Page 44 - Microsoft Word - The Future of Learning April 2017.docx

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Ideas are relationships between variables within one or two contexts but this is not enough for us to make predictions. Once we have experienced the relationship via a few contexts the pattern between the variables becomes increasingly obvious until we have the ‘aha!’ moment and the brain then immediately maps the concept; forever!
Warning: What follows is not a random, sexist opinion - There is a reason for why men learn to drive more quickly and have a higher rate of passing the practical driving test than women.
Why is this? Quite simply it comes down to hormones. Ask any group of men why they were so excited to learn to drive and they will initially tell you it was the excitement associated with speed and freedom, but the primary driver of their success is the possibility of improving their chances of attracting a mate.
Yes, most young men think that because they have a car to drive, potential partners will overlook any lack of good looks, academic or sporting prowess, or bad habits and happily go on a date with them because they have a car. Consequently, when most young men learn to drive, the hormone levels in his brain are much greater than Silvia’s, for example, who is thinking it will be fun to go shopping with Aroha on Saturday morning, when she has her license.64
In this model, it is proposed that some of the astrocytes that work with neurons to map patterns and concepts, have hormone receptors on their surface,65 allowing them to sense hormone levels in the brain. The surge in those hormones, as a result of being excited about learning to drive, tells the male brain to learn and map the concepts that underpin driving RIGHT NOW. And they do. The Guardian66 collected the statistics from the UK driving test results67 courtesy of the ‘Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency,’ to prove this point.
The speed at which we learn ideas and concepts is hugely influenced
by the emotions we ‘feel’ and the
resultant hormones that are
released in our brain. If we want
someone to learn an idea or concept
efficiently, they first must feel an
emotion.
Just to balance the scales somewhat, the Guardian newspaper reveals additional statistics that, despite taking longer to learn to drive and having a higher failure rate, women are safer drivers (hopefully that somewhat redeems the above?).
Resource 16: Gender & Driving
The implications of this connection between hormone levels and the speed of learning concepts are considerable. The scale of emotion and the resulting release of hormones tells our astrocytes in our brain how urgently it needs to map the idea or concept being learned. This connection only holds true for the mapping of patterns (ideas and concepts), as it appears that this is the only learning system that involves astrocytes to a large degree in the learning process.
64 Excuse the stereotyping here –but I am sure you get he point.
65 Spence R.D. (2015) Estrogen Signaling through Estrogen Receptor... Retrieved from http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7sm5j5vz
66 Women fail driving tests far more than men but are still safer drivers. The Guardian (UK). Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/nov/22/women-fail-driving-tests-far-more-than-men-but-are-still-safer-drivers
67 UK government. (2013). Practical car test pass rates data set. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/drt02- practical-car-test-pass-rates