Sun, 08/01/2010
|
 |
Where Did the "12 Brain/Mind Learning Principles" Come From?
Principle 11--"Complex learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat"–illustrates how each principle is derived from a mixture of disciplines. In Education on the Edge of Possibility, Caine and Caine illustrate the origins of Principle 11, a principle that many brain-based learning advocates discuss, but the cross-disciplinary origins of which few actually reveal. The effects of perceived threat, or distress, on cognitive functioning led Caine and Caine to identify the optimal state of mind for learning, "relaxed alertness," one of three central elements accompanying complex learning. To translate into practical terms, no one who has experienced the "fight or flight" fear response would identify this state as optimal for learning. "Brain-based learning" theory is a combination of common sense and brain science–in this case, the brain’s physiological reaction to stress–making neuroscience a useful partner for improving education.
The research areas that contributed to principle 11 include: "Stress Theory; Anxiety Research; Self-Efficacy; Neurosciences; Sports Psychology; and Creativity."
Practical Use of Brain/Mind Principles
Caine and Caine do not use the principles to prescribe any single teaching method. Instead, the principles are intended to provide a framework for "selecting the methodologies that will maximize learning and make teaching more effective and fulfilling." They may open doors for educators, increase teaching options, or serve as a guidepost to educators already working to implement brain-compatible teaching practices. Following is the complete list of the twelve brain/mind learning principles, as defined by Caine and Caine:
- The brain is a complex adaptive system.
- The brain is a social brain.
- The search for meaning is innate.
- The search for meaning occurs through patterning.
- Emotions are critical to patterning.
- Every brain simultaneously perceives and creates parts and wholes.
- Learning involves both focused attention and peripheral attention.
- Learning always involves conscious and unconscious processes.
- We have at least two ways of organizing memory.
- Learning is developmental.
- Complex learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat.
- Every brain is uniquely organized. (Caine and Caine 1997)
Three Conditions for Learning
Caine and Caine conclude that "Optimizing the use of the human brain means using the brain’s infinite capacity to make connections–and understanding what conditions maximize this process." They identify three interactive and mutually supportive elements that should be present in order for complex learning to occur: "relaxed alertness," "orchestrated immersion," and "active processing."
- An optimal state of mind that we call relaxed alertness, consisting of low threat and high challenge.
- The orchestrated immersion of the learner in multiple, complex, authentic experience.
- The regular, active processing of experience as the basis for making meaning.
(Caine and Caine 1997)
|
|
|
|
