Seven Strategies for Neural Branching

• Extending the brain’s neural network has important implications for teaching.
• Most of the teaching we do accelerates neural pruning.
• That is teaching that presents data as fact, without an opportunity to question or manipulate the data.
• Questioning is a far more powerful way to encourage neural branching than is explication or narration.
• We have to hope, and believe, that the well-ordered question will bring the student into the self-discovery of the data. We do know that the question will at least draw the student in to begin the search. A classroom that fosters inquiry may not deliver all that data, but it will involve all (J) the students.

1. Hypothetical thinking

What if the colonies had lost the Revolutionary War

2. Reversal

What happens if I reverse the addends in a math problem?

3. Application of a different symbol system

Can I draw a picture of this? Can I make it into a math problem?

4. Analogy ~ synectics

How is ________ like ________?

5. Analysis of point of view

What would Hitler~Clinton~Mother say about this?

6. Completion

Omit the steps of a math problem. Remove the conclusion from a story.

7. Web analysis