BRAIN POWER

By Rita Baker

Text and illustrations copyright © 2014 by Rita A Baker Rita A Baker asserts her moral right to be identified

as the author of this book

All Rights Reserved by Rita Baker 2014 This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner

whatsoever without the express written permission of the author and publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Published and Produced 2014 by The Global Approach Ltd and Lydbury English Centre Ltd

Lydbury North, Shropshire, England, SY7 8AU

http://www.lydbury.co.uk/ http://theglobalapproach.co.uk/ http://brain-power.co.uk/

In memory of Alex

(October 1977 – April 1979)

With thanks to my husband Duncan for his help in producing this e-book, and our

children Emma, Susie, Kate and Tom from whom I have learnt so much

CONTENTS

About the author

Acknowledgements

Preface

Introduction

CHAPTER 1 - THE STRUCTURE OF THE BRAIN The divisions of the brain The relationship between these divisions of the brain What if the needs of the brain are not met? The effects of stress An example of how emotions impact on learning and performance The division of the cerebrum into lobes Gender difference (1) Gender difference (2) The role of endorphins Gender difference (3) The importance of self-esteem Gender difference (4) Gender difference (5) Gender difference (6) Gender difference (7) The brain’s own recreational drug Environmental impact on neurological development Left and right brain Gender difference (8) Gender difference (9) The connection between mathematical and linguistic ability Dyslexia A brief summary

CHAPTER 2 - THE EMOTIONAL BRAIN How much input can we cope with? An example of selective attention Neurological goal setting The brain’s on-off switch The balanced brain Implications for task-setting The mechanics of memory Gender difference (10) Different kinds of memory and associated learning approaches

An example of the coordination of different kinds of memory Brainwaves and ‘state’ Brainwaves and sleep Overview

CHAPTER 3 – OUR INTELIGENCE INHABITS OUR WHOLE BODY Holistic approaches What are emotions? The role of metaphor in our emotional lives Emotional Intelligence Mirror neurons

CHAPTER 4 - THE NEUROLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF LEARNING Neurons The structure of neurons How we wire up our learning And so to bed Toxic stress Addiction and dependency Use it or lose it How we embed our learning Neurological networks Dementia So what’s new?

CHAPTER 5 - INSIGHTS FROM EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGISTS Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Lev Vigotsky (1896-1934) Jerome Bruner (born 1915) We cannot set a limit on the capacity to learn Implications

CHAPTER 6 - OUR CURRENT PARADIGM AND ITS ORIGINS Stuck in the past Selective schooling and left-brain bias: personal recollections The perceived superiority of academic ability Aptitude - a question of ability or passion? Exam results: a reliable measure of learning? The arrival of the comprehensive school Conclusion

CHAPTER 7 - UNIQUENESS Perceptions of reality Concepts There is no such thing as a homogenous group Learning styles Psychometric measurements and the related brain lobes

Eye cues Using VAK to engage and influence Assess the performance ratio between your right and left brain Multiple intelligences Essential considerations for teachers, trainers and communicators Understand your own learning styles Empower your participants by helping them to understand their own styles Incorporate a variety of approaches and activities to meet all learning styles Reinforce by repetition from a variety of different angles Help your participants to become autonomous learners; show them the map Less can be more; take time to outline objectives and means of assessment Foster a spirit of enquiry Summary

CHAPTER 8 - THE PLASTICITY OF THE BRAIN Taking a balanced view of perceptual weaknesses Definitions of intelligence; sequential memory and figure-ground recognition Spatial relationship awareness Skill transference across the different areas of the brain Take away the pressure The significance of the physical learning environment Create a safe space Move from a problem-based culture to a solutions focus Learning through supported discovery The value of mistakes The real role of teachers and trainers The skill of noticing The curse of knowledge Skill transference from modality to modality Finding the little things that make the big difference The importance of establishing the status quo Summary

CHAPTER 9 - THE LEARNING JOURNEY Learner receptivity Learning within a competitive framework Learning by teaching The stages of learning Cognitive counseling models Emulating excellence

CHAPTER 10 - IMPLICATIONS FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF ORGANISATIONS Systems thinking Symptoms, causes and unintended consequences Meta-mapping and meta-planning

Managing change Learning organisations and generative learning The wider applications of systems thinking Tipping points Morphic resonance The power of diversity A little bit of modern history The reverence for academia and its unintended consequences Hierarchical organisation versus the management of complex systems Health service management Educational management Key Understandings

CHAPTER 11 - A SYSTEMIC APPROACH TO THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM Identifying synergies Success stories The power of cross curricular teaching and learning The need to identify the learning core Teachers as managers Team teaching Lean thinking

CHAPTER 12 - BLAME, CHALLENGE AND RESPONSIBILITY Daring to challenge An example of challenge

CHAPTER 13 - IS JUSTICE ACHIEVABLE? The inadequacy of adversarial debate Sometimes the law is an ass! What is justice? What about the jury system? The role of strategy within the Justice System Parliamentary debate The question

CHAPTER 14 - CAN WE EFFECT CHANGE? Heuristics The fear factor: lack of trust Can we have change without anarchy? Professional disempowerment The relationship between work and money The property illusion The economy of scale illusion The people factor Job ownership The employment value of the multi-nationals How far is too far?

The relationship between financial and political power How do we establish a balance? What about market forces? An unintended consequence of political manipulation When those in charge of the economy get it wrong! Viewing it from both ends of the scale The drive to amass wealth Tax avoidance and evasion Apathy and power Summary and interpretation

CHAPTER 15 - TOWARDS A FAIRER WORLD How can we balance our food resources? Food waste Our power as consumers What underlies our preoccupation with ‘health and safety’? Starting from the micro level Packaging, recycling and landfill

CHAPTER 16 - DIFFICULTIES AND MESSES Systems thinking versus heroic leadership Implications for feminists Systemic thinking - a whole brain, advanced level approach The implications of systems thinking for education The value of competitive league tables Mixed intake – challenges for teachers What the league tables don’t measure The power of expectation Understanding our responsibility towards others Elements of denial Our many egos We are part of everything, and everything is part of us ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’

CHAPTER 17 - CRITICAL THINKNG The acquisition of knowledge does not necessarily lead to enhanced thinking From the intellectual to the practical Critical thinking as a route to developing self-confidence Critical thinking as a means of combatting prejudice Coping with ambiguity The challenge Sample questions The global economy mess The housing shortage mess The lack of quality time mess The global warming question

The global conflict mess Rounding it up

CHAPTER 18 - SOME KIND OF CONCLUSION The spread of integrity Change cannot simply be imposed The brain’s default setting The strength of our impact on others The strength of the impact of others on us Managing impact We’re all in this together What can we do? Who owns knowledge? Contact

APPENDIX 1 What are chakras?

APPENDIX 2 Assess your VAK ratio

APPENDIX 3 Assess the performance ratio between your right and left brain

APPENDIX 4 Multiple Intelligences Questionnaire

APPENDIX 5 Checklist for teaching, training or leading a workshop

APPENDIX 6 Examples of questions and prompts to encourage critical thinking

About the author

Rita Baker has been a teacher and trainer for over 40 years. She is a systems thinker with a passion for helping people to find a voice to communicate their ideas, needs and feelings to others.

She believes that we are naturally programmed to learn, but that so often our schooling takes the pleasure out of it, turns us off and destroys our belief in ourselves as learners. This can apply to any subject, but her particular interest is language learning where traditional presentation takes the form of pre-digested, deconstructed bits. Such an approach completely obscures the fact that languages are organic, systemic and generative, and underestimates the ability we all have to just dive in and acquire them for ourselves – with a little bit of well-judged, supportive nudging here and there. Maths is another subject which is clearly systemic and generative, and is in many ways a language of its own.

Rita is the creator of the GlobalApproach™, a radically different, whole brain, visual, kinaesthetic and accelerated way of understanding and learning English - based on many of the principles outlined in this book. She is also a founder member of RadicalEnglish™.

Rita has taught in Zambia, France, Spain, Kenya and the Yemen Arab Republic, working with learners of all ages, from 4 to 86.

Since 1985 she and her husband, Duncan, have been running the Lydbury English Centre in South West Shropshire. Here they and their team specialise in residential immersion training for adults in English and soft skills, for business and professional purposes. They share a particular interest in helping to break down barriers by promoting cross cultural awareness.

Rita is a well-known presenter for IATEFL (International Association of Teachers as a Foreign Language) and IATEFL BEsig (the Business English special interest group). She has also run teacher training and development workshops in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania and Belarus.

Rita was the driving force behind the founding of BEUK – the Business English wing of EnglishUK which represents accredited providers of English as a Foreign Language in the UK.

Rita delights in the company of her four adult children and their spouses, taking a huge interest in their careers and the insights they bring. She also loves being a granny.

In common with other systems thinkers Rita is frustrated by the lack of cohesion that is evident throughout most of the areas that affect our lives – health, education, politics, finance and the justice system - for starters! For this reason she enjoys being a Fellow of

the Royal Society of Arts which is proactive in so many important areas. Her main regret is that life is just so short!

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to the many presenters and delegates I met as a member of SEAL – the Society for Effective Affective Learning – sadly now defunct. It was through them that I became increasingly aware of the largely untapped potential of our brains and the paradigm shifts that need to take place.

I am also grateful to Adrian Underhill, a well-informed systems thinker and an inspirational teacher and trainer. It was he who first demonstrated to me that humanistic approaches really work, and what it is to truly listen to others.

Thanks also to Matthew Mills for the quirky cover design for this book. matt@matthewmills.co.uk

Preface

This modest book is the result not of deliberate, exhaustive, objective or quantitative research, but more the retrospective product of conversations I have engaged in, and understandings I have gained over many years in planes and trains, at conferences and around my own dinner table. It is also a synthesis of what I have learnt about learning since my first teaching experience as a VSO in Zambia in 1966.

Since 1985 my husband, Duncan, and I have been running a small residential language centre where we have specialised in immersion training in English and soft skills for middle and senior managers from all over the world. Most can only spare a week or two at the most, but nevertheless it affords us a good amount of quality contact with them, working one-to-one and in small groups of three to four participants. Since we founded the centre we have hosted over 6,000 participants from all sectors of business, as well as lawyers, doctors, politicians, diplomats, artists, actors and writers.

Whatever their cultural background, status or profession, we always find, underneath it all, people who share similar needs, experiences, values, opinions, hopes and dreams.

Many of the examples and anecdotes in this book are from my own experience, but I’m confident that in essence they are not unique to me. As you read through you may identify with some of them. Some of the content I include may be familiar to you; some may be new. Whatever the case I hope you will find enough ‘meat’ in it to draw you on further.

Introduction

You don’t need to be an expert nutritionist in order to know what foods are good for you, and why; nor do you need to be a neuroscientist to know a few things about the brain and its role in how we learn and process information. Nevertheless, large numbers of consumers still don’t seem to understand or apply the basics of healthy eating, and likewise there are teachers, managers, administrators and policy makers who still don’t apply the insights that are now available about the learning brain.

When I did my professional teacher training in the early 1970s, in addition to my course on methodology I was equipped with the history, philosophy, sociology and psychology of education. But in those days, nobody mentioned anything about the most important subject of all: the brain. Neuroscience was in its infancy.

A reflective practitioner will gain insight from experience, but most of us know, simply from being learners ourselves, what does and doesn’t work for us. Nevertheless it is reassuring to know that such experience is backed up by empirical scientific findings and that humanistic approaches are based on more than warm and fuzzy idealism. A basic understanding of the why and how of our innate learning mechanisms can empower us to find evermore creative ways of nurturing ourselves, and others, as learners and decision makers.

A simple search on Google™ and YouTube™ is a good starting point if you are further interested. You will find masses of fascinating material and references to trawl through. I have included at the end of each chapter some of the websites that I have recently visited, but there are dozens and dozens more. Over time I have gleaned and synthesised my own rudimentary understanding from a variety of sources, including web pages (particularly Wikipedia®), and broadcasts, talks and workshops, to the extent that I cannot accurately recall what I learnt from whom and where. For this reason I have not included an exhaustive list of academic references, but I have accredited in CAPITAL LETTERS the names of people whom I understand to be key contributors to this area of knowledge, and the discoveries and concepts that they have brought to us. This being the age of electronic communication you can easily search for these and more.

CHAPTER 1

THE STRUCTURE OF THE BRAIN

Clearly the brain is an amazingly complex, composite and multi-functional organ, made up of a network of integrated components, circuits and systems. How curious to think that it is our main instrument for the study, analysis and understanding of – itself! In trying to grasp a few of its key functions, we must never forget that its overall capacity is greater than the sum of its parts; we cannot place a limit on its potential.

For our immediate purposes we need only to look at the brain from two simple perspectives: 1) a cross section as seen from front to back and 2) a cross section as seen from left to right (viewed from the back).

The divisions of the brain: 1) a vertical cross section from front to back The first sketch represents a vertical cross section from front to back (front on the left, back on the right)

The part labelled ‘survival expert’ is the BRAIN STEM (also known as the REPTILIAN, or PRIMITIVE BRAIN). In evolutionary terms it is the oldest part of the brain, and the bit that we share with reptiles. It comes up from the spinal cord, which as we know is the body’s main highway for the central nervous system. The brain stem monitors basics such as temperature, hunger, reproduction, breathing, swallowing and sleep. It is home to our instincts and our ‘fight or flight’ response, and is also responsible for our sense of territoriality. In animals its role in social and mating rituals can be clearly discerned.

To the back of the brain stem is the CEREBELLUM, labelled ‘the sports brain’, which is associated with gross motor co-ordination skills such as maintaining balance, walking, running, swimming and so on.

Tucked in the centre and surrounding the brain stem, labelled ‘the pleasure seeker’, is the LIMBIC SYSTEM, also known as the MID or MAMMALIAN BRAIN. This houses some key structures including the HIPPOCAMPUS (shaped like a seahorse), the AMYGDALA (a small almond sized structure, slightly larger in males), THALAMUS, HYPOTHALAMUS and PINEAL GLAND.

The hippocampus is associated with the emotions, including pleasure as well as attention, learning and long-term memory; the amygdala is associated with biorhythms to do with sleep, thirst, hunger, sexual drive, heart rate, anger and fear, and the hypothalamus is associated with the regulation of the immune system, blood pressure, glucose, salt and hormones. (In Chapter 2 we shall be focussing in a little more detail on the role of the hippocampus, thalamus and amygdala in memory and learning).

Collectively, this central area is sometimes called the EMOTIONAL BRAIN. Also located in the centre of the brain we find the BASAL GANGLIA1 which is a cluster of structures involved in the co-ordination of messages between multiple centres of other brain areas.

Finally, at the top we have the CEREBRAL CORTEX, labelled the ‘novelty seeker’ or ‘learning brain’. This wraps round the limbic system like a helmet.

2) A vertical side-to-side section of the brain To better understand the cerebral cortex we need to look at it from the second perspective, a vertical side-to-side section2, viewed from the back (as shown in the next sketch).

Here we see the brain (CEREBRUM) divided into two hemispheres, left and right. The right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body, and the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body.

The whole of the cerebrum, plus the cerebellum, is covered by a thin layer known as the NEO-CORTEX. It is the cerebrum and the neo-cortex together which comprise the cerebral cortex.3 This area receives and sorts messages from the senses, via the limbic system (emotional brain), resulting in reflection and reasoned thinking, problem solving, decision-making, and voluntary control. It is the higher functioning of this part of the brain that distinguishes us from other animals.

The relationship between these divisions of the brain The needs of the reptilian (survival) brain and limbic system (emotional brain) have to be satisfied before higher learning can take place. The limbic system can block or facilitate access to the higher learning centre in the cerebral cortex.

We will be exploring this in a little more detail, but it can be explained simply with reference to MASLOW’s PYRAMID (as shown in the next diagram). The pyramid represents a hierarchy of needs. This model dates back to the 1940s and has been extended since, but the main divisions are as shown.

Starting at the bottom of the pyramid, the BASIC NEEDS include food, water, being able to breathe, swallow and all other basic bodily functions.

Above this the SAFETY/SECURITY NEEDS are to do with shelter – i.e. housing, and basics such as employment and personal safety. You can see how these two levels relate to the lower ‘survival’ part of the brain.

Moving up the pyramid, and towards the mid brain, the SOCIAL NEEDS include love and a sense of belonging, such as provided by family, partners and friends.

Fully within the limbic system the fourth level of hierarchy, ESTEEM NEEDS, relates to confidence, self-respect and respect for others.

At the SELF-ACTUALISATION level, we arrive at the top of the brain where we can deal with issues of morality, creativity and problem solving, and feel able to fulfil our personal potential

What if the needs of the brain are not met?

In practice, any teacher will understand this model of hierarchy, knowing from experience that a child who comes to school not having had breakfast, lacking sleep, feeling cold or emotionally disturbed, will struggle in class. If the emotional centres of the brain are not satisfied, the cerebral cortex shuts down, and energy is taken from the imaginative areas, disrupting higher level thinking and allowing instinct to take over.