Boredom turns the brain off

Or the importance of meaningful and achievable challenge

Lets think about skiing as an example, seeing as it is winter. If you already know how to ski, this analogy will probably be more meaningful, if not, you can substitute any other sport or skill you know better. Imagine you are being able to ski at a fairly expert level having put in practice elsewhere, but you find yourself having to spend the day on the easy slopes. It is unlikely that your skills will continue to improve in this setting and you will probably begin feeling frustrated and somewhat bored. You will probably have trouble keeping your mind on what you are doing and probably not ski as well as you could. Quite possibly, before long, you will lose interest in skiing. Unless you feel the achievement is a challenge, there is no intrinsic satisfaction from your success or progress.

This is a similar situation to one gifted kids find themselves in when there is insufficient challenge in the classroom. It is difficult to remain motivated without appropriate challenge.

We only experience the rewards of our competence and effort, or perseverance, when the achievement is authentic. That means that doing something easy, perhaps getting full marks on a task which required a skill we learned ages ago (think adding single digit numbers perhaps) doesn’t have the same effect as something challenging and new that we have to work at.

Meaningful challenge is a powerful motivator.

In fact, it appears that the impact happens at a chemical level in our brains. Our brain is a pleasure focussed so that once it has experienced the rush of dopamine that comes with success at an authentic task it seeks out opportunities to repeat the feelings of satisfaction and pleasure. Meaningful challenge helps build confidence and curiosity and even perseverance. Gifted students need achievable challenges (just as all children do) in order to grow as learners and to develop their potential. The tasks however, need to be appropriate to their learning needs.

What happens in our brains when we are bored? Our reptile brain kicks in. The amygdala actually blocks learning when students are bored.  It goes into a stress reactive state when learning activities are not at the appropriate level. The only options open to it are Fight, Flight or Freeze. In the classroom this can show up as lack of participation in activities, disruptive behaviour, zoning out or raised anxiety levels.

If that rings any bells in the way your child is responding at school, try to engage them in a conversation about school, what they enjoy, if there are any subjects where they spend time waiting, or are not engaged. While these behaviours could be attributed to other things, probing can help you gauge whether boredom or lack of appropriate challenge might be contributing.

It is also important to talk to the teacher, find out what they are seeing. While you are working on a plan with the teachers, be on the lookout for opportunities to help your child go into more depth in areas they find least stimulating at school. Look for books or interactive websites (Gifted Children: Resources for Parents andTeachers in WA has plenty to use as starting points).

A match between the curriculum and the child’s learning needs will be important in bringing about changes in brain chemistry and turning around lack of engagement, disruptive or anxious behaviours. As adults we find it very difficult to feign ongoing interest in or motivation for something that does not provide us with a meaningful challenge. Our children are no different.

Preparing for the Future

I am currently in the USA at the Future Problem Solving International competition.

Dr Peter Bishop Director of the Graduate Program in Future Studies at the University of Houston spoke at the opening of the Future Problem Solving International Competition in La Crosse Wisconsin last night (local time) and made some thought provoking comments. In front of the 2400 young people who had qualified to represent their state or country, and their coaches (and some parents), he proposed that EVERY child should be studying the future. The young people who have embraced FPS are fortunate in that they have a chance to consider issues and solutions to problems their world may face and to be able to potentially influence the future, not only their own. But we know this is not the case for every child.

Dr Bishop recounted how throughout his study towards a series of degrees in various fields, his teachers never mentioned the future, which he pointed out was perhaps is not surprising considering that their teachers never mentioned it to them.

If you ask teachers, they will tell you their role is to prepare students for the future, yet at school we study the past (history) but it is rare to consider studying the future. History is without a doubt important, but the pace of change is accelerating and it is becoming increasingly difficult to adequately apply lessons from the past to the future. Now more than at any other time in the past is it important to be forward looking.

We know that the fate of the world will be in the hands of our young people.We know that every child will live their lives in the future (as we will). It seems important that they develop the skills of critical and creative thinking, of evaluating ideas and working with others across disciplines as they prepare for a future we can not even imagine. Dr Bishop proposed that teaching about the future should be part of the regular curriculum in every classroom and school. If the array of possible outcomes imagined by groups of students who completed the Global Issues booklets today is anything to go by, our future can only be better for wide exposure to future based thinking.

If you would like to hear more of Dr Peter Bishop's ideas, there are several You Tube presentations which may be of interest. (sorry, I don't seem to be able to post links from my iPad but if you search Dr Peter Bishop futurist there is part 1 and Part 2 of a presentation worth watching. Links will hopefully be in the next newsletter, or maybe on Facebook)

A Fable

I came across this quote recently and it reminded me of this Fable about an animal school.

One time the animals had a school. The curriculum consisted of running, climbing, flying and swimming, and all the animals took all the subjects.

The duck was good in swimming, better than his instructor, and he made passing grades in flying, but was practically hopeless in running. He was made to stay after school and drop his swimming class in order to practice running. He kept this up until he was only average in swimming. But, average is acceptable, so nobody worried about that but the duck.

The eagle was considered a problem pupil and was disciplined severely. He beat all the others to the top of the tree in the climbing class, but he had used his own way of getting there.

The rabbit started out at the top of his class in running, but had a nervous breakdown and had to drop out of school on account of so much make-up work in swimming.

The squirrel led the climbing class, but his flying teacher made him start his flying lessons from the ground instead of the top of the tree, and he developed charley horses from overexertion at the take off and began getting C's in climbing and D's in running.

The practical prairie dogs apprenticed their off-springs to a badger when the school authorities refused to add digging to the curriculum.

At the end of the year, an eel that could swim well, run, climb, and fly a little was made valedictorian.

This Fable appeared in The Instructor  in April 1968, I downloaded a copy some years ago but you can still find it online here

Storytelling

Why must studying history involve remembering a procession of dates, they are numbers and they all look the same and is it really important to remember that something happened on a certain date rather than what it happened before and after?

My daughter posted this comment on Facebook recently as she was studying for a history ‘interrogation’ on European History, in Italian. In the typical fashion of a visual learner, history as a subject at school is not her strong suit, she loves the stories but finds the details difficult.

It occurred to me that history is recalled in one of two (or perhaps more) ways. For some people the dates matter, they provide a structure to order things by. For others it is the sequence, not the actual dates, which matters. These people are the storytellers. Time may be a fluid concept for them but the details of the stories are readily remembered, one leading to the next.

For generations storytelling was the way that wisdom, life lessons and history was passed from one generation to the next. In some cultures this continues today. School based education tends to focus on the details; remembering the dates and being able to recall them often takes a higher priority (and value) than ‘the story’. Will the push to ‘educate’ children in indigenous cultures where storytelling and the traditional culture is strong make their life ‘better’? *

Storytelling also provides an avenue for linking events in ways other than a strictly time sequenced order, for seeing the bigger picture. At a time when information can be accessed almost instantly, my feeling is that seeing the bigger picture and drawing the details and messagge together may be of more value in the long term. Which come to think of it, is a theme which also pops up in Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the World. 

*To see more on this idea visit Schooling the World

They need Different Work, not MOTS (More Of The Same)

'Terrific, well done. As your reward for finishing fast, here is another worksheet'

I have spoken to young children who have told me they had realised that getting 19 or 20 out of 20 in maths meant more maths, actually not just more maths but 'more of the same maths', so they made sure they scored highly enough to keep everyone happy, but not highly enough to be rewarded with another worksheet. They figure if they can already do it, why do they need more practice? They have a point.

I have also spoken to many gifted children who love the challenge of difficult work, but who are frustrated by having to show they can do the easy stuff first. By the time they get to the more challenging material, they are not so enthusiastic any more, their brain has wandered to more engaging past times. And I have seen many gifted children who make careless mistakes on easy tasks which don't demand their full attention, only to find that their results mean they are not offered the more challenging material which would really make their eyes shine.
Sometimes a teacher will take to heart requests from parents for something that challenges their child and provide something more difficult. For Homework. Which still usually means the child does what the rest of the class is doing and then they take the hard stuff home to do.

There is no surer way to turn off the passion for learning than rewarding completion of an easy task with more work, especially if the other children (who probably have more need for the practice) are not also going to be doing this 'more' work.

A fundamental characteristic of giftedness is the ease and speed of learning. Even moderately gifted children learn at 2 or 3 times the pace of more average ability students. For highly gifted and beyond it can me 4 times the pace (or up to 8 times the pace of the weakest students). This means they need less practice. It means they need to move on to new material more quickly. Research has shown that their learning is improved by working at this faster pace*.

There is no doubt that parents are excellent teachers; their children learned many things from them before they began school. However, if children are at school to learn, then bringing home new material to learn and master as homework while still working through regular class material at school suggests some further discussion about giftedness might be needed and that parents may have another opportunity to take the role of leading learning, this time with their child's teachers.

It is important that every child works at a level appropriate to their learning needs. The gifted are no exception. The key difference is that their needs are unlikely to be the same as the bulk of the class. Completing the easy stuff before they have a chance to work at the appropriate level isn't something we would ask all children to do. For gifted students it just doesn't make sense. In fact it doesn't make sense for any student.

 *The excerpt below is from Karen Rogers's Research Synthesis on Gifted Provisions
Research on Instructional Delivery: Pacing, Process Modifications

• The learning rate of children above 130 IQ is approximately 8 times faster than for children below 70 IQ
• Gifted students are significantly more likely to retain science and mathematics content accurately when taught 2-3 times faster than "normal" class pace.
• Gifted students are significantly more likely to forget or mislearn science and mathematics content when they must drill and review it more than 2-3 times

The purpose of education is to make friends your own age, isn't it?

When a school raises concerns about a gifted child’s ability to socialise with others of the same age, parents could be mistaken for thinking that the purpose of education is to make friends your own age.

When social issues, in the guise of a child not being seen to interact well with others of the same age, are given as a reason not to accelerate a child one might be led to think that the purpose of going to school is social rather than provide a child with the chance to learn something new.

Adults are well aware that their social circle is not exclusive to others of the same age and yet in the school setting it is not uncommon to come across an expectation that all children the same age should get along. After all they are the same age. Unfortunately this way of thinking also assumes that all children are the same, that they all have the same interests and all learn the same way, at the same pace. It is tempting and convenient stance, but unfortunately does not reflect real life.

It is a myth that all gifted children have poor social skills. Research with populations of gifted children has shown that generally their social skills are better than average however when they are restricted to same age children for social interactions, gifted children may not have the opportunity to continue to continue to grow socially and their social skills may not ‘mature’ as they do. After all it is not possible to learn something from someone who doesn’t yet know (or demonstrate) it.

Friendship is a key element of the school experience for gifted children, just as it is for any child. However, what gifted children look for in friends is often quite different to others their age. International studies have found that children’s conception of friendship develops in stages and that they move through them sequentially. Miraca Gross in a study of 700 children found that what children look for in friends is determined by mental age much more so than by chronological age and that gifted children were substantially further along the sequence of stages than their same age peers of average ability.

Linda Silverman makes a telling statement about the role of friendship in the school experience for gifted children in her book  Counseling the Gifted and Talented

"When gifted children are asked what they most desire, the answer is often 'a friend'. The children's experience of school is completely colored by the presence or absence of relationships with peers." p 72

The purpose of education may, amongst other things, be to make friends. But for gifted children, these friends are unlikely to be children of the same age, unless they too are gifted.

If you are interested to read more on friendship and gifted children you might like:
Play Partner or Sure Shelter: What gifted children look for in friendship
Friendship Patterns in Highly Intelligent Children
Being Me and Fitting In The Dilemma of Differentness

The power of connecting

I spent the weekend at Hogwarts with 45 kids and nearly as many parents. It was the second Harry P and the Professors camp run by Australian Gifted Support in WA. A handful of ‘second years’ (children who also came along last year) were there but there were many new children and their parents.

One of the most wonderful things about watching gifted children when they are amongst like minds is the social dynamics. Many of these children experience a sense of isolation at school, where they find it hard to connect with other children their age. In many cases is it not as a result of poor social skills, more as a result of being at a different stage of development intellectually but also being at a different stage in terms of the development of friendship needs.

It is wonderful to see the invisible barriers fall away as they discover what they have in common. We often see the same sort relaxed and appropriate social interactions amongst the children attending the holiday programs. At the camp, many discovered their interest in Harry Potter was only the beginning.

I watched 2 girls who didn’t know each other before the camp sitting under a table immersed in a shared activity, oblivious to the fact everyone else was preparing for dinner. I observed chess games where a 6 year old was playing one of the older boys, a crowd of others watching around their shoulders, some of them were no doubt soaking up others moves and strategies and improving their own game even without picking up a piece. I watched as one child opened the piano in the corner of the room and started to play a piece they were learning and a less accomplished learner come along to take a turn when they finished. Children who didn’t know each other engaged in duets on the piano and clarinet. There were older ones helping younger ones, and the younger ones helping older kids with barely a consideration for the age difference.

The Saturday night concert was another wonderful example of these children’s respect for each other. A wide range of ages and skill levels showcased their talent with musical items, singing, dancing (including an amazing performance by 2 boys), telling jokes and performing skits. Although there was some stopping and re-starting at times it did not raise a comment and the audience were enthusiastic about each and every performance. Several parents commented that their child would not under any circumstances put themselves on display in that sort of way in their regular school, but had volunteered to do so at camp.

The ‘students’ at Hogwarts were organised into ‘houses’ and at various points throughout the weekend participated in a trivia quiz. It was a great accomplishment when the groups of 10 or so children put their own desire to right, first or loudest aside and work as part of a team. I couldn’t help but wonder how many had just brought home reports with less positive comments about their ability to work co-operatively or collaborate with others in the classroom.

And it was not just the children who discovered connections. Parents had the chance to get to know each other as well while they helped in the kitchen or while the children were busy with workshops. During an informal chat with parents someone who had been speaking in hushed tones about their child’s ability suddenly laughed and said they had just realised they didn’t have to whisper about it here. I also saw parents who had just met swapping email and phone numbers, others who commented that it was such a relief to be somewhere that others understood what they were experiencing. For many it was a relief to discover that they werent the only ones facing very similar challenges with school or understanding their child’s needs. They left feeling that they also belonged somewhere.

And that is a powerful feeling.