The esoteric world of neuroscience may hold more practical significance for all of us than we suspect. Within the last two decades, thanks to visual clues supplied by MRI and PET scans, researchers have dramatically increased their knowledge of how the brain learns. And what they have found is of vital importance to us as parents and teachers.
The old adages, such as “Spare the rod and spoil the child” and “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy” seem to have a scientific basis, at least in part. In fact, brain scientists have found that many intuitive educational methods used parents over the years are based in sound practice. But researchers are also finding that other practices may be harmful, or at best ineffective.
Take learning a language, for example. Traditionally, children have learned the language of the home from birth and later attempting to learn a second language in elementary school or even in high school or college. But researchers have found that the ‘window’ for natural language assimilation is open from infancy to age seven or so, after which time language learning occurs in a distinctly different neural system. Naturally bilingual children have learned both languages within the early time window and store both in the same neural system. In fact, it appears that some aspects of language learning, particularly inflection and pitch, may actually happen in the womb.
And there appears to be a strong relationship between exercise and brain function. For ‘Jack’ not to be a dull ‘boy’, according to John Ratey, MD, author of 'Spark', he needs to exercise daily, preferable first thing in the morning, to induce the flow of special nutrients and proteins to the brain which will sharpen his memory and enhance his ability to master new information.
While ‘sparing the rod’ evokes practices of a bygone era, and properly so, the fundamental concept of framing a structure with immediate consequences for misbehavior has a basis in brain science. A child who practices dishonesty, for example, lacks the cognitive tools to project the future social consequences of lying. This window for future abstract thinking, researchers have found, does not open until puberty. Until then, a system for behavior modification is required that apes the future functioning of a trio of brain areas, the Limbic Area (emotional), Frontal Lobe (reasoning), and Somatosensory Cortex (bodily sensing), a triangle that will one day support ‘conscience’ or ethical processing. Such a system, according to behavior researchers, should involve subjecting the dishonest child to discomfort at the act, a clear explanation of the moral principle involved, and punishment delayed slightly to elicit anticipatory discomfort.
The adage "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy and wealthy and wise" may not be true for everyone, brain studies reveal. Sleep researchers have found that with the arrival of puberty comes a circadian shift that causes adolescents to be wakeful an hour later than before. Needing as much sleep, but getting less, these children find themselves caught between their own biology and educational traditions that require them to arise at the same early time for school, with sleepiness and poor attention the natural result.
As important as the work of brain researchers is, it is more important to us as parents and teachers to stay informed since it is we who are best placed to synthesize and utilize the science for the education of our children.
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