Abstract
The way we think about teaching and learning makes all the difference, because it is one of the few facets of practice under a teacher’s control. But our personal theory of teaching and learning, if we have the time to think critically, may be a grab bag of half-examined notions: that the really important learning comes from schools and colleges (not the family and work place), that learning occurs best in organized classes run by professionals (not in jobs, social life, and play), and that it is cognitive work (where emotions are viewed with suspicion). Perhaps we assume that education should not be directed by the learners who are naïve and irresponsible if left too long on their own.
Mindfulness … is the simple process of actively drawing distinctions. It is finding something new in what we may think we already know. It doesn’t matter what we notice—whether it is smart or silly. Simply noticing is what is important.
—Ellen Langer1
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Notes
Ellen J. Langer, Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility (New York: Ballantine Books, 2009), 183.
Marcia Mentkowski et al., Learning that Lasts (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999).
Edward J. Khantzian, Addiction and the Vulnerable Self (New York: Guilford Press, 1990).
James M. Dabbs and Mary G. Dabbs, Heroes, Rogues and Lovers: Testosterone and Behavior (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002).
Lee T. Gettler, Thomas W. McDade, Alan B. Ferani, and Christopher W. Kuzawa,“Longitudinal Evidence that Fatherhood Decreases Testosterone in Human Males.” Published online September 12, 2011, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science , pasted from http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/09/02/1105403108> Allan Mazur and Joel Michalek, “Marriage, Divorce, and Male Testosterone,” Social Forces 77, no. 1 (1998): 315–330.
William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: Modern Library, 1958). (First published 1902.)
Jerome Bruner, In Search of Mind: Essays in Autobiography (New York: Harper and Row, 1983), 66.
Unless otherwise noted, my technical descriptions depend upon Kandel, Schwartz and Jessell, Essentials of Neural Science and Behavior , and Eric R. Kandel, James H. Schwartz and Thomas M. Jessell, Principles of Neural Science, fourth ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000).
Another source is Sam Wang, The Neuroscience of Everyday Life (Chantilly, VA: The Great Courses, 2010). DVD Online: http://www.thegreatcourses.com
Psychologists have long studied individual differences in reactivity to external stimuli. See Witkin’s concept of field dependence. Herman A. Witkin and Philip K. Oltman, “Cognitive Style,” International Journal of Neurology 6, (1967): 119–137
Stanley Schachter, “The Interaction of Cognitive and Physiological Determinants of Emotional States,” in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 1, ed. Leonard Berkowitz (New York: Academic Press, 1964), 49–80.
J. Allan Hobson, The Chemistry of Conscious States (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1994), 83.
Daniel N. Robinson, Consciousness and its Implications (Chantilly, VA: The Teaching Company, 2007).
For a notable exception, see Richard J. Davidson and Anne Harrington, eds., Visions of Compassion: Western Scientists and Tibetan Buddhists Examine Human Nature (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001). Davidson is the William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior.
Gulio Tononi, “Consciousness as Integrated Information: A Provisional Manifesto.” Biological Bulletin 215 (2008): 216–242.
Giulio Tononi and Gerald Edelman, Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination (London: Allen Lane, 2000).
Sam Wang, The Neuroscience of Everyday Life (Chantilly, VA: The Great Courses, 2010). DVD www.thegreatcourses.com. He includes many resources including a neurophilosophy blog. Online: http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2008/08/welcome_to_your_brain.php
Martha Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
Nicholas Humphrey, Soul Dust: The Magic of Consciousness (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011).
Elliot Aronson, The Social Animal (New York: Worth Publishers, 2007), tenth ed.
Leon Festinger, “The Psychological Effects of Insufficient Reward,” American Psychologist 16 (1961): 11.
Alfred Schutz, The Phenomenology of the Social World (Evanston, I.L.: Northwestern University Press, 1967).
This research is an extension of the Pygmalion effect, which asserts that teacher expectations can create a self-fulfilling prophecy, perhaps in both learner and student. See Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, Pygmalion in the Classroom (New York: Irvington, 1992).
Langer takes a cognitive approach to mindfulness, with less attention to moral or spiritual dimensions. For other views on mindfulness, see Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life (New York: Hyperion Press, 1996).
For a Buddhist-inspired discussion of different stages of attention, see B. Alan Wallace, The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2006).
Interest in mindfulness is increasing in both education and counseling psychology. For example, see Daniel J. Siegelf, Mindfulness and Mindsight: Their Role in Neural Integration and Mental Health . APA 2011, Plenary Speaker.
Also, Lisa Miller has several empirical studies, for example: Elizabeth Reid and Lisa Miller, “An Exploration in Mindfulness: Classroom of Detectives,” Teachers College Record 111, no.12 (2009): 2775–2785.
Carol S. Dweck and Allison Master, “Self-theories and Motivation: Students’ Beliefs about Intelligence,” in Handbook of Motivation at School , Kathryn R. Wentzel and Allan Wigfield (New York: Routledge, 2009), 123–140.
Notable exceptions are Jeffrey Arnett, Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from Late Teens through the Twenties (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004)
Sharon Parks, Big Questions, Worthy Dreams: Mentoring Young Adults in their Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Faith (San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2000).
For basic sources on Mead and Lewin, see George Herbert Mead, Mind, Self, and Society . ed. Charles W. Morris (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934)
Kurt Lewin, Field Theory in Social Science . ed. D. Cartwright (New York: Harper & Row, 1951).
Michael E. McCullough and Brian L. B. Willoughby. “Religion, Self-Regulation, and Self-Control: Associations, Explanations, and Implications.” Psychological Bulletin 135 (2009): 69–93.
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© 2012 Jackson Kytle
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Kytle, J. (2012). Learning, Motivation, and Biological Systems. In: To Want to Learn. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403973818_5
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