Should teachers study the brain in order to improve their instructional design?

Should teachers study the brain in order to improve their instructional design?

Last June, Sarah Sparks examined this question in her Education Week article, “Neuroscientists Find Learning is Not ‘Hard-Wired.’” Sarah says that recent research shows that human brains do not function as computers. Rather, the human brain changes shape and function as a result of learning, or experiences. 

Here are a sampling of quotes from the article:

"What we find is people really do change their brain functions in response to experience," said Kurt W. Fischer, the director of Harvard University's Mind, Brain, and Education Program. "It's just amazing how flexible the brain is. That plasticity has been a huge surprise to a whole lot of people."

 “…Mr. Fischer and other mind-brain-education researchers said, helping teachers and students understand how the brain changes in response to experience may be the best way to link neuroscience findings to classroom experience.”

 "A student's brain physically changes every day, and the way we teach either enhances or impairs it," she [Principal B. Lynn Brown] said, noting that she and her teachers hold summer seminars for other district staff on the brain's flexibility and response to instruction. "We have to ask ourselves as educators, what does our practice say about what we believe? We are explicitly teaching thinking skills."

According to this article, recent research indicates that instructional designers must be aware of thinking processes in addition to behavior processes in order to teach students effectively.  It seems as though the quoted research is sound.  However, it does not seem as though the research has been repeated in many different environments with multiple people groups represented. 

That said, the most interesting part of the article outlines myths that many teachers believe, such as the “myth” that learning improves when a teacher teaches to a child’s learning style.  There are several listed instructional "truths" that this author debunks as myths.  This is unsettling to most educators.

What other instructional “truths” are now classified as myths?  Follow this link to see how well you know your brain…

 

www.edweek.org/go/brainquiz

Sparks, S. (2012).  Neuroscientists find learning is not “hard-wired”. Education Week, 31(33), 1-17.