Teaching, Learning and Schooling
by
Anne Carpenter
Anne Carpenter
TLS- 8
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For the United States to compete successfully in a global economy, as a society
we need to educate our youth in a manner that encourages individuals to achieve their
best. In order to achieve this, drastic changes need to be made in learning, teaching
and schooling in the United States. For our youth to become active participants in our
society their schools need to become incorporated into society as a whole instead of
segregated from society. Children who learn to participate in society learn to become
politically active members instead of passive witnesses who have no say in the
decisions that affect them (Rousseau, 1762/2003). Current methods of teaching
segregate students by age and teach individual subjects. Students learn best when they
are encouraged to work in diverse groups, diverse in age, race, gender and ability.
Teachers should be encouraged to learn each child’s past experiences, so that they can
build on previous knowledge and teach the child holistically. “Bringing together the best
theory and practices from diverse educational alternatives, a holistic perspective asserts
that education must start by nourishing the unique potentials of every child, within
overlapping contexts of family, community, society, humanity, and the natural world”
(Miller, 2006). To teach to the holistic child, schools should be built with the child in
mind. Learning environments that are planned with the child in mind encourages active
learning (Jensen, 2005). Therefore to educate our youth to become productive
members of society we need to educate them holistically.
Learning
To learn is to internalize the process of knowledge accumulation through
experience. Students learn best when their teachers know them. This occurs more
efficiently when children are encouraged to engage in active learning in the classroom.
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Children enforced to be quiet and acquiescent prevented the individual from disclosing
their true nature (Dewey, 1938). On the other hand Plato thought that we were born with
all the knowledge of all the past souls; we just need to remember it (B.Jowett, trans.,
1995). Zull (2002) believes that we are born with some prior knowledge; this knowledge
is in the neurons that we are born with but might never use. Brain based learning
happens when we are exposed to new information in a concrete experience. But
behaviorists believe that learning is changing behavior. To the holistic learner it is
having an open mind to try any and all methods of learning.
Everyone’s brain works in the same manner but people use their individual
experiences to make sense of new learning (Singer & Revenson, 1978/1996, Jensen,
2005, Zull, 2002). The more experiences we as teachers can expose children to the
better they will learn. The brain learns by creating new dendrites. New information is
transformed into neurotransmitters that pass from one dendrite to another through the
synaptic gap. Then the neurotransmitter is changed into an electrical charge that travels
though the axon to the terminal bud. In the terminal bud, the electrical charge is
changed back to a neurotransmitter and passed on to the next dendrite. With practice,
the new information strengthens the axon sheath in a process called myelination
creating a super highway of information. If the information is gained in a new way then
more dendrites are created. If the information is not used then the dendrites die in a
process called synaptic efficiency where resources are moved to where they are
needed (Jensen, 2005). According to Zull (2002) synaptic efficiency is changing the
brain.
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Our brains do not get the information right the first time because we have too
much stimulating our brains to be able to figure out the first time what should be
remembered. Our brains need 80 repetitions of new information before we will
remember something (Ford, 2007 workshop). Making mistakes makes us smarter by
reinforcing the myelination of our axon sheaths. According to Jensen (2005) giving
students “feedback-driven learning makes more accurate and complex connections.”
Students need the direct reinforcement of correction of errors. Alternatively Zull (2002)
states what he calls errors are misconnected neuronal networks, which are often most
just incomplete networks. Instead of focusing on the misconnected network (error), work
on finding the link between what the student already knows and add to it to complete it
with correct information. Learning is changing the brain by building or pruning dendrites
by exposure to new experiences. Behaviorists believe that learning is not changing the
brain but the behavior.
Learning according to behaviorists and Skinner (1971) takes place where we can
observe the behavior and reward or punish it to strengthen or weaken the behavior.
Children learn through positive or negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is
when a child is rewarded for doing a behavior that is wanted. Like getting all the
answers correct on a test and the child receiving a good grade. This causes the child to
study harder to keep getting good grades. An example of negative reinforcement is
when a parent nags a child to clean his/her room. The child cleans the room which
causes the parent to stop nagging. To avoid further nagging in the future the child
cleans the room more often. An example of punishment is when a child is not allowed to
use the car for a month because they took the car without asking. The punishment
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causes the behavior to change and the child will now ask to use the car before taking it.
Extinction is when an unwanted behavior is ignored causing the behavior to decrease.
An example of this would be when a child uses inappropriate language and the adult
ignores the language. If the child does not receive a response from the adult they will
reduce and eventually stop the inappropriate language (Skinner, 1971). As we will see
the behaviorist method of learning by changing behavior is not productive.
In contrast, Piaget and the constructivists believe that children learn by going
through stages (Singer & Revenson, 1978/1996). A child must be ready to learn
something before they will be able to remember it. When a child experiences a new
event, the child will initially try to fit it into an existing schema by assimilating because
this is easiest. A schema is like a compartment in your roll top desk, when you
encounter something new in your environment that makes sense to you it is placed in
this compartment (assimilating). When the new event does not make sense then the
compartment needs to change to allow for this event or use another compartment
(accommodation). When the event does not fit into the child’s existing schema, the child
becomes disequilibrated. The child can continue to use the existing schema and force
the event into the schema but the child will continue to be disequilibrated. When the
child creates a new schema to accommodate the new event then equilibrium is
restored. When a child creates a new schema through assimilation and accommodation
the child has adapted to his/her environment (Singer & Revenson, 1979/1996). These
schemata can be formed by the culture the child lives in.
Learning is based on previous cultural practices; this is what Piaget called a
schema and Senge (2006) calls a mental model, and Rogoff(2003) and Vygotsky the
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use of cultural tools (Singer & Revenson, 1979/1996, Wertsch, 1985). These tools may
be how the culture does math or writes. Some cultures appreciate slow, careful thought
before answers and other cultures want quick answers (Rogoff, 2003). For the holistic
child to learn, every part of the child must be taken into consideration when teaching
him/her.
Teaching
To be effective teacher and be able to teach the holistic child We need to come to
class ready to seize the moment and be ready to discover what our students have been
thinking (Zull,2002).Show more, share more. We must see through the student’s eyes.
We need to guide our youth through the learning cycle and encourage our students to
be active in their own learning.
According to Skinner (1971) teaching is a way to guide a child to change
behaviors from the ones we do not desire into ones we do. The use of rewards or
punishment is the primary way to change behavior. However, Jensen (2005) stated,
that the brain gets used to rewards and wants to increase the value of the reward and
eventually the reward does not work. According to Mooney & Cole (2000) “working for
the demeaning gold stars and letter grades” is humiliating. Another consideration is that
a reward that works for one pupil will not work for another. So rewarding a child for good
behavior becomes an ineffective endeavor and behavior change is not always the
result. Currently, most people see rewards as an extrinsic method for motivating
students but it does not make the student learn (Zull, 2002). Our brain sees rewards as
the loss of control. This goes against our natural motivation to learn. Instead we need to
find out what is already motivating the student to learn and build on it.
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Instead of teaching by changing behavior, teaching the holistic child can be
accomplished by teaching interdisciplinary programs that reflect real life. This is
possible by cooperatively teaching students to work in groups. These groups should
when possible be culturally, racial, age, and ability diverse. The assessment is group
oriented rather than individual. This means the whole group must understand the
material discussed before the assessment is given. Having peers help each other in
small groups encourages acceptance of diversity, teaches social skills and critical
thinking (Arends, 1997). These learning environments are a model of society. Society is
made up of groups that have to learn how to work together. Students work in smallgroups to problem -solve current social issues and practice democratic processes in
their interaction with each other (Dewey, 1916). Consequently, teaching the students
how to be active members of society.
Interdisciplinary programs that teach multiple courses together creates neuronal
networks that link naturally between subjects instead of the current teaching of
individual subjects (Zull, 2000). Teaching the holistic child can be done in a single
classroom but to be truly effective the whole school needs to be working on teaching the
holistic student.
Schooling
To have a beneficial school system based on holistic schools we need to
replace our current system of educating our youth. Our schools need to be built to be
environmentally efficient, child friendly and welcoming. This is possible with the use of
natural light and smaller school buildings.
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Schooling is a wide-ranging institution made up of buildings, bureaucracy,
social thoughts and cultural values. Rogoff (2003) stated: “…segregation of U.S.
schoolchildren by age became formalized with the advent of compulsory schooling,
which required a standard starting age to verify that children were not truant. Agegrading served bureaucratic needs in the face of great increases in the numbers of
schoolchildren,” (p. 126). These changes occurred without considering what might be
best for the holistic child and society as a whole. These changes were made to make
it easier for the bureaucracy to keep track of children and teachers. This system
produced vast numbers of society members who are witnesses to their political
processes rather than active members (Rousseau, 1762/2003).
To accommodate the holistic child current school systems must evolve. “Schools
with shattered windows, broken-down restrooms, leaky roofs, insufficient lighting, and
overcrowding have a significantly negative impact on cognition” (Jensen, 2005, p.
91).The thoughts and values of current society must progress and be willing to help
school the whole child. “Research indicates that well-planned learning environments
stimulate learning and reduce discipline problems” (Jensen, 2005, p.91). Holistically
schooling our children brings out the best in all children and prepares them for society.
“Physical environments influence how we feel, hear and see. Those factors, in turn,
influence cognitive and affective performance (Jensen, 2005, p.82)”. New school design
should be with young people in mind. Chairs, tables and bathrooms need to fit the size
of the child. Most buildings have poor lighting, are noisy, have bad air quality and are
not conducive to learning. Success as a society in educating our youth will occur when
we change the way we currently school and instead accommodate the child holistically.
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Granted, it will take society time to change and become more open to teaching,
schooling and encouraging all children to learn holistically, however we must begin
somewhere and we as teachers and members of society, can initiate the change. We
can initiate the change by the teaching methods we chose to use in our classrooms, the
values we choose to hold, and the mental models we are willing to change and adapt to
situations as needed. The environment we establish in our classroom can go along way
toward creating a change that in time will improve our society by producing critical
thinkers who become active members of our society. Also by having the love of
teaching, to teach the best way we know and be willing to change when a new way
comes along. These will all help to educate the holistic student.
Anne Carpenter
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