Participating in this program has been a wonderful experience for me. I have benefited from in-depth introductions to specific aspects of neuroscience research with implications for education. I’ve been able to explore, discuss, and evaluate proposed applications of research for the classroom – some thoughtful and evidence-based, and others arguably premature or misguided. Perhaps most important, I’ve become more interested in pursuing further coursework to learn more, as well as exploring opportunities to participate in research. Overall, the experience has made me more knowledgeable about what is known about understanding and supporting the brain’s readiness for learning, and more committed to applying evidence-based research in my own classroom.
I have enjoyed the balance of exposure to what neuroscience reveals about literacy and numeracy. I initially expected a stronger emphasis on more fundamental learning about the physiology and biochemistry of brain function – and would still like to learn more about those topics. However, focusing instead on the two prongs of literacy and numeracy provided useful lenses into how researchers study cognition and development, and the complexity of constructs and systems that must interact in each realm. I wrote two papers on aspects of literacy, including How Reading Changes the Reading-Ready Brain: A Literature Review, and Building a Model for Visual Word Recognition: A Review of Whitney C., & Cornelissen P. (2008). Through both efforts I was able to dig deeply into how behavioral and neuroscience research can be combined to construct models – both at an early stage to focus ongoing research and at a later stage to build approaches for more applied testing in learning situations – and the importance of those models to enhance collaboration and communication between vastly different research departments – education, psychology, neurobiology – and their traditional methodologies.
The numeracy course, which I found to be the most challenging and rewarding in this program, provided a different lens for examining development and neural processes that contribute to math success. The research and effort required to write two papers -- Activation Differences during Math Tasks among High Achieving Math Students: A Review of Desco, M., Navas-Sanchez, F.K, Sanchez-González, J., Reig, S., Robles, O., Franco, C., … Arango, C. (2011) and Understanding Learning Processes and Implications for Instruction: A focused analysis of the NMAP Report, Chapter 5 – gave me much greater insight into the need to build on existing cognitive competencies or platforms in very young math students and to encourage development of automaticity.
While we studied each strand – literacy and numeracy – in relative isolation, as a science teacher I am well aware that both kinds of learning are integrally related in many disciplines and learning situations. I am hopeful and excited to read about efforts to bridge the gap between them, understanding the complex interconnections, and also better understand how other processes – for example attention and emotional connection – are involved.
Beyond the more solitary work of reading, researching, and writing papers, one of the most valuable aspects of the program was discussing ideas with educator-peers from around the world under the watchful eyes of experts. Heated debates about multiple intelligences, testing, and the importance of “deliberate difficulties”, along with less heated sharing about ways to implement universal design for instruction and appropriate accommodations all resulted in thoughtful exchanges based on science and research. I am better prepared to engage in these same kinds of conversations with peers closer to home, and more motivated to challenge ideas that may be the “latest thing” in district professional development, but not well-supported on the research front. I am grateful for the introduction (through this program) to website resources such as http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/ and http://www.cast.org/index.html and
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/, which I will use and share with colleagues. My capstone project about The Testing Effect has also inspired me to explore using a web quest model to share other information from this class via self-paced learning module formats and inspire others to seek out and use research to make more informed decisions about practice. I hope to find support within my district to do so.
Finally, I am motivated to keep learning. I would like to pursue additional graduate work to learn and contribute to research about critical periods -- readiness to learn and appropriate pacing and sequencing of instruction for different types of learners. I am also interesting in the concept of automaticity – both in math learning and development of literacy – and how learning/classroom structures and routines can be more effective in helping students develop this important component to enhance their access and success when it comes to problem-solving and higher-level critical thinking. On a more basic level, I am also very interested in the understanding neural development in evolutionary terms, and interplays among structure, function, and flexibility when it comes to adaptive advantage, for example the proposed neuronal recycling ideas proposed by Dehaene and their implications beyond the development of reading. I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in this program, and hope that it’s the start of an ongoing journey to better understand the relationship between mind and brain, and its important implications for learning and education.
