Education Learning

¶ … brain development opens up tremendous opportunities to improve education. In some aspects, the education community has embraced this research and used it to develop profoundly different approaches to learning. At the same time, the research conflicts with many systemic practices among school administrators and education policy-makers. Five significant conclusions about the developing brain affect education. First, the capacity for lifelong learning begins during "critical periods" (temporary windows of opportunity for development). Once a critical period is over, it is too late to develop that part of the brain.

Throughout, optimal learning occurs when the brain is appropriately challenged. Second, music and art help children develop brain functions related to logic/spatial abilities, illustrating that subject disciplines previously thought to be mutually exclusive are not. Third, emotions experienced while learning affect brain development for that particular type of knowledge. A more meaningful experience with which a student can identify results in more learning. Fourth, physical environmental factors affect students' ability to learn. Those who get regular physical activity and adequate sleep based on their biological clock learn more.

Finally and most importantly, each brain is unique, resulting from a combination of biological circuitry and a wealth of experiences that have shaped its development. To be truly effective, the education system must address these findings. In many ways, educators and curriculum policy-makers have done so in their pedagogical techniques. Howard Gardener pioneered the notion of multiple intelligences, resulting in a movement towards project-based, hands-on learning experiences through many (if not all) of the nine intelligences to learn a concept or subject.

Across the United States, elementary and secondary educators have incorporated this approach into their classrooms, often along with the use of portfolios, project-based and cooperative learning. Another commonly used strategy, Whole Brain learning involves both the left (logical, linear, analytic) and right (emotional, creative, artistic) sides of the brain in the learning to promote whole-brain development. In adopting these strategies, educators have addressed both brain uniqueness and making emotional connections.

These strategies also allow students challenging projects that develop less-favored parts of the brain while still allowing to succeed by demonstrating their strengths. Uniqueness and environmental factors have been addressed through recognition of the elements of learning. Educators and school administrators are cognizant of and address the environmental, emotional, sociological, physiological and psychological stimuli (elements of learning) that affect student achievement. Several aspects of education, however, require further reform to address this new research.

The age at which new subjects are introduced are not entirely consistent with the critical periods of brain development (e.g., new languages should be introduced in elementary school). Interdisciplinary instruction is not systemically addressed, despite application of multiple intelligence theory in that subject disciplines are taught as silos -- each separately, instead of in an integrated fashion. The programs that have received cut backs in recent years (physical education, music, art) are those that are essential to brain development necessary for future learning in other, more traditionally valued.