Learning how we learn

I began to research about learning several years ago, thinking that I might explain from the neurocognitive point of view the mechanism of learning.

I am not going to deny it, finding a model universally applicable ran through my mind, at least during the first months of exploration, finally this is the goal that I learned at college, create universal models validated and standardized; but eventually, the research has led me for other directions, and I’m at a point that has allowed me to re develop my concept of learning.

 I have talked about this at multiple forums, and this blog was specially created to analyze different aspects of learning. When processes are separated, it seems easy to explain how they relate to learning, but as explained Sebastian Seung (2010) and McGilchrist (2011), the complexity of the brain is such  that it works as an whole integrated and adapts to the circumstances of the day by day. 

Some months ago, in two different spaces, my idea about learning staggers drastically. First of all, I had always thought that learning allowed adaptation to the environment. When a person learns the cultural needs, that person adapts to his or her own proceed and becomes part of that environment. 

This idea was an essential part of my proposal about the learning and it  came observing babies, they under different environments, manage to coordinate abilities that allow them to function and find the way to learning more complex things beyond those genetically programmed. The brains of infants sometimes have even go against itself, pushing neural networks that have been inactive either by a syndrome or some perinatal factor that has affected them. 

In some cases, it’s possible to note delays in development that fits with a little help, while sometimes the environment is unfavorable and disorders don’t let grow more than few skills. 

Of course, there are many theorists who supported my idea of the adaptation to the environment as a reflection of learning, and personally looked for examples that would enable me to explain the process.

The example that I like the most came from junior students at any educational level. The first days they are trying to discover all the features of the new site and need some weeks more to adapt their language to the cultural background that have decided to undertake and they take even more time to feel part of the environment. 

But in other circumstances it’s also possible to see the adaptation, in patients who suffer from some sort of accident or illness which forces them to re learn how to manage their own body, facing the adversity. The adaptation to the environment seemed the logical response to the learning and understanding of the environment.

But I had to remove my own head from psychology when I discovered that other species carried out the process. Anyone who has a garden and takes care of it has noticed two plagues: slugs and snails that are terrestrial mollusks and the weeds that grow as soon as someone pulls them by mechanical means. Both species, not as well developed as the mammalian brain, adapt to survive, as well as viruses that mutate to avoid the effect of antiviral drugs, the same way that coacervates gave rise to life on the Earth. There are many examples in nature, but in a discussion another example caught my attention.

Prions and its capacity of adaptation to the environment

A prion is a pathogenic protein which has altered its structure, although it has been shown they have an active role in normal neural development, because it occurs in oxireduction and the signal transduction, cell adhesion, processes as well as the regulation and distribution of acetylcholine receptors (Zou, Zheng, Gray, Gambetti and Chen, 2004).

However, as pathogen protein is capable of caused diseases that occur both in humans and animals, and create a family of rare disorders and neurodegenerative diseases that are distinguished by long incubation periods, but once the symptoms are progressive and fatal.

Diseases caused by prions include disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob and its variant, Gerstmann-Straussker - fatal familial insomnia, fatal syndrome, family spongiform encephalopathy and Kuru (Zou, an Capellari, Parchi, Sy, Gambetti, Chen and 2003).

While at animals are associated with mad cow disease, lumbar itching and feline spongiform encephalopathy.

A prion is basically a glycoprotein of 27-30 kD has the same primary structure as a normal protein, but presents a structural not genetic modification due to a post-production process. 

Due to a wrong fold what should be a Prpc which has a propeller and 4 regions of globular, protein structure becomes a PrpSc has a structure sheet which is a flat protein, that allows you to create irreversible neurological damage in whom is carried, due to its ability to adapt to survive in the environment (Li, Browning, Mahal, Oelschlegel and Weissmann, 2010; Castellani, Colucci, Xie, Zou, Li, Parchi Capellari, Pastore, Rahbar, Chen and Gambetti, 2004).

It is thus that the adaptation to the environment is not a mechanism created from a flexible brain that learns, but an evolutionary inheritance created so the species can develop and survived.

At a conference someone asked me if he should delete the adaptation to the environment of the equation of the learning process, but I think that if well learning not creates the process, if you benefit from the same. 

Because students who come from different contexts are capable of creating various skills and learning benefits can be based on socialization and at the same time, those differences help to explain individual differences as variables to consider in any investigation on learning.

There is another aspect which explains the ability of adaptation, and it’s the fact we are not talking only about a brain adapting on an individual basis, but at the species level. I find very interesting all debates that claim that technology modifies the brain of children with a  constant flow of information, saying that this prevents children from responding to everything that happens in the environment. But the cerebral flexibility plays an important role in responding to those influences. So there is no danger of diseases of fashion such as attention-deficit or autism syndrome disorders. 

On the other hand, adaptive capacity allows recognizing that children with developmental disorders will seek their own development and goals, adults around only need to understand those children won’t develop skills at the same rate as any other brain.

Different environments, genetic dice, different learning rules

My argument that every brain is different, although it complies with the same structures and functions is not new. Caffeine that someone has consumed today will affect differently than the chocolate that someone else had at breakfast. The brain works with infinite strategies, predicts, makes decisions, draws, dreams, creates the future and seeks to understand the past.

In addition to differences, as I explained earlier, it is flexible. In the field of Metacognition for some years researchers talked about flexible thought and educators began to work on skills attempting to develop it from the educational perspective. But there are authors like Ionescu (2011) who explains that cognitive flexibility is a cognitive system property and not a skill. It makes sense if the goal is to adapt at a specie level.

The best example I can think of is something that is going to sound very badly, but if someone has travelled in a highway, then there will be noticed butterflies, mammals, and insects that literally crash against the windshield and leave their ideas on it. A few days ago I asked my husband why there was a not mechanism that allow animals and insects to avoid crossing the road, since many animals die every day and they have not a small chance against a car that moves at high speed. My husband and I thought that learning and adaptation had no reason and it was just a personal issue to keep my brain busy.

We started playing with ideas which made us laugh, one was that the best: those creatures that in another life were killed that way, smashed against a car, had learned to not cross the road, and which not, therefore not avoided it. The conclusion was that more intelligent people already had previous experiences, while the less gifted begin to look at the world.

We did laugh so much with the idea. Intelligence has always been part of the equation, but do intelligent people really avoid dangerous situations?. 

Psychologists have spent lot of time measuring intelligence and subdividing it, and telling people what they can do and what not, they focus more on what people cannot do. But there are always examples of people who play against any forecast and show how much capable they are to do extraordinary things, when the environment is conducive (Dzib Goodin, 2011).

The intelligence

It’s a concept sought in the brain so badly that researchers have made sure that it´s in different areas depending on the ability to seek. It has been seen in brains of persons who have extraordinary abilities, but if the question is if a baby can develop this or that intelligence, the answer is: that will depends on the environment in which this baby will grow. A newborn baby can be an extraordinary dancer if someday has the opportunity to try.

There are people that find a special talent and start to develop it from very young, and their brains specialize so much. In the brain everything not dealing with it is discarded, this is explained by Weber (2012), the brain as well as other natural forms adheres to the idea of energy conservation (Costandi, 2012). 

For that reason, along with the intelligence, motivation is developed to create those abilities, which erroneously we believe everyone should have at the same level and all the same, but brain refuses to be exactly than another, like clones, each must develop their talent. Those who are more fortunate will find it from very young, and it will take to the perfection point. Others never will find it. Fortunately the range of possibilities is wide, and there will be always some area to achieve a highlight. We also know that only some functions have critical periods.

The role of motivation of course goes hand in hand with the memory. Deep in the hippocampus, it seems that the mechanism is part of many higher functions, which still cannot be clarified at all, because it embodies citoarchitecture aspects, cellular bases and the way in which those networks neural encode memories and the way in which recovering it (Mennes, Kelly, Colcombe, Castellanos and Milham, 2012).

Along with the intelligence and motivation it’s important to considerate  the role of reasoning ability and decision-making and how is necessary to direct actions and learning in order to maximize the rewards, when there is no success in something, it reformulates the action and the plan of action, from what is in the store of long or medium-term memory analyze the possibilities and the probability of success, however explain Collins and Koechlin (2012) the human executive function has a monitoring capacity limited to three or four strategies of behaviors. This limitation is offset by the binary structure of executive control in ambiguous and unknown situations promotes the exploration and creation of new strategies of behaviors. The results support a model of human frontal function that integrates skills of reasoning, learning and creative in the service of the behavior of decision-making in order to achieve the adaptation.

Elements of learning

There are some other elements that interact in learning as senso perception, because without entry of environmental stimuli the cognitive system offsets are greater. Such is the case of deaf blind people, who are able to learn but under specific sensory contexts. 

The role of memory is undeniable as well to store, retrieve information, and interact with other superior processes, such as language or thought.

Motivation is an aspect that cannot be overlooked, because it promotes skills or blocking activities under the socially constructed idea that there are good people for some activities and others who should not try them.

Like other authors, it is clear that they must not be side adaptive processes and the role of evolution (Nolfi and Parisi, 1996), cerebral flexibility, the role of culture and mind.

This latter element still not know well how to put in the puzzle, I am not referring to the idea of mind boxed in the brain, as all neuroscientist I thought that he was there, but I'm still building the idea of something much more flexible, with own energy, that certainly keeps the hand when it comes to teaching with ideas such as: keep in mind,or he made a mental map with a concept more related with the memory more than an energy capable to expand. The child mind is much more than a receptacle of ideas that adults are trying to impose, and brilliant minds are more than a collection of extraordinary capabilities. At times, the mental interface fails to make contact and it takes a while to be able to communicate through language. So the mind is a theme which I will later work, but that is part of the equation, without doubt.

 

The element that has caused more noise in the cultural sphere is of course, the topic of education. While learning is an evolutionary quality given way per se to the species, education is a human invention, institutionalized, which believed to have the power to make everyone think, do and say the same, that it has forgotten its central object of the everyday work, which is thestudent and has focused on the contents, assuming all student should know that. I’m using the word Know, and not understand. Sometimes I think I must say: what every student must remember or have in mind. Not necessarily to analyze and make it significant. 

I am saying as clear as I can: YES, I think that education should include the brain, because ultimately it is who shapes with its pounding of ideas that serve only to respond an exorbitant amount of validated and standardized tests.

The difference between an A and an F is a slap on the back of a student with A or the confirmation of little intelligence and the judgment that will never Excel in life for a student with a F. There is no bigger lie. Several studies show that brighter students are not necessarily successful adults and no doubt we can laugh when examples of great minds have emerged from people who do not conclude the school either, or they never felt comfortable in the school environment. They broke the mold, they were themselves (Dzib Goodin, 2012).

In the space of the black list of colors I have been exploring the various elements to be considered in learning to educational level, if anyone is interested in that aspect.

I hope one day I can conclude my proposal of learning, and hopefully you continue visiting this space.

Alma Dzib Goodin

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

References:

Castellani, RJ., Colucci, M., Xie, Z., Zou, W., Li, C., Parchi, P., Capellari, S., Pastore, M., Rahbar, MH., Chen, SG., Gambetti, P. (2004) Sensitivity of 14-3-3 Protein Test Varies in Subtypes of Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Neurology. 63(3) 436-42.

Collins, A., Koechlin, E. (2012) Reasoning, learning, and creativity: Frontal lobe function and human decision –making. Plos Biology. 10(3): e1001293. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001293

Costandi, M. (2012) Probing the workings of the human cells.  The Dana Foundation.Available at: http://dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=36390

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

Dzib Goodin, A. (2012) Black list of colors. Available at: http://education50.com/blog/black-list-of-colors

Dzib Goodin, A. (2012) Creativity, when a+b is equal to innovation. Available at: http://talkingaboutneurocognitionandlearning.blogspot.com/2012/02/creativity-when-b-is-equal-to.html

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

Kong, Q., Goldfarb, L., Gabizon, R., Montagna, P., Lugaresi, E., Piccardo, P., Petersen, RB., Parchi, P., Chen, SG., Capellari, S., Ghetti, B. (2004) Inherited Prion Diseases. In Prion Biology and Diseases. Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory Press. 

Li, J., Browning, S., Mahal, SP., Oelschlegel, AM., Weissmannm, C. (2010) Darwinian evolution of prions in cell culture. Science. 327 (5967) 869-872.

McGilchrist, I. (2011) The divided brain. RSA Animated. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFs9WO2B8uI

Mennes, M., Kelly, C., Colcombe, S., Castellanos, FX., y Milham, MP. (2012) The extrinsic and intrinsic functional architectures of the human brain are not equivalent. Cerebral Cortex. Available at: http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/01/31/cercor.bhs010.full.pdf+html

Nolfi, S., y Parisi, D. (1996) Learning to adapt to changing enviroments in evolving neural networks. Adaptative Behavior. 5 (1)  75-88.

Seung, S. (2010) Sebastian Seung: I am connectome. TED Talks. Available at : http://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_seung.html

Weber, M. (2012) Microglia eliminate unnecessary synapses during brain development. Available at: http://neurosciencenews.com/microglia-synapse-c3-protein-brain-development-neurology/

Zou, W., Capellari, S., Parchi, P., Sy, MS., Gambetti, P., Chen, SG. (2003) Identification of Novel Proteinase K-resistant C-terminal Fragments of PrP in Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 278(42) 40429-40436. 

Zou, W., Zheng, J., Gray, DM., Gambetti, P., Chen, SG. (2004) Antibody to DNA Detects Scrapie but not Normal Prion Protein. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 101(5) 1380-1385.

Teaching competencies: An incompetence understanding learning

I know the title sounds strong, and more in my case as an author convinced that learning is always possible, so I want to make clear that I don’t have any problem with the model of competences, actually I believe is very good, because it focuses the student as axis of learning in the middle of a rich and stimulating environment, developing skills and competencies for the future. However, the model was crashed directly against the wall when the Spanish and Mexican educational system decided to use it.

The concept competition began to be part of the educational vocabulary in 1974 after an attempt of objective assessment of learning. The proposal of the model comes from the idea that it was possible to design, development and curricular evaluation to include the learn to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be, as part of the resolution of problems, all those key concepts included in a text of the UNESCO and which would be the basis of the education of late 20th century.

Other background of the competence approach is found in the Bologna Declaration, signed by the European Ministers of education and the Tuning project developed in Europe (Cazares Andrade, 2008).

Both projects has as objective reforming education, the Tuning project is the answer given by a group of universities to the challenge imposed by the Bologna Declaration (Declaration of Bologna, 1999 and Tuning: Europe). Both seek to raise the specific generic and disciplinary competences. 

Both models have previous experience at European countries, such as the projects of thematic networks of Socrates and Erasmus and the pilot of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System projects as background (Tuning Europe).

The idea of competencies is not focusing exclusively on developing knowledge and skills, rather the idea is achieved that the student is capable of understanding a problem and take action to solve it on the basis of the body of knowledge as part of a developed cognitive goal processes.

In this sense  a competition can be seen from different perspectives, for example "the usual and prudent use of information, communication, knowledge, technical skills which may include clinical reasoning, emotions, values and reflection in everyday practice for the benefit of the individual and his community" (cited in García, Loredo, Luna and  Rueda, 2008).

Another usual definition is afforded the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development that defines competition such as: the ability to respond to the demands or carry out tasks successfully and consistent with the cognitive and non-cognitive dimensions (cited in the Muñoz Araya, 2011).

Although it should be noted that some authors focus competition in the domain of a practice, as Bruner explains: what people learn is competition (cognitive) not the specific action of doing something (cited in García, Loredo, Luna and Rueda, 2008).

Also the model seeks to develop different skills in order to resolve multiple situations that may occur in the academic or professional field.

At the Higher Education did not appear any problem with this model where the student not only was able to reproduce information, but to develop the ability to make use of it and benefit in a social way. The model for a few European centers is installed in Spain and hence reaches Mexico. The meaningful learning theory, finally seemed applicable.

The romance began to lose its charm when the model of competences did not propose new forms of assessment related with the old traditional model and as  explain Díaz,  Flores and Osorio García (2011) and neither the political proposal changed the teaching model and the combination produced an educational disaster.

The competence model is based on the student and their general ability to develop skills, but the old model was focused on the content, this reason gave to the curricular design a leading role in the development of materials, adding ornaments to the contents, for example raising objectives of thematic units or open transversal contents to help to the student to interact with the contents. There are no books focuses on the skills of the student.

In Mexico the model was an imposition to all education levels, from kindergarten to higher education, this produced a redesign of contents, programs, new books are designed, or at least that it was said, the change was enormous because the goal was achieve coherence among all academic levels, refocus the mission of higher education, and connect to the labor world. All steps have been taken, but the cost, at least in Mexico and Spain, has been the highest rate of unemployment among graduates, as well as the biggest number of students leaving the educational options.

One of the biggest problems was the role of the teacher, because this was not analyzed (Ion and Cano, 2011; Diaz Flores and Osorio Garcia, 2011) and the copy of the Spanish model without a socio-cultural analysis background (Ruíz López, 2011).

Curricular changes were discussed from a political level without a serious review of the needs of learners, some programs of higher education only changed the names, and all changes went through consultations of opinion, falling into a political issue. So the same teachers were making up new practices with no idea how to do it. Do not need much analysis to see the error of Spain and how has been followed by Mexico so closely.

The mistakes about how to handle competences are so obvious specially with High School education text books, all of them  are littered with concepts, with information that does not help to solve problems, and assessments made at the old fashion, with multiple choices because that way teachers can evaluate more quickly. 

In higher education, Mexico is still teaching the old theories, with teachers who insist in making feel the student that does not know anything and imposing his opinion first and foremost. The student?, continues being  the body that does not think nor is able to solve problems, only serves to create them if one  day has the audacity to ask something outside script of the professor.

Within this context, it seems the model by competencies has no future, but examples such as Brazil and the India have shown that there are successful stories and analysis, those countries have been capable to create elite educational systems, and China and Japan are following the same steps.

The Tuning project continues working slow but steady, analyzing and working hard in Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Increasingly more stories focused on understanding the learning focused on the student and the environment, daily efforts seek to achieve successful students that can find employment to give a future to their families, their community and help their country going forward. From this log, the bet is in the neurocognition, I do believe we can create a flexible thinking and solving problems skills.

I just wrote an article where I analyzed the skills and attitudes that are academically desirable and which companies are looking for. The differences are not only clear but alarming. While Academy is the centered of knowledge does not allow creativity, the resolution of problems, flexible thinking, high capacity of adaptation, originality or the sense of humor, companies desperate for these skills and attitudes that enable the development of job skills.

Education at all levels must be reformulated; again no doubt, perhaps a flexible curriculum can be the answer, where students can find capabilities and talents as an option, rather than the generic knowledge-centered model. Meanwhile, the brightest minds on the planet seek answers, not in the academies, but in open discussion forums, where business men have so much to say and teach.

I still believe that the competence model is a good option, perhaps not the only, or the best, but certainly only need a different environment. Maybe with different policies and a precise goal: the student and his or her talent.

I personally, worked with it during 17 years, and it was so nice to see surprised students with their own capacity to solve problems. 

Alma Dzib Goodin

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

Original

Ambos modelos tienen como antecedentes experiencias previas de los países europeos, como los proyectos de redes temáticas de Sócrates y Erasmus y de los proyectos Piloto del European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System.

Referencias:

Andrade Cázares RA. (2008) El enfoque por competencias en educación. Ide@s CONCYTEG. 3 (38) 53-64.

Araya Muñoz, MI. (2011) Competencias en educación: Ideas para el diseño curricular desde la deliberación  práctica y crítica, basada en el desarrollo humano y la transformación social. Revista Electrónica Educare. XV (1) 42-58.

Declaración de Bolonia (1999) Disponible en red: http://eees.umh.es/contenidos/Documentos/DeclaracionBolonia.pdf

Diaz Flores, M., y Osorio García, E. (2011) Nuevo modelo educativo ¿mismos docentes?. Tiempo de Educar. 12 (23) 29-46.

Dzib Goodin, A. (2011) Aprender a aprender: la visión neurocognitiva. Disponible en red: http://neurocognicionyaprendizaje.blogspot.com/2011/10/aprender-aprender-la-vision.html

Dzib Goodin, A. (2012) The learning process: Much more than just going to school. Education 5-0. Disponible en red: http://education50.com/issue/mar-apr-2012/article/the-learning-process-much-more-than-just-going-to-school1

Dzib Goodin, A. (2012) What is the secret behind sucessful students?. Evolllution. Disponible en red: http://www.evolllution.com/curriculum_planning/what-is-the-secret-behind-successful-students/

García, B., Loredo, J., Luna, E., y Rueda, M. (2008) Modelo de evaluación de competencias docentes para la educación media y superior. Revista Iberoamericana de Evaluación Educativa. 1 (3) 97- 108.

Ion, G., y Cano, E. (2011) El proceso de implementación de la evaluación por competencia en la Educación Superior. Un Estudio sobre el rol de los cargos académicos. Revista de Investigación en Educación. 9 (1) 246-258.

López Ruíz, JI. (2011) Un giro copernicano en la enseñanza universitaria. Revista de Educación. 356. 279-301.

Tuning Europa. Espacio Latinoamericano y Caribeño de Educación Superior. Disponible en red: http://www.oui-iohe.org/campus/eles/proyecto-tuning/tuning-europa/