Teaching for a Whole New Mind:  21st Century Learning with Pink in Your Lessons

Instructors:   Franny McAleer and Anna DeForest

Course Description:

The conceptual age requires 21st century skills that will be the focus of this graduate class.  We will look at A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink and work together on ways to integrate his ideas into our teaching. 


Course Objective/Goals:
Students will:

  1.             Understand the qualities and capabilities of both sides of the brain and the impact on learning        

  2.             Understand three (3) factors that create the transition to the conceptual age

  3.             Focus on the six (6) attributes Daniel Pink describes in his book, A Whole New Mind.

  4.             Integrate awareness and a teaching focus on each of these attributes

  5.             Design lessons that include thinking with both sides of the brain

Course Outline:

Three Key Questions Regarding the Future of Education and Learning

  1. Where are we? Where are we going?
  2. Who are we teaching and what do they expect of us?
  3. What should they learn and how does it relate to their lives?

What We’ve Learned About the Brain in the last 50 Years?

Brain Theory - Meaning is more important to the brain than information.

The brain is a pattern-seeking organ.

Left Brain ~ Right Brain

  1. Left hemisphere controls the right side of the body; the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body.

  2. Left hemisphere is sequential;   Right hemisphere is simultaneous

  3. Left hemisphere specializes in text; The right hemisphere specializes in context.

  4. Left hemisphere analyzes the details; The right hemisphere synthesizes the big picture.

  5. To oversimplify, the left hemisphere handles what is said; The right hemisphere focuses on how it is said.

 

Design of lessons that include thinking with both sides of the brain will be ongoing throughout the course.  These will be included in the course design notebook.

Pink, Daniel.  A Whole New Mind …  Right Brainers Will Rule

From the Agriculture Age to the Conceptual Age

1.       Agricultural Age (farmers)

2.       Industrial Age(factory workers)

3.       Information Age (knowledge workers)

4.       Conceptual Age (creators & empathizers) tools for 21st Century Learners

Three causes of the move from left brain thinking to increased importance of right brain thinking:

Abundance

• More cars than licensed drivers.

• Explosion of the industry of self storage demonstrates abundance, excess. Self storage is a 17 billion business. Bigger than the motion picture industry.

• We spend more on trash bags than 90 other countries spend on everything.

Asia

• Two emerging heavyweight world economies: China and India. Together, the two are home to 2.3 billion people, three times as many as all the economically developed nations combined.

• Economic growth in these Asian nations has been proceeding at the astonishing pace of 8% to 10% a year. To put that in perspective, the U.S. is considered to have a boom year if growth hits 4%.

• India has 1 billion people. If 15% of India’s population hits the middle class, it would be 150 million people.  That is more people than the entire U.S. work force.

• India will be the largest English speaking country in the world in less than five years.

Automation

• Routine – any work that is routine, that can be delivered in scripts, a set of steps ~ even brain powered work like accounting will be GONE in time. It will be outsourced. Routine work is left brained work.

 

Video of Daniel Pink presenting an overview of A Whole New Mind

Six (6) Attributes of the Conceptual Age as presented by Daniel Pink in A Whole New Mind

Focus 1:  Design - Look with a New Eye

Focus 2:  Story  -  Don’t just Hear:  Listen! 

    DigiTales – The Art of Telling Digital Stories by Bernajean Porter

Focus 3:  Symphony

    Tessellations

    Inventions:  Strategies from the National Invent America Curriculum

  1. Inventions are Everywhere

  2. Forced Associations or Random Entry process to foster creativity

  3. Invention or Innovation

  4. Inventions as a Continuum

  5. Inventions Solve Problems or Fill Needs

  6. Finding a Problem to Solve (Scientific Problem Solving)

  7. Writing an Inventor’s Log or journal to keep accurate records of the invention process

  8. Planning an Invention

  9. Inventions from Everyday Objects

  10. Researching an Invention

  11. To the Market Place

  12. Marketing Responsibilities and Ethics

        Metaphors

        Boundary Crossers                                   

Focus 4:  Empathy:  Reading reflections of pieces using work of Daniel Goleman, Social Intelligence

Focus 5:  Play

       Brainstorming - “We do not grow into creativity, we grow out of it – or rather, we are educated out of it.”   ~ Sir Kenneth Robinson

            Creative Thinking Skllls of FFOE

    • Fluent Thinking -- To think of the most
    • Flexible Thinking -- To take different approaches           
    • Original Thinking -- To think in novel, unique ways
    • Elaborative Thinking -- To add on to
    • Risk Taking                  
    • Complexity
    • Curiosity
    • Imagination      

            SCAMPER and SCAMPER ON Techniques

    • What are REPMACS?
    • Substitute – Who else instead?  What else instead?  Other ingredients?  Other materials?   Other power?   Other place?
    • Combine - How about a blend, an alloy, an ensemble? Combine purposes? Combine appeals?
    • Adapt – What else is like this?  What other idea does this suggest?  Does the past offer parallels?  What could I borrow from someplace else? 
    • Modify – Minify, Magnify, Maxify?  Order, form, shape?  What to reduce?  Greater frequency?  Higher?  Larger? Thicker?
    • Put to Other Uses – New ways to use as it is?  Other uses if modified?  Other places to use?  Other people to reach?  Other uses for those who are not human?  Other uses for animals?
    • Eliminate – What to subtract?  Smaller?  Condensed?   Miniature?   Lower?  Shorter?  Lighter?  Omit?   Streamline?   Understate?
    • Reverse or Rearrange – Interchange components?  Other pattern?   Other layout? Other sequence? Transpose cause and effect?  Change pace? Transpose positive and negative?  How about opposites?  Turn it backward?   Turn it upside down?  Reverse roles?

 Focus 6:  Meaning

Sharing Presentations:  Applications by students of the six attributes of the conceptual age

 

Method of Evaluating Student’s Performance:

Every attempt will be made to evaluate the student in terms of the stated objectives using the following point system:   Participation and understanding of the strategies presented and application of them with young people or students.   The participants work during the in class session will count for 60%.  The practicum application and final project demonstrating application or these processes will count for 40% of the final grade.

Final grades will be determined with the following grading scale and will be based on the total number of points accumulated on the assignments of the course.   100 - 90 = A     89 - 80 = B      79 - 70 = C

The practicum work on Empathy and Play will be submitted on the course wikispace, and the final project being presented to the class and instructor on the last meeting of the class.  The design notebook and lesson or unit plans will be turned in to the instructor on the last meeting of the class.

The practicum project will include:

1.       Keeping a design notebook.

2.       Experimentation with digital story telling

3.       Development of five lessons or 1 unit with right-brain exercises that highlight the six focus factors, including metaphor-makers, brainstorming, scamper, invention, boundary crossers, ….

4.       Participation on Wikispace regarding response to Empathy and Play 

 

Web Resources:

 

 

Motivating Workshops ... Student -Tested, Student- Centered, Energizing, Hands On, Research Based

 Mailing  Address

 321 Lorlita Lane,        Pittsburgh, PA 15241
  Modified: July 26,  2010

   Email

 franny@learnerslink.com

   Phone

 724-413-6001