Aaron Patterson

February 2016

English 111

Dollieslager

Natural Human Learning Process

      According to Rita Smilkstein, our brain is “Born to learn, loves to learn, and knows how to learn.” When you begin learning something new, you go through the five to six stages of (NHLP). The first stage is motivation, or your reasoning to learn a certain skill. Either because you want to or have to. When beginning something new, you need to practice, starting to practice is the second stage. In order to practice, you must make mistakes, and then try to correct the mistakes and learn from them. This falls under the third stage of advanced practice. When you learn what you’ve been practicing, your brain is growing new fibers (dendrites) and connecting them. This is the fourth stage (Skillfulness). The last two stages are refinement/improvement and mastery. But if you don’t continue to practice what you’ve learned, the fibers will disappear. When you feel emotions, it affects your brains ability to learn, think and remember. You are a natural born leader (Smilkstein).

      When I needed to learn how to be a parent, it was because I had to, so that was my motivation. I needed to practice and make mistakes in order to correct them, and I did make those mistakes. Every day was a new lesson for me. I learned when my son needed to eat or sleep or play just by observing and remembering the last time he ate or slept. Over time, I started to learn his code words and signs for certain things he needed. If he said “coo coo”, he’s trying to tell me he’s hungry, if he raises both of his arms, he wants me to pick him up. I “practice” this skill everyday so it’s now like a routine to me. But if I were to stop for a long period of time, according to Rita Smilkstein, the connecting fibers in my brain would disappear. So if I were to stop and come back, I would have to practice and make mistakes again to get it right.

      If you’ve seen a neuron, you know that it in many ways looks like an upside down tree. Not only do they look alike, but they also have a lot of the same characteristics. The roots of a tree are the dendrites of a neuron. The dendrites of a neuron detect and receive information from other neurons. Just like the roots of a tree would receive nutrients. A soma is the cell body which contains the nucleus which is the heart of a neuron, like a seed is to a tree. Then we have the trunk of the tree, which is like the axon. The axon sends information using electro-chemical impulses to other cells, as a trunk does its branches. The “bark” of the axon is the myelin sheath. The fatty substance that prevents interference from other neurons and helps messages travel faster. The synaptic terminals are the “branches” of a neuron. Synaptic terminals are at the end of each axon, containing the axon terminal bulbs, which is like the leaves to its branches. The “leaves” of a neuron are the tiny sacs that contain neurotransmitters. So not only do trees and neurons look alike, but they act alike in many other ways as well.

      When a spark plug fires, fuel and air is pulled into a cylinder by the piston traveling the opposite direction down the cylinder. When the piston reaches the bottom and travels back up the cylinder, the piston compresses the fuel and air against the spark plug, which is located at the top of the cylinder head, the spark plug ignites and fires. In a neuron, two different body chemicals can be released, endorphins (good) and norepinephrine (bad). When your body releases endorphins, you feel good and think better and quicker. When your body releases norepinephrine, you feel stress, anxious, nervous and feel like you can’t do it. These can be compared to the fuel and air that is pulled into the cylinder. When these chemicals are released in your body, messages are received by the dendrites and then sent through the axon by conductivity. The dendrites can be compared to the top of the cylinder and the axon can represent the cylinder and the piston. Once it’s sent through the axon, the axon sends these messages to other neurons hoping it will attach with a dendrite to create synaptic firing. When a message is being received by dendrites, this means you’re learning something new, this is called synapse. When the message actually starts to attach to the dendrite, this is called synaptic firing. You’ve finally learned the new skill you’ve been practicing and now your neurons are beginning to grow even more.

      In the process of learning something new, you run into challenges along the way. These challenges become more difficult when feeling stressful emotions. If you’re feeling stressed or anxious about learning a new skill, norepinephrine has been released in your body and has tricked your mind to think you can’t do it. So some people give up before giving the extra effort. But for the people who keep trying and tell themselves they can do it, the endorphins released will make the process much easier as you practice. Keep practicing and keep a positive mind and you will overcome the challenges.

      In previous classes I’ve attended in high school, if I couldn’t understand something after the first few times of trying, I would get frustrated and give up. The last class I took in high school was world history two. Every day I would go to class and thought I was trying my hardest to understand what we were doing. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but after the first few weeks of going into class and trying, I just stopped going to class. I told myself there was no way I could ever pass that class and I gave up on any and every chance I had to pass. After a few months go by, I begin to study for my world history GED test. I took a whole month to study and when I took the test, I passed with flying colors. If you keep trying and you give extra effort, you will accomplish your goals.

      Through all of the challenges you confront in the process of learning a new skill, it is truly up to you if you want to learn the skill bad enough to accomplish it. When you run into a challenge, you can tell yourself “I will overcome the challenges”, and you most likely will. You have to want it bad enough. If you’re learning a new skill just because you have to, then that skill will disappear as you move forward because if you don’t want to use it, why would you? Bottom line, you control the outcome of learning a new skill.

Works Cited

Smilkstein, Rita. We're Born to Learn: Using the Brain's Natural Learning Process to Create Today's Curriculum, 2nd Ed. Thousand Oaks, Cal.: Corwin, 2011.