Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education
Date of this Version
1999
Citation
Essays on Teaching Excellence: Toward the Best in the Academy (1998-1999) 10(8)
A publication of the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education
Abstract
Psychological research has corroborated the importance of uncertainty to learning at the psychophysiological level. Recent studies in brain dynamics have demonstrated that the brain manifests an inherent variability that increases with the presentation of new stimuli. This psychophysiological uncertainty plays a significant catalytic role in learning, It opens up the organism to experience, causing it to investigate the environment with enhanced receptivity, preparing it for different behavioral actions, and facilitating the central processing and encoding of information received from such renewed exploration. Searching, exploring, and trial-and-error behaviors indicate psychophysiological uncertainty and accompany the appearance of reorganization, stability, and progressive development or learning (Germana and Lancaster, 1995).
Included in
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Higher Education and Teaching Commons, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons
Comments
Copyright 1999, Virginia S. Lee. Used by permission