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Like my
colleagues, I exerted considerable effort gearing students for standardized
tests in my content area.
Over a period of years, I became very proficient in teaching my
curriculum and observed students doing likewise as learning recipients, often
enjoying the material they facilitated for both advanced and basic level
sections. Using a regimen of card,
board, and video games in after-school sessions a few times a week,
Silvia Bunge and her team raised reasoning and speed
processing capacities of 7 to 9-year-olds in a central city school thirty-two
and twenty-seven percent, respectively, in just two months!1.
How
does one account for the momentous change in mental proficiency by playing
games when the rest of us must pull out all stops to get reasonable achievement
from our students? In fairness to educators who strive for student mastery
covering the broad topical scope of our disciplines, Bunge's tasks were specific and focused
on specific cognitive functions (reasoning or speed processing), and thus
selected games that activated those functions. In Bunge's study, the reasoning group did
not improve in speed processing and the speed processing group did not improve
in reasoning.
The brain is poised to experience novelty
I
believe that the predominant factor affecting the reasoning and speed
processing aptitudes in Bunge's study was novelty. They were engaged in captivating activities and spent
substantial intervals performing tasks associated with the selected games:
reasoning or speed processing.
The
one hundred sixty hours of regular school time over that interval probably did
not contribute to the measured gains. Games did. Class time was more concerned
about knowledge acquisition and skill development in academic disciplines of
mathematics, vocabulary, and language.
Can
the after-school play regimen be applied to a classroom setting?
That is, can a teacher create modules with comparable novelty when covering lessons in language,
mathematics, and social studies? I
believe that novelty can be added to any school learning environment with
positive results.
Why was game playing novel for these children?
In one respect, it was the frequent feedback on their progress that allowed them to move
successive increments. They were validated for their success every step of the way and
remained engaged. Games are designed that way. Classrooms are generally
knowledge dispensaries and cannot match that feedback immediacy. Also, changing
stations every fifteen minutes perpetuated the novelty as the 7 to 9-year-olds were challenged mentally
for sustained periods in each of the seventy-five-minute after-school gaming
sessions.
Play is pleasurable and innate in children, and
these after-school sessions met that need. Sitting at desks for long intervals
during a school day with minimal feedback does not hold the same level of engagement.
The play-centered curricula in the early grades in many schools is pleasurable
and purposeful for young children and sustains their attention, but there needs
to be a transitional novelty that is pleasurable in content area pursuits through the teen years.
Students foster a greater
appreciation of the educational process when schools stress the importance of
content areas and their historical
relevance. For one, the liberal arts education we adopt today is a continuum of
the human need to understand the world that embraces survival and creative
endeavors. American schools have
distilled that into the subjects English, History, Science, Mathematics,
Physical Education, and Art. Furthermore, it is through their inclusion that we
nurture literacy development encompassing reading, writing, and computation.
Unlike
the hunter-gatherer and agricultural societies of our ancestors thousands of
years ago, we live in a knowledge assimilation and techno-skill-capable world.
Because the success of our civilization hinges on innovation and psychomotor processing in diverse venues, our nation may lose
its dominance in the global economy if institutes of education fail to develop
the skill readiness in the ever-advancing technological workplace. Because
educators are competing with the very captivating Web, novel educational
devices must be implemented to maximize student attention at every grade level.
Novelty search
The
key point is that the brain searches for novelty by continuously monitoring sensory information
from the environment. Taste, touch, hearing, vision, and smell are on alert and
receive information directed to the back of the brain or brain stem. This is
the reticular activating system (RAS) and is
responsible for receiving the environmental information that keeps the rest of
the brain aware of the world around us. Organisms are constantly receiving
signals that alert them about dangers as well as opportunities to procure
shelter, food, and mates. (Did you ever capture a bird or squirrel with your
hands?) These alerts are novel to the organism. 2
The
amount of sensory information the RAS receives is at least a million bits per second
which is filtered down to two thousand/second of the most relevant to the
sensory cortex. From these regions, the data is
directed to the midbrain's limbic system. The amygdala and hippocampus then scrutinize this information for emotional
relevance.3 Most of the time this sensory information lacks novelty, not requiring conscious
attention.
The very essence of the creative is its novelty, and hence
we have no standard by which to judge it.
Carl Rogers
from On Becoming a Person, 1961
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However,
a hissing snake by our feet is interpreted through the auditory and visual
cortices as dangerous, the amygdala interprets it as such and sends signals to the
autonomic centers so that the individual can flee immediately. There is no
deliberation because the amygdala transmits quickly to other parts of the brain,
stimulating the adrenal gland to secrete adrenaline, sparking the metabolism of glucose in the musculoskeletal system. The visual and
auditory stimuli of the snake, therefore, does not interpret it in the same
context as a math problem, because a math problem does not pose a physical
threat. The human limbic system knows that survival necessitates
distancing oneself from danger (as soon as possible) because snakes can cause
harm.
A
trained snake handler, for instance, has been educated to understand the risks
and the procedures to approach and secure a snake. The amygdala, hippocampus, and the higher areas of the
brain, the frontal cortex, have worked collaboratively through training to
alter the original fear mechanism upon seeing and hearing a hissing snake.
Engagement is high in such an encounter. The hissing and visual appearance of a
snake by a trained handler is interpreted: "be careful, step back, and
grab the snake's neck once you have a position that will minimize the snake's
reaction". There might be some hesitation in the first few trials, but the
individual will become a fearless snake handler with repetition as the
cerebellar/prefrontal cortex connection is conditioned to perform the
maneuver appropriately to minimize risk of injury.
Attentive
focus
The
interplay between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system is a critical aspect of brain physiology
that determines our drive in all matters, including the desire to perform tasks
in school. If the message obtained by the amygdala from the sensory cortex is perceived as leading to a rewarding
experience, the brain sets in motion the production of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the nucleus accumbens to obtain that reward, increasing the individual's
attentive focus as the potential reward is achieved.4
Attentive
focus coincides with the brain coordinating neuroplasticity, the growth of nervous tissue in
the brain. It is accelerated when environmental
cues are interpreted as rewarding or pleasurable, releasing dopamine and maintaining the focus. From the
perspective of learning content areas, the nerve axons in the memory storage area, the hippocampus,
are stimulated and the individual's attentive focus results in synaptic
extensions, or dendrites, to the nerve axon body.
Depending on the
duration of the experience and repetition, the number of dendrite connections can range from one to one hundred
thousand per neuron!5 More extensive nerve networks correlate with
improved knowledge facilitation, like the steps in a math problem or the lines
in a play. Repetition of tasks also aids in reinforcing the dendritic sprouting and makes the student ripe for further learning.
Doing
a mathematics homework assignment that matches the problems
introduced in class, for example, is likely to improve the mastery of that
problem type. The student is likely to do well on a quiz covering the topic the
next day. Consider the benefit, too, of including the answers to the homework
problems so that feedback is available after performing all the steps.
That is rewarding, and dopamine production will go up in anticipation of the
reward (getting the correct answer). Completing the
assignment is registered as pleasurable because the student is continuously
finding out that they are competent. Getting high scores on past quizzes
reassures the student that the time spent doing the homework is worthwhile.
However,
assigning a set of math problems not related to the teacher presentation or
extremely difficult compared to what was covered in class is not likely to
produce mastery, nor cause significant neuroplasticity, and will fail to ready most the
students for the quiz the next day. Consider, too, that the amygdala will view the problems as an emotional
negative, that is, one of frustration. On a bigger scale is the negativity
experienced by students that contend with bullies and other social and concentration issues
during their time in school.
Instruction builds knowledge and
conceptual patterns in the brain
The
key is to provide experiences that match existing knowledge, so the brain can
act on the recognition of the data and skills needed to attend to the assigned
task. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) reveal
activation of memory banks when children are learning.6 These are
patterns that are encoded in the brain from previous learning. Finding the
right combination between simple repetition of a process and extensions that
draw from past knowledge can be very meaningful when bettering mastery of
content areas. Rehearsing a
song or reading a poem multiple times generate more dendritic sprouting and makes the connections stronger, and memory
of the task more reliable. This is where Bloom's Taxonomy7, the hierarchy that classifies
learning objectives into levels of complexity, is relevant because the
patterning becomes increasingly more complex through the steps of recalling,
comprehending, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating. These are constructs
that build from the basic recall of facts to advanced thinking mechanisms that
embrace a wide scope of brain functionality Bloom identified in humans.
In the case of the
Bunge study1, the 7-9-year-olds were put
in a game situation that was novel and motivating. Rotating the specific games
every fifteen minutes sustained novelty and activated their attentive focus with the
spontaneous dopamine release. The students were in a demonstrative mode through the experience because
the amygdala recognized the environment as not harmful, but
rather rewarding, coordinating the knowledge assimilation with the memory
storage banks in the hippocampus, initiating the creation of
dendrites and their synaptic connection to existing
nerve axons. In a tense or boring environment,
this assimilation will be reduced as the amygdala bypasses this mechanism.
In
the games that were specifically picked because of their role in promoting reasoning, the children
reinforced the development of that skill during each session. There was
age-appropriate prerequisite information in their brains at the very beginning
that allowed them to learn the game rules, then progress through each level,
receive feedback, and then choose proper ways to
execute successive moves. In other words, there were existing patterns in their
cognition that correlated as they learned the games and
practiced a few rounds and Bunge selected games based on that learning
readiness. Furthermore, they became somewhat proficient because they nurtured
the prediction aspect of their mentality, a key element in the cognitive
development of a human and essential to the decision-making we do all day.
Game
playing was pleasurable, too. Consequently, the children were very engaged,
anticipating a reward with increased dopamine as they strove to the
next level in each game. Based on the post evaluation test there must have been
substantial plasticity associated with that part of the brain that reasons
through tasks. In fact, the memory was transmitted over that two-month interval
from the hippocampus to the frontal cortex where it was stored long
term, improving their prediction capacity in the reasoning region. Likewise,
for speed processing: games incorporating that functionality repeatedly led to
significantly improved scores on the speed processing posttest. The one hundred
sixty hours of regular school activities did not affect these abilities during
that eight-week period but rather were relevant to the subjects and skills
pursued by the teacher.
Attentive Focus Through Deliberate
Practice
I
tried to make my lessons novel, and keeping my students focused was a prime
goal in my career. Educators think along those lines: prepare lessons that are
novel for children to maximize learning.
Meaningful experiences in class that
touch base with student patterning along with purposeful and stimulating
homework improves prediction skills and facilitates the
dendritic sprouting that enhances
retention. New material, therefore, must click with the memory banks to initiate
understanding and subsequently assimilation.
Along that line K.
Anders Ericsson, Professor of Psychology at Florida State
University, who specializes in the psychological element of human performance,
found that development of expertise is not just proportional to hours of
practice. Rather, it is deliberate practice, or component processes that collectively
result in better overall performance. In other words, they set goals by
breaking down a performance or lesson into constituent elements and develop a
plan to improve in those areas.
Competitive
distance runners, for instance, include short interval sprints in practice
schedules to strengthen their musculature as well as amplify the cardiovascular
response needed in a competitive event. Consider, too, all the individual
skills introduced during the first semester to solve more complex, multistep
problems second semester in algebra or geometry. Moreover, I became much more
competent as a physics and chemistry instructor when rudimentary skills and
themes were emphasized and drilled early in the school year or in the prerequisite
course. What were complex ideas and problems to teach early in my career became
routine for my students because they had a firm grasp of basic principles and
skills.
-clearly defined goal(s)
-exertion of concentration and effort
-immediate and informative feedback
-refining performance through repetition and reflection.
8 (pp. 685-706)
I
believe the trend to include novelty in the classroom is a major goal of
educational publishers and software companies. However, it might not be keeping
pace with the ever-stimulating innovations of cell phone apps and all the
social attractions that draw the attention of young people. The anticipation of a message or any bit of information from
friends and cultural icons empowers children, perpetuating an alert mode
because the thrill of viewing and then responding is an engagement level that
exceeds most of what transpires in a school day.
Cell phones,
Facebook, and Instagram kindle plasticity because of the repetition and pleasure derived with the stream of information, but
that brain development is not likely to relate to academic pursuits. As
mentioned previously, teens have a powerful need for validation and unlike any
invention in recent history, devices fill the void as powerful, mind-grabbing
stimuli that sustain novelty for hours, promoting nonacademic, pop culture –
validation they do not encounter in school pursuits – to
the point that many experience withdrawal when the devices are removed.
Just as the
reasoning developed in the 7 to 9-year-olds went up thirty-two percent, speed
processing did not improve at all. Educators, therefore, should have students
attempt a diversity of learning functions as modeled by the hierarchy of
Bloom's Taxonomy. Bloom adds that
Perhaps the major
quality of these teachers was that they made the initial learning very pleasant
and rewarding. Much of the introduction to the field was as playful activity,
and the learning at the beginning at this stage was much more like a game.9
What
may have been characterized as a spectacular presentation in a classroom a
generation ago that built patterns and invoked prediction, pales compared to
the novelty of the Instagram and Facebook postings waiting
on an iPhone. It means, too, (as Bunge demonstrated) that our cognition is bifurcated into an assortment of
independent skill and retention areas but blended if higher level thinking
avenues are pursued that incorporate the designated skills and knowledge.
Classrooms past and future
The
pedagogy many of us experienced a generation ago was
predominantly lectures accompanied by peripherals such as worksheets, quizzes, homework, term papers, and occasionally a
movie. Many students excelled here because they were good auditory learners
and/or motivated by extrinsic factors such as family encouragement, school
penalties for lack of compliance in behavior or grades, and the prospect of
college or graduate school admittance. I had that intrinsic motivation late in high school and then in college,
mainly because I heard that several graduates from my high school dropped out
due to a lack of study skills and motivation to tackle university level work.
Wanting to excel in college, therefore, I became keenly aware of the educators
that were good content area facilitators and signed up for their courses if that option
was available. It may seem a bit
simplistic but if tests came mainly from notes, I wrote diligently during the
lecture and read them over several times the evening
before to get high scores on exams. If tests were derived from the designated
textbook I underlined extensively, read them repetitively to be ready for the
test. How was I empowered? By simply cramming, the major learning style during
those years, that is, my novelty (not thrilling) but necessary to maintain
grades to reach vocational aspirations. The empowerment was not in the
lecture hall where the facts were dispensed but rather in the library or dorm
room where the knowledge was intensely crammed into my memory circuits for
recall purposes during the test administration.
Attaining
the reward, therefore, required adjusting to
the dominant pedagogy available. In many respects, most of us taught
ourselves content areas to become competent in classes because the
fifty-minute lectures only introduced topics. I found that peers in
my organic chemistry and calculus classes, for instance, struggled mightily. We
wanted to achieve success even though there was little novelty. I would characterize myself as an
emerging auditory learner upon entering college, and devoted substantial
periods studying in my dormitory room reading, re-reading, and doing exercises
repetitively in a notebook to master curriculum. That repetition along with the
diversity of subjects at the university level improved my cognition in numerous ways. I was challenged, and my
mind responded favorably because I was motivated and thus asserted myself,
studying for prolonged periods at a desk, carrying over the knowledge
acquisition when taking tests. My concentration led to the neurological
dendritic sprouting that touched base with existing patterns, made
new connections, built prediction skills for the sophisticated and varied
subject areas I was pursuing. The validation did not come from human sources but entirely
from much anticipated scores on tests and report card grades.
Young
people today are not driven by the standards many of us held to attain high
grades. What will it take, therefore, to improve attention and focus in the
classroom for the new generation of pupils? In other words, what practices will
stimulate neurological transformations like the children in the Bunge study and promote neuroplasticity?
The
type of lesson planning I used in the early part of my teaching career
(lectures, worksheets, and quizzes) may still be apropos
in various settings, especially if they are executed with organization and
relevance. However, I believe the recent developments in neurological science
have enabled us to create instructional methods that encompass the foundational
thought patterns of the whole class, and not just the audio-capable people. It
is incumbent on schools to prolong the eagerness and validation of children, empower them through high school,
perpetuate the reward cycle, maintaining attentiveness right up to commencement. Given the fact that
only fifty-three percent of American students have been diagnosed as
potentially ready to embark on college-level work, the novelty 'button' needs to be pushed to the point of a
thrill at times in the older students so they can facilitate the knowledge flow
and complexities associated with post-secondary pursuits and eventually their
vocation.
References
Retrieved from
http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news-archive/14593.html
2. Csikszentmihalyi,
M., Hunter, J., (2003). Happiness in Everyday Life: The Uses of Experience
Sampling, Journal of Clinical Psychology, 185-199
2
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Hard to sustain the novelty
However, the novelty of a school year diminishes as the combination of tests, quizzes, homework load, athletic, and drama commitments weigh heavily on students producing a fair amount of monotony and some stress. That brings up the question:
Can a school sustain novelty throughout a school year? Novelty is inherent during the first two weeks in September after the three-month vacation, as students are reacquainted with their friends, finding their new teachers and courses interesting because the freshness of the experience coupled with the pleasant early fall outdoors. However, the 2009 High School Survey of Student Engagement Project (HSSSE) revealed that two-thirds are bored or essentially not connected to school.1
The novelty wears thin because the processes that were interesting at first are now routine as the renewal of friendships ends and the scenery is all too familiar. The brain anticipates rewards and seeks interesting opportunities, but repetition and commonality prevail, losing in the competition with the media and poor sleep habits.
Teens and happiness
Perhaps the most definitive correlation between novelty and school was conducted through a happiness study in children sixth through twelfth grade. The students wore special wristwatches that sent random signals between 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. for one week. It encompassed twelve communities, thirty-three different schools, and eight hundred participants. Upon receiving the signal, the students completed a questionnaire.
Are you surprised by the results? The lowest level of happiness was when students were in school and the highest level occurred when they were out of school conversing or playing with friends particularly on weekends but dipped by Sunday afternoon in anticipation of the coming school week, when they would lose control of their time management and activity schedule. The authors concluded with what I consider the most significant quote in this book:
Teenagers ascribe happiness to their moods when they are in situations of relative freedom, in the company of age-mates, able to engage in flow activities that stretch their skills and makes them feel alive and proud.2
The survey was extensive and Csikszentmihalyi and Hunter noted that happiness correlated with several factors such as extraverted lifestyle, being in the company of people, and performing high skill challenges. They found that gifted teenagers who enjoy exercising their talents such as mathematics, music, science, art, and athletics will set an agenda to practice that talent in high school. Moreover, young people who engage in studying tend to be happier, building psychological capital for the spectrum of opportunities they can pursue later in life. There was no correlation between happiness and financial affluence since teens are less happy in a suburban lifestyle that is sterile, for instance, because they have few opportunities to express themselves.
That said, is it the responsibility of schools to make students happy in the classroom? Is it even fair to put pressure on teachers beyond the nurturing of content area lesson plans to give children an emotional lift? I do not believe it is the responsibility of a school to serve as adult cheerleaders but think it important, nevertheless, to acknowledge Csikszentmihalyi and Hunter's findings that generate happiness in teens: "situations of relative freedom, in the company of age-mates, able to engage in flow activities that stretch their skills."
In that regard, consider that human interaction is a key factor in personal fulfillment. We are a highly social species and communication between parties involve various sectors of our intelligence. Furthermore, limiting interaction by requiring children to be quiet and audio-attentive in a facts-based curriculum through most of the school day disenfranchises up to two-thirds of a student body, limiting the key initiative of schools: cognitive processing of content areas and facilitation of higher-level reasoning skills. The audio-attentive facts-based classroom curtails the socialization and friendship that perpetuate "flow activities that stretch their skills". What is recommended then is assertive and validated engagement, the kind that puts students in a turned-on energetic mode throughout a classroom period. After you have established the tone you desire and outlined the parameters of your curriculum, give the students opportunities to run the class. Students appreciate your integrity and trust, and are happy in that environment because they gain a sense of control, including collegiality and tolerance, as they are immersed in your subject. I am amazed that students conduct themselves as well as they do in restrictive environments, contrary to their energy and thinking potentials, mainly out of respect for their teachers and the carrot associated with getting a diploma, avoid failure, or dodge admonishment.
Schools are so consumed with the administrative day to day operation, that little time is spent brainstorming on novel inclusions that allow for student expression or "engage in flow activities" or creative dreaming. Elevated levels of focus and motivation occur when interaction is permitted at both school-wide and classroom levels.
To embrace the range of students at the institution level, I suggest the following novel activities with some more feasible depending on the size of the school, affirming them as members of a valued community. In addition to this list I recommend the school administration create a slate of novel, and whenever possible, interactive activities at all levels. I will discuss classroom innovations in subsequent chapters.
1
Merge lunch periods once a month with musical entertainment (individual guitarist or bluegrass groups are good for this setting). Allow the students to eat with their friends in areas around the school. Have the kitchen staff make sandwiches for the occasion to expedite the process. Plan a special assembly with surprise speakers or student musical talents on display.
2
Have themed dress days. Those that feature regional sports team jerseys work well.
3
Divide the school into four divisions of mixed grades that represent competition in community service and other contests where points are accumulated, and a final contest day is held in June, with a winner picked for the school year.
4
Coordinate tutoring or games between high school and the lower grades.
5
Institute overnight or all-day retreats with an outdoor education camp in your region. Many are in the United States and the counselors are trained to provide communication and physical challenges for students that build camaraderie and cooperation. If travel is a problem, have the counselors come to your school and perform the events.
6
Have at least one recess every day. Students perform better in classes following a recess period.
7
Coordinate field trips to places in your region including planetariums, hands-on nature centers, natural science museums, art museums, nursing homes, historical sites, archeological sites, government buildings, processing plants. Have an objective and procure handouts from these places ahead of time.
8
Establish an assembly program. If the theater cannot hold your entire student body, break it into sections. There are a sizable number of possibilities here including speakers from your school and local colleges. Your students and faculty can display their music and drama talents. Special interest assemblies related to trips and experiences are appreciated. Have question and answer sessions, too.
9
Embellish your advising program to include opportunities for one on one chats between the advisor and student to discuss academic progress and interests. The close order interaction between a student and adult in conversation is healthy. The advisor should be part of the school's parent conference schedule.
10
Allow secondary school students to find a personal space in the building where they can hang out when not in class. Being part of the school yearbook, for instance, offers an office. Band and orchestra rooms served that purpose for many of my peers. In some schools, students have a carrel in a room or library that they keep supplies and other personal items.
Validate and Empower: Augustus Klock and Robert Oppenheimer
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Robert Oppenheimer
Theoretical physicist and head of the Los Alamos Laboratory
Department of Energy, Office of Public Affairs
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"It is almost forty-five years since Augustus Klock taught me physics and chemistry. He loved these sciences both as craft and knowledge. He loved the devices of the laboratory, and the great discoveries that had been made before, and the view of nature – part order, part puzzle, that is the condition of science. But above all, he loved young people, to whom he hoped to give some touch, some taste, some love of life, and in whose awakening he saw destiny." [Klock commented: "He [Oppenheimer] was so brilliant that no teacher would have been skillful enough to prevent him from getting an education."] (p.40)
Monk, R., (2013) Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center, Anchor Publishers
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References
1. Bunge, S., Mackey, Hill, Stone, (2011). Differential effects of reasoning and speed training in children, Developmental Science, Volume 14, Issue 3, 582–590
2. Steriade, M., (1996). Arousal: Revisiting the reticular activating system. Science 272 (5259): 225–226.
3. Phelps E., (2004). Human emotion and memory: interactions of the amygdala and hippocampal complex, Curr Opin Neurobiol. Apr; 14(2):198-202.
4. Arias-Carrión O., Pöppel E. (2007). Dopamine, learning and reward-seeking behavior. Act Neurobiol Exp 67 (4): 481–488.
5. Alberts, B., Essential Cell Biology 3rd ed. (2009). New York: Garland Science.
6. Jenkins, I., Brooks, D., Nixon, P., Frackowiak, R., and Passingham, R., (2009). Motor sequence learning: a study with positron emission tomography, The Journal of Neuroscience, 1 June 1994, 14(6): 3775-3790
7. Bloom, B., Engelhart, M., Furst, E., Hill, W., Krathwohl, D., (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York: David McKay Company.
8. Ericsson, K., (2006). The Influence of Experience and Deliberate Practice on the Development of Superior Expert Performance, Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, Cambridge University Press, 685-706
9. Bloom, B., (1985). Developing Talent in Young People, Ballantine
