EDPE5002 Unit Essay Notes 2019 Essay rubric: Within the broad theoretical framework

Essay rubric:

Within the broad theoretical framework of Dynamic Systems Theory and with particular reference to Seminars 2 & 3 and the required readings for those seminars, critically discuss two important ways in which our understanding of the dynamics of the human brain might advance teachers’ and parents understanding of children and adolescents and their development. (2,000 words)

The first thing to notice about this essay is that it has a given frame of reference. It says you should write your essay “Within the broad theoretical framework of Dynamic Systems Theory and with particular reference to Seminars 2 & 3 and the required readings for those seminars”.

The important basic message here is don’t go wandering off on the Internet. Stick to what was covered in Seminars 2 & 3, which was all within the framework of Dynamic Systems Theory (DST) and the 6 readings given for those seminars, provided on Canvas, which are all DST compatible.

The second thing to note is that it then asks you to critically discuss two important ways in which our understanding of the dynamics of the human brain and its development might advance teachers’ and parents understanding of children and adolescents and their learning/development.

Please stick to what you are asked to do, which is to discuss critically, which means going beyond simply describing what the readings say by thinking carefully and critically about what they say. Thinking critically does not mean trashing it, you can think critically (giving your judgement and weighing the factors and/or evidence involved) while supporting and agreeing with what is written. Also notice it says two important ways, not three or four.

The six required readings

The Unit Outline tells you that required readings for this essay are those for Weeks 2 & 3. These are:

Carter, R. (2010). Mapping the Mind. London: Phoenix. Chapter 1 – The Emerging Landscape.

Choudhury, S., Charman, T., & Blakemore, S. (2008). Development of the teenage brain. Mind, Brain, and Education, 2(3), 142-147.

Immordino-Yang, M. H. (2011). Implications of affective and social neuroscience for educational theory. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 43(1), 98-103.

Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Damasio, A. R. (2016). We feel, therefore we learn: The relevance of affective and social neuroscience to education. In M. H. Immordino-Yang (Ed.), Emotions, Learning, and The Brain: Exploring the Educational Implications of Affective Neuroscience (pp. 27-42). New York: Norton.

Sankey, D., & Kim, M. (2016). Cultivating moral values in an age of neuroscience. In C. W. Joldersma (Eds.), Neuroscience and education: A philosophical appraisal, (pp. 111-127). Oxon: Routledge.

Sankey, D. (2018). The neurobiology of trust and schooling. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 50(2), 183-192. 

So, six required readings for this essay. Please read them carefully and as you do, keep thinking how what they say might advance teachers’ & parents understanding of child and adolescent development.

Most importantly: This is an academic essay, so when citing the readings in the text of your essay and in the Reference section at the end of the essay, make sure they are accurately written in APA style. Failure to cite and reference accurately in APA style will lead to a loss of marks. If in doubt, follow the way citations & references are given in my paper: The neurobiology of trust and schooling.

The purpose of this essay is to celebrate what you know and what you have learnt in this Unit so far, not to try to give you a fail mark. Work hard and enjoy it.

Planning your essay

Based on what has been said above, the suggestion is that you plan your essay using 4 subheadings. For example, these might be: 1) Introduction; 2) The development of children and adolescents as neurobiological selves; 3) The neurobiology of emotion, thinking and learning; 4) Conclusion.

Below is a model plan based on this suggested example, though, of course, you can choose different topics and themes from Seminars 2 and 3 and/or the readings. For example, you might choose to discuss the arguments regarding moral development and values and education in the 2016 Sankey & Kim chapter Cultivating moral values in an age of neuroscience and the 2016 Sankey paper on The neurobiology of trust and schooling. There are lots of themes covered in the seminars and readings.

1. Introduction (around 300 words)

This will introduce the essay. Perhaps you can begin with a personal note about how the seminars and readings have impacted your own personal development and learning, as teacher and/or parent. How, for example, it has made you think differently about some things and perhaps confirmed others. Then perhaps a reflective note on how this is important to you as teacher and/or as a potential or actual parent when dealing with children and adolescents in your care.

This will then lead into your discussion of your two chosen examples (from the seminars and the readings). For example, using the suggested plan, above, it would look like this:

2. The development of children and adolescents as neurobiological selves (around 750 words)

For this, you can draw particularly on the content of the two seminars (2 & 3) with the key message that in a most fundamental way, our embodied and socially, environmentally embedded brain makes us who we are – change the brain and you may well change the person (remember the story of Dave). On the other hand, you were encouraged to think that this does not mean you are nothing more than your brains (atoms and molecules in motion) as Reductionists claim. A dynamics view of the self is that all that what we call our self or our mind emerges from but is not reducible to the neurobiology of the brain. You will see this discussed in detail in Sankey, D., Kim, M. (2016). “Cultivating moral values in an age of neuroscience” & Sankey, D. (2018) “The neurobiology of trust and schooling”. Of course, you may agree or disagree with what we say on this, but make sure you accurately describe what these readings say and discuss the issues critically and carefully. The main relevance of this for teachers and parents is that it begins to change the way we view children in our care. We begin to appreciate, for example, that the child we know and care for is actually a functioning embodied and socially/environmentally embedded brain. Also, that, as a result of brain plasticity what we do as teachers and parents actually, physically changes the brain (teachers and parents are brain-makers) and this realisation comes with great responsibilities, etc.

3. The neurobiology of emotion, thinking and learning (around 750 words)

For this, you could draw particularly on the two readings by Mary Helen Immordino-Yang. Also, the video viewed in Seminar 3 on what is happening in the brain as our personalities develop and also the video on what is happening to the brain during puberty and adolescence and how that correlates with many of the difficulties of adolescence, including their insensitivity to the feelings of others. You can find this issue discussed in the paper by Choudhury et al. (2008). These all result from brain plasticity, the forming of neuronal connections and maps and their pruning in the brain. We also viewed the video clip of brush tail rats, deprived of maternal care for just a short time each day, resulting in an impact on the infant’s memory and leading to stressed-behaviour later in life. The researcher referred to a window of time in early development, in which, what she called ‘the grammar of emotionality’ is laid down. In regard to learning and memory (are they the same thing or are they different?), we considered how memory responds to what is salient or meaningful in our experience, for better or worse, in engendering Long Term Potentiation (LTP) and hence long-term memory. One obvious message for teachers and parents of this is to make learning meaningful, as that is what is likely to be retained. Brain plasticity provides teachers and parents with an alternative theory of learning and development to those they find in most textbooks (see notes for Seminar 3).

4. Conclusion (around 200 words)

This will bring your essay to a tidy ending, perhaps emphasising that neuroscience is beginning to impact what we understand about ourselves as human beings and what is involved in human thinking and learning at the biological level – both of which have implications for all of us in understanding ourselves, but also (and importantly) how teachers and parents might enhance their understanding children’s and adolescents’ development as neurobiological selves during the precious years of childhood and adolescence, and when in full time education – it is happening to you in your studies, right now.

1[supanova_question]