C.E. Jottings

Neuroscience - education's unfulfilled promise

On June 24th this year, TES (once The Times Educational Supplement) had an article "The False Promise of Neuroeducation" by Hilary and Steven Rose. If you want to catch the article it's behind a paywall. I did't read it - because I had just then bought the Rose's book "Can neuroscience change our minds?" A good read it was too. But I didn't quite buy in to the basic premise, of which more in a moment. I did read, many... Read more →

Has Bradley Wiggins "reached his full potential"? Not if he's minded to overcome fatigue.

Has 2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins reached his full potential? Have you? Do you know anyone who has? Perhaps the problem lies with the whole notion of "reaching potential"? One of the minor irritations of the Murdoch press is the paywall. Behind it are two of the most interesting journalists writing occasional articles about human performance: sports writer Matthew Syed and Chief Sports Correspondent Matt Dickinson. Just such an article recently was that by Matt Dickinson "Cyclists can... Read more →

"World going to pot? No it's a trick of the mind." CP, CE and becoming an adult

"World going to pot? No it's a trick of the mind." Such was the headline in an odd little story, just the sort of thing that catches the eye and then is quickly forgotten, in yesterday's The Times (£Murdoch paywall). The headline gives the gist of the article, which begins: The majority of people suffer from “declinism”, the belief that the world is worse than it used to be, discounting the benefits of medical progress, new technology and improved living... Read more →

An afternoon pleasantly spent reading

Retirement has compensations, it seems. This afternoon I have largely spent slumped in an easy chair, the MacBook Pro propped open and balanced between my knee and the arm of the chair, guiltlessly reading. An altogether pleasant occupation. 2015, I hope, will offer more such afternoons. What have I been reading? Something I would not previously have found time to linger with: One is Not Born a Personality - Profiles of Soviet Educational Psychologists By Karl Levitin, Edited by Professor... Read more →

Brain plasticity and pedagogy - not yet a new science of learning?

A posting on Facebook by Andrew Sutton and Comments that followed prompted the following loose thoughts. As an account of the functioning of the brain, neuroplasticity demolishes two strong and long-held learning and teaching positions: that, with ageing, the brain somehow seized up and that certain children were born ‘ineducable’. As illustrations, the former is neatly expressed in the saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” and the latter in the persistence in the UK until the early... Read more →

Who thinks generating this garbage is a good idea?

OK, so who does? Because there seems to be quite a lot of this sort of garbage about - mostly in abstracts of articles for learned journals. This is the latest example, I've come across. "Welcome to my Brain", an abstract, in the journal Qualitative Research from Sage Journals. This is about developing recursive, intrinsic, self-reflexive as de-and/or resubjective always evolving living research designs. It is about learning and memory cognition and experiment poetic/creative pedagogical science establishing a view of... Read more →

Childhood Neurodisability Research priority setting - Make suggestions for research - Survey open!

I'm going to quote this at length and hope that in the interests of spreading the word, the British Academy of Childhood Disability (BACD) is OK with that. The search is on for the top 10 ideas to establish childhood neurodisability priorities. BACD is asking for suggestions via a survey. You can take part online or by completing a questionnaire that can be emailed or posted to BACD. Here it is: Aims and objectives The aim of the Childhood Disability... Read more →

Is potential "spotted" as Les Ebdon says or created?

The Director of the Office for Fair Access, Les Ebdon, seems to think potential university students can be "spotted" at the age of seven. I find such a view in such a senior public servant unutterable sad, if not worse. In an interview published in yesterday's Sunday Times (£wall), it seems Les Ebdon has been saying that "universities must begin working with children as young as seven, especially those from poorer families, to 'spot their potential', track them as they... Read more →

Man, Beast and Zombie - the human mind & conductive education research

Tempus fugit. Days since I last posted have turned into weeks. Been busy at Paces. Pre-occupied at home. In passing, thought I might share this with you, from Kenan Malik's "Man, Beast and Zombie", referenced on his Wikipedia entry: In discussing cognitive science and philosophy of mind, Malik concludes that each human being possesses "an extended mind"; a brain becomes a human mind only by its immersion in social relationships together with "other brains linked by language and culture." (p.... Read more →

The woman who changed her brain - in 1978

Coincidentally, another 'brain' piece. (Yesterday, I posted about an Observer article Who's in charge - you or your brain?) This time a piece from the author of the recently published "The woman who changed her brain" (which I haven't read, btw, just this article "Why I wrote 'The Woman who changed her brain'"), Barbara Arrowsmith-Young. The writer, recounting her own experiences, seems to understand implicitly that her success was 'self-taught', with an emphasis on 'taught', implying teaching and learning, albeit... Read more →