SCIENCE OF LEARNING – Satyam College of Education

By
Varsha singh, Student
Satyam College of Education, Noida

“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think “

—– ALBERT EINSTEIN

About two months ago, I attend a webinar of Dr.BARBRA OAKLEY – Learning how to learn. After attending her webinar, I got an idea to write this blog. Nowadays, it is very important for teachers, parents, students as well to know about the training of the brain for learning.

It was believed that as humans grow, their brain connections and learning capacity become fixed, slowly as they age it becomes faded. But recent researches denies such believes as they showed learning has no limitations of age and brain connections can never be fixed. The brain is a very complex part of the human body made up of a network of muscles which can grow according to individuals training (training includes physical exercises, yoga, meditation, learning new skills/languages/things, etc.) which triggers our brain cells to make neural pathways according to the learning.

LEARNING : It is a process of acquiring new knowledge, skills, behavior, values, etc. through study, observations, experience, or being taught. It involves all five senses i.e., vision, hearing, touch, smell, or taste.

“Learning is a process which leads to behavioral changes as a result of some experience, observation, activity, etc.”

——- H.J. KLAUSMEIR

BRAIN DURING LEARNING

When we learn something our brain cells (neurons) communicate (sending signals) with each other through electrical and chemical signals. These neurons transfer the information from one cell to another.

Neurons convert chemical signals into electrical signals which trigger the release of neurotransmitters from the axon into the synapses. The neurotransmitter crosses the synapses and binds to special molecules on the other side of the receptor in the form of chemical signals. These receptors are located on dendrites.
While learning neurons creates a set of links which are a specific set of the neuron. After practicing the same learning/concepts repeatedly these sets of links formed chains to strengthens those links and make it a long term memory.
If we do not practice the concepts repeatedly, the set of links does not convert into the set of chains and gradually faded after some time from our working memory or short term memory.

NEUROPLASTICITY is the brain`s ability to change itself at any stage of life. The brain has capacity to change itself whenever we learn something new. During learning, the brain reshapes itself and forms new connections between neurons (brain cells). Not only genetic factors, but one`s desires, needs, and actions play an important role in PLASTICITY. Changes related to learning mostly occur at synapses between neurons. As the internal structure of existing synapses changes resulting in new connections.

NEUROPLASTICITY occurs in brain —————

At the beginning of life.
In case of brain injury: to equilibrize for lost or damaged functions and strengthens the remaining functions.
Throughout life: whenever we learn something new and want to memorize the learning.

When you thought or desire to learn any skill, concepts, etc. with determination and repeatedly practice it for few times it develops and strengthens neural pathways.

EVERY SKILL OR LEARNING IS RELATED TO SPECIFIC PATHWAYS.

Examples: Plasticity can be observed in the brain of bilinguals. Learning a second language is a functional change in the brain. Bilinguals have a larger left inferior parietal cortex as compared to monolinguals.

Taxi drivers have a larger hippocampus in the posterior region than the bus drivers. Why? because the region of the hippocampus is specialized in acquiring and using spatial information to navigate efficiently. Taxi drivers no definite path as buses rides on fixed routes.

NEUROPLASTICITY IN THE CLASSROOMS

In classrooms teachers deals with continuously physically growing mind and changing on learning something new. These changes occur due to the connections between neurons.

There is a saying – “NEURONS THAT FIRE TOGETHER, WIRE TOGETHER “.

It means time after time practice an activity or new learning and accesses a memory of it, their neural networks generate electrochemical signals to connected neurons and shape them according to that learning and memory. Over time these connections become thick or strong, on stimulating one neuron of that chain or memory is likely to trigger all the connected neurons. The more we stimulate the more efficient and perfect it become.

Being a teacher it`s our fidelity to know about these changing brains and How we can shape them to develop holistically and make them responsible. With changing time and environment, teaching techniques and curriculum are also being changed continuously. But at the same time, these changes are not applicable to all the schools as they cannot afford the expenses of the well-equipped lab, smartboards in each classroom, and many other new electrical devices and equipment that are currently introduced. Students are lacking in confidence to compete with the other students which affect the learner’s performance in academic as well as co-curricular. It causes distress to brain muscles resulting in the shrinking of muscles and the neural pathways become narrow causes poor learning, poor health, or sometimes pessimistic behavior of the child.

Primarily, to overcome such issues we need to focus on the mental health of the child, and being a teacher we should have knowledge and understanding of NEUROPLASTICITY and How it can help to make the teaching-learning process captivating and easy to understand and memorize it.

Here are the few reccomdations for making classrooms friendly to malleable brains:

Let them know how their brain works or responds to new learning: do seminars, presentations, interactions with experts or assign them such topics as their projects, presentations, discussion, elocution, etc. in a way to promote their self-study and curiosity to know more.
Use of different colorful pens/markers/chalks/highlighters:use 2 to 3 different colors to highlight the content, the colors should specify the importance of the highlighted content and make sure that students are also doing the same in their notes/notebooks in your classrooms.

Ex- Red color – most important content.

Green color – important content.

Yellow color – any specific date.

Regular exercise and yoga:they should do regular exercise, as our brain is a network of muscles. As similar to our body our brain muscles also need relaxation, stretching. While performing different asana blood circulation becomes faster and helps to transport more and more oxygen.

It also initiates the releases of SEROTONIN; it is a mood-stabilizing hormone.

and the most important PRANAYAAM (breathing exercises).

Appreciation and rewards:when a child gets rewards and appreciations it makes them happy, and their brain floods with DOPAMINE (happy hormone). They seek to repeat those activities, or it urges them to perform well to get more rewards and appreciations.
Breathing practices in between class intervals:if a teacher knows the correct method of breathing, they can easily use them before starting their class for 2 to 3 minutes, for example – long and deep breathing, anulom-vilom pranayama, neck twisting with proper inhalation and exhalation. It will help to relax the muscles of the whole body instantly and increase their concentration and attention on the current topic.

CONCLUSION

The most important things to make learning strong and permanent, we need to make habits of: