The Motivated Brain
Improving Student Attention, Engagement, and Perseverance
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What really motivates students to learn? What gets them interested—and keeps them interested—in pursuing knowledge and understanding? Recent neuroscientific findings have uncovered the source of our motivation to learn, or as neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp terms it, the drive to seek. Seeking is what gets us out of bed in the morning, the engine that powers our actions, and the need that manifests as curiosity.
Informed by new findings on the nature of the brain's seeking system, internationally renowned educators Gayle Gregory and Martha Kaufeldt have identified key brain-friendly strategies for improving student motivation, knowledge acquisition, retention, and academic success. In this book, readers will learn
* The science behind the motivated brain and how it relates to student learning.
* Strategies for preparing a motivational environment and lesson.
* Strategies for creating engaging learning experiences that capitalize on the brain's natural ways of learning.
* Strategies for improving depth of knowledge, complex thinking, and synthesis to get students into the ever-desired state of flow.
* How attention to the neuroscience of motivation will improve the classroom environment and student learning.
The Motivated Brain shows teachers how to harness the power of their students' intrinsic motivation to make learning fun, engaging, and meaningful.
Gayle H Gregory
Gayle H. Gregory is first and foremost a teacher, having experienced teaching and learning in elementary, middle, and secondary schools, community colleges, and universities. She has had extensive district-wide experience as a curriculum consultant and staff development coordinator. Gayle was principal/course director at York University for the Faculty of Education, teaching in the teacher education program.
Her areas of expertise include brain-compatible learning, differentiated instructional and assessment strategies, block scheduling, emotional intelligence, student motivation, RTI Tier One, collaborative learning, common core, renewal of secondary schools, enhancing teacher quality, coaching and mentoring, managing change, and building professional learning communities. She also a trainer for Visible Learning Plus with Corwin.
She is an author of numerous books related to educational neuroscience and differentiated instruction, assessment, and curriculum, including the following titles:
- Data Driven Differentiation in the Standards-Based Classroom, Second Edition (2014, with Lin Kuzmich)
- Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size Doesn't Fit All, Third Edition (2013, with Carolyn Chapman)
- Differentiated Instructional Strategies Professional Learning Guide: One Size Doesn't Fit All, Third Edition (2013)
- Differentiated Literacy Strategies for English Language Learners, Grades K-6 and Differentiated Literacy Strategies for English Language Learners, Grades 7-12 (2011, with Amy Burkman)
- Differentiated Instructional Strategies for the Block Schedule (2010, with Lynne E. Herndon)
- Student Teams That Get Results: Teaching Tools for the Differentiated Classroom (2009, with Lin Kuzmich)
- Teacher Teams That Get Results: 61 Strategies for Sustaining and Renewing Professional Learning Communities (2009, with Lin Kuzmich)
- Differentiated Instructional Strategies for Science, Grades K-8 (2009, with Elizabeth Hammerman)
- Differentiating Instruction With Style: Aligning Teacher and Learner Intelligences for Maximum Achievement (2005)
- The Activities for Differentiated Classroom series (2007, with Carolyn Chapman)
She is affiliated with organizations such as ASCD and Learning Forward. Her ASCD publication is The Motivated Brain: Improving Student Attention engagement and Perseverance (2015, with Martha Kaufeldt).
Gayle consults internationally with teachers, administrators, and staff developers.
She and her family of two daughters and two granddaughters all reside in Burlington, Ontario.
Gayle is committed to lifelong learning and professional growth for herself and others. She may be contacted at gregorygayle@netscape.net, www.gaylehgregory.com, and @gaylegregory6.
More by Gayle H Gregory
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