Learning in vivo

Similar brain activity: active & passive learning?

This post is an abstract taken from the October 2008 edition of PsychDigest:

Conventional wisdom says that practice makes perfect: research is now showing that practice that consists of watching alone, rather than doing, can also enhance skill.

Previous research has shown that both active and passive learning can improve performance, but in this study the researchers were surprised by the remarkable similarity in brain activation when participants observed dance sequences that were actively or passively experienced.

They used a video game where players have to move in a particular sequence to match the position of arrows on the screen. The researchers measured the skill level of participants for sequences that were actively rehearsed daily, and a different set of sequences that were passively observed for an equivalent amount of time.

Brain activity when watching both kinds of sequences (as well as a third set of sequences that were entirely unfamiliar) was captured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The study focused on the action observance network (AON) in the brain, a group of neural regions found mostly in the inferior parietal and pre-motor cortices of the brain (near the top of the head) responsible for motor skills and some memory functions.

After five days of both visual and physical training, the scans showed common AON activity when the participants were watching the practiced and observed dance sequences.

This research contributes to a growing body of study about how people learn and how best to help people with brain injuries. Future studies might consider how such overlap between physical and observational learning at the brain level can improve upon rehabilitation therapies for individuals affected by physical or neurological injury.

Sources

Cross, E.S., Kraemer, D.J.M., Hamilton, A.F.D., Kelley, W.M., & Grafton. (2008, May). Sensitivity of ther action observation network to physical and observational learning. Cerebral Cortex. [Advance online publication]. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhn083. Retrieved September 22, 2008, from the journal Web site at http://cercor.oxford-journals.org/cgi/content/abstract/bhn083v1. The full text of the article can be viewed online for $36.

Dartmouth. (2008, July 14). Dartmouth research reveals passive learning imprints on the brain just like active learning. Retrieved September 22, 2008, from the liberal arts institution's News website at http://www.dartmouth.-edu/~news/releases/2008/07/14.html

Work-integrated learning an element of cooperative education

The Director: Curriculum, Academic Staff and Teaching Development of Vaal University of Technology, Dr JJAC Smit, postulates that the new Higher Education Qualifications Framework (HEQF) affords Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) the opportunity of making their curricula "more viable than mere co-operative education as was implemented in the past".

I believe Smit is mistaken. A comparison of imperative literature (Download cooped_synopsis.doc) and practice a decade ago, rather suggests that the then technikons failed to fulfil their mandate.

To my knowledge the Council for Higher Education (CHE), Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC), Criteria for Institutional Audits and the CHE, HEQC, Criteria for Programme Accreditation stand as imperatives. Smit does not make mention of either of these documents. The exclusion of the criteria stipulated in these two documents is an oversight and a possible flaw in Smit's argument. My understanding is that the gazetted HEQF reinforced the HEQC's imperatives.

Promoting the notion of cross-pollinating theories and practice

It has been an enriching experience to have attended the Unisa Teacher Education at a Distance conference the past week. Attached (Download Dr_T_Groenewald-Quality_in_vivo_learning.ppt) please find my personal presentation at the conference.

A number of issues stood out to me, worth capturing for further exploration:

• Graduates enter work and are confronted by unscripted stuff, they often sink or swim. Curriculum design should contemplate the kinds of problems graduate are likely to be confronted with and concentrate on equipping students to deal with these.
• Indigenous knowledge should not be dismissed, there is much to learn; but should not be exploited either, without rewarding the knowledge carriers/holders fairly.
• We must be careful with what lens we approach things, there are many other viewpoint also!
• Learning in vivo should, like most learning, be staggered.
• Practice is merely an activity, whereas participation is about learning derived from active experience (Do not dismiss this idea as just playing with words).

There were many other inspiring ideas contained in presentations that are  specific to teacher education. One such idea is the process of lesson study: teachers gather to critique a teacher's lecture and all learn from it. The emphasis here is on continued professional development. It certainly has application possibilities in many other occupational/professional fields. The idea of subjecting yourself, your practice to scrutiny of other; as well as partaking in constructive critique of peers.