[Ecological Human Brain]

How does brain researches interpret the shift between child's to adult's intellectual differences in their ways of knowing and constructing knowledge? Latest brain researches have led us to clearly realize that human brain changes physiologically as a result of experiences. Bradd Shore (1996) discuss this phenomenon as evolution has equipped human species with an "ecological brain," dependent throughout its life on social-cultural environmental input. The environment in which a brain operates determines to a large degree the functioning ability of that brain. The environment affects the way genes work, and genes determine the way the environment is interpreted. (Wolfe & Brandt, 1998). M. Diamond and J. Hopson (1998) also discuss that brain structures are modified by the environment. Brain constantly change its structure and function in response to external experiences. This ability to change the structure and chemistry in response to the environment is what we call plasticity. How human beings develop and learn depends critically and continually on the interplay between nature (an individual's genetic endowment) and nurture (the nutrition, surroundings, social-, and ethnic-cultures, care, stimulation, and teaching that are provided or withheld). The roles of nature and nurture in determining intelligence and emotional resilience for that cognitive intelligence have a dynamic, and qualitative interplay, which directly affect the way the brain is "wired" (Shore, 1997). Since, we acknowledge that only the human brain enters the world in such an unfinished state. Humans have ecological brains that are dependent on environmental input.

Compare to the brains of other species, the human brain is more primed to respond to experience and the environment even before the birth (Shore, 1997). Three-quarters of human brain develops outside the womb, after the birth, in direct relationship with an external environment including social-cultural influences. Humans are born with remarkably undeveloped brains. In addition, a growing body of evidence from studies of human brain confirms that even before birth, human drain development and perceptual learning are affected by experiences, including a fetus' own sensory and motor experiences (Shore, 1997). Human development hinges on the interplay between nature and nurture (Shore, 1997). How a brain develops hinges on a complex interplay between the genes you're born with and the experiences you have (Shore, 1997)

We are born with an immature brain and have a long childhood, so we have to depend on other people to take care of us in childhood. Our brains develop in their own way, which lends credence to the idea of multiple intelligences and specialization.

Which plays a greater role in early brain development-nature or nurture? Most early childhood researchers, neurobiologists, or psychologists tend to view brain development as a dynamic process, described by S. Greenspan (1997) as "an elaborated dance between biology and the environment."

The Ecological Brain That Has a Time Limit

The human's ecological brain has a remarkable capacity to change, but timing is crucial: brain has the capacity to change in important ways in response to experience (Shore, 1997). As the brain develops in the early years of life, there are periods when children can meet a new developmental challenges most easily and efficiently. At the same biology, as Pearce (1977) mentions, primary perceptions as "bonding to the earth" are developmental in that they tend to disappear if there is no social-emotional responsive and intellectually congruent input.

Studies of brain have learned that different regions of the cortex increase in size when they are exposed to stimulating conditions that is social-emotionally responsive and intellectually congruent, and that the longer the exposure, the more they grow. Stimulation enlarges the number of dendrites in each neuron, creating larger "dendrite trees" and thickening cortical cells. Research bears out that an enriched environment can boost the number of synapses that children form. An enriched environment contains optimal conditions of individual based on children's living and social-emotionally responsive interaction and intellectually congruent supports.

But, once again, timing is crucial. While learning continues throughout development-periods are 'prime times" for optimal development-periods during which the brain is particularly efficient at specific type of learning. It is also described as "critical periods" or "plastic periods", or "sensitive period." Once the prime time has passed, opportunities for forging certain kinds of neural pathways appear to diminish substantially (example, optimal period for language development). Critical periods do not exist for brain development as a whole, but rather for each of the brain's systems. Brain development proceeds in waves, with different parts of the brain becoming active "construction sites" at different times and with different degrees of intensity.

[Brain Development and Young Children's Naturalist Intelligence]

According to H. Gardner, "Intelligence refers to the human ability to solve problems or to make something that is valued in one or more cultures. "As long as we can find a culture that values an ability to solve a problem or create a product in a particular way, then, I would strongly consider whether that ability should be considered an intelligence (Checkley, 1997, p.8)." Gardner believes that naturalist intelligence is an ability we all need to survive as human beings as well as other animals (e.g., we need to know which animals to hunt and which to run away from for the same purposes of human survival).

When Gardner introduces the eighth intelligence--"naturalist intelligence" (Checkley, 1997; Gardner, 1998)-- he discusses a brain evidence that supports the existence of the naturalist intelligence. He also mentions;

The naturalist intelligence refer to the ability to recognize and classify plants, minerals, and animals, including rocks and grass and all variety of flora and fauna. The ability to recognize cultural artifacts like cars or sneakers may also depend on the naturalist intelligence. …everybody can do this to a certain extent - we can all recognize dogs, cats, trees. But, some people from an early age are extremely good at recognizing and classifying artifacts. For example, we all know kids who, at age 3 or 4, are better at recognizing dinosaurs than most adults. Darwin is probably the most famous example of a naturalist because he saw so deeply into the nature of living things (Checkley 1997, p.9).

Gardner sees naturalist intelligence is an intelligence all human being born with at the beginning of their life, and young children tend to exhibit this particular intelligence more than adults. The reason why children exhibit more higher level of naturalist intelligence than adults is, according to Sebba (1991) and Wilson (1997), children experience natural environment in a deep and direct manner not as a background for events. For young children, natural environment is everlasting and dynamic stimulator, because they perceive the natural world through their primary perceptions, which are based on their sensory-directed experiences. More interestingly, Pearce (1977) considers that these primary perceptions as "bonding to the earth", thus interaction with the physical substance of the living earth and the environment is natural, inseparable, and critical to the child's developing brain and intelligence. However, young children's primary perceptions are so called "developmental" in that they tend to disappear (Pearce, 1977), as every brain researchers indicate; human brain has a remarkable capacity to change, but timing is crucial (Shore, 1997). Thus, we see many young children show a high level of naturalistic intelligence than many grown-ups. Not all grown-ups practice a high level of naturalistic intelligence as they get old.

[Source, E. Hyun (manuscript work in progress, 1999). Ecological Human Brain and ALL Young Children's Naturalist Intelligence in the Perspective of Developmentally and Culturally Appropriate Practice (DCAP). All right reserved.]