Kamis, 31 Mei 2012

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.

Kamis, 24 Mei 2012

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

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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/


Sabtu, 31 Maret 2012

Chicago: the place of accents

The city of Chicago, in the State of Illinois, is one of the paradises for researchers of language. It is a city with a large migratory flow which allows listening to multiple accents, languages living together and communicating every day.

Chicago is the largest city in the State and the third most populated in the United States. You can hear many languages but you can also hear many accents as these bilingual people speak English.

You will find many people from around the world that speak the English language well, but always with accent of their native language.  Their accent is the result of different variables that influence the degree of their accent when a second language is spoken. For example, the age when the second language is learned, time of stay in the country where they used the second language, gender, formal instruction, motivation, skills for learning the language and quality and quantity of the native language (Thorsten, MacKay & Flege, 2001).

The latest 2010 census shows that the linguistic variety is due in part to the diversity of nationalities of the residents of the city, which are 2,695,598 people, and mean 1,045,560 families. Chicago is also one of the most densely populated cities in the country. The racial makeup of the city is the following: 45.0% white (whites non-Hispanic of 31.7%); 32.9% African-American, 13.4% from some other race, 5.5% Asian (1.6% Chinese, Indian 1.1%, 1.1% Filipino, 0.4% Korean, Pakistani 0.3%, Vietnamese of 0.3%, 0.2% Japanese, Thai of 0.1%); 2.7% from two or more races, 0.5% Native American. 

Hispanics or Latinos make up the third largest race in Chicago at 28.9%.  This group of Chicagonans came from several Latin America countries: 21.4% Mexican, Puerto Rican 3.8%, 0.7% Guatemala, 0.6% Ecuadorian 0.3% Cuban, Colombian 0.3%, 0.2% Honduran, Salvadoran 0.2%, 0.2% Peruvian. 

Eastern Europeans and people from Africa also make up a minor percentage of the people living in Chicago as well. Lastly, those traveling to Chicago for vacation or family should also be considered. 

It is natural that with such a large number of foreign languages, people will mix and match that own language with English, creating interesting mistakes with the English language.

It’s always a fun exercise is to listen to the speakers and try to determine where they come from. When speaking with academics, it’s much easier to guess where the speaker is from. For example, a Spanish speaker can determine the difference not only from one country to another but the regional differences in his native country.

Learning a language in its oral form means to learn the sounds, words and grammatical rules of this as well as particular prosody(Peña-Garay, 2005). This component is also related to the specific region where it is native.

More nearby is the geographical location least different is the intonation, but as away geographically, the prosodic difference becomes more noticeable, along with many other linguistic schemes. It is very easy to distinguish between a Mexican accent and a Spanish one, but it is not so easy even for the Hispanic speakers, distinguish between a Honduran and a Guatemalan speaker.
 
That’s why some researchers seek the identification of the prosodic characteristic features of regions from, for instance intonation structure or parameters of duration and intensity (Ramirez Verdugo, 2005). 

These features are interspersed with learning another language. But the prosody is that allows linguistic clues sometimes save the limitation of the vocabulary within a conversation. Maybe not understanding all the words but intonation does know whether someone is asking something or is denoting a complaint. 

Although the prosody is perceived through the language, this is added a visual component in the form of facial expressions, which denote the communication is socially relevant (Jaywant & Pell, 2012). It is that interaction face to face, persons can  understand the meaning of a sentence even when not understood the verbal message, facial expression will help to decipher the message and ultimately allows the required question: Sorry, what did you say?.

Why is learning the words of a second language not enough? Because the words of the second language is only a component of communication. It is necessary to add the prosody as well as the intonation which gives the emotional content of each phrase. Some might say this is not as important between speakers of the same language (however, it is) but it is vital between bilingual speakers. The prosody and intonation is what allows someone to understand if the person is asking them a question or giving them an order. When the body language is added to the conversation, the words become secondary and understanding is achieved through the prosody and facial expressions.

Mimicking the prosody during the verbal production adds another component to language (Crystal, 2012), although sometimes this is more difficult than learning the words. There are theories that explain a pre-internal articulation, rather than the pronunciation of the word. This means we heard internally every sound before producing the word (Huettig and Hartsuiker, 2010). Even so, the intersections of the native language will always be a constraint. There will be sounds that a bilingual cannot imitate fully, even if during the mental review, the sounds are the right ones.

That's why Chicago is my favorite city to enjoy the accents, and the cultural linguistic combination, where the Spanglish is common and same person speaks a phrase with a full Spanish and the following sentence it said in English and then mixes it, or is common to listen to parusglish, where the Russian and the English get together. There is nothing more melodious than listening to Hindu’s speaking with their multiple variations or attempt to recognize the difference between the Asian languages. 

Nobody cares about your accent when you’re craving a pizza or taco or hamburger, it's the cultural experience that matters the most.

Alma Dzib Goodin

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

References:

Crystal, D. (2012) On quotatives (he goes). Available at: http://david-crystal.blogspot.com/2012/03/on-quotatives-he-goes.html

Huettig, f. and Hartsuiker, RJ.(2010) Listening to yourself is like listening to others: External,but not internal, verbal self-monitoring is based on speech perception. Language and Cognitive Processes 25 (3) 347-374.

Jaywant, a. and Pell, MD. (2012) Categorical processing of negative emotions from speech prosody. Speech Communication. 54 (2012) 1-10.

Peña-Garay, M. (2005)Aproximación a la prosodia del habla de Madrid.Rev. Neurol. 41 (5) 291-298.

Ramirez Verdugo. MD. (2005) Approximation to the Prosody of speech in Madrid. Studies of Experimental Phonetics. 14. 311-326.

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Selasa, 28 Februari 2012

Understanding the brain differences for the education of talent

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This group of the population is generally classified as:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Are they really different?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What do make them different?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learning: genetics, motivation, and environmental development

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to address the talent?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alma Dzib Goodin

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

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