Lucas Leydon
Eng 1
9/2/13
Williams
Mirror Neurons
In “The Passion Project” I enjoyed hearing about mirror neurons and I feel they connect to the area of my writing assignment where I mention how teachers need to be passionate about what they are teaching and grab the students attention by stimulating an interest for the subject and a desire for further learning. Students who have a teacher that is dynamic and excited about what they teach feel much more engaged and involved in the subject rather than a teacher who gives a boring lecture through power-point slides or teaches word-for-word out of a textbook. I’m sure everyone has come across a teacher who has left an inspiring, lasting impression in them that they can recall to this day because of their unique and passionate personality, rather than just a grade received on a report card. It is teachers like these that strengthen, or spark new, interests in students and give them the motivation to follow through in the subject of study, and maybe even inspire them to become a teacher themselves. It is quite obvious that the more the teacher is involved and excited, that responsiveness and willingness to learn will be reflected in the student. It is said that with the development of mirror neurons in human beings, the possibility to learn from others was birthed. This supports why good teachers make for good students. “(The mirror neuron system) is thought to play an important role in the understanding of actions made by others and may be responsible for our ability to learn by observing and imitating others (Educ Psychol Rev 2009).” In my personal experience, being a music major , I feel mirror neurons are constantly in use while I am engaged in guitar lessons and also while watching others perform. Even if it is music I have never heard before, just by watching someone play something on guitar, I am able to feel what it would be like to play myself, and feel I have gained if even the smallest amount of experience just by the exposure. This is a major factor in my area of study, having a guitar performance focus, by allowing me to recognize my own mistakes while watching my guitar teacher play a piece that I am learning. By observing the position of his hands and minor finger adjustments throughout the piece I am able to mimic his actions and refine my own technique in perfecting my performance of the piece. I am also taking music theory classes which explain how and why certain situations in music work or do not work in a given context. This theoretical knowledge goes very deep and can be compared to learning a new language. And just in language, by learning certain words you can begin to formulate ideas and sentences in your mind, so too in music you are able to come up with musical movements and ideas of how a song will sound without even using an instrument! This technique composers use when beginning to write a piece of music with a certain feeling or emotion in mind; and it is also how Beethoven was able to continue to compose music even when he lost his hearing and went completely deaf! By witnessing how my teachers use and apply the theoretical aspect of writing music, I have been able to apply those concepts myself and am not only engaged in critical thinking, but also in critical learning. “Interestingly, there are indications that the same brain areas involved in in the execution and observation of motor actions also become active when people listen to sentences that describe the performance of human actions using hands, mouths, or legs, or when people imagine performing an action without actual movement (Educ Psychol Rev 2009).”
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