Behind every piece of information or action a student learns or learns to do, is a wealth of complicated structures in his brain. As an educator, you should think of yourself as a neuroscientist, navigating your students’ brains in order to grow and change them with each new lesson. This is called, brain-based learning. In order to take on this important task, it is important that you first understand the parts of the brain and the roles they play in learning and cognition.

“The human brain is the best-organized, most functional three pounds of matter in the known universe,” says educator Robert Sylwester in his book, A Celebration of Neurons: An Educator’s Guide to the Human Brain. “It’s responsible for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, computers, the Sistine Chapel, automobiles, the Second World War, Hamlet, apple pie, and a whole lot more.”

While the average brain consists of over 100 billion nerve cells, trillions of support cells and dozens of structures that all assist in the learning process, the limbic system is a specific area that we can take a closer look at to see how learning occurs in the brain.

The limbic system: The limbic system is actually a set of brain structures that, according to the Psychology department at the University of Delaware, includes: 

• The hippocampus: The hippocampus is essential for main education functions including learning and memory.
• The amygdale: There are two amygdala in the brain. They are essential to feeling emotion such as fear, impulse, and rage. They also help us perceive emotion in others.
• The thalamus: The thalamus sits between the cerebral cortex and the midbrain and acts as a conductor, receiving sensory information and transmitting it to the cerebral cortex and vice versa.
• The hypothalamus: The hypothalamus is located just above the brainstem and controls several involuntary and vital functions in your body. The alerts it gives your body are important to signal you to action. Mainly it controls body temperature, hunger, thirst and sleep cycles.
• The pituitary gland: The pituitary gland is only the size of a pea but plays a major role in brain function. It is at the base of the brain at the bottom of the hypothalamus. The pituitary gland mainly regulates hormones and thus plays a role in growth, puberty, metabolism, blood pressure and sugar levels.

How Our Brain Parts Relate to Learning  

1. The amygdale and the prefrontal cortex act together to control emotion. In adolescents the prefrontal cortex is not yet fully formed and thus children and teens lack the control over impulses that adults have. To clear the path to learning, adults need to act as an artificial prefrontal cortex. Help your students stay organized and on task and work with them on calendars and to-do lists as their impulses may draw them to other activities.

2. Children’s growth hormones are especially active while they sleep. During this time, the majority of new nerve growth in the brain is taking place. In order to fully internalize new information, students literally need to sleep on it! Sleep allows their brains time to grow and develop so they can better absorb what they’ve been taught. Make sure your children get plenty of sleep in order to make his or her education most effective.

3. The human body has high-low cycles controlled by the thalamus that last about 90 to 110 minutes. At the top of this cycle, students have more energy and are the most attentive and as they reach the bottom of the cycle they have the least energy and are the least attentive. Try to switch activities or lessons at regular intervals to help hold your student’s attention. Keep it structured though. Multitasking means your student is not giving his full-attention to one task and thus not fully encoding it to his brain.

4. New information enters the brain through neuron (nerve cell) pathways. If students are paying attention and processing the information, the hippocampus then sends a signal to store the information as long–term memory. When memories are being accessed, the same neuron pathways are used to get to the information. Because of this, the more frequently that information is accessed, the stronger those pathways become and the easier it is to recall information. Use repetition in your teaching in order to strengthen these pathways. Frequent rehearsals of using information, rather than cramming all the information in at once like before a test, is the best way to make it easy to remember.

Other sources: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/nsdivide.html

Children go through developmental stages in art helping them hone their budding skills and explore their creativity. Once a child figures out they can make somewhat representational squiggles, they have embarked into the Preschematic stage of art. These potato shaped figures with stick arms and legs might not seem like much, but are a child’s first representations of people. Encouraging his drawings aides in his future cognitive and creative development.

The Preschematic Stage of Art

Viktor Lowenfeld, author of Creative and Mental Growth, describes the Preschematic stage as a time when the schema (the visual idea) is developed. A child, between the ages of four and seven, creates drawings during this stage that depict what he finds most important about the objects he views, such as someone’s hair or unique clothing. A child exploring the Preschematic stage doesn’t have full understanding of the dimension and size of objects, so he may draw a person as tall as his house. Color use is also more emotional than logical, expressing a child’s desire for creativity and enjoyment in his art.

Preschematic stage artwork resembles blobs or amoeba shapes with large smiling faces and short arms and legs. Don’t be alarmed with exaggerated features, such as an extremely large nose or mouth – or if the child omits features completely.  In other instances, a child may draw a head representing a whole human being, because he finds the head to be the most important part of their body, which he uses to eat, talk, see and hear. When a child draws a self-portrait during the Preschematic stage he often draw himself as the largest shape, as he feels he is the most important, which displays healthy development.

During the Preschematic stage the schema (the internal representation of the world) along with cognitive development are causes the young child’s brain to develop in grand ways. Jean Piaget, a Swiss philosopher and psychologist, finds children go through fixed stages of cognitive development. During the Preschematic stage, Piaget places a child at the Preoperational stage where he is unable to yet form abstract conceptions, and must have hands-on experiences and visual representations in order to form basic conclusions.

Right-Brain/Left-Brain Development

With the right-brain in charge of creativity, but the left more dominant with control over math, rational thought, and linear thinking, the young child entering the Preschematic stage needs help to stimulate his visual cortex and promote use of his creative right-brain, developing a whole human. By introducing and discussing art with the child, he is stimulated to learn more about, and question, the world around him. Involving the child in making decisions about an art activity keeps him interested in creating art and promotes his self-esteem.

Hands-On Activities

Encourage a child to explore the Preschematic stage, along with his Preoperational stage of development, through engaging in lots and lots of hands-on activities to boost cognitive development and self-confidence. Sean Brotherson, a Family Science Specialist, finds that children need simple hands-on experiences for their brains to develop. Activities such as building with blocks, organizing objects based on color or shape, or taking a nature walk along with picking leaves off the ground are wonderful ways to jump-start brain development and get both sides of the brain working together.

Art Activities for the Preschematic Stage of Art

 Family Portrait

•  Encourage the child to create a family portrait based on a photograph, giving him a visual representation to work with. Look at a family picture together discussing the people in the picture and interesting characteristics of each person, encouraging his observational skills.
• Offer the child markers to use for drawing the family portrait so he can create strong, bold lines. Allow the child to fully explore his preschematic expression of color by using them as he wishes, even if not representational. Encourage the child’s color recognition skills by asking him about the colors he uses as he draws, further helping his cognitive development.
• Once the portrait is finished, help the child write a short paragraph about what he drew engaging the left-brain to work with his creative right-brain.

Nature Collage

•  No matter the time of year, getting outside and combining science and art benefits the development of the budding young brain. Provide the child with a small basket for him to pick up items while walking discussing different plants and animals observed, benefiting his preoperative brain.
• Let the child select a large sheet of colored construction paper and invite him to glue the items he collected in any arrangement of his choosing, which gives him hands-on experience for his cognitive development.
• Once the items have been glued to the paper, offer the child a black marker to carefully outline the items in the collage, helping hone his fine-motor skills.

The Preschematic stage is full of discovery and expression. Benefit a child’s development by encouraging him to explore his creativity and learn through engaging hands-on activities, along with spending quality time together, this benefits everyone involved.

By Sarah Lipoff. Sarah is an art educator and parent.

Did you know if you are being chased by an animal or you are thrown into another situation of survival, you’ll use your limbic system to deal with the danger? It manages your emotions and motivations as well.

The limbic system is located beneath the cerebral cortex. This system is the center for emotional thinking. The limbic system is directly involved with what makes you laugh. Brain based learning research has revealed that the best problem solvers are those that laugh! It is also where most of your emotions, like happiness, sadness and anger stem from. Memory is also stored here.

Emotional Intelligence 

“Another intriguing aspect of the limbic system is that it feeds off of your emotion. The stronger your feeling is toward a certain event or experience, the stronger it reacts to that particular emotion. It is quite conceivable that we can even train human behavior by manipulating this simple behavioral aspect of your lower brain,” a BrainBlogger.com article said. This could be useful information for those interested in learning how to increase our emotional intelligence (EQ), purported to be a more useful indicator of success than IQ.

What Makes Babies Smile

This system is also responsible for making babies smile. “Between four and ten weeks of life, the limbic system and motor networks are sufficiently mature to make for baby’s first emotional smile. Across all cultures, the social smile pops up at the same time,” an article on Babble.com said.

Connection between Temperament and Brain

Studies also show that the temperament of babies can predict the type of attitude they may have as adults.

“In a study that could help clar­i­fy the com­plex rela­t­ion­ships be­tween the brain, en­vi­ron­ment and be­hav­ior, re­search­ers have found that four-month-old in­fants’ tem­per­a­ment pre­dicts some as­pects of their brain struc­ture 18 years lat­er,” a World Science article said.

But that’s not to say environmental factors aren’t also important.

 “In the first year alone, your baby’s brain grows from about 400g to a stupendous 1000g. While this growth and development is in part predetermined by genetic force, exactly how the brain grows is dependent upon emotional interaction, and that involves you,” a Psychology Today article said.

Cerebral Cortex and Social Influences

In the same article, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA Medical School Allan N. Schore said, “The human cerebral cortex adds about 70% of its final DNA content after birth, and this expanding brain is directly influenced by early environmental enrichment and social experiences.” A higher level of Emotional Intelligence helps one more easily navigate social situations, among other benefits.

As if controlling smiling and emotional development weren’t enough, the cerebral cortex is also responsible for road rage and other anger-inducing situations. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn to control it.

“Humans have a cerebral cortex that gives us the capacity to reason, if we give it a chance. When angered, we can command our cerebral cortex to evaluate our anger — to determine if we need to take action to right a wrong, or to change our reaction to the situation,” an ABC News article on Anger Management stated.

Whether you’re trying to build your emotional intelligence, survive an attack, or just simply have fun, keep in mind that when it comes to the cerebral cortex and limbic system, it can be pretty emotional.

By Kelly McLendon

There are many interrelated parts that make up the brain, providing essential functions necessary to human life. Human brain functions are responsible for humans being able to talk and reason, as well as process visuals and emotions. When you make a decision, you probably don’t think about how much you’re using your brain to make that choice. The cerebral cortex, your brain’s primary structure, is highly involved with how you learn “new information, form thoughts and make decisions,” according to A Guide to Brain Anatomy, Function and Symptoms.

There are four main brain structures:

The cerebrum: This is the largest part of the brain, making up about “90 percent of the brain’s weight,” according to Mind Disorders. It is,“responsible for higher brain function, which includes the interpretation and reception of the nerve impulses, initiating voluntary movement, memory, thought processes, and logical reasoning.” according to MedicaLook. The cerebrum also controls emotional and instinctual responses.

-Also controls language and reasoning skills

The cerebellum: This is the second largest part of the brain and it is located below the cerebrum. Balance and coordination are this area’s main function. “Disorders related to the damage of the cerebellum often result in ataxia (problems with coordination) and dysarthria (unclear speech resulting from problems controlling the muscles used in speaking),” Mind Disorders said.

-Controls movement and balance

Limbic system: This system is the center for emotional thinking and contains the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, amygdala and hippocampus.

The hypothalamus regulates hunger, thirst and anger in the body, among others.

The amygdala plays another role. “The amygdalas are two almond-shaped masses of neurons on either side of the thalamus at the lower end of the hippocampus. When it is stimulated electrically, animals respond with aggression. And if the amygdala is removed, animals get very tame and no longer respond to things that would have caused rage before,” Webspace’s “General Psychology” The Emotional Nervous System said.

The hippocampus is all about building memories. This is the place where memories are stored, both in the short-term and the long-term.

The pituitary gland is about as small as a pea and is located at the brain’s base. The gland has three lobes: anterior, intermediate and posterior. “Each lobe of the pituitary gland produces certain hormones,” the University of Maryland Medical Center Endocrinology Health Guide said. For example, in the intermediate lobe, the melanocyte-stimulating hormone controls skin pigmentation.

Also controls:

-Body Temperature

-Sleep patterns

-Emotions/memory

The Brain Stem: The brain stem is another crucial area. “The brain stem plays a vital role in basic attention, arousal and consciousness. All information to and from our body passes through the brain stem on the way to or from the brain. Like the frontal and temporal lobes, the brain stem is located in an area near bony protrusions making it vulnerable to damage during trauma,” the Centre for Neuro Skills said.

Also controls:

-Breathing/ heart rate

So the next time you walk, talk or write, keep in mind, those are all skills directly from your brain. It may not seem like it is all that important to think about your senses, but when you think of the big picture and how nearly every movement you make has to do with the functioning of your brain, you can start to see how much of an impact each of the four main structure’s has on your day to day living.

By Kelly McLendon. Kelly is studying Environmental Policy and Journalism. She can be reached at mclendon.kelly@gmail.com.

Test your skills by thinking outside of the box with brain teasers, also known as brain games.

Maintaining Brain Fitness

Brain teasers allow students to utilize their critical thinking skills, use downtime more wisely and enhance their creative thinking, while also sharpening their minds. Having a sharp mind is extremely important later in life, according to Neuroscience professor Michael Merzenich, PhD.

“To keep our senses and memory healthy, it is very important that we spend time each day in intensive, effortful learning that requires our close attention. Under these conditions, our faculties can be remarkably well conserved,” he said, on PositScience.

The Benefits of Teasers

Intellectual activity may help fend off Alzheimer’s disease, according to The Franklin Institute. A Case Western Reserve study said “those more mentally and physically active in middle-age were three times less likely to later get the mind-robbing disease.”

“Increased intellectual activity during adulthood was especially protective. Examples included reading, doing puzzles…”

A 2003 study in the New England Journal of Medicine uncovered “that mentally stimulating activities such as reading, playing cards and board games, and doing crossword puzzles may prevent or minimize memory loss from aging,” a report from WebMD said.

While students are young when they are working on puzzles and brain teasers in the classroom, the ultimate benefit may not occur until several decades later.

How You Can Use Them in Your Classroom

Using brain games in your classroom can help with many ailments and issues.

The box game Sudoku stimulates the brain by challenging you to use strategy to figure out what number should go inside a box.

Spatial intelligence games work another aspect by allowing you to work on your visual memory. Memory games are some of the most effective brain exercising tools.  If started at a young age, memory games can help prepare your students for a long future of learning.

“The ability to memorize phone numbers or solve math problems requires training,” according to Math and Reading Help. “Through the employment of specific exercises a child can be trained to remember more with less effort. Working on memory skills from a young age will help prepare a student for the future.”

Brain concentration games may also help students who have a difficult time focusing and paying attention in class.

In Dr. Robert Myers, Child Psychologist’s “5 Simple Concentration Building Techniques for Kids with ADHD,” he suggests that these types of games are beneficial.

“Children’s games such as Memory or Simon are great ideas for improving memory and concentration. They are quick and fun. Memory motivates the child to remember the location of picture squares and Simon helps them memorize sequences of visual and auditory stimuli. Through repeated playing, brain circuits are “exercised” and challenged, which strengthens connections and thus improves function,” he said.

Where to Find Games

There are many places to find brain games, both in-store and online.

Discovery Education’s Brain Boosters allow your students to play reasoning and logic games online from their website. Games for the Brain is a very simple Web site that has many games to choose from as well. In addition, The Milton Bradley Memory board game mentioned by Dr. Myers can be purchased from many retail locations.

But if you are feeling creative, you can use ProProfs to create your own game!

By Kelly McLendon

• assure the students draw from their experience to relate to the poem
• keep a larger context, where they don’t just break down the poem into small pieces but keep the ‘whole’ in mind
• somehow, someway learners get involved in constructing their own poems and through them, find a way to relate to the poems being taught

This activity is easier if students are allowed to select their own poems. Ideally students would be offered a large variety of poems to choose from so they could select the ones that most relate to their experience. If the poems of Shakespeare were the subject, then perhaps students can draw from Shakespeare the poetry that best matches their lives. Students interested in leadership might select Henry V, and the romantics might choose from Romeo and Juliet or the sonnets. 

Let’s make it harder though and assume that you want to teach the famous ‘To be or not to be….” soliloquy from Shakespeare. If you want to try a constructivist approach, what you don’t want to do is dissect the passage, explaining each line as you go. A more constructivist approach might be to:

1.  ask students to describe a situation in their life where they felt alone and at conflict
2. have each student write about that feeling
3. work with students to convert their passage into something that matches a shared understanding of ‘poetic.’
4. then describe for them what Hamlet was feeling just before the speech begins, and ask the students how they feel Hamlet might react
5. review the students posts and challenge them to revise the passage to get either closer to Hamlet’s, or to at least understand how their version is different than his

Recognize that steps 4 and 5 above in particular could take a long time to work through. The teacher’s goal is to guide the student into discovery. Hard to do, and time consuming and standard curriculum don’t often allow this luxury. If you have limited time, adapt what you can.

And remember, constructivism is an excellent approach to learning but not the only approach. As an instructor you are an artist, tasked to come up with the best method to teach a topic at a given time. 

Thoughts? Other ideas?

The social cognition learning model asserts that culture is the prime determinant of individual development. Humans are the only species to have created culture, and every human child develops in the context of a culture. Therefore, a child’s learning development is affected in ways large and small by the culture–including the culture of family environment–in which he or she is enmeshed.

Discussion

1. Culture makes two sorts of contributions to a child’s intellectual development. First, through culture children acquire much of the content of their thinking, that is, their knowledge. Second, the surrounding culture provides a child with the processes or means of their thinking, what Vygotskians call the tools of intellectual adaptation. In short, according to the social cognition learning model, culture teaches children both what to think and how to think.
2. Cognitive development results from a dialectical process whereby a child learns through problem-solving experiences shared with someone else, usually a parent or teacher but sometimes a sibling or peer.
3. Initially, the person interacting with child assumes most of the responsibility for guiding the problem solving, but gradually this responsibility transfers to the child.
4. Language is a primary form of interaction through which adults transmit to the child the rich body of knowledge that exists in the culture.
5. As learning progresses, the child’s own language comes to serve as her primary tool of intellectual adaptation. Eventually, children can use internal language to direct their own behavior.
6. Internalization refers to the process of learning–and thereby internalizing–a rich body of knowledge and tools of thought that first exist outside the child. This happens primarily through language.
7. A difference exists between what child can do on her own and what the child can do with help. Vygotskians call this difference the zone of proximal development.
8. Since much of what a child learns comes form the culture around her and much of the child’s problem solving is mediated through an adult’s help, it is wrong to focus on a child in isolation. Such focus does not reveal the processes by which children acquire new skills.
9. Interactions with surrounding culture and social agents, such as parents and more competent peers, contribute significantly to a child’s intellectual development.

How Lev Vygotsky Impacts Learning:

Curriculum–Since children learn much through interaction, curricula should be designed to emphasize interaction between learners and learning tasks.

Instruction–With appropriate adult help, children can often perform tasks that they are incapable of completing on their own. With this in mind, scaffolding–where the adult continually adjusts the level of his or her help in response to the child’s level of performance–is an effective form of teaching. Scaffolding not only produces immediate results, but also instills the skills necessary for independent problem solving in the future.

Assessment–Assessment methods must take into account the zone of proximal development. What children can do on their own is their level of actual development and what they can do with help is their level of potential development. Two children might have the same level of actual development, but given the appropriate help from an adult, one might be able to solve many more problems than the other. Assessment methods must target both the level of actual development and the level of potential development.

Reading

Lev Vygotsky, L.S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Original work published 1934)

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

A paper by James Wertsch and Michael Cole titled “The role of culture in Vygotskyean-informed psychology”. This paper gives an accessible overview of the main thrust of Lev Vygotsky’s general developmental framework and offers a contrast to the Piagetian approach.

This is an introduction to some of the basic concepts of Lev Vygotskyean theory (culturally-mediated identity) by Trish Nicholl.

This is a site for Cultural-Historical Psychology and provides a periodically-updated listing of Vygotskyean and related resources available on the Web.

This is a 1997 paper by P.E. Doolittle titled “Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development as a theoretical foundation for cooperation learning” and is published in Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 8 (1), 83-103.

Observational learning, also called social learning theory, occurs when an observer’s behavior changes after viewing the behavior of a model. An observer’s behavior can be affected by the positive or negative consequences–called vicarious reinforcement or vicarious punishment– of a model’s behavior.

Discussion

There are several guiding principles behind observational learning, or social learning theory:

1. The observer will imitate the model’s behavior if the model possesses characteristics– things such as talent, intelligence, power, good looks, or popularity–that the observer finds attractive or desirable.
2. The observer will react to the way the model is treated and mimic the model’s behavior. When the model’s behavior is rewarded, the observer is more likely to reproduce the rewarded behavior. When the model is punished, an example of vicarious punishment, the observer is less likely to reproduce the same behavior.
3. A distinction exists between an observer’s “acquiring” a behavior and “performing” a behavior. Through observation, the observer can acquire the behavior without performing it. The observer may then later, in situations where there is an incentive to do so, display the behavior.
4. Learning by observation involves four separate processes: attention, retention, production and motivation.
   • Attention: Observers cannot learn unless they pay attention to what’s happening around them. This process is influenced by characteristics of the model, such as how much one likes or identifies with the model, and by characteristics of the observer, such as the observer’s expectations or level of emotional arousal.
   • Retention: Observers must not only recognize the observed behavior but also remember it at some later time. This process depends on the observer’s ability to code or structure the information in an easily remembered form or to mentally or physically rehearse the model’s actions.
   • Production: Observers must be physically and/intellectually capable of producing the act. In many cases the observer possesses the necessary responses. But sometimes, reproducing the model’s actions may involve skills the observer has not yet acquired. It is one thing to carefully watch a circus juggler, but it is quite another to go home and repeat those acts.
   • Motivation: In general, observers will perform the act only if they have some motivation or reason to do so. The presence of reinforcement or punishment, either to the model or directly to the observer, becomes most important in this process.
5. Attention and retention account for acquisition or learning of a model’s behavior; production and motivation control the performance.
6. Human development reflects the complex interaction of the person, the person’s behavior, and the environment. The relationship between these elements is called reciprocal determinism. A person’s cognitive abilities, physical characteristics, personality, beliefs, attitudes, and so on influence both his or her behavior and environment. These influences are reciprocal, however. A person’s behavior can affect his feelings about himself and his attitudes and beliefs about others. Likewise, much of what a person knows comes from environmental resources such as television, parents, and books. Environment also affects behavior: what a person observes can powerfully influence what he does. But a person’s behavior also contributes to his environment.

How Observational Learning Impacts Learning:

Curriculum– Students must get a chance to observe and model the behavior that leads to a positive reinforcement.

Instruction– Educators must encourage collaborative learning, since much of learning happens within important social and environmental contexts.

Assessment–A learned behavior often cannot be performed unless there is the right environment for it. Educators must provide the incentive and the supportive environment for the behavior to happen. Otherwise, assessment may not be accurate.

Reading

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

This theory of motivation proposed by William Glasser contends that behavior is never caused by a response to an outside stimulus. Instead, the control theory states that behavior is inspired by what a person wants most at any given time: survival, love, power, freedom, or any other basic human need.

Discussion

Responding to complaints that today’s students are “unmotivated,” Glasser attests that all living creatures “control” their behavior to maximize their need satisfaction. According to Glasser, if students are not motivated to do their schoolwork, it’s because they view schoolwork as irrelevant to their basic human needs.

Boss teachers use rewards and punishment to coerce students to comply with rules and complete required assignments. Glasser calls this “leaning on your shovel” work. He shows how high percentages of students recognize that the work they do–even when their teachers praise them–is such low-level work.

Lead teachers, on the other hand, avoid coercion completely. Instead, they make the intrinsic rewards of doing the work clear to their students, correlating any proposed assignments to the students’ basic needs. Plus, they only use grades as temporary indicators of what has and hasn’t been learned, rather than a reward. Lead teachers will “fight to protect” highly engaged, deeply motivated students who are doing quality work from having to fulfill meaningless requirements.

How the Control Theory Impacts Learning

Curriculum–Teachers must negotiate both content and method with students. Students’ basic needs literally help shape how and what they are taught.

Instruction–Teachers rely on cooperative, active learning techniques that enhance the power of the learners. Lead teachers make sure that all assignments meet some degree of their students’ need satisfaction. This secures student loyalty, which carries the class through whatever relatively meaningless tasks might be necessary to satisfy official requirements.

Assessment–Instructors only give “good grades”–those that certify quality work–to satisfy students’ need for power. Courses for which a student doesn’t earn a “good grade” are not recorded on that student’s transcript. Teachers grade students using an absolute standard, rather than a relative “curve.”

Reading

William Glasser, The Quality School, Harper & Row, 1990.

The content on this page was written by On Purpose Associates.

This approach views learning as an act of membership in a “community of practice.” The theory seeks to understand both the structure of communities and how learning occurs in them.

Basic Elements

The communities of practice concept was pioneered by the Institute for Research on Learning, a spin-off of the Xerox Corporation in Palo Alto, CA. The Institute pursues a cross-disciplinary approach to learning research, involving cognitive scientists, organizational anthropologists, and traditional educators. Communities of practice is based on the following assumptions:

Learning is fundamentally a social phenomenon. People organize their learning around the social communities to which they belong. Therefore, schools are only powerful learning environments for students whose social communities coincide with that school.

Knowledge is integrated in the life of communities that share values, beliefs, languages, and ways of doing things. These are called communities of practice. Real knowledge is integrated in the doing, social relations, and expertise of these communities.

The processes of learning and membership in a community of practice are inseparable. Because learning is intertwined with community membership, it is what lets us belong to and adjust our status in the group. As we change our learning, our identity–and our relationship to the group–changes.

Knowledge is inseparable from practice. It is not possible to know without doing. By doing, we learn.

Empowerment–or the ability to contribute to a community–creates the potential for learning. Circumstances in which we engage in real action that has consequences for both us and our community create the most powerful learning environments.

How Communities of Practice Impacts Education

This approach to learning suggests teachers understand their students’ communities of practice and acknowledge the learning students do in such communities. The communities of practice theory also suggests educators structure learning opportunities that embed knowledge in both work practices and social relations–for example, apprenticeships, school-based learning, service learning, and so on. Plus, educators should create opportunities for students to solve real problems with adults, in real learning situations.

Reading

Institute for Research on Learning, A New Learning Agenda: Putting People First (unpublished pamphlet).

The content on this page was written by On Purpose Associates.