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"Furthermore, intelligence does not reside in one spot in the brain, nor does creativity, but rather involves networks of parts of the brain, all working together. Scientists have now mapped out the brain network responsible for psychometric intelligence (cognitive abilities that can be measured with mental tests) and the brain network responsible for creative intelligence - and unsurprisingly, they are different. The brain network for social intelligence is different still. This means that being good at one of these three forms of intelligence does not necessarily mean you are good at the others.
One of the huge ideas to come from the field of mind, brain, and education science is that intelligence is not fixed at birth. The nature versus nurture debate has been settled; the answer is that it is a combination of both. Genetic differences and environmental effects, especially in early childhood, lead to individual differences. We are all stronger or weaker in one form of intelligence than others. But neuroplasticity means that as we work...we have the potential to rewire [our] brains to improve [our] performance to some, but significant, degree in all three of these intelligence areas" (Whitman and Kelleher 16-17).
"NEUROMYTHBUSTING - You cannot control how your brain grows.
FALSE - The types of work you demand of your brain help shape the creation, strengthening, and pruning of neural pathways in different regions of your brain. Therefore, the quality of your effort and amount of effort you put in help rewire your brain
NEUROMYTHBUSTING - Our brains are able to multitask.
FALSE - Our brains cannot multitask. Instead they flip back and forth working on one task, then the other. However, there is a transaction cost for doing so, which means our brains work less efficiently. Studies have shown that people that self-identify as being able to multitask are no better at doing so than those who say they cannot.
NEUROMYTHBUSTING - Students should be praised for their achievement rather than their effort.
FALSE - It is the other way around. Associating success with effort, not smartness, is key to helping students learn to persist. If a student believes intelligence is mostly a matter of effort, they are more likely to be motivated to exert effort, attempt difficult tasks, and persist depsite setbacks, confusion, and failure" (Whitman and Kelleher 37-38).
"But getting a 'yet' sensibility is not easy. It is much quicker for a student to declare he or she 'can't' do something and then give up or hope the teacher will provide the answer. But we know that struggle, challenge, and deliberate difficulty are really good for learning, especially for getting something to stick in one's memory. Challenge in school is important -- without it, boredom reigns supreme.
...The research that is central to truly creating a 'yet' sensibility centers on brain plasticity: the idea that the brain is changeable; that through deliberate effort new neural pathways can be created; and that also through deliberate practice the process of myelination will thicken and speed up the neural pathways used, allowing students to more easily recall factual and procedural knowledge" (44-45).
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