Facilitating Learning with the Adult Brain in Mind (eBook)

A Conceptual and Practical Guide

Catherine Marienau, Kathleen Taylor (Autoren)

eBook Download: EPUB

2016
Wiley (Verlag)
978-1-118-71159-0 (ISBN)

Infos

Practical 'brain-aware' facilitation tailored to the adult brain

Facilitating Learning with the Adult Brain in Mind explains how the brain works, and how to help adults learn, develop, and perform more effectively in various settings. Recent neurobiological discoveries have challenged long-held assumptions that logical, rational thought is the preeminent approach to knowing. Rather, feelings and emotions are essential for meaningful learning to occur in the embodied brain. Using stories, metaphors, and engaging illustrations to illuminate technical ideas, Taylor and Marienau synthesize relevant trends in neuroscience, cognitive science, and philosophy of mind. Readers unfamiliar with current brain discoveries will enjoy an informative, easy-to-read book. Neuroscience fans will find additional material designed to supplement their knowledge.

Many popular publications on brain and learning focus on school-aged learners or tend more toward anatomical description than practical application. This book provides facilitators of adult learning and development a much-needed resource of tested approaches plus the science behind their effectiveness.

• Appreciate the fundamental role of experience in adult learning
• Understand how metaphor and analogy spark curiosity and creativity
• Alleviate adult anxieties that impede learning
• Acquire tools and approaches that foster adult learning and development

Compared with other books on brain and learning, this volume includes dozens of specific examples of how experienced practitioners facilitate meaningful learning. These 'brain-aware' approaches can be adopted and adapted for use in diverse settings. Facilitating Learning with the Adult Brain in Mind should be read by advisors/counselors, instructors, curriculum and instructional developers, professional development designers, corporate trainers and coaches, faculty mentors, and graduate students-in fact, anyone interested in how adult brains learn.

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Practical "e;brain-aware"e; facilitation tailored to the adult brain Facilitating Learning with the Adult Brain in Mind explains how the brain works, and how to help adults learn, develop, and perform more effectively in various settings. Recent neurobiological discoveries have challenged long-held assumptions that logical, rational thought is the preeminent approach to knowing. Rather, feelings and emotions are essential for meaningful learning to occur in the embodied brain. Using stories, metaphors, and engaging illustrations to illuminate technical ideas, Taylor and Marienau synthesize relevant trends in neuroscience, cognitive science, and philosophy of mind. Readers unfamiliar with current brain discoveries will enjoy an informative, easy-to-read book. Neuroscience fans will find additional material designed to supplement their knowledge. Many popular publications on brain and learning focus on school-aged learners or tend more toward anatomical description than practical application. This book provides facilitators of adult learning and development a much-needed resource of tested approaches plus the science behind their effectiveness. Appreciate the fundamental role of experience in adult learning Understand how metaphor and analogy spark curiosity and creativity Alleviate adult anxieties that impede learning Acquire tools and approaches that foster adult learning and development Compared with other books on brain and learning, this volume includes dozens of specific examples of how experienced practitioners facilitate meaningful learning. These "e;brain-aware"e; approaches can be adopted and adapted for use in diverse settings. Facilitating Learning with the Adult Brain in Mind should be read by advisors/counselors, instructors, curriculum and instructional developers, professional development designers, corporate trainers and coaches, faculty mentors, and graduate students in fact, anyone interested in how adult brains learn.

Autor

KATHLEEN TAYLOR is professor in the Doctorate of Educational Leadership program in the Kalmanovitz School of Education at Saint Mary's College of California. A former Fulbright Scholar, she teaches, writes, and consults internationally in the areas of adult development and learning, learning and transformation, creativity, and "brain-aware" facilitation of adult learning. CATHERINE MARIENAU is professor-faculty mentor and coordinator of the Master of Arts in Educating Adults program in the School for New Learning at DePaul University. She teaches, writes, and consults in the areas of adult learning and development, competency-based learning, assessing learning, reflective practice, and "brain-aware" facilitation of adult learning. They are the authors, with Morris Fiddler, of the award-winning Developing Adult Learners: Strategies for Teachers and Trainers from Jossey-Bass.

Inhalt

Preface ix

PART I: Brain: Then and Now 1

Chapter 1: Brain Basics-changes in the brain over eons 3

Chapter 2: The Learning, Changing Adult Brain-experience, memory, and emotions 33

Chapter 3: Metaphors, Embodiment, and Hemispheres-foundations of brain-aware approaches 59

PART II: PracticesThat Enhance Adult Learning-featuring the Theatre of Knowing 81

Chapter 4: Setting the Stage for Learning-lowering anxiety, engaging curiosity 91

Chapter 5: Enter Stage Left-starting with verbal-theoretical conceptual approaches in mind 115

Chapter 6: Enter Stage Right-starting with embodied and metaphorical approaches in mind 135

Chapter 7: Center Stage-interweaving multifaceted approaches 175

Chapter 8: Spotlight on Meaning Making-scaffolding reflection and feedback 215

PART III: Reflecting on Practice 245

Chapter 9: Enhancing Brain-Aware Practice with Theory-foundational theories of learning and development 247

Chapter 10: Toward Complexity and Commitment-learning that promotes courageous informed action 287

Epilogue 311

References 315

Acknowledgments 331

About the Authors and Contributors 333

Name Index 345

Subject Index 349

Textauszug

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...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 22.2.2016
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Allgemeine Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Pädagogische Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik ► Erwachsenenbildung
• Schlagworte: Adult & Continuing Education • adult development theory • Adult Education • adult education classroom techniques • Adult education research • adult education strategy • adult learning • adult learning activities • adult learning exercises • Adult Learning Theory • aging brains • analogical learning • Bildungswesen • brain-aware adult learning • brain-aware learning • brain functions for learning • brain hemispheres • Business & Management • Catherine Marienau • Education • embodied brains • Embodied learning • Employee development • Erwachsenenbildung • Erwachsenenbildung, Weiterbildung • facilitating learning • Facilitating Learning with the Adult Brain in Mind: A Conceptual and Practical Guide • Hochschulen / Lehren u. Lernen • How the Brain Learns • kathleen taylor • learning and brain activity • Lernen • Mentoring • neuroscience of learning • teaching adults • Teaching & Learning (Higher Education) • the adult brain • Training • Training & Development • Training u. Personalentwicklung • Wirtschaft u. Management
• ISBN-10: 1-118-71159-9 / 1118711599
• ISBN-13: 978-1-118-71159-0 / 9781118711590