Educational Neuroscience

What? What is this individual currently researching?

Marilee Sprenger is an international educational neuroscience consultant. She has worked with kids from all ages, from kindergarten to college graduate students. She teaches brain-compatibility and memory courses at Aurora University. She works at developing brain-based teaching strategies, differentiation, and memory research. Marilee has written many books about these topics. She travels to lecture and teach her strategies to others. She seems to be best known for her research on memory.

So What? What does this person research have to do with education?

Marilee's research has tons to do with education. One very important thing that Marilee says is that students have a limited amount of focus time. She says that a student's focus time is equal to his/her age in minutes. For example I am 22 years old and therefore my focus time is 22 minutes. This is a very important thing to know and understand as a teacher. If you are teacher a group of 14-15 year old you cannot expect to lecture the whole period and your students to stay focused. Instead Marilee says to break up these lecture and focused times with students thinking and sharing the information with a partner. Another thing that Marilee says is that re-teaching the information to others helps you to memorize it. Graphic organizers and mnemonics are also great helps in memorizing information. When it comes to textbook reading Marilee says that if the students don't have something they are suppose to be looking for they will be less likely to remember what they are reading. The more active a student is in the learning the more they are likely to remember the information.

Now What? How might you use this research in your future classroom?

Knowing this information will be a huge help to me in my classroom. Knowing that my students are only able to focus for a certain number of minutes will help me to make lesson plans that are not just full of lecture but incorporate a lot of interaction. I really like graphic organizers and knowing that they are helpful in memory retention makes me like them even more. I definitely plan on using them a lot in my classes. I will also make sure that I give opportunities for my students to teach each other the material because Marilee says this is the best way to remember information. When I assign my students readings I will have them do a literature circle with it or other activities so they know what they need to get out of the reading. Marilee's research is extremely useful information that will really help me in my future classroom.