Taylor Sandweg’s Updates

Neuroplasticity (Fantastic Elastic Brain)

Learning, in the neuroscientific perspective, is all about how the brain changes and adapts. However this is a relatively new concept which originated from the 1980s due to scientists’ perceptions that brain development was fixed at a certain point. We can now look at the brain as a muscle that can grow and adapt in a process called ‘neuroplasticity’. Neuroplasticity refers to,

“the remarkable capacity of the brain to change its molecular, microarachitectural, and functional organization in response to injury or experience. Dendrite formation and dendrite and neuron destruction (pruning) allows the brain to reshape and reorganize the networks of connections in response to increased or decreased use of these pathways” Willis

I think that this is a very powerful concept that would benefit students to know about. f students were given the opportunity to learn about how their brain works the way educators learn about it through neuroscience, they could megacognitively reflect on their own learning.The book, “Fantastic Elastic Brain” is a good introduction to this concept for kids: 

Media embedded July 13, 2016