Understanding the learning brain in the world
14
The University of Sydney Page 1 Understanding the learning brain in the world Lina Markauskaite ascilite 29 November- 2 December 2015 Symposium: The Mind and the Machine: Brain, mind and digital learning environments
-
Upload
lina-markauskaite -
Category
Education
-
view
510 -
download
2
Transcript of Understanding the learning brain in the world
The University of Sydney Page 1
Understanding the learning brain in the world
Lina Markauskaite
ascilite 29 November- 2 December 2015
Symposium: The Mind and the Machine: Brain, mind and digital learning environments
The University of Sydney Page 2
Acknowledgement
Lina Markauskaite & Peter Goodyear “Epistemic Fluency and Professional Education: Innovation, knowledgeable action and actionable knowledge,” Springer, early 2016
Epistemic fluency: http://epistemicfluency.com
The University of Sydney Page 3
From the “slow” neurosciences
Enculturated brain: much of “higher-order” features of the mind originate in culture and depend upon the developed functional brain’s architecture (Donald, 2001)Embodied brain: humans understand the world through the frame of their bodies (Damasio, 2010)Extended brain: “cognition leaks into body and world” (Clark, 2008)Enactive brain: knowledge and what is known are brought forth through action (Maturana & Varela, 1992)
The University of Sydney Page 4
Main claims
Computer technologies have shaped much of our thinking about the mind’s architecture reinforcing an unproductive division between the mind/thinking and
the body/action
Brain research could help us to...1. Link cognition with situated action2. Move from learning from/through technology to
learning with technology 3. Intelligently design environments for learning
Moving from the Mind as the Machine to the huMans with the Machines
The University of Sydney Page 5
Descartes’ division: Mind vs. Body
Brain/Mind
Body/Action
Symbols/Thinking
Tools/Practice Habits (Physical & digital spaces)
Ideas (Conceptual structures)
Based on Jelle van Dijk, Embodied technology, 2013
The University of Sydney Page 6
Information Processing view of mind: Adaptive Control of Thought—Rational (ACT-R) architecture
From Ohlsson, Deep learning, 2011
The University of Sydney Page 7
Cognitive theory of multimedia learning
From Mayer, Cambridge handbook of multimedia learning, 2005
The University of Sydney Page 8
Challenges for IP from brain research
1. Thinking is all over the brain
2. No neural support for “slower-moving” working memory processes
3. No mechanisms to support historically evolved architecture of the enculturated human brain
Damasio, Human decisions, 2012
Donald, The slow process, 2007
The University of Sydney Page 9
Cognition as a symbiosis between biology & culture“Human cognitive evolution is characterized by two special features that are truly novel in the primate line. – The first is the emergence of
"mindsharing" cultures that perform cooperative cognitive work, and serve as distributed cognitive networks.
– The second is the emergence of a brain that is specifically adapted for functioning within those distributed networks, and cannot realize its design potential without them.”
Donald, The slow process, 2007
The University of Sydney Page 10
The origins of the modern mindThree stages in the development of “mind-sharing” culture 0. Episodic memory: perception1. Mimetic memory: skill,
gesture2. Mythic memory: oral
language, imagination3. Theoretic +
technological memory: formalisms, distributed storage technologies
Donald, Origins of the modern mind, 2001
Brain is specifically adapted for functioning within distributed cognitive networks and cannot realize its design potential without them (Donald, 2001)
The University of Sydney Page 11
Embodied, Enacted, Extended, Enculturated cognition
Brain/Mind
Body/Action
Symbols/Thinking
Tools/Practice Habits (Physical & digital spaces)
Ideas (Conceptual strictures)
Neuroeducation & Design for eLearning space
Embodied, Enacted (Active perception)
Extended, Enculturated(Social situations)
Embodied (inter)actions within co-constructed environments
Based on Jelle van Dijk, Embodied technology, 2013
The University of Sydney Page 12
Grounded cognition: Re-enacting concepts
– Add parts of the concepts
Somatosensory cortex
# (legs)$ (tails)** (barks)@ (soft)
Barsalou, Language and simulation in representation of abstract concepts, 2010
The University of Sydney Page 13
Learning as co-constructing epistemic environments“We do not just self-engineer better worlds to think in. We self-engineer ourselves to think and perform better in the worlds we find ourselves in. We self-engineer worlds in which to build better worlds to think in. We build better tools to think with and to use these very tools to discover still better tools to think with. We tune the way we use these tools by building educational practices to train ourselves to use our best cognitive tools better...”
Clark, Supersizing the mind, 2008, p59
The University of Sydney Page 14
Main claims
Computer technologies have shaped much of our thinking about the mind’s architecture reinforcing an unproductive
division between mind/thinking and body/action
Brain research could help us to...1. Link cognition with situated action2. Move from learning from/through technology to learning
with technology 3. Intelligently design environments for learning
Main dangers...4. Not letting go Information Processing theories of the mind 5. Separating brain research from learning design 6. Doing brain research mainly in laboratories than in the world7. Not engaging with “slow” neurosciences
Epistemic fluency: http://epistemicfluency.com
