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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.)
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.”).
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:
We believe the dozens of examples of brain-aware practice that form the heart of this book offer creative ways to approach these issues.
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:
We invite you to join our exploration of this exciting terrain.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.