Olson 2014

Source:   BOOK

APA Citation:

Olson, K., & Cozolino, L. (2014). The invisible classroom: Relationships, neuroscience & mindfulness in school. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.

Author bio:

Kirke Olson is a licensed clinical psychologist and nationally certified school psychologist; has worked in K-graduate students for nearly 40 years.

Notes:

The Invisible Classroom: Relationships, Neuroscience & Mindfulness in School, by Kirke Olson

Preface

·         The Invisible Classroom – those hidden human connections among us and the microscopic neural connections inside of us that are critical for teaching and learning

o   A collection of continuously active neurological and human connections that have an immense effect on learning but little to do with the actual content of the lesson (xii)

o   Refers to the web of neurological and human connections that create the context for teaching, learning, and living (xiii)

o   The microscopic neural connections inside all of us and the hidden human connections among us. These webs of neurological and interpersonal connections create the context for teaching, learning, and living (xx)

·         I was not teaching a random collection of separate individuals; I was teaching a group of boys who were connected with each other and to some extent united against me (xii)

·         The experience has given me a deep understanding of the intense emotional, cognitive, social, and physical demands of day-to-day life in a classroom that leave teachers precious little time to step back and reflect (xiii)

·         The visible classroom is the one in which there is a narrow focus on the task of imparting information to students (xiii)

·         The hidden emotional, relational, and neurological factors at work every moment among the faculty and students wield a powerful influence on what will actually be learned (xiii)

Introduction

·         Using the evolving principles from interpersonal neurobiology, the study of the way relationships, mind, and brain interact to create our mental lives; positive psychology, the study of what is best with people and what goes right in life; and mindfulness, a simultaneously ancient and modern practice (xx)

o   Neuroscience – begin with the brain

o   Relationships

o   Lead with strengths

o   Anchor with mindfulness

Ch. 1 – Uncovering the invisible roots of learning

·         A good starting place for schools and teachers is to dedicate ourselves to learning about the core circuitry of the brain – not just the cognitive circuits but the relational and emotional circuits as well. This knowledge can be applied to understanding how teaching and learning can be enhanced by the quality of our relationships with each other, and thus we can create a school culture that supports excellence 3

o   Negative perception of school might be adding an impossible load to the burden of their learning challenges 3

·         The more frequently the same net of neurons fire together, the more likely they will fire in the same pattern again (what fires together, wires together). This simple but profound process applies whether we are learning course content, discovering how relationships work, living our daily lives, or developing a sense of how school will be 4

·         Teachers can help students change old neural networks by creating more positive relational experiences for them at school 5

o   “school sucks” pattern is experienced in the body; his muscles get tense, his gut tightens, his heart speeds up at the very thought of going to school. In this state, he is primed to notice anything that is even a remote trigger of the ‘school sucks’ network. He also has the anticipation that teachers will greet him warily, since that is what his parents described and what happened at his old school. All of this creates a state of mind that makes it nearly impossible for him to learn 6

·         Positive psychology – Marty Seligman (Authentic Happiness, 2002)

o   “what is right with people, and how can we help them expand their strengths?”

§  We dedicated ourselves to uncovering and supporting expansion of our strengths and passions. We completed a number of assessments, experimented with several exercises developed by positive psychology researchers, and applied what we learned about each other during the daily life of the school. We formed faculty committee assignments based on personal strengths and passions rather than seniority or other reasons 9

·         Passion – very strong emotional attraction to something

·         Interest – an attraction to or curiosity about something but with less intensity than a passion

·         Strength(s) – capacity to think, feel, and behave in certain ways. They represent what is best about us and when we use our strengths we are energized, we sparkle and soar, we achieve the highest goals we are capable of achieving (Eades, 2008).

§  People pursue a strength or passion for its own sake often during their leisure time; strengths and passions can be interwoven 10

o   Sharing experiences; developing a strength- and passion-based connection; strength-focused questions; focusing on strengths and passions can begin a process that has the potential to change even violent students’ lives for the better 10

·         Mindfulness

o   Starting with faculty experimenting with bringing our attention into the present moment by sitting quietly and focusing on our breath for a few minutes at the beginning of faculty meetings; then decided to take the next step and introduce the students to a minute or two of mindfulness throughout the day 11

o   Mindfulness practices build neural strength in the areas of the brain that allow us to focus and take in new information with less interference from wandering streams of thought, emotion, and external distraction; these practices build the neural capacity for caring relationships 12

Ch. 2 – School Safety

·         School shootings at Columbine HS, 1999, changed the world of education

o   When what was previously unthinkable became possible, potential danger lurked everywhere, making fear and anxiety part of daily life 13

·         When the neurobiology of fear is active, our thinking narrows, turns rigid, and becomes focused on the perceived threat; what is needed in addition to physical safety is emotional safety, the internal felt sense of being safe 14

·         Maslow’s hierarchy of need 15 (bottom listed first)

o   Physiological needs – breathing, food, water

o   Safety

o   Love and belonging

o   Self-esteem needs – respect of self and achievement

o   Self-actualization – process of individual growth and reaching one’s potential

·         Physical safety is a necessary part of the foundation of a school and the sense of belonging and connection, providing the additional layers that help all members of the community settle into a comfortable openness with one another 15

·         The most basic measures for feeling safe in our interpersonal environment are the policies designed to prevent discrimination, sexual harassment, and bullying

o   Only by intentionally and continually developing trust, tolerance, and the acceptance of differences will we arrive at a school culture that feels safe and is fully supportive of learning 15

·         The connection and attunement between teacher and student are critical for students to feel safe in the classroom 15

o   If those around us are able to offer a safe haven, we have a tendency to move in that direction 18

·         When colleagues and administrators support us, it makes it possible for teachers to flourish 19

·         When the proper wiring is in place, these key connections create a much longer and slower processing path for new and potentially frightening information; if there is a loud noise in the classroom, the longer circuit with its better connections will give some students the time they need to evaluate the level of threat; the students without these connections are much more apt to react strongly and rapidly to the noise because their neurobiology doesn’t give them access to a broader evaluative perspective 24

·         Response flexibility – the ability to slow down and change course away from emotional reaction and toward a more empathetic relationship with others 24

·         We humans can ‘borrow’ someone else’s prefrontal cortex to support our own at any stage in life. Teachers (who are in a state of calm alertness, ready to engage) become similar to a lending library of neurobiological connectivity for those students who may have less than optimal circuitry 24

·         Creating a school culture of felt safety and trust begins with teachers and the administrators, not the students. If teachers and administrators do not feel safe with and trust each other, it is neurologically difficult or maybe impossible to create an authentic, safe, trusting culture for our students 27-8

·         What we communicate to our students by unconscious nonverbal means springs from our inner state. Trust and sense of safety radiates non-consciously from us to our students, and feeling safe and trusted at school ourselves makes it more possible to create an ongoing stream of welcoming safety for our students 28

·         Contractual trust – depends upon reliable and accurate measurement, which is proving to be more difficult than expected for student learning, as one can see with the controversy surrounding the testing mandated by NCLB. In spite of the extensive research on determining what the service of effective teaching looks like, it remains a mystery 31

o   Relational trust – depends upon the moment-to-moment flow of trustworthy connecting as individuals fulfill their roles with integrity, care, and in a respectful interdependent fashion 31

·         Researchers discovered that personal actions that lesson the feelings of vulnerability increased relational trust and contributed to the functioning of the high-performing schools. They found a dynamic interrelationship among four factors to be the root of relational trust: 32-33

o   Competence

§  How well an individual fulfills their role

o   Respect

§  Quality of valuing others and their contributions with the underlying assumption that everyone has something to offer

o   Personal regard for others

§  To feel seen as human beings as well as individuals with a specific role

o   Integrity

§  Usually means the level of consistency between what we say and what we do

§  Advancing the best interests of children

·         Disconfirming experiences can weaken previously existing neural networks or traumatic memories

o   Disconfirming experiences = when the expected doesn’t happen

·         Three ANS branches

o   Ventral vagal branch/state = relaxed, calm, connecting, moderate heart rate (ready for engagement); calm alertness, readiness to engage; possibly playful, curious, and caring

o   Sympathetic branch/state = overrides the ventral vagal; when we perceive danger and believe we can defend ourselves, it activates the fight-flight-freeze response (amygdala)

o   Dorsal vagal parasympathetic branch/state =  overrides the sympathetic; the perception of helplessness tells us we are in danger of dying, feigning death to avoid death – a state in which all systems slow down so much that our consciousness begins to fade and we may collapse, disassociate, or faint 19

·         It takes quite a bit longer for the parasympathetic system to quiet the nervous system than it does for the sympathetic nervous system to activate it

o   Knowing the student’s problem-solving skills are temporarily compromised (as when they are emotionally reactive) can stop us from trying to reason with them too quickly 41

o   The one real gift of the nervous system is that it has a preference for being in the ventral vagal state, the one that supports mutual regulation, care, and attachment. When another person in a ventral vagal state approaches, there is at least some probability that one can move out of sympathetic activation into a state that supports connection 46

·         HOMEWORK

o   Only helpful when it has a specific purpose 43

o   The Homework Myth, Alfie Kohn (2006)

·         Helping students get comfortable with asking for support when they need it is an important step, because our culture is so focused on autonomy and self-reliance. In truth, we are interdependent, and human brains were never intended to become completely self-regulating 48

Ch. 4 – Attentional Circuits of the Brain

·         When teachers help students cultivate attentional capacity, they are teaching a life skill as well as laying the foundation for purposeful learning 90

·         Self-chosen focus = top-down attentional control

·         Adaptive response to novelty = bottom-up attentional control

·         Tools

o   Teaching students to ‘aim their flashlight’ of attention

o   Mindfulness

o   Influencing students’ attentional priority maps

§  Criteria for creating priority maps: a combination of bottom-up input (new sensory information) and top-down influences (such as the goals of a task, evaluation of importance, and personal bias)

o   WWW – what went well?

o   Pearls – “what is one pearl of knowledge you have gained?”

o   Sharing personal information – adding novel personal information to lectures may be an excellent strategy to harness bottom-up attending and promote retention 109

Ch. 6 – Student Strengths

·         Focus: a tendency to focus on either weakness improvement or strengths expansion with students. Usually school culture encourages the former, with a focus on test scores and the underlying assumption that all areas of study are equally important for all students

o   Teachers have a tendency to remain alert to what is not present in students, and when they discover a skill or some information students do not possess, they teach it 132

o   Unknowingly dismiss or ignore what is already present in students; however, this unintentionally a problem = increases time spent focused on student weakness and less time on (or for expanding) strengths 133

§  Weaknesses may be easier to measure 137

§  The amygdala-centered fear system adaptively notices what is wrong more than what is working well 137

§  When fear and anxiety are present, in addition to keeping you focused on the perceived source of threat, it is difficult to take in new information or entertain the possibility of change 137

§  The ‘negativity bias’ is powerful; negative emotions are felt more intensely and have a more powerful and more long-lasting effect on people than positive emotions 137

§  The intensity of feelings such as fear, anger, shame, hate, discouragement, and disgust that can accompany a focus on weaknesses can quickly color your overall experience to the point that you are unable to perceive anything potentially positive about a situation or person, making it very difficult to focus on strengths 137

·         As strengths fade into the background, students might begin to feel a whole range of emotions: shame, sadness, the sense of being different from the other kids, the pain of disappointing their parents 133

·         If interventions don’t lead to improvement in performance and test scores, more help is brought in, and just like the student, teachers feel less and less competent 134

·         As your attention broadens to include strengths and you see students succeeding in those ares, fear and urgency about improving the weaker areas can moderate. A balance between strengths expansion and weakness improvement may be optimal for students 134

·         Positive psychology focuses on what is right with people, helping them uncover the potential for states of mind that open the door to sustained wellbeing and resilience 136

·         How people view the cause of events has profound consequences for mood, learning, and physical health

o   this attribution of causes is called an explanatory style and there are 2 varieties; the difference lies in how one views the cause of an event: 138

§  Optimistic

·         It is going away quickly

·         I can do something about it

·         It is just one situation

§  Pessimistic

·         It is going to last forever

·         It is going to undermine everything

·         There is nothing I can do about it

o   Students who believe they failed a test because they are inherently stupid have a sense of helplessness and will be harder to encourage toward more effort than those who perceive the test result had something to do with their action (or lack of action) 139

·         [we all have] unintentionally wired together a network of neurons by repeatedly using an explanatory style; it is also likely that you are optimistic in some areas and pessimistic in others 141

·         When you hear students use a pessimistic explanatory style, you can create a disconfirming experience by offering an authentic and positive offsetting observation about something you have noticed (i.e. I don’t see you as lazy. You just don’t work as hard on subjects you dislike.)

·         It is important to teach and model an optimistic explanatory style because research is beginning to show that this has consequences on physical health

o   It is never too early or too late to support development of an optimistic viewpoint 141

·         Helping students begin and continue the journey of discovering and expanding their strengths is important no matter where it leads them 142

·         The state of flow which occurs when our strengths match the demands of the task – enlisting students’ strengths at school crease ease of learning, enthusiasm, delight, and increasing skill 142

·         Positivity offset

o   Negative emotions are felt more intensely, but positive emotions are experienced more often 152

§  The tipping point when negative emotions are offset by positive emotions is a ratio of 3:1 (3 positive to 1 negative)

§  General population = 2:1

§  Depressed persons = 0.5:1

o   “the best educators know that for students to achieve meaningful, lasting success in the classroom and beyond, they must be emotionally engaged in the educational experience. This means educators must focus on students’ hope, engagement, and wellbeing …” 153

§  Nationally, 50% of our students reported feeling hopeful, while the other 50% are stuck or discouraged, a statistic that roughly parallels attachment research on security and insecurity 153

§  Engagement with teachers is a crucial factor in cultivating the fertile soil for success, more important than native intelligence or socioeconomic status 153

Ch. 7 – Mindfulness

·         During the past 30 years the popularity of mindfulness outside of religious traditions has increased and scientists have developed tools to study the changes in the brain that it brings 161

·         Mindfulness definition: 162

o   [my own simple definition:] Intentional, present-moment awareness without judgment

·         The 3 aspects of mindfulness

o   The practice of mindfulness

§  Any of a number of mental and physical exercises from sitting silent meditation to mindful (or meditative) movement (qigong, tai chi,  yoga, mindful walking, mindful eating)

o   The state of mindfulness

§  Awareness of the present moment with acceptance

o   A trait of mindfulness

§  Repeatedly engaging in the practice of creating a state of mindfulness even when not actively engaged in practice

In “Classroom Relationships: What’s Love Got to Do with It?” in Olson’s book, a good amount of time is spent on attachment theory or ‘style’ – how humans connect to each other, most specifically during the critical first years of life.

The different attachment styles are listed as:

Secure attachment – these securely attached students, with “caring and consistent parents have developed the neural networks to expect helpful attention from adults, and they have developed ways to effectively elicit that help” (p. 62).

Avoidant attachment – a result of a parent’s disconnection from the emotional life within the home, or the child, or both, these students, who are very much used to going it alone, will “not care much about you (as the teacher) and may have a tendency to become angry but might be interested in the academic content of the class. If academics were the only concern, some of the avoidantly attached students might be ideal students” (p. 62).

Anxious/ambivalent attachment – these young children had learned that their parent’s availability was unpredictable, so adapted by watching them closely. These students “likely will be overly concerned about you, may seem clingy, and might worry you can be trusted” (p. 62)

Disorganized/disoriented attachment – when a parent is seen as frightened or frightened, the child’s attachment can become disorganized. For the student with this attachment style, they may “react to you in various confused and emotionally dysregulated ways, particularly when they are under stress” (p. 62)

The last three styles are known collectively as insecure attachment. Olson stated that “students with insecure attachments are more vulnerable to anxiety and perform poorly on tests, not because they don’t know the material but because their insecure attachment makes them less able to manage the anxiety that is a normal part of final exams, school, and life in general” (p. 62).

This is all very important information to understand, as it can be the key to why a student may be acting in certain ways. Olson said that “insecurely attached children will make up a third to half of your students depending upon the community” (p. 63). In thinking about the classroom I work in, I can certainly see that it is more likely 60 – 70% insecurely attached. I have always had much patience with anyone trying to learn and fit into a group, however, this motivates my patience even more. Further, Olson suggests that disconfirming experiences (purposely acting in a way unexpected by the student, i.e. a teacher being warm and caring instead of harsh and demanding) “may contribute to a change in a student’s attachment style” (p. 65). However, he cautions that it is not simply neuroplasticity in this case, but something far more foundational, and likely more difficult to change.

In thinking about the question of whether the inner life of teachers or students has value in learning, I would wholeheartedly say yes. We are not compartmentalized beings, we are holistic beings and every experience changes who we are, and how we interpret the world. To even consider that what happens outside the school, or inside a student or teacher, does not make an impact on learning is sheer folly and foolishness. People of all ages need to feel valued and respected in their whole-selves, and to say that their inner life has no value in the learning process is wrong-headed and shallow. We need all of our experiences, together, to brainstorm new solutions to problems we face – together. As whole people. Not as just the teacher-part. Or the student-part. Or the administrator-part. That is inauthentic.

One last takeaway from Olson’s book that I thought was valuable: he reminded me of Dan Siegel’s example of the “river of integration [that] flows between two banks of chaos and rigidity. The chaos is caused by differentiated parts with no connection, and the rigidity is caused by connection that ignores individual differences” (p. 181). I use this metaphor in my own life to keep to the middle way, so I was happy to see it referenced here. In a school setting, Olson said, “The truth for excellent, experienced teachers is that their teaching during times of creative discussion probably drifts toward the bank of chaos and during times when students must be taught something that requires repetition and drill may drift toward the bank of rigidity. A healthy classroom that fosters integration among the students intentionally flows a winding course” (p. 181). For my purposes, I never have to steer the class closer to the bank of rigidity, but we certainly could get pretty shipwrecked on the bank of chaos, if I am not careful. Teaching mindfulness to this wiggly group is like herding cats most of the time, (but oh-so rewarding!). Olson suggested focusing on student (and teacher) strengths and keeping my own mindfulness practice fresh – “mindfulness is a personal practice that can be the keel  that keeps your boat steady in the center of the river” (p. 183).

Olson’s book, Invisible Classroom, is a wonderful resource. I will be sharing it with the faculty when I give my presentation in December.