Brain Research Supports Differentiation

Neuroscience appears to be one of the hottest studies that have piqued the interest of today's researchers. The simple knowledge of understanding how the brain works has been the beginning of many discoveries on how our brains learn. There have been scholars from different disciplines who have been concerned in the neural basis of not just thinking but learning as well. During eras such as the renaissance, philosophers like Rene Descartes was amazed that a material organ such as the brain could contact and relate with the thing we call our mind (J. Byrnes, 2001).

When the brain is injured there are sometime defects such as memory loss, which may or may not be permanent and the paralyzing of some body parts can occur and can cause some of the worst dysfunctions imaginable. Research on how the brain relates to our minds had been studied by some psychologists in the late 20the century, but since it was not a study of great interest to many psychologists, the interest in this study waned. It was not until the emergence of studies in the field of cognitive science in the latter part of the 1980's that many scholars from many different disciplines came together to study neuroscience and cognitive psychology. We will explore how the brain learns supports differentiation in the classroom.

The term "differentiation" pertains to a process of lesson plan that allows the teacher to vary his/her approach to content, the progression, and product in expectation of and reaction to learner differences in readiness, interest and learning needs (P. Koeze, 2007). Ms. Koeze's discussion of brain based learning justifies how research of the brain is grounded on differentiation. When in a classroom the teachers who plan their lesson with the readiness of the learners in mind work at eliminating frustration and boredom in the learning process of their students. When one studies cognitive research on human brains they learn that the brains of humans confirm that human brains functions by concentrating on meaningful information. Brain concentration on this data leads to its functioning and this is the reason for the survival of humans on earth. It is amazing, but the human brain has an intelligent way that it creates and disseminates the information it receives from either its external body parts or its internal ones. According to Wolfe those students who are stormed by information that does not match their memory data causes their brains to look for appropriate connections to make sense or interpret the meaning of the information detail which is required (P. Wolfe, 2001). If nothing matches the information then it is thrown away as useless. The learning process should make the teacher create existing information that will interest his/her students. This type of learning procedure by a teacher differentiates according to student readiness, is helping the student brain come to terms with what their brain needs.