ES514 – Emerging Pedagogies The Brain
Embodied Brains, Social Minds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RViuTHBIOq8 What we are learning about neurobiology of social emotions shape the way we learn and how we use what we learn. The Connectivity across the brain. The powerful importance of the socio-cultural. We are moved by stories of heroes – we feel the implications of those stories on the same neural systems that keep us alive. Our biological survival and our socio-cultural survival are controlled and felt by the very same neural systems – they are totally intertwined with one another.
Contributions of philosophers… Plato – 2,000 years ago said that all learning has an emotional base.
The conflict of our learning theories https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTgWt4Uzr54 Traditional learning theories eg. behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism conflict with the human need for externalisation of knowledge. Active knowledge creation needs externalisation rather than internalisation which has been the main view of traditional learning theories.
The Brain — is wider than the Sky — For — put them side by side — The one the other will contain With ease — and You — beside — The Brain is deeper than the sea — For — hold them — Blue to Blue — The one the other will absorb — As Sponges — Buckets — do — The Brain is just the weight of God — For — Heft them — Pound for Pound — And they will differ — if they do — As Syllable from Sound — Emily Dickinson
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts? Gestalt psychology…holistic brain which is self organising.
George Miller 1956 Is the human brain a computer?
Try the following Multiply 5x8 Try the following Multiply 67x 82 Try the following Multiply 439x627 No further mathematical knowledge is required…it is just that the storage demands for this activity exceed the capacity of the working memory. What are the processes in the above activity?
• The human mind is like a computer...information is taken in, processed, stored and located. • Short-term memory (working memory) can only hold 5-9 chunks of meaningful information. Cognitive Scientist George Miller 1956 • 7-2 or 7-2 George Miller
Chunking: 1. OFHRTJUDYCX or OFH RTJ UDY CX TOTE instead of Stimulus – Response 2. Test - Operate - Test - Exit
Working memory Limited capacity Everything new must go through working memory
Working Memory Think about a small amount of new information to be learned. Long term memory in Working memory (unlimited retrieve (Limited capacity) capacity)
Sources of cognitive load How to overcome this • Chunking of material – • Complexity of material - meaningful chunks. reading etc. • Coherence of presentation. • Instructional design e.g. organisation. • Practice and overlearn new material. • Learning task – complex tasks, analysis, synthesis.
Articles Article 1: Working memory article. • Working memory makes a vital contribution to classroom learning. • Implications of the research for classroom practice. • Intervention study for children to improve working memory. Article 2: Have Technology & Mulitasking rewired how students learn?
Neuroscience - the scientific study of the nervous system. Major contribution of neuroscience to education is that the brain develops through a dynamic and continuous interaction between biology and experience.
Nervous System Central nervous system The brain and the spinal cord. ..the command and control for the body. Peripheral nervous system The nerves outside of the brain and spinal cord.
The Brain – central nervous system MRI - magnetic resonance imaging…look at structures in the brain. detailed image of brain and brain stem. PET - Positron emission tomography… radioactive positrons - look at functions in the brain.
Harvard scientists map of connecting nerve cells in a brain
What does the brain have to do with learning?
Left and Right brain people…t he notion that one side of the brain is logical and the other side is creative is outdated. Learning is about filling people with knowledge. We only use half of our brain. Boys and girls have different brains.
One boy had the left side of his brain removed when he was 10 years old. That side holds the circuits that control speech for most people. At first, the boy did not speak, but only a year after the surgery he was speaking fluently. He graduated from high school and has gone on to a community college. The other boy lost the right side of his brain at age 3, the hemisphere that deals with emotion and spatial tasks. Now, at age 15, he attends a public high school and is a skilled artist. He will look at one of his drawings and comment, “not bad for a boy with only half a brain.”
Brain consists of discrete cells called neurons. The neuron is the fundamental building block of the brain. It sends and receives relevant information to and within the brain e.g. thought and emotion.
Could the mind be influenced by the gut?
The physical architecture of our brain can be constantly updated as highly used neural connections get strengthened and unused connections get pruned. This is called neuroplasticity of the brain. (Schwartz & Begley, 2003)
Mirror neurons across the brain. These neurons enable one to experience another person’s actions, emotions and experiences. Experience the other’s thinking and life vicariously. As a social being we can internalise other’s feelings. Is learning an individual experience or a social experience? What effect has observing others and experiencing their emotions have on our learning and our brain development?
Bandura - Modeling and Imitation video BOBO DOLL EXPERIMENT
Nature versus Nurture Gesell (1925) – emergence of skills is driven by genes. Watson (1929) – environment determines all behaviour. Brain and Body – co-acting with each other. Co-constructing knowledge together.
References Battro, A. & Fischer, K. et. al (2010). The Educated Brain: Essays in Neuroeducation . Cambridge University Press. Miller, G.A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63, 81-97. Schwartz, J. M. & Begley, S. (2003). The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force 1st (first) Edition by published by ReganBooks. Zull, J. (2011). From Brain to Mind: Stylus Publishing
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