Rewiring Engagement: Shift Happens When Attention Wanders

Outline

1. Introduction (10 minutes)
Who we are: Introduce the presenters, highlighting our diverse backgrounds and relevant experiences (e.g., neuroscience, classroom teaching, tech development).

How Neuropacing addresses current educational challenges.

Real-life example: Provide a relatable and engaging example, illustrating how Neuropacing works in the classroom and addresses academic, behavioral, curriculum design, and equity challenges, emphasizing relevance to the education field.

Objectives: The attendees will be able to:
Intentionally activate key brain networks and understand how they impact a wide range of outcomes (student engagement, behavior, learning retention, and well-being).

Understand how Neuropacing differs from other brain-based and SEL strategies. Unlike traditional models that explain why strategies work, Neuropacing focuses on real-time application, toggling between brain networks to sustain attention and engagement. It goes beyond fixed frameworks by dynamically adapting to students' mental states during the lesson.

Neuropacing also complements widely-used frameworks like UDL and backward design, enhancing them with brain-based insights to foster inclusivity and adaptability.

Engagement: Start with an interactive activity—using a digital poll, ask participants about their current classroom challenges (behavioral, engagement, etc.). Results will frame the session’s relevance.

2. Neuroscience of Learning: DMN, CEN, and Salience Networks (14 minutes)
- Default Mode Network (DMN) - a brain network active during rest, daydreaming, and self-reflection. It's involved in creativity, memory, and emotional processing, switching off when focusing on external tasks.
- Central Executive Network (CEN) - a brain network responsible for focused attention, problem-solving, and decision-making. It activates during complex tasks requiring concentration, working memory, and goal-directed behavior.

Content: Explain the Default Mode Network (DMN), Central Executive Network (CEN), and Salience Network, emphasizing how shifting between them extends attention and improves academic outcomes.

Group Activity: Participants reflect on personal experiences with DMN and CEN, sharing environments and emotions that activate these networks.
Turn & Talk: In pairs, attendees discuss the benefits and challenges of activating these networks in their classrooms.

Engagement: Use visuals (photos, video) to demonstrate real-life classroom scenarios when these networks are active, enhancing relevance and real-world applicability.

3. Quick-Shift Application (3 minutes)
Content: Demonstrate quick shifts between brain networks to show their real-time impact on attention and engagement. The strategies used during this time can all be easily replicated in the classroom.

Engagement:
DMN Activation (1 minute): Ask participants to silently recall what they learned in the last 12 minutes.
CEN Activation (1 minute): Engage in a quick "meet and greet" activity, discussing their favorite learning environments.

DMN Recenter (1 minute): Lead a quick breathing exercise to re-ground and refocus participants.
Takeaway: Participants learn how to apply quick-shift strategies in their own lessons, making it easy to replicate.

4. Breaking the CEN and DMN into Zones: Activating Each Zone (20 minutes)
Content: Introduce the concept of "zones" that align with brain networks and discuss how to activate them in the classroom.
Blue Zone: Relaxation, creativity, and presence (DMN).
- Classroom application: Calm, focused in the present, creative thinking, idea generation, or abstract thinking.

Green Zone: Collaboration and flexibility (CEN).
- Classroom application: actively engaged in group learning, making mental connections, deepen understanding, group decision-making

Yellow Zone: Independent reflection (DMN).
- Classroom application: highly focused, tapping into memories and applying it to new understandings, recalling information, setting goals, problem-solving

Orange Zone: High-energy engagement (CEN).
- Classroom application: Determined, driven, competitive, energized, makes memories stick

Red Zone: Self-regulation and emotional control (Salience Network).
- Classroom application: All proactive strategies for self-regulation.

Engagement: Participants recognize these zones in themselves and discuss how they shift between zones in daily activities. Use music, visuals, and videos to bring zones to life.

Activity: Attendees experience each zone, learning how to apply each in their lessons to promote learning and address diverse needs (advocating equity).

5. Group Energizer & Review (5 minutes)
Content: Review the zones using a call-and-response strategy, recapping key concepts.

Engagement: A speed recall challenge helps consolidate participants' learning into long-term memory.

6. Strategy Discussion & Collaboration (10 minutes)
Content: Provide four proven strategies that activate different zones.

Group Work: Participants work in groups to identify which zone each strategy activates and explain why. They will integrate these strategies into a sample lesson.
Share: Groups work in the Green zone and present their findings, fostering collaboration.

Takeaway: Participants will leave with actionable strategies; We will provide digital access to strategies and sample lessons for participants to use immediately in their classrooms, emphasizing ease of replication.

7. Q&A (4 minutes)
Content: Open the floor for questions, encouraging inclusivity and diverse perspectives.
Engagement: Foster an open, collaborative discussion, emphasizing practical application and feedback.

8. Exit Discussion & Reflection (3 minutes)
Content: Encourage attendees to reflect on the session through journaling. Provide reflection prompts:
How does Neuropacing improve learning and classroom culture?

How can it support equity and inclusion?
What zones are most active in your classroom, and how can you shift between them?

Supporting research

Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. Routledge.
Highlights the impact of various teaching strategies on student achievement.
Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Damasio, A. (2007). We Feel, Therefore We Learn: The Relevance of Affective and Social Neuroscience to Education. Mind, Brain, and Education, 1(1), 3-10.
Discusses the critical role of emotions in learning processes.
Darling-Hammond, L., Flook, L., Cook-Harvey, C., Barron, B., & Osher, D. (2019). Implications for Educational Practice of the Science of Learning and Development. Applied Developmental Science, 24(2), 1-44. Discusses how research on learning and development can inform educational practices.
Sousa, D. A. (2016). Engaging the Rewired Brain. Learning Sciences International.
Explores how educators can engage students in the age of technology and neuroscience.
Zadina, J. N. (2014). Multiple Pathways to the Student Brain: Energizing and Enhancing Instruction. Jossey-Bass.
Provides strategies for activating different neural pathways to enhance learning.
CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning). Fundamentals of SEL. https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/
Emphasizes the importance of social-emotional learning in education.
Wang, R., et al. (2017). Functional Connectivity Changes in the Brain Associated with Meditation: A Systematic Review. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 814.
Examines how mindfulness practices affect brain networks.
ScienceDirect (2022). Mild Levels of Stress Force Your Body to Optimize Brain Cognition and Working Memory.
Supports the strategic use of mild stress (Orange Zone) to enhance performance.
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Prentice Hall.
Emphasizes the importance of learning through experience, which is fundamental to this session.
Marzano, R. J. (2007). The Art and Science of Teaching. ASCD.
Provides research-based strategies for effective teaching, aligning with Neuropacing principles.
National Research Council. (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. National Academy Press.
Explores the science of learning, supporting the integration of neuroscience into education.
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Random House.
Supports the growth mindset principles embedded in CoreTex strategies.
Jensen, E. (2008). Brain-Based Learning: The New Paradigm of Teaching. Corwin Press.
Provides foundational neuroscience concepts that underpin CoreTex methodologies.
Jensen, E. (2008). Brain-based learning: The new paradigm of teaching. Corwin Press.
Provides foundational neuroscience concepts that underpin CoreTex methodologies.
Diamond, A. (2013). "Executive functions." Annual Review of Psychology, 64(1), 135–168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750.
Fornito, A., Zalesky, A., & Bullmore, E. (2016). Fundamentals of brain network analysis. Elsevier.
Goleman, D. (2006). Social intelligence: The new science of human relationships. Bantam Books.
Harvard Business Review, et al. (2018). Focus (HBR Emotional Intelligence Series). Harvard Business Press.
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
LeDoux, J. (2012). "Rethinking the emotional brain." Neuron, 73(5), 1052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2012.02.018.
Perry, R. E., et al. (2019). "Enhancing executive functions through social interactions: Causal evidence using a cross-species model." Frontiers in Psychology, 10, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02472. Accessed 25 Feb. 2021.