The Role of Meaning and Emotion in Learning by Pat Wolfe

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The Role of Meaning and Emotion in Learningby
Pat Wolfe

• Prepared and presented by
• John Smith

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The Brain

• The brain, a pattern-finding organ, seeks to
  create meaning through establishing or refining
  existing neural networks this is learning.
  Emotion affects what is learned and what is
  retained.

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Traditional Learning

• Several decades ago, the traditional measure of
  learning was behavior. Learning was explained in
  terms of stimulus and response emphasis was on
  acquisition and manipulation of information. It
  was evident that students could do well in a
  course, yet within weeks they forgot most of what
  they had learned.

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Neurons

• Recent advances in brain imaging techniques now
  allow us to actually see changes that occur
  within the brain as learning takers place.
  Individual cells called neurons are the basic
  fundamental unit of the brain and control
  learning. These billions of cells encode, store,
  and retrieve information.

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Neurons that fire together, wire together.

• When we learn a persons name connections between
  neurons (called synapses) are made which contain
  that information. Repeating the learning
  strengthens these connections.

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ALL are different

• All brains contain the same basic structures, but
  the networks in each brain are as unique as that
  persons fingerprints. Though genes likely play
  some role in the brain activity, each brain is
  sculpted by the individuals experiences.

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Memory and Retention

• At the cellular level memory is the forming of
  neural patterns and networks, no implication
  should be made that memorizing is the same thing
  as learning or understanding.

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Memory

• The word memory is often used as a noun, as when
  we refer to our poor memory. However memory is
  not a thing it is a process of storing and
  retrieving information. The brain is a dynamic
  organ that constantly arranges and rearranges its
  networks to accommodate incoming information.
  Fortunately it does not store everything it
  experiences.

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The brain is designed to forget

• Sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile
  sensations are constantly bombarding us. If we
  paid conscious attention to all this stimulation
  we would be on continuous overload. To deal with
  this the brain is immediately able to filter all
  incoming sensory stimuli and select only those
  that are relevant at that moment.

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School instruction

• Unfortunately, much of the information taught in
  schools fits into this category. The brain does
  not see fit to retain dates of events,
  definitions of terms, etc.

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Attention

• Physiologically, there are certain types of
  sensory data that the brain is programmed to
  attend to, such as loud noises or sudden
  movements and also novel stimuli or events. So
  what can educators use to increase the likelihood
  of learning?
• 1. Meaningful information
• 2. Emotional hook

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Meaning and the Brain

• The brain is a pattern seeking organ. It always
  scans the environment to determine if what it is
  sensing has been experienced before. The brain
  searches its existing network to see where the
  new information fits. If there is no match then
  the information is, from the brains perspective,
  nonsense. A crucial part of new learning is prior
  knowledge.

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Why does the earth have seasons?

• Textbooks depicted the earths orbit as
  elliptical.
• Students prior knowledge of the depiction led
  them to believe the elliptical orbit caused the
  seasons.
• Reality is that the tilt of the earths axis
  causes seasons.
• Schnepss study (1989)

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Emotion and the Brain

• Emotion is regulated by the amygdala. The
  amygdala ensures that we react quickly to
  potentially dangerous or emotion-laden situations
  stress response. During this response
  adrenaline is released and in addition to the
  physical bodily responses memory systems retrieve
  any knowledge relevant to the emergency at hand.
  Your memory is enhanced.
• Where were you when you heard of the attack on
  the twin towers?

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The Emotional Hook

• Educators can use the power of emotion to affect
  learning and retention positively. Simulations,
  role playing can be engaging activities for
  learning.
• Interview people that experienced Great
  Depression, WWII, etc.
• Tackling real life problems and presenting to
  peers.

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The Flip Side to Emotion

• More is not necessarily better when it comes to
  the stress response. Reaction is the protocol
  during the stress time, not reflective thinking.
• The students ability to perform can also be
  diminished by mild stressors such as a negative
  learning environment.

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Conclusion

• Much of this presentation is probably intuitively
  known to many educators, but now brain scans
  confirm what are already best practices.
  Effective lasting learning is enhanced if adults
  are given opprotunities to kmake meaning, their
  existing knowledge is honored, and their
  psychological needs are respected.