Facilitating Learning with the Adult Brain in Mind: A Conceptual and Practical Guide

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FIRST EDITION

For Anna Marienau Roth and Ken Miller,

for their love, insights, and forbearance.

(Someday there will be cleared table-tops.)

Preface

Once upon a time, like Goldilocks, we went searching for a book about the brain and adult learning that was just right—neither too abstract nor too technical. Such a book would describe in language accessible to nonneuroscientists (like us) how the adult brain works and also how to use this understanding to construct more brain-aware approaches that help adults learn and perform more effectively in diverse settings.

Having worked for many years with adult learners in various contexts, we had been avidly following the growing literature on the brain and learning. But most implications for practice seemed to focus on school-aged learners, and much of the technical, scholarly literature overwhelmed us with anatomical detail. In addition, we weren't satisfied with the how-to lists that regularly popped up in print and online of the latest so-called brain-based teaching strategies. To devise approaches that would better serve adult learners, we needed to boost our repertoires in more robust ways. We wanted more than new tools in our tool kits: we wanted to know with greater clarity why a certain model, technique, or facilitation approach was more aligned with how the brain learns yet not get lost in brain geography and architecture.

As we researched we discovered that many long-standing theories and models of adult learning—some of our favorites, in fact—could be viewed from the perspective of emerging brain science, though the connections were rarely explicit. Sharing our early findings in faculty development sessions, as consultants to organizations focused on teaching or training adults, and with colleagues around the globe confirmed for us that the information and ideas we had cobbled together about brain, practice, and theory were meaningful and useful to others. We finally realized that the book we wanted to read was one we would have to write.

This is not the book we first envisioned.

That book would have been built largely on our years of practice embellished with our explanations of neuroscience for nonscientists. It would have been a meaningful contribution, but would have posed little or no threat to our familiar ways of doing things. Looking back at how things appeared to us then, neuroscience seemed mostly to affirm much of what we already knew as best practices.

Our further researches opened us to additional perspectives such as cognitive science, psychology, artificial intelligence, and philosophy of mind. As we tried to visualize or diagram what we were learning about the brain's learning process, so that we could more easily explain it when we wrote about it, we found ourselves going around in circles.

After many frustrating attempts at categorization and association—defining and redefining the elements, processes, interconnections, promoters, and inhibitors—our eureka moment occurred when we realized that we had conflated what was going on inside and outside the brain. Learning involves two separate but interwoven areas of activity; the external environment, typically constructed and directed by someone else, and the internal environment, constructed and directed by the brain.

Sketching out this multifaceted relationship illuminated for us an unexpected disconnect between how the brain engages in learning and how we engage in facilitation. It also prompted us to think about new approaches, so as to better align with how the brain learns when no one is telling it what to do and how to do it. We invite you to preview the visual analogy and storyboard we call the Theatre of Knowing (further explanation follows later in the book).

For now it is enough to consider the four major areas; contrary to expectation, the story flows from right to left. First there's a neuron next to indicators of the five senses; then the silhouette of a head within which rests a body labeled to represent what brains do silently and inwardly; in the middle of the page is both a gauzy curtain that separates the images on the right from those on the left and, above it, a bridge connecting them, from which emanates a spotlight; on the left, indicators of things brains do visibly and verbally.

This visual metaphor and storyboard may prompt your own reflection. We will describe in detail the significance of our epiphany and the application to practice in the introduction to part 2. First, however, part 1 provides the background information needed to make sense of those descriptions As our understanding of the learning process grew, so did our appreciation of how adult learning could promote adult development. Brain-aware facilitation seemed likely to contribute to the very kind of learning that enables adults to make more informed choices and act in more deliberate and impactful ways. Learning about how the adult brain learns underscores the role that we and other practitioners can play in fostering these developmental outcomes both for individuals and toward the greater social good. (See Citations.).

Citations

Although our earlier book, Developing Adult Learners: Strategies for Teachers and Trainers (K. Taylor, Marienau, & Fiddler, 2000), did not touch on the brain, we now find that much of what we said there accords with brain-aware practice; we just didn't know it yet. For more recent development-related or brain-related material, see K. Taylor (2006), K. Taylor and Marienau (2008), K. Taylor and Lamoreaux (2008), and Lamoreaux and Taylor (2011).

What Colleagues Shared

Early in our process of planning this book, we invited dozens of experienced practitioners on five continents to share with us their persistent questions with regard to working with adults. Their wide-ranging responses included observations about their own felt limitations as well as what they perceived as challenges many adult learners face. Here is our synthesis of their questions, concerns, and desires:

How do we effectively encourage learners to explore and engage with new perspectives and unfamiliar ideas?

How can we help adults more readily value and build on their experience for learning?

How do we help learners become more invested in their own learning?

How can we help adults discover and work effectively with connections between theory and practice, concepts and application?

How do we best approach socially sensitive issues—for example, diversity and inclusion—that may challenge long-standing assumptions and beliefs?

How do we deal with our own assumptions about learning and our value judgments as adult educators?

How might we become aware of and reconcile incongruities between our rhetoric and our practice?

We believe the dozens of examples of brain-aware practice that form the heart of this book offer creative ways to approach these issues.

Who, Where, and When?

It's often said that adult learning happens anywhere and at any time. This book is therefore designed for adult learning facilitators in any setting; in this book, we're calling them ALFAS for short. We intend this work to be equally useful to experienced ALFAS and those just entering the field who want information that is both evidence and theory based—for example:

In college settings. Whether credit or noncredit courses, in brick-and-mortar classrooms or online, this may include academic advisors, learning assessors, counselors, faculty mentors, instructors, instructional designers, professional community advisors, academic administrators, and professional development specialists.

Learning professionals in other organizational settings. This includes facilitators, coaches, corporate trainers, designers, managers, designers of learning management systems, and chief learning officers, as well as consultants working with individuals and groups.

ALFAS who are consultants to colleges and other organizations. Those who counsel about particular aspects of adult learning, such as student success services, prior learning assessment, and competency-based approaches, will find it useful.

Graduate students. This book will be a rich resource for graduate students, both facilitators and learners.

Any adult learner. We believe adult learners in general will find this book valuable.

We invite you to join our exploration of this exciting terrain.

Our Intentions

As practitioner-scholars, we interpret and interweave what scientists and theoreticians in various relevant disciplines and fields have been saying for some time—but rarely, it seems, to one another. Having in this way discovered similar themes that also relate to our own primary field of adult development and learning, we now seek to translate those wide-ranging but overlapping perspectives into language that can better inform the practice of ALFAS.

How the Narrative Is Organized

We first provide background information about the brain that will help you make sense of the approaches to practice that follow. To maintain accessibility and flow, we avoid peppering the page with citations and unneeded scientific jargon. We instead include additional explanations, suggestions for further reading, and more technical material in boxes. These are particularly informative for graduate students and practitioners who want to dig a bit deeper. They are not essential if your primary purpose is to expand your repertoire toward more brain-aware approaches.

How the Book Is Organized

This book is presented in three parts. The science in part 1 is grounded in brain research; however, we frequently use stories and metaphors to illuminate technical ideas. In similar fashion, we often describe the brain and its functions in analogical rather than anatomical terms, sometimes speaking as though it has a mind of its own. Chapter 1 introduces the notion of two states of mind and how they affect adult learners. We then briefly examine how the human brain developed over eons, why it works as it now does, and how it continues to change. In chapter 2 we describe the significance of experience and the body (embodiment) to how the adult brain learns. Chapter 3 emphasizes the essential role of analogy and metaphor in the brain's process of association and categorization and examines current findings on how hemispheric differences affect learning.

Part 2 focuses explicitly on practices that encourage and strengthen adult learning in a variety of settings. It reintroduces the visual metaphor and storyboard for how learning occurs: the Theatre of Knowing. Then, drawing on contributions of experienced practitioners, chapter 4 sets the stage with approaches designed to overcome adults' initial anxieties and spark their curiosity; chapters 5, 6, and 7 progress toward greater integration of embodied and analogical approaches; and chapter 8 spotlights approaches that emphasize reflection and feedback. (We use approaches to mean activities, exercises, and strategies.)

In part 3, we tie together theory, practice, and our overall intentions. Chapter 9 explores selected theories and models of learning through the lenses of brain research and analogies highlighted in the previous chapters. Rather than begin our book with theory, which is typical, we first illuminate practice in part 2 because (brain-aware alert!) theories are more meaningful when the brain can connect them to concrete experiences. Chapter 10 returns to our overarching theme: how learning with the brain in mind can cultivate in adults a greater capacity to deal meaningfully and effectively with the complexities of modern life and commit to action for the greater good. The epilogue describes our personal journey of integrating brain-aware facilitation into our own practices.

To spark rather than direct your reflections, every chapter ends with a Pause for Reflection. At the end of each informational chapter (parts 1 and 3), we revisit Key Ideas.

A Gentle Suggestion

It may be tempting to skip part 1 entirely and thus get quickly to the useful stuff in part 2. Please try to resist. You will be more masterful in both adopting new approaches and enhancing those you already employ if you have a broader understanding of why they are effective. You will also be more likely to successfully generalize many of these approaches to other applications or situations beyond the specific setting described. But please do scan the approaches to practice to see what piques your interest. Here's another brain alert: Having particular issues or questions in mind as you read the introductory chapters is likely to enhance your learning and deepen your understanding. We hope to be companions and guides for you as you continue that journey.

By the way, when we say we or us, referring to Catherine and Kathleen, it could be either or both of us. At other times we may mean ALFAS or people in general. We trust the latter distinctions will be clear from the context.

Part I

Brain: Then and Now

WE BEGIN with a brief overview of the brain. Rather than focus on anatomical detail, we use stories and analogies to explore how it came to be what it is today.

Chapter 1 first describes the brain's activity metaphorically, in terms of two states of mind that can affect how learning happens. We then explore what sociobiologists have inferred about the development of brain structures and function over time, culminating in what now resides in our twenty-first-century skulls. Finally, we briefly touch on an admittedly touchy subject: our currently aging brains.

Building on this backdrop, chapter 2 explores in more detail what we know about what the brain does as it learns—specifically, what supports and enhances adult learning. We more closely examine the embodied brain's fundamental learning process—analogical categorization and association—and the role that emotions play.

Chapter 3 looks more closely at how analogy and metaphor shape experience and conceptual understanding. We also examine current understandings of the differences between the left hemisphere and right hemisphere and how they affect learning.

Chapter 1

Brain Basics

The biological mind is, first and foremost, an organ for controlling the biological body… Minds are not disembodied logical reasoning devices.

—ANDY CLARK

THE BRAIN'S prime directive has always been to keep the organism alive and functioning optimally, whatever the situation. It does so by monitoring everything going on in and around the body. In fact, your brain can do a lot of things sophisticated medical diagnostic systems can do—and some they cannot. For example, in addition to continuously analyzing all body systems and states, your brain also responds instantly when those readings are out of whack, working to put things back in balance, called homeostasis.

Now, imagine what might have happened way back at the beginning when the brain had to face a saber-toothed tiger. In such situations, it is designed to go into survival mode: adrenaline rushes through the body, extra blood flows to muscles, and respiration rate increases. Though our current brain has ways to keep our more primitive emotions at bay, fear-based systems still affect much of our conscious and unconscious behavior. More than anything else, the brain wants out of there! The parts of the brain that can focus on problem solving and rational reflection are on hold. For many adults, taking a test is just about the modern equivalent of the tiger.

This is also true, though less intensely, in any new learning situation. Fortunately, adults have two competing states of mind: whereas one says, I'm anxious, the other says, I'm curious. Negotiating this ongoing tension is a major factor for adult learning facilitators in any setting (ALFAS) seeking to facilitate meaningful, lasting learning—but in our experience, it is one that is not sufficiently addressed in many learning environments.

Two States of Mind

It makes perfect sense that the brain's most basic imperative is self-preservation because if it can't manage that, nothing else much matters. We are constantly on the alert for potential threats. In fact, the brain suffers from negativity bias; that is, it is many times more likely to focus on and remember negative interpretations of experience.

Negativity bias affects thinking, feeling, and acting. Daniel Kahneman (2011) also describes this in terms of negativity dominance, in which negativity and escape dominate positivity and approach (p. 300). We see and respond to visual threats (a scary picture) or verbal threats (words like war) more quickly than we do to positive stimuli (happy faces, pleasant words). Furthermore, when presented with positive and negative stimuli (such as words or photographs on a screen), we unconsciously—and almost imperceptibly—lean our bodies toward the positive and away from the negative. And in interactions with others, we may dwell more intensely on what we perceive as negative input than on positive.

Anxious Brain

Here is a metaphorical description of our threat-anticipating, defensive, certainty-seeking, anxious, ready-to-fight-or-flee, no-time-to-think-about-learning brain figure 1.1. Its response to the basic question, What do I have to do to save myself? is:

Figure 1.1 Anxious Brain

I have to know what's happening.

I have to focus narrowly on the immediate potential danger.

I have to be certain.

I have to be right (uncertainty or ambiguity can mean annihilation!).

I have to avoid threat.

I have to be always prepared to react, just in case.

Curious Brain

Fortunately, a few hundred million years ago, our brains began refining and elaborating the systems designed to respond to threats. We now also have a very well-developed novelty-seeking, pattern-constructing, cause-seeking, meaning-making, analogy-directed brain figure 1.2. Its major focus is still and always self-preservation, but it comes at it in a completely different way:

Figure 1.2 Curious Brain

I have to seek experience.

I have to categorize and associate by comparison (analogy) what's happening now with what happened before.

I have to construct and elaborate patterns.

I have to determine cause and effect.

I have to reward myself for figuring things out with feel-good hormone release.

I have to focus more widely, on possibilities beyond the immediate.

To be most effective, our practice as ALFAS has to account for both of these states of mind. But unless we first attend sufficiently well to threat mediation, adults may literally not have enough presence of mind to learn. They may dutifully try to memorize and follow procedures, but until the brain can pull itself together, it is likely to have difficulty with more substantive learning.

Mezirow on Learning

Learning is understood as the process of using a prior interpretation to construe a new or revised interpretation of the meaning of one's experience in order to guide future action (Mezirow, 1996, p. 162). This is especially relevant in the context of adult learning and the brain because it (1) frames learning as a process rather than merely an outcome; (2) places meaning making, which is the essence of adult learning, at the core of the process; (3) includes the role of prior experience and interpretation of that experience; (4) refers to the brain's construction and reconstruction of knowledge, key to literally changing one's mind; and (5) alludes to the relationship between reflection and action, which is the essence of praxis. (For more on Mezirow, see chapter 9.)

Learning and State of Mind

We must be attuned to situations likely to trigger the always-on-alert anxious brain to go into threat overdrive. People in a state of heightened anxiety, such as during tests or performance appraisals, are on brain overload. They may not see or hear correctly, which causes them to misinterpret and give the wrong answer… Their brains are so busy dealing with the [intensity that the brain can't] perceive accurately. Our brains are not infinite. They run out of space, out of gas, as it were, as worry and anxiety leave less room for perceiving (Ratey, 2002, pp. 61–62).

Most ALFAS intuitively realize this—but not all of us and perhaps not consciously. Moreover, we may not recognize that some of our favorite strategies for enhancing learning, such as detailed feedback and group activities, need to be carefully reviewed with the anxious brain in mind. (More on this in chapter 8.)

Think of it this way: In terms of learning, when the brain is scared, it has a foot on the brake; when it is curious, it has a foot on the accelerator (figure 1.3). With a foot on the brake and none on the gas, such as at a stoplight, the car idles. Many adults, including those with impressive experience and credentials, start off a new learning situation that way. Even if they have willingly chosen to participate (sometimes they are there for other reasons), stress inevitably is associated with a new setting, new facilitator, and perhaps new approaches to new ideas. As Julie Willans and Karen Seary (2011) found in their study of adults returning to formal learning environments, they may feel bombarded from all directions. As they settle in and become more familiar with what will be required of them—and, one hopes, some thoughtful intervention by the facilitator—foot-on-brake can start to relax. By itself, though, that slight letup still doesn't get anywhere. The car needs some foot-on-gas as well. A skilled facilitator provides this by focused attention on motivation and engagement. But unless similar attention has also been paid to the potential for threat, there may now be a foot on each pedal. The car may be revving yet still not moving.

Figure 1.3 Foot on Gas and Foot on Brake

Once that foot-on-brake lets up, though, zoom! In other words, these two states of mind are not simply the inverse of one another. Increasing curiosity doesn't ensure less anxiety; lowering threat doesn't guarantee curiosity. This is why many of the approaches described in part 2 feature effective responses to both imperatives.

We now briefly examine biology. The brain is a relentless, whirling, ongoing, multifaceted process. Its fundamental activity relies ultimately on electrochemical signals at the cellular level. Most people are familiar with the basic structure of a typical brain cell, often drawn in a way that appears treelike (see figure 1.4).

Figure 1.4 Typical Neuron

The cell body of the neuron, which contains the nucleus, is analogous to the crown of the tree, with bushy dendritic branches. The trunk is the axon, and the roots are the axon terminals. Dendrites receive stimulation from other neurons, which causes an electrical impulse to travel down through the cell body and along the length of the axon. When the impulse reaches one of the axon's terminal buttons, it triggers the release of chemical messengers (neurotransmitters) that cross a tiny space (synapse or synaptic cleft) to the dendrites of another neuron. That stimulates specialized receptors on the dendrites of the next neuron, thus passing along the message. This process continues from neuron to neuron, usually requiring only milliseconds from one to the next.

The words we commonly use to name what the brain does—think, identify, feel, understand, imagine, decide, know, plan, distinguish, believe, remember—are descriptions of what we experience when vast networks of neurons are activated in ever-changing patterns of connection. Neuroscientists currently studying microscopic activity along these neural pathways are attempting to unpack the anatomy of particular brain functions. As ALFAS interested primarily in the activity called learning, which involves millions of neurons engaged in various combinations of tasks, we find it more meaningful to tell the story of brain history and function from a more macrolevel.

The Brain Then

Brains eventually emerged from the basic stimulus-response mechanisms that all animals share. Even one-celled organisms swim toward nutrients and away from danger. As life-forms crawled out of the ocean and evolved into various creatures, these responses evolved along with early brain structures. The modern brain took hundreds of millions of years to evolve. Much of what we understand about human brain development has been inferred from changes in the prehistorical skeletal evidence and comparative studies of the brains of other species. In our case, the gradual increase in the size of the most frontal portion of the brain—which we identify as its more civilized part—led to less sloped foreheads. (The increasing proportion of the brain's white matter also contributed to pushing hominid foreheads toward the vertical.)

We can also think about changes in our brain as similar to an archaeological dig, where more recent structures were built on top of earlier ones. But in contrast to the built-over remains of civilizations that had died out or been destroyed, the older structures of the brain had to keep operating. Evolution can't suspend current activity while it goes back to the drawing board; neurobiological economy requires building on whatever is working at the time. Over eons, as modifications emerged that were better suited to the environment, the updated versions had the edge in the ongoing evolutionary process. The brain's additional and increasingly complex capacities enabled still further development within progressively more varied surroundings.

A well-known model that attempted to account for the historical development of major brain structures refers to the triune, or three-part, brain. Though it was later critiqued as being oversimplified, Paul MacLean's model (1990), first developed in the 1960s, became widely known because it seemed to account for human nature, such as our tendency