| HomeschoolingResourceCenter.org Home | Search | About Us | Contact Us |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Neurodevelopment Teaching Tip of the Month Dominance – A Determining Factor in Learning August 2010 |
|
Creating a Knowledge Bank . 
The human brain is remarkable. Even a brief study of it shows the awesome wonder of God's creative power. At birth, a baby's brain contains 100
billion nerve cells (neurons) – roughly the number of stars in the Milky Way! The neurons act as a loosely-formed circuit board that serves as
the brain's control panel. At first, the circuits are very generalized. They are established through brain activity brought on by experiences.
Every time a circuit is used, connections (synapses) are formed between the neurons.
In the first few years of a baby's life, over a trillion of these connections are formed. The chemical-rich bath that enables these connections to fire effectively and become automated (known as learning), moves to different areas of the brain, depending on what the infant needs to learn. First sight, then crawling and walking, then speaking, and so on. Once these “survival” skills or basic life skills are learned, the brain then focuses on forming a data bank of information. This knowledge stage roughly coincides with the primary and elementary years, when children need to learn concrete skills such as reading, counting, arithmetic, penmanship, and how to spell, as well as concrete facts such as the fields of science, observation, sequencing, and historical facts. This data bank operates in the same way as your financial bank. You cannot make withdrawals unless you first put in deposits. Much of the so-called “busywork” (drill and practice) of the elementary years is making deposits into this knowledge bank, which is stored in long-term memory. Once the child has built up enough information or data, then the brain can shift to combining this information into meaningful chunks. This is where logic and thinking skills begin to develop rapidly. And, no surprise here, it isn't until the later elementary and intermediate years that the brain shifts to focusing on these synthesizing skills. Recognizing the relationship between the facts and skills is known as understanding. Obviously, understanding will be limited if there isn't enough data in the knowledge bank. Perhaps the word “obviously” shouldn't be used. The new core standards being pressed by the federal government focus on supposed critical thinking skills – even at the earliest of grades. Emphasis is being given to problem-based learning or “learning through exploration,” where students don't study specific facts and information but “discover” knowledge as they ask questions and examine the context. The problem with such minimal-guidance learning is that short-term memory is forced to do the work of long-term memory. The brain is asked to simultaneously search for knowledge, pull together data, and apply it. With little to no store of knowledge upon which to draw, mental energy is wasted. No learning takes place because nothing is put into long-term memory. The task confronted by the students is the same as if someone asked you to learn a new job. For your training, you are given the opportunity to ask whatever questions you have about the job. But how do you know what to ask if you've never been told what the job entails? Here's the trick to making deposits in the knowledge bank: any skill or data that matches the child's natural way of learning will be deposited quickly and easily. Any skill or data that is the opposite of the child's natural way of learning will take longer. 555 Words To view more 'Teaching Tips' Articles please 'Log In' and visit the 'Achives' page. |
