Education Research Guide: Brain Research & Learning

• Read the "Building Baby's Brain" article
• Read one other current article on brain research
• Pay attention to the role that brain development plays in a child's learning
• Questions to ask yourself:
  • What is the interplay between an individual's genetic endowment, nutrition, surroundings, care, education?
  • How does the fact that the human brain has a remarkable capacity to change emphasize the importance of a literacy rich environment?
  • What are the optimum time/ages for learning certain skills
• Post your new article found
• Summarize the articles found in class
• Write a reflection on how the 2 articles will affect your teaching
• Quote from your readings

By trying combinations of the terms mentioned on the assignment sheet in the education research databases, the following terms and phrases were identified in subject headings. 

Subject headings are always good terms/phrases to use in creating searches:

• Learning
• Learning strategies
• Academic Achievement
• Brain
• Brain research
• Research
• Child development
• Cognition or cognitive ability
• Cognition & reasoning
• Neurosciences
• Reading
• Prenatal development
• Prenatal care
• Embryos
• Embryonic & fetal development
• Embryonic development
• Babies
• Fetuses
• Newborn babies
• Preschool children
• Child, preschool
• Infant
• Infant, newborn
• Intelligence
• Developmental psychology
• Parenting
• Parents
• Personal relationships
• Interpersonal relations
• Caregivers
• Children
• Child care
• Nutrition
• Diet
• Feeding behavior
• Food habits
• Eating
• Food preferences
• School environment
• Social environment
• Social interaction
• Family life
• Families
• Skills
• Skill development
• Reading
• Literacy
• Social skills
• Language acquisition or development
• Motor ability
• Motor skills
• Social interaction
• Memory
• Speech
• Writing
• Developmental psychology
• Socialization
• Vocabulary
• Language
• Language acquisition
• Language development
• Adolescent
• Adolescence
• Teenagers
• Puberty
• Heredity
• Genetics
• Drug abuse
• Socioeconomic factors
• Birth defects
• Developmental disabilities
• Alcohol use
• Attention deficit disorder
• Stress
• Fetal alcohol syndrome
• Domestic violence
• Resilience, psychology

The assignment instructions above provide a number of terms that be combined into searches to find articles on the topic of brain research and learning:

• brain development and learning (brain and development and learning)
• intelligence and nutrition (or cognition or cognitive ability?)
• intelligence and surroundings (environment?)
• intelligence and care (child care or parenting?)
• intelligence and education
• developmental stages and skills (what skills?)

However, terms such as "care" and "genetic endowment" might not be the best way to search for the information.  Consider synonyms for those terms.  "Environment" is probably a better search term than "surroundings".  It may be better to split phrases such as "brain development" into separate words (brain and development and learning) to find more/better information.

See the suggested search terms in the box to the right.