NEUROPLASTICITY & LEARNING

Background:
I have always been curious as to how the human brain evolves and grows, and how this relates to the ability and capability for learning.
In school we were a team working together to study and learn; later I became an educator of all ages; my thesis for my teaching degree ended with the question: what is the connection between the brain and learning, and how can we come to understand this better, in order to further studies, learning and understanding, in all areas of life.

NEUROPLASTICITY & LEARNING is quite a complex matter. Let us break it down:

A) What have we learned so far?
You will notice, how everything on this website points in the direction of this theme; be it nutrition, life style, mindset, exercise, ethics, home school...
Please do go back and read through the website in order to see, just how complex the matter is. Which is of course natural; a human being is a complex matter, especially the HUMAN MIND/BRAIN has a lot to it.

B) How does that further the understanding of the theme?
There are two sides to this: NEUROPLASTICITY, which is the science of how the human brain is capable of change, and LEARNING, which is the science of how someone is learning.
Since the brain is the storage and processor of information and learning, it is clear that the better and healthier the brain is, the better the potential for learning is.

C) How do we define the two concepts NEUROPLASTICITY and LEARNING?
Neuroplasticity of the human brain is the ability of the nervous system to change its activity in response to intrinsic or extrinsic stimulation through reorganising its structure, function and connections.
Learning is defined as knowledge, skills and competences acquired through study and practise.

D) What is it we want to achieve by working with those two concepts in tandem?
Since this is placed within the framework of "Education", I view those two as so intertwined, one would not work without the other. They co-exist and connect to each other all through life.
If your brain does not have a well functioning auditory function, it is virtually impossible to learn anything, where hearing is important.
If your speech centre in the brain is impaired, how can you speak?
Even though the ear is there, the tongue is there, if there is no connection to and from the brain, there is no place to make sense of what the ear is hearing, or the tongue is doing.

E) Who is this research for?
Primarily I would say, the focus groups are humans up to the age, where they graduate from university, which would probably coincide with hitting the 25-year-mark around which the human is thought to be mature (in some form).
This puts the aim squarely at our education system, and places the centre for research within the "Department of Education".

F) How do we set up a strategy for our work with the two themes?
There is a need to establish some kind of scaffolding around the topics we want to develop. We need a framework, which we can implement in a teaching strategy for the pupils/students to learn.

I have chosen MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES as my gate-way for communication.

There are differences in opinions as to how many intelligences there are.
It is up to the individual scientist to make the case for, how many and which intelligences, each of us choose to work with.

I have defined 14 intelligences, as follows:
Social and Ethical (2)
Body and Sensory (5)
Verbal/Mathematical/Technological (3)
Mental (2)
Naturalistic (2)

G) How do we intend to measure the levels of accomplishments?
Planning, executing and evaluating are three basic principles for any teaching. Our success is measured exclusively according to, what our pupils/students have learned, not according to whatever brilliant teaching we will have presented to them!

There are ways to measure activities of the brain, before and after.
There are ways to measure the outcome/results via tests, before and after.
And there are observations from both pupils/students, teachers, scientists and parents as to, how the implemented work with MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES has had a (hopefully) positive impact.

The way forward includes setting up a preliminary research for establishing a
CENTER for NEUROPLASTICITY and LEARNING
Have a variety of educational institutions connected, preferable across borders, faiths and social stratification, to give as comprehensive a scientific background as possible for moving forward with recommendations for transformation of the education system.

The matrix is there.
It is based on solid science.
The enthusiasm is prevalent.
Let us get to work.
It will be so much fun!