Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain

by Zaretta Hammond (Corwin, 2014)

A Modern Classic

Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain is a modern classic that has been a foundation for many professional learning programs I have participated in. Concepts from this book that are now part of California Community College teaching culture include warm demander pedagogy, academic (growth) mindset, the damage of microaggressions, and a positive classroom culture around mistakes. Its distinction between dependent and independent learners underpins the Statway and Quantway curricula developed by the Carnegie Foundation.

How the Brain Processes Information

A concept new to me was intellective capacity. Hammond tethers her recommendations to modern neuroscience and describes three stages of how learners process information. First, input: the brain filters out distractions and attends to inputs flagged as important, holding them in short-term memory for 5-20 seconds. Second, elaboration: in working memory, which has a session clock of 5-20 minutes, the brain connects the input to what it already knows; after that session expires, Hammond tells us, the brain takes a break, whether or not the teacher does. Third, application: within 1-2 days, "use it or lose it" applies. Hammond also describes thinking routines that can be taught during elaboration, including Similarities and Differences, Whole-to-Part, and Perspectives.

Timing the Try

My students seem nervous that they won't learn the correct facts if they start by writing attempts, drafts, or experiments. In the input and elaboration stages, they need to feel reassured that they are capturing the material correctly. Perhaps I can be more successful asking them to try a problem, with allowance for mistakes, once the material reaches the application stage. This is the opposite of the Active Calculus approach, and surely not the only way to address the mismatch, but given the time constraints of class it may be a feasible way forward.

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