On-line Journal/Article Reviews

This week's assignment was to review two websites or on-line journals that discussed the topics this week - the brain and learning, information processing theory, and problem-solving methods during learning process.

The first on-line article I read was about the brain and learning. It came from "The Educational Forum" journal and is titled "What Brain Research Suggests for Teaching Reading Strategies" by Judy Willis. This journal article was very interesting in describing the brain and how it learns to read. It goes into detail of neurons and how the brain responds to the presentation of sensory stimuli in the complex processes of reading. At the end, it discusses how it is difficult for teachers to be able to pin-point the best way to teach their students effective reading strategies so that they can truly learn the material. As a Trainer, I think this article is beneficial to corporate Trainers as well since we do a lot of our facilitating through audio tools - either having the learners read items or performing a lecturette. This allows any kind of facilitator to have a better idea of the brain and understand that it is difficult to reach all types of learners because all of our brains function differently, but not to give up on trying because science isn't giving up on their research. In the future, we may have a better understanding of how we can successfully reach all types of learners.

The second on-line article is from Scholastic Parent and Child magazine. It discusses the brain and learning in terms of babies. It's a short article, but offers a lot of good information that agrees with Aristotle's theory that mental capabilities are developed through experience with the environment (Gredler, Ormrod, & Schunk 2009). It emphasizes how parents play an important role in their child's learning capabilities. This article provides simple steps the parents can take to keep their child's brain constantly learning. Now, I don't work with children, but I think that a lot of this can be used for adults as well. For example, the article discusses positive emotional learning and that is still crucial in adults, just not done the same way as with children. Adults need to know they are doing a great job - either with a promotion, raise, or simply a company gift. This makes us feel good that we are doing something right and appreciated by our actions being noticed by someone else. While reading this article, it dawned on me that a lot of the points made there are relevant to adults, just presented to them in a different way.