The Art of Changing the Brain
Clive Shepherd,
Clive on Learning,
May 13, 2008
It is interesting to compare this list of things known about learning with the ridiculous list I covered last week. Though this too suffers from the weaknesses inherent in short point-form lists, it nonetheless captures more accurately what we know about learning. It begins, not from the basis of learning as 'knowledge transfer', as the previous list does, but of learning as change. "Learning is change. It is change in ourselves because it is change in the brain. Thus the art of teaching must be the art of changing the brain" Or, more accurately, "creating conditions that lead to change in a learner's brain." Quite so.
I want to repeat one point in full, because it cuts right to the heart of (what I would call) the error of the instructivist approach to learning: "When we try to help someone learn by offering an extrinsic reward, the chances are that learning will actually be reduced." Why? "The first thing our controlling brain sees in a reward or punishment is a loss of control." So, "we devise all sorts of ways to get the reward without carrying out the learning." Yes, extrinsic rewards can play a role. But we are not - contra the economists - maximizers of personal utility. Personal empowerment typically means much more to us than the possibility of reward, no matter how lavish.
I want to repeat one point in full, because it cuts right to the heart of (what I would call) the error of the instructivist approach to learning: "When we try to help someone learn by offering an extrinsic reward, the chances are that learning will actually be reduced." Why? "The first thing our controlling brain sees in a reward or punishment is a loss of control." So, "we devise all sorts of ways to get the reward without carrying out the learning." Yes, extrinsic rewards can play a role. But we are not - contra the economists - maximizers of personal utility. Personal empowerment typically means much more to us than the possibility of reward, no matter how lavish.
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