Culling Fears Part 2: STANDING

Last week’s blog “Culling Fears of Classroom Shifts” laid out a foundation for why it is important to design classroom environments which promote learning and stretch young people while at the same time avoiding an amygdala hijacking caused by triggers of anxiety.  This week I wanted to follow up on the “why” by discussing just how the Design Specifications for Learning Environments can lower anxiety and as a result promote learning.

     Below is a chart which summarizes the connection between the social interaction elements found in schools which could lead to threats or fears (i.e. anxiety) that undermine learning and the design specifications to consider when creating learning environments to counter these threats.

SOCIAL INTERACTION ELEMENTS THAT ACTIVATE THREATS & THE ENVIRONMENTS THAT WE CAN DESIGN TO COUNTER THE THREAT

Element	Description & Threat (Hammond, 2015, p.65)	Design Specs to Counter the Threat
Standing	One’s sense of importance relative to others.  Threat = not belonging/being expelled	-Beyond Points & Grades -Honoring Identity Through Relationships
Certainty	One’s need for clarity and predictability. Threat = embarrassment/not knowing what to do	-Nurturing Innovation
Control	One’s sense of empowerment. Threat = being told what to do, where to go, how to behave	-Honoring Identity Through Relationships
Connection	One’s sense of connection and security with others. Threat = fear of being an outsider/excluded	-Learning is Social
Equity	One’s sense of fairness and non-biased exchange with others. Threat = feeling of being disadvantaged or others being advantaged	-Process vs. Product -Honoring Identity Through Relationships

I would like to propose that the design specifications are how we create environments which nurture learning and avoid the aforementioned amygdala hijacking.  

How to Counter Threats to STANDING

     Schools were originally designed to select and sort students in order to determine who goes on to college (5%  max up until the mid 20th century) and to train the remaining 95% for an ever growing industrial workforce. Grades arose from this culture of schooling in order to help authorities to select and sort.  The design specification of “Beyond Points & Grades” emphasizes that extrinsic motivation, as facilitated by grades and points, naturally diminishes the process of learning. Learning environments designed to minimize the negative side effects of grades/points instead nurture curiosity & questioning (both traits of being innovative).   These environments also encourage empathy and collaboration which help to promote independent ownership, goal-setting, and self-reflection (all  examples of intrinsic motivation) so closely associated with learning. A classroom environment that promotes intrinsic motivation such as this will actually put the amygdala at ease by minimizing the concern as to where a young person's standing falls and instead promotes a sense of belonging.  This also ties into a classroom designed to “Honor Identity Through Relationships,” which is arguably the most important specification for a nurturing classroom environment.

     Relationships need to include trust, respect, and empathy, such that all people, younger and older, value each other.  The rapport developed between young people and adults doesn’t necessarily mean you are on equal footing from a “power” standpoint, but it does mean you are on equal footing from a respect standpoint.  One of my favorite quotes, attributed to St. Francis de Sales, is “Nothing is so strong as gentleness and nothing is so gentle as real strength.” A teacher can have “power” in a classroom, yield to the ideas of young people in the classroom (an action which promotes identity) and still be responsible for the classroom.   In fact, the ability to do so is an example of real strength. I can remember being in interviews as a teacher and talking about the importance of being firm, fair, and friendly without being familiar. Certainly you can have good rapport with young people in a classroom without familiarity blurring lines of appropriateness.  In fact, such expectations not only model empathy but also promote trust and respect within the classroom.  

     It is not only important to acknowledge that young people need to feel safe and happy in order to provide the optimal environment for learning, but to also consider the best ways to go about nurturing such environments.  The Design Specs for Learning provide an avenue, the how, for nurturing such environments. Our amygdala is on a razor’s edge when it comes to our “standing in any population,” and this is especially so for teenagers. By keeping “STANDING” in mind when designing environments for learning (i.e. planning lessons/activities) we can help young people have the mindset needed to be ready to learn.  

Next Week:   Nurturing Innovation & Certainty (Aurora Learners-Future Ready)

References

Hammond, Zaretta (2015).  Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain. 

Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Publishing.