CAN YOU LEARN WHILE YOU SLEEP?
Hypnopedia, or the ability to learn during sleep, was popularized in
the '60s, with for example the dystopia Brave New World by Aldous
Huxley, in which individuals are conditioned to their future tasks
during sleep. This concept has been progressively abandoned due to a
lack of reliable scientific evidence supporting in-sleep learning
abilities. Recently however, few studies showed that the acquisition of
elementary associations such as stimulus-reflex response is possible
during sleep, both in humans and in animals. Nevertheless, it is not
clear if sleep allows for more sophisticated forms of learning. A study published this August 6 in the journal Scientific Reports
by researchers from the ULB Neuroscience Institute shows that
while our brain is able to continue perceiving sounds during sleep like
at wake, the ability to group these sounds according to their
organization in a sequence is only present at wakefulness, and
completely disappears during sleep.
INTEGRATING ACTIVE LEARNING
James Salsich, writes, "During my career, I have at times struggled with the effectiveness of
active learning in my classroom. But after reflecting and planning over
the summer, I have always returned to school convinced more than ever
of the dire need for our students to claim ownership of their learning. Active learning is student-driven, teaches students how to learn in
collaboration with their peers, and asks teachers to give some portion
of the authority that has traditionally been theirs over to students.
Students, on the other hand, take increased ownership for the direction
and progress of their learning. However, when we take a step toward this student-centered approach to
teaching, we must first help our students to unlearn some problematic
ideas. When we ask our students to adapt to a more complex,
self-directed, self-regulated approach, we are often going against their
very beliefs about how people learn. It is a process that is most
successful when implemented gradually and purposefully." Continue reading here.
