本系列英文内容来自https://www.edx.org/course/the-science-of-learning-what-every-teacher-should-know，翻译是自己练习，如有发现不妥请批评指正！
Learning in Schools
在学校学习
We are learning virtually all of the time.
我们几乎所有时间都在学习。
From the moment we are born, throughout our lives, and even in our sleep.
从我们出生的那一刻起，一直贯穿我们的生活中甚至是睡眠中。
If we watch a baby or a toddler interact with the world around them, we see them constantly trying to make meaning of sensory patterns in their environment, consciously or unconsciously asking how and why.
如果我们看到婴儿或幼儿与他们周围的世界相互作用，我们会看到他们不断尝试在其环境中形成感官模式的意义，有意识或无意识地询问如何以及为什么。
What do we mean by learning?
学习是什么意思？
While there are many definitions of learning, Robert Sternberg, a cognitive scientist, provides one that is clear and concise.
虽然学习有很多定义，但认知科学家罗伯特·斯腾伯格提供了一个清晰而简洁的定义。
He says, "Learning is any relatively permanent change" in the behavior, thoughts, or feelings of an organism "that results from experience."
他说，“学习是一种由经验产生的有机体在行为，思想或感觉上”相对永久的变化”
Notice Sternberg mentions not only that learning is reflected in visible behaviors and actions, but learning is also reflected through changes in interior thoughts and feelings that are indiscernible by the outside observer.
注意斯滕伯格提到的，不仅学习反映在可见的行为和动作中，而且学习也反映在外部观察者难以察觉的内部思想和感受的变化中。
And this is one of the biggest challenges of teaching, trying to figure out what our students have learned so we can respond accordingly.
这是教学中最大的挑战之一，试图弄清楚我们的学生学到了什么，以便我们能够做出相应的回应。
Learning takes on many forms and occurs in many settings.
学习有许多形式，发生在许多环境中。
For instance, one form of learning called implicit learning develops without our necessarily being aware of its happening.
例如，一种叫做含蓄学习的学习形式的发展并不一定必须让我们意识到它的发生。
Examples would be first language acquisition, and learning social norms a cues.
比如说第一语言的习得，和学习社会规范的线索。
Much of what we learn in school, however, is explicit learning.
然而，我们在学校学到的大部分是明确的学习。
In order for explicit learning to happen, we have to consciously attend to learning and make memories for later recall.
为了明确学习的发生，我们必须下意识的关注学习，并为以后的回忆留下记忆。
Learning develops in different contexts or settings.
学习在不同的环境或背景中发展。
In fact, learning often happens in informal situations: on the playground, at home, in museums, and often with peers during various forms of recreation and related activities.
事实上，学习经常发生在非正式场合：在操场上，在家中，在博物馆里，并且经常在各种形式的娱乐和相关活动中与同伴一起进行。
Learning, of course, also occurs more formally.
学习当然更多的产生在正式场合。
Formal learning occurs in structured educational settings like schools and colleges.
正规学习发生在学校和大学等结构化教育环境中。
Our focus in this course mostly will be on explicit and formal learning in schools.
我们这里的课程主要关注在学校的明确和正式学习。
Explicit formal learning is not always easy for children to do, since they are most naturally inclined to learn implicitly in informal settings.
明确的正式学习对儿童来说并不总是容易，因为他们很自然地倾向于在非正式环境中不自觉的学习。
Learning to read or write or think about abstract concepts like metaphors, multiplication, Newton's Laws, or dangling participles, is not usually intrinsically motivating to most kids.
学习阅读，写作或思考诸如隐喻，乘法，牛顿定律或摇摆分词等抽象概念，对于大多数孩子来说通常并不是本质上的动力。
That is, kids don't usually gravitate to this kind of learning on their own.
也就是说，孩子们通常不会倾向于自己去进行这种学习。
Additionally, many students don't find learning within the confines of four walls of a classroom for extended periods of time consistently alluring.
此外，许多学生在教室四面墙的范围内长时间没有发现一直引人入胜的学习【难句】。
As a result, motivating a child to pay attention and learn in school is often a challenge, as any teacher will tell you.
因此，任何老师都会告诉你，激励孩子在学校注意和学习往往是一项挑战。
Another reality of school learning is that deep thinking is not something we usually do just for fun or even naturally.
学校里学习的另一个现实是，我们通常为了娱乐或基于自然而做出的不是深层的思考。
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham speaks to this when he says, "People's minds are not "especially well-suited to thinking.
认知科学家Daniel Willingham在谈到“人们的大脑“不是特别适合思考时对此进行了说明。
"Thinking is slow, effortful, and uncertain." This means we tend to automatically rely on past habits and memories to guide our actions, and are less likely to think deliberately and deeply.
“思考缓慢，费力和不确定。” 这意味着我们倾向于自动依靠过去的习惯和记忆来指导我们的行动，很少故意深思。
To further complicate matters, struggle and confusion are usually necessary for deep and transformative learning to happen, something that many students tend to avoid or incorrectly interpret as a sign of their ineffectiveness as learners.
使事情进一步复杂化，通常需要经历斗争和困惑才能进行深度和变革性的学习，许多学生往往避免或错误地将其解释为无效学习的标志。
We'll talk more about this later.
我们稍后会详细讨论。
It's no surprise then that teaching is an incredibly difficult and demanding profession.
因此，并不奇怪教学是一项极其的困难和高要求的职业。
Lee Shulman, who for years headed the Carnegie Center For Teaching And Learning, and spent his career researching expertise in medical doctors and K through 12 teachers, said this near the end of his career, "I have concluded that classroom teaching is perhaps "the most complex, most challenging, and most demanding, "subtle, nuanced, and frightening activity "that our species has ever invented."
多年来领导卡耐基教学和学习中心的李舒尔曼，对12位教师进行医疗医生和K的专业研究，在接近他的职业生涯结束时说：“我的结论是，课堂教学可能是”最复杂，最具挑战性和最苛刻的，我们物人类发明的“微妙，细微差别和可怕的活动”。
Daunting, yes, but reflective teachers all over the world have been addressing these challenges for a long time.
令人望而生畏，是的，但反射出世界各地的教师长期以来一直在解决这些挑战。
So why are we here?
这也是我们为什么在这里？
Cognitive science research about how people learn, what we are calling science of learning, has been going on for well over half a century, but it is only relatively recently that this research has reached a point where it can powerfully inform the day to day practice of any classroom teacher.
认知科学研究人们如何学习，我们所称的学习科学，已经持续了半个多世纪，但直到最近，这项研究才达到了可以有力地通知日复一日践行课堂教学的的所有教师。
The really exciting aspect of this research is that it can help students develop deeper and more enduring understanding of our important learning goals.
这项研究的真正令人兴奋的方面是它可以帮助学生对我们重要的学习目标有更深入和更持久的理解。
At the same time, developing such durable understanding makes it more likely that students will be able to use and apply that understanding to their lives well beyond school.
同时，培养这种持久的理解能力使学生更有可能将这种理解运用到学校的生活之外。
And that's for all learners, not just the ones who might struggle the most.
这对于所有学习者来说都是如此，而不仅仅是那些最努力最刻苦的人。
Finally, while our focus in this course is on the science of teaching, it almost goes without saying that effective teaching is also about much more than the insights provided by cognitive science.
最后，虽然我们关注的是教学科学，但毫无疑问，有效的教学不仅仅是认知科学提供的见解。
There is a creativity, empathy, an art to what we do as we respond in the moment to a child before us.
在我们站在一个孩子面前时，我们要有一种创造力，同情心，一种艺术。
No amount of science will replace the fundamentally relational quality of great teaching.
没有多少科学会取代伟大教学的根本关系质量。
This course, in providing an introduction to the science of learning and the brain, aims however, to allow educators to develop knowledge that puts their art and conversation with the robust science of learning, all towards more deliberately impacting the learners in their classes.
然而，本课程旨在介绍学习和大脑的科学，旨在让教育工作者开发知识，将他们的艺术和对话与强大的学习科学相结合，以便更有意识地影响课堂上的学习者。
With that said, we're ready to begin. Let's start with how we make and recall memories.
就这样，我们已经准备好开始了。让我们从我们如何产生和回忆记忆开始。
