Resource Log 14/Reflection

Mind and the Brain. (1999). In Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., and Cocking, R.R. (eds.), How People Learn: Brain, Midn, Experience, and School,http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=6160&page=102 . Retrieved February 17, 2009 from https://worldclassroom.webster.edu/webct/urw/lc2039116011.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct.


I never really thought about the brain related to learning until I read this article that was suggested by the instructors of this course for research on our chapter. This chapter talks about how the brain is physically transformed by learning. I thought that was fascinating. Up until this point, all I thought was that I recieved information, it raced around my head, then I just retrieved it when I needed it. I guess that is the result of the type of traditional learning that constructivism is trying to transform. I'm not saying that my education was bad or inferior, on the contrary, I'm grateful for the instruction I recieved. However, it is somewhat awesome to think that by giving children more experience to interact with their environment, the way their neurons are firing and processing information transforms. I wonder if this is how critical thinking and decision making is developed. What I was hoping to find from this reading was a way that the hearing, seeing, moving idea all works together in learning theory. From what I understand, excerise at least does not really enhance "brain power", but does stimulate the brain differently.