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

Alonso, D. y Fuentes, L. (2001) Mecanismos cerebrales del pensamiento matemático. Rev Neurol. 33 (6): 568-576.

 Anderson, R. (1997) A neurocognitive perspective on current learning theory and science instructional strategies. Science education. 81:67-89.

 Artigas-Pallarés, J. (2009) Dislexia: enfermedad, trastorno o algo distinto. Rev Neurol. 48 (Supl 2): S63-S69.

 Benarós, S., Lipina, S J., Segretin, M S., Hermida, M. J., Colombo, J A. (2010) Neurociencia y educación: hacia la construcción de puentes interactivos. Rev Neurol. 50 (3): 179-186.

 Benítez-Burraco, A. (2007) La evolución del volumen cerebral y la aparición del lenguaje: aspectos moleculares. Rev. Esp. Antrop. Fís. 28: 1-17.

 Butterworth, B. (1999) The mathematical brain. MacMillan. London.

 Coltheart, M. (1981) Disorders of reading and their implications for models of normal reading. Visible language. 15 (2) 245-286.

 Conde-Guzón, P.A., Conde-Guzón, M.J., Bartolomé-Albistegui, M.T., Quirós- Expósito, P. (2009) Perfiles neuropsicológicos asociados a los problemas del lenguaje oral infantil. Rev Neurol. 48 (1): 32-38.

 Cruz Pérez, G., Galeana de la O, L. (2006) Los fundamentos biológicos del aprendizaje para el diseño y aplicación de objetos de aprendizaje. Papeles de ciencia Argentina. 4 (2) 20-43.

 Damasio, A. (1994) Descartes´eError. emotion, reason and the human brain, New York. Grosset/Putnam Book, G.P. Putnam´s Sons.

 Dehaene, S., Cohen, L., Sigman, M. y Vinckier, F. (2005) The neural code for written words: a proposal. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 9, 335-341.

 Defior Citoler, S. (2000) Las dificultades de aprendizaje; un enfoque cognitivo. Malaga. Aljibe.

 Dick, U. and Roth, G. (2008) Intelligence evolved. Scientific American mind.  19  (4). 70-77.

Etchepareborda, M. (2002) Detección precoz de la dislexia y enfoque terapéutico. Rev Neurol. 34 (Supl 1): S13-S23.

 Haesler, S. (2007) Programmed for speech. Scientific American Mind.  18 (3) 66-71.

 Leonard, L. (2002) Children with specific language impairment. Boston: MIT Press.

 Lieberman, P. (2002): On the nature and evolution of the neural bases of human language, Am.J. Phys. Anthropol. 45. 36-62.

 Olarreta, A. (2005) Orígenes del lenguaje y selección natural. Sirius. Madrid.

Marin Padilla, M. (2001) Evolución de la estructura de la neocorteza del mamífero: nueva teoría citoarquitectónica. Rev Neurol. 33 (9): 843-853

 Pinker, S. (1995) El instinto del lenguaje. Alianza Editorial. Madrid.

 Ruiz Vargas, J.M (2000) La organización neurocognitiva de la memoria. En J.M. Ruiz Vargas (2000) Psicología cognitiva de la memoria. Anthropos. España.

Sagan, C. (1981) El cerebro de Broca: referencias sobre el apasionante mundo de la ciencia. Grijalbo. España.

 Solovieva, Y. (2008) Método de formación de lectura en niños con dificultades. En L. Quintanar Rojas, Y. Solovieva, E. Lázaro García, M. Bonilla Sánchez, L. Mejía de Eslava, J. y Eslava Cobos (2008) Dificultades en el proceso lectoescritor. Editorial de la Infancia. España.

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 Villaroel Villamor, J. D. (2009) Origen y desarrollo del pensamiento numérico: una perspectiva multidisciplinar. Journal of Research in educational psychology. 17 (7) 555-604.

The difficulties in the acquisition of the process of concept of number and its application

With out any doubt, the difficulty that causes more grief and bitterness in children about their school work is the lack of expertise in handling numeric. No matter if the child is involved or not in this family game that tells them all the time: "No matter, I never understood beyond the multiplication, but it is better to take out a good grade in next evaluation" is always possible to tell the difference between a child who understands and even enjoys numbers and children who have no idea what persons talk about once they passed from counting objects to numbers.

That is why it is worth analyzing what happens between the first count that children enjoy, like when someone asks their age and they fast raise their fingers proud to know the answer, or while the family enjoy those games that require  dice and they must count to the number  to reach the finish of the game, and after some years,  the understanding and enjoyment of quantum physics.

Of course, many things happen between all those years, and it's not possible to forget the question that inspired the life of Jean Piaget: What is the origin of the ability to think the world in terms of numbers?.

Piaget believed that the acquisition of the concept of number happens around 5 years old, but it was clear that the process required prerequisite skills of logical reasoning as the transitive property, which allows understanding ideas like that if A is greater than B and B is greater than C, then A is greater than C.

Of course, it is also necessary the conservation of number, which is the ability to establish unique bi correspondences between two sets, which is not simply the ability to understand that the number of objects is the same regardless of the order or arrangement made of them (Piaget, 2001).

However, studies in the area of neuroscience have shown that children from before the first year are capable of developing rudimentary numeracy, independently of language (Jacubovich, 2006).

In fact quantities are so important that is not possible sometimes to describe images or sounds without numerical concepts. As an example, please try to describe the next image without using amounts, numbers, any quantity adjective, or words such as or no more than or less than...

And that's why numbers are a mystery if they are just looked only like a difficult area to solve in school, complex even for adults, as discussed in the article numbers and little numbers in this blog (Dzib Goodin, 2011). But how far is a difficulty of use and management to acquire numerical process due to non-teaching or brain damage?.

From the point of view neurocognitive, exists two ways to determine when is a problem in this sense, one is under the term acalculia, which is the loss of ability to perform mathematical tasks as a result of brain pathology (Ardila and Roselli, 2002) and on the other hand, it is possible to speak of developmental dyscalculy, which is a disorder that affects the acquisition of numeracy and calculation skills (Mogollon, 2010).

But the difficulty of acquisition is understandable since the process requires more than just recognizing 10 numbers, talking about Arabic representation, and combinations thereof, involves at least three processes:

The first process refers to the analog representation of the quantities, for example: **** can be represented by a four. This is analyzed in the brain in the inferior parietal region bilaterally.

The second process refers to the auditory verbal code. 4 sound like 4 and is the representation of 4. This is possible thanks to the relationship between the auditory and verbal processing, which is done at perisylvian areas of the left-hemisphere.

While the third process, which is what mostly repeated in school, refers to the visual code or Arabic, which gives meaning to 4. To this point 4 represents the number of objects linked to a word with a specific sound. The area is in charge fulsiforme gyrus of both hemispheres (Alonso and Fuentes, 2001).

But this is not achieved  only because children  reach certain age, or by school pressure, is a complex process of neural networks that has been knitting before it is aware of the number, as well as the language, since it is genetically predisposed (Radford and André, 2009), since apparently the counting is a necessary skill for survival. And you just need imagine this scene: it's not the same be surrounded by a wild bull, than  by 12 wild bulls, no doubt, the survival strategy is definitely different!.

However,  to complex mathematical  processes are needed many more brain areas involved, for example,  understanding of numerical magnitude is not restricted to the representation, because if you have 2, 4 and 6, even if they  are distinct entities, imply order of  quantities, and that is why mathematical problems require the parietal lobe, the cingulated cortex and subcortical regions, as well as the frontal lobe and the limbic system to remember  algorithms (Eger, Michel, Thirion, Amadon, Dehaene and Kleinschmidt, 2009; Serra Grabulosa, Adan Perez Pàmies, and Membrives Lachica, 2010).

It is then that any problem with the processing chain may involve an error from neuronal network, since the process is so fragile than any wrong process can produce another result, . At this sense, for example, forgetfulness is common when children are trying to solve any arithmetic problem or in the case of acalculia, the brain is not capable to recognize differences between numbers, or operations.

But challenges can be also attributed to errors of strategy or pressure on the student. For some reason students are less tolerant of frustration with math homework compared to any other type of performance, because it requires more attention, especially when it reaches the level of multi-digit operations (Hannula, Evans, Philippou and Zan, 2004).

That's why teaching mathematics requires support from a variety of other subjects, because although there are students predisposed to learning, others need more details, more concentration, and sometimes more than one way of doing the same operation.

That is why stress management is one key to motivate students with mathematical processing difficulties, because it is clear that a certain level of stress is good to keep the focus on the task (Anaya Anaya Durand and Huertas, 2010).

Learning mathematics then, depends on a chain of tasks, methodically arranged in the first place, and this helps to the brain to warn and manipulate them, searching results. But it has to start from the idea that mathematical concepts, unlike language,  depends on abstract content, so the big step is going from counting  objects to their representation with a number (Piazza and Dehaene, 2004).

But how is developed this chain of processes?, everything starts with a default network for  counting, babies are able to differences between one face, two faces, three faces, a crowd!. Then, socially adults begin to reinforce the language of mathematics. Everybody enjoys a baby when is asked: how old are you?, and then tiny  fingers get up to represent the word..

Then children start counting objects beyond their hands, and aligns toys, stones, marbles, images on the screen of a tablet ... they count dogs, they count flowers, they count ... first from 1 to 10, it is difficult to do it in a regressive way, but they try. Unfortunately they need to do it from 1 to 10 many times before eventually, make it gradually, but they are building neuronal networks.

And then, the big step, counting independently of the objects, it means they do not need 5 flowers to see a 5.

But there are some other needs to considerate, for example have clear differences between left and right, even if this is not a number, it can create a problem to the numerical manipulation. Just one example, it's not the same number 15 to 51, same components different position, different numbers.

The same applies to up and down. I have an example: 100 + 84,  simply ask to a child to arrange the numbers from top to bottom. The adult logic is:

 100

+ 84

But a child can try something different

  84

+100    There is a number under the other, right?

And children can go from there to the sum. And sometimes is able to sum well, but children simply change the sense left and right, or up and down:

 100

+84

112

Any teacher or parent will jump and shamelessly will tell to the child that the sum is poorly made, and will add another sentence:  YOU DO NOT know to sum. But look again, because children are doing it well in these cases:

100 → 1 +0 = 1

+84 →8 +4 = 12

112

The child is able to add, except that it’s not making it with the correct order.

And then they will face the subtraction, but also have a collision with the tenth number, the joker, the convenience, our never fully loved Zero.

Zero is worth nothing, we say. You are zero, at the left means nothing. But, what happens to the right? The relationship between laterality and mathematics it's more intense.

Let’s see an example:

10

-6 

 Here also can see different ways to get the result. One way is the classic 6 asks to borrow at 10, So 0 is not zero is 10 so we can take some of it ... or you can count up from 6 until it reaches 10.

Certainly is not the same 10 to 01. Clearly is not the same 1 +0 1 + 0.01 ... and mathematics become more complex and more and more until you reach a point where ordinary people can not understand what lawyers of the numbers are thinking (I love how that sounds).

Hence, the important thing is to create slow but steady steps in the formation of neural networks for acquisition of process of the concept and application of number, and who knows, perhaps to discover the mysteries of nature through mathematics. Never underestimate children.

.

Alma Dzib Goodin

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

References

Alonso, D. y Fuentes, LJ. (2001) Mecanismos cerebrales del pensamiento matemático. Rev Neurol. 33 (6) 568-576.

Anaya Durand, A. y Anaya Huertas, C. (2010) ¿Motivar para aprobar o para aprender? Estrategias de motivación del aprendizaje para los estudiantes. Tecnol. Ciencia Ed. 25 (1) 5-14.

Ardila, A. and Roselli, M. (2002) Acalculia and Dyscalculia. Neuropsychology Review. 12 (4) 179-189.

Dzib Goodin, (2011) numbers and little numbers. http://talkingaboutneurocognitionandlearning.blogspot.com/2011/11/numbers-and-little-numbers.html

Eger, E., Michel, V., Thirion, B., Amadon, A., Dehaene, S. and Kleinschmidt, A. (2009) Deciphering cortical number coding from human brain activity patterns. Biology. 19. 1608-1615.

Hannula, M, Evans, J., Philippou, G. and Zan, R. (2004) Affect in mathematics education: exploring theoretical frameworks. Psychology of Mathematics Education. 1. 107-136.

Jacubovich, S. (2006) Modelos actuales de procesamiento del número y el cálculo. Revista Argentina de Neuropsicología. 7. 21-31.

Mogollón, E. (2010) Aportes de las neurociencias para el desarrollo de estrategias de enseñanza y aprendizaje de las matemáticas.  Educare. 14 (2) 113-124.

Piaget, J. (2001) La representación del mundo en el niño. Morata. España

Piazza, M. and Dehaene, S. (2004) From number neurons to mental arithmetic: the cognitive neuroscience of number sense. M. Gazzaniga (2004) Cognitive neuroscience. MIT Press. USA.

Radford, L. y André, M. (2009) Cerebro, cognición y matemáticas. Revista Latinoamericana de Investigación en Matemática Educativa. 12 (2) 215-250

Serra Grabulosa, JM., Adan, A., Pérez Pàmies, M., Lachica, J. y Membrives, S. (2010) Bases neurales del procesamiento numérico y del cálculo. Rev Neurol. 50 (1) 39-46.

Numbers and little numbers

 I was reading the other an article of Scientific American entitled Cracking a century old riddle, written by  Davide Castelvecchi (April, 2011) and simply  author explains the numeric subdivisions. He explains  with  apples and little  balls that this concept is  not rather than a number can be split into parts, and as example  is mentioned that the number 2 can be represented by 1 +1, while the 3 represents 1 +1 +1 or 1 +2 ... and as the number increases, the partition becomes more and more complex, let 4 with the logic of which is equal to 1 +1 +1 +1 or 1 +2 +1 or 2 +2 also, while 5 would be: 1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 * 1 +1 +1 +2 * 1 +1 +3 * 1 +2 +2 * 1 +4 * 2 +3.

Do you begin to feel seasick?, well,  mathematicians express this as p which represents the number in parentheses, and record the number of combinations, for example 2 (1), 3 (2), 4 (3), 5 (6) The magazine says 5 (7) but I see no other possible ... in short, becomes large as the number to divide, of course, the parenthesis  grow older, and I love the big number  you do with 100 (190,569,292) I swear I did not try to check it, don't believe I'm so obsessive, I trust what the author says.

Well, this is a topic that made me remember when a child; I used to be fascinated by the numbers ... but the truth is most of teachers are always looking for ways to make you know numbers are not your subject. And I say this because if we ask: what is a number?, When we ask this to a child, we do hope that the answer will be: a number is a measure ... but then if the child asks, but what is a number?, maybe we will end up saying the same thing that teacher said to me when I replied that 0.5 was not a number, but half of a number ... is it not logical? If we have a 1 to the middle and is represented as 0.5, is not it the middle of a number?.

And now seeing that a 5 is a combination of possibilities what is 5? is half of 10, double the 2.5 ... it's  5 times  1, is it a number ?

I swear it's not my desire to make you feel confuse ... but what is the logic when someone spits on the face of a child that a number is just a number? ... And then we teach ... we split into pieces what? Bits of numbers?, broken numbers?, Ah, no! I remember, are fractions, fractions of what? Is it a number? ... Ok, under that idea ... 4 is the fraction of 8, which is half of 8, a quarter of 16 ... do you want to continue? ... Ok, well 4 is the tenth of 40 ... is 40 already a number? No! Because I can imagine that one day an obsessive mathematician will divide googol which theoretically is a large number since a googol = 10100 and this is represented as:

10.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.000.

A googol is roughly equal to the factorial of 70, and its only prime factors are 2 and 5 (one hundred times each) and is said that it would occupy the 333 binary bits.

The googol is of particular importance in mathematics but has no practical uses. Kastner created it to illustrate the difference between an unimaginably large number and infinity, and is sometimes used this way in the teaching of mathematics, and if you teach this to a child may think he or she  finally met with a number, but ... is it a number?

The reason for this is that when a child has problems with arithmetic, it's not for lack of fascination with numbers, actually we are genetically programmed to understand quantities, but it's cognitively hard to understand the numbers, if not the logic with which we teach it. And of course this traditional educational idea does not help, because there is only one correct answer and anything that looks different is not correct...

Now, can anyone explain what a number is?

Alma Dzib Goodin

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

References

Castelvecchi, D. (2011) Cracking a century-old enigma mathematicians unearth fractal counting patterns to explain a cryptic claim. Scientific American. April.

Sagan, C. (2001) Cosmos. Editorial Planeta. España.

Learning to learn: the neurocognitive vision

The idea of learning to learn is a strange subject for neurocognition. This is because the brain is designed for learning genetically and evolutionally, on it depends the survival of the species (Dzib Goodin, 2011).

But from this perspective, learning can be analyzed from at least 3 different levels such as the biological, cognitive and behavioral. Biology examines the process from genetic, molecular and cellular understanding, while cognitive perspective allows the understanding of children's skills over time. A behavioral analysis, learning focuses on patterns of action that can be repeated and therefore observable and measurable (Benares, Sebastian, Lipina, Segretín, Hermida and Colombo, 2010).

That is why the link between neurocognition, opened the door to analysis and explanation of cognitive disorders, seeking relationship between neuronal development and environmental relationships that enable the creation of an image in the world, primarily in children with a learning disability (Manning, 1990).

From the many studies, it clear to understand that learning requires strategies, of course, but mostly, it requires brain structures that give coherence to environmental information. A brain development begins within a few weeks after conception, works 24 hours for 7 days, even during sleep, it processes all kind of proteins and holds or removes the information depending how much valuable is. Do not stop learning, which is independent of a classroom, or mood of a teacher. Learns alone or accompanied, and works every day of our life.

From this perspective, the student has prior learning, which began before birth, genetic loads and strategies are needed to underpin what we already know or correct perceptual errors. The brain is flexible; it's not a rigid structure incapable of adapting to the needs. Learning is a pleasure, a need, the goal is to adapt to the environment and the use and management of information.

If the brain were a smartphone, we would say it's delivered with a predetermined with a program to assure it can be turn on. The experiences and strategies are applications that are slowly customizing the system, but unlike an edge technological apparatus, whose renewal involves a change of equipment, the human brain adapts itself forever in your carrying case, it grows and adjusted to the needs, but in the end, we must care the kit that was given at birth. Life depends of it.

Although the question from cognition is how do we learn?, the question from  neurocognition is what do we learn with?, so a deviation in the learning process is not conceived as a failure of the student, but as a wrong perception due that a neural network has been set wrongly or perceptual trouble, as in the case of studies about the difficulties of reading or writing (Dehaene, Nakamura, Jobert, Kuroki, Ogawa and Cohen, 2009).

In this sense, language disorders are analyzed from the auditory processing, which, in case of being affected may have impact not only in spoken language, but in reading and writing (Idiazábal Saperas Aletxa and Rodriguez, 2008).

In the ambit of arithmetic, the strategies must adjust once you know the difficulties of the student before the task; this is a common example that goes unnoticed by formal education:

    56

+ 16  

  117

An educator who has in mind the cognitive point of view, after seeing the error, will try a strategy to teach the child to add, but first,  will let him know what has done wrong. But if somoene takes 3 minutes to understand how this child is carrying out the process of addition, as  Jean Piaget mentioned it almost a century ago, we would   discover that this child knows to add, but  doesn't do it  vertically,  but horizontally.

    56®

+ 16 ®

    117    

In this case, the strategy to use depends on the student's prior knowledge, making a bridge between what student does and what is capable of achieving.

Furthermore, learning occurs not only in a classroom when the teacher is present, it must be considerate that child absorbs information from every enviromental interaction and every one has an impact, at one way or another on the brain.  Even if it's not obvious, children learn for example, rhythm and timing when they are listening to music and this opens benefit at other areas such as reading and math (Trainor, Shahin and Roberts, 2009).

Children learn from what they hear at home, which is why vicarious learning-by-example has such educational sense, the TV becomes an invaluable teaching tool, social relationships, provide information too, but above all this stimulate the brain, since the interact with others, and some of those skills can  not be shared when a child is reading a book or playing alone.

Learning is a process, whose progress is given step by step. It is built on a chain of events that together result in a skill. For example in the case of reading, student do not read phrases, reads one letter at a time, one word at a time and one phrase at a time, with practice, becomes a comprehension reading . However, the beginning, there are only points for the recognition of which differ depending on their location in space, and although it seems obvious, one a is different from a g (Forget, Buiatti, and Dehaene, 2009). This, to an expert reader, it’s the dumbest statement you can imagine, but for a newbie brain is not a remarkable difference. Especially if the task is not only view the letter, but write it in a specific context.

And things are further complicated when you have to do a task that involves two or more mental operations (Sackur and Dehaene, 2009). The process required to create micro tasks and keep sustained attention in order to achieve the motivation to get the goal.

Other aspects will become a breeding ground for learning, for example, there have been studies showing that the place of children in families make a difference in schools (Zajonc, 1976), and the idea maybe is not preposterous considering that the more children at home, you may be achieved peer modeling and scaffolding, which benefit the way to grasp.

All kind of stimuli have an impact on the way the brain learns through the day. Since the biochemical exchanges that are triggered as part of the brain processes that require a specific balance (Cortes Romero, Galindo, Isasmendi and Flores, 2011). There will also be joining the memory process, which unlike the perceptual processes requires the development of the hypothalamus and health (Baddeley, 1992).

And finally, learning depends of the specific action of neurons and their relationships (Barlow, 1985). Thus, difficulties in the learning process do not depend on a child who refuses to learn or is denied to it. Nor is solely based on the strategies and experience from a teacher front the group, or the theoretical perspective of the curriculum. Learning has to focus on students and their needs as well as their usefulness.

Learning to learn is how to survive and why not?, learn to adapt to the circumstances and draw from them, the better.

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

References

Baddeley, A. (1992) Is working memory working? The fifteenth Bartlett lecture. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.  Section A, 44 (1) 1-31.

Barlow, HB. (1985) The twelfth Bartlett memorial lecture: The role of single neurons in the psychology of perception. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Section A, 37 (2) 121-145.

Benarós, S., Sebastián, J., Lipina, M., Segretín, S., Hermida, J. y Colombo, JA. (2010) Neurociencia y educación: hacia la construcción de puentes interactivos. Rev. Neurol. 50 (3). 179-186.

Cortes Romero, C. Galindo, F. Isasmendi, G. y Flores, A. (2011) GABA: ¿dualidad funcional? Transición durante el neurodesarrollo. Rev Neurol.52 (11) 665-675.

Dehaene, S., Nakamura, K., Jobert, A., Kuroki, C., Ogawa, S. and Cohen, L. (2009) Why do children make mirror errors in reading? Neural correlates of mirror invariance in the visual word form area. Neuroimage. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.09.024.

Dzib Goodin, A. (2011) Introducción a los procesos neurocognitivos del aprendizaje: lenguaje, lectura, escritura y matemáticas. Servicios Editoriales Balám. México. En prensa.

Forget, J., Buiatti, M. and Dehaene, S. (2009) Temporal integration in visual word recognition. Journal of cognitive neuroscience. 1 (2) 1-15.

Idiazábal Aletxa, MA. y Saperas Rodriguez, M. (2008) Procesamiento auditivo en el trastorno específico del lenguaje. Rev. Neurol. 46 (Supl 1) S91-S95.

Manning, L. (1990) Neuropsicología cognitiva: consideraciones metodológicas. Estudios de Psicología. 153- 168.

Sackur, J. and Dehaene, S. (2009) The cognitive architecture for chaining of mental operations. Cognition. 111. 187-211.

Trainor, LJ., Shahin, AJ. and Roberts, LE. (2009) Understanding the benefits of musical training: Effects on oscillatory brain activity. Annals of the New York Academy of Science. 1169. 133-142.

Zajonc, RB. (1976) Family configuration and intelligence. Science. 192 (4236) 227-236.

Learning to learn: cognitive point of view

It was in the 1970s when researchers began working from cognitive perspective, learning processes and some spanish articles called to this issue The Holy Grail of education. Not much to say about it, it seems clear there is a need to provide strategies to students, to enable them to automate skills and this is the dreamed goal. But many years later, thousands of articles in all languages, theoretical proposals, which come and go, conferences, books and gallons of ink, it seems that still there is no perfect strategy to achieve it.

While learning to learn sounds like an excellent target, the process is complex. By way of definition, although not unique, it's said that humans learn when the information and meanings can be considered useful for the purpose of life (Perez Gomez, Gomez Soto, Sola Servan Fernandez and Nunez, 2009). This implies another concept known as meaningful learning. But the goal sought is to have students able to reach a critical thinking whose main premise is to achieve a mental activity of evaluating arguments and proposals based on the decision-making that may develop well-planned beliefs and actions (Astleitner, 2002).

Sounds simple!, does it not?, then someone will have to explain why international evaluations have failed to find evidence of formal educational attainment. Several studies have been seeking to reach the goal, as an example of this can include Delphi2 Project; its development began in 1988 in the United States and whose central purpose was the consensuses of experts to evaluate and develop instructional programs that enable make students think more critically.

It was then, that cognitive studies focused part of its efforts to understand the differences in the ways of thinking of students, suggesting that these discrepancies identified specific forms of action, under the assumption that every student comes from different environments (Facione, 2000). This measurement scales were developed and of course, flooded the research between statistics. More ink, more effort, it seems they forgot the main question: how important is to explain the critical thinking?, or, does the student is able to develop the critical thinking and use it in life?.

While there were those who focused on the development of strategies as metacognitive and problem-based learning, known as ABP, in instructional strategies, another group remained determined to measure the skills, and of course there were those who were focused on the division of definitions  leading to conceptual knowledge focusing basically on two possibilities: disciplinary knowledge defined as knowledge, focusing primarily on reading, writing and information management, and on the other side lie the skills or know-how, which can be considered metacognitive functions (Lederman, 1999).

On the other hand, there are also instrumental skills of cognitive type, focusing on the analysis and synthesis of information, organization and planning and communicating ideas, that are related to systemic skills, which are the ultimate goal as metacognition for learning in an autonomous way (Monereo and Badia, 2004).

Then, we can say that from this perspective, student begins from cognitive skills necessary to grasp simple communication  as verbal, reading, writing and arithmetic processes, until  be able to make decisions based on the needs of the context and the information and tools available.

How do student do it?, from this perspective that depends on schooling and all  teacher´s instructional strategies that develop from the curricular needs. Specific content contains a particular strategy with specific goals (Maturana, Soliveres and Macias, 2002). In the early years, instruction focuses on monitoring the student's activities, supervise micro tasks, shaping the work without allowing the student to take many decisions, not allowing the deviation of the results. Any wrong answer from the student will give as a result, to repeat the task, at this sense, learning from formal school, depends of the teacher.

As the students achieve the skills, the scaffolding takes the place of modeling, gradually allowing the student to pass from the micro tasks to specific tasks and even, some freedom, as new knowledge requires innovative forms of learning, as example of this are teaching science or art (Lederman, 1999).

The decisive step is when students  have to make decisions about their future, such as what career to choose?, for this decision, student will have to be  able to identify their own strengths and weaknesses, and finally,  decide their own life based on their prior learning, career goals, personality and resources (Monereo Badia, 2004).

But sometimes, great achievements not give the speed in a school curriculum planned, or under the supervision of a teacher who faithfully believes that changes occur over time or due to the school structure. All curriculums are designed on what experts of the professional field, often successful at work, think that is what the learner should know. But students have individual academic histories that sometimes hit on the wall. Even the most successful universities in the world face academic support because of the lack of adaptation of a group of students and while there are subjects that are enjoyable, easy, others require special assistance to find the way to use all information.

The most basic skills, starting from the cognitive, it's the recognition of the differences between natural language and symbols of mathematics. The use and management of the sounds of both languages are the gateway to the rest of knowledge (Dzib Goodin, 2011). Each of these processes has its specific needs for the acquisition, and in the case of reading and writing depends on environmental stimulation as well as strategies to facilitate acquisition. Hence the importance of good school practices.

Once purchased the bases, the following process shall be on the analysis and synthesis of information and how to use it. Getting to the point where student is able to create and share its own ideas.

Hence, the student will be responsible for his ideas, the learning environment, speed and use its own ideas, take decisions, and be able to be a creator of its own strategies.

Between the second and third stage, there is a moment to develop metacognitive skills, seeking awareness of actions, including, for example, being able to retrace his own steps to determine the sources of error. This opens the possibility to modeling, share and choose different chains of action, looking for targets defined by its own efforts.

Thus, learning is a complex process that probably involves a lifetime, which can not be restricted to formal education. The passage that begins long before birth and that will benefit, no doubt, from all the support possible, enabling it to determine the best way to learn. Learning to learn is a personal responsibility but depends on the means to take flight. Sometimes you never achieved, not by the cognitive system itself can not, if not the scaffolding or modeling strategies are not right, not used at the right time or long enough or the student accounts with more effective strategies.

The literature on metacognitive processes, usually see the college students  as the trustees of this level of thinking, however, it's common to see students at this level who are not able to make decisions for themselves, while people with extensive experience are able to determine the best course of successful companies. That's why you should not underestimate the student's own skills. And strategies should consider the student, rather than the curriculum. The learning center is not only a successful educational program.

There are not instant experts or geniuses; they develop from the way that recognizes the needs of the environment. There is no one school in the world capable of producing 100% of world leaders, presidents, artists, athletes or entrepreneurs. Only a few will achieve social success, but others will have a cognitive development capable to adapt to the environment. Success can be found in daily actions. And the process will continue to expand forever.

There is not way to forget the role of motivation in the activation of cognitive processes certainly must be present and valued. And it's time for a little metacognitive exercise: How did you learn to learn?

Alma Dzib Goodin

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

References

Astleitner, H. (2002) Teaching critical thinking on line. Journal of instructional psychology.29 (2) 53-76.

Badia, A. y Monereo, C. (2004) La construcción de conocimiento profesional docente: Análisis de un curso de formación sobre la enseñanza estratégica. Anuario de psicología. 35 (1) 47-70.

Dzib Goodin, A. (2011) Introducción a los proceso neurocognitivos del aprendizaje: lenguaje, lectura, escritura y matemáticas. Servicios Editoriales Balam. Mexico. En prensa.

Facione, PA. (2000) The disposition toward critical thinking: its character, measurement, and relationship to critical thinking skill. Informal Logic. 20 (1) 61-84.

Facione, PA., Sanchez, CA.  y Facione NC. (1994) Are college students disposed to think? The California Academic Press. USA.

Lederman, NG. (1999) Teachers’ understanding of the nature of science and classroom practice: factors that facilitate or impede the relationship. Journal of research in science teaching. 36 (8) 916-929.

Maturano, CI., Soliveres MA.  y Macias, A. (2002) Estrategias cognitivas y metacognitivas en la comprensión de un texto de ciencias.  Enseñanza de las ciencias. 20 (3) 415-425.

Pérez Gómez, A., Soto Gómez, E., Sola Fernández, M. y Serván Nuñez, MJ. (2009) Aprender como aprender: Autonomía y responsabilidad. Akal. España.

Learning and strategies: a well kept secret

 The brain performs many processes at the same time under the best, ideal and worst circumstances, who has not had a bad day or a brilliant moment?.

But how do we learn to do all that?, Why do some things seem so simple that you can do it  with closed eyes and others tasks simply seem to be denied?.

This is where learning process has its reason for being. It is common to hear that nobody is born knowing, but it's not entirely true, because learning has a certain factors, both personal and adaptive. Personal factors are loaded with a bit of genetics and joy for certain activities, which create an innate facility for carrying out certain tasks (Stanovich, 2009).

This creates confidence in the performance of tasks and facilitates the repetition of them. That's why it's wrong to believe that superior intelligence or ability is the key to success, it just puts pressure on people, because this idea is based on the perspective of a rigid and not malleable brain (Dweck, 2007). The idea under this is:  You are what you can be and you never will be anything else, but this is an impoverished perspective of learning.

On the other hand, neurocognition perspective opens the door to a moldable brain, changeable, able to learn from the strategies for the acquisition of necessary skills (Hawkins and Blakeslee, 2004). If the brain were seen as a computer, then all it needs to perform a variety of executions is a program that lets it perform tasks for which it's not designed, and this creates sufficient self-discipline and motivation to performance anything (Duckworth and Seligman, 2005).

The question then is whether anyone can be a successful pianist or a gymnast capable of carrying out perfect executions .The most obvious answer is: Yes, just have to try, but then it will have to consider the environment and conditions to do it.  So, it's not possible to know if you can do something until you try and that's where the environment becomes relevant (Ericsson, Charness, Feltovich and Hoffman, 2006).

Looking at the human brain as static is similar to the vision that was created of the universe, probably by Heinrich Olbers (Hawking, 2002) and has long since been established conclusively that the universe expands, creates and build itself, and the same has been said about the brain, although education insists that if an ability is not possible for something specific, measured at a certain time and under specific circumstances, can never be acquired, only intelligent people progress, only the school can educate ... I hope to live enough  to laugh about this and see a society motivated to learn.

How?, the first idea is trying and that's why strategies has a reason to be designed. The strategies are the means or steps, which help to reach a skill. Similar to algorithms or heuristics that achieve a result in any exact science, whose final product is to achieve knowledge of the world (Frank, 1974).

These strategies require two conditions: the first is motivation to follow the steps, and the second is that strategy contains in itself the self-correction (Blanchette & Richards, 2010).

With no motivation to learn, brain gets bored and focuses on irrelevant details, because motivation is a combination of attention to the environment, a mixture of neurotransmitters and personality (Goslin, 2007).

Motivation is one of the engines that makes brain of creatures, including humans,  forces to the limit and achieve  goals. Which human race thank every day, because it is a sign of progress.

But the complements of the strategies are mental processes, since they require systematic explanation of how to carry out a task, breaking it into elemental steps to share with others.

From the standpoint of education, the goal is the cognitive development and metacognitive skills, under the scheme of learning to learn, creating the myth that intelligence can overcome any obstacle. At this sense, cognitive skills are the most easiest to learn into a classroom from the early grades, refer to the acquisition and management of environmental information for instance, while metacognitives skills, need self-monitoring skills of the execution itself, in order to correct task performance and require enhanced cognitive development (Monereo and Castello, 2001; Monereo and Badia, 2001)

Basically a strategy is the systematic process of steps, divided into micro or macro instruction to learn something. From this you can find multiple ways to achieve first, the understanding of the strategy and then becomes in a skill.

Any strategy must have a goal of what you want to teach, taking into account execution level where students start and where you want to take them (Beltrán Llera, 2003). In this sense, Vygostky's picture emerges from the zone of proximal development to measure the achievement of the strategy in the light of knowledge acquired. And of course has to be considered what to teach and to whom, and with the strategy, let us decide the how.

From this, it's possible to establish techniques or procedures how to teach to  students, deciding the moment to accompanying, for which there are techniques such as modeling, scaffolding, and the goal is self-executing of the task.

Now we can consider the next ingredient, since it must be remembered that the information reaches the brain through the senses, and I believe that some of the learning difficulties are nothing but problems acquiring information, and this has relevance because exists the  idea that vision is the main sensory processing and then a strategy can be designed  from something called vicarious learning, also named observational learning, but don’t forget the hearing as a means of learning, for example in the case of language learning (Fischer, 2010).

A design of strategies require a systematic analysis of teaching and learning scheme, for example, if there is a need of teaching  someone to write, we must first ask, what are the interactions of this person with the writing process?, because for writing, although it seems logical, it's often forgotten, a need of  oculomotor development and a dominant hand, the absence of the sustained development of it, can produce  writing difficulties, such as writing on multiple non-uniform areas of the sheet. It will be also important if the person knows the relationship letter- sound.

There are many techniques for teaching writing, all of them are successful, no doubt, but if you think about the brain and how it interacts, you can choose best the technique having on mind the level of progress in the acquisition, allowing you to freely analyze and observing how the student takes either a pencil or pen and the way that is placed on the surface, and how it will slide to make a shape to a letter, a word, an idea.

Choosing a technique, and believe it will have to work for everyone, means to deny the existence of learners and their context. There is a technique for everyone, and of course you can combine, modify, extend, shorten depending on the needs and it should be considered that the learner will also make their own adaptations. The most common mistake is to believe that everyone understands the same. Say, take the pencil with your right hand and write, is to deny the left-handed action as a dominant hand.

There is then a subdivision of tasks, the goal of the task is to write but, what do you expect to be written? A book or just a word, how?: Capital letters, lower case, on what surface?: Using only the large squares on a sheet, lines or a white sheet, and this is not the same as writing on a blackboard 40 X 60 inches. The medium is a standard pencil or a crayon. Is there enough light or brightness on the surface?.

There are contents that can be made from micro tasks and other that require only one or two steps. The more steps required, the slower will be the acquisition of the process, but sometimes a person needs more insight into the task that is why we say that a strategy can and should be self-corrected (Roediger III and Finn, 2010).

The sophistication of the techniques and the choice of them, should consider the level of understanding that the person has on a subject and how much they allow the systematic practice that leads to consolidation. An example of this is the driving or flight simulators, which are fun tools even for video games, while allowing the continued practice and it will be always a step towards implementation with scenarios and real variables.

As well, you can have previous steps leading up to the task, similar to rear wheels of a bicycle , which are removed once the learner feels confident enough to move in space considering the speed and terrain.

And the choice of technique employed, it shouldn't forget that memory has a prediction system that helps the brain to complete pieces of puzzles or events (Hawkins and Blakeslee, 2004) in this regard, it's possible to skip steps, but also if you think that an element of the chain is necessary in a specific situation, can be added if necessary, this will be especially important when working with cognitive strategies.

In the case of metacognitive strategies, the important point is to make aware the process that is carried out, to get a self monitoring of execution, under the scheme of what has to be done, how, under what goal, what tools, what skill required for each tool, whether micro monitors are more likely to correct errors as soon as they arise (Solomon, 2007).

The goal then is to make a person capable to determine its scopes and limitations, determined to use their cognitive tools to benefit our own development. That's why some issues are interwoven such as creativity, motivation and enthusiasm.

But the implementation of strategies is not a matter of magic or immediate success. A strategy can work at short-term or after very long time, depending on the goal to achieve. An example is reading or writing, although the first years of school build the bases of both processes, the use and management thereof, makes the difference between a good writer or an expert reader, able to use what they read in a work. And this is another point against the world's educational vision, because it's expected that children know things, such as divine command, but if there is a reason for it, the knowledge system simply can not sustain for long time the information under the principle of the cognitive economy. Brain needs repeate tasks, enjoy them and get a benefit pro the system, creating neural networks to develop a stable foundation for future learning. That is not an order from a teacher, but by the determination of structures of the frontal and prefrontal areas of the brain, where it mostly holds the decision making process (Roberts, Anderson, and Husain, 2010).

The cabling system of networks, will then take an important role, because thanks them, the task will become a habit, or a bridge for new tasks (Tirapu-Ustárroz, Luna-Lario, Hernandez-Goñi and Garcia- Suescun, 2011). And then the student has passed from a strategy, from the minimal to the experts’ level.

Some tasks allow modeling, based on vicarious or imitation learning,  especially those that require a motor skills, such as those used in sports, writing, arts, while others require more prior knowledge, as the instructional strategies used in  classrooms (Anderson, 1997).

Scaffolding is the support provided by an expert to a novice, it is always necessary, but not all rookies require the same dose, it must be considerate prior learning and the level of sophistication of the task. How often do you find a: I saw it at the National Geographic or Discovery Channel?, and never minimize the role of television series or peer activities (Dweck, 2007).

The more difficult a goal is, more support is required, and more motivation to have a successful student, but if the task is too simple, it can be boring and therefore impractical.

That's why instructional design models can be unsuccessful, regardless of the degree of sophistication with which they were designed. A strategy may work perfect for a group of people and not enough for another. Hence there are as many strategic models as leaves on a tree. Every one can be great, if used under the proper framework, but any mistake can result in a horror in teaching.

One of the strategies currently used with  greater advance in education are ludic strategies. We may fall in the debate of whether they are strategies or techniques, but the point is they allow monitor for effectiveness of learning in most cases, because the goal is clear, is motivating and fun, and it's making learning breaks classic schemes. But even if this is not something to be applauded in formal education, it's the way that species evolved to learn, playing, exploring, through trial and error, repeating over and over again the same, to reach the domain of something that if is not achieved, it can cost your life, then we must not forget that learning is at the service of conservation of the species. And it's the way someone become a major league baseball player, and that's how trust is achieved in itself, that's key to success. It may not be able to do other things, but for your domain field, you're the best, how did you get it?.

Hence, the problem-based learning or simulation has been at the forefront of teaching especially in the medical and economic areas (González López Frias Castro, 2011; Graeml, Baena and Mihai Yannaki, 2011), trying to create an expert before reaching the battlefield. But not to forget that reality can have combinations of more complex variables.

Reach the domain of something,  takes time, requires motivation, activation of brain areas that  are modified from the repetition of tasks, these are complemented by others that call prior learning, and every day you can learn and modify the muscle cognitive. It is flexible, likes to learn, likes to also demonstrate what it knows, but it can not learn like other brains. So an important ability is to monitor the strategies, and enjoy the change. Our cognitive economy saves energy when it creates habits, it is true, we should not think about how to fasten a button or turning on a laptop, is done in automatic, but think for a moment, how many attempts it took to achieve it?.

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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3D image: Juan Conde Tovani