This chapter discusses ultimately the brain and how it functions. The brain has many pats, and each part has a specific job to do. The chapter also focuses on the developing brain and the factors that affect brain development. These factors are genetics, environmental stimulation, critical and sensitive periods, plasticity, nutrition, teratogens, and gender differences. Teachers must have to take each of these factors into consideration when planning lessons. They must have a classroom with lights, and hanging things, or signs with posters, and color to have a highly stimulated environment to cause the student's brain to make connections neurally. This will lead to learning and brain development.
Learning and development in the brain prove to be different based on brain research. Learning focuses on connections from neuron to neuron. These neurons work together to create a networking system and then these connections are arranged to create new information. While these connections are being made, synapses in the brains are strengthened. However, with development, synapses are eliminated because they are not in use. This is what scientists refer to as synaptic pruning. Synaptic pruning basically revolves around the infrequent use of certain skills which will cause synaptic connections to weaken or degenerate. Teachers must practice these skills that are lost from this in order to call on learning that is developed.
A question I have about the chapter relates to the use-it-or-lose-it principle. This principle discusses how basically if the brain doesn't use information that it has learned it is going to be gone from the brain. But how does brain research explain things like writing? Yes we practice it, but because it is engrained. Does brain research also discuss muscle memory for things like this? I just don't think if we don't practice something we are going to lose it if it has meaning somehow.
In the picture below, synaptic connections are being made more and more of them with age. As the age increase, more connections are made, and a larger network is created with more knowledge via synapses. As the picture gets older, after age 6, myelin is created and this is how our brain processes the connections. In the last picture, there are less synaptic connections because they have been made, and we are using them.
I think this chapter is just trying to say if a connection has only been made a few times it will be more likely to be pruned than things that have had a connection made much more often. Things that are done by muscle memory are often very myelinated because they had to be practiced so many times to become muscle memory. Also, if something has an emotional meaning to a particular brain it will be less likely to be pruned because of that meaning.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Hannah. Things, like writing, become engrained because they have been myelinated by practicing so much. Things that we haven't used will get lost because they haven't been revisited as often; therefore, they haven't been myelinated. From the article we received in class today, "9 ways neuroscience has changed the classroom," it give the example of trying to remember something from grade school years after an event has happened. Some things are remembered because there may be a special connection attached to it. But most of the stuff that occurred to us in third grade cannot be remembered clearly because it either wasn't important or it wasn't revisited many times. This would result in the information being pruned and eventually being lost.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I'd distinguish development as synaptic pruning. Development might be the general timing or pattern of things that happen to all humans. It's the experience expectant part of things--like genetics, or the fact that synaptic pruning will happen. THe actual connections that are pruned are a result of experience. The changes that happen as a result of experience might be considered learning.
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