Mirror Neurons

Mirror neurons

• In his article, Eric Jaffe defines mirror neurons as, " the tiny neurological structures that fire both when we perceive action and take it, exposing the true social nature of the brain. " (Jaffe, 2007)

Student see, student do

• According to Andrew Meltzof, “Human beings are not born exclusively with a set of reflexes or fixed action patterns. A key mechanism is learning from social others by observing."()
• Students learned from what their teacher models.

Rules and Expectation

• In kindergarten, the first few weeks are all about modeling rules and procedure.
• I use modeling and rehearsal of proper behavior to introduce rules and expectation to my students.
• After a few weeks of rehearsal, students are able to demonstrate the proper behavior and procedure.

Modeling

• One procedure that I module for my students would be how the are expected to sit on the rug.
• I sit on my spot with my feet crossed and hands close.
• Students are visually learning about the expected behavior and mirroring the behavior.

Reference

• Jafee, E. (2007). Mirror Neurons: How We Reflect on Behavior. Observer, Vol.20(No.5).