The "Unexpected" in Learning

Our brains are tuned to learn whenever anything unexpected happens but not when things are predictable, so says a new research by a team of psychologists and neuroscientists from the University of Pennsylvania. This is the first study to directly record neural activity underlying this learning process in humans, and it confirms that dopaminergic system of the human brain seems to be wired for the unusual and the unexpected.

According to the neuroscientists,"Learning, previously studied in animal models, seems to occur when dopaminergic neurons, which drive a larger basal ganglia circuit, are activated in response to unexpected rewards and depressed after the unexpected omission of reward. Put simply, a lucky win seems to be retained better than a probable loss."

If we can somehow imbue our students and children with the sense that there is an unexpected reward in everything they choose to learn, they will be tuned to learn.

If we can build the reward within the activity itself--so that the learning, the seeking is its own reward, how wonderfully challenging life will be?

I think educator James Zull has hit this nail in the head. In The Art of Changing the Brain, he says that learning does not proceed in a linear way; it stops and starts; it hits a snag; it loops back and up. This is true for both novice and experienced learners. Everything follows an up and down process ; we are overjoyed; we get depressed over failures, but then we come to a breakthrough: these are all part of the learning cycle because learning is dynamic! Nothing is static in learning as nothing is static in life.

So comforting it is to know that life is infinitely more exciting out of the box.

The Purpose of Art

My kitchen floor is littered with colored paper, stickers, paper plates, spools of tape, paint and newspaper print. The whole place looks like a war zone as my grand kids are hard at play creating boxes , pictures, decorations, whatever spins out of their imagination.

They are quiet, very much absorbed in the glue, paint and stickers that roll in and out of their hands.

A yellow piece becomes a star, dotted with random reds and blues; a paper plate becomes a balloon sporting a huge grin and puppy dog eyes.

My grandson has made a bed for his new cardinal webkinz, a bed-box complete with newspaper print sheets and folding doors so that the cardinal can sleep undisturbed through the night. It really is quite an amazing little contraption held together with glue and tape.

Another picture emerges from my grand-daughter's watercolor paints. A stroke of black, another stroke of brown and a little waif of a girl emerges, standing with her back towards us.

"What is she thinking?" I ask.

"She's thinking about the bad guys."

"What bad guys?"

"They're like tornadoes."

Even at four, she has an inkling of the precariousness of life.

"But she can control them," she tells me," 'cause she's really smart."

A few more blobs of pink and orange and the girl is surrounded by a veritable army of allies. Dabs of purple and bluish greens burble up like shadows beneath her, rendering more support for what started out as a lonely little waif.

"Done!" says my grand-daughter, tugging at my shirt.

"A very interesting picture!" I tell her.

"I know," she tells me, as though it really does not matter what I think. She knows and that's all that matters.

Her world settled at last, she asks for a glass of water.

Teaching and the Art of Changing the Brain

Running is the art of changing the brain; so is teaching--according to James Zull, professor of Biology and Director Emeritus of the University Center for innovation in Teaching and Education at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. His book The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching the Practice of Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning( 2002, Stylus Publishing, LLC) explores the neurobiology of learning in a most exciting way.

Gone are the days when teachers saw themselves as a kind of Soup Kitchen staff, literally pouring "good stuff" into kids' brains. Open up wide--the wider the better! It is no wonder kids balked at school. They were dosed with stuff they didn't really want to learn or care about.

Then James Zull walks in with these gems. Taken together, they make the most educational sense of anything I've seen so far.

Gem #1: Watch for inherent networks( natural talents) and encourage their practice. Try to understand existing networks and build on them.Give credit where it's due--to what kids like and want to learn! Use their natural talents to their (and your) advantage. Work with their natural inclinations, so you don't end up with daily battles. What a brilliant idea! We now have neurobiology to prove that this works because research shows that neurons that get stimulated are neurons that grow. And if they are linked to good habits, great motivation --then by all means, keep stroking them.

Gem #1: Don't stress mistakes. Don't reinforce neuronal networks that aren't useful. No more "I told you so!" No more "Don't you get it??" The more we emphasize what kids don't know, the more they don't know.

Gem#3: Arrange for "firing together." Associated things should happen together. We all know the mantra for neuroplasticity-- neurons that fire together get wired together. All the more reason to bring several disciplines together within a thematic unit. Why not an Art Class,Math Class and History Class together in a unit on Leonardo Da Vinci?

How the Brain Learns



Gem#4: Construct metaphors and insist that your students build their own metaphors. Here is a man who understands the power of metaphor, who understands that the human animal is motivated by image. After all, we are imaginal beings, living one foot in a world that is fluid as dreams. What dreams may come, we resonate most with images that emerge from our subconscious. What better way to tap into this power than through metaphors. We are all metaphors (meta meaning beyond + phor meaning carry); we carry beyond us what we yearn in the deepest part of our psyche; we are carriers of a power far more deeply interfused in things than we care to admit.

Gem#5: Repeat, repeat, repeat! Every moment of the day should be a re-affirmation of our birthright--to come into this world to celebrate our gifts and our joys--no matter how eclectic these may be or how different they may be from what common sense dictates.

Thank you, James Zull! You've made my day!

Posted by Bianca Tora at 4:31 PM