Endorphins, dopamine, cortex, synapses, amygdala, brain-friendly learning… Over the last two decades, science has revealed more and more about the developing brains of adolescents, how they work and what stimulates learning. So what might these insights mean for Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), and how can you instigate brain-friendly strategies in your CLIL lessons? Teacher trainers and consultants Rosie Tanner and Liz Dale return to discuss insights into brain-friendly learning.
First, some questions for you:
Do you…
1. … play games with your students?
2. … surprise your students?
3. … give your students lots of compliments for doing well?
4. … ask your students how they feel about what they are learning?
5. … encourage your students to move around frequently?
6. … get your students to make things, to do hands-on tasks?
7. … give your students choices about which task to do?
8. … give your students choices about how to do a task?
If you have answered YES eight times, you can stop reading, since you are already a brain-friendly (CLIL) teacher! These eight questions relate to four ways of making your teaching more brain-friendly: using novelty and surprise (1 and 2), emotion (3 and 4), multisensory teaching (5 and 6) and choice (7 and 8). Here are some ideas on how to relate these to CLIL.
1. NOVELTY and SURPRISE
Use novelty and surprise when presenting something to your CLIL learners: bring a strange object into the class, watch an intriguing video, or ask them to talk about a compelling image. When you learn something new, your brain changes and develops – otherwise known as neuroplasticity. And a learner’s ‘focus time’ is roughly the same as his or her age: another very good reason to vary classroom tasks. Play vocabulary games where learners have to make surprising connections between words and pictures or between sets of words: you can find two such examples in our book, CLIL Activities, explain the odd one out (CLIL Activity 3.9) or word association (CLIL Activity 3.17).
2. EMOTION
Having strong, positive feelings in the classroom helps your learners to remember stuff. If they feel good about their lesson, learners’ brains release endorphins, which trigger positive feelings in the body. Learners then focus and their brains stay attentive. In the CLIL classroom, songs like these can encourage a sense of wellbeing in the group, as well as improving learning through multisensory learning (see below).
On the other hand, strong negative feelings can also affect learning adversely. Some students are very worried, for example, about speaking; acknowledge this and help them with techniques to deal with anxiety. For example, talk with learners about their nerves so they realise they aren’t alone; teach them to self-talk to boost their confidence (“I can do it”, “I speak great English at my own level.”) and provide CLIL tasks which help students to be successful .You can find more information about second language anxiety in this fun video by Sarah Ferguson.
3. CHOICE
Choice helps internal motivation. Providing choice in the classroom, therefore, lowers stress and triggers the release of good brain chemicals. The brain loves choice because it can problem-solve, work hard and be challenged. So, for example, to demonstrate their understanding of subject content, give your CLIL learners the choice to create a poster, make a film or write a letter, or a have them choose note-taking techniques (make a mind map or list the main points) when listening or watching. Involve them continually in classroom choices and their feeling of autonomy and ability will increase.
4. MULTISENSORY LEARNING
Using different senses or tapping into multiple intelligences in your classroom is also brain-friendly. Apparently if you smell popcorn and watch a movie at the same time, you will remember 10-15% more of that movie! And remember: Proust wrote volumes because the smell of a madeleine stimulated his memory.
Exercise and movement boost brain-power, too, so take “brain breaks” and get your learners moving around, doing deep breathing or stretching. For example, practise CLIL vocabulary in pairs by writing words on each other’s backs or get them to move into new groups after sitting still for a while. Or maybe buy them some warm popcorn…
CLIL ACTIVITY
Here is an activity from our book, CLIL Activities, which includes a number of brain-friendly aspects:
CLIL activity 2.8: Learner-generated questions
In which ways is the activity Learner-generated questions brain-friendly?
1. Learners are doing a new activity related to questions, which motivates them to think. (NOVELTY)
2. Asking for their opinion and feelings about the questions at the end of the activity about the questions uses their emotions. (EMOTION)
3. The learners have to move around during the activity, asking questions on their coloured cards. This stimulates multiple neural pathways in their brains and the production of more nutrients. (MULTISENSORY LEARNING)
4. The learners create their own questions. (CHOICE)
Look back at the eight questions at the start of the blog and think about incorporating one of the ideas new to you into your CLIL teaching, improving the plasticity of your and your CLIL learners’ brains.