The Brain in Health and Disease

Background

Until that happens, responsible teachers are charged with the task of creating the education best conducive to learning while also adhering to rigidly imposed "curriculum guidelines," "program guidelines," and "pacing guides." Some "guidelines" are so heavily "suggested" that almost all teacher autonomy is lost. My own brain doesn't care for this conflict. Having been through a master's degree program in Education of At-Risk Youth and subsequently teaching in a multiage classroom for six years, much of my pedagogy is influenced by constructivist theories. Constructivism has been described as simply "the study of learning." ⁵ Yeats' quote may be perceived as a metaphor for constructivism; that is, that knowledge is constructed by the learner through the process of experience (starting a fire) which is different than the learner being a passive receptacle for the product of knowledge (filling a pail).

Constructivism really began with Socrates' method of asking directed questions that required his students to recognize flaws in their own thinking. The theory was formalized by Jean Piaget, who proposed that learning occurs through a combination of accommodation and assimilation. Assimilation internalizes what is perceived in the outside world, and accommodation requires the internal world to change, or adapt, based on the information it receives. ⁶ These two ideas are embedded in adaptation, "…through which awareness of the outside world is internalized." ⁷ These two processes work together much as the two hemispheres of the brain; one process may dominate but they are complementary. Other development theorists, such as John Dewey and Lev Vygotsky added their own opinions; Dewey advanced the importance of genuine experiences in the learning process, and Vygotsky advocated for social interaction as an essential component of the learning process. ⁸ In contrast, behaviorists such as BF Skinner believed that learning was an "input-output" process ⁹ with an emphasis on the product, not the process of arriving there. Whereas this stimulus/response model is linear, constructivism is holistic and global.

If learning is a fire, then constructivism is a brain. Although the brain is split into two hemispheres further divided into many different regions, it does not function simply as a series of connections as was previously thought. In the course of doing the research for this unit, I encountered more than one scientist who believed that even discussing the brain in these fragmented ways does a disservice to its very nature. However, there is evidence that while the right and left hemispheres of the brain function in concert, each side has a specialty and takes significantly different approaches to guiding our behavior. According to Ulrich Kraft in Scientific American, "…the left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for convergent thinking and the right hemisphere for divergent thinking." ¹⁰ He believes that there is a "skewed" emphasis on convergent thinking in schools which inappropriately dominates youth and represses creativity. ¹¹

Daniel H. Pink developed an entire premise around the same argument in his book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future. For the purpose of this paper, his self-described "oversimplified" description will suffice: "…the left hemisphere handles what is said; the right hemisphere focuses on how it's said - the nonverbal, often emotional cues." ¹² Historically, the value systems that were prized through the Industrial Revolution and Information Age were what Pink describes as "Left-Directed"; sequential and literal, the "input-output" model. The assembly line model of production is an example of this model; early automobile manufacturers prized their plants' efficiency and the quality of the product. In contrast, "Right-Directed" thinking is simultaneous, intuitive and contextual, and has been devalued in businesses and schools. However, Pink speculates that the dominance of the left-directed system has had an ironic effect; all of those cars and other products produced by L-Directed thinking have become commonplace, and people now demand products that also are aesthetically pleasing and experiences that are emotionally charged. Car commercials no longer tout the car's mechanical capabilities, but their ability to strengthen family relationships through wonderful vacations to perfect locales. The overabundance of prosperity has also led people to question larger ideas, as they no longer need to struggle to survive. He warns that while we should not polarize our thinking processes, changes in the global marketplace require we start valuing and developing those right-directed behaviors - immediately.

Do we see a pattern here?

Equation A: Genuine experience + social interaction + divergent thinking = developed brain

Equation B: Linear input/output model + stress + convergent thinking = limited brain

Which kind of brain do we want for our kids? For ourselves?