Editing Learning theory (education) (section)

==Educational neuroscience==
{{Main|Educational neuroscience}}
American Universities such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and University of Southern California began offering majors and degrees dedicated to [[educational neuroscience]] or [[neuroeducation]] in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Such studies seek to link an understanding of brain processes with classroom instruction and experiences.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wolf|first=P.|title=Brain Matters: Translating Research into Classroom Practice (2nd ed.)|year=2010|publisher=ASCD}}</ref>  Neuroeducation analyzes biological changes in the brain from processing new information. It looks at what environmental, emotional, and social situations best help the brain store and retain new information via the linking of neurons—and best keep the dendrites from being reabsorbed, losing the information. The 1990s were designated "The Decade of the Brain", and advances took place in neuroscience at an especially rapid pace. The three dominant methods for measuring brain activities are [[event-related potential]], [[functional magnetic resonance imaging]] and [[magnetoencephalography]] (MEG).<ref>{{cite book|last=ed. by Sawyer|first=R. Keith|title=Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences|year=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York, New York|pages=20}}</ref>

The integration and application to education of what we know about the brain was strengthened in 2000 when the [[American Federation of Teachers]] stated: "It is vital that we identify what science tells us about how people learn in order to improve the education curriculum."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Radin|first=J.P.|title=Brain-Compatible Teaching and Learning: Implications for Teacher Education.|journal=Educ Horiz|date=Fall 2009|volume=88|issue=1}}</ref> What is exciting about this new field in education is that modern brain imaging techniques now make it possible, in some sense, to watch the brain as it learns, and the question then arises: can the results of neuro-scientific studies of brains as they are learning usefully inform practice in this area?<ref>{{cite journal|last=Rowland|title=The brain that changes itself: Stories of personal triumph from the frontiers of brain science|journal=Journal of Academic Language and Learning|year=2010}}</ref>  The neuroscience field is young. Researchers expected that new technologies and ways of observing will produce new scientific evidence that helps refine the paradigms of what students need and how they learn best. In particular, it may bring more informed strategies for teaching students with learning disabilities.

===Formal and mental discipline===
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All individuals have the ability to develop mental discipline and the skill of mindfulness, the two go hand in hand. Mental discipline is huge in shaping what people do, say, think and feel. It's critical in terms of the processing of information and involves the ability to recognize and respond appropriately to new things and information people come across, or have recently been taught. Mindfulness is important to the process of learning in many aspects. Being mindful means to be present with and engaged in whatever you are doing at a specific moment in time. Being mindful can aid in helping us to more critically think, feel and understand the new information we are in the process of absorbing.<ref>Sheahly,  [http://www.bemindful.org/mind.htm Cultivating Mental Discipline] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150407062340/http://www.bemindful.org/mind.htm |date=2015-04-07 }}</ref> 
The formal discipline approach seeks to develop causation between the advancement of the mind by exercising it through exposure to abstract school subjects such as science, language and mathematics. With student's repetitive exposure to these particular subjects, some scholars feel that the acquisition of knowledge pertaining to science, language and math is of "secondary importance", and believe that the strengthening and further development of the mind that this curriculum provides holds far greater significance to the progressing learner in the long haul.<ref name="Phillips2009" /> D.C. Phillips and Jonas F. Soltis provide some skepticism to this notion. Their skepticism stems largely in part from feeling that the relationship between formal discipline and the overall advancement of the mind is not as strong as some would say. They illustrate their skepticism by opining that it is foolish to blindly assume that people are better off in life, or at performing certain tasks, because of taking particular, yet unrelated courses.