Brain Food

 Human Brain Function Royalty Free Stock Photos - Image: 20234708

 

I can only think of a very few things that intrigue me more than the human brain. Arguably the strongest muscle in the human body, the human brain, weighing in at an impressive average of 3 lbs., is responsible for everything we do, say and obviously everything we think (Campbell, N. A. & Reece, J. B 2005). It's no surprise that the brain conducts how and when we learn and how we conceptualize, analyze and retain any information we've learned. It should also come as no surprise that everyone's brain processes data in various ways. From an educator's standpoint, preparing to educate young minds, this may all seem overwhelmingly complex. Not only does an educator need to know how to teach their students they must also know how their students learn and in which situations and environments their student's retention is more prevalent. Tedious. But, doable.

Last week I had the opportunity to read an interesting article entitled How Students Learn. In the article the authors M.Suzanne Donovan and John D. Bransford introduced and discussed three "fundamental and well-established principles of learning" for teachers to take into consideration when teaching their students (Donovan, S. & Bransford, J. 2005). They are "Engaging Prior Understandings", "The Essential Role of Factual Knowledge and Conceptual Frameworks in Understanding" and "The Importance of Self-Monitoring". The writers used the premise from the famous story Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni to help readers further understand the concepts of the three principles discoursed. The first principle asserts that students come to school with “preconceptions about how the world works” (Donovan, S. & Bransford, J. 2005). It assumes that if students’ primary understandings about certain concepts aren’t entertained, they may not be able to learn new concepts even if they’re related, and if they do, it may only be for a short period of time, usually just long enough to pass an assessment. The second principle says that in order for students to excel in a specific area that they must have the following: a deep foundation of factual knowledge, an understanding of facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and the ability to organize their knowledge in ways that facilitate application and retrieval (Donovan, S. & Bransford, J. 2005). The final principle states that teachers should encourage their students to use metacognition when conducting their own learning (Donovan, S. & Bransford, J. 2005). Merriam-Webster dictionary defines cognition as the "act or process of knowing. Cognition includes every mental process that may be described as an experience of knowing (including perceiving, recognizing, conceiving, and reasoning), as distinguished from an experience of feeling or of willing." (Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved September 20, 2013) In short cognition is the actual act of thinking, learning, understanding and remembering and metacognition is the conscious act of monitoring one’s thinking so that they are able to learn.

I agree that learners do all learn in the three basic ways presented, however I believe scholars have forgotten to include another way in which we learn...necessity. In my graduate Physics class at University of Maryland, I happened to be speaking with my classmates about this very assumption. I told them a story about how I literally HAD to learn how to drive a stick shift. I’d given a proviso about how I’d never really been interested in driving a stick. I’d always figured, why learn how to drive a complex stick when car manufacturers conveniently make cars with automatic transmissions? So, for years I purchased and drove cars with automatic transmissions and became quite the driver. J One detail I forgot to mention was that I absolutely love Toyota Camry’s. My first car was a 93 Toyota Camry, dubbed Cam, which I absolutely adored. I vowed, after getting 246,000 miles out of it that I’d purchase another one in the future. Well, the opportunity presented itself about 6 months ago when my Volkswagen Jetta was totaled (which is another story entirely). I hesitated only a bit when I found the Camry I wanted to buy…why? It was a stick. My handsome beau knew how to drive a stick so I figured he could teach me how to drive mine…eventually. Long story short, I did learn how to drive a stuck shift, but only because I absolutely had to. Had I not wanted so badly to purchase this particular stick, I would have never bothered my brain with the input.

An old adage I like, which I’ve reworded basically says necessity yields the most helpful inventions…and if you think about it, it’s true. Think of classes in college you went to everyday but for whatever reason never really understood, so when you had to take a test you crammed all the information in your brain that you could take in in order for you to semi- pass a test…that’s necessity. Or the time someone left you to babysit, not thinking about the fact that you have no idea how to change a diaper…and once they close the front door and leave, the baby your sitting uses said diaper. Then after some griping and gagging…you change it…that’s necessity.

As educators we have to take these and a host of other “principles” into consideration when teaching our students. The first step though, to being able to educate all minds is to know those who possess the minds…and to know so well. What are your student's needs?

References:
http://www.med.harvard.edu/AANLIB/home.html
http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/brain
Campbell, Neil A. & Reece, Jane B. (2005). Biology. Benjamin Cummings
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/human-brain-function-20234708.jpg
Donovan, Suzanne M. & Bransford, John D. (2005). How Students Learn. Committee on How People Learn, A Targeted Report for Teachers.