So I'm doing a show right now on adolescent brain development.
Myelinization is the process by which certain connections in the brain are hard-wired for quick use. However this only happens to the most needed (think automatic functions like breathing and stuff) and the most often used.
Neuroscience is still figuring itself out as a discipline. There is more they know they don't know right now than they do know. However - there is important knowledge that can inform training practices.
Mirror neurons - mentioned by Mr. Sonnon on a thread in Van's forum is one of those ideas. I had a wonderful discussion the other day with a leading neuropsychologist at the NIH.
He mentioned that we have a stone-age brain in a computer aged society. That for millions of years humans did not read to learn but rather we did what someone else did. We modeled. Modeling is the natural way the brain learns. And the amazing thing about brains is that they stay relatively plastic. Which means they can form new connecitons over time. There are periods when this is done at a wholesale level (fetal development to early childhood) and stages when "spurts" happen - particularly 11-13 years old until about age 25 when the prefrontal cortex builds up a forest of dendrites and then prunes or shields them.
This is why it is so powerful to have an instructor at the front of the class doing proper movements for new students. We are hard-wired to mimic new behaviors in order to be able to do them on our own. However after a certain level of mastery is reached, the students should no longer mimic but rather make their own connections to the new material by attaching it to their own personal background experiences. This cements the new knowledge within the network of pre-existing memories. The more connections you can make, the stronger the learning.
So visualization is good, mneumonics are good, songs and rhythm are good, and emotional attachments are some of the strongest memories. Things that are often called "formative" experiences.
The Brain and Training
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By then it may be too late...This is why it is so powerful to have an instructor at the front of the class doing proper movements for new students. We are hard-wired to mimic new behaviors in order to be able to do them on our own. However after a certain level of mastery is reached, the students should no longer mimic but rather make their own connections to the new material by attaching it to their own personal background experiences.
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Dana Sheets
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There are also ideas of classical and operant conditioning.
Classical conditioning = Classical Conditioning is the type of learning made famous by Pavlov's experiments with dogs. The gist of the experiment is this: Pavlov presented dogs with food, and measured their salivary response (how much they drooled). Then he began ringing a bell just before presenting the food. At first, the dogs did not begin salivating until the food was presented. After a while, however, the dogs began to salivate when the sound of the bell was presented. They learned to associate the sound of the bell with the presentation of the food. As far as their immediate physiological responses were concerned, the sound of the bell became equivalent to the presentation of the food.
Classical conditioning forms an association between two stimuli.
Operant conditioning = Operant conditioning forms an association between a behavior and a consequence. (It is also called response-stimulus or RS conditioning because it forms an association between the animal's response [behavior] and the stimulus that follows [consequence])
Four Possible Consequences
There are four possible consequences to any behavior. They are:
Something Good can start or be presented;
Something Good can end or be taken away;
Something Bad can start or be presented;
Something Bad can end or be taken away.
Consequences have to be immediate, or clearly linked to the behavior. With verbal humans, we can explain the connection between the consequence and the behavior, even if they are separated in time. For example, you might tell a friend that you'll buy dinner for them since they helped you move, or a parent might explain that the child can't go to summer camp because of her bad grades. With very young children, humans who don't have verbal skills, and animals, you can't explain the connection between the consequence and the behavior. For the animal, the consequence has to be immediate. The way to work around this is to use a bridge (see above).
So much of this is used in how we teach martial arts.
Operant conditioning example - you leave your head open I hit it.
In addition there are several ways humans can learn behaviors. Mimicking, Competitive Rivalry, and Local Enhancement.
For example - a student may try to do the movements a teacher has done exactly without seeking meaning for themselves = Mimicking
A teacher is teaching one thing to the entire class and students wish to master the material more quickly than the student next to them = competitive rivalry.
Stimulous Excitement or Local Enhancement - is when someone becomes interested in something because they see another person doing it. For example, a teacher shows a joint lock. Other students are intrigued with the idea of a joint lock and start trying to make it work on someone else. Then student can carry the idea of a joint lock forward to try to find out what other ways can apply that lock or other joint locks.
Excitement interest and competitive rivalry are two of the more effective methods in adult learning.
I think too many times teachers fall into the trap of encouraging mimicking or allowing students to simply mimick instead of encouraging the idea of "local enhancement." This bascially boils down to the idea that you wants students to be active participants in building their understanding by exploring aspects of a concept. The alternative is memorization and regurgitation - which doesn't promote self-exploration, self-improvement, or self-efficacy in the martial arts.
Classical conditioning = Classical Conditioning is the type of learning made famous by Pavlov's experiments with dogs. The gist of the experiment is this: Pavlov presented dogs with food, and measured their salivary response (how much they drooled). Then he began ringing a bell just before presenting the food. At first, the dogs did not begin salivating until the food was presented. After a while, however, the dogs began to salivate when the sound of the bell was presented. They learned to associate the sound of the bell with the presentation of the food. As far as their immediate physiological responses were concerned, the sound of the bell became equivalent to the presentation of the food.
Classical conditioning forms an association between two stimuli.
Operant conditioning = Operant conditioning forms an association between a behavior and a consequence. (It is also called response-stimulus or RS conditioning because it forms an association between the animal's response [behavior] and the stimulus that follows [consequence])
Four Possible Consequences
There are four possible consequences to any behavior. They are:
Something Good can start or be presented;
Something Good can end or be taken away;
Something Bad can start or be presented;
Something Bad can end or be taken away.
Consequences have to be immediate, or clearly linked to the behavior. With verbal humans, we can explain the connection between the consequence and the behavior, even if they are separated in time. For example, you might tell a friend that you'll buy dinner for them since they helped you move, or a parent might explain that the child can't go to summer camp because of her bad grades. With very young children, humans who don't have verbal skills, and animals, you can't explain the connection between the consequence and the behavior. For the animal, the consequence has to be immediate. The way to work around this is to use a bridge (see above).
So much of this is used in how we teach martial arts.
Operant conditioning example - you leave your head open I hit it.
In addition there are several ways humans can learn behaviors. Mimicking, Competitive Rivalry, and Local Enhancement.
For example - a student may try to do the movements a teacher has done exactly without seeking meaning for themselves = Mimicking
A teacher is teaching one thing to the entire class and students wish to master the material more quickly than the student next to them = competitive rivalry.
Stimulous Excitement or Local Enhancement - is when someone becomes interested in something because they see another person doing it. For example, a teacher shows a joint lock. Other students are intrigued with the idea of a joint lock and start trying to make it work on someone else. Then student can carry the idea of a joint lock forward to try to find out what other ways can apply that lock or other joint locks.
Excitement interest and competitive rivalry are two of the more effective methods in adult learning.
I think too many times teachers fall into the trap of encouraging mimicking or allowing students to simply mimick instead of encouraging the idea of "local enhancement." This bascially boils down to the idea that you wants students to be active participants in building their understanding by exploring aspects of a concept. The alternative is memorization and regurgitation - which doesn't promote self-exploration, self-improvement, or self-efficacy in the martial arts.
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Guest
Reinforcement in Training
In our school we are taught in learning techniques and kata to model on the instructor.
The student should also check his/her execution in the mirror and compare it with the instructor's movements.
In the initial stages of instructor training, the students face each other in hojo undo, for example, and take turns teaching each other.
In a lot of situations, hojo undo becomes part of the workout and a warmup. We lose sight that the 13 exercises are designed to teach technique, to teach a full range of motion and muscular extension, to teach precision and accuracy in execution, to teach the student to focus and then reset, to train in total body awareness.
Beginners will drop their guard hands and migrate from a floor positon without realizing. Their shoulders get tired and when they count and then move they derive aerobic benefits.
Hojo undo begins to get everyone in the class on the same sheet of music. We realize that every person is a different instrument but the score is for the same song
The student should also check his/her execution in the mirror and compare it with the instructor's movements.
In the initial stages of instructor training, the students face each other in hojo undo, for example, and take turns teaching each other.
In a lot of situations, hojo undo becomes part of the workout and a warmup. We lose sight that the 13 exercises are designed to teach technique, to teach a full range of motion and muscular extension, to teach precision and accuracy in execution, to teach the student to focus and then reset, to train in total body awareness.
Beginners will drop their guard hands and migrate from a floor positon without realizing. Their shoulders get tired and when they count and then move they derive aerobic benefits.
Hojo undo begins to get everyone in the class on the same sheet of music. We realize that every person is a different instrument but the score is for the same song
