Educational Neuroscience Blogg

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang

What? - She combined neuropsychological and human development methods to conduct research about emotional and social functioning in two boys who are missing half of their brains. Her research had implications that learners may try to "compensate for relative neuropsychological weaknesses" by processing information differently. Her research confirmed that not all learners solve problems in the same way. Her research also showed how brain science can inform education. She specifically found that the boys' social and emotional desires and predispositions (in the area of supportive educational environments) seemed to guide and organize their recoveries.

She is quoted saying, “I use [what I learned at HGSE] every day,” she says. “I definitely use my qualitative and quantitative skills from HGSE, as well as the constructivist, contextualized approach to understanding neurological, socio-emotional, and psychological dimensions of learning.”

So What? - Immordino-Yang's research has impacted education globally. She believes that you can see biological changes and predispositions in people based on social experiences in different cultures. She says that outlines interdependence between the brain development and our social world. Emotions like admiration, awe inspiration and compassion can reflect biological predispositions, and involve the neural systems for consciousness and "self." They can also play a role in shaping how a student feels in the classroom and how they learn and develop identity. This theory says that the biological differences can reflect different aspects of self-awareness and consciousness. That can translate into the classroom and influence how a child may feel about his peers and teachers. It can also affect cultural and temperamental differences in identity development and how a child learns. It is important to understand this so that you can see that children may learn differently because of biological reasons.

Now What? - She really emphasized how emotion helped or changed the way a student learned and that they all learned differently. She talked about what types of emotions had what types of effects on people. I think it is important to understand that cultural differences will affect a student’s response to emotions differently. She focused on how the biological differences also altered their emotional responses. It is good to know that emotion affects the students. This just solidified what we had learned in class that we need to evoke emotion in our students and they will learn better and will remember and retain more. It is also good to know that each student’s brain uses different techniques to learn. Not all students learn the same and we need to be able to accommodate to that.

The website I read from: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news_events/features/2008/06/25_immordino_yang.php