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when school starts, many parents worry that their children will fall behind in the new semester, especially those whose children are in higher grades and face a sharp increase in academic intensity.

some parents may find that even though they have given their children extra lessons since childhood and have spent a lot of money and time, why don’t their children have a “dark horse comeback” but are becoming increasingly unable to cope?

what went wrong? what genetic lottery did those hard-working kids or natural academic masters win?

the bund interviewedprofessor of the state key laboratory of cognitive neuroscience and learning, beijing normal university, researcher of idg-mcgovern institute for brain researchxue guias brain science researchers, professor xue and his team have been paying attention to education and inspiring us to rethink learning issues from the perspective of brain science.

xue guiprofessor

he found that many of today's educational problems are actually closely related to the learning ability of children's brains. to put it bluntly, if you don't follow the cognitive and activity laws of the brain, the effect of raising children will definitely not be satisfactory.

in addition, the involution of education under today's fierce competition and the invasion of games and short videos are causing some adverse changes in children's brains and destroying their learning ability.

the correct way to raise a child may be to reshape and empower the brain.

for ease of reading, the following text is written in the first person.

today's children's brains

what changes are happening?

i do research in cognitive neuroscience, which is the study of the human brain.

i am often asked, as ai has developed to this day, is it getting closer and closer to humans? compared with ai, what advantages does the human brain have in cognition and learning?

frankly speaking, many occupations with professional barriers, which were once thought to be things that only scientists could do, are now being replaced by artificial intelligence, such as chemical experiments, archaeological research, analyzing biological protein structures, and so on.

not only that,aiits learning and memory abilities are also very impressive, and it can complete information processing in a huge database in a short period of time.

but,the human brain is amazing. it has a very unique learning mechanism that ai cannot match.

for example, it can achieve highly generalized learning through very small samples based on intuitive reasoning, judgment, hypothesis, and the ability of abstract generalization. this is still a unique learning method for humans.

in the future, facing an uncertain world, the human brain's cognitive and learning abilities will remain crucial core competitiveness.

in real life, when we say that a child has a strong learning ability, what exactly do we mean?

if we further analyze the organization of the brain, we will find thatbehind learning ability, there are three very important components.

xue gui, "educational goal reform based on brain science", people's education, 2020

first of all, there is the organic knowledge system.

if we store files on a computer, we will set up different areas to classify different files, but the human brain does not work like this.

the knowledge storage system of the brain is exactly the same. in a computer, all knowledge is divided into different levels from concrete to abstract, all broken up and reconnected, and finally forms an organic knowledge network based on similarities and connection methods.

if those scattered and fragmented knowledge points do not find their own connection position in the knowledge network, they will not remain in the brain.

therefore, real knowledge must be a process of continuous construction and growth. the denser the knowledge network is, the more firmly it will be remembered in the brain.

many teaching principles now emphasize the shift from teachers’ teaching to students’ learning, from input to output, and advocate project-based learning, large-unit learning, and cross-subject learning. all these reforms in learning methods are aimed at building a complete and organic knowledge system in children’s brains.

secondly, there is strong cognitive ability.

cognitive ability is the processing ability that our brain needs in the process of organizing, analyzing and processing knowledge. it is equivalent to the cpu and memory of a computer, which can read and process the contents of files on the hard disk.

from the perspective of brain science, cognitive ability is a complex system, includingattention, memory, thinking, reaction, and some abilities that are closely related to subject learning.

if you want to improve a child's cognitive ability, you actually need to improve his or her comprehensive abilities in these areas.

finally, it is the lasting motivation to learn.

it is also the brain's power system, corresponding to internal driving forces such as passion and love.

the brain's power system includes at least three aspects, such asif we use the analogy of cars, they are likeengine, brakes, steering wheel。

what is an engine?it is the innate desire and growth need of each of us, and it is also the internal driving force of passion and love for exploring the outside world.intrinsic driveif it is not destroyed, he will show lasting motivation to learn.

children today have no worries about food and clothing. they need higher goals to provide lasting motivation, such as exploring the unknown world, climbing the pinnacle of science, altruism and creation.

what is a brake system?it is reflected in our delayed gratification, control of emotions, compliance with rules, etc. it is a self-control system. the stronger the braking system, the stronger the self-control.

there is a problem in today's education environment, that is, using external control to replace the cultivation of children's self-control. self-control needs to be exercised, and we should provide children with opportunities for trial and error and choice to hone their own brake system.

the steering wheel, which is the so-called value issue. the shaping and guidance of values ​​is not a simple preaching, it is closely linked to internal motivation.

in summary, an organic knowledge system, strong cognitive ability, and lasting learning motivation constitute what we calllearning ability。

so,with today’s educational involution and the invasion of media such as games and short videos, what changes will occur in children’s brains?

when children receive a large amount of fragmented information every day and are under long-term learning pressure, their attention will be disturbed and distracted, and their ability to concentrate will be greatly weakened. some children even lack patience when watching slightly longer short videos.

memory is also weakening. more and more children are unwilling to spend time on memory tasks. like concentration, memory is also "use it or lose it"; as for the self-control to resist temptation and control emotions, it is even worse.

the result is that children's brains have a weakened ability to deeply process and sort out knowledge. faced with a flood of information, many children have become less and less patient in forming a structured knowledge system, and it is difficult for them to form their own opinions through independent thinking.

andthis kind of deep thinking ability will become more important in the future.

all of the above are challenges that changes in the social environment bring to children’s learning ability.

more importantly, virtual technology is still affecting children's motivation for growth. whether it is tiktok short videos or virtual games, the brain's reward system is hijacked, causing children to lose connection with nature, life, and others.

not enough stamina to study?

the root lies in the cognitive ability of the brain

we often hear about the "fourth grade watershed" phenomenon, or that children tend to fall behind in middle school and high school. many people look for reasons such as changes in learning content and lack of solid learning.

actually,from the perspective of brain science, all lack of stamina in learning is closely related to the cognitive ability of the brain.

as the density and difficulty of learning content increase, the role of cognitive ability also increases.

when children fall behind in the lower grades, you can solve the problem by giving them some tutoring and doing more homework. after all, the amount of knowledge they learn is small, so if others learn for 10 minutes, you can catch up in 20 minutes.

when the difficulty and amount of learning content increase, when others need to study for three or four hours, and you rely on double the time of tutoring to improve, you will feel incapable. i heard that some children have to do their homework until 11 o'clock in junior high school.

many children feel tired becausesimply improving grades through tutoring does not truly solve the problem of cognitive ability. it is only a temporary solution and will only make things more difficult later on.

so, how does the brain's cognitive ability affect children's learning outcomes?

taking mathematics as an example, why is it that for the same mental arithmetic problem, some children can quickly come up with the answer, while other children feel that their brain capacity is limited and is about to crash at any time?

actually,the difficulty of the learning content means that it requires high abstract thinking ability and requires the brain to have a stronger "working memory capacity" to handle problems.it is equivalent to the computer's memory. the larger the memory, the stronger the operating capacity.

corresponding to the child's brain, whether it is reading and understanding a long and difficult english sentence, or solving a logically complex math problem, "working memory" is needed.

nowadays, many primary and junior high school children cannot even understand the questions they read, and find a slightly complicated sentence confusing. that’s because their “working memory capacity” cannot keep up.

in brain science,we often roughly understand "working memory" as a person's iq because it is the most accurate predictor of a person's academic performance.

so, is a child’s intelligence innate?

the good news is that only 50% of our brain's "working memory" and cognitive ability is innate, and the remaining 50% can be completely improved through acquired training.

an important area of ​​brain science research is to characterize the functions of different brain areas and set up some targeted tasks for training, just like going to the gym and using special equipment and activities to perform precise muscle group training.

similarly, we can also train children's brain networks and improve their cognitive abilities through specific tasks. if such targeted training can be started in elementary school or kindergarten, it will have a multiplier effect, because the brain plasticity is stronger during this period.

unfortunately,however, many parents waste this precious "brain training period" and blindly force their children to learn more knowledge and get ahead at the starting line, thus missing out on improving their children's cognitive abilities.naturally, there is not enough stamina for subsequent learning.

there are actually a lot of resources on the internet about how to conduct cognitive training for children's brains. if there is no corresponding training in the school environment, it can also be carried out in the family environment.

it should be noted that although it seems to be the same learning, such as literacy and math enlightenment, the difference lies in whether our goal is to exercise the brain or just to accumulate knowledge?

this is also why, in the education of some developed countries, the learning content for children at a young age is very simple, but more emphasis is placed on the cultivation of children's comprehensive abilities, including interest, learning motivation, and stimulation of thinking ability.

certainly,if we want to improve children’s learning outcomes, our educational environment must also respect the cognitive laws of children’s brains.

for example, many children often lose focus and lack attention in class. what we should do is not to punish them, but to adjust the course content and pace. on the contrary, punishment and accusation, the emotions and pressure they bring, will only weaken children's ability to control their attention.

children's attention span is limited. we have a simple formula that shows that, on average, a child can maintain sustained attention for twice his age.

so,a first grader can only concentrate for about ten minutes.

from the perspective of brain science,

on the cultivation of innovative and outstanding talents

in addition to microscopic research on the brain, we will also study the relationship between the brain and the environment from the perspective of the broader educational environment.

in other words, if the exam content and selection methods emphasize rote memorization, the children in this environment will be more willing to spend time and energy on memorizing; conversely, if the exam content is more flexible, their thinking processing ability will be stronger.

to some extent,the educational environment and assessment system in which children live are "reverse shaping" their brains.

of course, in addition to exams and assessments, there are also more complex and comprehensive influences from the growth environment.

in the future world, the importance of memory may gradually decline, especially with the development of ai, which will make knowledge gained through memory readily available.thinking ability and creativity are increasingly becoming core competitive advantages.

this is also the direction that education is advocating today, for example, vigorously advocating the cultivation of innovative and outstanding talents.

here comes the problem.after allwhat kind of talents are considered innovative and outstanding talents? how to evaluate and select them?

in the past, our selection criteria were very simple, just looking at the test scores. however, a test paper is not enough to reflect a child's comprehensive ability and potential.

the so-called innovative top talents should not be those with the highest scores in school, but those who can make outstanding contributions in a certain professional field in the future. therefore, he must be a person with strong learning ability, including an organic knowledge system, strong cognitive ability, and lasting learning motivation.

therefore, my experimental team is also studying some new evaluation methods.

for example, task-based gamification assessment can test a child's knowledge system, cognitive ability, learning motivation, etc. through online games. it can also evaluate students' stress coping, resilience and endurance, growth mindset, creativity, etc. through specific situation simulations to achieve a more comprehensive assessment.

the assessment method will in turn reform teaching.

at present, we have carried out pilot projects in some schools, including cooperating with some schools to select students for the qiu chengtong junior class. we encourage each school to explore the assessment method that suits them.

also,even innovative and outstanding talents should be diverse.

from the perspective of brain science, the cognitive abilities of different children's brains are also personalized and differentiated.

for example, students with mathematical talent have certain specific characteristics in their brains, which are manifested as the activation of specific brain areas, which makes them stronger in information processing, processing speed, and working memory.

for children who have difficulty learning mathematics, if they have developmental defects in certain areas of the brain, such as damage to the right parietal lobe, they can also be intervened through specific training.

for example, children who are good at artistic creation may not necessarily have strong self-control; children who are good at competitive sports often have better reaction ability...

we must acknowledge the strengths and specialties of different children. if the educational goals and selection criteria are too uniform, we are selecting the same brain structure, and there is no way to talk about the release of nature and the development of personality.

"ten minutes between classes"not enough

exercise can really make children smarter

finally, i would like to talk about how physical exercise can improve the brain's cognitive abilities.

although the positive feedback of physical exercise on learning outcomes is becoming a consensus, it is sad that many children's exercise time at school is still not guaranteed, and even the 10-minute break between classes has become a mere decoration.

but in fact,even if the 10 minutes between classes are utilized,it is far from enough, children need longer exercise time.

research shows that everyone needs to do at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise every day to achieve a real exercise effect. what counts as aerobic exercise? normally, it needs to reach 80% of a person's maximum heart rate. using this standard, many children's daily exercise duration and intensity do not meet the standard.

from the perspective of brain science, insisting on half an hour of aerobic exercise every day can not only regulate children's growth hormone secretion, but also promote the secretion of dopamine, making people more cheerful and less likely to become depressed.

in addition, it can promote the secretion of brain neurotrophic factor (bdnf), help improve hippocampal function and enhance children's memory.

that is to say,exercising to the right level can help a child learn better and be smarter.

our practical research in many schools has proven this result. in schools that insist on having children do 40 minutes of aerobic exercise every day for a semester, the children's academic performance, learning efficiency, and mental outlook have all shown very positive changes.

so i have been suggesting to schools that they could reform existing physical education classes or recess activities and add more aerobic exercises. the physical education content of many schools, including the calisthenics during recess, actually does not provide truly effective exercise.

if conditions and time for exercise are limited, there are some non-traditional ways to shape your child's brain.for examplemindfulness meditation。

it can reduce children's tension and anxiety by regulating their breathing rhythm, eliminate mixed information from the outside world, allow children to feel and identify their own emotional fluctuations, and enter a state of self-awareness.

to some extent, it is also a kind of cognitive training. we will find that people who practice mindfulness meditation for a long time will also experience structural and functional changes in the prefrontal lobe of the brain.

however, mindfulness meditation is a little difficult for young children. we are also providing some schools with relevant equipment to help children gradually learn this way of relaxation, just like leveling up and fighting monsters.

recently, our team has also been designing a set of brain science courses that can be introduced into schools to help educators understand the basic laws of children's brain development and conduct assessments, diagnoses and interventions from the perspective of learning ability.

for example, if a child has difficulty learning and poor grades, what is the problem? how to evaluate the child's attention and effectively improve the attractiveness of the class?

the brain science courses we designed also include content on mental health intervention and career planning.

why does mental health exist? it is actually more important to make children feel happy than to make them learn well.

moreover, the so-calledmental health is essentially brain health.when psychological problems arise, it is actually a reflection of insufficient function of the transmission of neurotransmitters in the brain or certain areas of the brain.

if we can improve brain function, such as through physical exercise, cognitive training, mindfulness meditation, etc., to help children better cope with stress, identify and regulate emotions, and enhance the release of certain neurotransmitters, we can relieve psychological stress and reduce some tragedies.

today we should have another perspective on mental health, that is, brain science. from this perspective, we can intervene in mental health and cooperate with psychological counseling.

the lesson of career planning is even more lacking in the school environment.

the purpose of career planning based on brain science is to guide children to understand their own cognitive characteristics, cognitive methods, and the level of brain excitement, so as to explore the areas in which they are good at in a more scientific way.

in the final analysis, it is to know yourself, pursue yourself, and realize yourself!

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