Canterbury Principal Association Conference 2019
This conference was postponed from March.
Session One-Key Points
- Risk factors and resilience factors.
- First 1000 days of life. The more one to one with an adult, the better your outcomes are.
- Parts of the brain
- Cultural vs research-based evidence.
- Flight, fight or freeze
- Diatic relationships-
Session Two~
- Boys negative results in achievement, one main factor was from boys being made to do Literacy and Numeracy in the first couple of years at school.
- Priority in the first years of school should be about learning to enjoy school.
- Neuro sequential model:
- Feeling brain-From 2-8 years.
- Child getting ready for school vs the school getting ready for the child.
- Survival is our prime
Te Whariki is the highest quality curriculum in the world. Evidence and research-based document. Getting children to do things they are not ready for.
Frontal Cortex-2-27.
Lymbic System-Feeling and emotional brain.
Cortical-
Disposition-Feeling- 2-7 years. Attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. Concerned with kids feeling they are competent. Cognitive skills by eight.
Early cognitive attainment-7-8
China changing school to play based learning before seven.
Making children follow structure under seven, actually means that we are increasing anxiety. The ability to be resilient comes from creativity. Child play vs adult-led environment...what colour what number etc. Statistically more likely to be successful when feeling good as a learner...your disposition. Leave the kid playing until seven. Free play is different to free-range. Children remain in charge. Still need to be extended but remains child-directed. Good to observe interactions, teachers don't need to jump in to make selves feel like we are doing something. Can extend. 7-12 benefit from 2-3 hours a day teacher-led instruction. Kids do project-based learning.
Under seven, supposed to be 100% child-led.
Play-based learning when your emotions are invested in what you are doing. Pres school checks are interesting. Culture and research are clashing.
Two years went into research through John Key Improving the Transition. Looks at why we have the highest rate of teenage suicide. Ages between 2 and 7...
Adolescence- 7-27 Frontal cortex, controls emotions, sees other views, consequences, -this part of the brain gets shut for renovations and child goes into brain 3. Activity happens in the emotional part of the brain. 90% of world view is based on their feelings. Logic does not come into it. Adults are mainly cortex. 10% of the time, a teenager is an adult.
Brain 1 Brainstem-These brains operate as if they are on scales. Survival wins, is the prime director of our brain.
Brain 4 Cortical
IQ...Kids learn the most with the teachers they are close too. relationship-based teaching. Downshifting, dimmer switch, brain stem shifts. The dimmer switch is developed in the first few years of life.
First 1000 days of life, baby is using scales. Survival data hungry kids example. Babies are not evolved to self soothe. Vagus nerve is the stem in the scales.
Noel Leeming-Mahimaina-Ngā Motu Not compatible with Chromebooks.
Session Three-
Neuroplasticity-Brain is pliable. If you have stroke and can't talk, can you speak again? Yes. London Cab Driver study. Measured memories before and then after learning street names. Size correlates with function with memory capacity. Hippocampus? Motor cortex study...Everyone has it. Decreases as you get older. What you put in your mouth matters. Reduces neuroplasticity-CATS-Caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, sugar. It's about how these interact with your genome. Make you more intelligent: Water helps to access IQ. Caffeine, nicotine. Nicotine patches are used in to support elderly memory. Sugar is worse at lessening your neuroplasticity. We don't have receptors for refined sugar. This has not been in our diet until the last 500 years. Queen Elizabeth 1. Heart disease is the number one killer, sugar causes heart disease.
Growing a frontal cortex- Nature and biology is on your side when you are a baby. You can still push a ball up a vertical cliff. How do we fix it?
Need to go from the bottom to the top brains. Can't go to Literacy and Numeracy part, controlling emotions if the first are not active.
Brain 1-Dyadic relationship. Brain stem, HPA access, sensory pathways, vagus, predictability.
Male and Female brain-Male brain is larger, no IQ difference, corpus colosum-part of the brain in the middle, bridge that joins the halves of the brain, women have a six-lane bridge and men have swing bridge.
Children are often in an unpredictable space and we expect them to regulate. Number one way to develop = Dietetic relationship. Experience expectant. Vision takes up 25% of your brain. Genes expect experiences. Expects a dietic relationship. Number one contributing factor for people in prison, would not have had a diatic relationship. 84% of prison population were foster kids. 82% in first 1000 days of life. If diad is established soon enough, things go the same. The second broken diad stops frontal cortex. The diad can have the same effect no matter what age.
No academic reason to change a child's teacher every year. The quality of the relationship is what affects outcomes.
Brain number two-Movement Rhytmic patterning, If you are traumatised, you create a rhythmic pattern. Suppresses cortisol being damaged/released? Swing or a hammock, steady rhythmic pattern. Singing and dancing are like prerequisites for literacy and numeracy learning.
All behaviour is communication. Children usually know what they need. Some children might swing on their chair. Chewing gum can help. Waiata, singing and dancing supports rhythmic patternings.
Brain 3-Disposition. Positive disposition of self as a learner.
Brain 4-
Some things we take for granted, we need to provide for these.
Zone of proximal development.
Day Two Rāapa 18 Mahuru
Reflect: Diadic relationships. Every kid in primary school would benefit from a plan including being able to create a three year relationship with a teacher.
Rhythmic Patterning-More singing, dancing and kapa haka in the classroom. Go back to when arts was the focus.
A stem metaphor. Arts is the framework for all of this.
Brain 3-Dispositions. The more socirty ignores brain 3, the higher the suicide, anxiety, depression rates will be.
The resilient child has been creative. As a teenager, the ability to cope with issues develops from previous opportunities to learn through creating.
Disposition towards your culture and gender. If you are ashamed of who you are, you will not achieve. Children are able to pick up the cultural norm. (His explanation of when you ask groups about icons about being Kiwi and then Māori). Every Māori kid has picked up that it's bad to be Māori within their first year of school). Through silence, you are not being neutral, you are helping the stereotype and are validating it. Learn a language through making mistakes in pronunciation ninety times before you get it right. Males do better than females in learning a second language. Due to risk-taking. Language acquisition is to do with risk-taking. Culture of origin.
Biologically there are seven genders...related to chromosomes. 95% of neurological disorders are in men due to X and Y chromosomes. Gender isn't a binary concept. Mozaic brain.
Need to make children proud of their culture and of themselves...including gender. As a teacher, you need to find a way to create positive dispositions.
Brain Number 4- If brains 1 to 3 are tended to and needs are fulfilled, brain four rolls out on its own accord.
Executive functions-Intelligence levels are fluid. The prefrontal cortex is what humans have. Working memory is one of the executive functions. Can be targetted and increased. Four areas: Working memory, metacognition (thinking about thinking, needs a prefrontal cortex, knowing yourself as a learner, is a more effective narrative therapy can re-traumatise, metacognition is a more effective intervention. Cognitive flexibility, not multitasking, jumping across the corpus callosum, that can be increased in boys learning a musical instrument can increase and become like a female, Chevy to the Levi and 8x4 exercise. Number one thing that determines how well people do is: Self-control, making yourself do the shit you don't want to do. (Jordan Peterson book) Make your bed. Doesn't really matter but is exercised every morning if you do this activity that doesn't really matter or change things. Teenagers in prison, often have a father who they are scared of. Behaviour is better when dad is around. When the father is not around, the kid changes. Need to encourage self-control. Negotiation is still good to teach self-control.
Frontal cortex change in adolescence. Fusiform Gyrus-Reading facial expressions, This part of the brain is shut for three years in teenagers. They are using a different part of the brain amygdala. Teenagers see you as angry all the time due to this. They see anger where it isn't there. Your blank face can tell teenagers you hate them. This can start at 9. We can't undo the reality for them. We need to make it obvious that we are not angry.
Pruning-Information is stored in neural pathways when you learn something new, you form a new neural pathway, neurons are brain cells, cranches come off them and can vary in number, new learning, pathway reaches out to another and they connect. Neurons spark off to connect through kanohi ki te kanohi. Nothing else creates more sparks than face to face. Synapptic connect is when the neural pathways connect. The brain needs to consolidate learning. Synaptic connections do not remain as it works out what to get rid of and what to keep. Myelin seals it. Consolidates the learning on the pathway by insulating it. Once something is fully myelinated in the brain, it doesn't disappear. Becomes myelinated through repetition. No exact number of how many layers it takes. Average is around 90 to 100 times before pathways become fully myelin. It is fat. This is why kids like repetition.
Second Block-The stronger connection between home and school, speed up learning through linking with preexisting knowledge. Network of neurons...link into. It is hard to undo myelin pathways. Behaviour change-Will take about 90 days/opportunities to repeat a behaviour in order to change the pathway. Often need support to create these pathways and new habits. After three months, free choice is more applicable.
Brain has a programme that means when you have a glitch, you go back to day 1. Behaviour change needs to be consistent throughout the 90 days in a row. Behaviour change is hard.
Endorphins and cortisol- Endorphins are positive neurotransmitters. Oxytocin, seratonin, dophamine. Endorphins are related to learning zone. We want classrooms to be endorphin filled, consolidates knowledge faster, People are meant to be happy when learning. Speeds up learning. Three things related to pedagogy that release endorphins:
1) Singing. Floods brain with endorphins. Expresses to your brain that you can't be down in the survival end. Hard to stay in survival part of your brain when you are singing. New born babies respond to tones. Language development starts from singing. Singing is in your amygdila and memory is prone for emotional connection.
2) Laughter-Prepares brain for learning. More learning happens when laughing.
3) Physical exercise-improvements in wellbeing, helps speed up learning, paying attention and staying still is culturally embedded in us. Movement is meant to be how we are. half of the frontal ...disengages when needing to focus on staying still so learning...
Hippocampus, like a koru. Memory is designed to be triggered by emotions. Emotions are connected to learning.
Cortisol-Stress hormone. Job is to strip away your dumb ideas. Does have a good roll. Gets you out of bed. A little bit of cortisol is good. Strips away the newest neurol pathway in the frontal cortex. Need to be careful about when we release cortisol in kids as their learning can be undone. Is released through the word no. We recognise the word no as a negative.
Pro social behaviour guidance is about phrasing things in a positive way. Brain is like a garden, endorphins are like worm wee and cortisol is like weedkiller.
Think of learning as a staircase.
Neural pruning-Arborisation. Brain is at the height of complexity around 1000, day of your life, 2-3 years. Second most active time is adolesence. 141 sounds humans can make, English uses 100 of these. Born with the ability to be able to speak all languages/make all sounds. Pathways can be reconstructed. Pathways are pruned away.
Autism and ADHD-We are just learning about the brain but know less about autistic and ADHD brains. Five balls juggling. Blind friend story. Diffability.
Different type of neural pruning-
Testosterone-40% have or have parents with high levels of testosterone, is an element but not cause. Testosterone inhibits neural pruning. Brain is left with more complexity. Autism was called to extreme maleness, then refrigerator mother syndrome, this is related to post natal depression in mothers and the impact on babies. Serve and response. Oxytocin-Could be a lack of this...just shows it is a player but not conclusive. Digestion-Microflora in the stomach.Three brains, head, heart and stomach. Microflora comes from being born through vagina, breastmilk. Antibiotics wipes out microflora. Seratonin in produced in stomach. Changing microflora is a better that antidepressants and dealing with depression.
Positive Behaviour Management-Can't turn the art part of your brain off. 25%. Top part of the brain. Makes no sense to tell a learner what not to do. Describe the behaviour that you want. Cognitive training is the number one evidenced-based way to change behaviour long term, thinking, help children to learn the appropriate social behaviour. Train thinking. Make a better child by helping kids not punishing. It is in our culture to punish. Help children by helping them. Is hard to undo cultural conditioning. Zero benefit to telling children what not to do.
Cognitive Training-Number on evidenced based way to change behaviour.
1) Safety- Calm the brainstem in a way that is relevant for the person. Some people respond to a hug, some exercise, verbal reassurance. Refrain from imposing your needs upon the person dealing with stress. Meet needs to clam brain stem.
2) Validate emotions coming from the lymbic system. Children live 90% of live in lymbic system. World view is emotional. Kids will do as you do, not as you say. Listen to their limbic system, kids will listen to your cortex. If kids don't feel listened to, they feel you are nagging.
3) Give advice. We often validate freinds and other adults but don't validate kids.
Traumatised people go into teenage brain. Calm the brain stem, validate and shut up. Kids think we don't listen to them. Going straight to advice before validating means they are likely not to listen.
ADHD-There aren't tests or scans to see why. ADHD was known as absent father syndrome. If child is centre of universe until they are four, they will start showing behaviours similar to ADHD. Absent boundaries, a lot of children diagnosed with ADHD is misdiagnosed trauma. Temperament plus environment equals personality. 40% temperal lobes. Asbergers isn't really a thing anymore. Has been seen as the good autism.
