The Adult Brain and Learning

Adult Brain Article

           

    I chose this article because I wanted to learn a little bit about the physical components of what makes an adult different from a child in terms of learning.  Some of the science was above my head and they employed some pretty daunting math, but I was able to find some helpful ideas that put adult education in a new context.  The big take away from the article is that adults can learn as effectively as children, but in a different way.

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“The acquisition of new skills in adulthood can positively affect an individual’s quality of life, including their earning potential”

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...learning in adulthood is increasingly a vital part of living in modern society, be it in order to keep pace with ever-advancing technology, to develop new employment prospects or to capitalise on opportunities that were not available to the individual during childhood.

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They first establish that continued education into adulthood has a purpose.  Like previous articles I read this one mentions the monetary reason specifically.  They did go on to say that there are mental health benefits as well and that adults generally reported a higher level of life satisfaction.

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However, the popular view is that adults are less able to learn for an intrinsic reason: their brains are less plastic than in childhood.

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The human brain constantly changes throughout the lifespan and responds differently to environmental challenges and opportunities across that span. Periods during which the brain is most responsive to input from the environment are known as sensitive periods. (not all parts of the brain go through sensitive periods at the same time)

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Based on current understanding, sensitive periods are not a serious limiting factor in adult education, but they do point to changes in the expected rate of learning. (Literacy taught to adults)

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    This was what I was looking for.  Physical reasons why a child and an adult could possibly require different kinds of instruction.  However, it appears from this section of the article that they focus mainly on who learns better generally and not specifically why certain activities/situations would benefit one or the other.  That’s ok.  I think there is some value in understanding that there are times and situations that on the biological level help us learn faster and better.  The periods where certain parts of our brain are more plastic is an incredible concept which with further study could help us to structure learning more effectively.  I was not able to determine if these periods are cyclical or if they are standard ages/times for everyone or if they are sort of random or environmentally affected.  It does indicate that they become less frequent or potent as we get older.  It doesn’t inhibit learning of complex things like literacy but can make it easier to learn if you’re in a period of high plasticity.  

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Methods are now emerging which allow clinicians and researchers to induce plasticity in the adult human brain.

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    So this is a ways away it seems, but this could be a pretty substantial breakthrough in terms of educational techniques/methods/procedures.  If someone can figure out a way to make our brains more receptive to learning then the effects could be astonishing.

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Changes in attention control also influence learning throughout the lifespan. The ability to inhibit distracting stimuli develops over childhood, and children gradually learn to maintain currently relevant goals

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This would be a positive in the way of adult learners.  If we’re able to more effectively control our attention spans as adults it would stand to reason that we’d be able to absorb more information.  This is probably too simple, but it makes sense.  I think the ability to inhibit distracting stimuli is an interesting consideration.  Adult students can more effectively engage with material in a noisy coffee shop or common area on campus where a child would not have the same control of their attention.  

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One particularly relevant aspect of engagement is that social situations induce learning.

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    I don’t have much to add other than I think this rings truer and truer with every class I take in the ITLS program.  I should also admit here that I think I missed an opportunity to have a better experience in this class by not making my materials more readily available.  

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There is some evidence to show that variability in skill acquisition can be predicted prior to the commencement of skill learning and, furthermore, that this variability can be reduced, helping poorer learners to keep up. In the case of literacy acquisition, adult learners have been shown to demonstrate different profiles of strengths and weaknesses which predict their success in literacy programmes

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I’d love to have a test show me if I’ll be able to learn something before I try to learn it.  Or, would that just make me miss out on important failures in my life?  I guess there is something in the try/fail cycle that is important to developing character and humility and patience.  Still, if I could know before I try to learn how small engines work that I’d have absolutely no luck in learning anything about it despite my best efforts then I could have saved some money and a whole bunch of time.  Also, there is something discriminatory feeling about this.  If it’s always accurate then I guess I’d like to be given a shot even if there is no hope for me to learn something.  Of course I don’t think that this is exactly what they’re getting at.  I think they have something more subtle in play here.   Something that will help educators pace their training and at the same time keep everyone on track together.  You can lose students if what they’re learning is too hard, and also if it’s too easy.

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Learning from a live tutor and actively engaging with materials, rather than relying on passive presentation, may be more important for adults than for children.

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    This is hilarious because if I were asked if it’s more important for children or adults to have a live tutor and be actively engaged by materials I think I would have said children!  I think about the articles I’ve read about how online learning is great for adults because they are self motivated, have a highly developed self concept, are too busy to be in class at a certain time/place, are more and better able to maintain concentration, can focus beyond distractions around them and so forth.  All of that would lead me to believe that adults don’t really actually need a live tutor or engagement with materials.  But, if you look at all the information in this article it becomes obvious why this would be important for the adult brain.  It needs more stimulation and preparation and a greater impression to stick.  A kid can sometimes remember the oddest things that you didn’t even know they were listening to.  An adult can have a direct instruction given to them and not remember it the next moment.  This is a generality and isn’t always true, but it illustrates the point that children’s moldable plastic brains are much better at absorbing information without much force behind it where an adult’s brain is generally much less pliable and may need more force to make it’s way into the long-term memory of the learner. 

                        

Information taken from Educating the adult brain: How the neuroscience of learning can inform educational policy by Knowland and Thomas.