How Stress Affects the Way Kids Learn
by Margaret Seleme de Guevara

In February, I attended Eric Jensen’s wonderful six-day workshop on Brain-Based Learning. One of the subjects that caused a lasting impression in me was to find out how stress affects our brain and thus how it affects the way we – and our children - learn.

According to Marilee Sprenger in her book Becoming a Wiz at Brain Based Learning (Corwin Press 2007), Dr. Robert Sapolsky, who studies stress and its effects on the brain, has made some amazing discoveries in respect of the brain and body reactions to chronic stress. His lab was among the first to document that stress can damage the neurons of the hippocampus. He also discovered that people who exercise show lower levels of stress hormones in their bodies when they encounter potentially stressful situations. Exercise seems to be a factor in coping with stress. (1)

When people know they have options, they also feel less stress. This provides you with a feeling of control in your life. The knowledge that you can handle a situation or have the power to change it alters your reaction.

Stress is the body’s response to a perception of lack of control over an adverse situation. Carry-over stress becomes distress. Exposure to prolonged distress changes the brain. Distress inhibits neurogenesis (the birth of new cells) dramatically (by 30% to 50%). Children that are stressed all the time may not be growing new brain cells.

Since the brain is basically hardwired for bliss, it physiologically blocks learning when stress is present. Movement is the body’s natural reward. Physical activity relieves stress because elevating the heart rate stirs up endorphins, dopamine and serotonin, which are natural relievers of stress.(2)

Allostasis is the process that deals with change. The term describes a process in which the brain coordinates changes throughout the body, which often leads to changes in behaviour. (Sapolsky 2004). In Becoming a Wiz at Brain Based Learning, Sprenger tells us that work done by Bruce McEwen (1999) and others has modified the idea of homeostasis (balance in the body and mind) to define allostasis. Rather than just balancing the body and trying to get it back to its set point, or ideal state, at the actual time of stress, allostasis assumes that anticipation of stress can also create a need for a response. Allostatic load refers to the wear and tear from repeated cycles of allostasis, serious distress leads to it.

In her book, Marilee Sprenger shows in a graphic chart how the levels of allostatic load can be measured:

Normal day to day stressors,(example: homework. When it’s finished the stress levels return to normal).
Chronic stressors, (example: stress levels go up each time a student sees a person that threatens him/her).
Inability to adapt to novel situations,(example: when a child is new at school, he/she experiences stress and should eventually feel comfortable, some do not)
Inability to turn off the stress response (example: a child who has been treated unfairly or beaten at a competition may be upset and can’t let go of it).
Inability to turn on the stress response (Stress hormones are depleted, the advantages of the stress responses are no longer available). (3)

In Marilee Sprenger´s other wonderful book Learning and Memory -The Brain in Action (ACSD 1999), she tells us that a stressful situation may cause racing of the heart, changing of the blood flow and the raising of respiration. A stress response can be triggered before the cerebral cortex, the thin layer of material covering the cerebrum, has had an opportunity to examine the situation. The cerebral cortex decides if factual information is to be stored. If so, it sends it to the hippocampus, which catalogs and files the factual information the brain learns. The hippocampus also determines if emotional information is important. If so, it sends it to the amygdala, which catalogs and files emotional information. The amygadala initiates the stress response, causing the release of stress chemicals that block thinking. The stress response can save your life, or it can cause embarrassment. Some stress chemicals remain in the body for long periods of time and although some stress can be positive, too much can damage the hippocampus.(4)

But not all stress is bad for us; life would not be very exciting without a little stress in it. In fact some people thrive on stress, in what is called eustress or positive stress and can experience it in a situation where another person might be experiencing distress or bad stress.

According to Eric Jensen and Michael Dabney in their book Leaning Smarter (The Brain Store, 2000), some recent research shows that low to moderately high levels of stress can enhance cognition by acting as a cognitive motivator. Self esteem and self confidence are keys to thriving under stress and making stressors work for instead of against us to cope with the task at hand. When these keys are in place, positive pressure can enhance decision making, information processing, and new learning applications.

Scientists know that when we perceive a situation as non-threatening, the proper stage is set in our brain for alterations in neural networks to occur, thus aiding our ability to plan, think and remember. To help us do this, according to Jensen, our brain releases such cognitive enhancing neurotransmitters as acetylcholine, interferon and interleukins The brain also maintains a moderate level of cortisol and adrenaline, allowing us to react enthusiastically and logically to challenges, However, when we perceive a situation as threatening, abnormally high levels of cortisol and adrenaline are released, decreasing semantic learning. (5)

What this shows is how we teachers can easily influence stress in our students, the new children, by triggering the stress response in them.

Marilee Sprenger has also some very good advice for teachers in the classroom in this respect (this information also applies to our children and how we react to them as parents). She says that the teacher must be aware of his/her own responses to stress in the classroom. Some things, such as pop quizzes may easily trigger a stress response in students. Emotions will always take priority over everything else.

Sprenger bases her solution to avoid creating stressful situations for the students on three strategies.

Creating a safe environment for students.
Giving them a sense of predictability, so students always know what’s coming next.
Allowing students a temporary escape from their feelings and problems. (6)

Helping students feel safe

Sprenger says that for students to feel physical safety, they must first have emotional safety with their teachers, who act as their guardians for the time they are with them. Students must feel that their teachers walk their talk. This is accomplished both verbally and non-verbally. Words, actions or facial expressions and body language must all be congruent. A message is only 7 percent content, 38 percent voice (tonality, tempo, volume, and timbre) and 55 percent body language (gestures, position, and proximity). For this reason teachers must say what they mean and mean what they say. Sarcasm cannot enter the classroom (or the home for that matter). Neither the teacher nor the students must be allowed to tease or joke in any manner that might hurt someone. Whether at school or at home, our kids must know that they will be supported as unconditionally as possible.

Sprenger also goes on to say that inappropriate discipline or embarrassing situations cause biological and chemical reactions. Mere spoken words that are critical or sarcastic, when heard on a daily basis, can change the brain.(7) The words are converted to nerve signals that move along the auditory nerves to reach the temporal lobes. These signals are dispersed throughout the brain, and they activate specific networks of neurons. At this neuronal level, changes are made that eventually lead to changes in the nucleus of the cell, which can actually cause genes to be repressed or activated. Some of our genes would never be activated if certain conditions were not present. So, Marille Sprenger says, if a child has a gene that gives him or her a tendency toward depression, repeated experiences of sarcastic or cutting remarks could cause it to be expressed (Resak 2000 ). Conversely, if the child experiences consistently kind and respectful treatment the gene may never be expressed, and the child may never experience symptoms of depression. Interactions in the classroom must be non-threatening, so the brain can be relaxed enough to look for patterns and make connections and learn.(8)

There are other ways in which we can create a safe environment for our students and children, such as providing an environment where they can feel at home, an environment that has plants included in the decoration, posters with positive themes, provide music, nice smells, etc. Accessibility to bathrooms and water creates a safer place for students also.

In my next article we will explore the other two strategies in more detail and we will continue to investigate the subject of stress and its effects on our brain.

(1) “Becoming a Wiz at Brain Based Learning- How to Make Every Year Your Best Year” by Marilee Sprenger – Second Edition – Copyright 2007 by Corwin Press. A Sage Publications Company- 2455 Teller Road – Thousand Oaks California 91320. www.corwinpress.com. (p10).
(2) Extracted from notes on Conference on Brain Based Learning By Eric Jensen at Brain Expo- Orlando Florida. July 2006
(3) “Becoming a Wiz at Brain Based Learning- How to Make Every Year Your Best Year” by Marilee Sprenger – Second Edition – Copyright 2007 by Corwin Press. A Sage Publications Company- 2455 Teller Road – Thousand Oaks California 91320. www.corwinpress.com. (P 66-67)
(4) “Learning and Memory- The Brain in Action” by Marilee Sprenger –Copyright 1999 by ASCD Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development 1703 N. Beauregard St. Alexandria, Va. 22311-1714 USA. www.ascd.org p. 39-40.
(5) “Learning Smarter” by Eric Jensen with Michael Dabney- copyright 2000 -The Brain Store –4202 Sorrento Valley Blvd. 92121-San Diego Ca. USA. www.thebrainstore.com. (p.128)
(6) “Becoming a Wiz at Brain Based Learning- How to Make Every Year Your Best Year” by Marilee Sprenger – Second Edition – Copyright 2007 by Corwin Press. A Sage Publications Company- 2455 Teller Road – Thousand Oaks California 91320. www.corwinpress.com. (P72.)
(7) Idem (p.72)
(8) Idem (p.73)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Margaret Seleme de Guevara is President of the Indigo Foundation of Bolivia. She holds an architecture degree from the University of Notre Dame and a Masters Degree in Education from Framingham State College. She is now also a Kumon Instructor and has opened a Math and Reading Centre in La Paz.
In addition to speaking five languages, Margaret possesses a vast holistic knowledge and has travelled extensively throughout the world. She can be reached at margaretseleme@hotmail.com.