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The Brain and topics related to it. Updated: 2010-04-08 21:46:06 Description: These are texts writen for us, they are related to different topics studied in class such as the brain´s role in learning, the diferences between male and female brain and so on... HOW THE HUMAN BRAIN IS IN EVERYTHING. (Essay) AUTORES: LAGOS C. ANA E. MORALES S. DELIA C. DOCENTE: JHONNY ANGOLA SAN CRISTÓBAL, MARZO DE 2010 The world and the people living in it is always changing, every day there are more questions to be answered and more ways to get those answers. On the medical area the brain has been an eternal mystery, but resent investigations have revealed tons of new information applicable in many knowledge areas including education and the teaching and learning processes involved in them. First of all, Ph. D. Diamond M. (2003) in one of her lectures called “male and female brains” talked about her research on the brain´s structural differences between male and female, this research was made on lab rats because there were not many human being able to do it on them, but she explains that the brain´s structure of these little animals is very similar to the human one, that is why the results can be use to compare men and women´s brain constitution and functioning. Diamond explains in her lecture the way our brain is conformed, its main parts and how those parts development and functions get affected by factors like the birth, environmental conditions, age, hormones, sex and the things every being has to do according to his instincts or natural duties. For example, Diamond M. (2003), says that areas like the cortex and the cortical morphology, thickness and symmetry are “ a key factor” in the process of knowing and understanding how female or male act, specifically when “ for the female animal, the main functions are to bear, protect and raise her offspring... something that may be more accessible and readily achieved with a symmetrical brain” on the opposite the “male behavior involves finding and defending his territory and finding his female, all rather focused functions, possibly benefiting form an asymmetrical cortex.” The statements previously written may indicate that in some how the diversity of the female functions or the specifical male functions may be determinating factors on the brain´s constitution. The author makes clear that there are many other factors related to this and that the researchers on this area still have a lot to discover and to work with. If we walk apart from the structure and focus more on “ What are the determinants of children´s academic successes and difficulties” according to Diamond (n/d) since long time ago in places like China, there has been a culturaly issue destinated to proportion a good care of the baby´s mind and general development even before they were born, these old principles advice women to “ behave favorable during pregnancy so that their offspring would be bright and survive well.” Nowadays, exists a concept called “ Intrauterine education” which mean to provide the best stimulate to the babies growing by taking “ into consideration pre- as well as postnatal conditions for forming healthy children and their precious brains.” Diamon M., (n/d) Diamond explains that “ parents and teachers should create a climate for enchanted minds to obtain information, stimulate imagination, develop an atmosphere to enhance motivation and creativity and discover the value of a work ethic.” Some of Diamond´s advices to accomplish this vital mission are to provide: ...a steady source of positive emotional support-love encouragement... nutritious diet with enough protein, vitamins, mineral and calories...stimulate all senses, but not necessarily all at once...present a series of novel challenges that neither too easy nor too difficult for the child at his or her stage of development... enjoyable atmosphere that promotes exploration and the fun of learning... These between others might lead to get many benefits on the children development and academical success as the author explains, but also she calls our attention because the lack of this support or the presence of a significant amount of the opposite behavior on parents and/ or teachers may cause difficulties to the children on their academical and personal life, she wants to make clear too that “ the cerebral cortex does not show significant growth with too much stimulation as it does with a moderate amount... Do not over stimulate.” Some parents may incurre in this kind of mistakes thinking that as more stimulus the child recibes the better it would be for him, without knowing that it won´t be neccessarily truth, the children may get tired or even get upset for living in so much pressure and this later may cause a rejection on everything related to education or the activities he was force to do without like them. As a personal experience Diamond mentions what one of her daughters said once to her: “you gave us the freedom to choose what we wanted to do; you served as a role model showing if we worked hard we could succeed.” This meant a lot to her, but how many parents can quote such a beautiful words as she does? Most could say that: not many have this privilege. But what about if these norms are taken form that context and are tried to be applied in another country as Venezuela for example, would they work? Are there the necessary conditions? Apparently it may not; social conditions, medical care or even the basic information is not set for most of the country population, how can we expect for “ Intrauterine education” when sometimes many women don´t even have basic prenatal care? How can we expect for parents to be role models when they are not with their children, when they have to work all day trying to at least get the necessary for their support, or when for personal reasons the children are formed by other members of the family different from their parents or worse complete estrangers? This scenery doesn´t seem to be too hopeful because teachers are not only expected to do their job facilitating teaching and learning processes but also complementing or trying to do as a whole the work, these children´s parents should have been doing. The previous may be an extreme vision of how the life of some is, but there are some many factors that seem to be working against the achievement of a good learning including the children changes itself. Willis J. (n/d) in words of Gardner ( 1999) exposes that there are “three current dominant intelligence styles of Linguistic, Visual-spatial, and Tactile Kinesthetic...” in previous years the Linguistic was the predominant, that´s how the teachers learned and may teach, but as the author also explains in the resent years the percentages on the kind of learning has changed too, making sometimes the teacher´s teaching stile obsolete or less effective. Most students have something called “learning strengths” and these are related to their intelligence style, by improving the teaching techniques the learning activities can become more effective and even enjoyable for students allowing them to get a really meaningful learning taking advantage of all their personal potential, and being more successful in every area of their life. These three articles may show an excellent research information and maybe if we study it hard and get to the point of really understand, believe, and apply it, we may become great teachers, but at this point, inside of the classrooms there are other problems to be solved, and getting a solution for them doesn´t seem to be too at the top of the corner because this must be a team work between parents teachers and everyone involved with the future generation growing and well being. REFERENCES: Diamond M., (2003) “Male and female brains” summary of the lecture for women´s forum west annual meeting. Diamond M., (n/d) “What are the determinats of children´s academic successes and dificulties?” Willis J., (n/d) “More About neuroscience and learning” LISTEN NOW | DOWNLOAD |
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