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Paul DwyerPatch 4Informing Your Practice With Theories of Learning

In their very brief review of the place of what they call ¶brain science· within theories of 

learning, Tusting and Barton (2006) assert confidently that ´even within the field of brain science, which might seem to be the place where one might most expect to findindividual internalised models of human thinking, recent research has demonstrated thesocially-situated nature of brain development and the dialectical interpenetration of individual thinking and learning with social contextµ. But this stress on the socialappears to be a partial reading of what is a growing, but necessarily emergent body of neuroscience-based research into human motivations for and success in learning.

A recent review, in the journal Nature, of the role of the neurotransmitter dopamine inmotivation and learning (Wise, 2004) raises the spectre of the kind of Pavlovianstimulus-response process of teaching and learning which Tusting and Barton havedispatched (with evident relief) in their review of behaviourist theories. This work is

supported by a range of studies which have traced the role of primary reward systems(feeling pleasant touch, hearing positive words and seeing attractive human faces,achieving social status and interaction with others) in producing individual rewards vianeurotransmitters which both motivate behaviour and ´stamp-inµ learning which takesplace. (See Rilling et al. 2002; Aharon et al. 2001; Rolls et al. 2003; Hamann & Mao2002).

This research suggests that many traditional teaching methods and systems (positivewords of encouragement, increased social status associated with learning) can producemeasurable learning benefits in the form of what one might reasonably describe as ´deeplearningµ ² i.e. the process by which the brain stores longer term memories. Whilst the

various forms of memory are clearly not the same as ´learningµ in all its forms, theyappear to be the most easily operationalised empirically testable proxies.

On the other hand, this does not mean that cognitive science has no role to play inunderstanding the processes by which learning takes place. The work of Gallistel andKing (2009) suggests that there is empirical evidence to support the presence of universal processes of cognition via modules in the brain which carry out specificfunctions (mapping words to objects, recognition of familiar faces/voices, computationof social obligations, imitation of behaviour in social circumstances) which are the basisof learning. Gallistel argues that the operation of these brain modules are fundamentalin the process of turning short term into long term memory. Other factors that havebeen shown to be important in this process are emotional or sexual arousal (Cahill et al.

2004, LaBar and Cabeza 2006) and sleep (Kuriyama et al. 2008).

The implication of this neurological and cognitive research is that learning takes placewhen students receive positive words of encouragement, when they have opportunitiesto achieve social status and when they are emotionally (or sexually) aroused. It suggeststhat (leaving aside sexual arousal and ² probably ² pleasant touch) teachers shouldconstruct their learning sessions around ways of associating these experiences with theacquisition of relevant information or skills.

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 As I argued in Patch 2, it is the ability of neuroscience and cognitive science to point touniversal processes in human learning which brings into question some of the rhetoricsurrounding what appears to be a current ethos within higher education surroundingStudent Centred Learning, Action Learning and Diversity. The evidence of thisresearch suggests that the relativising emphasis of much of the literature on diversityand Student Centred Learning is unhelpful. Unless there really is empirical evidence of different learning styles (see my discussion in Patch 3) then attempting to cater to theseimagined differences is self-defeating. This is not, of course to say that there is no  diversity. Rather it is to base our understanding of diversity on evidence, and not toexaggerate the degree of diversity to the extent that it produces a debilitating relativism(´everyone·s differentµ).

The arguments in favour of SCL are partly political (its proponents argue for a moreequal balance of power between teacher and student) partly pragmatic (larger class sizesmean the individual or small-group tuition which has been the traditional basis of university education is no longer affordable) and partly evidential - some students

clearly do get bored during traditional lectures, and there is some evidence (Lonka andAhola 1995) that more active methods do improve learning. But the importance of theresearch areas I have outlined is that, con tra the constructivist or social constructivisttraditions, they have clear evidence about why a nd  h o w active methods produce learning.This enables us to do teaching which is neither debilitatingly relativist (´everyone·sdifferent) nor a ridiculous concession to pragmatism (´got to keep them busyµ).

This is not to deny that there are pragmatic constraints ² classes of 40 graduates aredifficult to make ¶student centred·. Rather it is to attempt to create active learningexperiences which evi d e nc e suggests will enable ¶deep· learning whi c h c a n be measure d. Byhaving a rational and evidential (as opposed to a political or pragmatic) basis for

devising active learning methods one actually might be able to produce active learningexperiences which really do promote learning. Many of the ideas associated with SCL ² students exercising autonomy, students presenting their work to their colleagues ² areconsistent with the scientific evidence about learning discussed above. Others ² thedegree to which students should choose what they learn ² are more debatable in termsof the contribution to learning which they can be shown to make.

With this clearer focus on how action (and indeed inaction) promotes learning (againcon tra the Kolb model ² see patch 3) the question of what s o rt of  a c tivity one should devisefor one·s lessons becomes (a little) easier to address. I don·t yet have a clear set of activities which I can present as examples of how this could be done. But at least I knowwhat I·m looking for and why . 

Bibliography

Aharon, I. et al. (2001) Beautiful Faces Have Variable Reward Value: fMRI andBehavioral Evidence Neur on , Vol. 32, 537²551

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Cahill, L. et al. (2004) The influence of sex versus sex-related traits on long-termmemory for gist and detail from an emotional story C on s c i o us n ess a nd  C ogn iti on Vol. 13No. 2 pp. 391-400

Gallistel, R. and King, A. (2009) M em o ry a nd the C o mputati on al Brai n John Wiley,London

Hamann, S. Mao, H. (2002) Positive and negative emotional verbal stimuli elicit activityin the left amygdala Neur o rep o rt , 2002

Kuriyama, K. (2008) Sleep Accelerates the Improvement in Working MemoryPerformance The J o ur n al of  Neur o s c ie nc e , Vol. 28 No. 40 pp 10145-10150

Labar, K and Cabazar, R. (2006) Cognitive neuroscience of emotional memory in Nature Reviews Neur o s c ie nc e Vol. 7 pp 54-64

Lonka, K and Ahola, K. (1995) Activating instruction: How to foster study and thinking

skills in higher education Eur o  pea n J o ur n al of  Psy c h o l og  y of  Ed u c ati on  Vol 10 pp 351-368

Rolls, E. (2003) Representations of pleasant and painful human touch in the humanorbitofrontal and cingulate cortices in C erebral C o rtex Vol. 13, Number 3 308-317

Rilling, J. et al. (2002) A Neural Basis for Social Cooperation in Neur on , Volume 35,Issue 2, 395-405

Tusting, K. and Barton, D (2006) Models of adult learning: a literature review. NationalInstitute of Adult Continuing Education (England and Wales) (NIACE)

Wise (2004) ¶Dopamine, learning and motivation· in Nature Reviews Neur o s c ie nc e , 5, 483-494