[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
RE: [xmca] Neuroscience connections to learning and relearning
Steve:
I like the way you pose the last question: At the same time, some of the
dominant trends in
contemporary neuroeducational theory seem to revolve around time-worn
biological reductionist ideas - almost with a vengeance. New bottles,
but some of the same old wine.
Because the method of the tradition of academic inquiry in the natural
sciences is a strong contributor to work in this area (physiology, biology,
chemistry, etc) we would expect to see this. What is so great with this
recent tide of research in neuroscience, is that we are finding more
"evidence" that cannot be explained by the traditional models. Not the same
old wine--a different wine that needs new packaging; it's just the
production facility only has bottles, labels, the same old equipment.
-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of Steve Gabosch
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 2:29 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [xmca] Neuroscience connections to learning and relearning
What interesting books, Emily. Thank you.
Virginia Berninger and Todd Richards, who are at the UW Seattle in my
neck of the US woods, say (as revealed by Amazon Books Look Inside) in
the Introduction to this textbook that they rely on Luria:
"In Parts I and II we lay the groundwork for the complexities of
systems of brains and minds at work and in doing so draw on the work
of a Russian neuropsychologist, A.R. Luria (1973), who introduced the
notion of functional systems of a brain at work. However, Luria based
his conclusions on study of individuals with brain damage, whereas we
base ours on study of normally developing individuals with and without
learning differences and not on those with brain damage. Although
Luria did not study the processes of teaching and learning academic
subjects in the same depth or setting as contemporary researchers in
many disciplines do, we credit Luria with the fundamental insight that
multiple brain structures may be involved in one function and that the
same brain structures can participate in more than one functional
system."
p8, Brain Literacy for Educators and Psychologists (2002)
Great to see Luria given this credit. Question: Where does Luria's
The Working Brain: An Introduction to Neuropsychology (1973) fit in to
this kind of study? Is his book accessible, is it too out of date,
etc.?
Thanks much for the attachments. (I keep getting the same Howard-
Jones article out of the first two attachments, btw).
Next AERA conference I go to, I will pay some serious attention to
what the people in neuroeducation are doing - there really does appear
to be something burgeoning there. My take so far ... see what you
think ... is that one can expect all the current major trends in the
general social, life and natural sciences to reappear in this new
interdisciplinary field - but on a new level, reflecting some of the
advances of recent decades, such as an increased awareness of the
central role of cultural experience ... just as, for example,
cognitive science in its developmental years absorbed some of the
newer ideas of its time (computer science, game theory, general
systems theory, etc. etc.). Neuroeducation seems to be consolidating
the surge in knowledge from research in cognition and learning in
recent decades - and especially, finding ways to theorize about and
apply the vast new research insights that brain imaging technology is
making possible. At the same time, some of the dominant trends in
contemporary neuroeducational theory seem to revolve around time-worn
biological reductionist ideas - almost with a vengeance. New bottles,
but some of the same old wine. Am I in the ballpark?
- Steve
On Sep 15, 2009, at 9:23 PM, Duvall, Emily wrote:
> Glad you found it interesting, Steve!
>
> To start, I guess it depends on how much you want to know, but
> generally
> I find it important to work with diagrams and video, some kind of
> visual
> support (I've started to include brain drawings as an assignment in my
> class) as well as articles. The Berninger & Richards text works
> well in
> conjunction with the Brain Coloring Book to get you going. You don't
> have to memorize everything, but it's helpful to understand the macro
> and microstructures from a systems perspective in order to begin to
> bridge the discourse.
>
> Others may have different favorites, but I suggest The Jossey-Bass
> Reader on the Brain and Learning... and (brand new, I haven't read my
> copy): The Educated Brain: Essays in Neuroeducation. Meanwhile, I've
> attached a couple of general articles by Howard-Jones and one of the
> more interesting pieces on VAK by Sharp et al.
>
> As to where this discussion is taking place? I am still relatively new
> and don't have any peeps other than those I am cultivating in my
> classes
> and several open minded folks on the neuroscience faculty with UIdaho.
>
> ~em
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu]
> On Behalf Of Steve Gabosch
> Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 7:16 PM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: Re: [xmca] Neuroscience connections to learning and
> relearning
>
> Emily, I much appreciated your links to the Science Daily articles and
> the Usha Goswami article. I learned a lot. Thanks much, and please
> keep links like this coming! These are areas I know I would like to
> learn much more about. A) On astrocytes etc.: If you had to put
> together a crash course for CHAT-oriented researchers on neuroscience,
> what authors, books, articles etc. come to mind that you would draw
> from? B) As for the overview Goswami offers in her 2006 article
> regarding 1) what neuroscience actually is discovering about learning
> processes and how they might apply to the classroom and 2) what
> neuromyths are emerging along with perhaps other hazards of the
> commercialization of neuroeducation knowledge ... where is more of
> this kind of discussion taking place these days?
>
> - Steve
>
>
>
>
> On Sep 15, 2009, at 12:34 PM, Mike Cole wrote:
>
>> Thanks Em-- And I googled Goswami neuromyths. Also very enlightening.
>> Goswami did early work with Ann Brown, former collaborator with us
>> at LCHC.
>>
>> Now if we go back a step and look at the people who created the
>> label of
>> learning sciences, and their backgrounds, the shift from
>> "developmental
>> psychology" to developmental sciences, the appearance recently of the
>> handbook of cultural developmental science, ......... what a
>> tempest! Must
>> be a teapot in there somewhere. Simultaneous, fractilated paradigm
>> shifts?
>>
>> Does anyone have the luxury of being able to organize a science
>> studies
>> interrogation of these movements? Seems really worthwhile.
>> mike
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Duvall, Emily <emily@uidaho.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks Mike... :-)
>>> In general I like Goswami's work; I find her discussion of
>>> neuromyths compelling and have had my grad students do additional
>>> research on some of them. I am also particularly interested in ways
>>> to
>>> try to negotiate across different fields. I've attached my favorite
>>> Goswami and a nice intro to neuroeducation.
>>> As a side note: Monica (Hansen, who frequently shows up on the
>>> list serve and is one of my doc students) and I took a neuroscience
>>> journal club/ seminar last spring and found ourselves trying to make
>>> sense of the work that is done with regard to education. We are
>>> taking
>>> another seminar right now and some of the folks who were in last
>>> year's
>>> class are presenting journal articles in their field, but are
>>> trying to
>>> make the links to human experience, particularly education. It's
>>> been
>>> interesting to discover how open minded the students and faculty
>>> are...
>>> one of the computational neuroscience faculty has taken up some
>>> Vygotsky
>>> reading as well as neuroeducation... of course Luria's work is a
>>> door
>>> opener and a point of mutual interest.
>>> ~em
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-
>>> bounces@weber.ucsd.edu]
>>> On Behalf Of Mike Cole
>>> Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 9:41 AM
>>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
>>> Subject: Re: [xmca] Neuroscience connections to learning and
>>> relearning
>>>
>>> No one picked up on your interest in neuroeducation, Emily. A lot of
>>> what I
>>> read in this area strikes me as almost entirely without any
>>> appreciation
>>> of
>>> education, or human experience, as a culturally mediated, co-
>>> constructed
>>> process. Do you have a favorite general ref you could point us to
>>> that
>>> you
>>> resonate to??
>>> mike
>>>
>>> On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 8:50 AM, Duvall, Emily <emily@uidaho.edu>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I thought some of you might one or both of these article summaries
>>>> interesting. The first really speaks to the new field of
>>> neuroeducation
>>>> with regard to cellular learning... the nice thing about the
>>>> summary
>>> is
>>>> it gives you an overview of learning at the cellular basis... very
>>> clear
>>>> and easy to understand. Plus an introduction to astrocytes... :-)
>>>>
>>>> The second piece actually discusses re-learning, which has been a
>>> topic
>>>> lately.
>>>>
>>>> What I personally find so interesting is the role of experience in
>>>> learning and relearning... I found myself thinking back to Shirley
>>> Brice
>>>> Heath's work... it would be fun to go back to her work and look at
>>>> her
>>>> study through a neuroeducation lens.
>>>>
>>>> 1. Star-shaped Cells In Brain Help With Learning
>>>> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090911132907.htm
>>>>
>>>> Every movement and every thought requires the passing of specific
>>>> information between networks of nerve cells. To improve a skill or
>>>> to
>>>> learn something new entails more efficient or a greater number of
>>>> cell
>>>> contacts. Scientists can now show that certain cells in the brain
>>>> --
>>> the
>>>> astrocytes -- actively influence this information exchange.
>>>>
>>>> 2. Forgotten But Not Gone: How The Brain Re-learns
>>>> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081117110834.htm
>>>>
>>>> Thanks to our ability to learn and to remember, we can perform
>>>> tasks
>>>> that other living things can not even dream of. However, we are
>>>> only
>>>> just beginning to get the gist of what really goes on in the brain
>>> when
>>>> it learns or forgets something. What we do know is that changes in
>>>> the
>>>> contacts between nerve cells play an important role. But can these
>>>> structural changes account for that well-known phenomenon that it
>>>> is
>>>> much easier to re-learn something that was forgotten than to learn
>>>> something completely new?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ~em
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Emily Duvall, PhD
>>>> Assistant Professor Curriculum & Instruction
>>>> University of Idaho, Coeur d'Alene
>>>> 1000 W. Hubbard Suite 242 | Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814
>>>> T 208 292 2512 | F 208 667 5275 emily@uidaho.edu |
>>>> www.cda.uidaho.edu
>>>>
>>>> He only earns his freedom and his life, who takes them every day by
>>>> storm.
>>>> -- Johann Wolfgang Goethe
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> xmca mailing list
>>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> xmca mailing list
>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> xmca mailing list
>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>
> _______________________________________________
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> <howard-
> jones
> .pdf
> >
> <
> neuroeducation
> .pdf
> ><sharp_et_al_2.pdf>_______________________________________________
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
_______________________________________________
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
_______________________________________________
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca