Læring Hermundur Sigmundsson Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Learning from a biological perspective

Development ’Development is about creating something more from something less’ (Smith & Thelen, 2003 p. 343

The lecture Theories Begavelsen (Giftedness) Skill/ability White matter/grey matter Probabilistic Epigenesis Neural Darwinism Which consequences has this theories for our understanding of giftedness Conclusion

Begavelsen (Giftedness) 2% med høyest IQ Different from a skill? Innate? Like a talent Mathematic, language Gifted with learning difficulties Perform a skill at a level usually not reached until later years Three year-old reading

Begavelsen (Giftedness)

Begavelsen (Giftedness) Reynir Petur - savant

Begavelsen (Giftedness) Francis Galton (1869) used the term first Exceptional talent in some areas. Gifted person is one with a gift, a special talent Lewis Terman, early 1900, high IQ. Long term study of gifted children Leta Hollingwood, believed that the potential to be gifted was inherited. She felt that providing a nurturing home and school environment were also important

Begavelsen (Giftedness) Mange begavede barn og savante har en forsterket utvikling av høyre hjernehalvdel, språkrelaterte problemer og autoimmune forstyrrelser Intens motivasjon – mye sterkere indre driv enn gjennomsnittsbarnet

Begavelsen (Giftedness) Begavede barn rapporter vanligvis at familien spilte en positiv, og ikke en negativ rolle I deres utvikling Kontrollgrupper? Familier med begavede barn er barnesentrerte, familielivet ofte fullt og helt konsentrert om barnets behov

Begavelsen (Giftedness) Det er sannsynlig at foreldrene først ser et tegn på usedvanlige evner, og deretter responderer ved å vie sin tid til utviklingen av barnets ekstraordinære evner Ressurssterke barn vokser typisk opp I et ressurssterkt familiemiljø med et høyt nivå av intellektuell eller kunstnerisk stimulering(Winner, 2005)

Begavelsen (Giftedness) Winner (2005). I vår kultur vil de fleste forsvare det nativistiske synet på begavlse dvs. at begavelse anses som et produkt av medfødte, eksepsjonelle evner Erickson m.fl. (1993) hevder at begavelse (på alle områder) er et produkt av målrettet, hardt arbeid, eller bevisst øvelse og trening

Begavelsen (Giftedness) Winner (2005). Vi bør bruke større ressurser på å utdanne våre aller mest begavede elever Vi bør gripe inn for å sikre de begavede elevene et lykkelig og mentalt sunt liv For at elvene skal sikres emsjonell velvære, trenger de utfordringer som er tilpasset deres nivå Ellers vil de ikke bare kjede seg (som kan føre til at de underpresterer), men også bli sosialt isolert og føle seg forskjellig fra de andre

Skill Skill refers to an action or a task that is carried out voluntary – with a clear goal or intentions The term skill refers to the level of proficiency on a specific task or limited group of tasks (Fleishman, 1966, p. 148) Action capacities (Csikszentmihalyi, 2008) Quantitative changes – new skills Qualitative changes - being better at specific skill

Ability Ability refers to a more general trait of the individual which has been inferred from certain response consistencies (e.g. correlations) on certain kinds of tasks (Fleishman, 1966, p.147/148) Schmidt (1991) argue that abilities are underlying, inherent, relative stable properties, while skills are trainable One example – the visual system (Stein & Walsh, 1997) – developmental disorder

Sjakk – Magnus Carlsen

Musikk – Arve Tellefsen

Probabilistic Epigenesis Maturation Growth, Experience Learning

Edelman

Sebastian Seung `I am my connectome` Guys` brain are like waffles – they keep their lives compartmentalized in boxes Girls` brains are like spaghetti – everything in their life is connected to everything else

The anatomical asymmetry in planum temporale of musicans

Edelmans theory Edelmans theory on ‘neural Darwinism’ argues that the process of learning can be explained as a process of selection that takes place inside the neural system. The theory emphasizes how stimuli and practice increase connections within specific areas of the brain Practice of a task strengthens the neural network that are used for that particular task

Task specificity It is possible to argue that Edelman’s theory supports the perspectives of ‘task specificity’ of learning (Sigmundsson, 2005; Haga, 2008) By saying that training is specific, we mean that every particular skill is specific and should be trained specifically (Larkin & Hoare, 2002) Motor skill learning- by training specific tasks – neuro-motor and perceptual – motor subsystems involved in that specific task may be tuned in (Sporns & Edelman, 1993)

(Henderson & Sugden, 1992; Haga et al. 2008) Learningprocess Implications Generalisation Motivation Automatisation Acquiring and refining the skill Repetition Understanding the skill Trying and practising Copying (Henderson & Sugden, 1992; Haga et al. 2008)

Generality and Specificity Concentration, focus, interest How do we create that? Specificity: You develop what you train How do we learn/train in the best way?

Giftedness Ability - Neural network Concentration Focus, interest Motivation Action capacity - Specificity: You develop what you train

Conclusion Gottliebs theory Edelmans theory

Conclusion Skill development Task specificity Empirical support for task specificity

Conclusion Giftedness – ability or skill Task specificity

Conclusion – learning principles The level of difficulty is set so that the child can manage the task, and the difficulty of the task is gradually increased as a results of the child success (Csikszentmihalyi, 2008)