Last week I was met with a question that left me pondering. Posed to me was this quiz, "Which research do you find to be the most useful to your teachers, Marzano or Jensen?" Yea, I know. It kinda stopped me in my tracks too. And I had to answer it in the presence of well-educated individuals.
Until a moment later in the week, I kept teetering between the two: Marzano for his instructional strategies or Jensen for brain-based learning? They were separated in my mind as if they were two schools of research and thought. But alas, they are not. In fact, they are two pieces of a puzzle that fit tightly together to create a safe, student-centered learning environment.
This past week, I attended the Marzano Institute on Student Engagement in Houston. While I can truly say it was a fantastic conference, it led me to an epiphany of instructional proportions. Marzano's Model of Attention and Engagement encompasses four questions for learners:
1) How do I feel?
2) Am I interested?
3) Is this important?
4) Can I do this?
Rooted within those four questions are the ideals and practices of Eric Jensen - the secret to keeping the students engaged through physical activity and brain stimulation. At the Institute I heard four presenters discuss the varying components within this research with a focus on building vocabulary. In each and every presentation, the expert quoted Jensen's research. Often multiple times.
As a principal I am thrilled to find two researchers who work can be so equivocally matched together like two pieces to a puzzle. It is far to often we chase the latest and greatest thing and it has nothing to do with our previous initiatives.
Not this time, folks, this is the real deal.
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Marzano IS based on neuroscience ... so of course the two are pieces of the same leave no-child-behind puzzle. Thanks for so succinctly linking the two!
ReplyDeleteJust think about the four questions you sited - 20 years ago the relationship that unites them all as "brain-based" would be less obvious than today because of what we now know about brain chemistry.
I am often surprised that teachers are not more knowledgeable about the brain (the very organ we are trying to grow as a direct result of our teaching). Educators are just now catching up with information that other industries (like rental cars) have known about and utilized for years!
You are right we need to stop CHASING the latest "thing" and to start to pay attention to the children who sit directly in front of us as unique developing individuals. There is no such thing as a standardized child from a neurological perspective. There is no one size fits all.