Different but not Less

Retrieved Feb. 10, 2013 from here

Task 3 in the Neuroscience in Education session caught all my attention this week (4th). This is the first time to hear about Temple Grandin. Googling this name, I found her an autistic scientist, professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, designer of livestock handling facilities, consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior, inventor of the "squeeze machine," a system which tightly hugs people to relieve stress, bestselling author, speaker and more. Although she is an autistic person, she found her way to excel and innovate using her gifts and special visual thinking skills. The questions that come to my mind while reading about her are "Who is behind her success? Who pushed her to do all these things? What kind of motivation does she have; inner or something comes from outside?"

Anita's Story and Memory

The third week of Neuroscience in Education session was about attention and memory. We first watched two interesting videos showing how our attention works when we expose to many stimuli at the same time. 

Part 1

Part 2

Do you have Tonys in your Classes?

I started week 2 of the Neuroscience EVO 2013 session by watching the video of Tony. First, I would like to thank Mary Hillis for her narration to the story and Cleide Frazão for drawing these amazing images. This story is taken from a book by James E. Zull titled "The Art of Changing the Brain". Let's watch this video or read the excerpt below and then discuss what is behind Tony's problem.

Neuromyths ... True/False

Retrieved Jan 20, 2013 from here

Educational neuroscience (also called Mind Brain and Education; MBE) is an emerging scientific field that brings together researchers in cognitive neuroscience, developmental cognitive neuroscience, educational psychology, educational technology, education theory and other related disciplines to explore the interactions between biological processes and education. A major goal of educational neuroscience is to bridge the gap between the two fields through a direct dialogue between researchers and educators, avoiding the "middlemen of the brain-based learning industry". These middlemen have a vested commercial interest in the selling of "neuromyths" and their supposed remedies (See more here). 

In the first week of Neuroscience in Education EVO 2013 session, I was surprised by the number of neuromyths that we consider facts. What shocked me was that some of these neuromyths were taught to us as facts. Suddenly, all we know has become just a myth. Maybe they are myths according to the scientific researches conducted by some neuroscientists in some areas of the globe. However, there are a lot of things go on in our classrooms and those researchers don't know anything about them. What they think of as myths, we try them in some situations and contexts and find them of a great importance. This is the inner voice of me as a teacher. Most of us don't accept things easily. It takes a lot of time to change views and attitudes. As a researcher, this is a young field that needs more research. We have to deeply think about these new facts and try to correct our misconceptions instead of sticking to old practices. 

A list of brain facts was provided to us to decide if they are correct or incorrect. It was a trap, I guess, because they are all neuromyths that most of teachers believe in as it was shown in one of the researches conducted by Dekker et al. (2012).

Test Your Brain Knowledge by Carla Arena 

Reading these statements, you will find most of them are definitely neuromyths and your mind may not accept them at all. However, the statement that is related to the learning styles attracts my attention. Individuals learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style (e.g., auditory, visual, kinesthetic). I always hear this statement from my professors and read it in articles and researches. Why is it considered a myth? First, I rejected the whole idea and even sent a very angry contribution to our wiki as a response to my readings. My voice as a researcher appeared once again and encouraged me to read the research by Dekker et al. (2012) more deeply. I noticed that there are two statements addressed the learning styles; one of them is incorrect and the other is correct (See below):

• Individuals learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style (e.g., auditory, visual, kinesthetic). Incorrect
• Individual learners show preferences for the mode in which they receive information (e.g., visual, auditory, kinesthetic). Correct

The first statement means that learners have their own learning styles (e.g., auditory, visual, kinesthetic) and we as teachers have to find suitable ways to address these styles. Information should be provided to those who are visual through the use of visuals and through audio tools to those who are auditory and so forth. This is what we do believe in and try to vary our teaching styles to match these learning styles. 

The second statement means, as I understood, learners can receive information by any way; visual, auditory or  kinesthetic. There are no preferred learning styles in learners' brains. Learners' preference to one way and not to another is an outside process. Once information enters their brains, it passes through several processes to reach the stage of learning.

This was not the end of the story. Reading the Brain Basics summary, and watching the video of how neurons work in the human brain (See below), I recognized how complex our brain is and how amazing those neurons are when working together providing a great example of cooperation and collaboration to the humanity. A lot of things I discovered about my brain and the processes that happen when receiving and processing the information entered. If we make a connection between those facts and our practices in classrooms, we can create an optimal learning environment and atmosphere where students can learn better. 

Let' share some examples:

• The communication between neurons is strengthened or weakened by an individualʼs activities, such as stress ... etc. This is very apparent when I ask students to do an exercise and they feel stressed or nervous. They feel stuck and can't complete it successfully. I think that the more students feel secure or the clearer the aim of the exercise is, the better they learn because their neurons will find it easy to communicate and talk to each other.
• Continuously challenging the brain with physical and mental activity helps maintain its structure and function. I do practice this suggestion all the time with my students without recognizing it as a brain principle. I notice that students keep interacting, discussing and producing new ideas. The more they use their brain, the more they grow mentally. This means that we have to use it otherwise we can lose it.
• Watching the video above, I found that knowing how our brain works can inspire theorists to create theories that are based on the structure and function of this human brain. The Connectivism Theory that is developed by Siemens and Downes carries a kind of similarity. Connectedness and networking are two features that can help billions of neurons work together harmoniously.

I feel that I'm a little bit confused reading all these new things. I spent a lot of time and efforts to say and apply things that are merely myths. I think that it is time to read more to correct these false views according to a scientific base.

Resources Used:

1. Connectivism
2. Educational neuroscience
3. Neuromyths in education- Prevalence and predictors of misconceptions
4. Test Your Brain Knowledge

Starting a new chapter of my life with EVO 2013

Year 2012 was full of achievements, learning new things, gaining new skills, meeting new people and building new hopes and wishes that I will achieve in Year 2013. As usual, the Electronic Village Online (EVO) MOOC starts at the beginning of each year to equip ESL/EFL educators with new visions and perspectives to teaching. It provides 10 sessions for 5 weeks; including a variety of topics that each teacher needs to know to cope up with this so fast digital world. It is strongly recommended to sign up for no more than TWO sessions, however, teachers can go a head and participate in most of them if they can manage the whole process. By the end of this event, our skills of teaching, communication, creation and innovation will be improved and our relation to other people from all over the world will be extended. Really, I want to thank EVO for their great impact on those teachers who live far away from this updated corner of the globe. You give them the hope to learn, improve, develop and create their own world. 

Registrations are open from Jan 7-13, 2013

The sessions begin on January 14th but are held asynchronously; that is, you can log in, begin reading, and join the email discussion of the materials. However, your moderators will provide some synchronous activities where you gather for a live meeting on your topic of study.  See your session's syllabus of weekly activities for details.

EVO 2013 Sessions:

1. Becoming a Webhead 2013
2. The Wonderful World of Teaching English Through Drama
3. Digital Storytelling for Young Learners
4. Designed for Business
   
5. Neuroscience in Education- Braining Up Your English Lessons
6. Multiliteracies for Social Networking and Collaborative Learning Environments  
7. MOODLE for Teachers 
8. Podcasting for the ESL-EFL Classroom
9. Mentoring
10. MachinEVO: Video Productions of Language Learning Conversations

My Choice this Year:

This year, I will try the Neuroscience in Education- Braining up your English lessons session moderated by Carla Arena, Cheryl Oakes, Denise De Felice, Nina Liyulkun, Jane Petring, Ana Maria Menezes, and Mary Hillis. The objectives of this session seem so attractive and valuable. I really want to know more about how my students' brains work and what potential the brain-based lessons, activities and tools can give me to enhance their language learning. Please, wait for my posts about this new experience in the coming days!

Stay Tuned!