How Brain Based Learning Is Changing The Face of Education

Educators now know that neuroscientists are creating intriguing discoveries about how our brain functions. So, people are interested to know the answer to the question: how is brain-based learning changing the face of education today? Brain imaging equipments can help researchers in taking a peek inside a human brain and see which parts are used when carrying out certain tasks. Several of this information is essential in diagnosing health problems and others have effects on what teachers should do inside their classrooms.

Both mentor and student go to school each morning longing to succeed. This hope isn't always appreciated because of the various factors affecting the degree of the failure or success in a teaching-learning experience. There are some factors which are outside the teacher's control. What teachers can control are the things they do about what they should teach and how they should present the lesson in a manner where learning will most likely happen. In creating these decisions, mentors look back on their knowledge and experience to make activities, design questions and respond to students' efforts.

Mentors are looking for new methods and techniques to cater all the needs of the culturally, ethnically and socially varied student population. Some tested-and-proven strategies don't appear to be as effective as they were in the previous decades. Also, there are an increasing number of students who seem to have difficulty attaining even basic skills like writing, reading and computation. There seems to be more public school students who have specific learning disabilities.

This happening is creating a sense of disappointment in various parts of the educational field. Because of this, mentors are looking for new strategies while parents are looking for alternative study formats and legislators are looking for higher testing and standards.

The characteristics of difficulties faced by students with learning incapacities range from maintaining concentration, learning to read and/or write, acquiring language, remembering essential information and solving math problems. Because of the improvement of imaging and more technologies, scientists can take a look at the brain and develop new knowledge about the brain's functions and structure. The outputs of these studies are used as a guide by educations in making decisions and in their manner of collaborating with their student with special learning needs.

Brain-based learning is based on the works of scientists for many years to help treat brain disorders. Because of these studies, educators now know more about problematic brains than about normal ones. Early experiments in peering inside the brain involved some risks which were justifiable by the possibility of treatment or improvement of a patient's condition. Different experiments have helped researchers develop their knowledge and understanding of how a normal brain develops.

Students with learning incapacities make up a very heterogeneous group such that no strategy, approach or intervention can cater to all their needs. At the present time, more than ever, psychologists, educators, scientists and computer experts are working in harmony towards a common goal of improving the world's present understanding of the learning process.

Comparisons of brain functions of normal brains to those brains with deficits are uncovering extraordinary modern insights on behavioral and learning disorders. Some results have posed challenges to long-held concepts about causes, development and cure of learning disorders. Educators in the general and special education field must know about the effects of such results on their teaching practices.

With the help of the most recent neural research, educational strategies which are brain friendly give scientifically-based framework for making effective teaching. This premise also explains persistent learning behaviors and is a concept which encompasses a combination of techniques. Today, associated techniques emphasize the need for teachers to link learning concepts to students' daily lives, emotional experiences and their previous learning experiences.

Educational Literature on Brain Based Learning

1. Brain Research: Implications for Second Language Learning
2. Current Issues in Research on Intelligence- ERIC Document
3. Multiple Intelligences: Gardner's Theory- ERIC Document
4. Neuropsychological Assessment in Schools
5. On Second Thought: Using New Cognitive Research in Vocational Education- ERIC Document
6. Practical Classroom Applications For Current Brain Research