Jensen posits 10 brain-based principles that he views are most important to learning.
He notes that another person might come up with a different list and still be correct
and that everyone neither agrees on these principles nor on the brain-based learning
strategies that can be inferred from the principles. However, these are the principles
that drive Jensen’s work.
1. Malleable memories. Memories are often not encoded at all, encoded poorly, changed or not
retrieved. Memories are susceptible to inattention, erosion over time, subject bias, misattribution and
a host of other confounding conditions. Memories are strengthened by frequency, intensity and
practice under varying conditions and contexts.
2. Non-conscious experience runs automatic behaviors. The complexity of the human body requires that
we automate many behaviors. The more we automate, the less we are aware of them. Most of our
behaviors have come from either “undisputed downloads” from our environment or repeated
behaviors that have become automatic. This suggests potential problems and opportunities in learning.
3. Reward and addiction dependency. Humans have a natural craving for positive feelings, including
novelty, fun, reward and personal relationships. There is a natural instinct to limit pain even if it means
compromising our integrity. For complex learning to occur, students need to defer gratification and
develop the capability to go without an immediate reward.
4. Attentional Limitations. Most people cannot pay attention very long, except during flow states,
because they cannot hold much information in their short-term memory. We are born with the
capacity to orient and fixate attention when it comes to contrast, movement, emotions or survival.
Adapting the content to match the learner provides better attention and motivation to learn.
5. Brain seeks and creates understanding. The human brain is a meaning-maker and meaning seeker. We
assign value and meaning to many everyday occurrences whether it’s on intentional or not. Meaning-
making is an important human attribute that allows us to predict and cope with experiences. The more
important the meaning, the greater the attention one must pay in order to influence the content of the
meaning.
6. Rough Drafts/Gist Learning. Brains rarely get complex learning right the first time. Instead they often
sacrifice accuracy for simply developing a “rough draft” of the learning material. If, over time, the
learning material maintains or increases in its importance and relevance, the brain will upgrade the
rough draft to improve meaning and accuracy. To this end, prior knowledge changes how the brain
organizes new information. Goal-driven learning proceeds more rapidly than random learning. Learning
is enhanced by brain mechanisms with contrasting output and input goals.
7. Input Limitations. Several physical structures and processes limit one’s ability to take in continuous
new learning. The “slow down” mechanisms include the working memory, the synaptic formation time
for complex encoding and the hippocampus. While we can expose our brain to a great deal of
information in a short time frame, the quality of that exposure is known as “priming” and is not
considered in-depth learning. Schools typically try to cram as much content as possible in a day as
possible. You can teach faster, but students will just forget faster.
8. Perception influences our experience. A person’s experience of life is highly subjective. Many studies
show how people are easily influenced to change how we see and what we hear, feel, smell and taste.
This subjectivity alters experience, which alters perception. When a person changes the way they
perceive the world, they alter their experience. It is experience that drives change in the brain.
9. Malleability/Neural Plasticity. The brain changes every day and more importantly, we influence those
changes. New areas of brain plasticity and overall malleability are regularly discovered. It is known that
experience can drive physical changes in the sensory cortex, frontal lobes, temporal lobes, amygdala
and hippocampus. In addition whole systems can adapt to experience such as the reward system or
stress response system.
10. Emotional-Physical State Dependency. Nearly every type of learning includes a “go” or “no go”
command to the brain in our neural net signaling process. These complex signals are comprised of
excite or suppress signals. Emotions can provide the brain’s signals to either move ahead or not. Thus,
learning occurs through a complex set of continuous signals which inform your brain about whether to
form a memory or not. Both emotional and bodily states influence our attention, memory, learning,
meaning and behavior through these signaling systems.