Neural Bottom-up and Top-down Processes in Learning and Teaching
Keywords:
Neural correlate, concept, metaphor, direct experience, attention, top-down, bottom-up, Executive Function, derived embodimentAbstract
Contemporary neuroscience perspectives on cognition allow for detailed understanding of the co-activity of unconscious, automatic 'bottom-up' processes and conscious 'topdown' processes. In this theoretical article I argue that by using direct experiences or metaphors, teachers can manipulate the neural foundation bottom-up or topdown so as to influence learning, giving teachers the conceptual tools they need to understand how specific measures - instructional and experiential teaching, as well as linguistic explanations - may work. The article thus describes how embodied cognitive approaches may be effective for teaching and learning and thus contribute to a new exchange between theoreticians and educational practitioners.
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