Renate Nummela Caine: 12 Brain/Mind Learning Principles in Action-One Author’s Personal Journey
This article described Caine’s education from childhood to current day. The author compared and contrasted her education at its various stages. In particular she noted the “exceptional teacher” she had as a child in Germany, shortly after World War II (Caine, 2004). This teacher used stories, museum visits, and songs etc. as her teaching tools. The brain, according to Caine, created memories by joining feelings, information and adult experiences into a combination of both fact and hopes of what was believed to be true.
Caine then discussed her emigration and subsequent education in the United States. The most significant remark stated, “No one seemed to care what students thought or felt personally,” (Caine, 2004). She stated that she had experienced 2 different approaches to learning, which directly influenced her life choices. She became a believer as it were in the holistic view of the brain and the human being.
Of particular import were 3 phrases:
1. Plasticity or neuroplasticity in other articles (Jensen, 2010). The brain changes each time it learns and that all are capable of learning at any age.
2. Gestalt psychology, that was to know why and how students learn, one must first know how students related to what material being learned (Caine, 2004).
3. Perceptual psychology, people could change through their own self-awareness (Caine, 2004).
It is possible that through further readings, these phrases become subtopics in Action Research Project.
Dee Dickinson: Questions to Neuroscientists from Educators
This article was a set of questions prepared for the Krasnow Institute at John Hopkins University. The questions in the article are not answered. However, the questions were of great importance in that it discussed the effect of emotions on learning, what Dickinson called “direct instruction” which is textbook driven, drill and practice and “constructivist learning” which is discovering knowledge from many sources and teacher as facilitator. Also discussed was the use of virtual worlds in education. The final question asked in the article was how would neuroscientists redesign the educational system (Dickinson, 2000).
This article though not having the answers again mentions the effect of emotions and learning which appears to present itself as a third possible subtopic in the Action Research Project.
Eric Jensen: Top 10 Brain-Based Teaching Strategies
Jensen is the author of one of the textbooks used at Full Sail University, called Brain-Based Learning 2nd Ed. by Corwin Press, 2005.
In the article noted above, Jensen discussed 10 “macro strategies” for implementing brain-based teaching strategies. He listed them, then offered practical suggestions for their school-wide implementation. Summarized, these strategies were:
1. Physical education
2. Social conditions
3. Neuroplasticity (brain changes)
4. Reduction of chronic stress
5. Diversity of learners, no one is “normal”
6. Teach material in smaller “chunks”
7. Value of arts in education
8. Emotions and learning
9. Rehabilitation of brain-based disorders
10. Memory is malleable-memory can and will change
Janet McDowell: Making Music Multimodally: Young Children Learning with Music Technology
This article was of great value for these readings. In particular, the research discussed was based on the style of Action Research and discussed the modes of learning, aural, visual, gestural, spatial and linguistic. When these modes are experienced in various combinations it is called multimodality (McDowell, 2009).
McDowell continued in the article and stated what have found to be true; there was a body of research on the use of computer based technology in music education at the secondary and collegiate level, but a “dearth of research” at the elementary level (McDowell, 2009) and that most of research that had been done was not conducted in the context of classroom use.
While this was not a “true” action research study (teachers were not the researchers per se), the article was of great value in that it demonstrated what action research may look like in an elementary music setting. It also confirmed the need for more research of this type and at this level of education to assist music educators of young students.
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