Fig 2 - uploaded by Robert Shoichi Murphy
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2 Myelination: The myelin sheath surrounding neuronal axons, is essential for normal brain function. This coating thickens (gets myelinated), enabling much more rapid information transfer-causing this network's solution to beat out the slower networks in the brain. (Murphy, 2017)
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A paper on DMC research conducted in the Japanese context. Theoretical and practical avenues are explored.
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The results presented from this pilot study testing for Japanese university student motivational orientations and pedagogical preferences are believed to be a first in Japan. The research results indicate distinctions between an intrinsic (IM) and an extrinsic (EM) motivational orientation; between communicative and task-based activities (C/TBAs) a...
Citations
... Giving the learner the ability to choose during learning creates a safety net in the classroom, making it easier to acquire information without feeling threatened as is the case in top-down traditional classrooms. The perception of choice by the learning brain establishes a sense of ownership and personal investment in the mind of the learner who will defend his/her choice without question [20]. ...
Just because you can does not mean you should. Although gamified instruction is being widely adopted, there needs to be compelling research that supports gamification as an effective educational modality. Without this support, gamification is just a novelty. This chapter explores research that provides evidence to support the appropriacy of gamified learning as a modality that more closely adheres to how the human brain functions. It explores suggestions from Mind, Brain, and Education Sciences and NeuroELT to set a standard for what is good education. Using these suggestions as a basis to evaluate gamified instruction, it looks at recent studies to determine if gamified instruction is a brain-friendlier mode of instruction than traditional models.
... Our review also points to concerns about the evidence for each of the three characteristics posited for DMCs. When it comes to vision, though it has been argued that a DMC cannot be achieved without it (e.g., Dörnyei et al., 2014, p. 13), several empirical reports have demonstrated that learners were in fact able to achieve a DMC without engaging in vision or visualization of their desired states (Henry et al., 2015;Ibrahim, 2016b;Ibrahim & Al-Hoorie, 2019;Murphy et al., 2017; see also Muir, 2020). Some participants explicitly denied that vision was essential to their DMC experience when directly questioned about it (Murphy et al., 2017), while others even reported deliberately avoiding vision (Ibrahim, 2016b). ...
... When it comes to vision, though it has been argued that a DMC cannot be achieved without it (e.g., Dörnyei et al., 2014, p. 13), several empirical reports have demonstrated that learners were in fact able to achieve a DMC without engaging in vision or visualization of their desired states (Henry et al., 2015;Ibrahim, 2016b;Ibrahim & Al-Hoorie, 2019;Murphy et al., 2017; see also Muir, 2020). Some participants explicitly denied that vision was essential to their DMC experience when directly questioned about it (Murphy et al., 2017), while others even reported deliberately avoiding vision (Ibrahim, 2016b). When it comes to group DMCs, vision has similarly been absent from the scene (Ibrahim & Al-Hoorie, 2019;Muir, 2016). ...
Directed motivational currents, unique and intense goal-directed motiva-tional surges lasting over a period of time, have received increasing attention recently. This article reports the first systematic review of this phenomenon. A total of 21 reports appearing between 2013 and 2020 were included in the analysis. The results show that the majority of empirical reports were small-scale qualitative studies (median = 18 participants). The evidence on the three characteristics proposed as necessary and/or distinguishing conditions of directed motivational currents (vision, salient facilitative structure, and positive affect) is inconclusive due to the presence of directed motivational currents cases not exhibiting these features, and the absence of direct comparative analyses with non-directed motivational currents cases. A few intervention studies (N = 4) were conducted, but their results are also inconclusive due to a number of methodological limitations. Contrary to the claim that directed motivational current experiences are the "optimal form" of motivation, the results additionally showed that these experiences could lead to intense stress, anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, and panic attacks, thereby raising ethical concerns about deliberately inducing directed motivational currents in learners. We conclude that, although the concept of directed motivational currents is Safoura Jahedizadeh, Ali H. Al-Hoorie 518 promising, more research is needed to reach a better understanding of its potential. We end this article by suggesting directions for future research into directed motivational currents, including renaming them as sustained flow.
... Instead, their motivation seemed to be sustained by classic factors such as goal-setting, appraisal of ability, and feedback. A further study was conducted by Murphy, Stubbings, and Uemura (2017). These researchers interviewed high-ability Japanese learners of English about their DMC experiences. ...
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... If we require a long time to come up with solutions, we say are still "in the learning process", or, we are "trying to remember". There are four main factors in the biology of learning: (1) the amount of emotion attached to the stimuli, (2) how often the task is called upon again, (3) general health, and (4) sleep (Cosolino, 2013;Sousa, 2016;Kelly and Murphy, 2017;Murphy, Stubbings, and Uemura, 2017). ...
... The concept of critical breaks has already been explored in light of DMC theory in Murphy et al, 2017. It speaks directly of the potential of premature closure of DMCs. ...
This thesis documents the dynamically changing efficacy of an EFL coursebook series that has been evolving in various ways since 2008, via action research methodology. The Optimal Levels EFL coursebook series was specifically written for the Japanese EFL context―but with the strong intent of raising students’ cognitive maturity along with their L2 competence. Because of this non-conventional attention to maturity in combination with L2 learning, the ensuing research of Optimal Levels’ efficacy required a non-conventional evaluation system. This thesis therefore serves to document the evolution of the series (with all of its theoretical underpinnings), and also document the evolution of the various evaluation systems that were developed for this somewhat convoluted project. To accomplish these goals, the research not only follows the growth of Japanese EFL students’ L2 competence, but it also follows the changes of students’ feelings of ownership of the L2, their changes in engagement with provided L2 tasks, their changes in metacognitive realizations regarding learning/teaching, and also their L2 maturation rate changes under several different conditions. The efficacy of the original Optimal Levels (OL1) was compared to that of New Optimal Levels (OL2). Both books have a significant amount of overlap in their pedagogical approach and learning tasks. From a historical perspective, OL1 was developed as an integral part of my MA thesis while OL2 was developed as an integral part of this doctoral thesis. The design of OL2 evolved along with this study’s findings. Therefore, in the second half of the thesis I will discuss the developments that led to OL2 Revised (an updated version of OL2 that I also piloted with students for this project). In broad strokes, it can be said that the original design of OL1 (and then OL2 and OL2-R) stem from developments in Applied Linguistics, Cognitive Psychology and Educational Neuroscience. Quantitative analysis (SPSS-based statistics and Lectical Analysis) was used to measure the difference in the growth patterns of two groups of university students; the results of the OL1 group were compared with the results of the OL2 group. Lectical Analysis data showed that the OL2 group outpaced the OL1 group by an 8x growth rate of demonstrable L2 complexity--with a single 15-week semester of teaching. Qualitative analysis (student-based focus group interviews, questionnaires, and evaluation essays from university students) was used to deduce the specifics behind the performance gap between the two groups. The data revealed that OL2 raised metacognitive awareness and feelings of L2 ownership in the students; participants in the OL2 group were more willing to discuss the hows and whys of their L2 growth, while the OL1 group focused more on what they did in class, which is considerably less of a cognitive challenge for students in this age group. The compilation of data from the variety of evolving studies suggested significant connections across: (a) cyclically designed deep-thinking tasks, (b) metacognitive nurturing in the L2 classroom, and (c) rapid L2 maturation rates. The implication is that in the EFL classroom, a purely “pragmatic” focus on linguistic development can be ironically counterproductive in raising the maturation rates of EFL students’ L2 competence. Two sets of tenets for classroom teachers and material developers were developed as a result of these studies; the tenets are a culmination of all of the major insights that were acquired across this six-year project. For the finale of the thesis, the tenets were used to upgrade the design of OL2-R into what will become OL3. In this way, the ending of the thesis ties the knot between: (1) theoretical understandings of the amassed data and (2) practical applications of the amassed data from this action research project.
