1. As I read chapter 3, I was increasingly more amazed with the capabilities of the human brain. Chapter 3 was about different types of attention and consciouness. The book explains that attention is a focus of concentration on a particular subject. Having said that, there are several types of attention. Divided attention is when one is trying to focus on two things at once. In doing this, people usually aren't able to perform both tasks well. Selective attention is when one selects a specific area to focus on and the other stimuli become the background. One example of this is dichotic listening. This occurs when two different messages are being presented in each ear. It is almost impossible to focus on one message and correctly hear the other. Another type of selective attention is noted through the Stroop effect. This is explained by having subjects read color words that are written in colored ink that does not correspond to the word itself. The subject has to become more aware of the task than the colored ink, which can be difficult. During a visual search, a target can be found if it is present and familiar to the subject. Saccadic eye movements were also described in this chapter. These are slight jumps and bumps that the eye makes when gather information. The eye moves ahead to "get a picture" of the up-coming text.
While the chapter discusses attention and its theories, it also explains the concept of consciousness. This is described as an awareness of one's environment and all of its components. The chapter goes on to connect consciousness with attention. While the two are connected, they are not always intertwined. Quite often we are not aware of our own thought processes and actions, as they just seem to happen. Thought suppression is an interesting topic because the more we tell ourselves not to think of something, the more we become conscious of it. Our consciousness is quite amazing, and that is where blindsight comes into play. Blindsight occurs when there is damage to the visual cortex resulting in a lack of vision, but the individual can still see basic components of the object.
2. This chapter fits in nicely with our other findings from previous reading. I think that most related concept is that the brain is an amazing structure that cannot be simply labled or defined. Each component is inter-connected and overlapping. Perception is a combination of bottom-up and top-down processes, just as attention is a combination of many different facets.
3. I don't think that I am confused about the chapter as much as I am how brain leisons can change the perception of what is really there. This made me wonder what my own students are perceiving when it seems quite obvious to me.
4. As for applying this to my own teaching, I think that I will concentrate on the attention aspects of the chapters. I have noticed that several of my students struggle with attention. I will need to be more aware of situations where dichotic listening occur in my classroom. Quite often, I provide instructions during small group times. I have noticed that I have to repeat these instructions several times. I believe that it is because my students do not have the abilities to listen to their group and me at the same time.
5. The author offers many studies that confirm the reliability of the material in this chapter. I was especially interested in the study regarding brain lesions and perception.
6.I believe that this chapter is important in explaining attention and consciousness. It is crucial for my own metacognition as well as my students' attention and awareness. This chapter has opened my eyes as what to expect my students to be able to attend to, and why they might struggle.
7.I believe that I would use the consciousness aspect of the chapter for character education and conflict resolution. Many of my students struggle with both of these concepts, and I am now questioning if they are really conscious of the situations. I would try to find and conduct activities that encourage awareness and consciousness in these real-world situations.
8.I am not sure that I could accomplish anything faster or cheaper than what the human brain can do.
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I think it is intriguing what you said in your response to question 7. It makes sense that your very young students might not be consciously aware of how to handle the conflict that goes on in their little lives. I have third graders and I had a troubled little soul last year. I had to spend some time on character education to try to get through to him. We did a role play activity, around Martin Luther King Day, to portray discrimination since he was doing this to other students. This particular student was with a group that was told they had to write a report while the rest of the class played games. The group being discriminated against had to put their heads together to find a way to get in with the other group. This boy’s answer was to fight them all. He ended up crying before it was all over with. I later asked him if he was aware of how he was making the other students feel. He was truly not consciously aware of his actions. I know this is too extreme for you little ones but it did help our classroom. I think you will see the benefits of character education in raising their conflict resolution strategies and simply making them more consciously aware.
ReplyDeleteYou provide a great summary of the whole chapter. It seems like you are more aware now of what you should be expecting from your students based on their ability to pay attention to what you are saying/doing in class and how much they will absorb. I agree with Karen that your answer to 7 is interesting. I sometimes don't work with students as directly as I'd like to so I often overlook how they respond to things. I'm guessing that many students do not understand their own thought processes and don't know how they should respond in real world situations. Teaching them about these issues at their level may help them to better educate themselves as they get older. Hopefully by the time they are in middle school they have an idea about their thought processes and their ability to focus on different stimuli. I know that when I was younger I did not understand these types of things at all.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Carlie that you gave a good summary of the whole chapter. You had mentioned that during group activities you give instructions to the students. I also do this in the classroom. After reading this chapter I think that it is most likely because of the divided attention during the group activity and teacher instruction. This could also relate to dichotic listening in that they are hearing what their group members are saying as well as trying to listen to the teacher.
ReplyDeleteAre you implying that some students have brain lesions?! :-) The brain lesion research is interesting and it now can be validated somewhat with neuroscience imaging techniques. I think your focus on attention (no pun intended) is a good one in terms of how you can use the information from the chapter practically. As far as what students are perceiving when it is obvious to you, that is the great challenge of education, but you now have more intellectual tools to work from your work in this class.
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