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4 Pillars of Learning
How Do We Learn?
(This article was originally published in Spanish)
One of the most challenging questions for humankind is related to the brain. For centuries, humans have been fascinated by our ability to learn and think. In recent years, various fields of knowledge, like neuroscience, have worked to explore countless pathways to explain our capacity to grasp concepts, ideas, and skills.
Stanislas Dehaene, a French neuroscientist, has been researching the human brain in search of understanding its seemingly inexplicable cognitive abilities. His scientific focus has also aimed to bridge the classroom and the laboratory, contributing to education from a scientific perspective. His methodical curiosity led to How We Learn: The Four Pillars That Can Strengthen Our Brain’s Talents, published by Siglo Veintiuno Editores Argentina in 2019 in Spanish.
Dehaene identifies four principles for learning: attention, active engagement, error management (feedback), and consolidation. Let’s explore these briefly.
Attention
With the vast amount of information flooding our brains, attention is the cognitive mechanism that helps filter this overload. It allows the brain to select, amplify, channel, and deepen received information. This mechanism is now being integrated into new AI…
