The Learning
Cycle
The human brain is designed for learning, but how do we
learn? In the book The art of changing the
brain: enriching teaching by exploring the biology of learning James E. Zull
defines learning as “change, growth, and pruning of our neurons,
connections–called synapses– and neuronal networks, through experience.
There are four stages of the Learning Cycle:
1) We have Concrete experience,
2) We develop Reflective Observation and Connections,
3) We generate Abstract hypothesis,
4) We then do Active testing of those hypotheses, and therefore
have a new Concrete experience, and a new Learning Cycle ensues”.
In an interview with Alvaro
Fernandez, James E. Zull summaries the learning cycle as such: “… we 1) get information (sensory
cortex), 2) make meaning of that information (back integrative cortex),
3) create new ideas from these meanings (front integrative cortex) and 4)
act on those ideas (motor cortex). From this I propose that there are four
pillars of learning: gathering, analyzing, creating, and acting” ( http://sharpbrains.com/blog/2006/10/12/an-ape-can-do-this-can-we-not/).
Thus, the cycle is based on
the idea that knowledge cannot be acquired from zero; learning originates in
concrete experience which Zull calls experiential
learning. But experience isn’t everything. Zull informs that “learning also
requires reflection, developing abstractions, and active testing of our
abstractions” (p. 18). According to Zull, learning also requires effort and getting out of our comfort zones. Learners must be motivated and self-driven and
maintain a sense of ownership. Zull further
states that in order for the Learning Cycle to self-perpetuate, the learner must feel in control (ownership) of
the process and that progress is being made.
Transforming
The
process of changing data into knowing is what Kolb calls “transformation of
experience.” (See David Kolb, Experiential
Learning, Experience as the Source of Learning and Development New York:
Simon & Schuster, 1983). Zull divides this process of transforming into
three parts: 1st – transformation from past to future (connect from
our memory); 2nd – transformation of the source of knowledge from
outside ourselves to inside ourselves; and 3rd – transformation of
power (from weakness and dependence to strength and independence). “If we bring
our entire brain into the process of learning, we will find control passing
from others to ourselves.” (Zull, p. 33)
Learning is about power and control.
If you want your students to learn, you must give them control of
learning. Students choose to learn. If students are not engaged in the process,
literally doing something with their brains (i.e. using their frontal lobes to
analyze data, producing, having fun, etc.), and if they don’t have power, they
won’t learn. Teachers must try to identify what’s already motiving students to
learn, and then guarantee that students believe in their ability to learn.
Set the stage
Teaching is about creating conditions that lead to change
in a learner’s brain. Teachers need to find and create connections between the new information and challenges, and that
which learners already know and care about. Set the stage for
neural pathways to be changed! Teachers need to create a positive, comfortable
atmosphere and environment. We must engage our students so that their brains
decide to cooperate and take in the information we are teaching through the
sensory pathways, and make sense of that information through the integrative
processes by the neurons transmitting messages to one another. If we want to
create long-term memory, we must create new synaptic connections which are made
as a result of experience and learning. According to Piaget, the brain can
change as a combination of nature and nurture. They are not separate processes.
Therefore, at a cellular level, one realizes that the brain can change because
of experience. Long term memory alters the gene expression in nerve cells. Consequentially,
a genetic disease, for example, can be changed, perhaps by eating differently
or doing different things.
Neurons
and synapse
Learning means making
connections from existing neural information to new information. Synapses is a
structure that regulates intercellular
communication in the nervous system and provides information flow within neural
networks. Neurons are nerve cells which make connections in the brain. There
are three basic parts of a neuron: the dendrites, the cell body and the
axon. Neurons are specialized to transmit information throughout the body,
and they communicate information both in chemical and electrical forms. According to Kendra Cherry “There are also
several different types of neurons responsible for different tasks in the human
body. Sensory neurons carry information from the sensory receptor cells
throughout the body to the brain. Motor neurons transmit information from the
brain to the muscles of the body. Interneurons are responsible for
communicating information between different neurons in the body”. (Kendra
Cherry in The Structure of a Neuron. (http://psychology.about.com/od/biopsychology/f/neuron01.htm).
Either existing connections between neurons get stronger,
or new connections appear between existing neurons. Neurons have specialized projections called dendrites and
axons. Dendrites are the
extensions of the cells with many branches, like a tree. These fibers transmit
impulses to the neuron cell body. So,
dendrites bring information to the cell body. There’s only one axon that
projects from each cell body. It is usually elongated and carries information
away from the cell body. (To see this in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUGuWh2UeMk)
Information from one
neuron flows to another neuron across a synapse.
“The synapse contains a small gap separating neurons. For communication between neurons to occur, an electrical impulse must
travel down an axon to the synaptic terminal. The synapse consists of:
- a presynaptic ending that contains neurotransmitters, mitochondria and other cell organelles
- a postsynaptic ending that contains receptor sites for
neurotransmitters
- a synaptic cleft or space between the presynaptic and
postsynaptic endings”.
(https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/synapse.html)
Neurons firing
ideas and images.
To give you an idea of the grandiosity and intensity of the
neuronal network and the brain’s capacity for growth and change, I would like
to share information I came across which forms a comparison of a neuron in the brain to a
webpage in the internet. The information below is a summary of this fascinating
comparison which can be watched on From
Neurons to Networks ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLp-edwiGUU). The video explains that a human at about any
age has about 100 billion neurons in the brain. The internet has 10 times that:
1 trillion web pages. So, with this analogy the internet is bigger. But, which
is more complex? According to the video, we could say a synapse in the brain, a
connection point in the brain between two neurons is like a hyperlink, a
connection point between two webpages.
The internet has 1 trillion links, and an adult brain has three hundred
trillion links, or 10 times the connections of the internet. These human connections are the framework for
the foundation of the building blocks of
the development of the brain.
Magic Middle
Both Piaget and Vygotsky most likely would teach from the
“magic middle”, which is the zone of
proximal development , ZPD, where, according to Zull, students are neither bored nor frustrated;
where they need to actually work to learn, but have the support system there to
guide them, be it the teacher and/or other peers. Perhaps Vygotsky’s best known concept,
the ZPD describes the learner’s level of
independent performance (what he/she can do alone) and the learner’s level of
assisted performance (what he/she can do with support). Once the student, with
the benefit of scaffolding, masters the task, the scaffolding can then be
removed and the student will then be able to complete the task again on their
own. Vygotsky believed in the importance
of keeping students interested and thinking by themselves; therefore, students
are challenged, but not threatened.
Engaging and
creating memory
Similarly, teachers must be careful to engage students
without bringing in anxiety or trauma. The brain hones in on two fundamental
survival goals: safety and happiness. The amygdala is involved in processing
emotions such as fear, anger and pleasure and is
responsible for storing emotional memories.
The amygdala like the hippocampus helps in transforming our short term
memories into long term ones, but the amygdala focuses on the emotional based
memories. The amygdala is an almond shaped mass of flesh located deep
inside the brain, which, via electrical impulses triggers our fear system of
survival to freeze, flee or flight. Because
the brain is an organ of thought and emotions, we as teachers must ensure that
students are in control of their learning in the classroom, and that they don’t panic and become fearful under our tutelage. Stress
interferes with neurotransmitter function. We want to make sure that the
hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped area of neurons adjacent to the amygdala and
that is the part of the brain involved in memory forming, organizing and
storing memories, works in together with the amygdala: Human emotion linked and
acting with memory.
On the other hand, to enact the learning process, we need
to turn on our students’ pleasure system by making learning fun and
engaging. Students must want to learn
if they are to learn. People learn what is important to them. So, part of
teaching is learning the motivating factor that brought your student into your
classroom. What is it that he/she wants to learn? Ultimately learning must be meaningful in
order to engage the diversity of learners. You must connect with what students
already know (knowledge cannot be acquired from zero). The more personalized
the better for material related to real life activates student’s neural
networks and therefore adds to existing knowledge. Thus, teachers need to find ways of teaching
that connect to prior knowledge and build on that data. Therefore, as teachers
we must help our students make connections to prior experiences, knowledge, and
learning—and associations to other areas of their experiences and life.
Developing a Lesson
Plan based on the Learning Cycle
As a concrete example of the learning cycle in action, I
have attached a 50 minute lesson plan
where I have incorporated “blue bullets” to signalize the use of elements of
the learning cycle and process in each component of my lesson. The objective of
my lesson is that by the end of the class, my students learn to use go phrases by talking about places they go to and when or what
day(s) of the week they do so. I am focusing on three new chunks of information
(go, places and days of week), so as not to overwhelm learners cognitive
capacity, which recent neuroscientific findings have determined is actually
just three to four new items of
information at a time.
My lesson begins by
reviewing information from the last class and ensuring that their brains were
rewired and made the necessary connections.
I am also engaging the students and activating
their experiences and knowledge of the topic of the new
vocabulary (activities and days of the week). I’m
doing this by incorporating associations of places that my
students already know in my lesson plan.
Thus, I am helping students make the connection with
prior knowledge. What is happening, however, is I am physically altering my students' brains by
creating and strengthening neural pathways. The know the types of places, but
not their names in the new language. According to Wendi Pillars in Teachers as Brain-Changers: Neuroscience and
Learning, by engaging a range of sensory pathways, I am providing my
students with opportunites for implicit and explicit opportunities to recognize
and make connections.
Furthermore, we all learn differently because everybody
owns a variety of reception models. Therefore, during the 50 minute lesson, I’ve tried to incorporate
diverse sensory perceptions (PPTs with pictures, slips of paper, pictures in
book, audio for listening, music). And, I am consistently and constantly
bridging old and new information in my Lesson so that they can keep making
connections and keep their neural pathways clear.
I make a considerable effort to teach in the magic middle,
the “zone of proximal development” so as to interest my students, while at the
same time finding a common denominator to build their confidence and knowledge.
By doing this, I am activating their
schemata and building the thinking process and putting learning in their own
hands; as they are consistently talking about personal things, experiences and
life. I know not only what the learners
developmental level is at each time of my lesson, but also what skills and
concepts will develop next. By working in the ZPD and
scaffolding, I am ensuring and engaging, albeit in a non-threatening
environment and format where students feel comfortable, in control and in
power. This will help them get
out of their comfort zones and try new
things without the fear of failure. I have set the stage. My students work
individually, in pairs and in small
groups, where they’re more comfortable and whereupon I hope they feel safer, can take risks, speak , share
thoughts, ask questions. Throughout my
lesson, I am giving them pieces of a puzzle, but
they themselves are putting it together by discovery patterns and putting them
into practice via production, oral and written. Within the lesson, I have built
up and built upon the four architectural pillars of learning: gathering,
analyzing, creating, and acting.
Learning involves making connections: teachers must “fire
until you wire”. If you don’t use the brain, the tissue dies. The brain needs
to be exercised to keep “fit” just as other parts of our physical body. And,
learning takes effort. The old adage:
“Use it or lose it” applies to memory. People who are engaged in mentally stimulating
activities make more synaptic connections in the brain. Just as we’re concerned
for our physical well-being, and therefore eat properly, get enough exercise
and sleep, maintaining a healthy brain is equally fundamental and rewarding.
Exercise oxygenates the brain which is important for synaptic formation and growth
. “Fire until you wire”. Drill until you’ve built the neuronal networks that
made the connection and “learned”. Repeating and reviewing so that you, Dear
Reader, create the neuronal network necessary to grasp this concept: Make
connections: fire until you wire.
Betsey W. Neal
