Tatyana Chernigovskaya "How to teach the brain to learn": summary, quotes

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Tatiana Chernigovskaya is a world famous domestic researcher and psycholinguist. She is twice a doctor of sciences, and also one of the leading scientists in the field of a new direction - cognitive science. The researcher is convinced that in order to find out how the surrounding world functions, a person must first understand how his own brain works. Her lecture, which is devoted to these issues, is very popular. It cannot be said that in it Tatyana Vladimirovna gives direct advice on how to actually train your brain. But the researcher devotes time to such important issues as the features of the modern digital age, the origin of man, the features of his consciousness and other problems.

New era

Lecture titled "How to teach the brain to learn?" first timeread by Tatyana Vladimirovna on May 30, 2015. In it, the researcher emphasizes that man, although not everyone is aware of this, has truly entered a new civilization in recent years. It is not yet clear what exactly is this world in which we now have to live. But one thing can be said for sure - it is completely different from what our parents and our ancient ancestors are accustomed to.

In his lecture "How to teach the brain to learn?" Tatyana Chernigovskaya emphasizes that geographical boundaries are completely blurred in the modern world. We can communicate with a person from the next room, or we can Skype with a resident of another country. It is also impossible to say for sure whether our virtual interlocutor is a real person, or whether there is another group of people behind him. Modern man lives in conditions where not only geographical boundaries are blurred, but also personal ones. He does not understand who he himself is, what the people around him are. The vast availability of information also affects the upbringing of children. They grow up completely different, the researcher emphasizes.

A lot of data equals no data

A large amount of information creates completely different problems than those that people had to deal with in the past. Tatyana Vladimirovna recalls that in the past, when she had to write scientific dissertations, the main difficulty was the availability of data. Simply put, there was no place to get information. Now the difficulty is how to get rid of it. After all, every day in various scientific fields come outdozens of articles. And it is physically impossible to read them all. It turns out a paradoxical situation - there is data, but it's the same as not having them.

Problem with educational process

It is also unclear how training should be organized in this case. After all, when there is a lot of information, it is even more difficult to select what is important and what is secondary. Or in this case, it is necessary to keep children in school until the age of 20, so that they have time to master at least part of the acquired knowledge. However, this is also impossible. But on what basis then to select the information? So far, this question in his lecture "How to teach the brain to learn?" Tatyana Chernigovskaya, and other scientists, do not give an answer.

Duplication of information

Where do people get the tendency to display the real world? PhD highlights:

"People are creatures that love to deal with virtual reality, they deal with signs."

In other words, people love to reproduce the world around them in their own vision. Tatyana Vladimirovna gives a simple example with a glass of water. There is this glass, and liquid is poured in it.

But what is the purpose of drawing it? Where did the person come up with this idea? And that's what all art is based on. Even the name "glass" is a word that duplicates a real glass.

Arguments based on the influence of literature on everyday life

Another example that in thisTatyana Chernigovskaya cites in a lecture - these are the so-called Turgenev young ladies. They, in fact, did not exist until Ivan Sergeevich himself created a similar image. The girls simply did not know that they needed to be gentle and faint at any chance that came up, until Turgenev described such characters in his works. Another example can be considered: There were no so-called "superfluous people", Tatyana Chernigovskaya emphasizes in her lecture.

“Superfluous people”, it turns out, there are: loafers - sorry for the cynicism, I am deliberately cynical - got up from the sofas, threw away the hookahs and said: “We are the generation of superfluous people”

Before this image was created by writers, no one was particularly eager to reproduce it.

Denisovsky man

In her lecture, Tatyana Vladimirovna pays attention to the origin of our family, namely the features of brain development. Not so long ago, archaeologists discovered another type of ancient people in Altai - the so-called Denisov man. The professor herself was also in these caves when these remains were found. First, archaeologists found a phalanx from the little finger of a 13-year-old girl. This phalanx was sent to geneticists who conducted the necessary research. Scientists at first thought that this girl must belong to the genus Neanderthals. However, the genome of the phalanx turned out to be completely different. In other words, scientists have discovered an entirely new kind of human.

However, Tatyana Vladimirovna emphasizes in the lecture "Howteach the brain to learn, "these two types of people also have something in common. Namely, the extremely suspicious FOXP2 gene, which indicates that both of these genera had the ability to speak. Of course, this is impossible to prove, because there is no direct evidence for this fact. However, the very presence of this gene raises a lot of suspicion, because it suggests that the history of mankind could be completely different from what we previously imagined.

Evolutionary development of the brain - its causes are unknown

The Neanderthal brain has evolved for the better. However, how did this happen? So far, scientists have no answer. The cerebral cortex developed, and not just all areas, but its anterior zones. They determine the level of mental abilities of a person. Why don't these areas develop at the same speed? For what reasons did those zones begin to develop, from which such highly developed creatures that create modern technologies eventually turned out? There are no answers to these questions yet.

Features of learning for everyone

Tatyana Vladimirovna also tells that it is impossible to assess the level of intelligence of each individual person according to certain general criteria. Professor emphasizes:

"Now, if the exam, God forbid, offered to pass Pushkin and Lermontov, then they would definitely fail. Not because they did not live up to Niels Bohr, but because they would have failed him anyway that does not cancel themgenius"

Tatyana Vladimirovna herself says that she is not very good at counting and solving mathematical problems. Which, of course, does not negate the fact that she has a high level of intelligence. On the other hand, why be able to count a person who, in principle, does not need it? It is not necessary in ordinary life to remember the table of logarithms. There are, for example, people with pathological memory. If you ask them what day of the week was, say, November 7, 1654, they will easily answer - Wednesday. If you check - it's true Wednesday. But why would the average person know this?

The brain is always learning - that's another aspect that the professor is talking about. By the way, the scientist considers this body the most mysterious, since it literally controls human behavior:

The brain is a mysterious powerful thing, which for some reason we misunderstand as "my brain". We have absolutely no reason for this: who is whose is a separate issue.

Even if we do not study, do not read books and do not explore a certain area of knowledge, our brain still continues to absorb information. While we are walking or cooking, he continues to learn. But on the other hand, the education that is given in schools differs in its usefulness from this kind of knowledge. After all, the latter are useful in practice. But what if a person knows on what day the marriage of Napoleon and Josephine took place? It's not particularly important information. After all, now you can find everything in Google.

Learning strategy

And yet something about how to train the brain, Chernigovskaya mentions. One of the most important factors for successful learning are breaks, distractions, and regular sleep. When teachers tell a student that he is too distracted and therefore unable to learn anything, they are making a big mistake. Tatiana Vladimirovna says:

The best thing we can do for ourselves is to quickly learn something and go to bed.

After all, the translation of learned information occurs precisely in a dream. And this is a scientifically proven thing. It is during the night's rest that the acquired knowledge is transferred from the part of the brain called the hippocampus to the zones of the anterior cortex, from where a person can easily remove information. Everyone remembers the situation when they were preparing for the exam the day before, but did not remember anything during the tests. After all, if you start preparing too late and absorb information in batches, it will not have time to properly "accommodate" in the brain. If you learn the material in advance, then there will be more breaks for rest. This means that all the necessary knowledge will be properly learned.

Teaching conditions are also important

Chernigovskaya also says that a good brain is constantly learning. She also emphasizes:

People should work with their heads, it saves the brain. The more it is on, the longer it is saved.

However, the conditions for perceiving information are also important. For one person, the visual component is important, for another it is necessary to write or draw. Thirdly, the timing is important. HerselfTatyana Vladimirovna considers herself a "night owl", emphasizing that the period of her most productive work begins after 10 pm. There are, of course, people who can get up at five in the morning and work at full capacity until eight.

Yes, I'd better drown myself in the river right away, I just can't do it and never can - it's useless

So says the professor. And she also encourages her students to get to know themselves and their personal inclinations. You need to understand what is better for yourself - active learning or passive? Reading outside or listening to lectures indoors? It is imperative to decide what the objectives of the training are. Maybe a person just wants to have a family and do housework, then education is not required at all.

Differences between male and female brains

Let's continue our review of the brief content "How to teach the brain to learn" by reviewing Tatyana Vladimirovna's ideas about gender differences. The professor immediately emphasizes that he has a negative attitude towards this kind of scientific research. In addition, she is a supporter of the traditional housing construction and also has a negative view of feminism. In this light, the professor states the fact that the brains of men and women are different. And at the same time, according to Tatyana Vladimirovna, the female brain is better adapted to life.

In other words, the fairer sex faces a serious task - not to quarrel with neighbors, to understand in time who is an enemy and who is a friend. Atit should work well with the so-called mirror neurons (these are such nerve cells, thanks to which we can understand what another person thinks and feels). Women have to constantly be in a changing environment, look around a dangerous and threatening world, train their brains.

Representatives of different sexes need to be taught differently, the professor is convinced. The external conditions are also important. For example, boys should be in a cooler room than girls. The reason is that young men fall asleep faster and relax in warmth, so they begin to perceive information worse. Also, the stronger sex needs constant nourishment with praise. For girls, personal attitude, compliments are more important.

Tatiana Chernigovskaya, "How to teach the brain to learn": feedback from listeners

As for the opinion of the audience, here most of the visitors and those who listened to the lecture speak positively about it. Many people like the way the material is presented, the presence of various examples, the versatility of information. Tatyana Vladimirovna describes such things that will be useful to specialists from different fields and those who are simply interested.

There are those who didn't really like the lecture - primarily because of its humanitarian focus. However, there are few such listeners. For the most part, Chernigovskaya's lecture is of interest to listeners of various age and professional categories.