Week One - New Questions

This first week has stretched my thinking in many new ways. The reading was, in many ways, review – but an important and useful review of the basics of the structure and organization of the nervous system and the structure and organization of the Brain-Targeted Teaching Model. I love that this is part of the course because it lays a consistent foundation for all of us – providing common background knowledge and vocabulary that can ground our conversations.

The more challenging part of the week involved the conversations on the discussion board. From a fairly simple prompt – How do you think the neuro- and cognitive sciences may be able to help inform your previous, current, or future work in educational settings? – dozens of different ideas and interests emerged. For me, I’ve formulated three new questions that will help shape my inquiries in this course. Thank you to the classmates whose posts prompted these questions for me!

1. What is perception and what does it mean/take for a student to change his or her perception and be more open to learning?

2. How can a better understanding of the brain help us identify and address the wide range of variables that contribute to “magic moments” of teaching and learning?

3. How does the internal process of learning (memory or sense-making) differ when a student is actively connecting to previous knowledge and extending ideas in creative ways…vs. when a student is memorizing a fact?

Perception: Thanks to one classmate I am thinking about what perception is. Is it something we experience? Or is it a filter that is created by our experiences? If it is a filter…what can influence how it is constructed and how it might be able to change? I have often said to students, family and friends – especially my own children -- that they have the power to change or adjust their attitudes and perceptions of what they experience…but do they? To what extent is that hard-wired or programmed and depending on that previous programming, how open is it to adjustment? Can understanding the reward system of the brain shed light on this?

Magic Moments: One of the most important things I took away from the portion of my student teaching in first grade was the incredible awe I felt for my cooperating teacher. Watching her graceful and purposeful planning and transitions through the day I felt as though I was watching a beautifully choreographed dance. She was able to bring together so many different threads to construct beautiful and 1st-grade-appropriately brief moments of intense learning all day long. I try to achieve that same thing each day with my fifth-graders, but it’s not always nearly so elegant. What if I knew better how to be sure that we shared the background knowledge, that we all feel safe and comfortable emotionally, that we achieve the right balance of guidance and independence? That our bodies are healthy and open to learning? Can the neuro- and cognitive sciences help me? Thank you to the early childhood educator who focused my thinking in this area.

Creativity: Thank you to another classmate whose post re-focused my attention, reminding me of the importance of creativity and higher-order thinking. As I wrote to her on the Discussion Board, developing creative thinkers is an important focus for me in the classroom, but to date I have compartmentalized it in a different place from my personal inquiries into neuroscience and learning about memory encoding. I think I need to bring those ideas together. What makes new learning higher level? Is it encoded differently? Is it linked to other learning differently? Is it accessed differently? How can I “enrich” for learning that becomes…higher?

Thanks to all the teachers in this cohort – not just those on the JHU payroll. Your posts have stretched my thinking in new and important ways.