Neumind Research What is Cognitive Science?

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Neumind Research Cognitive Science and MBE

Neumind Research Cognitive Science Teaching

 

 

Author Dr Mary Johnson Gerard    
Editor Gan Ee Bee    
Copy Editor Elizabeth Tan    
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Illustrator Helen Healey    
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Research and Development

Cognitive Science and the Mind Brain Education Model

     

 

This purpose of this article is to help parents understand how Cognitive Science and the Mind Brain and Education Model (MBE) are related and applied to the practice of teaching at Neumind.  In order to meet this goal, it seems appropriate to define the key elements of Cognitive Science and Mind Brain and Education.  

The term Cognitive Science can most effectively be defined by looking at each word separately. “Cognitive” means how a person thinks or their intellect and “Science” means the systematic acquisition of knowledge (Wikipedia).  When putting the two words back together, the meaning of Cognitive Science becomes – the systematic attainment of knowledge about how people think or their intelligence.

describe the imageThe Mind Brain and Education model is a cutting edge approach to training teachers how to teach.  The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), a premier teacher preparation program, challenges the traditional teacher preparation process and has designed an extraordinary “out of the box” approach to the preparation of teachers at the Master’s level. 

HGSE literally has gone “out of the box of education” and is integrating knowledge and the application of information from the fields of neuroscience, genetics, cognitive science etc. into the curriculum for master’s level students.  Students are also required to work with scientists from these fields.  Faculty from the HGSE believe the science of education will be advanced when educational research questions are posed in partnership with these other allied fields of science.

Neumind has modeled their educational program after MBE in that teachers look at student learning from the multiple perspectives of cognitive science, neuroscience, positive psychology, multiple intelligences, and whole brain learning.  When students do not make expected progress, Neumind models Harvard’s MBE program by asking why the student is not learning and investigating whether the answer(s) lie in one of the fields of science described above.

Some areas they might investigate related to the field of Cognitive Science include:

  • Intelligence

  • Attention

  • Language processing

  • Learning and development

  • Memory

  • Perception

For clarification, about how Neumind applies the MBE model, read the example of Sam that follows.

Neumind and Cognitive Science

Sam is 10 years old and exhibits difficulty with multiplication. He has been exposed to the Neumind curriculum related to multiplication and has been provided individualized support in completing assignments.  He consistently does not complete assignments entirely and has approximately 20% accuracy on the parts completed. 

Sam’s teachers have decided Sam’s difficulty is not due to a lack of instruction in the traditional curriculum but may be due to cognitive processing. They turn to the field of cognitive science to help them frame their questions for investigation which include:

1. Do Sam’s learning difficulties stem from his intellectual capacity?
2. Do Sam’s learning difficulties stem from issues with attention and  focus?
3. Do Sam learning difficulties stem from issues in language processing?
4. Do Sam’s learning difficulties stem from learning and development? This is a given, as Sam is exhibiting difficulties in learning.
5. Do Sam’s learning difficulties stem from issues with memory?
6. Do Sam’s learning difficulties stem from issues with perception?
 

 

  

By considering these questions Sam’s teachers determine his learning difficulty is not due to:

  • intelligence – he is a bright student (#1)

  • language processing – he has an innate capacity for exceptional language skills (#2)

  • perception – perceptual skills in all areas are well developed (#6).

This analysis leaves two areas of cognition to explore – attention and memory. 

describe the imageWhen investigating the area of “attention”, there is evidence Sam is exhibiting a change in his ability to focus and pay attention during math class.  He is impulsive, distractible and motor restless during this period of the day. He exhibits difficulty following directions and staying on task.  Sam’s teachers develop a hypothesis - Sam’s learning difficulties are related to an Attention Deficit with Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

When investigating the variable of “memory”, faculty document Sam has a history of difficulty in learning rote information such as the names of numerals, letters of the alphabet and addition and subtraction facts.   Sam’s teachers develop another hypothesis- Sam’s difficulties in multiplication are related to a short-term memory deficit which makes it difficult for Sam to learn multiplication facts.

Further discussion and review of historical academic information leads the teachers to rule out ADHD as the cause of Sam’s learning difficulties.  They decide Sam’s attention issues are a consequence of the real learning issue – short-tem memory.  The change is Sam’s attention is related to stress he feels from not being successful in math and not due to ADHD.

Sam’s teachers now use their hypothesis about memory to develop an objective using an alternative teaching strategy (not one used during the teaching of the curriculum) to help Sam learn multiplication facts.  Their objective and strategy build upon Sam’s highly developed language processing and visual and auditory perceptual skills. They write this objective for Sam:

Neumind and Whole Brain Learning Sam will learn his multiplication facts by designing a

cartoon and a rhyme for each multiplication fact Neumind and Whole Brain Learning

There are several important points to consider about the process described.

  1. All areas of cognitive processing were considered as potential reasons for the learning difficulty.
  1. A decision making process was used to “rule out” areas of cognitive processing that were not related to the learning issue and the areas remaining were “targeted” for further investigation.
  1. Each “targeted” area was reviewed and a hypothesis developed.
  1. A final hypothesis about the cause of the learning difficulty was created.
  1.  A learning object was developed.
  1. A learning strategy was formulated.

The educational decision-making process, described through the example of Sam, is based on the MBE model of looking outside of the field of educational instruction for the answers to leaning challenges for students.  In Sam’s case, the reason for the learning difficulty was related to an area of cognitive science.  In a real life situation, Neumind faculty would pose questions related to all of the fields of science they incorporate into programming for students.

 

 

Resources

Fischer, Kurt. The Myths and Promises of the Learning Brain. (2004).

http://gseweb.harvard.edu/news/features/fischer12012004.html

Fischer, Kurt. Learning and the Brain. (2004)

http://gseweb.harvard.edu/news/features/fischer08012004.html

Fischer, Kurt and Bernstein, J. and Immordino-Yang , M.H. Mind, Brain, and Education in Learning Disorders (2006).

Pylyshyn, Zenon. What is Cognitive Science? Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science.

http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ftp/pub/papers/ruccsbook.PDF

Cognitive Science Society. http://www.cognitivesciencesociety.org/