Understanding the brain differences for the education of talent

It´s a fact that education, of any nation, benefits in short, medium and long term social, cultural and health services, which is why there is no doubt that education is the future, that is why Governments seek that education systems have the level of development that achieves that students get the best scores, although it should be to examine whether this is achieved to ensure the usefulness of what is learned.

I mention this, because schools seek students with better qualifications and usually those who are not at least two points above the average, simply does not deserve much attention, although a common thought is about those who achieve excellence, though desirable, do not require much support. But these excellent children, the dream of every parent, the goal of every educational system and of course, the target of investments are for those whose value is its weight in gold, talented, gifted, but nations have failed to find a system 100% reliable, allowing the student to find that path of perfection and those who have the gift, remain at school, despite the fact that regardless of the label that psychologist give them all they are children and have the right of education.

However, speaking of the talent or gifted children, even when all family would like for their children to have some talent or being a genius, it should be mentioned that they aren't as most of people  paints, because while its characteristics makes them pass to the right side of the normal curve,  this puts them in the category of special education, and depending on their capabilities will be more or less difficult the adaptation to the environment (Marland, 1972; Fenstermacher & Richardson, 2005).

At this sense, some are more adapted to retain information, like the case of children diagnosed as Savant, which is a syndrome part of the autistic spectrum, some of them can retain large amounts of information, such as dates, numbers or songs (Winner, 1998), and they have also skills to perform multiple tasks. An example is when one of these children go the Museum and is able to reproduce in detail the entire route, including the comments that he or she made or heard, the colors that each object including details that only a few expertise can discover.

Talented children also have lots of interests, but like many children, this month they can enjoy the dinosaurs and next submarines, but they keep the knowledge by each one of the themes that they like.

It is worth mentioning that they have the tendency to read and write at ages prior to the rule without formal education, but parents or mentors will have to take care of the taste for these skill, which is partly determined by his extraordinary fluency in vocabulary, they are more advanced to the stage of development are, making complex phrases before the year and a half or displaying words listened to only once with a perfect knowledge of the context showing in some cases management of complex concepts even for adults, putting in check to parents who may not be at the height of the cognitive needs of children (Benito, 1990).

Are also artistically talented, they show an unusual appreciation for the arts in general, particularly stand out in singing, because they are perfectly chanted, or in the drawing, with traits of great maturity, they can also show high aptitude for photography or theater, making things seem easy or natural (De Bono, 1988; Genovard and Castelló, 1990; De Bono, 1992).

Due to their interests or their particular artistic talent show periods of great concentration, which in some cases can be maintained for long periods of time and perhaps that is why they also demonstrate an extraordinary memory, although this may be selective, because they will focus on very specific details, contexts beyond the adult eye.

But to reviewing all their enviable and extraordinary qualities, it’s necessary to talk about their constants to the doctor thanks a poor handling of the tension and is that they are too auto critics, focused on the perfection of execution, rather than enjoy the same. This puts them in a place that few parents really want (Lohman, 2000; Lohman, Korb and Lakin, 2008).

This group of the population is generally classified as:

-Genius persons that break all the rules, they are extremely intelligent, creative and productive, and often achieve high academic levels; however this is not a cause of genius, because it is an achievement of adulthood who requires maturity and experience (Solomon, 2007).

- Precocity as well can be a symptom of high capacity, but not necessarily, although is associated with extreme capacity. In this case requires much environmental support to maintain capabilities.

-Prodigy, is characterized as children who manage executions with the quality of a competent adult in a field identified prior 10 years old or less.

-Gifted / talented in this area may be conceptual differences between authors because some say that the gifted refers to large areas with a complex cognitive structure, while the talent refers to a professional field more particular culturally, but these differences are not necessarily different in reality (Benito, 1990; Derryberry and Barger, 2008; Lohman, Korb and Lakin, 2008; Willard - Holt, 2008).

All these features are a good target to private institutions, particularly in the United States who have made fortunes promising parents find the talent of their children, however, time and a bit of motivation made realize that talent poorly directed only leads to personal disaster.

And the myth that talented or gifted children are easy to educate persists despite the fact that the evidence shows otherwise. Researchers as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of the University of Chicago have shown that  children with exceptionally high abilities in any area, not only academic but artistic or athletic, are one step back than their peers socially, for they show a clear trend to be targeted, with independent and introverted thinking, what makes them spend alone for a long time, and although deeply enjoy the moments alone also report feelings of loneliness and between the degree of above higher staffing, farthest feel of the rest of the people, which can push them to depression (Winner, 1998)

For this reason it’s value to wonder whether it’s worth investing in them being on the one hand a very small percentage of the population, I don’t mean they don’t deserve it but I wonder, what can education  give them if they are the best of the best?, does the goal is to make them smarter or more talented?. Well, if thereby we them more antisocial I think that the price is high.

The other idea that seems a little more profitable is the fact that talented and gifted children can  help us with the other side of the normal curve, we can learn from them, so that their talent is not wasted or they are lost in the difficulties that come with the package that genetic and environmentally them has been bestowed, because if we can understand how they learn, we realize that there is only some aspects that mixed, and how is possible to be at one side or the other of the normal curve.

Being critical, from a cognitive point of view, the talent or the gifted child not make much difference except conceptual and by its position in the normal learning curve, because first of all of them are children, the only thing that sets apart them is that they learn more quickly that their colleagues, for this reason, have studied their capacities and differences, but the goal with all children is not only making exceptional adult but happy children (Benito, 1994; Joftus and Maddox-Dolan, 2002).

Are they really different?

How did began to emerge these distinctions related intelligence?, well, the man has been implementing mechanisms for assessing the mental capacity of the members of a society, primarily to respond to particular needs and under the assumption that the fittest are most able to survive; so traditionally the assessment of this capacity has been linked with notions of intelligence, which as a concept, is a difficult precision term although he has been serving as base for the design procedures that have dealt with measure it, explain it and understand it, although rarely exploit it (Fuentes Muñoz, 1999).

What has been understood this measurement is that intelligence is defined as the capacity to adapt to the environment (Dzib Goodin, 2012) and that this can be modified if environmental conditions are altered. Even though the intelligence based on the genetic seems indisputable, it depends on effective updating of the activity of the subject in their environment (Fuentes Muñoz, 1999).

These measurements made  separation of population on the basis of intellectual qualities, that’s the reason that authors like  Feldhusen (cited in Fenstermacher & Richardson, 2005) make a distinction between gifted and talent, and defines giftedness as brainpower general and uniform underlying, while that the talent draws it as a superior performance or fitness specializing in certain areas here, coincides with authors such as Genovard (1990) and Genovard and Castello (1990) in children with talent are those that possess a high capacity, ability or potential in any important area of human activity, evaluated through assessment scales, observations of behavior or scores of past activities of learning performance and compared with that obtained a group of fellow reference.

Other authors such as Gagné (cited in Parra, Ferrando, Prieto and Sanchez, 2005), add an association between the natural gift of (gifted) with human capabilities not systematically developed and talent with skills or skills developed systematically; and in this sense Renzulli (1996) adds that the outstanding is an interaction among three basic clusters of human traits that can be described as: general skills above the average, high levels of commitment to the tasks and high levels of creativity.

However, contrary to popular belief, creativity does not correlate with IQ or academic performance, as various research have shown, and in this context either has relationship between the age or gender and personal perception of creativity (Howley, Pendarvis and Howley, 1990; Rogers, 2006). In this sense, can also be said that creativity is not correlated with academic performance and in many cases the Faculty perceives as most creative students with lower school performance (Sternberg, 1985; Valadez Sierra, Betancourt Morejón and Zavala Berbena, 2006).

In addition, in what regards about gifted children's creativity, these are not perceived as particularly creative children, because they are within normal ranges, contrary to the talented children or with normal intellectual ranges and then the diagnosis of gifted seems to be tied to the IQ that the other two aspects covering the triple ring of Renzulli, as they are the general skills, creativity and persistence to the task (Sternberg and Davidson, 1990; Prado Suarez, 2006).

When researchers do an analysis between the parents, the population of mothers is to perceive as less creative on gifted children and the perception of the creativity of participants is almost similar to auto creativity perceived by children about gifted (Prado Suarez, 2006). In this regard, it is worth in-depth analysis of its features.

And it is possible to find extreme cases among gifted children which coexist with a verbal deficit and these are the so-called autistic Savant, and they can be characterized as wise men even though they show a deep cognitive delay (some with an IQ between 40 and 70). These wise men generally possess a skill at a normal level, in contrast to several limitations. But Savant are rarer (less than 100 are the ones that are known) who have one or more skills to a level of prodigy (Heaton and Wallace, 2004).

These wise children tend to excel in the visual arts and music, or mathematical calculation and its sphere of competence, resemble the prodigies, showing early skills, with an independent learning and an imperative to dominate. In addition, Savant often exceeds gifted children in the accuracy of their memories. One of the most promising biological explanations for this syndrome raises the atypical brain organization, with a deficit in the left hemisphere of the brain (which controls the language generally), offset by the strong points in the right hemisphere (which controls the spatial and visual skills) (Winner, 1998).

And thanks the work carried out by different specialists dedicated to the study of the gifted and the talent children that we can summarize that the main characteristics of these persons are basically focused on cognitive aspects; adaptation and social integration; emotional aspects; communicative aspects - linguistic and aspects related to creativity, and although none of these aspects can forget the children who are on the other side of the normal curve of development, these children are most obvious when talking about cognitive aspects, they are characterized by a high capacity of convergent thinking, thinking of logical, relations cause effect, etc., as well as a great memory to all kinds of data.

They also demonstrate greater abstraction, vision moral reasoning, and generalization that which correspond to their age and their great curiosity allows them to learn faster (Derryberry and Barger, 2008).

Of course, cannot be left aside their originality in questions and answers which are also well founded, that is due to a high capacity of observation and relation between elements and a preference for complex tasks involving a high concentration, perhaps for this reason quickly learn abstract concepts, being able to apply them in a practical way, that gives them a great intrinsic motivation, which can produce them boredom according to the dynamics of class, because due to its high capacity to process information, they are predisposed for accelerated learning (Hilliard, 1976; Bonus, 1988; Genovard and Castelló, 1990; Bonus, 1992; Lohman, 2000; Derryberry and Barger, 2008; Willard - Holt, 2008).

With regard to the characteristics about language and communication, we can say the most notable feature is having a vast and complex vocabulary and parents tend to feel surprised about how quickly they learn to read; also express their ideas clearly and this leads them to his dialogue is fluid and fast with great understanding, but some authors mention that they have a tendency to prefer oral language to written as a means of expression (Torrance, 1977; Sternberg, 1985; VanTassel - Baska, Xuemei Feng, Brown, Bracken, Stambaugh, French, McGowan, Worley, Quek and Bai, 2008).

In general show pictorial skills and/or sensitivity for music, they also have a tendency to look for new alternatives, what takes them to an unusual facility to manipulate ideas or objects and obtain new combinations, primarily that they prefer the complex tasks to the simple and they are particularly capable of generating solutions of different or multiple ways of solving a same problem (Genovard)1990; Genovard and Castello, 1990) and highlighted this point in particular that formal schooling, prevents them from this development and in part that is causing great frustration.

So far, those enviable aspects in children that every parent wants to have mentioned, however the combination of these strengths with weaknesses affect someone that even though a person with high capacities, may fail at school or socially, and hence derived their special educational needs, therefore when analyses aspects of adaptation and social integration talented children in general have much more success, to secure a good acceptance and social prestige than gifted envelope or geniuses, even as well, all tend to be independent, particularly in the area of domain (Alonso, 1991; Bonus, 1992; Derryberry and Barger, 2008), therefore never cease to call for help on those tasks that are problematic or cease to try what they perceive as difficult. Its high capacity leads them to be critical of established standards and the most hard to adapt is their superior ability to self-criticism, causing them great anxiety and multiple health problems (Garet, Porter, Desimone, Terremotos and Yoon, 2001; Manaut-Gil, Vaquero-Casares, Quintero-Gallego, Pérez Santamaría and Gómez-González 2004).

But it is impossible to forget that human beings consists not only of capabilities but that affective and emotional aspects, as well as the innate temperament, play a decisive role in the personal growth and the progressive acquisition of a certain balance and well-being with oneself. And this is where, with high capacities children live a situation of gap between their intellectual capacity and these other emotional capabilities that help the adaptation to the environment in which they operate.

And it is then that lethal combination between high intellectual abilities and school adaptation difficulties, causing the paradox of the failure in learning. To this must be added that an educator is quite a challenge to find before a student with above-average intelligence, to which seems to keep him short learning program designed for their age. On the other hand sometimes their mental agility and its initiative to make a child uncomfortable if question the professor regarding his or her method of teaching (Rogers, 2006). And it is in regards to the emotional aspects tend to show a high level of self-esteem and self-confidence in their abilities and qualities, which makes them very sensitive and can produce them emotional instability, being a problem for adults because sometimes they behave defensively, in part because of that do not require social reinforcements in his work (Torrance 1977; Cross, Cassady, Dixon, Adams, 2008).

In a study presented by Cross, Cassady, Dixon, Adams (2008) show a conclusion widely replicated, that talented children and adolescents have psychological disorders, but also should be noted that with the necessary support and instruction in standard environments, they can achieve overcome these difficulties (VanTassel-Baska, Xuemei Feng, Brown, Bracken, Stambaugh, French, McGowan, Worley, Quek and Bai, 2008).

However the adjustments in the classroom requires a positive reinforcement in key areas, where the student is not so expert, as well as teamwork, but necessarily be given as part of a special education (Garet, Porter, Desimone, Terremotos, & Yoon, 2001; Valadez Sierra, Betancourt Morejon and Zavala Berbena, 2006).

And it is that to overcome school difficulties and reach the expertise and adult maturity, it is necessary to recognize the professional identity emerges in the meeting point of individual history, on one side, and the conventions of one specific domain, on the other. However, these two variables do not exist in equal measure both elements, and in the case of children talent starts from the premise that the domain is sufficient (Pendarvis, Howley & Howley, 1990; Solomon, 2007) which can lead to the failure not only school but professional. Although there is a purely social aspect to consider, is the fact that there are still fields of work dominated by a genre or another, with the result that women with high intellectual level have major problems of professional insertion than males (Willard-Holt, 2008).

What do make them different?

Basically the capacities are activated or deactivated depending on their position in the brain. We must remember that the brain has a finite space where expand its size, that’s why is folded to create more space than the skull (Dzib Goodin, 2012; Fox, 2011) so when a brain area develops more than others, thus in one way or another, makes them less potential press. Even when there is no neurogenesis except in the hippocampus and the olfactory bulb (Alvarez - Buylla and Garcia-Verdugo, 2002), brain connections will make space within the brain, so those functions to be developed more, will compete under the law of the strongest, those connections that do not survive the pressure, will be weak and will eventually disappear to make way for the ones used most frequently (Tubino, 2004).

It seems then that to understand the differences between one and the other side of the curve, you must think about functions that feature are the subjects that represent. So children with severe mental retardation will have highly developed limbic (emotional) structures and are so large you are pressuring the cognitive areas that are represented in the neo cortex. This same difference is seen in the children in one or another side of the autistic spectrum, because while the girl with fragile X syndrome can be very violent emotionally, either the Savant can have incredibly developed a skill, children who have Asperger's syndrome are better adapted, except that mirror neurons practically do not exist or are not functional (Hardan, Minshew, Mallikarnjuhn, and Keshavan, 2001; Herbert, 2005; Tirapu-Ustarroz, Moon-Lario, Hernandez-Goñi, Garcia-Suescun, 2011).

The importance of white matter has been then linked with cognitive processes, as evidenced by a study published by Roberts, Anderson and Husain (2010) in the Journal of Neuroscience magazine compared the cognitive performance of 11 pilots of combat with a group control of a similar IQ, no previous experience in the piloting of aircraft. All participants completed two tasks of cognitive control to investigate the rapid decision-making. In addition, a brain magnetic resonance image, examined the structure of connections of the white matter between brain regions associated with cognitive control.

The findings indicate that fighter pilots have higher cognitive control, showing an accuracy significantly higher in one of the cognitive tasks, despite being more sensitive to irrelevant information of distraction and magnetic resonance imaging revealed differences between the pilots and the participants that both as controls in the microstructure of white matter in the right hemisphere of the brain.

However there is a difference between the white matter and grey, grey matter is where the mental calculation is carried out and the memories are stored and basically consists of cell bodies, but below this is the cornerstone of brain processing which fills half of the human brain is composed of millions of axons that work by way of cables or bridges of communication and which is covered by the myelin sheath, controlling the flow of information between nerve cells and can connect the nervous system (Fields, 2008) extensive and remote regions.

Traditionally, the white substance has been associated with the speed of processing and connectivity, understood as the ability to connect different regions of the brain in an effective manner (Roberts, Anderson, Husain, 2010). However, in recent years, it has been emerging a body of solid knowledge that attempts to link the white substance with different cognitive processes, establishing certain neuropsychological disorders are the result of the profound effect that the white matter disorders can have on cognition and emotion, as in the case of mental retardation or Savant syndrome.

But regardless of the effects of the white matter disorders share directly the notion of distributed neural networks. These networks, consist of dispersed sets of neurons dedicated to functions specific neuro behavioural and have linked them to the higher functions in general, e.g. the language, which is a complex function that results from the coordinated activity of large neural networks distributed throughout the cortex and subcortical areas (Moon-Lario, García-Suescun Hernáez-Goñi Tirapu Ustárroz 2011).

In addition, it has been found that children with attention deficit disorder, presented a reduction of left hemispheric asymmetry and the size of the prefrontal regions of the right hemisphere (Kennedy, 1999), and changes in white matter that could relate to the attention processes, have shown so there is speculation that a smaller volume of the right frontal white matter is correlated with an alteration of the sustained in children with disorder deficit attention care. On the other hand, in autism, it has been noted an increase in the volume of the hemispheric white matter in all brain lobes. In addition the white substance was related to episodic memory, processing speed and executive function (Miranda-Casas, Fernández, Robledo and García-Castellar, 2010; Roberts, Anderson and Husain, 2010).

Then the development of this substance is important, because between more cerebral bodies, as many brain connections and thus, seems that the formula to generate the talent is there, however, will have to consider other aspects before thinking that it is possible to modulate the talent, the question now is how can the white substance be developed?, the answer lies in the environment.

Learning: genetics, motivation, and environmental development

Certainly the growth and neuronal connection starts a few weeks of conception (Springer and Deutsch, 1981;  Tubino, 2004; Fields, 2008), more modulated by genetics that the atmosphere at that point, the struggle for the connection it makes its presence, however, it will depend on the care maternal to enable the brain training to face the first great risk that are the moments leading up to childbirth and later, such as training, free of faults or genetic translocations and adequate structures development, while it is true that many of the disorders of development appear to be associated with perinatal difficulties, such as premature birth, delayed intrauterine growth and perinatal Hypoxia (Manaut-Gil, Vaquero-Casares, Quintero-Gallego, Pérez Santamaría and Gómez-González,2004).

Once a baby is born, the brain does not have the opportunity to know that functions will be necessary, and with the exception of those that are evolutionarily programmed (reflexes) the other dependent activation made by the environment, starting from the idea that those who use more will become stronger and thus arguably better adapted (Zehhausern, 1982).

But in this struggle there are several skills that can be deployed by the newborn, particularly those that are executed more frequently, which will eventually lead him to the precision, those that are more allowed and also enjoy (Alonso, 1992). Something to recognize in children talent is that they enjoy much once they recognize their abilities because they know they are good they have made not once or twice, but thousands, starting from very young, that has enabled them to greater and stronger neural connections with this greater white substance nuclei. While you can try something new, dare to move their cognitive comfort zone - motor if and only if this causes them pleasure. The same pleasure that a newborn feels when trying to catch a distant object, so it does and then will seek almost in a natural way to achieve the same feat with another pattern of movements (Sternberg and Davidson, 1990; Dzib Goodin, 2012).

In an evolutionary sense, it is not surprising that more developed capacities on gifted and talented children are those related skills genetically predetermined, which have to do with numbers, the language, and the arts. For example the quantification of the elements that form part of our environment is a basic capacity not only of the human being, but also of other animal species, which helps the body adapt to their environment. Several studies suggest that this numerical sense is innate, both in humans and other animal species, but for the human being, this numerical sense is the basis on which to build a more complex, dependent schooling numerical ability (Serra-Grabulosa, Perez-Pamies, Lachica, Membrives, 2010).

On the other hand, the language is more dependent on the aspects evolutionary genetic that writing or reading, requiring instruction or scaffolding (Alonso, 1992b; Benitez Burraco, 2006).

In this sense, it seems possible to think that those areas who admire, are those that are regulated by genetics, and do not require much instruction, including the movement, because the talent require professional support to achieve a technique neat, although it is true that require less repetitions to achieve perfection, will be the environment that determines the course of action. The example that I like is that perhaps we are all excellent pianists but if we have never had a piano before us and the opportunity to beat him a little, we will lose these brain connections that were willing to bloom.

Thus, while the study of the processes of learning and teaching does not consider the multiple dimensions and contributions from neuroscience, will be contributing to a restricted view of such complexity, to analyze associations between complex as learning and neural activation processes, it is necessary to evaluate critically how brain areas have varying degrees of activation. Examples in the educational field are investigations that demonstrate neural changes as a result of learning processes (Benaros, Lipina, Segretin, Hermida, Colombo, 2010).

How to address the talent?

My proposal is that if it is possible to understand that she kids do what they enjoy and avoid anything that makes them feel bad, is unable to activate the talent in children. Under the note that among more repetitions, stronger neural connections and between more pleasure to cause a task, greater chance of repetition, then will have to work with the mechanisms that lead to the talented and gifted to the enjoyment of their areas in which is good and share them with others.

This convinced that education is not a matter of money, because children with strong cultural deprivation indices can be found an indescribable pleasure to hitting a ball or draw on paper napkins, the same as a child with better resources can be the best, reaching levels in an electronic game. The problem of education is that you have forgotten that and has focused on teaching what is important, from an adult perspective, and on the other hand, does not give the opportunity of repeating tasks beyond a couple of times, so such that the learner cannot be achieved perfection.

If also eliminates the barrier of I do this perfect and you can't, avoidance of competences, under the idea that every brain is different and thus has different capabilities. And it is good to be so, because there is someone who can understand the mechanism for a car work or that distinguishes between good melons and those who have no taste. Take advantage of individual differences has much more value to educational level and nation, rather than whether a country is more apt to write. Talent must and can be exploited, not only marked.

We know that this segment of the population likes to find multiple ways to explain or solve problems, and you like the challenges, then in a class group enable them be leaders because it is something that comes with your natural team and let us to explain things to other children, and as the others manage to understand them, that feel them are able to, must pull the zone of proximal development of all, against the notion that putting them with less able children overwhelm its capacities. But they are already there, and they will enjoy using them.

If we see the talent as do enterprises, greater capital is in his talent, but not only that, these talents to work and make everyone, without discrimination, achieve goals increasingly older, where all these are important, from which clean bathrooms, who is the best sweeping, who heads up the projects, the society be nurtured more, and instead of seeing differences between a 100 and 20 or between a rich and a poor, we would see and accept that there are things for which it is not suitable, because there is no genius to do everything perfect and know everything, right?

In this sense education should focus on educating is not simple and recognize skills and ensure that these are shared, educate you a genius of computing as Bill Gates?, the ability to give and the ability to see the others. We should remember that among more minor talent capacity guarantee not we depart them, not make them feel special, all children are special, everyone has the right to education, all have different capabilities, enable them to share them, and society will be a better place to live.

Alma Dzib Goodin

If you would like to know more about my writing you can visit my web site:
http://www.almadzib.com

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Creativity, when a + b is equal to innovation

 Creativity is related with art generally, so when schools says it has to be included as curricular ingredient, thought runs through activities such as painting, music or theatre. But in the world of business, creativity plays an important role, beyond of the knowledge required for a job, a creative person solves problems, and earns thousands of dollars to the company that hires that genius.

Thinking about business, innovation is the key, the difference between continue to grow in the enterprise vortex or close the door of a company regardless of few years has needed to make it grow up to certain level.

A search between Linkedin comments reveals that human resources departments have this ability as the most desirable among employees. I remember only one of the thousands of comments that I found with a search, and he was a person who was looking for a high-level position and he said that after two hours of interview, the CEO of the company asked him, in a disturbing manner and without nothing to do with the position description: how many are two plus two?, and fast this person replied: whatever you want it to be… and he got incredibly the job with that single answer.

There are various explanations of what creativity is, but basically is the ability to generate ideas or thoughts that arrive at original solutions, and can be applied to all areas of life.

Various concepts associated as wit, talent brainstorming ideas, inventiveness, originality, intuition, inspiration, imagination, serendipity, art, intelligence, flexible, divergent thinking, innovation, problem-solving, capacity for analysis and synthesis, inventive, original thought and ability to change the environment.

Neuroscientists studies point to front cortex as the head of creative ideas, however, most of the researches have been developed linking artistic activities, in a way such that has found that this area processed musical tasks, and visual and verbal creativity (Fuster, 2008; Runco, 2007).

However it should be noted that creativity, beyond art requires flexible thinking and adaptability to the requirements of the tasks, divergent thinking, and problem solving, which is why Damasio (cited in Runco, 2007) explains that the brain hierarchy with regard to this kind of task would be given by the relationship between the macro systems, neural networks and molecular processes, because creativity is the sum of many functional processes, since it must be dotted with motivation, expertise in the subject, knowledge of the field in which ideas, is being developed which involves a representation and diversification of ideas to find one among many that is appropriate, innovative and adequate to resolve the issue in which you wish to innovate.

People usually say that children are particularly creative, and this is the reason that many skills must begin to develop from very young, for example artistic activities and is thus in part because they are not afraid to do or say things or social criticism. Pablo Picasso said that "all children are artists, the problem is that they lose the genius when they grow up" how happens this?.

One explanation is that the pre frontal cortex, takes place during the first years of life, but eventually grows and expands in density and volume as part of the normal development of the adult brain, and has resulted in the adult cognitive quality of control of momentum and attention, but at the same time, inhibits the ability of isolated thoughts, and this does grow self-censorship and due to environmental molding, so the adult learn to stop due to critical social (Fuster, 2002; Lehrer, 2010).

And it is here where begins the social paradox which leads to many people, especially young people to the frustration and others to glory, because even if it’s socially requested, we applaud innovation and generating ideas, but on the other hand, inhibits this feature in schools. This is the reason why Europe,  has tried to integrate creativity as part of academic and cultural policies since some years (Robinson, 1999).

The problem is that culture change at an accelerated pace thanks to the technological revolution where every day there are new applications and ways of interacting and as mentioned by Robinson, (2011) change is never linear, and cannot be predicted that there is around the corner, while the traditional curricula, has not achieved the leap and stop thinking that all students should learn the same rhythm (Dzib Goodin 2011) by what the interaction between creativity and curricula must be if one of the two allows the other to find the squaring of the circle.

Allow flexible thinking implies that there is not only one right answer, but in any case, different approaches to the same problem, without falling into another error of education, which is put in competition for the best, which minimizes the largest part often tolerance to frustration and creates negative emotions (Akinol and Mendes, 2008). Recent research shows that there is a tendency on the part of most creative people to dishonesty, due to the pressure to be the best and find the best options to solve a problem (Gino and Ariely, 2011).

However, creativity must be developed for everyday life, not just art, science, or big business, flexible thinking can be the answer to many situations of daily life, combined with the creativity would allow using various tools (Ionescu, 2011) and not just the most popular ones, or use them more effectively.

And perhaps the question is: what is the best way to teach creativity?, if those words are searched in Google, the answer is at  4 million 600 thousand entries, and gives the impression that there is no doubt that it is possible to teach this gift so valuable for enterprises, however, even though it is not a skill that may only have some elected, it seems that the experts agree that there must be certain conditions as the stimulation of the environment, motivating to resolve challenges, knowledge of a topic, a certain level of knowledge in the area to develop, practice, motivation and let each learn to recognize the moments of illumination (DiChristina, 2008).

The experts also explained that this creative thinking stems, not necessarily listening muses, it arises from the reading, observation, interaction with the world, which causes a slow but deep incubation of ideas, and that when you are in the process, should be avoided in the best possible way the distractions, because they sometimes miss an idea, which can be difficult or sometimes impossible to recover. Been looking for the least amount of sophisticated ideas, to avoid frustration, and learn to listen to criticism, unless it is hit too to the ego, then this will be whoever is winning when arises the idea of one million dollars (Johnson, 2010). And it is worth mentioning that originality is not enough for creativity, because we must also consider the usefulness of the idea as a variable (Runco and Jaeger, 2012).

Is why Pablo Picasso once said that "inspiration exists, but has to find us working", so there is no an easy recipe that produces innovative ideas, moreover, must be considered environments, because while some need solitude and calm to create, others feel inspired listening a brainstorm  of ideas within work teams with multiple points of view and ways of thinking.

But you must consider that the modern world offers advantages of communication without precedent, for example, international work teams meeting virtual conference rooms or in video conferences, with the possibility of sharing of multi-cultural influences and knowledge, which is why the creative possibilities can be multiplied.

At school level, there are areas where creativity and innovation are basic, regardless of the field of education. That's why that school programs not may leave out, but while there is a curricular change, and leave aside the idea that everyone should learn the same, at the same rate and in the same way, creativity is not an input. And many lose the passion and probably the possibility of developing talent (Dzib Goodin, 2011).

Therefore, the invitation is to enable that innovation and creativity are an item and ability in daily life, in all areas of society, to find black square circled of colors  and allow that talent to flourish, because in the end the school work, should be helping the search for talent and younger you find it, it’s best.

 Alma Dzib Goodin

If you would like to know more about my writing you can visit my web site:
http://www.almadzib.com

References:

Akinola, M. and Mendes WB. (2008) The dark side  of creativity: Biological vulnerability and negative emotions lead to greater artistic creativity. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 34 (12) 1677-1686.

DiChristina, M. (2008) Let your creativity soar. Scientific American Mind. 19 (3) 24-31.

Dzib Goodin, A. (2011) The search for talent: the holy grail. Disponible en : http://talkingaboutneurocognitionandlearning.blogspot.com/2011/12/search-for-talent-holy-grail.html.

Fuster, JM. (2008) Prefrontal cortex. Elsevier. Oxford. UK.

Fuster, JM. (2002) Frontal lobe and cognitive development. Journal of Neurocytology. 31.(3-5) 373-385.

Gino, F. and Ariely, D. (2011) The dark side of creativity: Original thinkers can be more dishonest. Harvard Bussiness School. Working papers. Disponible en  red: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6613.html.

Ionescu, T. (2011) Exploring the nature of cognitive flexibility. New Ideas in Psychology. 30 (2) 190-200.

Johnson, S. (2010) Where good ideas come from: The natural history of innovation.  Penguin publisher. USA.

Lehrer, J. (2010) Childish creativity.  Disponible en red: http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2010/03/childish_creativity.php.

Robinson, K. (1999) Culture, creativity and the young: developing public policy. Council of Europe Publishing. Belgium.

Robinson, K. (2011) Out of our minds. Courier Westford. Westford, MA. USA.

Runco, M. (2007) Creativity theories and Themes: research, development and practice. Elsevier Academic Press. USA.

Runco, M. and Jaeger, GJ. (2012) The standard definition of creativity. Creativity Research Journal. 24 (1) 92-96.

School learning understood as processes: observing the small steps

School apprenticeships are usually seen as abilities or tasks that students must master as a requirement for academic success. From the classroom, one of the works of Professor is to help the student to acquire these leanings and trying to making sense, ensuring a logical sequence of planned acquisition of knowledge depending on curricula and academic programs (Anderson, 1997). From Piaget’s point of view, this knowledge is developed in spiral form, in such a way that the student will support in that they already know to continue with the next item on learning, while the social perspective, explains that learning makes sense when it merges with the culture and you look at learning as a tool to understand others (Cruz Pérez, Galeana of O, 2006).

Aside from the cognitive tradition, this paper discusses learning from the point of view neurocognitive, which proposes that learning is first, a process necessary for the survival of the species, and on which it depends to continue in the struggle for the life of the human being, which is why learning is analyzed as small steps which are concatenated by way of links that allow the child to acquire skills from birth and which are the basis for learning in formal schooling and that is continues to develop until death, but which should be considered in teaching as a formal aspect.

Understanding the mechanisms from whom is learning

Although it sounds quite logical, the child learns not only at school or books, and there are things they already know when children go to school by very first time. Some of them are evolutionary legacies that allow  to adapt better to the environment, for example the language, as that from the early days of born this process begins to develop, first by way of crying to provide food and company, and later as a means of expression (Benítez-Burraco, 2007).

However, when a baby is already equipped with different mechanisms to help you survive in the conditions that the outside of the womb imposed since then begins its process of learning, although based on genetic aspects, because it must be clear key situations as how much and how much high the baby should mourn to catch the attention and get food?, who is the right person to ask for food?. Who has been close to newborn infants, have noticed this and other mechanisms to begin to develop in order to create environmental responses from the neonate (Pinker, 1995; Olarreta, 2005).

One aspect to consider is that when the human looks at the light outside the womb, the brain does not know is what will need to adapt to the environment, so the baby's life depends on two key aspects: on the one hand genetic load, which is equipped with, by way of reflections and the care that will protect it; and the ability to adapt to the enviroment.

Example of reflexes is well known in a very primitive way, vision adapted to conditions luminous environment, the hearing incorporates more systematically to sound the atmosphere of mode recognition such that this baby every day is a sum of events to develop at the brain level, to be combined with the environment which provides stable and rich experiences so that at the end of the first year of life, it may be better and stronger motor movements to stand, eventually walk; vocal sounds first to make sounds, which by the end of the first year will be translated in their first words, and with the passage of time will be the principle of short phrases, seeking to satisfy needs and are gradually will spend no more than 40 words, often unconnected to 200 words capable of forming ideas, feelings and making people laugh all those who surround him with their occurrences. Who has not enjoyed a child with their verbal games?. That is only the expression of a brain in explosion.

 The beginning of learning is due to a body in developing

All these small breakthroughs in the lives of babies are due to brain development. There is no learning without a brain, and similarly, there is no brain without learning. The human brain is born only with more tools than necessary; this is because it doesn’t know that humans will need throughout their life. So born primarily with skills granted genetically, it will be modeling environmental it that allows you to determine which are more appropriate to maintain sequences and make possible adaptation to the environment (Tubino, 2004).

And this is the process that will result in learning, because it will allow, after thorough practice, first determine that actions are useful for achieving food or shelter in a hostile world determined by adults, and then develop movement skills to expand areas of operation. This is why babies  develop from spending  time  lying at one place, then begin  to balance on their body, they  incorporate later, try to  sit down, sometimes they  crawling or  walking, running and one day they reach the moon (Cruz Pérez, Galeana of O, 2006).

To do so, they require multiple repetitions of movement or actions of learning, which creates connections between structural units in the brain that, are as the basis for the organization of the sensations, emotions, learning, memory, thought and language. That is why every experience is a structure of the chain of events that culminate in the development of learning (Sagan, 1981; Lieberman, 2002).

However, despite the need to create chains of learning, brain will not be able to maintain all the connections with it born , or it creates, because similar the memory of a computer, the space it occupies is finite, confined in the skull and is not able to expand beyond. So the brain folds on itself, looking for savings to maximize its resources, and thus give better answers to environmental needs it face (Marin Padilla, 2001; Lieberman, 2002). For this reason, the brain will keep only those connections that are strong, that they become necessary in response to the interaction with the environment and other people (Damasio, 1994; Anderson, 1997; Dick and Roth, 2008).

But what are these neural networks?, they are groups of neurons (clusters) already linked by a specific  function, by structural proximity or as part of a chain of processes. Considering that a human brain has 100 billion nerve cells (there is a discussion of how it came to this number), it is necessary to give order and found that neuronal networks give order but makes this complex system one of the most dynamic and functional (Búldu, 2011).

For example, it would be easy to understand those networks from children in an environment that promotes that language is a useful tool as a means of communication, those children will be better able to develop a broad and with time vocabulary, so reading and writing will be a logical step to the transmission of ideas . While children that are developed in a more demanding environment for the movement, as athletes, will generate more motor connections, because they work out them more extensively and probably put aside the words. What explanations should be given from a child to get his first goal before of the rest of his teammates?.

But this view is not black and white, children will develop brain connections which will be manifested in learning skills, whether in the areas of language or thought or in motor activities depending on which so much stimulation will provide the environment to his around, at the same time in which both these activities look like need. In this category fall activities although they are genetically programmed as language and arithmetic, not carried by that environment does not generate them (Defior Citoler, 2000;) Ruiz Vargas, 2000).

Examples of this are children that although they know to speak and know the words to ask for their milk, parents do not require them it to use your vocabulary and it is only enough children to bring their cups so mom or who cares for the child translated the action: Yes, my dear, you want your hot milk with chocolate and sugar in your red cup!, this actions are leaving the child without the possibility of exploring and developing their own words that if they were corrected, it would eventually expand and would be presented in a logical order.

It also applies that genetic burden is very important in the first months of life, but little by little the atmosphere becomes the main engine of the neural connections, which allows modeling more characteristics of the human being. Still, the influences of the environment depend on different factors, as those who are mentioned below.

Two elements that support learning: motivation and memory

Even if learning is genetically programmed, exist for learning certain principles. On one hand, there must be a brain with elements that allow the neural interconnection, and is known to be in the first years the brain a sponge suitable for acquiring skills to adapt to the needs of the environment (Dick, and Roth, 2008;  VIllaroel Villamor, 2009).

Secondly, there must be the need to learn, because otherwise, the brain will not strive for creating connections and it will lose those who are not fit to stay or not used. This principle of the struggle of the strongest and the fittest will become apparent during whole brain development (Marin Padilla, 2001). If a phone number is not used, why would you recall?. The brain uses a principle called cognitive economy which keeps only the important processes running (Artigas-Pallarés, 2009).

That is why there are two processes that become essential to learning, memory, which allows the system to create memories that it is something useful from stimulation of the medium, for example, you can read these lines is a task that has carried out many times, first as a game, then systematizing the task until you get to the point of not only reading, but the reading comprehension.

This is possible thanks to the loyal friend of memory: motivation (Benarós, Lipina, Segretin, Hermida, and Colombo, 2010). And is that when babies are born, their motivations are simple: eat, sleep, feel the embrace of mom or caregiver. Little by little these basic, maybe selfish motivations change by the need to make happy to others, this develops the social function, and when that person smiles broadly and asks  to smile babies, this responds, and is that you among most happy is the person more time devote you and your needs will be covered. Gradually this relationship will become more and more close to the point they will begin to share. If mom wants to respond in this way, the baby will do it. This will allow he baby to take the necessary step to ask for things, like milk, or seek shelter when he or she  feels cold and develop their social needs (Conde-Guzón, Bartolomé-Albistegui Quirós-Expósito, 2009).

This will lead to babies to the next item to learn what they want, when they want, and then follows the stage well known to the parents and educators in which the child learns with repeat, asking and making movements over and over again and again and one more, to the point that they are able to repeat each of the dialogue of a film which you are already tired. Have do you read  something like that?.

And children prior to formal education, to learn what they like, allowing them to adapt to the rules of the home, from stimulation from the environment, repetition of activities and exploration, so create a memory that allows them to argue that neuronal connection and make it strong so that it is possible to construct other learnings over time will become formal.

Changing rules

School, will change all rules, children began an apprenticeship that is not so based on stimulation of the environment or the exploration, nor on the enjoyment of learning.  It’s not quite a necessity. Until then, the child showed abilities that were appreciated by parents or caregivers, unless they were subjected to an evaluation. If the child stood and gave the first steps, the social circle he or she was applauded and it encouraged to repeat and repeat this first big step. If she or he did not, not passing a disappointment to their fan club and the same goes for the language skills. In a way, children decide when to display its powers or not and if this doesn't happen, they always have permission to do so later (Leonard, 2002; Haesler, 2007).

But when is of through evaluation, and this evaluation focuses on parameters of what children do and what determines a program must achieve, learning is no longer fun or motivating and the speed of the programmed contents avoids the repetition of tasks. This process chains are lost to the point such that the learner because you can't find anything that gives you the basis of all learning: motivation and memory.

In addition, the basis of all school learning is basically the language, this is necessary for reading, writing and mathematics learning, of which only the numbers are genetically programmed as part of the Repertoire of skills put to the survival of the species (Butterworth, 1999; Alonso and Fuentes, 2001). Both are the response of adaptive processes that are necessary for the cultural improvement. Not reading and writing, arising on dates very recent in the history of mankind, practically with the improvement of the printing and that they have not been part of the development of the child within the family until that school becomes a formal institution socially (Pinker, 1995; Olarreta, 2005;  Artigas - Pallarés, 2009).

While it is logical to think the language is needed to read and write only, we tend to forget that these leanings are not generated in the same way, nor have generated so many neural connections from trial and error or the support from parents, and is taken for granted that once joined the school they must be generated that thus it is stipulated and the child must learn it (Solovieva, 2008).

But this duty of learning is not based on natural principles genetically programmed and is not as slow and fun as when the first word, first step, or the first time that the child raised her finger to publicize their age. Formal teaching creates times so fast and vertiginous in which children are unable to understand the why of what you are teaching the person in front and no matter how much effort put, it will be evaluated with a number, and not with a: that’s good!, do it again!, look how beautiful!. Instead, a number or a letter will determine if you know to do so or not and obviously will condition the following learning, creating a dizzying race to the following content, the next lesson, the following discussion, the following year.

So for example, if students does not know or  recognizes the image or the sound of  letters, there is not possibility to read; or if they  can't combine the sounds of words, will not read phrases, and if you add the fact that does not understand the meaning of the words, then we have a child that will not reach to read beyond a few words, you'll feel discouraged by that fails to understand that it is what they expect of  this student and finally as possible, he or she will assume that is  a mediocre student, and eventually he or she will leave all studies, only because that was not time to learn.

But, if you look carefully at this student,   is he or she really mediocre?, if you understand the way in which the brain creates connections that seek you learning, the answer is no. They would only require two conditions: the first stimulation of the environment will ensure the repetition of important phrases and secondly, the motivation to read, not as an obligation but as need, from short but relevant phrases that they become an understandable line for the student. Add to this a way that learning to use and make it a cultural or an adaptive need, changes are huge in the attitude of that student.

The same happens with the writing, since it was not released on genes and is generally taught as a phase of the curriculum, but not like a need of the child (Vygostky, 1995). If we can talk to ask for something, or to fill a need, what case does have writing?. And more even if writing depends on what the reader interprets signs used in a natural way in the language, as inflections expressed in questions or admirations (Slavic and Slavonic Cobos, 2008).

In this sense, writing should also become a need and be linked to a process modeling the atmosphere, from the repetition of the task, even more so if it is considered that in the case of writing, you must develop the ability to coordinate the eye and the hand with the muscles of the hand and arm to outline each of the letters then find the necessary letters for each word and that words are able to draw ideas (Coltheart, 1981; Etchepareborda, 2002; Dehaene, Cohen, Sigman and Vinckier, 2005).

Understanding learning

In conclusion, this perspective explains the learning process first as willing human needs for the survival of the species, what would mankind be without knowledge?, from simple events like explain to others when a food is no longer edible, or transmit the findings of neuroscience.

Learning at schools requires stimulation from the environment, able to create a need for employees in multiple tasks that generate regular neural connections which eventually become strong and thereby enable the development of increasingly complex skills, creating chains of steps, known as learning processes, because each new skill is presented by others that can be traced to the birth.

The motivation that encourages the practice is also important repeated, which already is analyzed the benefits, but also allow learners find a reason to continue learning and to regulate their conduct determined by the accolades it receives from others, within the class environments, it increases the likelihood that a behavior be repeated if this turns out to be pleasant or useful anyway and who don't like you prove that it is able to do something that others can not do?. However this principle also suggests that there is only a way to learn, because the human brain as opposed to a computer to learn only what program you, is capable of seeking multiple responses to a single problem, in order to achieve satisfaction. This, however, runs counter to traditional school, which sees learning as a reflection of a single answer, invariable e equal for everybody, leaving aside the student while in correct way, unresponsive as expected.

Learning when is practiced and it’s based on motivation, open the door to the process of memory. This will create automating chains of response and thus save steps for the achievement of goals. All learning at the beginning should be modeled i.e., others should be showing and explaining how to do it - except those which are based on reflexes or vegetative needs as breathing, swallowing, or blinking-  and little by little they automate to do without thinking. The first time you saw letters, someone said that these signs were sounds, eventually, you were able to make sense to the signs, and with the passing of the years now is able to read and understand, thanks to a reduction in the steps used to give when it began the process of reading, which is now practically automatic.

If there were not enough memory, allows you to store information, provided this meaningful and more implemented once and preferably in more than one environment.

So surely you already do not remember the name of the author of this article unless you know prior her work. If not, the name is not relevant. That being the case, learn there is more to load books repeat, that as we all know, but the neurocognitive perspective, learning is a brain process, shared socially, because the brain stimulation of the environment and the social approval is needed to decide if he has given the necessary answers and is also why not, motivating?.

Alma Dzib Goodin

If you would like to know more about my writing you can visit my web site:
http://www.almadzib.com

REFERENCES

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