More than two hundred years ago, in a time long before EEGs or fMRIs, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi contemplated about the physical processes that allow or hinder his students to learn. “I naturally pounced every moment upon matters of fact that might throw light on the existence of psycho-mechanical laws, according to which our minds pick up and keep outer impressions easily or with difficulty. I adapted my teaching daily more to my sense of such laws.”
Today, advances in brain research allow us increasingly more insight into those “psycho-mechanical” laws. As an educator I see it as a professional obligation to learn understand those findings better and in the process consider them in my work with students. Just as orthopedic surgeons had to change their ways after the introduction of x-rays, so might educators have to re-visit their basic understanding and consequently training with the emergence of such increased understanding. Working in a middle school around adolescent students, I see a special value in passing some of that knowledge to my students, allowing them to make better sense of those cognitive changes occurring during their troubling times of puberty.
This article is very encouraging! Educators often encounter students that display AD/HD characteristics or students that simply can not seem to "connect" to the material being taught. Should these students be put on an IEP with a modified education program or perhaps tutored? Will modifying and tutoring address the root cause of the learning sturggle? Probably not since, in most cases, the learning difficulties are due to poor cognitive skills.
LearningRx has conducted over 20 years of research and created a clinically proven methodology to strengthen underlying cognitive skills which are the root cause of learning difficulities. Having used this methodology with many students and witnessed the results, I know how imperative that we, as a culture, need to change the way we educate our children! Find out more about LearningRx at www.learningrx.com.