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Freedom and Learning

Leslie A. Hart

“The New 'Brain' Concept of Learning.” Phi Delta Kappan 59 (February 1978): 393–396.

Education that aims at preparing autonomous persons to live in a free society needs to heed recent discoveries about the brain's natural methods of functioning. Current educational practices, however, are largely antagonistic to the brain's nature.

Just as a finger bends forward but not backward, the brain has certain ways in which it works and other ways in which it will not work. Among the brain's characteristics highlighted in the recent studies are:

• (1) It is not a sponge. The brain aggressively seeks out information that fills needs in terms of its existing structure. It ignores irrelevant information and admits relevant information in terms of its own unique structure.
• (2) The higher functions do not work well under threat or compulsion. The slower processing of the neocortex is cut out of the system when the individual feels threatened, and the older limbic system is much more influential.
• (3) Most information coding is done via words or language. It is important that people express concepts in their own words if they are to learn.
• (4) The brain is pattern-oriented rather than precision-oriented. It does not typically gain information in a step-by-step, ordered sequence but by seeing patterns in a whole.

These findings have important implications for educational practice and for socialization in autonomy and freedom.

Educational methods grew up and became entrenched long before this information was available. In large part pedagogy goes against the grain of the brain's nature. For instance, the brain learns by successfully executing an action. What is required is that materials and teachers be available to provide guidance in learning actions. What is not required is a system mainly comprised of talking at, testing, failing, and moving along. Because the brain is a pattern-detecting device of incredible capability and subtlety, it needs vast amounts of input to provide the raw material from which it can discover the relevant patterns. The typical school offers little in the way of input.

Finally, brain research clarifies how to foster independent individuals. People cannot learn the skills or attitudes they need to survive and prosper in a free society exclusively through a conceptual approach. They must have a base of relevant experiences from which they can derive a conceptual understanding. They must have the experience of living and functioning in a free society.