Laraine Hofmann's Blog

The Brain and Learning November 15, 2009

The blog Funderstanding http://www.funderstanding.com/content/brain-based-learning is staffed by research and cognitive scientists as well as educators and marketers. The article/post on brain-based learning speaks of 12 core principles of brain-based learning. It goes on to explain that there are two types of memory spatial and rote. It states we understand best when facts are embedded in natural, spatial memory. I view this as equating to long-term memory and encoding.

The instructional techniques used for brain-based learning are:
1. Orchestrated Immersion
2. Relaxed alertness
3. Active processing

These techniques, I view, are the building blocks of all instruction:
1. Fully immerse the learners in an educational experience
2. Make the environment challenging but not fearful
3. Allow the learner to process the information

It goes on to explain how brain-based learning impacts Education, how three interactive elements are essential to brain-based learning, and other views of the process; my favorite being “The best problem solvers are those that laugh”.

In the article The Information Processing Approach to Cognition by W. Huitt (2003), http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/infoproc.html it states “Even though there are widely varying views within cognitive psychology, there are a few basic principles that most cognitive psychologists agree with”.

These principles generally state:
1. There is a limit to the amount of information that can be processed and these bottlenecks are seen at very specific points
2. A control mechanism is required in processing information
3. A two-way flow of information that involves our senses and what is stored in our memory
4. That the brain has been genetically engineered to process information in specific ways

This article discusses the stage theory of the study of memory which is based on the work of Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968). This theory proposes that information is processed and stored in three stages; sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

What I found interesting was the chart found at the end of the article.