We understand that if we connect with something learners already know, especially on a deep emotional level, they are ours for the teaching. “What Recent Brain Research Tells Us About Learning” backs this up with engaging examples taken from recent developments in neuroscience. Consider this little tidbit:
Insects do not fail to see a spider’s web - they see the spider's cobweb quite vividly, but in the treacherous way that the crafty spider had intended. A spider's web mimics particular flowers and the insect gets trapped because its nerve cells process the spider's web, not as a menacing mesh net, but as the kind of flowers for which the insect regularly seeks.
Not only does this article give a succinct history of recent developments in neuroscience, including an explanation of how data is received in the brain and how the brain “attends to relevant information” while it “discards all unimportant data,” it also provides insight into how this knowledge can impact our teaching and learning. I pray that we are not so treacherous as the spider above, but we do have significant power to influence our learners.
Reference: What Recent Brain Research Tells Us About Learning, http://www.nais.org/publications/ismagazinearticle.cfm?Itemnumber=144250&sn.ItemNumber=145956&tn.ItemNumber=145958, Kenneth A Wesson, Independent School Magazine, Fall 2001.
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