The Brain and Learning

The Brain is for Learning

This week's lesson within my Learning Theories and Instruction course focusedron how the brain processes learning. This lesson taught me that it is important to understand how the brain operates so that one can develop effective classroom instruction. According to Ormrod,"Brain research can help us refine our theories of learning and cognition, but it can tell us little if anything about what to teach or how best to teach it." (Ormrod, 2009) I found resources that relate to the suject of brain function and learning processes.

The first resource is a website entitled, "Brain-based Learning", which provides useful information that caters to the needs of families, teachers and community. The website is http://www.eduscapes.com. This website provides project resources that could be used in the classroom such as Brain Connection which provides brain-compatible learning projects that can be used in the classroom.

Another resource that I located was an article on brainconnection.com that focusd on one's memory. This article provides information about different types of memory such as immediate, working, and long term. The article states, "We remember things more easily if we have been exposed to similar things before, so what we remember from the past has a lot to do with what we can learn in the future."
(http://brainconnection.positscience.com) Experiences in our lives is what helps to shape our memory. It seems that what a person already understands from experience helps them to remember new information that may have some relation.

These resources helped me come to the conclusion that the brain is very unique. There is not one brain that performs in the exact same way as another. Similar, maybe, but not exactly the same.

Ormrod, J., Schunk, D., & Gredler, M. (2009). Learning theories and instruction (Laureate custom edition). New York: Pearson.

http://www.eduscapes.com

http://brainconnection.positscience.com