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"Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a Learning Science", 2007, page 30
The Brain Plasticity
The brain is capable of learning because of its flexibility. It changes in response to stimulation from the environment. This flexibility resides in one of the intrinsic properties of the brain – its plasticity.
The mechanism operates in various ways at the level of the synaptic connections. Some synapses may be generated (synaptogenesis), others eliminated (pruning), and their effectiveness may be moulded, on the basis of the information processed and integrated by the brain.
The “traces” left by learning and memorisation are the fruit of these modifications.
Plasticity is consequently a necessary condition for learning and an inherent property of the brain; it is present throughout a whole lifetime.
The concept of plasticity and its implications are vital features of the brain. Educators, policy makers and all learners will all gain from understanding why it is possible to learn over a whole lifetime and indeed brain plasticity provides a strong neuroscientific argument for “lifelong learning”.
Would not primary school be a good place to start teaching learners how and why they are capable of learning?
The mechanism operates in various ways at the level of the synaptic connections. Some synapses may be generated (synaptogenesis), others eliminated (pruning), and their effectiveness may be moulded, on the basis of the information processed and integrated by the brain.
The “traces” left by learning and memorisation are the fruit of these modifications.
Plasticity is consequently a necessary condition for learning and an inherent property of the brain; it is present throughout a whole lifetime.
The concept of plasticity and its implications are vital features of the brain. Educators, policy makers and all learners will all gain from understanding why it is possible to learn over a whole lifetime and indeed brain plasticity provides a strong neuroscientific argument for “lifelong learning”.
Would not primary school be a good place to start teaching learners how and why they are capable of learning?
"Understanding the Brain: The Birth of a Learning Science", 2007, page 30
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