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Environment and Neurochemical Factors Impact Behavior

Christy Bryant
EDU417: Cognitive Studies Capstone
Ciara Smack
September 15, 2014

10/1/2014 1
Our children and Neuroplasticity
The little brains that are eager to learn grow and change
every time they learn something new.
When the children are engaged in learning they are
constantly connecting their neurons by firing and wiring.
For example, when they learn a new activity repeatedly they
fire and wire neurons in the brain.
Changing our childrens brain in the classroom
The more we stimulate our childrens brain the more stronger and
efficient the brain becomes.
As educators, it is important to find activities that build knowledge and
change the brain. For example, have students complete activities
repeatedly, review materials in a variety of ways for the students to
connect to the more hard wired connections in the brain.


Neurotransmitters, Learning, and Memory

Dopamine Impacts the Learning Environment
Dopamine is the chemical that helps our children retain information. How
can the teacher get the students attention?

The content has to engage the students and the teacher has to make the
students excited about the lesson. For example, as the teacher open the lesson
referring it to real life situations and get the students connected to the
lesson. Make the lesson new, exciting, and worth listening to the listen.

Serotonin connects to the students learning environment
Serotonin is absolutely essential for learning and memory (Kandel, 1994). Without this
neurotransmitter students will learn nothing, because they will retain nothing!
Serotonin is important because it helps our students with their self-esteem and social-behavior.
Teachers are aware when students have high self-esteem they normally perform better but the
children with low self-esteem have a lot of issues in the educational spectrum. Serotonin is a
bio-chemical link between behavior, cognition, and feeling self-worth.
Students need to feel self-worth, they need to fit in socially with other peers, and learning
environment needs to be rich, so the serotonin level will be raised. A healthy school culture
helps to develop the neuronal circuits and biochemistry needed to be a viable and healthy human
being (Gathercoal, 1999).

Sleep, Learning, and Memory
Children need adequate sleep when trying to learn and retain
information.
Research suggests that sleep helps learning and memory in two distinct
ways. First, a sleep-deprived person cannot focus attention optimally
and therefore cannot learn efficiently. Second, sleep itself has a role in
the consolidation of memory, which is essential for learning new
information ( Ellenbogen, Payne, & Stickgold, 2006).
Movement and Dopamine
If the Dopamine level is increased from being enthusiastic about a task then
the children will perform.
This will give the students a drive to perform physically in class. For
example, they will participate in extra-curricular activities.
If the dopamine is low, the students will not have the initiative to complete
school task.
Teachers have to keep the students excited and motivated to learn in the
school environment.


Conclusion
Our brain plays a vital role in our everyday learning.
As educators, our students have to be challenged so they can learn as
they grow.
Also, the learning environment has to be rich because the students need
an exciting and challenging learning environment.


Reference
Kandel,E. (1999). Genes, synapses, and memory. Nobel Conference on
Neuroscience. Gustavus Adolphus College.
Gathercoal, P. (1999). Endorphins and Media Messages: Addicting
Students to Mediated Violence and Emotions.
Ellenbogen JM, Payne JD, Stickgold R. The role of sleep in declarative
memory consolidation: passive, permissive, active or none? Curr Opin
Neurobiol. 2006 Dec;16(6):716-22. Epub 2006 Nov 7.

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