1. The search for meaning is innate.

2. The search for meaning occurs through patterning.

3. Learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat.

4. Practice is absolutely necessary for most learning to be remembered.

5. The frontal lobes are the CEO of the brain. They control goal setting, recognition of consequences, moral decision making and dealing with ambiguity, however, they usually are not fully developed until a person is into their 20’s.

6. Emotion plays a major role in creating attention, (arousal) which is necessary for learning.

7. Information with emotional significance creates powerful memories.

8. Learning environments that engage the learner in multiple, complex and authentic experiences produce greater learning.

9. A students’ prior knowledge and its structures, their learning strategies, goals and beliefs, self-efficacy and motivation all play a role in their learning.

10. The single biggest variable in what the learner learns is what they bring to the course.

11. Positive relationships with the learners play an important role in facilitating learning.

12. The cortical map in the brain of neuro circuitry only changes when we invest our attention and a great deal of practice.

13. Memories are constructed and therefore change all the time as information is added and forgotten

14. Humans can hold information in their working memory for long periods of time (12 hours) and never put into long term memory. (I.e. cramming)

15. Positive and constructive feedback is an incredibly powerful part of the learning process.

16. Students need to be shown how to learn different types of material and skills. Many students may not have the learning strategies they need to handle the many different tasks they are asked to do.

17. The learning process needs to have built into it the opportunity for revision of thought and understanding.

18. Learning is primarily a social/community process. It is in the social interaction that the most important feedback occurs.

19. Experts (faculty) tend to not recognize how much more they know and how much faster and complete their thoughts are then their students (novices). This lack of recognition can cause problems in teaching and learning in the classroom as false assumptions are made about students’ readiness to learn and why they may not be understanding or responding to questions.

20. How to transfer learning from one situation to another usually needs to be taught. Rote learning is very difficult to transfer.

 References

1. Sylwester, R. A Celebration of Neurons An Educator’s Guide to the Human Brain, ASCD:1995

2. Sprenger, M. Learning and Memory The Brain in Action by, ASCD, 1999

3. How People Learn by National Research Council  editor John Bransford, National Research Council, 2000

4. Goldberg, E. The Executive Brain Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind ,Oxford University Press: 2001

5. Ratey, J. MD :A User’s Guide to the Brain, Pantheon Books: New York, 2001

6. Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes' error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. New York, NY, Grosset/Putnam

7. Damasio AR: Fundamental Feelings. Nature 413:781, 2001.

8. Damasio AR: The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness, Harcourt Brace, New York, 1999, 2000.

9. D. O. Hebb,1949 monograph, The Organization of Behaviour

10. J. Zull, The Art of Changing the Brain.2002, Stylus: Virginia

11. Penny, W.G. Jr. (1981). Cognitive and ethical growth: the making of meaning. In A. Chickering (Ed.), The Modern American college. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

12. Magnusson, J. L., & Perry, R. P. (1989). Stable and transient determinants of students' perceived control: Implications for instruction in the college classroom. Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 362-370.
13. Perry, R. P., Magnusson, J. L. (1987). Effective instruction and students' perceptions of control in the college classroom: Multiple lectures effects. Journal of Educational Psychology, 79, 453-460.

14. Kolb, D. A. (1981) 'Learning styles and disciplinary differences'. in A. W. Chickering (ed.) The Modern American College, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

15. Brooks, J. and Martin. In search of Understanding: The Case for the Constructionist Classroom, 1999

16. http://www.istpp.org/enews/2002_05_30.html Alarik Arenander and Fred Travis

17. http://www.sccao.org/downloads/ConstructModelegs.pdf-- J. L. Bencze

18. Caine, Renate; Caine, Geoffrey. Education on The Edge of Possibility. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1997.

Faculty wanting further information about any of these topics are encouraged to contact Terry Doyle at doylet@ferris.edu

      Under Construction -- Watch for Updates