Education! So, What's the Brain Got to Do with It?

First, some announcements! Go to http://www.isu.edu/ctl/ then link to faculty and then to resources, you'll see that ISU is beginning to get a web presence in faculty development, largely due to the good efforts of ISU Professor Keith Comer, who worked on this a good part of last semester and got us nicely started. You'll find the complete archives of "Nutshell Notes", a web version of the Student Management Team Manual, some resources on the meaning of student evaluations, and links to "National Teaching and Learning Forum." There will soon be links to a variety of external resources.

Next, with respect to teaching and higher education, recent advances in neuroscience have lent an air of both excitement and optimism. Prior to the mid-90's, few pedagogical proponents were able to evaluate practices in terms of how the brain worked. By 1998, The American Association of Higher Education was bringing the brain to the forefront of guiding practices for learning. The Joint Task Force on Student Learning (final report, June 2, 1998, available at http://www.aahe.org/teaching/tsk_frce.htm ) drafted principles for practice that included the biology of the brain in its opening principles.

"1. Learning is fundamentally about making and maintaining connections: biologically through neural networks; mentally among concepts, ideas, and meanings; and experientially through interaction between the mind and the environment, self and other, generality and context, deliberation and action."

"2. Learning is enhanced by taking place in the context of a compelling situation that balances challenge and opportunity, stimulating and utilizing the brain's ability to conceptualize quickly and its capacity and need for contemplation and reflection upon experiences."

This understanding has even been able to generate a thriving "Brain Store®" industry (see http://www.thebrainstore.com/store/ ) and for good reasons. Case Western's James Zull explains both the utility and the appeal: "the biology of learning enriches teaching by making educational theory more real. It's one thing to have a theory that learners construct their own understanding by building on what they already know and quite another to actually see how this construction happens." (Zull, J. E., 2002, The Art of Changing the Brain: Stylus, 263 p.)

Robert Leamnson, a professor of biology at University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, packaged the information in a way that is both practical and inspiring in what is arguably the best book for practitioners to date. Leamnson describes learning simply: as the building and stabilization of synaptic connections. This simple statement leads to profound insights—practices that obviously help to build and stabilize these neural connections will probably enhance learning—and practices that are not obviously related to building such connections merit viewing with some skepticism.

Further, the statement implies that education changes the brain of the student permanently. There is nothing trivial about what takes place in education, and nothing in the "real world" has more potential to transform so many lives for the better. Indeed, "the way you approach the job of teaching will depend on whether you perceive before you brains that may be forever modified in response to your efforts." (Leamnson, R., 1999, Thinking about Teaching and Learning: Developing Habits of Learning with First Year College and University Students: Stylus, 263 p.). Because learning builds neural connections, one literally "grows a brain" as the result of sincere effort. Ability to learn is not fixed at birth, nor is it ever "too late." (See "It's Never Too Late: Developing Cognitive Skills for Lifelong Learning" Interactive Learning Environments, 2002, v. 10, n. 2 pp. 93-103 by Robert Leamnson.) There is probably nothing more fundamentally important to a modern university educator than understanding how the brain works during teaching and learning.

If this inspires interest, read further below -- then sign up to join us on February 28 for a "Celebration of Brains!"

Idaho State University - Faculty Development

February Retreat

Teaching as if the Brain Matters

presenter: Robert Leamnson

Friday February 28 WestCoast Hotel, Pocatello Idaho

(by Interstate 15 and Pocatello Creek Road Exit)

9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Free to ISU Faculty

Register by email through nuhfed@isu.edu

include your name and ISU Campus Box

in your note

Format: Registrants will receive a copy of Thinking About Teaching and Learning about two weeks prior to February 28. A continental breakfast at 9:00 a.m. will be followed by a presentation by Dr. Bob Leamnson. Lunch will be provided, and followed by a book discussion with the author.

Presenter was selected by the Council for Teaching and Learning in conjunction with the Center for Teaching and Learning. Event is supported by the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Office of Academic Affairs