In Reclaiming Youth at Risk: Our Hope for the Future, by Brendtro, Brokenleg and Van Bockern, the authors include the concept of mastery in the Circle of Courage. Mastery, for most youngsters, needs to be demonstrated in school. Yet, we know that many of our disconnected youth are finding school a place that they feel unsuccessful, not masterful. It is our obligation, as part of the reclaiming effort, to help these youth see learning as a useful process, and school as a useful environment in which to develop their ability to learn.
The book offers the following information on learning: "The brain is a natural learning organ that was thinking eons before schools. One has only to watch children at play to see the dynamic brain at work. The desire to master is seen in all cultures onward. What often passes for education is noise that interrupts the natural flow of learning. Schooling too often fragments learning into subject area, substitutes control for the natural desire to learn, co-ops naturally active children for hours in assembly line classroom structures, and ignores both individual and cultural differences." (Brendtro, Brokenleg & Van Bockern, p. 71) In building a reclaiming environment, we need to stay focused on the things that encourage achievement motivation. Many of our local schools and agencies are working to integrate the following four specific constructs, to build interventions that support brain friendly learning. We need to address motivation, student as experts, cognitive strengths and learning style, and strategic thinking. Motivation equals Relevance Plus Choice
This simple formula for motivation boils it all down to the essential ingredients. When kids see the reasons why, and are able to work toward mastery in a way that allows them to use their own creative energy, we see goal directed behavior and the reasons "why" can not be based on grades. We build relevance in learning whenever we allow students to see the connectedness of what they are studying in the "real" world. For example, if we want our students to perform better on regents exams, we might involve them in tasks that address issues of relevance:
A) researching exactly how the regents tests are made and the criteria used to evaluate them,
B) interviewing school board members and principals on how they use regents test score information to make decisions (particularly about funding and programs.)
C) interviewing college admissions personnel on the relationship between regents test scores and college and/or job success,
D) polling employers on the ways in which the types of information/skill demonstrated on a regents might be used in the workplace, and how these skills might translate into income.
What about the "choice" part of the formula? Our community is concerned about students reaching higher standards, not giving these students more choice. But choice in this formula does not refer to WHETHER to do it or not, it refers to the "HOW you do it." For example, if we continue with the scenario above, we first make explicit the standards that students must meet in this project. In my group, I might require that each student demonstrate a complete understanding of:
In demonstrating knowledge, students should be allowed a choice in how they will do this.
Sam, who hates to read but loves working with people, might audiotape a series of interviews and splice them together to play for his evaluators - making sure that he includes all the elements listed in the standards.
Sheretta, who loves math and hates to read, might collect data from all her research and present it in a chart or grid that she then explains, again meeting all the criteria.
JoSan, who loves music and theater, might create a short play that she and a friend perform. These choices do not decrease the standards, but they DO increase motivation. When students are given permission to demonstrate mastery through creative and challenging choices, they often respond with "This was fun." For many of our disconnected youth, this may be the most valuable lesson they can receive — that learning can, in fact, be fun!
Brain Friendly learning acknowledges and builds upon the power of choice and relevance.
Student As Expert
If we look at the term "educate" from its Latin derivation, we discover that it means "to lead out from within." If we believe that learning is something we can make happen in someone else, we are badly mistaken. This belief, in fact, may be at the core of the passivity of our current students, especially those who are disconnected.
Learning happens when the learner takes in something through his or her senses (sees, hears, smells, touches or tastes) and then creates something meaningful from that "thing." The meaningfulness can only happen inside the learner and may not even make sense to others, who don't share that personal expertise. Even memory works best when learners try to hook information from the inside out.
Jeb didn't know his times tables. He had tried to memorize them but they never did stick. He identified that 7 x 6=42 was one he could never remember. He was asked to look at the combination of numbers and see if he could come up with some association that would let those numbers "stick" for him. He said, "This may sound really silly but I hang out at the race track a lot and there are 42 cars that start a heat and we use Unical 76 gas." That personal association, from the inside out, was all it took for Jeb to remember that fact. But he had never before thought about how to use his own personal experience to learn it - it was just "memorize these numbers.
Brain friendly learning honors and celebrates the expertise of the learner and encourages the development of personal, internal associations that make the learner feel masterful. Understanding cognitive strengths and learning style.
Mastery involves the belief that you possess the skill to solve problems, to create options for success and have a feeling of competence. It is little wonder that many of our disconnected youth drop out of school. The academic environment, for many of them, involves daily confrontation with their own lack of mastery. Many of these youngsters do not learn well in traditional classrooms and lack the skills to problem solve how they could learn personally relevant information and skills once outside the classroom. They don't believe in their own ability for mastery. The biggest gift we can give these learners is the gift of learning how to learn. In hundreds of interviews with disconnected students, I have heard many similar stories. The following is an example of how these interviews usually proceed:
Dr. Arnold, "How do you learn best?"
Pat, "What ya' mean? I don't know."
Dr. Arnold, "Well, what are you good at?
Pat, "Nothing."
Dr. Arnold, "There must be something."
Pat "Nope."
Dr. Arnold, "What about outside of school?"
Pat, "Not really."
Dr. Arnold, "How have you learned what you have learned?"
Pat, "What you mean?"
Dr. Arnold, "What do you spend time doing outside of school?"
Pat, "Jamming,"
Dr. Arnold, "You have a band?"
Pat, "Yea, I think so. People who come hear us at gigs think so.
Dr. Arnold, "So you are good at something?"
Pat, "Yea, but that stuff don't matter none."
Dr. Arnold, "How did you learn to play?"
Pat, "I just did it."
Dr. Arnold, "No teacher?"
Pat, "Just watching and listening and practicing on my own."
Dr. Arnold, "So you had a goal to learn and you learned it?"
Pat, "Yea, I guess."
Dr. Arnold, "Could you do that in school?"
Pat, "No way, man. No matter what I do, I still gonna fail.
Students who have not been successful in school need others to help them identify their own cognitive strengths, their interests, their most effective learning styles, and then help them build on these strengths so that they can feel mastery in school or in employment. When they feel as if they can't "learn it anyway" it doesn't take much for them to give up trying. Most often, they don't know exactly what to do to make learning happen. They believe that learning "just happens" to some people, but it hasn't happened to them. They feel little or no control over making it happen. When Pat fails tests, teachers have said, "Pat you need to try harder." Try "what?" harder? If Pat doesn't know what to do to actually get the information to make sense, to stick, Pat will probably give up trying.
Brain friendly learning requires the belief that mastery is possible, even if I need to go about the process of learning in an alternative way.
Effective Strategic Thinking
Once students know their own strengths, they need to fill their individual tool boxes with the most effective strategies for their own learning. Let's return to Pat. Dr. Arnold, "Well, what else do you like to do, when you aren't jamming?"
Pat, "I like to be "stupid."
Dr. Arnold, "What do you mean, stupid?"
Pat, "Like silly, like funny, like a comedian, you know?"
Dr. Arnold, "Can you give me an example?"
Pat, "Well, my family is always laughing at the stuff I do. I tell lots of jokes and just act goofy. My friends always want me to perform. I love making people laugh. It makes the troubles go. And it is so neat to see people laugh."
Dr. Arnold., "Can you use this skill to learn your global studies?"
Pat, "No. How could I do that?"
Dr. Arnold, "What if you made up a joke or a little routine about each of the cultures you are studying. Like the Greeks. What might they look like? Eat? Talk like? Think was funny?"
Pat, "Hey, that's a cool idea. I could do that."
Dr. Arnold, "Would you learn the material that way?"
Pat, "Sure, It'd be easy.
Dr. Arnold, "If you did that, could you pass the tests?"
Pat, "If I wrote a funny thing about it, I wouldn't need to ever study. And I'd remember it because I did it - not cause it was in some book.Pat has mastery over special gifts (music, humor), but school has not learned to celebrate Pat's gifts. It has not helped Pat understand how to adapt this gift to the rigors of school. When Pat understands the process of building on personal strengths to accomplish an otherwise boring or demanding task, mastery feels reachable, thus increasing motivation and a willingness to reach further.
Is this not what we are all after?
References:
* Armstrong, T. (1994). Multiple intelligences in the classroom. Alexandria, Va: ASCD.
* Arnold, E. (1994). Potentize: Taking action to unlock potential. Rochester, NY: Arncraft.
* Arnold, E. and Sollenne, M. (1994). Developing strategic learners. Rochester, NY: Norman Howard School.
* Brendtro,L. Brokenleg, M. and Van Bockern,S. (1990) Reclaiming Youth at Risk:: Our Hope for the Future. Bloomington, Indiana: National Education Service.
* Deci,E.L. & Ryan, R.M. (1985) Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum Press.
* Ewy, C. December 1966. "Kids take on ‘the Test'." Educational Leadership . 54:4, 76.
* Gardner, H. (1993). Multiple intelligences: The theory in practice. New York: Basic Books.
Ed Note: Ellen Arnold is an educational consultant who has spent 30-plus years helping learners to unlock their potential. She has taught students of all ages, from preschool to graduate school. Her focus has always been on empowering the learner through self-reflection, self-knowledge and the development of effective strategic thinking. Her books (and the workshops out of which they grew) have provided hundreds of people with the opportunity to reframe their view of learning.
In her first family workbook, Can I Make It?, Dr. Arnold developed a systematic approach for helping high school students with learning disabilities and their parents prepare for making postsecondary choices, including college. In her second book, Potentize: taking action to unlock potential, she provided adult learners who were unsuccessful as traditional students with a positive mind set to build on their personal strengths. Her most recent book, Brilliant Brain becomes Brainy provides parents and teachers with a tool to help their children understand how brains work - so they can maximize their own thinking ability.
Ellen is an active participant in the Rochester Area Advocacy Consortium for College Students with Disabilities. She is also a Consultant to the GRADDA ADDult Program
PO Box 23565, Rochester, New York 14692-3565.
(716) 251-2322
e-mail us at gradda@gradda.com
