Welcome to QL Club #31!
Let’s bring it in … Whoa!
You may have heard about The Female Brain on CNN or seen it at your local bookstore. Published in August, it is written by a UC Berkeley, Harvard, and Yale-trained medical doctor, Louann Brizendine, and I found it to be incredibly insightful.
Here are some of my thoughts ...
THE FEMALE BRAIN
We may have thought that there are differences between male and female brains – and yet, how do we know? What can we see inside the brain that would point us to some of those differences? This book sheds light on similarities and differences between male and female brains and creates a sense of the “why” behind behaviors and changes throughout the lives of females.
Dr. Brizendine points to teenage girls wanting to connect through talking. Talking activates the pleasure centers in a girl ’s brain. We’re not talking about a small amount of pleasure but a major dopamine and oxytocin “rush” that constitutes one of the fastest neurological rewards a human can experience (p. 37). Why do teen girls go to the bathroom to talk? They are forging connections through gossip and secrets, developing close-knit cliques with one another. Deborah Tannen, Ph.D. author of You Just Don’t Understand, has written about these language “codes” of conduct between women for years. Now, how does the female brain find balance? Well, the prefrontal cortex is the “queen” that rules the emotions and keeps them from going wild. It puts the brakes on the amygdala. The prefrontal cortex is larger in women, and matures faster in women than in men by one to two years. Brizendine distinguishes that there ’s higher density in the female language centers of the brain than in the male brain. Under a microscope or fMRI scan of the brain centers for language and hearing, women have 11% more neurons. Additionally, the ability to observe emotions and memory formation – the hippocampus – is also larger in the female brain (p.4-5). These are exciting findings that point to what makes us who we are.
I think this is interesting research to consider from a teaching point of view. I consider the sprouting, reorganizing, and pruning neural circuits of the teen brain and think: Do I give those teenage girls a chance to talk more often? Is there another avenue that I can use to “hook” them into what we are learning about – via conversation or debate? What can I do to tap into that emotional center to make positive connections? What implications, if any, can I take to the classroom from this book ’s content? Are there any ideas you find useful? Let me know at jseverson@QLN.com.
I see some simple content connections between The Female Brain and Quantum Learning, such as experience before label, atmosphere, music, role-play, debate, structured conversations, paired shares, relationship, prime directive, design of content and delivery, principles of powerful communication.
WE’D LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU ...
We’d welcome any contributions to QL Club including topics of interest, questions you ’d like to explore, or stories of QL in your classroom and what’s working for you. Send your comments to: jseverson@QLN.com.
The purpose of the QL Club is to continue to look for what works as we deepen our understanding, practice ideas, and develop mastery of skills in QL and as professional educators.
Thank you for making a difference in education!
Jenny Severson, Ed.D.
Lead Facilitator, Quantum Learning Education
Please do not reply to this email. Send any inquiries, questions or comments to info@quantumlearning.com