The Neurological Basis of Learning, Development and Discovery: Implications for Science and Mathematics Instruction (Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education Book 18)

A goal of mine ever since becoming an educational researcher has been to help construct a sound theory to guide instructional practice. For far too long, educational practice has suffered because we have lacked firm instructional guidelines, which in my view should be based on sound psychological theory, which in turn should be based on sound neurological theory. In other words, teachers need to know how to teach and that "how-to-teach" should be based solidly on how people learn and how their brains function. As you will see in this book, my answer to the question of how people learn is that we all learn by spontaneously generating and testing ideas. Idea generating involves analogies and testing requires comparing predicted consequences with actual consequences. We learn this way because the brain is essentially an idea generating and testing machine. But there is more to it than this. The very process ofgenerating and testing ideas results not only in the construction of ideas that work (i. e. , the learning of useful declarative knowledge), but also in improved skill in learning (i. e. , the development of improved procedural knowledge). How do People Learn?....Pages 1-25 The Neurological Basis of Self-Regulation....Pages 27-55 Brain Maturation, Intellectual Development and Descriptive Concept Construction....Pages 57-78 Brain Maturation, Intellectual Development and Theoretical Concept Construction....Pages 79-98 Creative Thinking, Analogy and a Neural Model of Analogical Reasoning....Pages 99-118 The Role Analogies and Reasoning Skill in Theoretical Concept Construction and Change....Pages 119-134 Intellectual Development During the College Years: Is There a Fifth Stage?....Pages 135-157 What Kinds of Scientific Concepts Exist?....Pages 159-181 Psychological and Neurological Models of Scientific Discovery....Pages 183-210 Rejecting Nature of Science Misconceptions by Preservice Teachers....Pages 211-224 Implications for the Nature of Knowledge and Instruction....Pages 225-259 The Neurological Basis of Learning, Development and Discovery is unique in that it *links neural physiology and neural network theory with cognition and instructional practice; *grounds the current emphasis on inquiry and constructivism in epistemological, philosophical and developmental theory; *links neural network theory, learning theory, conceptual change theory, and scientific discovery to classroom practice; *provides examples of scientifically-based research in education as a guide for science and math educators and graduate students; *has examples of lessons that can teach discipline-specific concepts as well as provoke the development of general reasoning/argumentative skills; *can be used in graduate-level courses in science education and in-service courses for science teachers

Lawson (life sciences, Arizona State U.) begins by exploring empiricism, innatism, and constructivism as alternative explanations of learning. Then he examines such aspects as visual and auditory information processing in terms of basic brain structure and function; an experiment to test the hypothesis that learning failure is caused by the lack of developmentally derived, hypothetico-predictive reasoning skill; and a model of creative and critical thinking in which analogical reasoning links planes of thought and generates new ideas that are then tested by hypothetico-predictive reasoning. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This book is for practicing science and math educators and researchers interested in developing a sound theoretical and empirical basis for curriculum development and instruction grounded in what is know about how the brain works and develops