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As you saw in my previous blog post, we discussed the effects that arts and crafts have on the academic performance and brain development in ESL and ESOL students. Well, today it’s the turn of my second favorite subject, “physical education”; by the way, my favorite one is English. Okay…believe it or not, sports are crucial for knowledge acquisition and neurodevelopment, and as well as arts, it has historically been neglected by schools and society.
Before expanding on this information, it is necessary to clarify that most of the data included here has been taken from the book Neuromitos-en-educación written by Anna Forés, José Ramón Gamo, Jesús C Guillén, Teresa Hernandez, Martha Ligioiz, Félix Pardo, and Carme Trinidad. In this blog post I also include many of my ESL and ESOL teaching experiences. That being said, we can start by stating that according to Jesús C Guillén, physical education is key if we want our students to master new content He declares that physical activity modifies the neuronal chemistry and makes the learning process smoother and much more pleasant for the learner, no matter their age. So…my lazy teachers…we can also modify our brains and learn much more.
But Adriana, “How does that really work? Provide more details, you might be saying.”
“Fine.” The author affirms that when we move our bodies, we generate neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and norepinephrine, which improve our state of alertness, attention and motivation, all essential elements to be successful in the learning process. To tell you the truth, I can vouch for this. Some years ago, I had the opportunity to teach in a “Bilingual Program” in a South American country. One of our responsibilities was to plan “dynamic” and “fun” lessons.
“Adriana …What does it mean to ‘have fun’ for you? Elaborate, please.”
Let me see… for the school directives, having fun had to do with running, jumping, playing, etc.
I must confess that at first I thought this was something crazy and wouldn’t lead to any tangible results. However, after having observed my kids’ motivation and enthusiasm after these physical activities, I started looking for more information about movement and cognition.
After having googled and finding much more about the link between exercise and the brain, I jumped into it, but in a much more strategic way. I started to design my lessons using some sports and games before the “workbook” stage. After introducing the topic, I used to do a controlled collective practice. We used to leave the room and study the contents in the court with contests such as relay races, 4 corners games, etc. After having done that, my children had 5 minutes to go to the restroom, and after that they would go directly to the classroom to do the “hard work”. This “hard work” required them to be quiet and focused on a task for a specific period of time. From my perspective, my students seemed to be much more focused on their work and were able to demonstrate a better understanding of the topics through their independent practice exercises.
After having noticed this, I searched for more and I ended up reading some interesting neuroscience articles. One of the pieces of information that attracted my attention the most was that the practice of physical activities promotes much more synapsis (connections among neurons) in the brain. And that includes you, my dear teacher. This synapsis improvement is magical since it enhances memory and concept retention. Additionally, the article mentions an experiment in which a group of 120 people who were exposed to physical activities three times per week had a 2% increase in their hippocampus, a fundamental brain structure that is responsible for the special memory and the BDNF protein.
“Alright, and how can this protein affect us?” you might be asking.
The BDNF protein improves neuroplasticity (neuron connections). It supports the generation of new neurons which helps human beings to learn more and better, at any age. Furthermore, it increases vascularization which enhances the amount of nutrients that reach the brain. Additionally, in a study carried out with a group of students between 20 and 30 years old, it was evidenced that a 3-minute sprint before a test could help individuals learn new vocabulary 20% faster than the ones who rested before taking the exam. This interesting finding was an extremely useful tip for me as an old ESL and ESOL teacher.
On the other hand, there was another article that caught my attention as an ESL and ESOL teacher and it was related to reading comprehension. The study showed that a group of individuals demonstrated higher reading comprehension levels and better spelling retention after exercising. According to the scientists, these outstanding results are closely related to the boost of their brain waves and the way they affect self-control and attention spans.
As you can see, body movement is not just connected to health and physical wellbeing, but is connected to learning, cognition, and brain improvement as well. The rigorous inclusion of the movement in the lesson plans will eventually become a “must” in every single classroom around the world, and it is our duty to be open and ready to watch over its proper implementation in our ESL and ESOL lessons.
If you want to get an example that involves language and physical activity? Download my “Verb to Be FREE Board Game” or my “FREE All About Me Pack”.
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