What is neuropedagogy? Why is it important for educators?
For the past half century education has been but a series of teaching and learning philosophies. A sad example of this is the so called reading wars that have been so popular in the 1900's. On one side there were -- or are- the phonics proponents. On the other, the Whole Language proponents. Don't get me wrong, both sides agree that children first need to master phonemic awareness and the alphabetic principle during the first stage of reading development, Learning to read. Where they are at odds is what happens next. The former insist that fluency, as measured in words per minute, is essential to comprehension. The latter argue that it is irrelevant at best, detrimental at worse. Both factions claim to be driven by convincing scientific evidence, yet this is far from the truth. the same can be said for any subject matter.
However,
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
I've been reading about neurology and physical exercise. The available research out there demonstrates that the best way to have a sound mind in old age is to become physically fit. According to Ratey, Research performed on retired nuns demonstrate that physical exercises eliminates, or at least greatly reduces the impact of elderly dementia such as Alzheimers. They found that the nuns who participated in physical exercise outwardly showed no sign of dementia despite the fact that post-humous brain evaluations demonstrated the same scar tissue as those seniors with dementia. The conclusion was that physical exercise helps create, recruit and reroute neurons to keep the brain healthy and young.
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