Guided Response: Review at least two of your classmates’ posts and analyze the connections they made to brain functions in the process of learning. Do you agree or disagree with their analysis? Why or why not? Relate their findings to your own.

Linda Webster

For this discussion the article I choose was on “Brain Research and Early Childhood Development: A Primer for Developmentally Appropriate Practice” by Kathleen Cranley Gallagher, (2005). The article talks about 40 years or more of research was done on brain development and growth. The research was done on head start programs which has aimed to increase children’s cognitive and social development. The article says that “Research on brain development now provides increased understanding of developmental periods of dramatic brain growth, information about regions of brain growth, and details on brain functions” (Gallagher, 2005). By age 1 the child has 150 percent more synapse than the adult.

The article says that teaching development and learning that is active nature when it comes to the child’s learning. By doing that the child needs supervision and safe planning. It is important that we as teachers build communication with the families of our students. The hormone cortisol is said to increase the response to stress. Child care centers are a place that makes the child feel safe. Teachers can comfort a child who is having some trouble calming down. Sometimes teachers and children might have a tense relationship at first. The article says that “Teachers can support self-regulation by accepting and guiding children’s expression of emotion, talking, through their anxieties, and scaffolding children’s understanding of their emotions” (Gallagher, 2005).

Reference:

Gallagher, K., C. (2005, Jul). Brain Research and Early Childhood Development: A Primer for Development Appropriate Practice. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/docview/197696538/6706E35CF5A8403CPQ/1?accountid=32521

Paige Hobbs

This week’s discussion is about the brain development and its relation to learning and literacy. I chose the article How Learning and Literacy Enhance Our Brains written by Bill Jenkins, Ph.D. In this article Bill Jenkins explains does learning to read “occupy” a space in the brain that could or would be used for something else in our evolutionary past? In 2010, Stanislas Dehaene did a study using an MRI on about 50 different people in different categories such as illiterate, learn to read adults and learn to read children. The results of the study showed that in both adults and children reading helped brain develop in three ways, one reading helps boost the organization of the visual cortex. It allows the area of the brain responsible for spoken language—the planum temprale—to be activated by written sentences, and it refines how the brain processes spoken language. In this article is also explains that literacy helps verbal and visual processing in the brain.  Literacy can help the brain function in many ways whether it’s a child’s imagination growing through reading or ready to learn a subject, literacy is filled with information to help a brain develop.

As an educator working with students with disabilities literacy is going to be the key to their success. Some students learn though sentences or picture cues so it is important for me to learn more about how the brain works with literacy and learning.  This article supports brain functions of learning because it shows the research of adults and children through spoken, written language and visual cues.

References

Jenkins, B. (2011). How Learning and Literacy Enhance Our Brains http://www.scilearn.com/blog/learning-literacy-enhancing-our-brains

My work so you can compare

The Neurological Findings of the Human Brain that Every Teacher should know to be Effective by  Degen, Ronald

Brain-Based Learning is an approach that explains how the brain naturally works best. An article named The Neurological Findings of the Human Brain that Teachers should know to be Effective by Degen Ronald studies exploration in brain development and its relativity to knowledge and mastery. The study explored the configuration and role of the nervous system with the predominant need for identifying and addressing anomalies (Degen, 2014). The article examines various aspects of learning and literacy such as the learning process, declarative memory, guided experience learning, and optimal learning. The findings suggest that there is a necessity for adjustment from the traditional learning methodology as well as the rapport among tutors as well learners. The researcher also finds that the utmost efficient tactic to learning is the led experience-learning model that involves learning through experience as opposed to a single approach of examining theory (Degen, 2014).

            The outcomes can be employed by an educator to boost education and mastery by absconding the use of ineffective traditional learning approaches where the brain can only memorize information during the first few moments of it being transmitted. An educator can instead choose to use Brain learning through an experience where a learner goes through a certain experience where one can digest, think about, reflect, and make sense of the experience during the learning process. Thus the article gives an educator a better approach that can be utilized (Degen, 2014).

            The findings support my knowledge on the functioning of the brain in learning processes. The occurrence is because the brain is known to have a short retention span of theoretical perspectives. On the contrary, it has a prolonged retention span on educational experiences thus supporting the finding that Brain learning through experience is best for a learner.

Reference

Degen, R. (2014). Brain-Based Learning: The neurological findings of the human brain that every teacher should know to be effective. Amity Global Business Review, 9.