Читать книгу Student Engagement Techniques - Elizabeth F. Barkley - Страница 65

Physical learning has been around from the beginning, ever since people learned to use fire, water, and land for their own survival. Ratey (2002) discusses the degree to which humans, at least over the past few centuries, have tended to undervalue the importance of physicality to our human identity. For example, “civilized” humans have defined themselves as “above” the animals because they can “think,” whereas animals just “act.” Physical movement was thought to be a lower brain function, and cognition a higher brain function that only humans have evolved. Until somewhat recently, most people didn't think any portion of the “motor brain” did anything but react to incoming stimuli and monitor or implement motor functions. But scientists are rapidly finding that regions associated with physical functioning also play a large role in activity related to planning, calculating, and forming intentions. As Ratey (2002) observes, “Clearly, catching a ball involves the brain's motor function. But making a mental calculation does too … mounting evidence shows that movement is crucial to every other brain function, including memory, emotion, language, and learning” (pp. 147–148).

When someone is first learning to do something physically, such as riding a bike or driving a car, they are using the “thinking” part of the brain, the cortex. But as the activity becomes better learned and more automatic, the responsibility for controlling it shifts to neurons in the lower parts of the brain, freeing up neurons in the cortex for new learning. This is the same process for cognitive acts. The cortex is directly involved when we first learn our multiplication tables or how to formulate a grammatically correct question, but once these tasks are mastered, they are moved to lower parts of the brain and become automatic (Ratey, 2002, p. 149). Thus, the older view that the brain is comprised of specific regions that are each responsible for isolated, discrete functions is inaccurate: motor function is crucial to some forms of cognition and to behavior, just as behavior is the acting out of movements prescribed by cognition.