Posts Tagged ‘about’
What Every Parent and Educator Needs to Know About Learning and the Teenager Brain
What Every Parent and Educator Needs to Know About Learning and the Teenager Brain
Copyright (c) 2008 SharpBrains
Dr. Robert Sylwester is an educator of educators, having received multiple awards during his long career as a master communicator of the implications of brain science research for education and learning. His most recent book is The Adolescent Brain: Reaching for Autonomy (Corwin Press, 2007). He is an Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Oregon.
I am honored to interview him today.
Alvaro Fernandez (AF): You recently published a book titled The Adolescent Brain: Reaching for Autonomy. What advice would you give to parents and educators of adolescents?
Robert Sylwester (RS): Biological phenomena always operate within ranges. For example, leaves fall from trees in the autumn, but typically not all at once. Developmental changes similarly do not occur at the same time and at the same rate in all child and adolescent brains. And just as it’s possible for wind or temperature to alter the time when a leaf might fall, unexpected events can alter the time when an adolescent has to confront and respond to given environmental challenges.
The important thing for adults to do is to carefully observe an adolescent’s interests and abilities, and insert challenges that move maturation forward at a reasonable level. If you push too fast, you end up with a stressed out adolescent. If you do not challenge sufficiently, you end up with a bored adolescent. No magic formula exists for getting this just right. This means, for example, that we celebrate the skills of artists and athletes who function beyond typical human capacity, and we create judicial sanctions for those whose behavior does not reach culturally acceptable levels. Most human behavior is personally chosen and executed within wide ranges. We can easily observe this wide range in such phenomena as political discourse and religious belief or practice. Adolescents strive towards autonomous adulthood as they gradually discover their interests and capabilities, and what is biologically possible and culturally appropriate. They adapt their life to wherever they’re most comfortable within the marvelous sets of possible and appropriate ranges that exist.
Adolescents take risks, no doubt about that. If you want to eventually function within any range, you have to locate its outer positive and negative limits. Speed limits and other regulations provide direction, but adolescents (and adults) still tend to move towards the limits – and maybe just a smidgen beyond.
In short, parents and educators need to pay attention to observe where adolescent’s interests and abilities lie, and engage them with experiences that will enable them to move forward.
Alvaro Fernandez (AF): I find that, in an emerging field like cognitive science, we need to start by clarifying the language we use. Can you define some words such as Learning, Education, Brain Development and Cognition.
Robert Sylwester (RS): Sure.
LEARNING: Most organisms begin life with most or all of the processing systems and information that they need to survive. Humans are a notable exception in that an adult-size brain is significantly larger than a mother’s birth canal, so we’re born with an immature one pound brain that develops additional mass and capabilities during its 20 year post-birth developmental trajectory. Parenting, mentoring, teaching, and mass media are examples of the cultural systems that humans have developed to help young people master the knowledge and skills they need to survive and thrive in complex environments. Learning is one the main activities we do, even if we often are not aware of it.
EDUCATION: Education, like the culture it subsumes, is a conservative phenomenon. Science and technology move rapidly, but education doesn’t. So if schools often resemble the schools of 50 years ago, that should not be surprising. Parents remember their school experiences, and since they survived them, they are typically leery about educators experimenting with their children. This explains in part why schools have not incorporated many of the recent developments in neuroscience and cognitive psychology.
BRAIN DEVELOPMENT: Childhood brain development is focused on systems that allow children to recognize and remember the dynamics of environmental challenges – challenges that protective adults will solve for them. Adolescent brain development is more focused on frontal lobe development, the systems that allow us to respond appropriately and autonomously to the challenges we confront.
COGNITION: Every experience will alter our brain’s organization at some level, so our brain’s processing networks continually change throughout our life. This process is called brain plasticity. For example, since my brain has adapted to my switch from a typewriter to a computer, it would now be difficult (but not impossible) for me to write again on a typewriter. Now, cognition is linked to other concepts: emotion is the processing system that tells us how important something is; attention focuses us on the important and away from the unimportant things; problem-solving determines how to respond, partly on the basis of our memory of prior related experiences; and behavior carries out the decision. The general term cognition encompasses these various processes.
AF: Prof. Sylwester, thank you for your great information and advice.
RS: My pleasure.
Health Information for children: Teach your children about health maintenance
Child Health Information: Teach your children about health maintenance
raise children who value and take responsibility for their health become individuals who are healthy and productive members of society. As parents, it is our responsibility to our children enstill the importance of taking care of their bodies and appreciate the gift we give our bodies every day.
Here are some tips to remember when teaching their children to stay healthy. Some are obvious, and some can be neglected. See the list below and see what can be included in educating your child about how to maintain their own health.
Information Child Health Tip # 1: Cover your mouth />
Information Child Health Tip # 2: Wash hands
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Wash hands after using the toilet is something we all know. But what about other times? Teach your child to wash their hands after the following: sneezing or coughing, playing in the yard before and after meals or other activities where the hands are on potential germs
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Child Health Information Tip # 3: Brushing and flossing
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Brushing is important. So whether you floss! Make sure your child is taking good care of your teeth by brushing at least twice a day and floss every night before going to bed.
Child Health Information Tip # 4: Each />
Teach your child to choose foods low in sugar, fat and full of nutrients, vegetables and fruits. Teach them to regulate their food consumption and make responsible decisions to keep their growing bodies and minds.
Council Information Child Health # 5: Get Active />
Child Health Information Tip # 6: get enough sleep
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Because our children are constantly growing, it is imperative to get enough sleep. Make sure your child has a safe and comfortable space to sleep and get enough sleep for their growing bodies and minds.
Child Health Information Tip # 7: Stay hydrated
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Get adequate hydration is very important and many of us overlook. Make sure you teach your child the importance of having enough water each day and the importance of staying away from soda and juice and sugar. Buy your child a bottle of water fun to help them learn to regulate their fluids.
Information Child Health Tip # 8: keep your healthy mind />
Tip information on child health # 9: You’ve found faith />
What future undergraduate should know about student loans and online resources
What future BA should know about student loans and online resources
Navigating the student loan process can be a challenge, from scratch. Since the federal government in the area of student loans in 1965, something like 65 million Americans took advantage of it. There have been several bills in Congress performance in recent years, creating a variety of loan programs – for students, veterans, returning students, and so on. The main source of online information about student aid government is http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/fsa/index.html.
For more basic information on what is available through federal programs, perhaps the most fundamental resource is the website of the Ministry of Education, entitled “Financing Education Beyond High School: . Guide for Federal Student Aid “is a comprehensive resource on grants, loans and work study programs are the three main forms of assistance available from the office of the Department of federal student aid. This resource provides information on programs and how to apply. http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/student_guide/index.html.
To be eligible for federal aid and private financial support for most subscribers, including one who comes to the financial aid office, you will need a score of FAFSA. This classification is obtained by the process of filing a FAFSA and submit it to the U.S. Department of Education, which returns a value indicating the amount of loans you are eligible to receive and the amount of their parents should provide the support. So the best place to start your application process is through the FAFSA: http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/. You can submit an electronic application for your website.
In addition to student loans federal standard, there are several opportunities funded by the federal government on campus for students. Extensive information on the work-study and other federal funds available to the financial aid office can be found in http://www.cbfisap.ed.gov/CBSWebApp/welcome.jsp. Will be asked to undergo a registration process, but it is likely that the value of your time. Raise money for education is often a process of mounting a series of rooms. For many students, which includes a camp outside the financial aid office and meet with counselors inside. Good to know what they have to offer. Do not be shy: they expect to see next />
non- government.
To its credit, the federal government has recognized that the cost of training and debt has exceeded the millions of graduates. The Ministry of Education has a loan consolidation program with a variety of payment plans, flexibility and the ability to avoid the use of a commercial lender. They have a website dedicated to his http://loanconsolidation.ed.gov/ services. The Department is developing a weighted interest rate on the basis of commercial loans that are outstanding, tapas to 8.25 percent, and offers four different payment plans.
There are also many commercial lenders that offer consolidation of student loans, but beware of artificially low interest rates that can speed through a program such as variable rate mortgages. Before venturing into the field of trade financing, see what the Department of Education has to offer.