Melbourne Graduate School of Education

Masters of Teaching (Secondary)

University of Melbourne

Subject: Psychology Date: 28/10/2014
Topic: Neural Basis of Learning Time: 75 minutes
Lesson Number: 4 Period: 1
Year Level: 12 Location: Q420
Class Size: 25 Danielle Wilson & Melissa OMeara


Learning Intentions
- To be able to describe adaptive
plasticity
- Make relevant everyday links to
adaptive plasticity
- Gain confidence in extended
response
- Integrate content with research
methods
- Learn to juggle
Subject Matter
- Developmental plasticity
- Adaptive plasticity
- Research methods

Link to study design
Neural Basis of Learning
- Developmental plasticity and
adaptive plasticity of the brain:
changes to the brain in response to
learning and experience; timing of
experiences


Resources
- Balloons
- Rice
- Funnels
- PowerPoint
- Handout
- Whiteboard Marker
- Laptops/iPads
- Socrative App
Rationale/Motivation
- End of year exam
- SAC preparation
- Create link between content and
everyday life
- Introducing unit 4 in an engaging
way
- Importance of research
methods/extended response
My Learning Goals
- Stay within the time limits for each
activity
- Effective behaviour management
when bringing class back to focus
after an activity
- Clear instructions

Time Instructions/Activity/Task Resources


2 minutes


15 Minutes
Introduction

Greet students and mark roll

Recap developmental plasticity concepts using Socrative quiz (10 multiple choice
questions)
Revise any answers that were commonly incorrect





Laptops/iPads
Socrative App




5 minutes
Content (PowerPoint)

Introduce Adaptive Plasticity
- Occurs in adults as a result of learning and new experiences
- Adults continue to form new synapses as they age
- Overcome damage to areas of the brain
- Stem cells
- The more cognitive activities people undertake during life, the more active the
brain remains therefore the more plastic it stays throughout life.


Time Instructions/Activity/Task Resources



1 minute
5 minutes
3 minutes
7 minutes
2 minutes



Application
Juggling Activity:
- Hand out resources for juggling balls (rice, balloons and funnels)
- Explain how to make juggling balls
- Give students time to make juggling balls
- Show juggling instruction video
- Students practice juggling
- Debrief about juggling and plasticity link adaptive plasticity to other areas of
everyday life e.g. sports, musical instrument





Rice
Funnels
Balloons
YouTube Video






30 minutes
Extended Response
- Discuss structure of extended response
- Make mention of why we do this exam
- Hand out extended response sheet with scenario
- Students to complete the extended response


Extended
Response
Handouts




5 minutes
Conclusion
- Students hand in extended response which will be quickly marked and
discussed next lesson

Wrap Up
- Ask students to think of two examples of adaptive plasticity
- Suggest that students go home and teach a family member how to juggle
- Ask students to reflect afterwards on how well the learning process went link
this to future studies on learning e.g. repetition, positive reinforcement etc.


Assessment (monitor throughout lesson)

- Are students asking appropriate questions about the content?
- Are students able to provide relevant examples?
- Are students able to answer the extended response questions with some
prompting?
- Are students engaged and having input in discussions?


Evaluation and Reflection
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PLAN B
- Start mind map/brainstorm about what students know about learning
- Show The Office classical conditioning video
- Introduce Pavlov