Learning to Swim

Sycamore Community Schools Staff Development Day

October 10, 1997

(Dr. Einhorn presented the keynote address and two follow-up break-out sessions for the Sycamore, Illinois, Community Schools Staff Development Day, October 10, 1997. This is the handout, slightly modified. Some layout may be distorted in the translation to html.)

Keynote Adress 8:00--9:30 AM

Part 1. Three Levels Up and Two Across: A Quick (and Very Oversimplified) Tour of the Brain
I. Three Levels Up: Evolution Builds Stage by Stage
II. Two Across: The Two Fundamental Modes of Information Processing
III. Some (Mostly) Left Hemisphere Functions
IV. Some (Mostly) Right Hemisphere Functions

Part 2 . Some Implications of Left and Right Hemisphere Functioning for Curriculum Design, Implementation and Development
I. Some Important Aspects of Curriculum
II. Curriculum from the Left Hemisphere Perspective
III. Curriculum from the Right Hemisphere Perspective

Part 3. Plot Your Curriculum: A Simple 2x2 Matrix for Getting Started

Session I 9:45--10:45 AM

Focus on grades K-6, developing curriculum descriptions and increasing understanding of left and right cerebral specialization in your work

Session II 11:00-12:00 PM

Focus on grades 7-12, developing curriculum descriptions and increasing understanding of left and right cerebral specialization in your work

Three Levels Up and Two Across:
A Quick (and Very Oversimplified) Tour of the Brain

I. Three Levels Up: Evolution Builds Stage by Stage
A. The Central Core ("Reptilian Brain")

1. Basic Life Functions
   a. Cardiovascular, Gastrointestinal, etc.
   

B. The Limbic System ("Mammalian Brain")


1. Flexible Behavior
   a. Emotion, Memory, Appetite(s)
   

C. The Cerebrum ("Human Brain")


1. The Defining Human Qualities
   a. Perception, Thought, Language, Mathematics Planning, Awareness of Environment and Self, Executive Functions
   
   

II. Two Across: Two Fundamental Modes of Information Processing
A. The Left Hemisphere is a Sequential Processor

1. It processes information bit by bit (not tib by ibt; each item must be in the right order in the sequence)
   
2. Injuries result in compromise or loss of:
   a. ability to speak
   b. ability to understand speech
   c. ability to plan ahead
   d. ability to stay focused on a task in action or theme in conversation
   
3. Left brain injuries are immediately obvious due to language impairment
   

B. The Right Hemisphere is a Relational Perciever
1. It processes lots of information simultaneously, in relationship, configuration, pattern, gestalt


1. Injuries result in compromise or loss of:
   a. ability to orient to the situations one is in
   b. social perception and appropriate social behavior, especially non-verbally
   c. ability to sense one's own internal state (proprioception)
   d. ability to monitor one's behavior, especially in relationship to others
   e. ability to dress oneself and/or recognize faces
   
2. Right brain injuries may not be as obvious as left brain ones
   
   

III. Some (Mostly) Left Hemisphere Functions
A. Language is largely, though not entirely, a left hemisphere function (in most people). It consists of a number of processes, each of which may function from superior through normal to impaired. They include:

1. Expressive language (speech, writing)
   
2. Receptive language (auditory language, listening)
   
3. Reading decoding (sounding out words)
   
4. Reading comprehension (understanding what has been decoded)
   a. Language comprehension, whether in reading or auditory processing, involves more right hemisphere functioning than mere word recognition.
   

B. Focusing on a single point, task, or goal, is largely a left-hemisphere function.
C. Understanding time as a sequence of intervals, and planning and organizing in clock time, is largely a left-hemisphere function.
D. Understanding a task or process as a sequence or series of steps or stages is largely a left-hemisphere function.
E. Inhibiting arousal when it competes with a sustained attentional focus on a task, point, or sequence, is largely a left hemisphere function (appearing to take place largely in the frontal area).
F. Emotion: Preliminary data suggest that each hemisphere may have its own quality of emotion. The left hemisphere seems to be concerned with acceptability, guilt, shame, happiness of the ordinary, "feeling o.k." sort.

IV. Some (Mostly) Right Hemisphere Functions
A. Understanding plot, theme, meaning, dynamic process in depth in literature, developing images from words, is mostly a right hemisphere function.
B. The general orientation to a situation, understanding what is happening and what is expected of us by others, is largely a right hemisphere function.
C. Social perception is generally a right hemisphere function.
D. Proprioception (awareness of one's own body) is generally a right hemisphere function.
E. Awareness of how one appears to others, in clothing and action, is generally a right hemisphere function.
F. The experience of time as the duration of a process rather than as a sequence of intervals (for example, "moons," the time it takes water to boil or a crop to grow) is generally a right hemisphere function.
G. Emotion: Preliminary data suggest that the right hemisphere emotions are concerned with life-threatening situations, fight-flight, fear, rage, urge to survive. Life-enhancing situations may also evoke right hemisphere emotion.

Some Implications of Left and Right Hemisphere Functioning for Curriculum Design, Implementation and Development

I. Some Important Aspects of Curriculum
A. Information

1. Basic facts, details, etc., about the subject.
   
2. For any class, in any subject, we must decide what to present or cover, and what not to (in lectures, assignments, books).
   

B. Levels of Learning


1. Individual students learn the information at different levels
   
2. We have to accommodate their diverse capacities and needs
   

C. Evaluation


1. We have to evaluate what students are learning
   
2. We have to evaluate the effectiveness of our teaching
   
3. We have to evaluate as realistically as we can, for evaluation to be meaningful
   
4. We have to evaluate as fairly as we can, so that some students are not victimized
   

D. Pre-specifiability


1. This is a key variable in curricular design.
   
2. Curricula vary in pre-specifiability. Some are entirely pre-specified. Others are partly pre-specified and partly not.
   
3. Complete fairness is only assured by complete pre-specifiability, since teacher judgment is limited to the choice or design of curriculum and not to the evaluation of individual students. Unfortunately, completely pre-specified curricula seriously under-educate students.
   
   

II. The Curriculum from the Left Hemisphere (Verbal-Sequential) Perspective
A. Learning means:

1. Vocabulary
   
2. Verbal concepts
   
3. Grammar, punctuation and spelling
   
4. Dates, facts
   
5. Verbal information, generally
   
6. Arithmetic by rote, emphasizing computational accuracy
   

B. Curricular concerns include:


1. Delivery of verbal information.
   a. Lectures
   b. Readings
   c. Discussions
   d. Debates
   e. Analyses
   f. Memorization exercises and assignments
   

C. Evaluation focuses on:


1. Information memorized
   
2. Concepts understood
   
3. Information and concepts applied in critical analysis or exegesis
   
4. Arithmetic calculated correctly
   

D. Fairness expressed as:


1. Quantitative grading derived from clear, discrete criteria
   
2. Same information to everyone
   
3. Multiple choice (or similar) tests, "objectively" scored
   
4. If essays are used, a continuum or sequence of intervals is assumed in grading
   

E. Pre-specifiability


1. Content is entirely pre-specifiable
   
2. Evaluation by multiple choice exam is entirely pre-specifiable. Teacher integrity is not an issue, but higher level learning is neglected.
   
3. Essay questions are pre-specifiable, and answers are assumed to be
   
   

III. The Curriculum from the Right Hemisphere (Relational-Perceptive) Perspective
A. Learning means

1. Skills expressed in action
   
2. Knowing how to behave
   
3. Ability to recognize various situations
   
4. Know how to put things together
   
5. Understanding how things work, interrelate
   

B. Curricular concerns include:


1. Demonstrating and practicing skills
   
2. Doing projects
   
3. Assignments that involve doing things, action in relationship to objects, others
   
4. Creating, making things, processes
   
5. Behavioral expectations, manners, how to behave
   

C. Evaluation focuses on:


1. Products or projects
   
2. Behavior demonstrated
   
3. Approaches applied to solving problems and their outcomes
   
4. Qualitatively expression of results
   
5. Valuation of work, appreciation, criticism of work
   

D. Fairness expressed as:


1. Qualitatively equal treatment, opportunity for all students.
   
2. Teacher applies the same standards of qualitative appreciation and criticism to the work of all students. Higher level learning becomes within the scope of the curriculum, but the quality and integrity of the teacher's judgment is an issue.
   
3. Things made either work or don't; the reality principle.
   
4. Students either can or can't do something they're supposed to have learned how to do.
   

E. Pre-specifiability:


1. Skills to be learned are pre-specifiable
   
2. Answers to essays requiring student judgment are not pre-specifiable
   
3. Student projects requiring student initiative, creativity, and practical problem-solving can be pre-specified in topic but not outcome
   
   

Plotting A Curriculum: A Simple 2x2 Matrix for Conceptualizing Curriculum Based on Knowledge of Hemispheric Specialization

Class:




Higher
(And More
Integrated)
Level





Lower
Level



............................Verbal-Sequential....................Relational-Perceptual


Sample Curricular Foci Plotted On A Simple 2x2 Matrix

Class:



Higher ..........Analysis, logical criticism, problems.......Problems requiring investigation
(And More.. of concept formation, application............to understand and action to
Integrated) .of information and concepts to................hypothetical or abstract problems
Level ............or situations, essays to which the ...........solve, neither of which can be
........................questions are pre-specified but not.........pre-specified, both of which must
........................the answers..................................................be evaluated ex post facto,
................................................................................................mainly. Tasks involving high
................................................................................................levels of skill adapted to new or
................................................................................................especially challenging situations.



Lower........ Information, verbal content ........................Pre-specifiable skills, specific
Level ............taught, memorized, evaluated...................kinds of behavior, technical
........................by rote. Multiple choice tests,....................skills (baking a cake, doing a
........................essay tests with pre-specified...................scientific experiment in a rote
........................answers.........................................................manner




.......................Verbal-Sequential...........................Relational-Perceptual


Sample Curriculum Plotted On A Simple 2x2 Matrix

Class: Seventh Grade American History


Higher ..........Conceptual understanding of...................Project assignments that require
(And More). social, historical, political,.........................students to learn through life, Integrated) .economic processes, as............................such as: " Conduct a study of
Level ............exemplified in content. Essay....................political advertising and identify
........................questions requiring expository..................the messages being conveyed
........................thought, such as: "The attitudes of...........to potential voters about the
........................American colonists toward the...................place they live in, their relation- ........................stationing of British soldiers in...................ships with other citizens, and
.......................America was different between..................themselves. Support your find-
.......................the French and Indian War and the...........ings with examples of actual
.......................Revolutionary War. Describe how...............ads."
.......................and discuss why."




Lower........ Selected chapters from a text, ..................Basic classroom behavior;
Level ............presented as homework and.....................appropriate social manner in
........................lectures, with supplemental.......................discussions, etc., ability to self-
.......................material in lectures and handouts.............manage, e.g., time to do home-
.......................Pop quizzes on content weekly, ...............work.
.......................mainly for vocabulary and to check
.......................that students are acquiring the
.......................basic information.



...........................Verbal-Sequential.........................Relational-Perceptual

Stories and References

Swimming

Nasrudin had a boat in which he ferried travelers across a river. One day a pedantic academic hired him for the crossing. He asked Nasrudin how long it was going to take.
"I got no idea," Nasrudin said.
"Have you never studied grammar?" asked the passenger.
"No."
"Then half you life has been wasted!"
Nasrudin said nothing. After awhile, a storm began and the boat began taking water.
"Schoolmaster," he said, "Have you ever learned to swim?"
"No."
"Then all your life is lost, for we are sinking."

Adapted from a tale in The Sufis , by Idries Shah, Octagon Press, 1964, ISBN 0-86304-020-9.

William James

In 1892, in a lecture to teachers, William James told of a friend who, when visiting a geography class, was invited to test the students' knowledge. The visitor, knowing what the class had been studying, asked: "Suppose you should dig a hole in the ground, hundreds of feet deep. How would you find it at the bottom--warmer or colder than on top?" When no one could answer, the teacher explained that the question needed to be worded differently, and she asked the class herself: "In what condition is the interior of the globe?" Immediately, the students piped: "The interior of the globe is in a condition of igneous fusion."

From: Awakening Young Minds : Perspective on Education by Denise D. Nessel, Malor Books, 1997, ISBN 1-883536-05-7. A friendly paperback of stimulating readings on education, selected by a master teacher, professor, and school system superintendent on curriculum and instruction.

Further Reading
The Right Brain: Making Sense of the Hemispheres , by Robert Ornstein, Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1997, ISBN 0-15-100324-6. This brand new book contains the most up-to-date thinking about the differences between the hemispheres, from a leading psychologist.