consider its relationship not just the
first day, but also throughout the unit on Westward expansion.
The question was, how is the
radish correlated with the experience of the Native Americans
who were moved to reserva-
tions? Their responses showed much more depth of
understanding and compassion with the
challenges and disappointments based on the experiences of the
Native Americans than in
previous years when students did not have the radish with which
to make metaphors.
Here are two examples:
• Tribes that farmed needed good soil and rain, but were given
the worst land. Their
harvests made them bitter like radishes.
• The new world people kept the best land for their own farming
and grew green, leafy
crops like the leaves next to the radishes.
Discrepant Events
When individuals view a scene or an event, they often break it
into meaningful parts in order
to understand it. This is known as event segmentation (Zacks &

Swallow, 2007). Research on
event segmentation seems to indicate that it is an automatic
process that is economical. That
is, it helps us reduce the continuous flow of information and
better remember the informa-
tion later. Zacks et al. (2007) reported that the brain tracks
salient features of the environ-
ment and when a feature changes unpredictably, an event
boundary is created (see Figure 2.3
below for an example). As this is occurring, an individual uses
incoming sensory input to
process perceptual features, like color or sound. However, top-
down mechanisms are needed
to process conceptual input that connects what the individual
already knows with the incom-
ing information (Zacks & Swallow, 2007). This organization of
the brain, using both incoming
sensory input and higher-order processing to segment events,
allows you take advantage of
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 55 7/17/14 3:31 PM
processing and grab your students’ attention by using discrepant
events. As events are being
segmented, something discrepant will create unpredictability
and cause the individual to cre-
ate a new event boundary.
Discrepant events are things that are unexpected and that puzzle
the observer. Discrepant
events are especially curiosity provoking because they are both
novel and are also inconsis-

tent with what the brain expects. You can capture students’
attention because they want to
know how to make sense of something unexpected, such as a
white carnation that gradually
takes on green pigment (which can be done by dipping a white
carnation in an opaque vase
filled with water and green food coloring). Sometimes you may
need to point out the discrep-
ant event, but students will indeed be on sensory alert if you
employ these types of discrepant
events as part of your classroom environment. Examples of
discrepant events exist all over
the Internet. YouTube provides some great demonstrations of
events that are discrepant as
well as videos of magic tricks that can be embedded into an
online class. Pinterest also has
some good ideas for discrepant events. These types of
demonstrations can be particularly
helpful in physics courses because many laws of physics go
against our intuitive thinking
(Petitto & Dunbar, 2004). The discrepant event will help engage
both bottom-up processing
and top-down processing in your students and get them to start
to think about the informa-
tion in a new way.
Figure 2.3: Event segmentation
Zacks and Swallow (2007) give the process of pitching a tent as
an example of event segmentation, where
each new step the woman takes toward finishing the tent is
perceived as a separate event segment. If one
of the tent poles broke, this discrepant event would likely cause
us to create a new and different event
boundary for that segment.

Zacks, J. M., & Swallow, K. M. (2007). Event segmentation.
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(2), 80–84. ©
2007 by Blackwell.
Reprinted by permission of Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
The Brain at Work
The strategy of using a curious visual stimulus is one that would
be useful for waiters at a
hotel event or security guards on a building site, for example, to
emphasize how important
it is for them to stay alert to things that appear to be routine but
end up being important.
The discrepant event will exemplify that attention should not be
limited to the unusual
but also to the more common objects in the area.
A speaker in front of a group could also use discrepant events to
benefit his or her
presentation. The discrepant event in this case could be an
orange, previously dipped in
liquid nitrogen and placed on a table or counter in front of the
room. At some point during
the presentation the speaker would bump into the orange, which
would drop to the floor.
However, because it is frozen solid as a result of the liquid
nitrogen, the orange would
startlingly shatter into dozens of pieces. The assembled group
would then be attentive and
curious to discuss the event and predict potential things that
could arise in their work that
warrant attention even when they appear ordinary.
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 56 7/17/14 3:31 PM

processing and grab your students’ attention by using discrepant
events. As events are being
segmented, something discrepant will create unpredictability
and cause the individual to cre-
ate a new event boundary.
Discrepant events are things that are unexpected and that puzzle
the observer. Discrepant
events are especially curiosity provoking because they are both
novel and are also inconsis-
tent with what the brain expects. You can capture students’
attention because they want to
know how to make sense of something unexpected, such as a
white carnation that gradually
takes on green pigment (which can be done by dipping a white
carnation in an opaque vase
filled with water and green food coloring). Sometimes you may
need to point out the discrep-
ant event, but students will indeed be on sensory alert if you
employ these types of discrepant
events as part of your classroom environment. Examples of
discrepant events exist all over
the Internet. YouTube provides some great demonstrations of
events that are discrepant as
well as videos of magic tricks that can be embedded into an
online class. Pinterest also has
some good ideas for discrepant events. These types of
demonstrations can be particularly
helpful in physics courses because many laws of physics go
against our intuitive thinking
(Petitto & Dunbar, 2004). The discrepant event will help engage
both bottom-up processing
and top-down processing in your students and get them to start

to think about the informa-
tion in a new way.
Figure 2.3: Event segmentation
Zacks and Swallow (2007) give the process of pitching a tent as
an example of event segmentation, where
each new step the woman takes toward finishing the tent is
perceived as a separate event segment. If one
of the tent poles broke, this discrepant event would likely cause
us to create a new and different event
boundary for that segment.
Zacks, J. M., & Swallow, K. M. (2007). Event segmentation.
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(2), 80–84. ©
2007 by Blackwell.
Reprinted by permission of Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
The Brain at Work
The strategy of using a curious visual stimulus is one that would
be useful for waiters at a
hotel event or security guards on a building site, for example, to
emphasize how important
it is for them to stay alert to things that appear to be routine but
end up being important.
The discrepant event will exemplify that attention should not be
limited to the unusual
but also to the more common objects in the area.
A speaker in front of a group could also use discrepant events to
benefit his or her
presentation. The discrepant event in this case could be an
orange, previously dipped in
liquid nitrogen and placed on a table or counter in front of the
room. At some point during

the presentation the speaker would bump into the orange, which
would drop to the floor.
However, because it is frozen solid as a result of the liquid
nitrogen, the orange would
startlingly shatter into dozens of pieces. The assembled group
would then be attentive and
curious to discuss the event and predict potential things that
could arise in their work that
warrant attention even when they appear ordinary.
Using Extremes
Considering that mammals survive in unpredictable
environments, it would be reasonable
for priority sensory selection to alert to things that are more
extreme than the rest of the
environment—whether it is a potential for great threat or for
great pleasure. This attraction
to extremes is also a tool to use to engage student attention in
both young and old students.
Employing hyperbole or using phrases, when appropriate, that
include the words “most, big-
gest, smallest, fastest, or longest” can draw attention. An
example of hyperbole would be a
mathematics word problem: “The three-month-old girl threw the
ball 3,000 meters farther
than the pitching machine. Calculate the . . .”
You can even take examples right out a book such as the
Guinness Book of World Records as
prompts for discussions on a variety of topics. A great website
for surprising facts you can
link to lessons is
http://mentalfloss.com/amazingfactgenerator#f204.*
Accompanying these

with visual input will have even more of that pattern-surprising
novelty to engage intake
through the RAS. An example of visual input might be a video
of an extreme sport. You could
then connect the video to concepts of math or science—for
example, calculating the force
it might take to move a large boulder in a strong-man
competition. Or in a business course
you could look at graphs of the stock market that show shifts
from major highs to lows and
discuss principles related to extreme shifts in the market.
History classes could watch videos
of extreme riots or demonstrations that changed the course of
politics in a country. These
extreme events will grab the attention of the RAS, and as
students process the more difficult
conceptual information associated with the event, they will
begin to use higher brain func-
tions that aid in the learning of the material.
*Link used by permission of Mental Floss.
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 57 7/17/14 3:31 PM
http://mentalfloss.com/amazingfactgenerator#f204
Advertising
The advertising industry spends billions of dollars each year
doing research on what sensory
input in their media is most likely to capture the attention of the
consumers. Opportunities
to advertise a lesson do not need to cost you more than a few

minutes of time. You can take
advantage of the advertising research when you want to promote
attention to an upcoming
unit or topic that is not a favorite of the students year after
year.
In advance of this upcoming lesson or unit, consider how you
can prime students’ interest
and activate their prior knowledge. You can use a poster or even
download a picture from the
Internet and cut it up into puzzle-shaped pieces that you will
mount on the wall. In the 1–2
weeks preceding the unit of instruction, add an additional
puzzle piece each day as students
develop increasing curiosity as to what the picture will be and
then to how it will relate to the
upcoming unit.
For example, the curiosity and even attendance on “opening
day” was certainly enhanced
when I advertised a unit in advance with downloaded pictures
representing the Star Wars
movies. Every few days I’d post one of these pictures until the
day before the new unit when
the picture was of a T-shirt that said, “The force will be with
you.” I wrote under that phrase
the word “tomorrow.” It was that next day when I found that
curiosity indeed impacted atten-
dance and punctuality as I saw students, even those perpetually
late, arrive on time to see
what awaited them.
The first year I used these posters, the students entered
the classroom to see me spinning a string with a paper
cup tied to the end. When they had all entered, I stopped
spinning the cup, and a marble fell out as the introduc-

tion to a lesson on the differences between centripetal
and centrifugal force. In following years I used the same
posters to promote different lessons, including the
use of forceful opening sentences, exclamation points,
forces of nature, forces that changed history, and the
forces of pressure.
Using posters in a college class or an online class would be
more difficult. However, you
could modify this example to suit your needs. For example, in a
college course you could
end each class by showing students a picture of something that
will be relevant in the next
class. For example, before moving to a lecture on the
psychology of learning, you might show
your students an image of a dog or a rat to indicate that the next
lessons will be focused on
Pavlov’s dog or Skinner’s rats. In the online environment you
can make use of an announce-
ment board. A weekly announcement can be posted to advertise
what is coming up next. In a
study examining the use of interactive teaching tools in an
online class, instructors were able
to increase student usage of the interactive tools by advertising
the benefits of the tools in
announcements (Karaksha et al., 2013). You can also use email
as way to reach out to students
and advertise different tools in your class that can facilitate
their learning process. Integrat-
ing music, visual stimuli, or videos of extremes into the
announcement can be a way to create
curiosity and grab attention.
Ask Yourself
In your experience, what types of
advertisements do you find most effective?

Are they funny? Do they employ cool music?
A catchy jingle? Interesting people? Unique
visuals? What elements of successful ads
would you use to engage an audience?
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 58 7/17/14 3:31 PM
The RAS Doesn’t Obey Verbal Requests to “Pay Attention”
Throughout a lesson, a teacher is usually presenting information
that represents varying
degrees of importance. For example, in describing human
anatomy a teacher might want
students to understand the parts of the digestive system. Some
anatomical structures are
more important for understanding how the digestive system
works than others. How can the
teacher alert students to the most important information?
Now that you know that novelty or change in the expected
pattern receives priority intake
through the attention system, you have that tool for gauging
student attention. However, you
now also know that the RAS is a very primitive filter. That
being the case, using words such as
“pay attention” do not have any impact on this low-brain
structure. The simple rule to keep in
mind is that if saying or doing something would not
communicate information to our little fox,
it is unlikely to pass through the same intake structure in your
students.

There are ways to use what we know about sensory input that is
high intake to draw students’
attention to information that is particularly important. Let’s
review some possible strategies
below.
The Traffic Light
For younger students consider having a picture of a traffic light
on the wall with the green,
yellow, and red placed from bottom to top. Explain to them that
the color progression symbol-
izes levels of importance that you will be designating when
information comes up in class that
you would like them to recognize as particularly important. This
simple visual cue will prove
more effective than merely telling students to “pay attention” in
the moment you need them
to do so. And this system can be coordinated with other
attention-grabbing strategies to fur-
ther reinforce the importance of particular topics, as
demonstrated in the following sections.
For older students you can signal them in a similar but modified
way. For example, if you are
presenting a PowerPoint lecture in a college course, you can
create a graphic that appears
next to information that is particularly important for students to
know and remember. The
graphic could be a silly picture, or it could be a special kind of
bullet. This same system could
be integrated into lectures that are delivered in the online
environment as well. Another strat-
egy might be to inset questions at different points in your
lecture for students to answer. This
will make them go back to the material and find the important
information.

The Hat
The first signaling system I designed was putting on a cap. The
cap’s design was the surface
of the brain with its wrinkles. I told the students that when I put
the cap on, it symbolized
that something important had been said or was about to be said.
It could be something that a
student said in a discussion, something that the students read
during a read around, or some-
thing that I was about to say in instruction.
Recall that color, movement, and change in your appearance are
high influence novelties.
These were all involved in my forms of signaling. If I put the
hat on brim forward, it was level
one importance, corresponding to the green color on the traffic
light. If I put the hat on in a
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 59 7/17/14 3:31 PM
sideways position or moved the brim from normal front to
sideways, it signified an increase
in importance or a higher importance to begin with, thus the
equivalent of yellow on the
traffic light. If I positioned the hat’s brim facing backward it
was the equivalent of red on the
traffic light and top-level importance for their attention.
I had a fourth signal that also involved the brim. When
something was extremely important I
would place the brim forward and flip it up so they could read

the words on the underside of
the brim that said, “Think, think, think!”
You may feel silly using this kind of strategy with older
students; however, their brains will
respond to the hat stimuli as well. You might modify it by using
a special kind of laser pointer
at different areas of your lecture or you might embed a
particular clip of music (like the Jeop-
ardy! theme song) in your PowerPoint slides when you are
presenting important information.
Colored Pencils
The colored pencils prompt would use both color and movement
to engage attention. Rou-
tinely, I would not use the three traffic light colors when I
would write on the board with
either chalk or dry erase markers. Similarly, the students would
have those three colors of
pencils at their desks but would not use them unless I used
them.
If I wanted to signal something of first-level importance I
would dramatically take my green
writing implement so that the students would get out their green
pencils. The movement of
classmates getting their green pencils would alert the attention
of students who were not as
responsive to that change as others.
They knew that the green color indicated the green level of the
traffic light, and it was a nov-
elty for them to be able to write in green. The same process
would be in place if I used my
yellow marker and they used yellow pencils; or for highest
importance I used my red, and

they would follow suit.
College students could also be encouraged to use different
colors of ink or marker while tak-
ing notes. Figure 2.4 shows how color-coded notation can be
used in learning music as well.
Additionally, you could use different colors of marker on a
marker board or smart board while
teaching. In the online environment, you could use different
color coding in the notes that are
presented. For example, black would be the typical color
presented, but when information is
particularly important it could appear in red.
When I first began these strategies, I was concerned that I was
depriving students of an
important skill they needed to build, that of being able to
prioritize information from lectures,
conversations, or reading that was most important. However, my
concern was alleviated early
the first year I used the cap strategy and each year thereafter,
when students without any
prompting would start drawing little caps with the brims in
different directions in the notes
they took in class or at home during their reading. They were
using these as their own desig-
nations of levels of importance.
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 60 7/17/14 3:31 PM
As I began to gradually withdraw this scaffolding as the year
progressed, I followed their cues

and assigned the class to use either the color designations or the
cap drawn in different direc-
tions when taking notes to designate importance. I would then
be able to assess their compre-
hension of importance and priority by evaluating their notes.
Have Fun
If you’re having fun, so will your students. Although it may
seem daunting at first, when you
start trying these strategies, and as you get more comfortable
doing so, you’ll find yourself
having more and more fun. And as we discussed earlier,
students respond in kind to your
moods and expressions. If they see you’re happy and having
fun, they are much more apt to be
happy and having fun as well. You’ll notice their enthusiasm
and the increased attention paid
to the instruction as you find and use these creative ways to
connect students to the instruc-
tional topics. You will be doing more than engaging them in the
lesson—you will be sustaining
or renewing their awe and joy for learning.
Suggestions and Cautions
You now have a variety of sensory stimuli and suggestions for
engaging intake to a system
responsive to changes in the expected pattern. Using novelty to
promote curiosity is quite
valuable, especially at the beginning of instruction of the unit.
The caution is not to stick with
just one type of sensory opening such as just visuals or playing
music when students enter.
You want to avoid the novel becoming too routine, so it is a
good idea to rotate the type of

curious opening that you use.
Figure 2.4: Color-coded notation
Color-coding musical instruments and notation is a popular way
for musicians to begin learning. What
else in a learning environment would be more effective if it
were color-coded?
CC DD EE FEE F GG AA BB CC DD EE FEE F GG AA BB CC
D EE FEE F GG AA BB CC DD EE FEE F GG AA BB CCDCC
DD EE FEE F GG AA BB CC DD EE FEE F GG AA BB CC D
EE FEE F GG AA BB CC DD EE FEE F GG AA BB CCD
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 61 7/17/14 3:31 PM
The other caution is to be wary of changes to the classroom
environment that some stu-
dents might find disturbing or distracting, which of course
would be the opposite of your
intended effect. Consider the potential negative response from
these students if you are plan-
ning something that may be engaging to most students but may
be potentially threatening
to others. In my years of teaching, I found that such potential
pitfalls were offset as long as I
communicated in advance with any students I felt might have an
adverse reaction to a strat-
egy I was considering for class. For example, if I was going to
be walking backward, I would
tell the students about whom I was concerned what I was going
to do and invite them to join

me in that activity. I would either meet with them at the end of
class the day before or ask
them to meet me at the classroom door before coming in the
next morning, so I could alert
them to what was happening.
It was only a rare situation where I thought it prudent to notify
children’s parents the night
before so they could let the student be prepared. In general it
will serve you best if you keep
in mind the special-needs students with plans to prepare or
partner with them.
Chapter Conclusions
• The amount of sensory information available every second
exceeds the amount the
brain can process.
• The brain has an attention filter, the RAS, that is programed to
selectively admit sen-
sory information based on specific characteristics.
• Bottom-up processing is used when things in the environment
grab the brain’s
attention; top-down processing is used when we direct our
attention to process a
specific piece of information in the environment.
• The programming for attention intake makes the selection of
sensory information
essentially involuntary.
• The brain, for survival of the animal and species, has evolved

to seek patterns and
pleasure.
• The selection of which sensory input is admitted into the brain
is an involuntary
response programmed to give priority to changes in the
expected pattern. Pattern
change–related sensory information interpreted as potentially
threatening gets pri-
ority and often blocks intake of other information.
• If there is no threat, intake priority goes to novelty or pattern
change that is curi-
ous. Therefore, it is crucial to eliminate threats in learning
environments in order for
students to learn at their fullest capacity.
• Creating safe and constructive classroom climates and
relationships between edu-
cators and students, as well as among students themselves, is
essential in fostering
optimal learning in students.
• Once a safe and trusting environment has been created, there
are many strategies
educators can use to implement novelty and promote curiosity
in students.
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 62 7/17/14 3:31 PM
Web Resources

Prezi is a free online presentation tool that allows you to place
information into a format that
creates movement for students. The presentation moves from
one piece of information to the
next, different than a typical PowerPoint. Individual modes of
information can be connected
to each other so that students not only see movement, but they
see connection as well.
http://animoto.com/education
Animoto is a website that allows you to make videos. You can
use this site to make “advertis-
ing promos” for your lessons. You can view my Animotos under
“Judy Willis” or “RAD Teach”
on YouTube, one of which is at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEi3VXNmnjo.
http://studentdigitaltools.wordpress.com/
Student Digital Tools has dozens of digital tools and images for
students and for you to cre-
ate curiosity about a lesson or unit.
1. Think of a time when your attention was grabbed and held in
a learning experience
such that the sensory information made it through your attention
filter and became
a long-term memory. Using what you’ve learned about the
reticular activating sys-
tem, how could you now explain why your brain “paid
attention” so successfully?
2. What are some things that derail attention and keep
information from entering the
RAS?

3. How can you evaluate the class climate? What will you look
for that, from a student’s
perspective, could be interpreted as potentially threatening?
4. What strategies will you employ to promote a safe,
supportive classroom community?
5. How could you focus student attention through novelty and
curiosity using what
you’ve learned about the brain’s directive of attending to
changes in the patterns it
expects to perceive?
6. Since you can’t tell a fox to “pay attention” and get any
significant response, how can
you nonverbally indicate to students that a particular piece of
information is espe-
cially important?
7. Which information from this chapter will you use (or have
you already successfully
used) to promote engagement in the classroom, and what is the
science that sup-
ports your choices?
Key Terms
bottom-up processing Processing of
information by the brain that is sensory
driven. Whether or not the information will
be processed depends on its characteristics.
Stimuli that are salient will create bottom-up
processing.
discrepant event Something that does

not appear or turn out in the way the brain
expects. The sense of disequilibrium expe-
rienced with a discrepant event motivates
students’ attention and curiosity as the
brain seeks an explanation for its incorrect
prediction.
wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 63 7/17/14 3:31 PM
http://animoto.com/education
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEi3VXNmnjo
http://studentdigitaltools.wordpress.com/
mirror neurons the neurons in the brain
that respond when we perform an action and
when we see that action being performed.
reticular activating system (RAS) This
lower part of the posterior brain filters all
incoming stimuli and makes the “decision”
as to what sensory input is attended to or
ignored. The main categories that focus
the attention of the RAS include novelty
(changes in the environment), surprise, dan-
ger, and movement.
top-down processing Processing of infor-
mation by the brain that is knowledge based.
It refers to our ability to direct attention
to a particular stimulus or event in the
environment.

wiL81639_02_c02_035-064.indd 64 7/17/14 3:31 PM
7 Long-Term Memory
CaiaImage/SuperStock
Learning Objectives
• Understand the process of long-term memory consolidation.
• Describe how long-term potentiation occurs.
• Explain why multisensory teaching improves memory
consolidation.
• Appraise the role of interference in long-term memory
formation and explain the theories of primacy effect
and recency effect.
• Discuss how rote memorization is important to long-term
memory formation.
• Evaluate strategies that can help increase long-term memory in
learning contexts.
• Explain why concept memory and transfer are important to
success beyond the classroom.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 193 7/23/14 3:28 PM

Section 7.2 Key Concepts About Long-Term Memory
Imagine yourself walking through a wooded area the morning
after a heavy snowstorm. Even
though a number of trails exist beneath the snow, you are
essentially forging a new trail as
you proceed where no one has yet walked through the snow. If
you need to make this same
journey several times during the day, you find that it takes you
less time to cross the woods
each time you do so. The path through the snow that you are
creating becomes deeper, firmer,
and faster each time you use it. Simply by using your own path
repeatedly, it has become a
more efficient and more durable transportation facilitator.
Construction of long-term memory is essentially the same
process as the development of
that efficient pathway through the snow. Just as repeated use
carves out a more efficient trail,
repeated activation of a new memory circuit results in the
neuroplastic process that makes it
more efficient, faster, and more durable.
As you learned in Chapter 6, the brain constantly changes
through neuroplasticity, with the
development of synapses, dendrites, and myelin layering of
axons in response to activation.
Increased activation of a particular neural circuit strengthens
that neural circuit through the
neuroplasticity process. Our long-term memory storage is
promoted in much the same way.
This chapter will take your understanding of neuroplasticity and
guide you to strategies that

construct durable, long-term memories.
7.2 Key Concepts About Long-Term Memory
Long-term memories are formed when information encoded in
short-term memory in the
hippocampus reaches the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and undergoes
further activation. In the
PFC, if these memories are activated and used in a variety of
meaningful ways, neuroplasticity
strengthens and increases their connections as they are retained
in long-term memory. This
is the process of using our working memory (described in
Chapter 5) to work on informa-
tion and then consolidate it into long-term memory. Recall from
Baddeley and Hitch’s (1974)
model that the central executive part of working memory
roughly corresponds to neural net-
works in the prefrontal cortex (Nee et al., 2013).
The prefrontal cortex appears to be related to helping us orient
to, attend to, construct memo-
ries about, and work on relevant information in our environment
and regulate our conscious
emotional states. However, for that information to be stored
over the long term, synaptic
changes in other brain areas also need to occur. In Chapter 6
you were introduced to the
process of long-term sensitization (LTS). Recall that LTS
involves the strengthening of neural
connections after the neurons have become sensitized to a
stimulus. For example, if an ani-
mal is continually shocked, the shock leads to an increased
response from the neurons and a
change in synaptic connections. This type of learning is
associated with the storage of implicit
long-term memories.

An implicit memory is a memory for how to do something and
represents one of two major
divisions of long-term memory. Implicit memories are
considered unconscious and are
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 194 7/23/14 3:28 PM
sometimes referred to as nondeclarative memories. An example
might be your memory of
how to ride a bike or drive a car. These are tasks that you can
perform without having to con-
sciously recall the steps. Instead, you just know how to do
them. In contrast, we also have an
explicit memory system. Explicit memories are conscious
memories for facts, knowledge,
and personal experiences or declarative knowledge. Explicit
memories are consolidated in
the process of long-term potentiation (LTP).
Like LTS, LTP involves the increased firing of neural
connections. However, LTP uses a different chemical
process and, in connection with the consolidation of
explicit memories, occurs in the hippocampus (Kandel,
Schwartz, & Jessell, 2000). Additionally, LTP is likely to
last longer and cause permanent changes in behavior.
An important aspect of LTP is that the increased fir-
ing of the neurons and the strengthening of the neural
connections can occur without continued brain stimu-
lation. For example, as you read this text your brain is creating
new neural connections to
store the material. When you stop reading the material, your

brain will continue to strengthen
those connections even in the absence of the material.
Further distinction between implicit and explicit memories can
be seen by looking at amne-
sic patients. Because these two long-term memory storage
systems have different methods
of consolidation, injury to different parts of the brain will
differentially disrupt them. In
Chapter 5, you were introduced to the famous case of H. M.
Recall that H. M. had his hippo-
campus partially removed in a surgery to alleviate epilepsy.
Subsequently, he lost the abil-
ity to create new memories for places, names, people, and
experiences. Based on what you
have learned from this text, you should recognize that this
represents a loss of the explicit
memory system. The problem for H. M. stemmed from the fact
that his hippocampus was
damaged; thus he could not engage in the consolidation of new
explicit memories. How-
ever, most of his previous long-term memories were still intact.
He retained his childhood
memories and still had a bright, normal IQ; however, he did
lose some memories he formed
in the years before the surgery (Kandel, Schwartz, & Jessell,
2000). This would suggest that
although synaptic changes occurring in the hippocampus result
in the consolidation of long-
term memory, the hippocampus is not the ultimate storage place
for long-term memories.
Instead, long-term memories are stored throughout the brain in
areas of the sensory cortex
and the prefrontal cortex.
H. M.’s case also provides information on the working of the

implicit memory system. After
the surgery, H. M. was able to learn new motor tasks at a
normal rate. This was illustrated in
an experiment whereby he was taught to trace the outline of a
star while watching his hand in
a mirror (see Figure 7.1). At first this task is difficult, but as
participants practice it, their per-
formance becomes better. Although H. M. had no recollection of
completing the activity, his
performance improved over time, indicating that he was
learning (Blakemore, 1977). Kandel,
Schwartz, and Jessell (2000) report that tasks that tend to be
reflexive and not reflective,
require no conscious awareness or complex evaluation, and only
require the individual to
respond to a cue are generally spared in individuals with
damage to the hippocampus. Thus,
the implicit memory system includes memory for reflexive
behaviors, skills or habits, and
associative learning, which means it activates many brain areas
as well. For example, a fear
response to a snake might be acquired through activation of the
amygdala when one has a
Ask Yourself
Make a list of five activities you’ve
committed to implicit memory. (Tip:
your answer to the “Ask Yourself ” on
neuroplastic construction in Chapter 6
might be of help.)
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 195 7/23/14 3:28 PM

fearful experience with the snake. In associative learning, where
we learn to respond to a cue,
changes in motor and sensory systems occur. For example, if
you eat something that makes
you vomit, you are likely to feel nauseated the next time that
you see the food. In this case, the
sensory systems associate the taste, smell, and sight of the food
with the feeling of being sick.
As a result, you learn to avoid the food.
Figure 7.1: H. M.’s drawing task
By the third day of trials, H. M. could draw the star from his
reflection with ease, even though he had no
explicit memory of doing so.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 196 7/23/14 3:28 PM
Section 7.3 Multisensory Experiences
As you can see, long-term memories, then, require the increased
strengthening of neural
connections throughout the brain. Long-lasting changes in our
knowledge are most likely to
occur when the prefrontal cortex helps us pick out information
in the environment, work on
it, connect it with prior knowledge, and strengthen neural
connections in the hippocampus
through the process of LTP.
Information that is mentally manipulated using a variety of
strategies is more likely to be
incorporated into neural connections and successfully stored,

retrieved, maintained, and
applied. When students acquire the information in a variety of
ways—e.g., visualization,
movement, reading, hearing, and mentally manipulating it into
other representations—the
activation of the short-term memory increases its connections
(dendrites, synapses, myelin)
to construct long-term memory. Three main categories of mental
manipulation are to synthe-
size, summarize, and categorize.
If information is always taught and/or used in the same way, the
brain will have a limited
capacity to use that information in the future. However, if
instruction, practice, and appli-
cation of learning include a variety of information-processing
opportunities, new learning
can be stored in multiple areas of the brain and connected into
larger relational networks.
When information is part of these concept memory networks, it
is understood more deeply,
maintained in enduring long-term memory, and transferrable to
apply to a wider variety
of contexts and problems. Multisensory learning, problem
solving, and inquiry build these
extended neural networks of concepts that will serve students’
future knowledge acquisition
and application.
7.3 Multisensory Experiences
Long-term memory network construction takes place through
the neuroplastic physical
response to electrical activity flowing through the circuit of
neurons, axons, and synapses
that make up the short-term memory. The number of
connections and thickness of the myelin

in the developing long-term memory circuits correlate with the
frequency, duration, and type
of mental manipulations performed that activate the memory
through its use. This respon-
siveness of the brain to activation through neuroplasticity is a
powerful phenomenon that
individuals are able to use to self-construct the brains they want
through the exercise of the
neural circuits involved in the cognitive or physical skill.
Brain plasticity associated with increased implicit memory is
evident when people repeatedly
practice skills they are learning. An example are the
neuroimaging research studies revealing
increased activity and density of dendrites and synapses in the
cortex of the occipital lobes
(visual memory) when subjects learned how to juggle. These
regions continued to increase
in metabolic activity and density of interneural connections
with practice as juggling skills
improved. When the subjects stopped practicing the juggling,
the increased activity and thick-
ness in the cortex that had formed gradually disappeared along
with their skill (Draganski,
Gaser, Busch, & Schuierer, 2004).
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 197 7/23/14 3:28 PM
Long-term memory networks are constructed when short-term
memory circuits encoded
in the hippocampus are strengthened by repeated activation that
promotes neuroplasticity.

This activation can be the result of a variety of experiences and
applications of new learning.
When these short-term memory circuits have been activated
sufficiently for the construction
of dendrites, synapses, and axonal myelin to preserve the
circuit, they are considered long-
term memories. These long-term memories are still not
permanent, and they continue to be
changeable in response to their subsequent activation or disuse.
Recall from earlier in the chapter that long-term memories are
formed by increased synaptic
connections and that long-term explicit memories require the
proper functioning of the hip-
pocampus to be consolidated. However, the ultimate area of
storage and retrieval of memo-
ries is strongly influenced by the senses through which the
information in the network is
acquired. Information is processed in different brain areas
depending upon the sense we use
to engage with the external stimuli. For example, the occipital
lobe processes visual informa-
tion, and the temporal lobes process auditory information. So
different neural networks will
be activated depending on whether we process information
through sight, sound, smell, etc.,
which is why multisensory exposure is so crucial to
neuroplasticity and durable long-term
memory formation. It is important to note that the brain is a
parallel processor, meaning that
it is able to simultaneously process incoming information with
different qualities. Thus, when
you engage in multisensory presentation of material, you will be
simultaneously activating
many different areas of the brain.

Multisensory Storage
Think of a red ball. It probably didn’t take you a full second to
picture a red ball. You can prob-
ably even imagine what the ball feels like and what it would
sound like if it were bounced on
the ground. You picture it with a specific shape and size. What
is truly impressive is that in
no place in your brain do you have one neural circuit that holds
the memory of a red ball. For
you to picture that red ball, there needed to be communication
between the hippocampus
and prefrontal cortex and then activation of multiple sensory
components of a red ball from
multiple storage areas throughout the brain.
The color red was activated from the cortex of your occipital
lobe where neurons process
signals from the eyes, including color, shading, and brightness,
and hold these visual com-
ponents of memories. It is in the parietal lobe cortex that spatial
and tactile memories are
interpreted and stored. The sound of it bouncing came from the
temporal lobe cortex, where
auditory sensory memories are stored. For you to picture the red
ball, the information was
reactivated in these storage areas and reassembled within the
hippocampus and the image
reconstructed through its interactions with the prefrontal cortex.
Figure 7.2 shows how all of
these processes work together.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 198 7/23/14 3:28 PM

The brain captures and stores physical sensations in various
cortical regions and then recre-
ates them when the information is recalled to be retrieved from
memory. Over time, however,
if a memory isn’t recalled frequently, the brain needs to
reconstruct the initial memory of
the information. A problem with the reconstruction process that
takes place with infrequent
recall is that each time a memory is reconstructed, if it is not
confirmed by facts, it can be
altered and returned to storage with less accuracy. It will be
these inaccurate memories that
will be activated for the next retrieval. For example, you may
have read and listened to formal
lectures about the millennia of elapsed time between the age of
dinosaurs and the evolution
of humans. However, these academic experiences may only be
recalled when you see science
fictional representations of cavemen and dinosaurs. Eventually
the original memory may be
distorted with the fictional associations such that when asked
about the historic ages, you
may underestimate the 65 million years between the extinction
of dinosaurs and the evolu-
tion of the cave-dwelling ancestors of modern man.
Frequent performance, assessment, and corrective feedback for
students reduce the develop-
ment of inaccurate memories that have been degraded in
reconstruction. We do not know yet
what allows this synchronicity of activation to take place so
efficiently, but we have learned
that there are benefits in terms of memory when information is
experienced and practiced

through multiple senses.
Figure 7.2: Think of a red ball
Recall the elements of short-term working memory from
Chapter 5. These elements, located within
specific neural networks in each of the brain’s lobes,
communicate with the hippocampus and with one
another in order to store memory, as indicated by the black
arrows.
Prefrontal cortex
Frontal lobe
Parietal lobe
Occipital lobe
Hippocampus
Temporal lobe
Visual and spatial input:
Red, small, spherical
Auditory and language input:
“This is a red ball.”
Phonological
Loop
Central Executive
directs attention to

sensory input
Visuospatial
Sketchpad
Episodic Buffer
Prefrontal cortex
Frontal lobe
Parietal lobe
Occipital lobe
Hippocampus
Temporal lobe
Visual and spatial input:
Red, small, spherical
Auditory and language input:
“This is a red ball.”
Phonological
Loop
Central Executive
directs attention to
sensory input
Visuospatial
Sketchpad

Episodic Buffer
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 199 7/23/14 3:29 PM
An example of this type of research is a study where subjects
viewed video clips showing
hands touching a variety of objects. While the video was
viewed, a recording was made of the
subjects’ brain activations. Although they themselves were not
touching an object, the areas
of their brains that showed increased activity were the regions
associated with tactile mem-
ory storage as well as their visual cortex (Meyer, Kaplan, Essex,
Damasio, & Damasio, 2011).
The experiment illustrates that although the information being
processed entered the brain
via the visual system (because participants were watching video
clips), it still had the ability
to activate the tactile system, thus showing that areas of the
brain are activated whenever the
brain processes information that is relevant to that area. This
finding can be important for the
classroom and the real world, in that it shows that activation of
multiple brain areas or mul-
tiple sensory areas in the brain can be achieved by presenting
information that is relevant to
that sense. For example, in the classroom if you were teaching
about the qualities of the brain,
you might mention that the brain has the consistency of Jell-
O®. By alerting students to this
fact, you are giving them a richer sensory experience of what

the brain is like, rather than just
showing them a picture of what the brain looks like. Here, you
will activate their parietal sen-
sory cortex as well as their emotional limbic system when you
give them information about
how the brain feels.
In other areas as well—for example, the workplace or a mental
health setting—you will be
able to engage more of the brain if you can provide people with
multiple sensory experiences.
A car salesperson might have better luck selling a car if she
discusses the smell of the car, the
softness of the seats, or the vibrancy of the color. Or, if you
were training a massage therapist,
you would want to discuss the procedure for conducting the
massage as well as provide your
student with a picture of someone’s hands engaged in the
procedure.
Multisensory Retrieval
Recall a time when you smelled perfume and it brought to mind
the memory of a friend who
once wore the same scent, such that you even recalled specific
details about that person. Per-
haps on hearing an old song, you recalled what you were doing
on some occasion when you
listened to it years before. You may be able to visualize where
you were when you heard about
a horrible event that occurred, and you may remember other
details of your environment at
that moment such as who was there with you, what you had just
been doing, and perhaps
even what you were wearing. Similarly, experiential learning
that stimulates multiple senses

is also more memorable and more efficiently retrieved from
long-term memory.
When information is learned and practiced through a variety of
sensory modalities, those
memories have duplicated storage in the specific sensory
cortical areas of the brain corre-
sponding to each type of sensory intake. However, these
separate regions of sensory memory
pertaining to the same topic or experience are connected to one
another by dendrites, so that
the recall of one of the sensory aspects of the memory, such as
what was seen, will activate
the other sensory storage areas. If students watch you carry out
an experiment that involves
a chemical response with an odor, and also hear your
description of the experiment, create
graphs showing the changes in the amount of gas production
over time, and discuss with
partners the implications of the experiment, there will be
multisensory experiences stored in
their cortexes involving sensory input that is auditory,
olfactory, visual, and motor.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 200 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Multiple sensory modalities of instruction can result in
duplicated storage and a variety of
cues that will stimulate retrieval of these connected multiple
memory storage regions. Multi-
sensory instruction and practice results in greater efficiency and
likelihood that students will

be able to recall the information when it is needed.
For the students who best remember the things
that they see, the visual memory of the demonstra-
tion or experiment may be the first activated. From
there, the connecting neural networks will activate
the other cortical regions holding storage of infor-
mation related to the same topic that came from the
other sensory experiences. The result will be the
rich retrieval of a memory similar to your ability to
visualize the red ball. You help students build stron-
ger and more retrievable memories by using a vari-
ety of sensory modalities and instruction as well as
having them practice the learning through a variety
of modalities such as writing, performing a skit,
creating a rap, or drawing a diagram, thus extend-
ing the reaches of the brain through which they can
access all of the sensory memories (Thesen, Jonas,
Calvert, & Österbauer, 2004; van den Heuvel, Stam,
Kahn, Hilleke, & Hulshoff, 2009).
Multisensory Teaching Practices
Using a variety of teaching techniques increases the
efficiency and durability of memory storage. This
includes a variety of ways to activate students’ prior
knowledge in order to link new learning with their
existing memory categories and patterns of stored
knowledge (Pressley et al., 1992).
This same multiple storage system also benefits from a variety
of learning experiences on the
part of the students. The best way to learn complex skills is by
using them to construct mem-
ory of knowledge by doing something with it. This includes the
opportunities for less direct

instruction and more instructor guidance as students
themselves construct their knowledge and under-
standing with experiential and inquiry-based learning,
problem solving, project-based learning, and collabora-
tive groups. Again, a variety of representations of what
students learn throughout the development of a new
knowledge base will increase the regions of memory
storage, thus providing another source of evidence for
the benefits of using writing or the arts throughout the
curriculum.
Andrew Woodley/age fotostock/SuperStock
The branches and roots of a tree can
look just like a neuron’s dendrites.
This visual association may help to
strengthen your knowledge of neural
anatomy every time you step outside.
Ask Yourself
Reflect on your educational experience.
Have you ever experienced multisensory
teaching practices? If so, what strategies
were employed? What is your evaluation of
this learning experience?
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 201 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Use strategies that engage the multiple senses so
students “become” the knowledge by interacting
with new learning as they build their understand-
ing in a variety of ways.

Here are some examples of multisensory teaching:
• A science example using multisensory
experiences to build student knowledge of
new context-specific words or terminology
would be to have them participate in that
learning through their multiple senses. After
hearing and reading the definition of what
an electron is, students could then visualize
electrons orbiting the nucleus of an atom,
make a buzzing sound to represent the
electricity as the electron whizzes by. They
could move around the room themselves
to imitate orbiting electrons, and you could
even rub a balloon against the wall and have
the students hold it above the hair on their
arms so they could feel the tingling associ-
ated with the electrons’ negative charge as
their hairs move. Students could then follow
up with sketches of what they visualized,
felt, or did when moving around the room as electrons in their
atomic orbits.
• A multisensory activity for history could be the simulation of
a historic battle using
models of figures, armaments, transportation vehicles, and
boundaries, or using
more abstract objects such as simply different shapes and
colored papers to repre-
sent these entities. Students could work in small groups before
getting the materi-
als that they will use to make their representation. They would
first need to build
a strong understanding of the factual information and the
historical interpretation,

such as the reasons for the battle, who was involved, where it
took place, what
the surroundings were like, and what strategies were used. After
the preparation,
students would arrange their figures or markers, act out the
battle, and explain the
events to classmates. The learning could be further extended, as
could the memory,
if the students were then challenged to create an alternate
version of the same bat-
tle, changing parameters that they feel were significant in
resulting in the outcome
and explaining how these changes could result in the different
outcome.
• In mathematics, working with addition and subtraction or
positive and negative
numbers using words, desktop number lines, and computer
models can add motor
memory by creating a number line on the floor. For younger
students working with
counting numbers, you could mark the number line using tape to
indicate the num-
ber between 0 and 10 feet. Students would then start at zero and
walk to the num-
ber they are given while looking down at the numbers and
counting the steps as they
moodboard/SuperStock
Using colorful, tactile stimuli in learn-
ing environments gives students more
sensory associations to help strengthen
their memories of the subject.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 202 7/23/14 3:29 PM

walk. Once they arrive at the number 5, you can ask them to
take one, two, or three
more steps and tell you what number they are now on. They
could look down to
confirm or look down the whole time. Later, with more
knowledge, they could walk
backward with the same activity for subtraction, or the number
line could extend to
less than zero for working with negative numbers. Classmates
could write down the
equations representing the movements made by the student on
the number line.
• When students learn about Fibonacci sequences, the
Pythagorean theorem, and
how to calculate proportion and ratio from like objects, finding
and evaluating these
outside will increase the memory richness. Have students find
the golden ratio in
architecture or use the height of their shadows near noon with
the height of the
shadow of a building to calculate the height of the building.
• You can also create multisensory experiences for students in
secondary and higher
education. In a geology class, you could bring in different kinds
of rocks for students
to touch and identify. In political science classes, you could
have students engage
in debates or have mock trials of famous cases. You might also
have students dress

up as part of the debate or trial. In a psychology class, you
could simulate a robbery
in the class and later ask students questions about the robbery.
Their answers will
typically vary and can illustrate how eyewitness memory is
flawed. These activities
stimulate the senses by putting the students in the middle of the
material.
• Another way to present multisensory experiences to students
of any age might be
to bring an expert or a professional in the field. For example,
you could bring in a
nurse to discuss different aspects of anatomy or health. The
professionals or experts
could bring special tools from their jobs, providing students an
opportunity to see
and touch different instruments that are used. For example, the
nurse could bring
a blood pressure cuff or a stethoscope, and students could have
the opportunity to
take their blood pressure or listen to each other’s lungs. Experts
can be particularly
interesting for students in higher education because they are
often trying to figure
out what job they will go into. By bringing in someone working
in the field, you
not only activate more of their senses, but you also give them
ideas about how the
knowledge they are learning will transfer to a career.
• Online learning makes multisensory teaching more difficult
because you are lim-
ited in the senses that you have to work with. However, recall
from the Meyer et al.
(2011) experiment that simply viewing information about other

senses can activate
the brain area associated with the sense. So, you might use
pictures of sensory expe-
riences to illustrate concepts to students. You could use pictures
of someone smell-
ing a gas or a chemical to access the olfactory sense. While
discussing where calories
come from in a health class, you could use pictures of
individuals eating different
types of foods. It is also important to use the senses that you do
have access to—
the visual and auditory senses. Be sure to incorporate video
clips, pictures, songs,
recordings, etc., into your teaching to make the material come
to life for students.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 203 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Meeting the Needs of Individual Learners:
Sensory Impairments
Close your eyes for a second and imagine learning with visual
and/or auditory impairment.
What would you need to be a successful learner? Information in
classrooms and learning
environments is generally presented in oral and visual
modalities (lectures, PowerPoint,
group discussions), which makes sense when many students
learn best via those
modalities. But what about those who aren’t successful visual or
auditory learners?
Professional development and curricula are less often geared

toward working with these
sensory processing systems. This may result in some
professionals, including educators,
psychologists, and social workers, lacking experience or
training in working with students
who have other challenges, such as sensory impairments. In
order to be prepared to
work with individuals who are deaf, hearing impaired, blind, or
visually impaired, we as
professionals need to be educated about the most prevalent
disorders and what we can do to
allow for a positive learning experience.
Cortical visual impairment (CVI) is one of the leading causes of
vision loss in children. It is
characterized by visual impairment that involves acuity and/or
higher visual functions, such
as visual motor planning. CVI is caused by posterior visual
pathway disease and can cause
poor visual attention, visual field abnormalities, difficulty with
object and facial recognition,
difficulty with locating objects (Lehman, 2013), light gazing
(compulsive staring into lights),
and preferences for certain colors (in addition to other
symptoms). According to the National
Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
(NIDCD, 2010), approximately
2 to 3 out of 1,000 children are born deaf or hard of hearing,
and 9 out of every 10 children
who are born deaf have parents who can hear. Individuals who
are deaf or hard of hearing
often experience difficulty with speaking and language
comprehension/acquisition.
While both visual and auditory accommodations can vary
depending on the severity of the

impairment, there are some general practices that professionals
can implement. For children
who have visual and auditory impairment, activate their senses
by providing opportunity for
hands-on interactions with objects. This is also good for
children in the classroom without
impairment to activate their other learning modalities. Move
around—this will allow
the individuals to understand their learning space and
boundaries within the classroom,
especially for those who are visually impaired. These
experiences can improve the learning
environment by creating a sense of security and comfort in the
classroom. Additionally,
movement and exercise can increase the level of “feel-good
neurotransmitters” such as
dopamine and norepinephrine for all learners. Be mindful of
your tone of voice, clarity of
language, seating arrangements, and nonverbal communication.
Encourage the students and
their families to get involved in local organizations that provide
support and resources for
these disabilities, which can help create a sense of community.
Educate all of your students
about disabilities and make it a common practice to ask
questions and express feelings about
individual differences. For younger students, check in with
parents on strategies and ideas
that work well at home and try to implement them into the
classroom or your professional
space. Engage in professional development and learn from these
students with your eyes and
ears open—they have a lot to teach us.

wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 204 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Section 7.4 Interference
7.4 Interference
Another important factor to consider in the formation of long-
term memories is interference.
Interference in learning refers to the ability of new or old to get
in the way of memory consoli-
dation. When new material interferes with previously learned
material, it is referred to as ret-
roactive interference. In contrast, when old material interferes
with your ability to learn new
information, this is referred to as proactive interference.
Consider the following examples:
• You create a new email password, but your memory of your
old password interferes
with your ability to recall the new password.
• You learn how to count to 20 in French and are now unable to
remember how to
count to 20 in Spanish.
In the first example, you are unable to learn something new
because of an old memory. This
illustrates proactive interference. In the second example, you
learn something new and it
interferes with information previously stored in your memory.
This illustrates retroactive
interference.
Interference often occurs when old and new information
compete with each other (Myers,

2008). In the examples above, the information is very similar
(i.e., passwords or learning lan-
guages); thus the information is likely to compete and cause
forgetting.
In the classroom you can prevent interference by planning the
way that information is pre-
sented. When information that is similar is presented close in
time, more interference is likely
to occur. However, if the material is properly spaced, positive
transfer can occur. Positive
transfer refers to the facilitation of learning when information is
related (Myers, 2008). For
example, if you have a strong foundation in Spanish, it is likely
to facilitate the learning of
French. In contrast, if you attempt to learn them both at the
same time, they are likely to com-
pete. In the classroom or the workplace you can increase
positive transfer by making sure
that individuals display mastery of a certain concept or task
before moving on to something
that is similar.
Another aspect of interference is the serial position effect. The
serial position effect refers
to our tendency to display better memory for information that
we learn first and information
that we learn last. For example, Reed (2000) presented
participants with a series of odors.
Individuals displayed better recall for smells that were
presented at the beginning and at the
end (see Figure 7.3). In looking at the serial position effect over
the course of a semester,
Kurbat, Shevell, and Rips (1998) found that college students
tended to remember personal
events that happened at the beginning and end of the semester

better than events in the
middle of the semester. The memory for items that are at the
beginning is referred to as the
primacy effect, and the memory for items at the end is referred
to as the recency effect.
With respect to interference theory, the primacy effect would be
a correlate of proactive inter-
ference, if one remembers the first information or the old
information. In contrast, the recency
effect is proposed to be a result of retroactive interference, if
the material learned last inter-
feres with one’s ability to recall the earlier information.
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s (1968) model
of memory suggested that the primacy effect proposed that
individuals have more time to
consolidate the earlier information. Research into this area has
theorized that the primacy
effect is stronger than the recency effect (Mollet & Harrison,
2007; Onifade, Jackson, Chang,
Thorne, & Allen, 2011; Scott, 2005; Zhao, 1997), but this
research has not been adequately
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 205 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Section 7.4 Interference
evaluated by neuroscience studies in the first-line research
journals, so the jury is still out. If
learners seem to respond to primacy or recency regarding
particular topics, you can consider
whether it is useful when planning instruction or meetings.
During downtime you can make use of the brain breaks you
learned about in Chapter 4. For

constructing long-term memory, the brain breaks can also be an
opportunity to have stu-
dents participate in learning through a different sensory
modality. You can give brain breaks
to one sense at a time. It is during the brain break that students
build their understanding and
make meaning of the previous information, and the brain can
recognize the connections and
pattern the information into storage appropriately. During this
time, you can help to create
extensions of neural networks to consolidate the memory by
having students experience the
learning in another sensory modality.
One sensory modality change that would be useful in a brain
break is for students to atten-
tively watch a video without taking notes and then convert what
they heard into written notes
during the brain break, actively interpreting what they saw.
Shifting learning to a different
sensory modality will not only promote the storage of the
memory in multiple areas of the
brain, but will also allow the region of the cortex that had been
actively receiving the input to
have a brain break during which neurotransmitters can be
restored to the axon terminals in
the networks that have been active.
In terms of learning over the course of the term, Onifade et al.
(2011) described primacy
effects for course material in four of five exams in an
accounting course. Their interpretation
suggested that information presented earlier in the term is more
likely to be committed to
Figure 7.3: The serial position effect

According to some studies of memory construction, the
information learned at the beginning and the end
of a class will probably be clearer than things learned toward
the middle.
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M
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Proactive interference Retroactive interference
Recency e�ect
Fir
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wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 206 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Section 7.5 Rote Memorization Efficiency
long-term memory. As a result, they suggest giving assessments
that are continuously cumu-
lative for students to give them more opportunity to practice
prior information and create
long-term memories of the material.
Research of the primacy and recency effects has also looked
into online behavior. Murphy,
Hofacker, and Mizerski (2006) found that individuals are more
likely to click on the first and
the last link in a list; however, they regarded the primacy effect,
or clicking on the first link, as
stronger. Although this is not directly related to the long-term
consolidation of memories, it
allows students to begin the first part of memory formation—
encoding—which you learned
about in Chapter 5. If individuals access the information, they
will have the opportunity to

encode it. Thus, this finding has implications for online course
design and also for the business
world. In an online course, educators should place the most
important links first and last. Busi-
nesses that are creating websites for consumers should consider
placing their important links
at the beginning and ends of lists as well, to better ensure that
individuals access these links.
7.5 Rote Memorization Efficiency
It is certainly necessary to have automaticity in retrieving
necessary foundational informa-
tion upon which further understanding and concepts can be
developed. It is necessary, for
example, to memorize certain sight words for reading,
multiplication tables, definitions of
context-specific vocabulary words, and certain formulas in
science so that this information is
readily and automatically available. Unless students have the
foundational vocabulary—verbs
and nouns—of a foreign language memorized, they do not have
a basis on which to learn the
verb conjugation needed to build fluency. Without rote
activation of multiplication facts, stu-
dents cannot smoothly practice the multistep process of long
division.
To think critically, students need this foundational knowledge
so they can focus their active
thinking on building the more advanced skills or conceptual
knowledge within subject areas.
Without understanding terminology such as plot, theme, or point
of view, students will not be
able to discuss comparative literature or literary tech-
niques. Once students know the form and function of
the main parts of a cell, such as mitochondria, nucleus,

cell wall, and cytoplasm, they have the memory tem-
plates on which they can build understanding of cellu-
lar metabolism and DNA replication.
There are strategies for this type of memorization that
are more efficient in terms of time required and durabil-
ity of the memorized facts. For example, self-testing, in
which students respond to questions and then immedi-
ately check their answers, is more successful than simply
rereading the facts again and again.
This makes sense based on the brain’s prediction-reward
response and the neuroplastic cor-
rective or strengthening that takes place when there is
immediate feedback. In an examina-
tion of the effects of testing on learning, Roediger and Karpicke
(2006) had undergraduates
read a short excerpt from a text. After reading the text, one
group of students participated
in a free recall test, while another group was given time to study
the text again. One week
later a free recall test was given to all the participants. The
participants who participated in
Ask Yourself
What types of information have you been
required to memorize as a student? Make a
list of five items, and then assess if you feel
it was constructive to have engaged in such
memorization or if it was not.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 207 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Section 7.5 Rote Memorization Efficiency

the original test performed better. These results and others like
it (e.g., Karpicke & Roediger,
2008; Zaromb & Roediger, 2010) illustrate that self-testing can
be an effective method for the
consolidation of long-term memories.
In a review of literature on practice testing and learning
outcomes, Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh,
Nathan, and Willingham (2013) stated that frequency and timing
of the practice test are also
factors in retention. As might be expected, more is better in
practice testing; however, the testing
should be spaced out over time and across different learning
sessions. Encourage your students
to engage in practice testing at different points during their
study sessions and on different
days. Students can engage in practice testing in a variety of
ways. One of the easiest is free recall.
After reading material, students could attempt to remember as
many things as they can from
the text. Another option described by Dunlosky et al. (2013) is
to have students engage in the
Cornell note-taking system. Here, students leave blanks in their
notes for key terms. Later, they
go back in and fill in the blanks as a method of self-testing.
Other options for students include
practice problems at the end of chapters or electronic
supplements provided with textbooks.
Increasing the personal relevance of information that must be
memorized also increases the
efficiency of developing the accurate long-term memories.
When there is a desired goal that
the students understand will be within their reach
once they have successfully memorized the founda-

tional knowledge, they will have more motivation
to persevere with the repeated activities needed to
acquire that knowledge. Reading a magazine about
their favorite topic motivates the memorization of
sight words and context-specific words.
When skills and facts that must be memorized are
taught and practiced as part of solving interesting,
meaningful problems, the learning is richer; confi-
dence and relational understanding develop in a
context of meaning. When students are engaged
through personal interest and real-world use of the
procedures and rote memory facts that are the basis
of future learning, they feel the learning is useful
and worth their effort. When students see the value
of what they are asked to learn, they are motivated
to build the foundations they need to achieve per-
sonally meaningful goals. Knowing why memorizing
multiplication facts is important helps student moti-
vation because they understand why it is worth
their effort to rehearse these facts until they are
mastered. It also helps when students understand
how the brain constructs durable long-term memo-
ries so that they understand that practice does make
permanent.
Motivate rote memorization with goals: For the
times tables have a series of questions that stu-
dents are given when they study the particular level
Frank Dicksee (1884) Bridgeman Art Library,
London/SuperStock
Fostering a personal relevance to
course material increases the abil-
ity to memorize and understand the

material. Understanding the narrative
of Romeo and Juliet in the context of a
person’s lusts and loves will allow that
person to better understand plot, char-
acter, and themes.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 208 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Section 7.6 Mental Manipulations to Construct Durable Long-
Term Memory
of multiplication. If the students like horses, the questions to
motivate the four times table
could be, “How many horseshoes would be needed if you have
six horses needing shoes on
each hoof ? How about three horses? Eight ponies?” Similar
types of questions about per-
sonally relevant items are how many car wheels are needed for
five cars, or if there would
be enough seats for the whole class to get to a kite-flying hill if
they had six vans with seven
passenger seats in each. Illustrations of these objects made by
the students add to the moti-
vation and can scaffold the learning.
You can also refer back to the information in Chapter 4
regarding the motivating feedback of
students seeing their increasing goal progress as they build their
foundational memorization.
An example would be a chart that includes all of the numbers
from 1 to 10 both horizontally
and vertically with the product of multiplying the horizontal
with the vertical column placed
in the squares inside this chart. As students master the

multiplication facts, they cross off the
boxes and are able to see their ongoing progress as the number
of boxes remaining progres-
sively decreases.
Online learning games also provide a motivating way of
memorizing required facts and infor-
mation because of the video game model pleasure that students
experience when playing
games on their computers. In addition to going directly to
familiar online learning games,
you can also go to websites that list and provide links to games
with descriptions to help you
select the games that would be best suited for students’ needs.
One such example is Graphite,
a free service from Common Sense Media, available at
http://www.graphite.org.
7.6 Mental Manipulations to Construct Durable
Long-Term Memory
Beyond the required rote memorization described earlier, for
most learning, stopping at
rote memorization limits the development of durable long-term
memory networks. The rote
memories may be strong in terms of isolated skills, facts, or
procedures held within their
individual neural circuits, but without further mental
manipulation students will not develop
the extended neural networks linking these facts to the big ideas
within units and subjects.
The quantity and accuracy of rote memories do not confirm that
the student has an under-
standing of content information. It is necessary to do something
with knowledge if it is to

become incorporated into more extended memory networks of
core concepts that can be
applied in meaningful ways. Without further use of the rote-
memorized data, it is likely
to be forgotten. A classic experiment in psychology conducted
by Hermann Ebbinghaus
(1885/1913) illustrated the forgetting curve (see Figure 7.4).
The forgetting curve illustrates
that forgetting occurs rapidly at first for information that is not
used. Over time, though, the
forgetting levels off. For example, Bahrick (1984) examined
how long individuals retained
Spanish vocabulary learned in school. He found that most of the
forgetting occurs in the first
3–6 years out of school. However, after that forgetting levels
off and remains stable for about
20 years. Additionally, individuals who were trained at higher
levels and received higher
grades retained the information longer. This study illustrates the
effect of the forgetting curve
in that the material decayed rapidly and then the forgetting
leveled off.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 209 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Term Memory
Many things that students memorize for the purpose of
answering questions on tests do
not support understanding or provide useful and applicable
knowledge because these rote
memories, if learned only in response to specific stimuli

prompts, will only be available for
retrieval to those same specific prompts.
Rote memorization should be reserved for the items described
previously, such as multipli-
cation tables and sight words. When students memorize single-
answer data without under-
standing important concepts and the reasons behind theories,
formulas, or procedures, they
are not likely to construct the understanding that is needed for
successful learning and appli-
cation of knowledge. We see the phenomenon all too frequently
when students “memorize”
and soon forget facts that are of little primary interest or
emotional value, such as a list of
vocabulary words. They might practice these with enough
repetition to retrieve them for sin-
gle answers to direct test questions, but unless they are able to
interact with these words in
meaningful ways that give context to the rote memorizations, it
is likely that what they memo-
rize will be pruned away soon after the drill practice stops.
These same principles hold true in
the workplace as well. Employees who simply memorize the
steps to complete a certain task
are not likely to notice when a mistake is present or they are not
likely to understand how to
solve a more complex problem regarding the task. Instead they
need to understand the con-
cept completely to be able to perform at a high level.
Figure 7.4: A theory of memory and forgetting: The Ebbinghaus
forgetting curve
Facts from rote memorization are likely to be forgotten very
quickly if they are not reinforced and

applied in meaningful ways.
Source: Based on Ebbinghaus, H. (1885/1913). Memory: A
Contribution to Experimental Psychology. New York, Teachers
College,
Columbia University.
100
90
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wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 210 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Term Memory
Help students and individuals develop the extended long-term
memory networks that hold

learning into relational patterns by activating prior knowledge
and by continuing to rein-
force connections between new learning related to memory
patterns that you know they
have already constructed. It is often only from the perspective
of a teacher that the associa-
tions between new and previous learning, as well as ongoing
learning, can be recognized
as related. Students need guidance to recognize these
relationships that will ultimately
promote memory storage into durable extended networks of
understanding and memory.
This section will describe a number of effective teaching
strategies that will help students
mentally manipulate new learning through active engagement
and recognition of patterns
so that neuroplasticity works its magic to sustain the short-term
memories as part of long-
term memory networks.
Symbolize (Translate)
Mental manipulation for the neuroplastic response is greatly
facilitated when students have
the opportunity to symbolize new learning in different
representations—in other words,
translating acquired knowledge into different forms. First,
consider the type of symbolizing
that supports the mental manipulation. This type of symbolizing
requires that the student
understand the information just as for an accurate translation of
text from one language to
another requires understanding of both languages. If you were
to take a sentence in English
and translate it into Portuguese using only an English-
Portuguese dictionary but without an

understanding of the Portuguese language, it is unlikely the
translation would truly convey
the meaning of the sentence. Just as accurate and meaningful
translation of language requires
both understanding and mental manipulation, so too does the
type of symbolizing that pro-
motes accurate and durable long-term memory require
understanding.
Examples of symbolizing, or representing learning in ways
different from that in which it
was acquired, include designing a Web page or PowerPoint
presentation; creating a board
game; making a brochure or advertising materials for a specific
product or service; or trans-
lating the learning into the arts such as by making a video, skit,
song, or drawing. Teaching
the information to someone also requires understanding when
the learner does not have the
prior knowledge such that the information needs to be put into
language appropriate for the
learner. Recall from Chapter 4 that when students teach or
prepare to teach material, they are
more likely to retain the material (Gregory, Walker,
McLaughlin, & Peets, 2011). Thus, having
students teach concepts to younger students or to each other can
increase the likelihood that
they will consolidate them to long-term memory.
Creating a narrative in which students can translate learning
into a story or dialogue increases
long-term memory as well as promoting the positive effects of
personalizing information to
increase its memory linkage. One of my students, for example,
wrote an amusing story about
a lonely piece of new information that entered the brain and felt

very lost and sad until it
found its family of related prior knowledge to link with as part
of a new long-term memory
extended network.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 211 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Term Memory
Another way to help students symbol-
ize the information is to have them
create physical models of the material.
Models can be created in a variety of
ways, including making a volcano, cut-
ting circles into pizza slices to illus-
trate fractions, or having students use
their fists to represent the different
hemispheres of the brain.
Although these are great ways to get
students interested in material, keep in
mind that the goal is understanding and
knowledge construction. Dean, Hubbell,
Pitler, and Stone (2012) suggest that
students might often get caught up in
the materials and the models themselves and neglect to pay
attention to the content. The goal of
the activities should not be the busy work of the project or use
of supplies. As fellow educator Jay
McTighe says, be sure that “the juice is worth the squeeze”
(private communication). Students
need to keep in mind that when symbolizing knowledge not only
do they need to understand the

information, but they also should be able to explain how their
representation demonstrates the
essential material and the information that they were expected
to learn as the goals of the unit.
Synthesize/Summarize
In order to summarize information concisely, students
need to understand it well enough to synthesize a large
quantity of information down into the essential gist
and to incorporate it into a logical progression of infor-
mation in the summary. As with synthesizing, a sum-
mary would need to demonstrate understanding of the
learning goals of the instruction or reading. Students
are often invited to summarize with partners or in small groups,
for example. This is an effec-
tive approach if the students are able to stay focused on the task
and receive feedback as to
whether their summary is accurate and appropriately
comprehensive.
A strategy that is helpful in serving these requirements is for
students to create a Tweet™ as a
summary (alternatively, they could write the summary on paper
that has the 140 spaces that
are allowed in a Tweet™). This would be a task they do
independently or after a pair share.
The sharing in this case would be more focused because the
students would need to take the
larger amount of information and define the essential essence
that could be communicated
in such a small amount of text. If these are indeed created on a
computer, they can be posted
by students on a class wiki or moodle either with the students’
names or instructor-provided

codes. Classmates benefit by reading each other’s summaries as
additional ways to under-
stand the content of the material.
Other written forms of concise summarizing include blogs,
haikus, and the use of dend-writes
as follows. Dend-writes (so named so students are reminded that
with mental manipulation
Ask Yourself
Can you think of a way to symbolize
the process of long-term memory
construction? Look back at some of the
strategies suggested in this section and see
if you can employ one to more effectively
learn the core concept of this chapter.
Fred Benenson
In 2013, Emoji Dick, a pictorial rewrite of Herman
Melville’s classic Moby Dick, was the first novel of its
kind accepted into the Library of Congress. As emot-
icons become a greater part of modern social media
literacy, they can also be effective tools for students
to symbolize information and create narratives.
Call me Ishmael.Call me Ishmael.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 212 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Term Memory
they are promoting the neuroplasticity that changes dendrites)

offer opportunities to synthe-
size or summarize learning in response to specific prompts as
mental manipulations in which
new learning is actively processed. The memory is strengthened
by the personal relevance
and insights they can include in the dend-write.
You will find that after creating your dend-write prompts, they
will be useful throughout the
course or semester regarding almost any of the material that you
teach. Students can keep
a copy of these dend-writes in their notebooks, or they could
remain on the classroom wall
or website. Because there is a variety, different dend-writes
could be assigned depending on
your goal for assessment and feedback and also as ways to
differentiate the level of achievable
challenge for students with different levels of mastery. Dend-
writes can be used throughout
class instruction during brain breaks, as exit cards before
students leave class, or as home-
work. Examples of dend-write prompts include the following:
• Write what today’s lesson reminded you of, or how what you
learned fits with what
you already know.
• What is the one thing you’d like to remember about today’s
lesson?
• Draw a picture, diagram, or graphic organizer of what you
learned.
• How does something you learned today relate to something in
your life?
• Write about something that made you wonder or that surprised
you.
• What do you predict you will learn next in class?

• How could you (or someone in a profession) use this
knowledge?
• Write about something you are confused about or found
difficult.
• Write about what you understood today that you haven’t
understood before.
A technique for younger students would be to have them create
and decorate their own tele-
phones, such as with paper towel rolls. After a topic is
discussed, they would meet with part-
ners to summarize the main points of the instruction. In order to
keep their conversations
focused on the material, you would tell students that they have
the opportunity to use their
handmade phones to call anyone of their choice, real or
imaginary, and tell them a summary of
what they just learned. In order to keep their summaries concise
so they synthesize the new
learning, students would be told that they only have 1 minute
left on their phone cards, so they
need to practice with their partner a verbal summary that can be
shared in less than 1 minute.
Categorize/Pattern Linking
Recall that one of the prime directives of the brain is to seek
patterns. As you learned in
Chapter 5, short-term memory is essentially a pattern-matching
process. Long-term memory
continues with the brain’s system of storing, extending, and
retrieving memory through pat-
tern linkage. Examples of pattern retrieval as the mechanism for
long-term memory recall
include remembering the words to a familiar song after hearing
the first few bars of music

or knowing under which category to search the Internet when
you want the answer to a spe-
cific question or to make a specific purchase. In statistics and
economics, graphs are used
to reveal patterns. Patterns, once revealed, are used to develop
concepts that describe phe-
nomena such as cause and effect or supply and demand. Pattern
construction and expansion
are the underlying powerful tools of memory that best serve the
survival need of being able
to predict the meaning of changes in the environment or the
most suitable response to new
sensory input and experiences.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 213 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Term Memory
The essence of intelligence in mammals, in terms of making the
most accurate and successful
predictions (choices, answers, interpretations, hypotheses), is an
outcome of accurate and
extensive long-term memory stores with information
consolidated in categories based on
patterns such as commonalities and relationships. Long-term
memory is stored in networks
based on these commonalities and relationships. As you’ve read
about multisensory memo-
ries, information related to a common object, experience, or
topic can be stored in multiple
cortical areas in the brain that are connected through neural
pathways such that they are acti-
vated almost simultaneously after one aspect of the memory is

recalled. This process of syn-
chronous activation of related but separately stored components
of memory gives additional
support to the strengthening of memory through increasing
students’ awareness of multiple
and varied patterns or categories to which new learning relates.
Mental manipulation through categorizing and expanded pattern
connections promotes both
long-term memory storage and the likelihood that the brain will
be successful in activating
the most appropriate memory from storage to respond to
changes in the environment and to
make the best predictions. You increase your students’ memory
and knowledge by promoting
memory connections with patterning and providing
opportunities for them to relate new
information to a variety of categorizing experiences, such as
comparisons, analogies, and
graphic organizers.
Similarities and differences provide a
way to mentally manipulate new infor-
mation by connecting to existing cate-
gories of memory and expanding upon
them. Recall the fox that responded to
change or differences in the pattern of
his environment with increased atten-
tion. Having students evaluate new
learning for similarities and differences
is consistent with the brain’s respon-
siveness to pattern matching and alert-
ness to changes in patterns.
There are multiple strategies for using
similarities and differences in the class-

room, such as graphic organizers, like
Venn diagrams, or having students cre-
ate their own systems of categorization.
You can model the process of identify-
ing similarities and differences multi-
ple times for students, and ask them to
explain their thinking as they compare and classify items
(Willis, 2012). See the Web Resources
section of this chapter for links to more about these strategies.
Analogies (similes, metaphors) are other forms of categorizing
to develop cognition and reason-
ing and to create long-term memory networks. Creating
analogies allows students to recognize
the existing related memory patterns that they have in their own
brains. An example would
be children who know the color white but not the color blue. An
analogy that could be used
to guide their understanding of the color blue would be “white
is to snow as blue is to sky.”
Spencer Grant/age fotostock/SuperStock
Color-coded tiles like these are often used to help
dyslexic individuals learn to spell and read words.
Different-colored tiles represent different let-
ter and word sounds in English. What other types
of students might benefit from this multisensory
approach?
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 214 7/23/14 3:29 PM

Term Memory
The analogy helps them to recognize the relationship of the
color name to something that they
know. Because they know that snow is white, when they see the
association of the sky with the
color name that is novel to them—blue—the new word blue
takes on meaning and memory
links through this patterning. When students create their own
analogies using new information
and learning, they are personalizing the connections to memory
patterns that are already strong
in their brains such that they are activated spontaneously when
they are creating the analogy.
An example of a simile a student would create to acknowledge
the benefits of neuroplasticity
might be, “Mentally manipulating what I learned makes my
memories more permanent, like
exercising makes my muscles stronger.”
Graphic organizers are particularly useful for long-term memory
construction and extension
as well as for activating prior knowledge. Depending on the
selection of the graphic orga-
nizer used, it can initially provide templates where students
write down what they already
know about a subject, and they then can add to their graphic
organizers as new information is
learned. Through the structure of the graphic organizer, there is
already a pattern to coincide
with the brain’s responsiveness to patterns.
Mental Manipulation for Test Review
MOVES is an acronym for students to use to stimulate and

strengthen multiple neural net-
works of memory with a variety of sensory and mental
manipulative strategies.
M: Move/Manipulate. Move around and use a physical action to
remind you
of a character’s traits, a historical event, or a biological or
physical process.
Alternatively, manipulate objects to act out important
information.
O: Organize. Create graphic organizers such as timelines and
charts to review
important details in patterned ways.
V: Visualize. Visualize scientific processes, historical
characters, and mathe-
matical procedures in your mind so that you’ll have a visual
network to link to
when you want to retrieve the information.
E: Enter. Enter the information you want to remember by typing
it into a com-
puter or writing it by hand. This combines tactile and visual
memory.
S: Say. Read it aloud. Reading your notes or important passages
aloud adds
auditory memory to your networks of information retrieval.
Summarizing Mental Manipulations
Practice really does make permanent—as long as the practice
involves active mental manipu-
lation, construction of new ideas, and truly using the new
information in different ways than

that in which it was originally learned. Mental manipulation is
not what happens when stu-
dents passively repeat procedures over and over on worksheets;
it requires multisensory
engagement to activate and strengthen a wider array of neural
networks (Willis, 2013).
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 215 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Section 7.7 Teaching for Beyond the Classroom: Concept
Memory and Transfer
Successful mental manipulations enable students to interact
with knowledge in ways that
arouse their interest, activate positive emotions, connect the
new information with their past
experiences, and emphasize relationships of new memory to
existing neural networks of
long-term memory. With mental manipulation, a new memory
that might otherwise be for-
gotten is linked to and retained in a more durable memory
storage pathway.
Through opportunities such as symbolic representations,
synthesizing, and categorizing,
newly encoded short-term neural connections holding bits of
facts or procedures undergo
the cellular changes of neuroplasticity and link into stronger
and more durable long-term
memory networks. Further mental manipulation promoting
memory storage redundancy
and interconnections of pathways means greater potential for
memory retention, recall, and
more successful predictions.

7.7 Teaching for Beyond the Classroom:
Concept Memory and Transfer
The goal of education is for students to be successful beyond
the classroom, not the accumu-
lation of bits of information memorized to answer questions on
tests. To achieve valued learn-
ing goals, students need opportunities to use new learning in
applications beyond fact
memorization and retrieval or else there will be limited storage
in small memory circuits that
remain isolated rather than developing into extended,
transferable neural networks of con-
cepts. Without incorporation into these extended concept
networks, isolated memories will
likely be pruned away from disuse.
The degree to which students understand the relation-
ships of new learning to existing knowledge correlates
with the richness of the cortical connections among
neural networks. The richness of these connections is
then reflected in subsequent success in the application
of learning to new problems and to understanding new
information (Gazzaniga, 2009).
The brain’s neuroplasticity is available to build the neu-
ral pathways of conceptual, relational circuits. This con-
struction requires opportunities for meaning-making
activities where students can make their own predictions,
attempt to solve problems, deter-
mine what information they need to do so, and decide what
resources they can use to acquire
the knowledge needed to reach desirable goals. When students
construct understanding

and make connections between existing unrelated islands of
memory by co-activating them
together for common goals, neuroplasticity constructs
connecting pathways linking new rela-
tionships into expanded concept networks available for the
application of learning to new
problems and to understanding new information.
Ask Yourself
Have you ever been able to transfer
knowledge in one aspect of your life to help
you in another? For example, have you
ever used lessons you learned by playing
a sport to help you at work or at school?
Or vice versa?
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 216 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Memory and Transfer
Teaching for Construction of Concept Memory
In his interpretation of Third International Mathematics and
Science Study (TIMSS) videos of
successful mathematics teachers in Japan, Alan Siegel described
characteristics that appeared
to contribute to students’ conceptual understanding and
successful transfer of these concepts
to solving new problems. He noted the use of a problem-based
approach that blended tradi-
tional teacher-directed mini-lessons alternating with student-
centered independent effort to
solve the problems. He stated that even though students rarely

solved the challenge problem
on their own, their grappling with the problems (with the
teacher circulating, giving hints to
individual students after observing their independent progress)
motivated attentive and suc-
cessful learning from the mini-lessons that demonstrated how to
apply solution methods to
the problem. Further benefits were attributed to having students
then apply the approach to
new problems in slightly different contexts to help them solidify
their understanding of the
concept as they solved these problems (Siegel, 2004).
Recommendations can be found at
http://www.cs.nyu.edu/faculty/siegel/ST11.pdf *.
Understanding a topic provides the foundation for remembering
or reconstructing facts or
methods even when memorized formulas or algorithms are
forgotten. This takes place when
students reconstruct formulas, etc., to make their own
predictions, attempt to solve problems,
and determine what information they need to achieve desirable
goals. Information is under-
stood when students can communicate its meaning, reconstruct
the procedures, and transfer
learning to novel applications.
The more brain experiences students have to relate information
held in separate memory
networks, the greater the number of memory circuit co-
activations there will be to con-
struct more cross-brain connections among these networks.
Options include the following
suggestions:
• Teaching in a variety of ways (e.g. video, demonstration, trial

and error, primary
sources and different opinions) and with multisensory
experiences allows students
to interact with learning connected in more ways and build the
cross-brain network
connections associated with concept knowledge.
• Help students identify and expand knowledge with awareness
of patterns and
relationships. Plan unit instruction to emphasize and promote
recognition of pat-
terns by asking essential questions to serve as organizing
templates of core concepts
to which learning can be linked. Essential questions help
connect experiences and
interests with real-world problems. Additionally, to be effective
they should require
students to use the same understanding that experts in the world
use (McTighe &
Self, 2013). Examples of essential questions are, “How does the
shape and size of a
container influence what it can hold?” “Why was slavery the
greatest issue of dis-
agreement between the North and South in provoking the Civil
War?” “What makes
the sea the best home for some creatures and land the best for
others?” Asking
essential questions can help you create a different level of
understanding in your
students. Perkins and Blythe (1994) describe the difference
between knowing and
understanding. They describe knowing as being able to bring
forth information
upon request. However, understanding requires more thought
and is being able to
perform a number of things with the information and also

advance the information.
*Link used by permission of Professor Alan Siegel.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 217 7/23/14 3:29 PM
http://www.cs.nyu.edu/faculty/siegel/ST11.pdf
Memory and Transfer
Asking your students essential questions helps them engage in
activities that will
promote understanding of a topic. The questions require them to
think and expand
on a topic. Perkins and Blythe (1994) also point out that to
promote understanding
teachers should create goals for understanding, give students
opportunities to per-
form their understanding, and provide opportunities for ongoing
assessment so that
students can reflect on their own level of understanding.
• Opportunities to come back to essential questions and reflect
on the big ideas
students construct during a unit can include discussions, essays,
and even stopping
several times during a unit to have students write “headlines” as
if for a news article
about the new “big ideas” they recognize.
• Encourage extended student responses to questions of “Why
do you think that?”
so students increase awareness of the concepts behind the
information and thus

increase the connections within their pattern networks.
• Pattern extension increases memory extension into concepts.
Include questions in
classwork, homework, projects, and assessments that require
more than one specific
memorized answer. In mathematics, in addition to showing the
steps they used to
solve a problem, have students explain their thinking and why
they selected the pro-
cedure they used. In literature, don’t stop with just what literary
tools (flashbacks,
foreshadowing, omniscient narrator) the author uses, but ask
why students think
they were used and if they found them effective.
• Spiraling of curricula throughout grade levels has the value of
students revisiting
topics where they use and reactivate their core knowledge while
progressively build-
ing related knowledge onto these cores as they develop greater
concept awareness.
• Interdisciplinary and cross-curricular units emphasize related
concepts and ways of
approaching problems found throughout a variety of subject
domains.
Transfer
A most effective practice for understanding and memory is the
use of the newly linked neu-
rons in new ways other than those in which the information was
learned. As Jan Visser wrote
in his 2003 essay, “Science and Ambiguity: Have We Thrown
the Key Away,” “The essence of

wisdom is not in what we know, but in what we do with what
we know and our capacity to
reflect on its meaning and use.”
The Brain at Work
People in cash-handling positions, like bank tellers, can use the
strategies of goal reflection
and incremental goal progress on the job to help memorize
procedures for identifying
counterfeit money. The employees can be invited to add to a
wall chart each time they
recognize a counterfeit bill and indicate what cued them to
make the identification. There
can be an employee-generated list of why they want to make
those identifications, such
as to reduce taxpayer burden, increase team score in an office-
generated or inter-branch
competition, or busting criminals.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 218 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Memory and Transfer
Transfer refers to applying knowledge learned in one context to
solve problems in novel con-
texts. Students need transfer opportunities to apply new learning
to novel applications such
as solving new types of problems, critically analyzing
information, and applying new proce-
dures and learning to make meaning of new data. This will not
happen with rote memoriza-
tion alone in which isolated networks of facts do not

interconnect:
Knowledge learned at the level of rote memory rarely transfers.
Transfer most
likely occurs when the learner knows and understands
underlying principles
that can be applied to problems in new contexts. Learning with
understand-
ing is more likely to promote transfer than simply memorizing
information
from a text or a lecture. (McTighe & Seif, 2013)
Transfer is a most effective practice for strengthening
understanding by applying newly
linked memory circuits in new ways when school learning can
be transferred to real-life situ-
ations. When students know the information they are being
asked to learn will be used to
create products or solutions to problems that interest them, the
new learning and its practice
are valued because they want to know what they have to learn.
Transfer tasks that are planned
so students can engage through strengths and interests to
achieve goals they consider rele-
vant are powerful learning motivators and memory enhancers.
The expectation that new
learning will be applied to desired goals increases the strength
of memories through their
association with positive emotions. Fogarty (2009) states that
the surest way to promote
transfer is to create a need for immediate use of the knowledge.
In some cases, transfer occurs
easily; students can see the connection between the material and
their lives. In other cases,
such as learning the periodic table of elements, transfer is more
difficult. In these cases, stu-

dents need guidance from teachers to see the application of the
material (Fogarty, 2009).
An example of transfer for the multiple purposes
of motivation, conceptual long-term memory, and
mental manipulation is project-based learning
with multiple options of approaches and solutions.
Robotic design is an example using physics, biology,
engineering, math, Internet research, economics,
language arts, and graphic arts that also incorpo-
rates real-world problems and student interests
and offers a variety of opportunities to contribute
through individual strengths in collaborative group
projects. Robotic limb replacement or mechanical
enhancement of healthy arms and legs could link
the classroom construction of robots to the con-
struction of robotic devices for people who have
lost limbs in battle (current events/history) or in
athletic injuries (connecting with student interest
in sports). Students could also choose to transfer
their learning to work on robotic limb enhance-
ments that could theoretically increase their skills
in their own high-interest sports, such as jumping
higher to get more “air time” for skiing or snow-
board maneuvers.
Flirt/SuperStock
Opportunities for transfer are every-
where, and it is up to you to find them.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 219 7/23/14 3:29 PM

The neuroplasticity that results from the repeated firing of
memory circuits used together
is what strengthens the rich cross-connecting bonds of concept
networks. These expanded
concept networks can be more easily activated by a multitude of
cues, are readily retrievable
to apply as more abstract understanding to solve new problems,
and are ultimate resources
for creative innovation.
There are no known upper limits on how we can learn and store
through cross-brain cortical
connections. Intelligence as a measure of making the best
predictions is well served by acti-
vating these extended memory banks of related knowledge.
These networks of conceptual
knowledge are called into action when learning is transferred to
novel applications and when
attempting to make the best predictions in the analysis and
utilization of new learning in and
beyond the classroom.
From the planning of lessons with essential questions to the
transfer of the resulting concepts
to new problems, the curiosity-prediction-inquiry-feedback-
revision process promotes the
kind of long-term memory and knowledge that students can
transfer beyond the classroom
in the multiple contexts in which they will live their lives.
• Long-term memory can be divided into implicit and explicit
memory. Memory con-
solidation for implicit memories involves LTS, and

consolidation for explicit memo-
ries involves LTP.
• When newly encoded short-term memory circuits are activated
by mental manipu-
lation (synthesizing, summarizing, categorizing, etc.) or used,
especially in novel
applications, neuroplasticity acts to develop them into long-
term memory networks
with increased strength, durability, and speed of retrieval.
• Long-term memories are stored in different parts of the cortex
depending on which
sensory receptors responded to the input.
• Multisensory teaching, practice, and application of new
learning promote construc-
tion of long-term memory circuits that can be activated by
multiple sensory stimuli.
Because multisensory learning increases memory storage
locations and connections,
switching instruction or practice to another sensory modality
during brain breaks
will restore neurotransmitters to the region that has been active
and promote multi-
focal memory storage.
• Interference can occur when newly learned material or
previously learned material
gets in the way of memory consolidation.
• The primacy and recency effects refer to cognitive psychology
theories about mem-
ory relationship to the timing of information presentation.
• Self-testing with self-checking of answers can be used as a

strategy to help students
increase rote memorization of foundational knowledge.
• Concept memory understanding can connect previously
separate memory networks
that can be developed with students’ construction of knowledge
and their use of
learning for new applications. These extended concept
memories are then available
in the future to transfer learning to new applications and
innovations.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 220 7/23/14 3:29 PM
Web Resources
Graphite, a free service from Common Sense Media, gives you
information about online
games for fact mastery practice for different age groups and
topics, along with other useful
information.
http://www.cs.nyu.edu/faculty/siegel/ST11.pdf *
This document provides recommendations for mathematics
instruction strategies (based on
TIMMS study).
http://jaymctighe.com
You can find all of the books by Jay McTighe and links to his
articles and blogs here. Links to
his books (with photos and links to view/purchase) are under
the “Books & DVDs” tab. For

beginning educators I suggest Understanding by Design (ASCD,
2007), Essential Questions,
(ASCD, 2013), and The Understanding by Design Guide to
Creating High Quality Units (ASCD,
2011).
http://www.teachthought.com/learning
/the-simple-things-i-do-to-promote-brain-based-learning-in-my-
classroom/
http://www.teachthought.com/learning/how-the-memory-works-
in-learning/
Here you’ll find two articles by Judy Willis about brain-based
learning.
http://www.edutopia.org/
Search for “Judy Willis” and you will find several of the
author’s blogs, articles, and videos on
various subjects related to topics discussed in this chapter.
Books
Willis, J. (2007). Brain-friendly strategies for the inclusion
classroom. ASCD.
Willis, J. (2006). Research-based strategies to ignite student
learning: Insights from a neurolo-
gist/classroom teacher. ASCD.
Willis, J. (2008). Inspiring middle school minds: Gifted,
creative, and challenging. Scottsdale,
AZ: Great Potentials Press, Inc.
1. What is the difference between an implicit memory and an
explicit memory?
2. Why is multisensory teaching and practice beneficial for
successful memory

retrieval?
3. In what multisensory ways have you or could you teach a
topic?
4. How can students mentally manipulate learning so
neuroplasticity constructs the
neural connections of long-term memory?
*Link used by permission of Professor Alan Siegel.
wiL81639_07_c07_193-222.indd 221 7/23/14 3:29 PM
http://www.cs.nyu.edu/faculty/siegel/ST11.pdf
http://jaymctighe.com
http://www.teachthought.com/learning/the-simple-things-i-do-
to-promote-brain-based-learning-in-my-classroom/
http://www.teachthought.com/learning/the-simple-things-i-do-
to-promote-brain-based-learning-in-my-classroom/
http://www.teachthought.com/learning/how-the-memory-works-
in-learning/
http://www.edutopia.org/
5. How will interference influence the ability to learn
information?
6. Select a topic of instruction and propose ways to mentally
manipulate new learning
with symbolizing, summarizing, and categorizing.
7. What are some of the concepts in a subject area of your
choice that can be empha-

sized throughout different units in the curriculum?
8. How does this quote relate to having students transfer
learning to new applications:
“The essence of wisdom is not in what we know, but in what we
do with what we
know”?
9. What strategies will you use to help students transfer their
learning to new
applications?
Key Terms
explicit memory A type of memory that
requires conscious recollection and includes
memories for specific people, places, events,
and facts. Also called declarative memory.
implicit memory A type of memory that
does not require conscious recollection and
includes memories for procedural knowl-
edge and associative learning. Also called
nondeclarative memory.
long-term potentiation (LTP) Increased
synaptic firing in neurons after stimulation.
The increased activity can last for days or
even weeks. LTP plays a role in the consoli-
dation of long-term memories.
positive transfer Facilitated learning of a
new task after mastery of a related task.
primacy effect The cognitive theory claim-
ing that we are particularly likely to remem-
ber information that is presented first.

proactive interference Disruption of
learning that occurs when old information
interferes with the recall of new information.
recency effect The cognitive theory claim-
ing that we are particularly likely to remem-
ber information that is presented last.
retroactive interference Disruption of
learning that occurs when new information
interferes with the recall of old information.
serial position effect Humans’ psychologi-
cal tendency to display better memory for
information that we learn first and informa-
tion that we learn last.
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