Connectivism

The Brain & Learning

The brain and learning, information processing theory, and problem-solving methods during the learning process.

Greetings and welcome back to my blog. This week we are taking a look at the brain and learning. At first thought one may think why? Why would I want to investigate the brain and how it learns to become an instructional designer? But then think about it a minute. How could one not study the brain and how it relates to learning to be able to create effective learning programs? In the society we live in now things are changing minute by minute. The technology that is current now, will be obsolete very soon. One needs a way to have a cutting edge in the field of Instructional Design if one hopes to be around for long, let alone be effective. The cutting edge I have found this week…is to become aware of and understand how the brain relates to learning.

This week we read in the book “Learning Theories & Instruction” (Laureate) chapter 2-Learning and the Brain and discovered the basic building blocks of the brain, its structure and functions.  Of all that I read I would say what stood out to me most was the knowledge of the Limbic System. The Limbic System houses two distinct area of the brain-1) the Hippocampus & 2) the Amygdala.

Do you see something that could be potentially fatal for designing a learning program with the way the brain operates? Within the same department if you will of the brain houses both that which is needed for attention AND that which produces fear and anxiety! A good lesson to learn here is to make certain that your programs are user friendly. Otherwise, they will become quickly unusable by those that are asking you to design, which means your effectiveness, will be null and void.

Now, let’s take a look at research I have done regarding the brain and learning this week. I have located two online articles or journals to investigate to see what else we may be able to glean from this subject

Article One:  Brain and Learning Research: Implications for Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners

Journal article by Fara E. Green; Education, Vol. 119, 1999

Regarding brain structure please read the following quote from this article:

”Dramatic developments in brain research and imaging technology are rapidly advancing our conceptualization of the human brain. Sylwester (1993, 1994) discloses how modern studies of brain structure show incredible complexity of approximately 100 billion neurons, each connected to thousands of other neurons and forming more connections than there are atoms in the entire universe. Describing the brain as modular, Sylwester explains how a few standard nonthinking components combine information to form a complex cognitive environment. The brain is powerfully shaped by genetics, development, and experience while actively shaping the nature of our experiences and culture in which we live.

Current brain studies underscore the important role adults play in facilitating an early stimulating environment for children. Calling for classrooms that are closely related to real-world environments, Sylwester believes curricula must include many sensory, cultural, and problem layers that stimulate the brain's neural networks.”

From this article we can see that it also shows what we were learning this week about the importance of  a stimulating environment for the children as well as having classrooms closely related to the real world experience’s-this of course works well with the Constructivist approach we learned about last week.

Article Two:  Accelerated learning in practice: brain-based methods for accelerating  learning

By Alistair Smith                                                                                                    

I was so excited to find this book online. This book is specifically about basing your learning on the brain-thus the name Brain Based Learning! It truly seems that this book is a must read for learning more about learning. It certanly makes the case for needing to understand the brain and how it fucntions to be able to effectively design instruction.

Wow, we have covered a lot this week! I am finding each week to be a little more fascinating than the week before.  Check out the Principles of Brain Based Learning above.

Well, until next week enjoy this little video about the Limbic System.

How We Learn

Wow, well here we are. This has been so long in the making; it takes a minute to realize I am actually here, with you! Welcome to the journey of Instructional Design in the field of Family and Consumer Sciences. 

The first issue we are going to take a look at is that of how we learn. The science of how we learn is just that, a science.  There are in the field of education three main thoughts on the subject of learning:  behaviorism, cognitivism, & constructivism.  For an in depth view on the subject and how it pertains to Instructional Design-please visit the following link Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism . However, for now we will look at a general view of each theory.

1.      “Behaviorism is a worldview that assumes a learner is essentially passive, responding to environmental stimuli. The learner starts off as a clean slate (i.e. tabula rasa) and behavior is shaped through positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement. Both positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement increase the probability that the antecedent behavior will happen again. In contrast, punishment (both positive and negative) decreases the likelihood that the antecedent behavior will happen again. Positive indicates the application of a stimulus; Negative indicates the withholding of a stimulus. Learning is therefore defined as a change in behavior in the learner. Lots of (early) behaviorist work was done with animals (e.g. Pavlov’s dogs) and generalized to humans.” (Cited http://www.learning-theories.com/behaviorism.html)

2.      “Cognitivism-The cognitivist revolution replaced behaviorism in 1960s as the dominant paradigm. Cognitivism focuses on the inner mental activities – opening the “black box” of the human mind is valuable and necessary for understanding how people learn. Mental processes such as thinking, memory, knowing, and problem-solving need to be explored. Knowledge can be seen as schema or symbolic mental constructions. Learning is defined as change in a learner’s schemata.

A response to behaviorism, people are not “programmed animals” that merely respond to environmental stimuli; people are rational beings that require active participation in order to learn, and whose actions are a consequence of thinking. Changes in behavior are observed, but only as an indication of what is occurring in the learner’s head. Cognitivism uses the metaphor of the mind as computer: information comes in, is being processed, and leads to certain outcomes.” (Cited http://www.learning-theories.com/cognitivism.html)

3.      “Constructivism--A reaction to didactic approaches such as behaviorism and programmed instruction, constructivism states that learning is an active, contextualized process of constructing knowledge rather than acquiring it. Knowledge is constructed based on personal experiences and hypotheses of the environment. Learners continuously test these hypotheses through social negotiation. Each person has a different interpretation and construction of knowledge process. The learner is not a blank slate (tabula rasa) but brings past experiences and cultural factors to a situation.

NOTE: A common misunderstanding regarding constructivism is that instructors should never tell students anything directly but, instead, should always allow them to construct knowledge for themselves. This is actually confusing a theory of pedagogy (teaching) with a theory of knowing. Constructivism assumes that all knowledge is constructed from the learner’s previous knowledge, regardless of how one is taught. Thus, even listening to a lecture involves active attempts to construct new knowledge. Vygotsky’s social development theory is one of the foundations for constructivism.” (Cited http://www.learning-theories.com/constructivism.html)

While all three views of learning are of relevance to the subject of Instructional Design, it is without a doubt only logical that the Constructionist approach be used in the field of Family and Consumer Sciences. Why you might ask? Simple, first take a minute and go up and reread the information on Constructivism. Do you see in the second sentence that it says, “Knowledge is constructed based on personal experience”? In the field of Family and Consumer Science the studying is all about the person, the family and interacting with their environment.

It is interesting to note that in our studies this week at the site of Instructional Design for eLearning Approaches: http://ideas.blogs.com/  the subject of Constructivism was being looked at. It is of no surprise that Constructivism is ideal for Elearning.  In the blog of Experiencing Elearning by Christy   Tucker she touches on a wonderful concept to be used in Elearning and that is the idea of Interaction Preferences. In this thought the student has some control of their learning. This seems a very good idea in the subject of Elearning.

So, for this week what we have discovered is not only is there various learning theories, but the one that is most compatible to Family and Consumer Sciences and Elearning is the Constructivist approach! Please stay with me as we continue to explore this subject over the next several weeks!

    Untill next week enjoy this little video about ELearning and Pedagogy!