Natalia,
I'd best answer your question by describing what appears to be the
key to real learning -- imitation. By coincidence, an essay I wrote
to my own private list only yesterday ("The kindergarten of the
future") applies here, so I'll follow with it below.
Keith
<<<<
Search for "Bach Gigue" on the Internet and you will find a YouTube
video of a 5 year-old Chinese girl playing a Bach gigue on a Steinway
grand -- and very competently, too. I am sure that J. S. himself
would have been impressed. However, he wouldn't have been as
surprised as I was when I discovered her this morning. Precocious
musical talent ran for generations in the Bach family. Many boy and
girl Bachs would have seen and heard the clavier being played so many
times by their parents or their older brothers and sisters that, as
soon as they could hoist themselves onto a chair at keyboard height,
they would soon have taken to playing as a duck to water.
What enables this talent to arise? Is it special genes? Unlikely.
Each of us has exactly the same genes with the same functions. It's
true that all our genes have variations, sometimes many alternative
variations to suit different occasions, and each of us has a unique
permutation of these. But variations which are rare -- as rare as
genius or precocious talents appear to be -- are invariably harmful
variations, not beneficial ones.
The evidence now gathering thick and fast is that the cause of
precocious skills -- or, indeed, skills of any sort -- are due to
'mirror neurons' in the brain. These were known, but not named or
understood, for many years until their unique character was finally
pinned down by Giacomo Rizzolatti and Laila Craighero at the
University of Parma in 2004 (which will undoubtedly win them a Nobel
prize before too long.). Mirror neurons are those brain cells which
rehearse the decisions that are actually made by motor neurons when
instructing our muscles to perform this or that act. By using MRI
techniques (Magnetic Resonance Imaging brain scanning), what
Rizzolatti and Craighero discovered was that if person A were merely
to observe person B carrying out a skillful act, then person A's
mirror neurons would also be carrying out the same procedures as B's
-- even if A didn't follow through with the same overt actions.
Indeed, at that stage, person A may not have ever tried to carry out
the same actions, Or, if he did, then they would probably be quite
clumsy to start with. Nevertheless, from then on, both his mirror
neurons and his motor neurons would become increasingly well-defined
with further observation and further practice.
This doesn't mean that all the Bach children would be gifted
musicians. For all we know, some of the Bach children didn't bother
to spend much time indoors and wanted to play with other children or
to watch (and copy) the gardener, or the blacksmith down the road or
anglers at the local riverside. The chances were pretty high,
however, that in a musically saturated household the Bach childrens'
mirror neurons would have been constantly observing -- and
microscopically practising -- a variety of the musical skills being
carried out around him.
The discovery of the nature of mirror neurons has been hailed as one
of the greatest breakthroughs in neuroscience. Nevertheless, as per
usual, new ideas, however great, take at least a generation to work
their way through a culture to reach the policy-makers. So what might
we expect in the ideal kindergarten in the future? It would be a
pleasant and airy building, probably a lot larger than our present
typical primary school. It would be filled, however, not so much with
teachers and classrooms, but demonstrators and work rooms -- dance
room, adventure gym, music room, carpentry and handicraft workshop,
artist's studio, a mini hospital and a real baby nursery, computer
room, garden, pottery, tailoring room, video workshop, kitchen, shop,
law court, engineering bay, etc. In short, a miniature version of the
real environment and the real skills that the children will be doing
when adult.
Vastly expensive? Of course. But such an education could be afforded
when individual skills (and incomes) are taken far beyond the average
that now exists -- even to the point that the present highly paid
jobs that are fiercely protected will have to be shared. Occupying a
large area? Of course. But there'll be plenty of space. Western
populations are already close to the point of steeply contracting to
much smaller sizes. All this can happen when mirror neurons come into
full use again -- as they used to be in our hunter-gatherer days.
>>>>
At 00:12 14/05/2011, you wrote:
Keith, you had mentioned to me that money recently invested in the
UK educational system had not resulted in better numeracy scores nor
higher literacy rates. I wonder, how restrictive is the curriculum?
Is it the typical corporate agenda stuff, and if so, would that not
account for the poor showings? Without a well-rounded curriculum,
young minds have no motivation, nor, unfortunately, the accumulated
neural connections to absorb subjects that, although possibly boring
to them, would help further their pursuits in what they do enjoy.
Natalia
MANSFIELD, Pa., May 9 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say a study of 22
U.S. states and a Canadian province shows when funding support for
school libraries rises, reading and testing scores go up.
Researchers at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania say the study
contradicts an article of faith among critics of public schools that
there is no correlation between spending and learning outcomes, a
university release reported last week.
"Quality school library programs impact student achievement," said
Debra E. Kachel, a professor in the School Library and Information
Technologies Department at Mansfield. "The research shows clearly
that schools that support their library programs give their students
a better chance to succeed."
Kachel and a class of graduate students examined school library
impact studies by 22 states and the Canadian province of Ontario,
all of which found positive links between library support and learning.
The study found that increased library hours and group visits by
classes to the library, larger collections with access at school and
from home, up-to-date technology and more student use of school
library services all led to incremental increases in student learning.
"School leaders should to recognize this research and foster school
library programs that can make a difference," Kachel said.
Read more:
<http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/05/09/Study-Library-funding-ups-student-scores/UPI-74061304972758/#ixzz1MH6TigrQ>http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/05/09/Study-Library-funding-ups-student-scores/UPI-74061304972758/#ixzz1MH6TigrQ
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Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/05/
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