Info From the book: How Children Succeed
by Paul Tough
Working Memory=The ability to keep a bunch of
facts in your head at the same time.
Dopamine deficiencies occur when
students grow up in stress. Dopamine is
produced by our brains when we are happy and well-adjusted. There is a high
correlation between students of poverty and high stress situations and low
dopamine levels. Dopamine deficiencies result in many struggles including lack
of attention and focus and poor working memory.
Students have to move new information from the “working memory” to their
long-term memory to really remember, understand, and synthesize new
information. Many of our students
struggle with this.
The
reason scientists are so excited about these findings is because they know that
the Pre-Frontal Cortex is malleable. Just
because students have been affected by the stress in their lives and it
manifests academically, doesn’t mean that these adverse responses can’t be
reversed. If students are given positive
experiences in school and we have culturally responsive classrooms, we can
effect change and have an overall lasting impact. Think about this when you think about what
you can do as a teacher. You can’t
change a student’s previous experiences and you can’t change their experiences
at home, but you can change their experiences in school. Scientists are launching the counter-attack
on the effects of poverty through teachers.
You can increase the prospect for success just by improving a child’s
environment at school, which you do every day!!
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