kia ora (greetings) Cathy

My name is Mark Treadwell and we both started out in the online world at about the same time when I ran Teachers@work (1993!). I have spent the last 10 years researching how the brain learns from a neuroscience perspective. The literature reviews were the first stage and we have now released a multimedia book for educators and this is a FREE 190pp download from http://www.marktreadwell.com/free_download . Feel free to have a read and pass the link on to anyone you feel may benefit from this. The book redefines what effective learning looks like based on the first scientific model of how the brain learns. This is a model and hence there is still a lot of work to do but the model provides us with the first neuro-scientific reference point for how the brain learns and it explains a lot of what educators observe on a day-to-day basis.

We are proposing that the human brain is composed of 4 integrated learning systems each with its own associated memory system. What we have also learned is the complete change in brain morphology from birth to our late 20's is designed to enable us to learn particular tasks. We start life with over 80% neurons and this drops to just 7% at 25 years of age. Those neurons specialize in sequential learning but the loss of these is replaced by astrocytes that work with neurons to map ideas and concepts. Understanding how the brain learns allows us to optimize the learning process. We have a number of schools applying this process and now have clusters of school applying this approach here in NZ as well as Australia and Dubai. Next year sees cluster of schools in Norway and the UK established and in 2016 Hong Kong and the US. A quick video of a two 11 year old boys discussing the resulting learning process can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGbGiMeLk_M

All the best with your work there

ka kite ano (farewell)

Mark Treadwell Consultancy

mark@work.co.nz

www.MarkTreadwell.com