Cue the Brain

Don Dansereau teaches a class in the Mini-University offered to parents by TCU. He has summarized his main points for the Thinkerer:
http://thinkerer.org/Parenting/ParNewLight.htm

I have elaborated on some his points in earlier blogs. Here I take up a fifth.

Children and adults are strongly and often unconsciously influenced by the physical and social environment. Parts of the environment prime and cue the brain to be in certain states. For example, lying in bed typically cues sleep. Your child’s environment while doing homework can be cultivated to cue motivation and concentration.
------------
You brain responds to your environment by powering up the systems it needs to deal with that environment. That’s why you can walk into a room and wonder what you were looking for. And why you can remember what you were looking for by going back to the environment that triggered your quest.

When you are trying to recall something, you need to turn on the same brain systems that you used to store it. (See my recent blog about time travel with your brain). The easiest way to set up learning for recall is to provide prominent cues that will be present at recall. That doesn’t mean go to the classroom to do homework. It means anticipate how the memory will be used and have the child duplicate or imagine the cues at that time.

Will the teacher ask for oral recitation? Have the child give the recitation.

Do the students stand up to recite? Have the child stand up to recite.

Will the child have to write something? Have the child sit at a table and write as if for the teacher.

Will the child have to do a show-and-tell to the class? Have the child imagine the class and do the show-and-tell to the imaginary class.

Will the child have to narrate a story (historical events, for example)? Have the child imagine an audience and tell the story out loud. (If a child can narrate a story, the child can usually answer questions based on the story: Why did Washington cross the Delaware?)

Will the child have to explain the work (for example, “Tell the class how you got this answer.”)? Have the child explain (with satisfaction) how the work was done. Encourage the child to imagine the class listening.

Will the child have to do some mathematical operation on a test? Be sure the child does similar operations in homework.

Will this same strategy work for adults? Only if they try it.