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Interviews with Learning Scientists

"Every child is a scientist!!!" Do you agree?

I wish he were not a scientist but eventually he is especially in the kitchen he can create different tastes he prepares coctails for himself and drinks it and tries new forms of chemical experiements and reaches different tastes it goes on like this :)

I totally agree with the idea. If you had a chance of observing little kids around you, you may have seen that they have lots of questions that even we as grown ups do not know the answer. also, the simple answers that you provide for them are never enough for them. Our professor Mr. Ok shared his experience with one of his colleague's daughter. a five year old girl learned from her parents that she came to the world as her father and mother loved each other so much. When she saw that our professor do not have a child she concluded that he doesn't love his wife so much :) and then her parents had to provide a new answer for her curiosity about how she came to world.

Brain scientists to work with schools on how to learn

They say "No one else does what we do" while mentioning their interdisciplinary approach. They say that "The learning sciences field emerged more than two decades ago after researchers found that what worked in a laboratory simply did not hold up with real children, teachers, classrooms and workplaces. They saw that learning technologies, which held great promise for solving education's problems, were not being transferred to classrooms and schools. Cognitive scientists, educational and instructional psychologists, and computer scientists worked together to put their ideas and knowledge to use to improve the learning outcomes for a diverse group." The institute basically do two things: 1 - They identify the critical challenges in education, literacy, mathematics, science and the social sciences. 2- They work to find solutions. Their main aim is to create learning systems for 21st century classrooms thanks to interdisciplinary research in teaching and learning. They believe that learning is a complex process and so they get benefit from different disciplines (e.g. anthropology, computer science, education, linguistics, psychology and sociology) to share knowledge and best practices on education. At their another webpage, they define learning science as a science which "focuses on how to create new, improved and equitable learning environments for 21st century learners.". In order accomplish this, they focus on four questions: 1- How do people learn? 2- What do we want them to know and be able to do? 3- How can we design learning environments that help them learn? 4- How can we monitor what they are learning? They offer a Ph.D. program to raise future learning scientists.

Dr Tallal was one of the scientists I discovered last week while searching for learning sciences. She is the director of a website where you can find her free webinars. I'm also adding the sites of her projects. http://www.scilearn.com/events/webinars/ http://www.readingassistant.com/ http://www.scilearn.com/products/

The human brain learns two ways - either through avoidance learning, which trains the brain to avoid committing a mistake, or through reward-based learning, a reinforcing process that occurs when someone gets the right answer. Scientists have found that making a mistake can feel rewarding, though, if the brain is given the opportunity to learn from its mistakes and assess its options.

"Scientists have long understood that the brain has two ways of learning. One is avoidance learning, which is a punishing, negative experience that trains the brain to avoid repeating mistakes. The other is reward-based learning, a positive, reinforcing experience in which the brain feels rewarded for reaching the right answer." The "avoidance learning" is which I have learned from my father thanks to his raising children technique. He always wanted that we, as his children, should be faultless. And that understanding (of course he is not a pedagog :)) affected me negatively in my subsequent years. In fact, the second one, reward-based learning, is essential if someone wants to apply discussion and peer learning in his/her classroom as students who avoid making mistakes will avoid having communication with others, generating assertive questions, defend his/her arguments, asking help even if s/he struck at a ridiculous point, etc. Making mistakes is a part of learning. We need to emphasize this in our classrooms.

Investing heavily in school computers and classroom technology does not improve pupils' performance, says a global study from the OECD. The think tank says frequent use of computers in schools is more likely to be associated with lower results. The OECD's education director Andreas Schleicher says school technology had raised "too many false hopes". These results worth to be disscussed. Shall we go back to traditional classrooms or continue with technology? If so, how should we use it in the classroom?

It is an important an overwhelming issue about how we integrate technology into education. A well-balanced implementation is required for successful instruction between the use of technology and traditional methods like paper-pencil activities (Hitt, 2011). We should not force technology and traditional instruments like paper-pencil and blackboards fight against themselves. We may play the role of negotiator between the technology and traditional methods.

Perhaps, we need to focus more on the pedagogy rather than the technology.

This paper is about functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, a groundbreaking research for learning sciences. It allows learning scientists to understand which brain parts are activated during learning. For example "lateralization of brain" hypothesis (it was saying that one hemisphere is responsible for wholistic-creative learning one is for analytical) is refuted using fMRI. Because both hemispheres were active no matter when people engaged in creative thinking or analytical thinking.

Here is news about the scientists who stored data in DNA. I really wonder what the next step is. Maybe they are going to store all knowledge in DNA and then find ways to use it. Most probably, the only thing that our grandchildren do will be learning how to use and transfer the stored data. Who knows:)

Project Noah is a tool to explore and document wildlife and a platform to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere. You can explore and document and share the wildlife around you.

İbrahim, we used Project Noah in one of projects at Canada. It was one of the most preferred app for the preservice science teachers. They recommended using the app for inquiry based learning activities. I especially like the biodiversity map here. Such a useful tool for science classrooms.

I am now convinced of the opportunities of learning that can be provided by games after reading the following quote: "While commercial video games often offer worlds in which players prepare for the actions of soldiers or thieves, the question arises as to whether other types of games could let players prepare for action from different perspectives or identities such as a particular type of scientist, political activist, or global citizen, for instance. "

Yelda, honestly, I also used to question the contribution of video games to learning and nowadays, as seeing more examples like the one you shared, I guess yes perspective are changing:) I believe as we also discussed in the forum, the most critical thing is how the material, video or something else is presented to the learners and used, not the material itself.

The same material in two differnt hands may serve to two differnt ideologies , beliefs, subject areas hence I do definitely agree with Canan the mentality of the minds who are using those plays the important role.

This document demostrates Skinner's view of learning. I think is an essential reading for learners of learning..:) Certain basic assumptions, essential to any scientific activity, are sometimes called theories. That nature is orderly rather than capricious is an example. Certain statements are also theories simply to the extent that they are not yet facts. A scientist may guess at the result of an experiment before the experiment is carried out.

For those interested in the science of babies.

Hocam I cannot believe the results of the study. It is really amazing. The babies are smarter that adults and knows statistics. The saying of lean mean machine to adult brain is interesting. Now I am looking for the study is about babies and statistics, I really wonder this one. Thanks for your sharing. And I found another video of Dr. Alison Gopnik about baby thinking as a scientists..:) http://www.ted.com/talks/alison_gopnik_what_do_babies_think.html

This video made me question the role of education in children's life again.I think formal education is the biggest barrier for children who have natural abilities to learn. The education system is limiting children's potential and killing their imagination and curiostiy which make them excellent learners indeed. Do you think the school provides them proper opportunities to explore and to learn? I don't think students can learn in our "boring" classes where they are grouped on their ages rather than their abilities.

more on eating :) and cooking and learning, interaction, :)