I am a science teacher, always was and always will be, but today I am in a different role as the Curriculum Director of our district. However, the more I learn about curriculum K-12 the more I realize how interwoven Biology is with learning. I believe we, as educators, can take advantage of how the brain naturally processes information to perform a kind of "cognitive jiu jitsu" (a phrase coined by colleague @andrewsams) that helps all students become learners.
Two people have helped me come to this realization: Dr. James Zull and Simon Sinek. Sinek gives an example of one way to take advantage of how the brain works in "Start with Why". He emphasis the power of tapping into the primitive limbic cortex of the brain, which focus on feelings, over the more analytical cerebral cortex of the brain. Starting with "why", Sinek points out, builds more buy in because people can relate to the call to action more than can be expressed by starting with "what". This makes sense because as Zull points out in his book "The Art of Changing the Brain" the brain basically wants two things: to be safe and to be happy and as a result, "no outside influence can cause a brain to learn. It will decide on its own.". Thus, Zull goes on, "One important rule for helping people to learn is to help the learner feel she is in control". This is where the cognitive jui jitsu come into play in schools.
Educators can help students become better learners by first allowing students to make connections to the "why" over the "what" and this can only happen naturally by not telling the learners what to think, but instead listening to why they think. We can then try to put them in situations and ask questions that allow them to see the natural patterns and them to make connections to whatever it is they are learning about. Teaching then becomes less about handing down knowledge and more of an "Art" of putting the learners in the right situations. The key is the learners make the connections for themselves and are "in control of their learning" not the educators telling the learners what connections to make. This will lead to that intrinsic motivation we are all looking for in learners. The brain likes to be in control and the first thing it sees with rewards and punishments (extrinsic motivation) is loss of control. As Zull astutely points out, "the brain has evolved to detect and resist exactly this type of thing for over five million years. It is not going to give in now.". As a result, we educators need to spend less time trying to tell our students what to think and spend more of our time taking advantage of this natural tendency for our learner's brains to be in control while helping them to make the connections. Its making connection to the "why" over the "what". However, cognitive jiu jitsu isn't all about "feelings" either, but rather redirecting the learner's brain and taking advantage of the mental momentum by putting it in situations that lead to seeing the patterns and making connections through a balance in the "analytical" part of our brain as well.
The more "analytical" part of our brain is the cerebral coretex and it could generically be divided into four parts that can be described as working in a cycle. The back of the brain (sensory cortex) is designed to collect senses from the world, those signals are then integrated into the brain (back integrative cortex) to develop a meaning of the signal, the front part of the brain (front integrative cortex) which analyzes the info and makes plans, then leads to the motor cortex in the brain which directs the body to carry out the plans. Zull points out the natural pattern in the brain's anatomy mirrors how we learn.
Brain's Pattern:
Sensory Intake-> Creation of Meaning -> Assembly of Information-> Action
Learning Cycle:
Taking in Concrete Info-> Analyzing/Pattern Recognition ->Developing Plan of Action->Writing/Speaking
As educators we need to allow our learner's brain to go through this natural process . The trick is to either ask them the right questions or put them in the situations (sensory intake) that starts the process and then get out of the way as they run through the cycle in order to analyze what just happened. As soon as we tell them what happened the process is short circuited. Too much structure (all lecture) isolates the back of the brain and too much ambiguity (open class without support) isolates the front of the brain. This balance between the intake of knowledge and use of knowledge is the cognitive jiu jitsu educators must complete in order to allow learners to naturally see the pattern and make the connections that keep them in the zone of proximal development.
The Zull book is great. I learned a lot from it. The only way to allow students to make those connections for themselves is to give up control and most teachers aren't willing to do that. Most kids don't know what to do when they aren't being told exactly what to do. They think if the teacher isn't talking it must be recess. As I said in my email, we don't have a why. We define how and whats as whys.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, I think a good portion of the reason why kids struggle with this is a form of "learned helplessness" we, as educators, have created. At the same time, because of how the brain works and how kids have learned things for thousands of years before "schooling" was established I believe adjustments will be made if we ask the right questions and put them in the right situations. Thanks for the feedback.
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