Doctor of Biology, David Good He is director of the UB-EDU1st Neuroeducation Chair, the first in the world dedicated exclusively to this subject. As coordinator of the subject of biology of the University Entrance Examinations (PAU) in Catalonia, has promoted the change of the traditional rote questions for questions of reflection and analysis in real contexts. Less than a month before thousands of boys and girls face the selectivity exams, has participated this week in CaixaForum in the debate ‘Rethinking access to university’organized by Catesco and the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation. He is the author, among other books, of ‘The teenage brain’ (Grijalbo).
-Is the brain the most malleable organ?
-All organs are, but the brain is the one that gives the most signs of this malleability, because it is plastic, it is constantly making and remaking neural connections to gradually incorporate the learning and experiences we have from the environment to adapt in the best possible way. .
-Also the most vulnerable?
-Yes, and at any stage, because many of these experiences can generate maladaptive connections, which will end up colliding with the environment, with society. But of all ages, the most fragile are early childhood and adolescence, which is when the brain is most plastic.
-Difficult stage of adolescence.
-It is a crucial stage of life, because the behaviors of childhood are left behind and those of youth and adulthood are acquired. And that means a literal rewiring of many areas of the brain. It involves questioning everything they have done and been told up until then and looking for what lies beyond; It is the stage of breaking boundaries. There are three areas of the brain that change more than any other. One is the amygdala, the area that generates emotions and becomes hyperreactive. The second is the prefrontal cortex, where the neural circuits that manage and generate the most complex behaviors, the ability to reflect, reason, plan and decide are found. It is the area of the brain that changes the most. This major reconfiguration causes it to temporarily lose operating efficiency. And the third is the striatum, which generates sensations of reward and allows us to anticipate future rewards for what we are doing now. It is crucial to maintain motivation, interest, optimism.
-And that also influences your way of learning?
-Sure. If we make them memorize things about which they have the perception that they are useless, let’s say for example the list of Gothic kings, they will memorize it to pass the exam and the next day they will forget it. Any aspect that has emotional content will attract more attention. Although these contents must also be monitored, because fear is an emotion, as are joy or surprise. If you are living your educational stage with a certain fear of failing, of failing, of punishment… this will generate connections in your brain that will influence your future.
-Still slaves of the notes?
-Yes, precisely because of selectivity, a simple numerical order based on some grades and that begins to count long before that exam. It is necessary to reflect on what we want and what we are doing, because it generates pressure for many students and pressure increases levels of stress, anxiety and can lead to anguish, anxiety, sadness and depression. If stress is already higher in adolescents than in adults as a rule, a system that stresses them out more is absolutely pernicious.
-Should we change the grading system or the exams?
-As we do the exams, we score. If the tests are rote, what we are assessing through that score is memory and not creative, ethical or self-knowledge aspects. Of course, you have to see how each student progresses, but with much more open tests that incorporate not only knowledge, but also skills, attitudes, aptitudes, and ethical aspects that make them reflect. This is the path if we want to train people in an integral way. And beware, by that I do not mean that memory and effort are not important.
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-With this system, goodbye to the chops.
-Or not. Why not bring your books with you on test day and use your knowledge and the books to answer an even more difficult question?
A future of opportunities
EL PERIÓDICO and the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation give voice to the social, cultural and scientific profiles that, with their effort are creating a society with more chances for all.