- 1. The 21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.orgHow to
use this presentation;The set of slides which follow form the basis
for some 18presentations made in British Columbia in the latter
part of April2013.Those with an asterisk were sometimes missed out,
and those fromnumber 69 onwards were selectively used depending on
the interestsof the audience.Slides 1 16 form a personal
introduction.Slides 17 34 provide a summary of the brain as a
learning organismSlides 35 48 show the relationship between culture
and nurtureSlides 49 51 show the conflict between natural learning
and political expectationsSlides 52 58 explore the political
dilemmaSlides 59 to whatever point the presentation ends including
the reserve slidesNb. Slides 2, 65 and 66 are embedded animations,
each of which needs a second clickto activate
2. British ColumbiaApril,2013John Abbott, President, The 21st
Century Learning InitiativeIts your world to shape, notjust to
take.1The 21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org 3. 2The
21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org 4. We have not
inherited this worldfrom our parents,we have been loaned it by
ourchildren.Chief Seatle : late 19th centuryThe 21st Century
Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org3 5. The task is not so much to
see whatno one has yet seen, but to thinkwhat nobody yet has
thought aboutthat which everybody sees.Schopenhauer, 1788-18604 6.
What do you think you see?5 7. The Troubled World of 2013 There are
now two and a half times as many people on the Earths surfaceas
when I was born just before the outbreak of World War Two. At the
most recent count, about 7,000 people (One hundred millionth of
theworlds population) owns more than over 3 billion people, (just
under half thepopulation). 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a
day. The richest 20% of the worlds population receives 75% of the
worldsincome while the poorest 40% receive only 5% or the worlds
income. Of the worlds largest 150 economic entities, 95 are
corporations (63.3%).Wal-Mart, with revenue of $287.99 billion, is
the largest corporation onthe planet, and ranks number 22 on the
list. The United States is theworlds largest economy with a total
economic output in 2004 of$11,667,515,000,000.The 21st Century
Learning Initiative -www.21learn.orgA7 8. David Suzuki,
internationally renowned British Columbian geneticist
andenvironmentalist, born 1936......believes that human
intelligence and foresight got us into our present pickle
byenabling us to invent such efficient ways of exploiting Nature
that our populationgrowth went into overdrive. Now human
intelligence and foresight are all we canrely on to see us through
the tight bottleneck we are fast approaching thatnarrowing chasm
where far too many people are faced with far too little food
and,very possibly, far too little air.The 21st Century Learning
Initiative -www.21learn.org8 9. If civilisation is to survive
itmust live on the interest, notthe capital, of nature.Ecological
markers suggestthat in the early 1960s, humans wereusing 70% of
natures yearly output; bythe early 1980s wed reached 100%; andin
1999 we were at 125%Ronald WrightA Short History of Progress
(2004)9 10. We each see the world from our own perspective.The 21st
Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.orgAnd did those feet in
ancient time.Walk upon Englands mountains green:And was the holy
Lamb of God,On Englands pleasant pastures seen!Here is mine:my
parents grew up in middleEngland in the 20s and 30sI was born as
Britain wentto war with Germany andbombs fell near my home10 11. My
adolescence, and the developmentof a Broad MindThe essential skill
is to develop the ability to learn.However you cant learn how to
learn withoutlearning something. It is much easier to measurewhat
you have learnt than it is to measure how youlearnt it...
Examination results alone dont prove thatyou can think straight.The
21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.orgDerek Pitt,
Teacher in the 1950s of A Level History and English, akeen musician
and student of Medieval Art and cricket coachThe roots of
civilisation are twelveinches deep; discuss(Oxbridge Scholarship
question)12 12. University, and the enthusiasm tocreate a better
worldRhumexpedition1959Gometraexpedition1962University Maiden Eight
1961The 21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org14 13.
From leader of expeditions to beinga HeadmasterThe 21st Century
Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org16 14. So began my search to
understandhuman learningThe 21st Century Learning Initiative
-www.21learn.org17 15. The human race is theplanets pre-eminent
learningspecies it is our brains thatgive us our superiority,
notour muscles.The 21st Century Learning Initiative
-www.21learn.org18 16. The 21st Century Learning InitiativeThe
Initiative will facilitate the emergence of newapproaches to
learning that draw upon a rangeof insights into the human brain,
thefunctioning of human societies, and learning asa community-wide
activity.Washington DC1995 onwardsThe 21st Century Learning
Initiative -www.21learn.org19 17. The 21st Century Learning
Initiative -www.21learn.orgOver 800 lecturesin over 40 countries20
18. The Descent of MankindStudies in genetics suggest that the
split with the GreatApes occurred seven million years ago. At
twenty years toa generation that is three hundred and fifty
thousandgenerations ago, at a minute a generation, this
isequivalent to the minutes we are, on average, awake forin a
year.In all that time the genetic structure of us humans
differsfrom the Great apes by less than 2%.Stone Age Man, on this
scale, appeared 60 hours (two anda half days), while Modern Man,
Homo Sapiens appearedsome thirty hours ago, inAfrica, or equivalent
to one and a halfdays ago.Each of us is a result of all that
evolution.The 21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org21
19. Mothers and babies need protection for years hence the need for
long term bonding.The 21st Century Learning Initiative
-www.21learn.org23 20. The growth of synapses during the first6
monthsThe 21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.orgNot
until the child isabout three years olddoes its brain reach 95%of
structural completion(that does not mean ithas finished its growth
-far from it for further development involvesremoving part of the
young brain to enable it tobecome more complex)24 21. Tell me and I
forget;show me and Iremember; let medo, and I understand.Confucius,
551-479 BCThe 21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.orgHow
do we learn?25 22. The 21st Century Learning Initiative
-www.21learn.orgProbably the earliestrepresentation of
intellectualthought was the boneuncovered in France some 15years
ago, covered with a seriesof images that archaeologistsand
astrophysicists haveidentified as the phases of themoon over a
number of nightsas observed from that latitude32,000 years ago (c.
1,600generations back.26 23. Babylonian Mathematicians5,500 years
ago (c. 270generations ago)The mathematics of space:60 seconds to a
minute,60 minutes to a degree,360 degrees to a circle...The 21st
Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org 27 24.
Polynesia...together with their understandingof the different ocean
currentscontaining waters of significantlydifferent temperature and
shoals ofdifferent kinds of fish. The skill to dothis is something
modern man canonly wonder at...Apparently the islands ofPolynesia
began to becolonised some 1500 yearsago by people who
navigatedentirely on their ability to usethe stars as a chart...The
21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org28 25. Evolution
in BrainUntil the early 19th Century the very best estimateof the
age of the earth had been made in the mid17th Century which had
calculated from the book ofGenesis that the earth had been formed
at 4pm onthe 22nd October 4,004 BC. Findings in geology inthe late
18th Century suggested that it really had tobe several million
years ago.Sixty years later in The Origin of Species, Darwinsaid,
it is not the strongest of the species thatsurvives, nor the most
intelligent. It is the one mostadaptable to change.Biology at the
time lacked any technology thatenabled it to study the structure of
the brain at ascale which could show synaptic development.
ButDarwin guessed, psychology will be based on anew foundation,
that of the necessary requirementof each mental power and capacity
by gradation(evolution). Light will [then] be thrown on theorigins
of Man and his history.The 21st Century Learning Initiative
-www.21learn.org29 26. Human beings did not fall readymade from the
sky. Many of ourabilities and susceptibilities arespecific
adaptations to ancientenvironmental problems ratherthan separate
manifestations of ageneral intelligence for allseasons. (Barrow,
1996)The 21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.orgThe human
mind is better equipped to gatherinformation about the world by
operating within itthan by reading about it, hearing lectures on
it, orstudying abstract models of it. (Santa Fee Institute,
1995)Now, in 2013, we understand...31 27. Historical evidence is
plentiful forthe first couple of hundred years,then rapidly
diminishes. At the5,000 year mark visible recordsdisappear
altogether. At the15,000 year stage humans beganto settle down. Go
back to the50,000 year mark and it seemedthat our slowly evolving
ancestorsstarted to show the first signs ofmodern human
behaviour.The 21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org32
28. The 21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.orgThree
different traditions1) The Judaic-Christian tradition of self
improvement, the Book ofEcclesiastes says, of the writing of books
there is no end, andmuch study wearies the mind (approximately
800BC)2) Platonic Thought proposed that philosophers and rulers
wereborn with gold in their blood, warriors were born with silver
intheir blood and farmers and labourers were born with lead.
Hebelieved that nothing in a persons life could change their
status.(428-348BC)3) The Roman belief in rote learning andthe
forcible injection of learning throughthe classroom35 29. This
began to change slowlyThe 21st Century Learning Initiative
-www.21learn.orgRoger Ascham, tutor to Queen Elizabeth I and a
renowned classicalscholar, sat down in Windsor Castle in the late
1560s to write thefirst book in English on education, called The
Scholemaster aimedat correcting the faults of traditional Roman
education.Firstly, he urged cultivation of what he called Hard-Wits
ratherthan superficial Quick-Wits of those whose memories weregood,
but who couldnt work things out for themselves. Because Iknow that
those which be commonly the wisest, the mostlearned, the best men
also, when they be old, were nevercommonly the quickest of wits
when they were young.Secondly, he urged teachers to be more gentle
with their studentsand warned them against what he called the
Butchery of Laten go easy on the birch he was saying, for children
who only learnbecause they are frightened, gain nothing.36 30.
Thirdly, Ascham urged that in the attainment ofwisdom, learning
from a book or from a teacher is twentytimes as effective as
learning from experience because it is anunhappy mariner who learnt
his craft from manyshipwrecks.Why this extraordinary explanation?I
was once in Italy myself, but Ithanked God that my abode there
wasbut nine days. I saw in that littletime, in one city, more
liberty to Sinthan ever I saw in our noble city ofLondon in nine
years.Consequently Ascham piously definedthe indisputable role of
the schoolmaster as a censor of what theirstudents should learn.The
21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org37 31.
Behaviourism and JB WatsonThe 21st Century Learning Initiative
-www.21learn.orgJB Watson (1878-1958), denied that evolutionhas any
part to play in the understanding of thehuman brain. It was all to
do with therelationship between what a teacher putin, and what a
child observed. He believed thatlearning should become something
thatschools did to you, and quality instruction asbeing infinitely
more important thanencouraging students to think for themselves.He
believed that childrens minds were putty tobe shaped by
well-trained teachers... (theshadow of this thinking has deadened
thatimagination of millions of children andfrustrated a large
number of teachers).38 32. Einstein disagreed profoundlyIt is
almost a miracle thatmodern teaching methodshave not yet
entirelystrangled the holy curiosityof enquiry; for what
thisdelicate little plant needsmore than anything,
besidesstimulation, is freedom.Albert Einstein, 1889 - 1955The 21st
Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org39 33. In the 1980s
cognitivescience, began drawing uponneurobiology began to
underminethe claims of the behaviouristsLearning does not require
timeout from productive activity;learning is at the heart
ofproductive activityShoshana Zuboff, 1988The 21st Century Learning
Initiative -www.21learn.org40 34. (Professor) Baroness Susan
GreenfieldThe 21st Century Learning Initiative
-www.21learn.orgSUSAN GREENFIELD CBE is an eminent
neurobiologistwho was appointed Director of The Royal Institution
inLondon in 1998. Since 1996 she has been Professor ofPharmacology
at the University of Oxford. Her researchconcentrates on
understanding brain functions anddisorders, such as Parkinsons and
Alzheimersdiseases, as well as the physical basis of
consciousness.She has also spoken out about the impact of
socialnetworking sites and the amount of time children andyoung
people spend in front of computer screens.Her most serious warning:
By the middle of thiscentury, our minds might have become
infantilised -characterised by short attention spans, an inability
toempathise and a shaky sense of identity,41 35. AdolescenceA Tribe
Apart ?The 21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org42 36.
The complexities of our minds and bodies bearwitness to a long
history of subtle adaptation to thenatural world by our innumerable
ancestors.Literally every child is born with a mind and bodythat
recreates the imprint of the history of ourspecies.Neural Darwinism
(Gerald Edelman 1987)or the grain of the brain44The 21st Century
Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org 37. Crazy by DesignWe have
long suspected that there issomething going on in the brain of
theadolescent, apparently involuntarily, that isforcing apart the
child/parent relationship.Adolescence is a period of
profoundstructural change, in fact the changes takingplace in the
brain during adolescence are soprofound, they may rival early
childhood as acritical period of development, wroteBarbara Strauch
in 2003.The teenage brain, far from beingreadymade, undergoes a
period ofsurprisingly complex and crucialdevelopment. The
adolescent brain is crazyby design.The 21st Century Learning
Initiative -www.21learn.org45 38. Becoming AdultFrom the earliest
of times the progressionfrom dependent child to autonomous adulthas
been an issue of critical importance to allsocieties.The adolescent
brain, being crazy by design,could be a critical evolutionary
adaptation thathas built up over countless generations, and
isessential to our species survival. It isadolescence that drives
human developmentby forcing young people in every generation
tothink beyond their own self-imposedlimitations and exceed their
parentsaspirations. These neurological changes in theyoung brain as
it transforms itself means thatadolescents have evolved to be
apprentice-likelearners, not pupils sitting at desks
awaitinginstruction.The 21st Century Learning Initiative
-www.21learn.org200246 39. FlowNeuroscientists, together with
psychologists andevolutionary scientists are starting to show
thatyoungsters who are empowered as adolescents totake charge of
their own futures will make bettercitizens for the future than did
so many of theirparents and their grandparents who suffered
frombeing overschooled but undereducated in theirown
generations.Students who get the most out of school, andhave the
highest future expectations, are thosewho find school more
play-like than work-like.The 21st Century Learning Initiative
-www.21learn.orgClear vocational goals and good work experiences do
not guarantee asmooth transition to adult work. Engaging activities
with intenseinvolvement regardless of content are essential for
building theoptimism and resilience crucial to satisfying work
lives.199747 40. Dont Fence Me In Cole Porter, 1934Oh, give me
land, lots of land under starry skies above,Dont fence me in.Let me
ride through the wide open country that I love,Dont fence me in.Let
me be by myself in the evenin breeze,And listen to the murmur of
the cottonwood trees,Send me off forever but I ask you please,Dont
fence me in.The 21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org48
41. Our enormously productive economy...demands that we make
consumptionour way of life, that we convert the buying and use of
goods into rituals, thatwe seek our spiritual satisfaction, our
ego-satisfaction, in consumption... Weneed things consumed, burned
up, replaced and discarded at an everaccelerating rate. quoted in
The Waste Makers, 1960On September 14th 2011, halfa century later,
the largestshopping centre in Europe Westfield Stratford wasopened
as the only gateway tothe Olympic Park of 2012; infloor area it is
20 times that ofSt Pauls Cathedral.British family life is in
crisisproclaimed the Telegraph lastweek. It is parents who are
toblame who by working like pitponies to house our offspring,feed
them and keep them in with the latest digital cameras and micros
scooters, it seems we havecreated a generation of miserable
children who are wallowing in materialism. We spend 7.3 billionon
toys in childrens bedrooms, when what they really need is to play
outside with friends and family.49The 21st Century Learning
Initiative -www.21learn.org 42. If civilisation is to survive it
must live on the interest, not the capital, ofnature. Ecological
markers suggest that in the early 1960s, humans wereusing 70% of
natures yearly output; by the early 1980s wed reached100%; and in
1999 we were at 125%. A Short History of Progress, 2004The Ultimate
Ecological Crisis50The 21st Century Learning Initiative
-www.21learn.org 43. Asked on 1st January 2000 what chance he gave
the worldof surviving the next thousand years, Sir Martin Rees,
theAstronomer Royal and later President of the Royal Societysaid;
Im not sure about the next millennium but I think Igive us a 50/50
chance of surviving the next hundredyears. I fear that the speed of
mans technologicaldiscoveries is outpacing our wisdom and ability
to controlwhat we have discoveredWhen our first granddaughter was
born a yearago, our doctor said with great pleasure shehas a 25 %
chance of living to the age of 100.For her to do that we have to
educate the nextgeneration to bring technological knowledgeand
wisdom together.51The 21st Century Learning Initiative
-www.21learn.org 44. So What Now?Formal schooling, therefore, has
to start adynamic process through which students areprogressively
weaned from their dependenceon teachers and institutions, and given
theconfidence to manage their ownlearning, collaborating with
colleagues asappropriate, and using a range of resourcesand
learning situations.The 21st Century Learning Initiative
-www.21learn.org52 45. SubsidiarityIt is wrong for a superior
tokeep to itself the right of makingdecisions for which an inferior
isperfectly capable of doing for itself.The 21st Century Learning
Initiative -www.21learn.org53 46. The Political DilemmaMuch to my
surprise I cant really fault yourtheory. You are probably
educationally right;certainly your argument is ethically
correct.But the system youre arguing for would requirevery good
teachers. Were not convinced thatthere will ever be enough good
teachers. So,instead, were going a teacher-proof system
oforganising schools for that way we can get auniform standard.
Verbatim report of conclusions of presentationmade to the Prime
Ministers Policy Unit,Westminster March 1996The 21st Century
Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org55 47. The 21st Century
Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org56 48. It has been the lack of
real understanding abouteducation and learning amongst teachers
thathas allowed successive governments to bully theprofession.
Teachers undoubtedly need tounderstand the theory of learning.
Deprived of areal understanding of both pedagogy and policythey are
simply parroting the latest curriculumdirectives.The 21st Century
Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org57 49. The problem is one of
SynthesisSynthesis is the drawing together of ideas, whereas
theessential Western tradition of education is reductionism
reducing complex issues to easily studied separatebits. The problem
with that is that it becomes ever moredifficult to see the Big
Picture.Have you a mind big enough to get around all theseissues
and tease out the common threads?Education is the ability to
perceive the hiddenconnections between disparate phenomena(Vaclav
Havel, 2000)The 21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org58
50. Time is going by"The biggest crisis we are facing is a Crisis
of Meaning. Thetremendous social changes of the last 100 years have
strippedmodern society of that which gives us meaning be it in our
roots toour ancestors, religions, spirituality, our relationship to
nature......Within this Crisis of Meaning our young people are
facing a MORALcrisis - a crisis of values. Without these anchors
young people nolonger understand the value of perseverance,
learning for learningssake etc.. Instead our daily lives are filled
with a pursuit of moneyand temporary ecstasy. Both of these goals
areunfulfillable and result in a misguided frenzy in thepursuit of
the next thrill, or in depression.E-mail from Dr Rolando Jubis,
Psychologist and CounselorJakarta International School, 11/11/00The
21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org59 51. ...fears
that the ever-growing disconnection of the human race fromthe rest
of nature is a link that is not only being diminished, it isbeing
completely eliminated for the first time in the history of
ourspecies. This is going to change the world in a horrible way:
whatkind of parents are these zombies going to grow up to be, if
theygrow
up?RobertBateman:BritishColumbianpainter,conservationist,andphilanthropist(born
1930) ...The 21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org60
52. Upon this gifted age, in its dark hour,Rains from the sky a
meteoric showerOf facts....They lie unquestioned, uncombined.Wisdom
enough to leech us of our illIs daily spun, but there exists no
loomTo weave it into fabric.Edna St. Vincent Millay "Huntsman, What
Quarry"The 21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org61 53.
There is a tide in the affairs of menwhich, taken at the flood,
leads on tofortune... The 21st Century Learning Initiative
-www.21learn.org62 54. ...But omitted, and the voyage of their
lifeis bound in shallows and miseries...The 21st Century Learning
Initiative -www.21learn.org63 55. ... On such a full sea are we now
afloat, and wemust take the current when it serves -- or lose
theventures before us.William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 4,
Scene 3The 21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org64 56.
65The 21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org 57. 66The
21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org 58. John Abbott,
Presidentjohnabbott@21learn.orgwww.born-to-learn.orgwww.21learn.orgwww.responsiblesubversives.orgThe
21st Century Learning Initiative -www.21learn.org67