I always love how the brain works. When I give it time and space to do its job, it's pretty clever at making connections without me really having to do anything. Well - kinda! Of course, I had to put the content in my brain in the first place - nothing in; nothing out. What goes into a mind, though, comes out in a life.
I went to a PD session at school on Wednesday - Learning to Learn was the topic. Though the information was nothing new, hearing it again allowed my brain to go ahead and remind me of some connections.
Firstly - the point about procrastination. I'm really good at that - an expert in fact! I'm procrastinating right now! I should be marking, but suddenly I have this pressing urge to write all about the PD I went on! The point the presenter was making was that starting an uncomfortable task ignited the same neuro responses as being kicked in the leg. So, discomfort = pain. However, that 'pain' reflex/response dulls down after a minute or two once you get going with the task. Do you know what I heard? My dad's voice in my head: "The hardest part about doing anything is starting". And do you know where dad's words of wisdom came from? His dad. So science is backing up age-old wisdom. Funny how that always seem to be the case. Funnier still how we, in our 'enlightened' age of technology refuse to believe the wisdom of our ancestors unless there is scientific research to back it up.
Isn't it funny how research can be manipulated to make it mean whatever you want it to mean?
Isn't it funnier still how experience to back up research can be found wherever you look for it?
The brain is a very suggestible organ - it will believe whatever we tell it to believe, at the end of the day.
Another point raised during the PD was that of the focused activity that occurs in the frontal lobe, and that of the diffused thinking state that happens during resting state. Again nothing new, but my brain connected this with cortizol, and how how stress affects memory. If our students' bodies are under stress and they're releasing cortizol into their systems, then that is going to affect how the brain converts the focused activity into short term memory, and then how that short term memory converts into long-term memory. It's the reason I keep my classroom a stress-free environment as much as possible. Kids can't learn if they don't like the teacher; I hear that often. But why? Because kids can't learn if they're under stress, and if their stress levels are triggered by dreading coming into contact with someone, then that's no good for them. I don't want to undermine the necessity of some stress - the good kind that promotes work. My students have rockets exploded under them as and when necessary to get work out of them - but it's never sustained. Short, sharp fear of a deadline encroaching is enough.
One point that I found particularly interesting - and this reinforces my position on the ability to find research to back up anything you like - is that of listening to music while learning. The presenter said no way, not during focussed activity. A music teacher in the audience agreed, because as a musician she would instinctively start to analyse the music. And I hear that - research and experience aligned. It's obviously going to be the case for some people. However, I also have research that I've read over the years which indicates the exact opposite. Music stimulates brain functionality, receptivity, and optimum state. In fact, when my son was small, we had many therapists involved in his development. One was a Speech-Language Therapist (and all SLTs are trained in psychology), and another was a Neuro-Developmental Therapist. Both of them gave me research that showed how certain types of music - Largo, from memory - caused the brain to work more efficiently. So when I was specifically working on teaching my son a skill (eg eating or clapping), it was always easier and more efficient when I had the music playing. He was more responsive.
Now - let me just take a minute to argue a point. I will not accept that what Caleb had to learn was easier than what my students have to learn - relative to their ages. In fact, for Caleb, it is much harder for him to learn anything because of his Global Developmental Delay. I've heard people say that what primary school students learn is 'easier' than what secondary students learn. No it's not. The skills that are taught to each level are new at each level. Learning how to write 'the cat sat on the mat' is just as difficult for a new entrant student as 'Opium symbolises the destruction of a society from the inside out' is for a year 12 student. By the time a student gets to year 12, the building blocks have already been laid - I'm not teaching them everything from a,b,cs through to analysis in one year. I'm building on what's gone before and adding the next bit of information.
However - I am also completely ready to say that music will not work for everyone. Why? Because everyone is wired in so many different ways. There are people who learn best through music, art, writing, reading. There are those who learning is optimised through logic, reason, numbers, experience. There are the kinaesthetic learners, the visual learners, the auditory learners. There are the emotionally intelligent, the academically intelligent, the pastorally gifted, the servant-hearted, the perfectionists, the peace-makers, the leaders, the hard, the soft. There is no one right way, and none of these function in isolation.
What we need to do is equip students with information that enables them to find their individual learning style. We teach them to understand that it will change as they grow older - and it should change as they mature. Once they've figured this out, we give them the tools they need and then we let them go for it.
