Traditional education has tended to compartmentalize abstract thought, emotion, and physical activity. However, neuroscientific evidence suggests that these are completely interlinked in the learning process. The traditional lecture-style lesson relegates students to a passive and sedentary role, precluding physical movement. In addition, the current trend of schools reducing recess hours, dropping physical education classes, or subjects that involve the whole body-theater, music, outdoor activity-further limits the scope for physical movement within the learning milieu. Neuroscientific evidence suggests that sedentarism impacts negatively on brain health, and not only physical well-being.Humans are designed to be on the move, to interact with their environment through movement: physical activity is a key contributing factor to healthy brain function. This mini review presents and analyzes evidence from diverse studies and meta-analyses showing the strong link between movement and cognition in primary and secondary school students. There is a growing body of neuroscientific evidence of the benefits that movement and physical activity have for cognition. In the research examined, the authors identify diverse types and degrees of physical activity and their impact on the brain. The neurological impact of movement on the brain can be understood at three levels: increased vascularization-oxygen and glucose to the brain-augmenting brain activity; the release of neurotransmitters and Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) which favor neurogenesis, memory, attention and motivation; and the development of complex movement-related neural circuits and their interconnection with the executive brain functions. This article proposes a set of concrete applications for educators to bring movement into their classrooms and/or learning contexts, thus favoring cognition. Based on this evidence and given the current educational reality which generally approaches learning as an abstract activity divorced from our corporality, the authors argue for the need to incorporate physical activity and movement into the learning context.
31Conservation science is a crisis-oriented discipline focused on delivering robust answers to reducing 32 human impacts on nature. To explore how the field might have changed during the past two decades, 33 we analyzed 3,245 applications for oral presentations submitted to the Student Conference on 34Conservation Science (SCCS) in Cambridge, UK. SCCS has been running every year since 2000, aims 35 for global representation by providing bursaries to early-career conservationists from lower-income 36 countries, and has never had a thematic focus, beyond conservation in the broadest sense. We found 37 that the majority of submissions to SCCS were based on primary biological data collection from local 38 scale field studies in the tropics, contrary to established literature which highlights gaps in tropical 39 research. Our results showed a small increase over time in submissions framed around how nature 40 benefits people as well as a small increase in submissions integrating social science. Our findings also 41 suggest that students and early-career conservationists could provide pathways to increased availability 42 of data from the tropics and for addressing well-known biases in the published literature towards 43 wealthier countries. We hope this research will motivate efforts to support student projects, ensuring 44 data and results are published and made publicly available. 45
Conservation science is a crisis-oriented discipline focused on reducing human impacts on nature. To explore how the field has changed over the past two decades, we analyzed 3,245 applications for oral presentations submitted to the Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS) in Cambridge, UK. SCCS has been running every year since 2000, aims for global representation by providing bursaries to early-career conservationists from lower-income countries, and has never had a thematic focus, beyond conservation in the broadest sense. We found that the majority of projects submitted to SCCS were based on primary biological data collected from local scale field studies in the tropics, contrary to established literature which highlights gaps in tropical research. Our results showed a small increase over time in submissions framed around how nature benefits people as well as a small increase in submissions integrating social science. Our findings suggest that students and early-career conservationists could provide pathways to increase availability of data from the tropics and address well-known biases in the published literature towards wealthier countries. We hope this research will motivate efforts to support student projects, ensuring data and results are published and data made publicly available.
ResumenTradicionalmente, la educación ha tendido a compartimentar el pensamiento abstracto, la emoción y la actividad física. Sin embargo, la evidencia neurocientífica sugiere que estos tres elementos están estrechamente vinculados con el proceso de aprendizaje. En la "Introducción" de este artículo se repasa el contexto actual: cómo la tradicional clase magistral relega a los estudiantes a un papel pasivo y sedentario que impide el movimiento físico; cómo en los colegios se van reduciendo las horas de recreo y suprimiendo las clases de educación física o aquellas asignaturas que involucran todo el cuerpo (teatro, música, actividades al aire libre), con lo cual se limita aún más la presencia de la actividad física en el entorno de aprendizaje. La evidencia neurocientífica sugiere que el sedentarismo no solo tiene un impacto nocivo en el bienestar físico, sino también en la salud cerebral. El ser humano está diseñado para moverse, para interrelacionarse con su medioambiente, con el movimiento: la actividad física es un factor clave que contribuye al funcionamiento saludable del cerebro. En la sección 2, "Aportes de la investigación neurocientífica", las autoras presentan y analizan diversos estudios y metaanálisis que destacan la asociación positiva entre la actividad física y la cognición en estudiantes de Educación Primaria y Secundaria. En estas investigaciones examinan este vínculo en tres niveles: el incremento de la vascularización (que incrementa el oxígeno y la glucosa en el cerebro); la liberación de neurotransmisores y el factor neurotrófico derivado del cerebro (BDNF en sus siglas en inglés) que favorecen la neurogénesis, la memoria, la atención y la motivación; y el desarrollo de circuitos neurales complejos relacionados con el movimiento y su interconexión con las funciones ejecutivas del cerebro. En la sección 3, "Discusión", se repasan las limitaciones y las aplicaciones de la evidencia examinada. El artículo concluye con unas recomendaciones para que los docentes puedan integrar la actividad física en el aula o en el entorno de aprendizaje. Teniendo en cuenta esta evidencia y la realidad educacional actual, que generalmente considera al aprendizaje como una actividad abstracta, divorciada de nuestra corporalidad, las autoras argumentan la necesidad de incorporar la actividad física al entorno de aprendizaje.
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