Poza centrum uwagi: doświadczenie uczenia w szkole i w laboratorium neurobiologa
Out of the Spotlight: Teaching Experience in School and in the Neurobiologist’s Laboratory. Abstract

Author(s): Kalina Burnat
Subject(s): Anthropology, Cultural history, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: learning; motivation; reward; eyesight; central and peripheral vision
Summary/Abstract: In this paper I use my experience in teaching biology in primary school and in working as a neurobiologist, who trained laboratory animals to discriminate visual stimuli, in the context of learning and motivational theories. The short account of my struggles to understand my pupils’ learning problems, find solutions for keeping their attention on the task and motivate their individual learning processes is given. The article consists of two parts: the first describes my work with animals at the laboratory, and the second at school with pupils having mild neurodevelopmental disorders. Thanks to work with pupils, I was able to write the handbook accessible for all students, from which shortened chapters are quoted here. I explain how to introduce the difficulty of tasks gradually, and how to monitor the level of motivation. The main goal of my scientific research is to find the source for the near to normal vision in visually impaired subjects. I assume now that the cortical representation of the peripheral visual field might be a good target for visual rehabilitation and subserve as reservoir of plastic potential for the injured visual brain. Peripheral vision not only covers the large part of the visual field, but also actively participates in attentional selection of events to be processed by central vision. However, it was understudied for years.

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