Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:2659] ad reductio
From: Muhammad (Betz@netcommander.com)
Date: Mon 31 Dec 2001 - 03:05:23 MET
From: "Muhammad" <Betz@netcommander.com> Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:2659] ad reductio Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2001 15:05:23 +1300
"Neither did I suggest, nor do I believe, that mnemonics is the same as
learning." R. Leamnson
"He (Sid Jacobson) gives a much stronger strategy for teaching spelling
than Mnemonics." G. Miller
Recall that I only mentioned the use of mnemonics as an aid to remember
how to spell certain words and allow me to clarify that I did not state
that mnemonics were a primary form of learning spelling or any other
subject. I was and still am interested in how the use of mnemonics
could be explained by the sophisticated analyses associated with
brain-based learning.
The most common applications of "brain learning" in the public schools
are related to special education students who are often mentally
retarded or autistic. At low levels of mental capacity, the reduction
of learning to brain functions becomes useful, because the special
education students often suffer from reduced brain functioning and some
compensation for deficiencies can be achieved by related analyses. Are
there existing applications of brain-learning applications for other
kinds of students? Gifted and talented students, for example, or
students who have high IQ's, aren't currently involved in brain-learning
applications in anything more than a hypothetical, ex post facto, sense.
I think it is untrue to imply, as some brain learning theorists do, that
brain learning will lead to something akin to the Genome Project. The
Genome Project deals with a finite set of genetic possibilities that are
clearly defined and for which very tangible outcomes exist. Contrarily,
brain cell functions and the quasi-electrical passages of sense
impulses, along purported paths in identifiable yet general locations in
a brain composed of billions of cells, do not hold comparable potential.
Ironically enough, I see "brain learning" as reductionist!
Apologetically, in the Platonic sense,
Muhammad
Muhammad Betz, Ph.D.
Teacher Educator
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