Page 30 - Microsoft Word - The Future of Learning April 2017.docx

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Our senses, in combination with our emotions, thoughts, ideas and imagination allow us to interact with, and interpret our world. This process creates memory elements that we combine in numerous ways to form a complex concept framework of our world. These memories enable us to navigate the world that we have created an instance of. Our worldview provides us with a framework via which we manage and make sense of our world. Our worldview is a version of what exists that becomes our reality and that reality is unique to us. Our senses allow us to create ‘our’ personal version of the world, and, for most of us, that version allows us a place of significance in that world.
Our senses, emotions, thoughts, ideas, concepts and imaginative thinking processes, are our gateway to our version of the world and each of these represents instances of the process of learning, but we can only learn if we can form memories of what we experience.
We are inundated with sensory inputs when we are driving the car and our mind selectively sorts through these inputs, discarding most to a sub- or non-conscious level, so that the conscious mind can process the critical and non-predictable sensory inputs. For example, we do not notice the noise of the car tyres on the road as we drive, but if that sound changes, even slightly, due to the tyre losing some air, we immediately ‘hear’ the new sound and we take immediate action.
The amygdala in the brain coordinates the data from our senses so it can focus on working within the same ‘operational framework’ to create a coordinated view of driving, or any activity that we may carry out. This process requires an almost instant response and extremely high levels of sensory interoperability.
The typical model of brain functionality views the brain as a collection of thinking parts that work together like a mechanical clock. A quick thought-experiment indicates that this may not be the case. Can you see pictures in your head? If you can, then look at this page, close your eyes and now read the words on the page, using the image of the page you have captured in your brain. If we could see pictures in our head we would all have a photographic memory, but despite appearances, no one does,32 as it is impossible to see pictures in our head. So how do we remember anything?
We are quick to say, “Ok, but the picture I have in my head is a bit fuzzy.” Even some of the most obvious aspects of the picture cannot be seen clearly, such as how the eyebrows of your best friend meet above the bridge of his or her nose. You are right—there is something there, but it is not a picture. What we can sense in our brain is hard to describe, because what is occurring in the brain cannot be replicated outside our head in the ‘real world’. We use terms such as, “I can see a picture,” as this is the closest correlation to something that exists in our physical world. We use this as a metaphor, even though the metaphor is not valid.
How our brain processes sensory information such as a picture is still a long way from being fully understood, but we are starting to get a ‘sense’ of how images may be processed. The sensory data is used to make ‘sense’ of what is happening in our world and how we can or should respond to that. There are numerous possible responses to all the data that we perceive but most of our responses to that information are automated, non-conscious ones, that are carried out intuitively.
This emerging model of how the brain learns, proposes that we do not ‘see’ an image in our brain when we imagine or recall something, but rather, we are recalling and interpreting the integration of all the data from all our senses, associated with that occasion. In other words, we are ‘perceiving’ an image rather than seeing an image or series of images. As a result, we end up with an ‘essence’ of our grandmother, for example, including the scent, sounds, movement, etc. associated with her, rather than a discrete image.
32 Savants appear to have a photographic memory but they are actually using their sequencing capacity to achieve their phenomenal memorization in the apparent absence of any ability to form ideas, concepts or concept frameworks.