Second International School On Mind, Brain And Education
2008, May 22-26
Basic and applied topics
in biological rhythms and learning
Directors: Antonio M. Battro and Kurt W. Fischer
Program officer: María Lourdes Majdalani
State University, Milan, ITALY
Transforming education trough neuroscience: new ideas from unexplored links between instruction and stress
A growing number of studies are suggesting that different levels of education, including and most important the number of years of formal schooling, are strongly associated with sizable differences in health/disease of individuals. However the causal mechanisms that can link learning experiences and health related outcomes still remain obscure.
First introducing this scenario, the authors put forward the hypothesis that educated mental stimulation and increasing of learning capacity in childhood may specifically affect stress management, which is an important variable for general health. In discussing such an idea they also address the emergent theme of new generations learning with digital technologies.
Sequential talking points are: (i) developing mental functions by schooling: lessons from cognitive gerontology; (ii) the stress system: hippocampus signalling effect on stress response; (iii) digital technologies as modifier of learning: distinguishing inside and outside the classroom; (iv) teaching-learning relationship as a mean to cope with stress: verifying a working hypothesis by crossing boundaries and using a multiple-levels-of-analysis perspective.