Experimenting at the intersection of environment and performance
Advances in neuroscience are revealing new understanding of the brain, its plasticity, and its responsiveness to the environment. Emerging notions of neuro-diversity and physical “disability” will challenge standards of what is “normal” and will spark innovations that help mainstream populations. At the same time, greater threats to human and environmental health from climate change, pollution, war, extreme urbanization, and other natural and human-made disasters will in the next decade create new stresses on minds and bodies. These stresses will converge in schools, some of which will seek to instill a sense of stewardship for self and environment in their students. With their mission to educate all students, these schools will become key sites for interventions to overcome the various challenges of disability and bio-distress and their impacts on learning.
- How can experimenting and designing for “special” learners create innovations for all?
- How can school communities become centers for protection and rejuvenation in a bio-distressed world?
More on This Topic
In the next decade, the body will be at the center of many debates regarding human performance, bio-distress, environmental health, and their impact on learning. We will see more experimentation focused on adapting to the threats of bio-distress, but also on expanding our conceptions of cognition, human performance, and standards of normalcy.
Advances in neuroscience are revealing new understanding of the brain, its plasticity (i.e., its ability to change) and its responsiveness to the environment. This is opening up a spectrum of cognitive performance, revealing the strengths of different cognitive abilities rather than their weaknesses.
Emerging notions of neuro-diversity and physical “disability” will challenge standards of what is "normal" and will spark innovations that help mainstream populations. Oscar Pistorius, an elite athlete with two prosthetic legs called Cheetah Flexfeet, is demonstrating that physical enhancement can create better than normal performance. As we understand more about neuro-diversity, innovations in teaching and learning that are targeted for “disabled” marginal populations may provide insight and benefit for mainstream learners. Expect to see more differentiation in teaching styles, approaches, and tools based on personal cognitive profiles. Tools, exercises and services (an early example is SharpBrains) that support brain fitness and training will become integrated into learning plans and school curricula. Cognitive modification will raise issues about standards of performance, conceptions of normalcy, and how individual learners are effectively and equitably evaluated.
At the same time, greater threats to human and environmental health from climate change, pollution, war, extreme urbanization, and other natural and human-made disasters will in the next decade create new stresses on minds and bodies. A new understanding of the brain will help discern the connection between these stresses and learning.
These stresses will converge in schools, some of which seek to instill a sense of stewardship for self and environment in their students. With their mission to educate all students, these schools will become key sites for interventions to overcome the various challenges of disability and bio-distress and their impacts on learning.
Implications for Learning
The school campus, and other locations of learning, will be a rich place for experimentation in the next decade:
- School leaders need to look broadly to edge populations and communities for insights and innovative solutions.
- New knowledge about brain health, disability, environment, and learning will help support new kinds of models for the places where learning happens, whether that is a school or community garden, and art or dance studio, or even a community center or neighborhood.
- This is an opportunity for school leaders to engage with other community leaders around shared issues, such as the consequences of food deserts and learning deserts (geographical areas with little or no access to fresh food or learning resources) on communities.
- Educators need to learn how to use social media and new civic literacies to embed education and learning imperatives in the context of other important community issues.