Chapter One - How Neuroplasticity Changes... Everything
- What research or anecdote stood out to you in this chapter? How will this information alter what you once believed to be true and/or how will it inform your work or practice?
- In this chapter, Jo describes how the hippocampus grew for the London cab drivers during their learning and years of service, and then after they retired the hippocampus actually shrank, not from age but from lack of use:
- Did this or any other evidence she shared about how our brains grow and change surprise you?
- Can you think of a skill or knowledge area that you have gained or lost because of practice or lack of use?
- Have you ever heard someone say they are not a "math person" or thought the same about yourself? How does our society p9icture someone who is a "math person?" Has any of the evidence Jo shared changed your view on this topic?
- After sharing research on giftedness (P. 32-34), Jo asks, "If the idea of giftedness is harmful to adults, how do you think it affects children?" What are your thoughts about this quote?
Feel free to add comments in response to any of these questions.
I was very interested in the fixed praise which I certainly have been guilty of with my own children and grandson. I will stop and look at growth praise and mindset. The notion of neuroplasticity and the example of the cab drivers and digit remembering shows our potential. This is very interesting on a personal level with my wife being diagnosed with tinnitus and how maybe we can look at some brain work to manage this issue.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed the information about labelling giftedness and the damage it can cause. It makes you think about school being managed in a different way. Should we get rid of year levels?? Should we family group or explore having the same teacher for more than 1 year to really get to know the learner.
Just moving into Chapter 2 and loving it.
Well - that was thought provoking... a few things that stood out to me...
ReplyDelete1. The move away from streaming is very obvious in our education system... However, there is one area where I'm yet to be convinced of a viable alternative - and that is with literacy acquisition. Now - I'm no junior specialist... but grouping students according to their strenghts and weaknesses when learning to read seems a no brainer...? But - I'm definitely open to seeing an alternative... I can understand how students with different strengths and weaknesses can help each other... just need to see it working well in junior reading.
2. I was once thought to be "Gifted" in Mathematics. One of the anecdotes Jo shared was basically my story... I sailed through Math at high school... well until Bursury Calculous... which I had to do by correspondence. Obviously - relationships are important for my learning! Bursury Calculous end of year exam I got 36%... Stats which I was doing in a traditional class with a great teacher I got 96%. A big difference eh?
Anyway - I went on to Uni to do a BSc in Mathematics... but Mathematics101 killed it for me! Meanwhile stats was going ok... until Stats 201... it got hard and I didn't know how to break through... so I struggled through for my unacceptable B's - and then changed to a B.A. in Music, Philosophy and Education. - Anyway - enough about me...
3. Brain Training - why don't we do more of this? The account of how Arrowsmith School in Toronto worked to enable students to train their brain was inspirational... why aren't we doing more of this, both in special education and mainstream? If someone with literally "Half a brain" - can gain a masters degree... there is plenty we could and should be doing to train the brains of every student we teach!
4. Idea of Giftedness... A few years always used to offer ICAS or "Kiwi Comp" - examinations for our "gifted" kids... Covid gave us the distraction to kick them to touch... two weeks ago I was asked by the mother of a self identified "gifted" child - about when were the ICAS exams... I thought long and hard about it - and took it to SLT - we just didn't see the benefit in offering this service at school. It fleeces families of $$$ just to see where they sit on a "ladder of success" - it seems to us to have more negatives than positives... So we have again declined to offer them... Assessment needs to be used as a tool for learning not a measure for success... Remember - no matter how many times you weigh the pig - it ain't gonna make it grow any faster!
Arohanui
I think all of us can relate to the examples in the book, either personally or with people we know or have taught. Was great sharing some of these.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting thought that we discussed a little is our 'remedial' groups - are we doing justice to our children who are perceived to be behind? We know that often these groups don't work and children continue to fail as they don't have that self belief. It will be interesting to see if the following chapters give us some insight into how we can 'train the brain'.
We also wondered whether we should be changing the language of 'next steps' to 'next challenge' to give that mindset of having to work hard and to think creatively.
I agree about the use of ICAS! A waste of money :-)
In our group we reflected on the implications of much that we had read in chapter 1. There were lots of opportunities for reflective thought around the structure of our programming - are we getting it right? Is grouping synonymous with streaming and is this holding some children back?
ReplyDeleteWe had no doubt that the teacher is a huge influencer in the room as well as having the potential to be the biggest asset. With this comes 'great responsibility'. We agreed that there is so much value in this material that time should be taken to lead teachers through the concepts and encourage them to challenge their biases and 'default language' within the classroom setting. Are we doing enough planning for next learning steps? Is there enough challenge in our programmes?
We all agreed the London cabs example was fascinating. It led us to wonder how do we instill a culture of 'practise what's hard'?
At my school we are currently working on developing a shared language of learning school wide, this is part of our growth in the area of learner agency. Reflecting on this as I read the chapter I wonder whether we need to reconsider the language we've chosen, for example, instead of 'what did you learn?' perhaps we should be asking 'what challenged you today?'