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Educational Psychology

Educational Neuropsychology EdPsy 471 Syllabus 

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Tuesday Thursday 2:30 to 4:20 5 credits
2nd-floor Miller Hall Smart Conference Room

Instructor: Virginia W. Berninger, Ph.D., Professor Educational Psychology 
vwb@u.washington.edu to schedule appointment or other request

Required Texts (Available at UW bookstore and Amazon.com): 
The Human Brain Coloring Book (Diamond & Elson, 1985, Harper & Row). Please bring to class completed pages in colored pencils the day they are on the syllabus.

PDFs provided by Instructor:
1. Diamond, M. (2009). Magic Trees of Mind, Chapter 1.

2. Cassiday, L. Mapping the epigenome. New tools chart CHEMICAL MODIFICATIONS of DNA and its packaging proteins. WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG September 14, 2009

3. Petitto, L. (2009) New Discoveries from the Bilingual Brain and Mind Across the Lifespan and their Implications for Education. Journal of Mind, Brain, and Education.

4. Berninger, V. & Richards, T. (2009). Brain and learning. In E. Anderman & L. Anderman (Eds.), Psychology of classroom learning: An encyclopedia, Vol. 1 (pp. 15-22). Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA.

5. Berninger, V., & Richards, T. (2002). Brain Literacy for Educators and Psychologists. Chapters 3, 4

Recommended Texts (Source for lectures. Brain Literacy will be available to read in Miller 322. Ask Greg Daigle. Also these texts are available at Suzzallo, UW bookstore, and/or Amazon)

1. Magic Trees of Mind. How to nurture your child’s intelligence, creativity, and healthy emotions. From birth through adolescence. (Diamond, 1999, Penguin Books).

2. What’s going on in there? How the brain and mind develop in the first five years of life (Eliot, 1999, Bantam Books).

3. Brain Literacy for Educators and Psychologists (Berninger & Richards, 2002,
Academic Press) 

4 . The learning brain. Lessons for education. (Blakemore & Frith, 2005, Blackwell Publishing)

5.  Educating the human brain. (Posner & Rothbart, 2007, American Psychological Association) Focuses on attention and temperament especially in early childhood

Class Policy: Out of courtesy to others, please shut off cell phones and lap tops during the lecture part of class (Bringing Past and Current Knowledge and Issues about Brain to the Field of Education), but bring laptops. Handouts for powerpoints will be provided on which notes can be takena. During the Bringing Your Thoughts to Applying Knowledge of Brain to Educational Practices and Policies, all students will be encouraged to access the website/s targeted in specific classes (listed at end of syllabus) or figures/images instructor provides. A web-based chat room will be set up for Making Connections discussions in which the whole class is encouraged to participate.

UW Website Resources

• Brain Awareness Week
• Go to Eric Chudler’s faculty website for many links for Neuroscience for Kids and Newsletters and Brain Lessons

• Go to http://www9.biostr.washington.edu/da.html  to access the interactive atlases of the Digital Anatomist Project. Then click on and explore brain link and neurosyllabus link. You may also visit The Digital Anatomist and  UW Image Collection Manager at  UW Image Collection Manager  Click on Tutorial.

Course Objectives

1. To learn basic neuroscience knowledge that is rapidly expanding since the Decade of the Brain (1990-2000) so that educators and early childhood specialists can become informed and critical consumers of this rapidly expanding body of knowledge.

2. To learn the brain imaging techniques used to study the living brain.

3. To learn basic principles and mechanisms of normal brain development, normal learning, and normal behavior in preschoolers and school age children and youth.

4. To integrate findings of cognitive neuroscience and of cognitive and developmental psychology to optimize development, learning, and behavior of preschoolers and school age children and youth; build reading, writing, and math brains neurologically and pedagogically; and respect biodiversity and cultural diversity. 

5. To integrate the seminal contributions of Luria (Vygotsky’s pupil who studied dynamic functional brain systems across varied tasks), Vygotsky (learning through social interaction), and Piaget (learning through representing the external environment, representing the internal mental environment, operating on the physical environmental, and operating on the internal mental environment)

Course Requirements

1. Attend and participate in all classes (presence and engagement) and complete all assignments when due. Contact instructor for accommodations for classes missed because of flu.

2. Complete coloring assignments on the day they appear on the schedule. This book was developed to be used in medical education of physicians but educators and psychologists have also found it to be helpful in visualizing the spatial details of brain structures and organization.

3. Participate in class discussions and in chat room (for Making Connections at end of syllabus).

4. Learn new vocabulary and concepts (e.g., nomenclature for naming brain regions; visual-spatial representations of neural architecture, general principles of the structural and functional organization of the brain at its micro-level and macro-level). 

5. At least 80% average on three in-class tests (multiple choice and short essays that require learning specific information, terminology, and visual spatial structures and organization about brain but also reflection in linking that conceptually to education).

6. Complete a take-home summary and evaluation of two published brain imaging studies that are educationally relevant on a topic of interest to you; goal is to show you can be an informed, critical consumer of rapidly expanding brain imaging literature.

7.  Create a lesson plan based on Chudler’s website (or other website) for teaching children, adolescents, or young adults about brain for a well-defined educational purpose.

Grading: This course is graded. Grades are based on the following requirements: (a) overall average on in-class tests (60%) and take-home test (20%); (b) satisfactory completion of brain coloring assignments (5%); (c) satisfactory lesson for teaching children about their brain (5%); participation in class and chatroom discussions (10%).

Schedule

Websites to Review for Ideas for Lesson Plans

• http://www.teach-the-brain.org   Worldwide Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development network for engaging teachers in applying brain research to early childhood literacy and numeracy

• UC Davis: Center for Mind and Brain : Welcome

• http://www.brainsrule.com/index.htm

• http://www.dana.org/resources/brainykids/default.aspx

• http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/

• http://www.nobelprize.org/educational_games/

• http://www.teens.drugabuse.gov/mom/teachguide/MOMTeacherGuide.pdf

• http://www.alz.org/brain/01.asp

• http://www.kidshealth.org

• http://www.howstuffworks.com

• http://talkingbrains.blogspot.com/

Additional Courses at University of Washington on Neuroscience and Neuropsychology:

PSYCH 460 Cognitive Neuroscience (4) NW
Discussion of neural systems underlying cognitive behavior with particular focus on breakdown of cognition following brain damage. Topics include object and space perception, language, voluntary movement, attention, and memory. Examination of contributions from related areas of neuroimaging, visual perception, linguistics, physiology, and neuroscience.

PSYCH 420 Drugs and Behavior (3) NW Diaz
Animal and clinical research on the behavioral consequences of drug intake.

PSYCH 421 Neural Basis of Behavior (5) NW Diaz
Anatomical and physiological principles and resultant behavior involved in the integrative action of the nervous system.

PSYCH 429 Brain Anatomy for the Behavioral Scientist (1) NW Diaz
Detailed review of the neuroanatomical features of the sheep brain with laboratory demonstrations.

PSYCH 430 Development of Brain Connections (4) NW  
Analysis of innate and environmental factors that play a role in the development of brain connections. Critical review of current literature on the various strategies used by neurons to find their appropriate targets.

PSYCH 458 Behavioral Genetics (4) NW  
    Role of genetics in determining variation in human and animal behavior and    in regulating behavioral development. Techniques for quantifying genetic variation, behavioral effects, and gene expression.

Making Connections Topics for Chatroom Discussion

ttps://catalysttools.washington.edu/gopost/board/vwb/12902/

Ongoing throughout the quarter:

1. What are the differences between learning and teaching? What mechanisms of human learning can you identify based on prior knowledge, lectures or readings during this course, class discussions, or other source? What might be the brain structures or processes supporting each learning mechanism?

2. What are the differences among constructivist, explicit, and direct instruction? Might these be teaching styles that fall along a continuum? If so, what is the nature of that continuum? How might the role of the teacher and student differ across that learning continuum? Are there individual differences among students as to which kind of instruction might be most effective at specific stages of development? Might one or more brain mechanisms play a role in those individual differences? How might social or cultural factors (e.g., individual instruction from a tutor versus learning in small groups versus learning in large groups) interact with this continuum or individual differences or times in development?

3. What does it mean that the brain mediates response to instruction?

4. Why does play facilitate learning across development?

5. Why should instructional methods and assessment approaches be developmentally appropriate for reading, writing, and math? What does it mean to be developmentally appropriate?

The questions posed below are linked to a specific class topic and may be initiated after that class but continued throughout the quarter:

Th Oct 1 Did any of the ideas presented in class surprise you? If so, which ones and why? Did your thinking about an issue change in any way? If so, why?
 Can all individual differences in learning, behavior, and emotions be
 eliminated? Why or why not? How might biodiversity along with cultural
 diversity be dealt with in real world classrooms?  

Tu Oct 6 What does it mean that the brain contributes to learning, behavior, and
 emotions at multiple levels or units of analysis? Why should the brain’s
 role in learning, behavior, and emotions be studied and applied to
 education at multiple levels or units of analysis?

Th Oct 8 How might modeling alternative computations of axons and dendrites in
 neuronal pathways contribute to understanding the role of the brain in
 mediating response to instruction, the learning process, and development
 of cognitive and language skills? 

Tu Oct 13 What kinds of evidence show that the learning style based on one sensory
 modality cannot explain important individual differences in academic
 learning? Why is it not justified to base instruction on right versus left
 brain learning styles? How do the primary, secondary, and tertiary areas of
 the brain in Luria’s model help to conceptualize development and learning
 from infancy through early childhood and middle childhood?
  
Th Oct 15 What are the strengths and weaknesses of each of the widely used brain
 imaging modalities? Why doesn’t one alone tell the whole story about the
 brain’s role in learning, behavior, and emotions? Why can’t brain function
 be meaningfully studied apart from cognitive, language, or other kinds of
 tasks or activities or social variables? 
  
Before
Tu Oct 20 Support your classmates in studying for written exam.
 
Th Oct 22 Revisit prior questions and discuss further.  
 

Tu Oct 27 If normal individuals show variation in brain functions associated
with behavioral measures of various academic, cognitive, language, executive function skills etc., then how do we know when someone has an educationally handicapping condition or specific kind of disability?
What is the difference between a developmentally sensitive period and a critical developmental period in learning and development?
How do both biology and experience contribute to development and learning?
Why is asking whether something is the result of nature or nurture generally an obsolete questions nowadays?

Th Oct 29 Why do genes alone not account for neural migration?
 What are the neural mechanisms that account for brain growth and
 development from conception to adolescence?

 Tu Nov 3 How do sensory and motor processes contribute to contact with the
external world? How do these in turn work with brain structures/functions lacking any contact with the external world?
How do these contribute to development and learning differently
across development?
 
Th Nov 5 What are the most important brain changes around age 2?
 What are the most important brain changes around age 6? 
 How do these impact school learning and behavior across
all cultures?
What are the most important brain changes during adolescence?
What are the educational implications both at school and at home? 

Before
Tu Nov 10 Support your classmates in studying for the written exam.
 
Th Nov 12 How is a reading brain constructed from many brain
systems? Which ones? How? Do the brain systems involved change over development from the preschool and school age years? If so, how?
How does the functional reading system reorganize over time?
 What factors contribute to this reorganization? Why is reorganization
 necessary?
Are both inductive (abstraction of statistical regularities) and deductive (application of explicit, modeled processes) involved in learning to decode and read words?
 How do the cognitive and behavioral pathways support learning and
 behavior?

 Tu Nov 17 What is the difference between teaching procedural knowledge
 and teaching declarative knowledge? Why is this distinction
 important for teaching reading effectively?
 What does it mean that language has at least four end organs?
 What are the instructional implications?
 Why is linguistic awareness important in learning to read? Which
 kinds of linguistic awareness are important in learning to read?
 What does it mean that alphabetic principle is necessary but not
 sufficient for learning to decode and read words?
 What is the role of the self in learning to read? How can others
 (e.g., teachers) teach self-regulation of learning to read?

 Th Nov 19 What does it mean that writing is not the mirror image of reading?
 How is a writing brain constructed from other brain systems?
 How does the writing brain change and reorganize across development?
 
Tu Nov 24 Why should writing be included in the preschool and early
 childhood curriculum?
 Why does alphabetic principle have to be taught in the spelling
 direction for spelling words (rather than the reading direction)?
 What are the advantages of teaching integrated writing-reading
 from the beginning of formal schooling?
What is the role of the hand in learning to write letters? spell? compose?
 What is transcription? What is translation? Why from a brain
 perspective should both be taught together close in time in an
 integrated fashion during the transition to formal schooling?
 What does it mean to teach to all levels of language close in time
 to overcome inefficiencies in working memory? How does this
 approach facilitate development of the language learning
mechanism?
 
Tu Dec 1 What kinds of quantitative knowledge are represented in the
 infant’s brain?
 How is the math brain constructed from other brain systems?
 What is the role of the hand in learning math?
 What is the role of working memory in learning to do math?

Th Dec 3 What are the relationships among rote counting, counting with one to one
 correspondence, and developing an internal number line? What is the
 relationship of an internal number line and counting to math fact learning?
 What are some ways to improve math fact retrieval without mindless
 repetitive drill?
 Why is place value the essential syntax of the math learning? 
 Why are the part-whole relationships essential to math development? 
 Why are circular, cycling internal number lines important?

Before
Dec 8 Support classmates in studying for written exam.

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• Abbott, Robert
• Bell, Philip
• Berninger, Virginia
• Bransford, John
• Catalano, Richard
• Cauce, Ana Mari
• Cohen, Marilyn
• Frey, Karin
• Hawkins, David
• Herrenkohl, Leslie
• Jegatheesan, Brinda
• Jones, Diane
• Jones, Janine
• Joseph, Gail
• Klockars, Alan
• Kuhl, Patricia
• Li, Min
• Mazza, James
• McCutchen, Deborah
• Meltzoff, Andrew
• Nolen, Susan
• Stevens, Reed
• Taylor, Catherine