Chapter 2 Learning Log

What?
This past week I learned a lot about the importance of the pruning of neuronetworks, brain plasticity, and the two theories. Pruning of neuronetworks is very important in the development of the brain. There are things that you need to remember and things that are not so important to remember. Like the example that Dr. Byrd gave in class, when we are on vacation we need to know our hotel room number. When we get home there is no use remembering that number so our brain prunes it/forgets it. On Monday I went and saw Rainman. This pruning does not occur in his brain. He remembers everything forever. Brain plasticity is an interesting concept. This means that the brain can keep growing all of our lives. It is up to us if it keeps growing. The saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks", is false. The two theories that we looked at were Piaget and Vygotsky. Piaget's theory was derived by watching his own children. He has the stages of development. Sensorimotor is from the ages 0 to 2. This is an important stage where the child learns using senses and experiment with trial and error. They also develop an understanding of cause and effect relationships. The next stage is Preoperational from the ages 2 to 7. In this stage the child has a hard time realizing that a teacher is a normal person and not just a teacher. This is called single classification. This is a lower level of thinking. One thing that the child believes is transductive reasoning. This means that they believe that one thing is directly related to another, for example; snow brings Christmas or cake means birthday. Concrete Operational is from the ages 7 to 11. This stage is still a lower level of thinking, but is preparing the brain for higher thinking. This is where the child works a lot on conversation. The child can now understand other people’s perspectives and start to think more deeply. The final stage is Formal Operational from 12+. This is where the brain is able to think abstract and hypnotically. Vygotsky's theory talks a lot about relationships, the relationship between adult and child as well as child to child. Relationships are very important. Guided Participation is where the adult helps the child. He talks about the power of play. Running outside, role play, playing at the park are ways to help our children develop. We also learned about ZPD, zone of proximal development. This is the space between what a child knows and what a child will know with the help of an adult or capable individual. It is important to have challenging experiences to help the child learn.

So What?

This information is very helpful to me to become a teacher. With this information I am able to plan lesson plans appropriate to the level that the child is on. I will have a better understanding of what activities would be appropriate in my classroom.

Now What?

I am glad that we are able to take this class in the beginning of the cohort. With this knowledge I know that I will be a better student which in turn will make me a better teacher. This class has just started but has opened my eyes to new ideas and a new way of thinking.

Rainman
I am so glad that I had the opportunity to go see this man. I have always been interested in the brain so to see someone that can remember everything that he sees is amazing. I was amazed that he could tell people how to get to a certain destination and he knew the names of the roads. I would love to spend a day with him and pick at his brain. I was very impressed with his father and how much his father does for him. I was not impressed with the questions that were asked at the end. Overall I loved it!