USA TODAY Reports the New Science of Learning May Transform the Educational Experience
Posted on September 3, 2009 by Barbara Macaulay
Did you know that according to a study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), behavioral and brain measures can identify dyslexic tendencies in infants and lead to teaching that they say can “prevent dyslexia from occurring in the majority of children who would otherwise develop dyslexia…” That news is in this recent USA TODAY report with the headline: New ’science of learning’ could reinvent teaching techniques.
Apparently, discoveries like this are being made by a large group of collaborative scientists in many specialized fields working with leading educators. Some see a whole new field of study emerging:
“New insights from many different fields are converging to create a new science of learning that may transform educational practices,” begins a report led by Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences in Seattle. The review in the current Science journal makes the case that psychologists, neuroscientists, roboticists and teachers should create a new field that combines everything from how brains grow to how classrooms work into a new kind of learning research.”
Three of the new insights about learning made to date, according the USA TODAY story, are: Learning is computational, social, and driven by brain circuitry. There are some interesting thoughts about how to make the teaching environment one in which learners can produce some of the same benefits as one-on-one tutoring. So much still to know about how people learn…
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