Dr. Edward Roy Krishnan

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Do you wonder why parents of primary school children are eager to brag about their children’s academic performances (“My son got A’s in Math, Language Arts, and Science”) while parents of middle and high school kids prefer to be silent about their children’s performances at school? Why does the eagerness with which parents share their children’s successes at school dwindle as they get older and move into middle and high school? A variety of answers are possible, but the major cause for this has to do with how intelligence, learning, and motivation are viewed.

Old paradigm

We start off life full of curiosity. We wonder why, ask a variety of questions, and engage in purposeful investigation of the world around us to know more about everything. Somehow as children, we believed that there was no limit to how much we could learn and absorb. However, as we got older, adults introduce us to the concept of smart vs. stupid. Suddenly, we are required to conform to the popular belief that people can be categorized as intelligent, average, and dumb, and that they remain the same throughout life. Sadly, this paradigm influences how schools and the systems therein operate, even today.

Once labeled, people tend to think, feel, and behave in accordance to the expectations imposed on them (self-fulfilling prophecy in action). Hence, by the time children get into middle and high school, they are convinced that their intelligence is set – and it is impossible to change. This is why many children who possess excellent academic record during primary school fail to achieve the same type of excellence by the time they get into middle and high school. Their mindset (belief about intelligent) become their greatest enemy and they find themselves trapped in unhealthy thoughts about themselves and how their brains work.

Fixed vs. growth mindset

Psychology professor at Stanford University, Dr. Carol Dweck and her colleagues have conducted extensive research in understanding how mindset (belief about intelligence and how the brain really works) affects motivation, academic performance, and a host of other factors that contribute toward excellence in school and life.

In one of their experiments, Dr. Dweck and her associates designed an eight-week intervention program that taught some junior high school students study skills and how they could learn to develop their intelligence – describing the brain as a muscle that became stronger the more it was used. A control group also learned study skills but they were not taught Dr. Dweck’s expandable theory of intelligence. In just two months, the students from the first group, compared to the control group, showed marked improvement in grades and study habits.

According to Dr. Dweck, students who were energized by the idea that they could have an impact on their mind and its growth were highly motivated. These students possess the growth mindset (belief that neurons in the brain continue to make new connections – hence learning makes one smart-er regardless of past academic records). Internal motivation to study harder and better is significantly higher in these students compared to their counterparts (those with fixed mindset who believe that intelligence is set and learning doesn’t help change anything).

It was also found that students with growth mindset had a very straightforward (and correct) idea of effort – “the harder you work, the more ability will grow; even geniuses have had to work hard for their accomplishments.” On the other hand, students with the fixed mindset believe that if you work hard, it meant that you didn’t have ability, and that things would just come naturally to you if you did.

Application

Growth mindset motivates both teachers and students to hold a more optimistic attitude toward learning and intelligence. Schools should eradicate the fixed mindset from its operational philosophies and inspire every student to achieve the best he/she could by sincerely examining and working toward fulfilling his/her true potential. This is possible when our belief about intelligence, learning, and motivation changes![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Adults from the old school often wonder why psychologists consider many traditional practices at school as unhealthy for children’s social-emotional well being. Additionally, psychologists use research-based empirical data to convince educators to move away from controlling children through coercion, punishment, threat, and fear to get things done. Instead, psychologists have provided alternatives such as positive reinforcement, point system, behavioral contracts, counseling, etc. to effectively approach idiosyncrasies in behavior and learning.

Because of this shift in thinking, the incidences of administering harsh punishment to children have progressively and significantly reduced over the past few decades. This is evident in the way children are treated at school in the 21st century. More and more teachers and administrators display a sense of respect and appreciation for students. In other words, children are treated more humanely than any other time in the history of education!

What’s wrong with being harsh?

However, many adults are still convinced that harsh treatment has its own place in the process of educating children. The argument that adults often use to defend this position is one that most of us can identify with – “When I was a child, my father used to threaten to hang me upside down if I couldn’t recite any times table from 2 through 15,” “My teacher wouldn’t let me go for recess or eat anything the whole day if I didn’t keep quiet throughout his/her lesson,” and “I would be sent to a dark room if I don’t memorize the correct spelling of words.”

For many adults, threats and fear-evoking commands worked just as effectively as strategies proposed by psychologists because they produced desired behavioral and learning outcomes – memorization and recitation of times table, being quiet in the class and memorization and recall of correct spelling of words. Although adults accept the presence of adverse psychological consequences of using such threats and fear-evoking commands on children, they still consider them useful as ways to get things done!

It doesn’t work anymore

Despite harsh treatments from adults, children in the past did well in the school because all they needed to do was memorize and regurgitate information. Repetition and intense practice defined learning. Success at school was determined by the amount of knowledge one accumulated over time and presented when required. Hence, it was possible for children to be sad, terrified, and upset and still learn academic contents as well as acceptable behavior because they were programmed to associate a set of stimuli with a particular set of responses. As long as the combination of these two sets of stimuli and responses were correctly presented, children were rewarded; otherwise, they were punished.

This kind of behavioral and cognitive programming perfectly matched the needs of a work culture that required no thinking and creative problem solving. However, the 21st century demands a completely different kind of education. Children living in this century cannot afford to passively accumulate information and regurgitate them when necessary. Theirs is a world where learning is synonymous to thinking and education is synonymous to problem solving.

Science of thinking

Research in neuroscience and psychology indicate that negative emotions such as fear, sadness, frustration, anger, anxiety, and worry drain mental energy and interfere with one’s ability to think clearly. Unhealthy emotions muddle thinking, make decisions difficult to reach, disrupt communication, reduce physical coordination, and make it harder to solve problems (a condition known as cognitive inhibition). On the other hand, healthy emotions lead to better performance and achievement, allow for more creativity and innovative problem solving, help in decision making, ease memory recall, and improve skill, precision, and coordination (a condition known as cognitive facilitation).

Children preparing for 21st century and beyond learn by thinking. The pre-requisite to thinking is positive, healthy emotions. It is the duty of every adult, whether parent, teacher, or administrator, to provide experiences that would enable children to be happy, before they delve into learning.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In the past, schools did everything to prevent students from making mistakes. Mistakes were considered bad. To get back tests and assignments filled with red marks was a sure sign of failure and incompetence. Hence students were programmed to do everything they could to avoid making mistakes, to the extent that they would cheat to get the right answers. Additionally, students memorized words, phrases, and sentences from textbooks in order to reproduce the exact same texts expected of them in the exam. Apart from leading to under-achievement, mistakes became another psychological weapon that terrorized students and their attitude toward learning, themselves, and the world around them.

According to the most popular lecturer at Harvard University Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar, we cannot learn and grow if we don’t make mistakes. He illustrated this in one of his “Happy” classes. In the lecture, he called out a volunteer who was asked to draw a circle as best as she could. The circle looked close-to-perfect. He then asked the same student to draw two more circles: one circle as she would have drawn it when she was three years old, and another one when she was one year old. You can imagine how the three circles looked. The two latter circles did not look like a circle at all. Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar followed-up by saying that the student had attempted thousands of circles all her life up to this time to be able to draw a close-to-perfect circle. She wouldn’t have done it if she didn’t draw thousands of imperfect circles. The lesson that Dr. Ben-Shahar wanted to draw out from this exercise was summarized in this catch phrase: “learn to fail or fail to learn.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]It is relatively easy to get children to do what parents or teachers want them to do. Toys, candy, cartoon and play time, PS3, stickers, etc. serve as rewards to motivate children and direct their behavior. However, research in psychology of learning indicate that by the time an individual becomes a teenager, his behavior is no longer motivated by external rewards.

The growing child

As a person matures with age and subsequently experiences growth in cognitive, social-emotional and physical functions, his needs and priorities change as well. Hence an individual who was previously driven by stickers, toys, etc. may not find them appealing anymore. Parents and teachers who are not aware of this significant developmental milestone may get frustrated. Their attempts to direct their teens’ behavior fail. Parents/teachers and teens view each other as being inconsiderate and uncaring. At times, parents feel that their teens are rebellious and disrespectful of their authorities. Moreover, teachers feel that students are trying to act smart and make their work difficult. Teens on the other hand feel that parents and teachers will never understand them and provide them with what they really need. The gaps among these individuals grow wider with each passing day.

Identify crisis – the underlying cause

Why do the effects of external motivation dwindle by the time a child becomes a teen? Why can’t parents and teachers motivate adolescents with the same stickers and certificates as they would with children? While there are no definite answers to these questions, there seem to be a significant relationship between the uniquely-adolescent-experience called identity crisis and the changes in what makes adolescents tick.

It is during teenage years that an individual begins to strongly feel the need to develop a clear understanding of who he is, what his strengths and weaknesses are, and what he intends to accomplish in life. Teenagers experience the need to articulate this to themselves and others. If the question “Who am I?” is not answered constructively at this stage, then an adolescent is prone to painfully prolong identify crisis. Many carry on with this crisis into adulthood and old age. Sadly, both parents and teachers do not actively help teenagers with this task. Hence teenagers are typically pre-occupied with the thought, but do not necessarily know how to go about this difficult, yet important life assignment.

Mind over matter

As the need to define one’s self become pronounced, teenagers become more interested in subjective, intangible experiences and less attracted to material objects. In other words, the “mind over matter” outlook emerges. They become fascinated by ideas, concepts, and philosophical thoughts. They eagerly thread new territories that provide them with emotionally-packed experiences. Anything perceived to have no emotional value is of secondary value. This explains why teens are keen on “falling in love” with members of the opposite sex (apart from the fact that their bodies are undergoing hormonal and physical changes).

Soft motivation

Motivating teens with the use of external rewards, punishment, or other aversive stimuli fails to yield the results expected. These, whether positive or negative, are not the things that make a teen tick.

To motivate a teen, parents and teachers should focus on unconditionally assisting and supporting him to develop a positive sense of self-concept and self-worth. Additionally, parents and teachers should encourage the teen’s need for achievement and celebrate every success experienced, whether it is small or big. Talking about and modeling self-discipline to regulate one’s thinking, emotion, and behavior is another effective way to motivate a teen. Lastly, parents and teachers should be committed to challenging and stimulating teens to use their creativity to solve real-life problems. This entails helping them with useful, relevant knowledge and/or skills that results in mastery and increased efficacy.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]How do we effectively deal with student complaints, appease parents who are not pleased with what happens at school in terms of their children’s learning, and keep teachers motivated despite difficulties and conflicts at work? These are questions that school leaders constantly grapple with. However, due to lack of strategic thinking and the inability to confront people in situations engulfed in unpleasant interpersonal tension, ineffective leaders tend to either brush off the issue and let things remain the way they are or partially respond to quickly fix the problem, hence temporarily neutralizing the situation. These are ingredients for disaster, in the long run.

Uncovering the mask

Instead of trying to pretend to know much about leadership and behave professionally toward resolving issues, we would do ourselves a favor if we go back to the basics of human interaction and problem solving. One does not need to be a rocket scientist to solve the day-to-day conflicts and tension that arise in a school. We should bear in mind that professionalism in work does not necessarily mean that we give up our natural tendencies and ability to work with others on humanitarian levels. In an attempt to professionalize everything, we forget that some problems are easily solved if we pay attention to the basics of human living.

Simple suggestion

When students, parents, teachers, counselors, and leaders come to me for advice on conflict resolution, I give them one simple suggestion. However, I also realize that it is not easy for everyone to see the value of the proposal made to them. My suggestion, almost always, requires them to get together and talk the issue over with people who affect and are affected by the whole situation. In my opinion, as long as conflicts involve people, there is no other better, more humane way than to talk things over and get things clarified. This is a fundamental strategy used by humans since time immemorial. And it has never failed, when done properly.

The answer that I give to teachers, counselors, and leaders when they face conflicts that need immediate resolution is to get together with the people involved in a conference. Conferencing is powerful. Conferencing allows people to re-establish lost trusts, build bridges that were previously burned down, and develop relationship based on openness and transparency, even if this means building everything right from the scratch.

Vital component and process

Regardless of how a conference is executed, the primary aim of any such exercise should be to clarify expectations. Often, problems are perceived (not real). Most problems are problems because we look at them as such. In reality, they may not be problems. However, when something is perceived as a problem, that itself is enough to ruin a social institution like a school. An effective way to handle misperception is to bring into light existing perceptions, analyze and evaluate them, correct wrong perceptions, and adopt new, more accurate ones. This has to be done out in the open, in the presence of people implicated in the conflict situation.

For example, if students complain about a teacher being ineffective, then it is the responsibility of a leader to bring those two parties together and 1) allow them to express their perception toward and expectations of each other, 2) compare perception and expectations to identify similarities and differences, 3) correct wrong perception by clarifying expectations and coming to a consensus as to how each party would respond to each other’s needs, and finally 4) be committed to operating in the context of new perception and expectations.

At the heart of this whole process, it is important to know that both parties are not to be blamed and in their own way, are doing their best to function well in the school. The actual problem that we need to address is clashes in expectations and our response should be to get people together and clarifying expectations.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Child psychologist Jean Piaget is famous for his theory of cognitive development. Among others, he espoused that cognitive functioning greatly depends on life experiences. In other words, the more experienced one is, the better his or her thinking. However, mere exposure to experiences is not what Piaget was talking about.

Cognition improves significantly only when one’s accumulation of experiences is qualitative, rather than quantitative. Hence, an individual with excellent thinking does not necessarily have to be the most experienced. A truly “smart” person is one who constantly uses whatever limited experiences he has to his own benefit. He does it by ingeniously connecting elements of different experiences to form meaningful understanding of events, situations, and concepts.

“Hands-on” movement

People who misunderstood Piaget’s theory of cognitive development over-emphasized the importance of exposing students to activities through hands-on learning. This was prevalent in the 90s, a time when educators became passionate about promoting experiential learning – learning by doing. At that time, a lot of teaching focused around providing students with direct experiences with concepts being learned. Teachers were pre-occupied with demonstrating how to do something, and students were equally busy with replicating what was demonstrated to them. This was a typical happening in a science class, with a laboratory component. It also became the instructional modus operandi for subjects like social studies, math, and language arts. Teachers tried to integrate activities in possibly every lesson so that students could learn by doing.

The missing component

There is nothing wrong with hands-on learning where emphasis is placed on having students learn by doing. “Doing” connotes gaining rich experiences by coming into direct contact and interacting with physical and social realities around us. This contact and interaction help shape our understanding about everything in life. In fact, abstract thinking develops as a result of us doing concrete things that eventually lead to insight into abstract ideas.

However, it was the way “learning by doing” was implemented that caused problems in academic learning. I still remember “doing” a lot of things, in science, geography, and history classes because schools back then were required to engage students in projects and long-term mini research. However, none of those activities helped me to think or engage in meta-cognition (thinking about thinking). Teachers as well as students were doing things to produce products (that would demonstrate fulfillment of leaning objectives) without being concerned about the process of learning. We were told what to “do,” but never how to think.

Hence, the missing element was “heads-on” learning. For a long time in education, this component was overlooked because we became pre-occupied with hands-on learning. This is still evident in many schools, especially for younger children, where pure activities-based teaching defines their learning experiences. Most of these schools presume that when a child is provided with a lot of activities that relate directly or indirectly to learning, concepts are attained and formed, almost automatically, by some unexplainable cognitive process that takes place in the his mind as a result of his interaction with the host activities. This sounds almost like the hit and miss strategy.

Hands-on plus heads-on

While the hands-on learning era was a huge leap from the traditional “memorize and regurgitate” era of industrial revolution, it is not sufficient for the 21st century minds. There is a dire need for sound and comprehensive educational approaches that would enable students to prepare to face a world that “thinks.” This implies the need for an education that focuses on both hands-on and heads-on learning. Students must learn by doing. But they should also be taught how to think – before, during, and after performing a series of tasks that relate to their learning.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The popular notion that children from high socio-economic status (SES) are more intelligent and perform better at school is outdated. The relationship between socio-economic background, as measured by monthly or annual income of parents, value of total wealth, location of residence, etc. and academic achievement is not as simple as it has been talked about in the past. In fact, the simplistic view about the relationship between SES and academic achievement leads to difficulties in explaining why some children of poor families excel and succeed in life.

The twist

When parents are asked, “What are some of the factors that determine students’ academic success?” one could expect answers like, “good breakfast, exposure to education early in life, parents’ education, birth order, physical and emotional health, etc.” Unfortunately, there is a more important factor that skips our attention. This factor trumps all other factors because of the inherent impact it has on children’s psyche, their learning, and consequently, their academic achievement.

It is the parental involvement factor!

While it is true that there is a direct, strong relationship between SES and academic achievement, the relationship is mediated by parental involvement. In other words, it does not really matter whether a student comes from a high or low socio-economic background. What really matters is the sustained existence of active and visible parental involvement in children’s education. This explains why some children from poor families are academically successful while some children from wealthy families become academic failures.

Powerful example

The internationally acclaimed neurosurgeon, author, and inspirational speaker, Dr. Ben Carson, who at the young age of 33 became the director of pediatric neurosurgery at John Hopkins Hospital (18 times winner of the best hospital of the year award in the US), owes his success to his single mother. Dr. Carson is a specialist in the separation of Siamese twins and has pioneered work in radical hemispherectomies, which is the removal of half the brain to help seizure patients. Dr. Carson came from poor and broken home. His mother, although illiterate with only third grade education, worked multiple jobs to sustain the family. As they were growing up, Dr. Carson and his brother were strictly told that they would do more reading than watching TV. In fact, they were only allowed two to three TV programs every week. The rest of the day and night were spent in reading and studying. Dr. Carson’s mother was actively involved in his education, constantly reminding him about the value of schooling, and inspiring him to believe in impossibilities.

Expressing care

Have you wondered why a student’s behavior, motivation level and engagement in learning change for the better when his father or mother visits the teacher at school to talk about his education? Our natural tendency is to think that the student is “sorted out” because somehow his parents’ presence has instilled fear in him. However, I would like to think of it as stemming from something more positive. Students become genuinely interested in education when their parents get involved and pay attention to their school work, talk about their relationships with other students, teachers, etc., and motivate them to set high but realistic academic goals.

Talking to children about education, about schooling, about the future – all these serve as a springboard to enhance students’ learning that would subsequently improve academic achievement. In essence, parental involvement and participation are invariably appreciated and valued by students. Academic success of students is not the responsibility of teachers alone. Academic achievement is as big a responsibility of parents as it is of teachers.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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It is difficult to believe that a low-cost and “unsophisticated” movie like Slumdog Millionaire could win eight Oscars. However, there is one thing about this particular movie that made an indelible impact in the lives of its viewers, and millions of others who heard about it. The central message communicated in the movie was optimism. By virtue of being unpretentious about life and its challenges, the movie allows people to face difficulties with courage and confront the future with a positive attitude.

Optimism syndrome

This corresponds to another interesting phenomenon that takes place at Harvard University. The most famous class at Harvard University, attended by some 900 students twice a week, is a class on Positive Psychology taught by a young professor named Taal Ben Shahar. This class focuses on providing insight that leads students to the path of happiness, optimism, and hope. There are more students enrolled in this class than classes that teach them how to make more money and become rich, i.e., Economics. This goes on to show that people value virtues and positive life experiences, even more than money and success in career.

Why do we need it?

Research indicates that optimistic people are generally healthier as a result of the harmony experienced between the mind, body, and spirit. On the other hand, being pessimistic significantly reduces longevity, increases stress, and deters achievement as well as productivity.

At school, the difference between an optimistic and pessimistic child is invariably noticeable. A pessimistic child engages in persistent negative self-talks to the extent that he believes that he is not “good enough.” This feeling discourages him from even trying to experience success. His abilities remain dormant because he refuses to let go of his incarcerating negative thoughts and their corresponding behaviors.

Surprisingly, this is the state of majority of students in schools. Pessimism does not care about nationality, race, socio-economic status, and gender. It plagues everyone equally, especially children and teenagers as their negative thoughts often go unchecked, hence uncorrected.

Good news

Optimism can be taught! Teachers have the opportunity to plan and deliver lessons on optimism, or they could creatively integrate optimism into all other subjects. Some educators believe that this kind of teaching is more important and effective compared to merely teaching of academic subjects. In the future, success will not determined by mastery of knowledge and/or skills alone. The increasingly complicated nature of our world and its requirements will severely punish and drain people’s sense of hope and meaning, unless they are prepared to see things positively. Only an optimistic person would succeed because he would consistently re-frame crises into opportunities through creative solution finding.

Optimism in action

Regardless of a child’s current level of performance, it is the moral duty of every teacher to design learning opportunities to enable him to experience success. Without the experience of success, students are not motivated to achieve. Without achievement it is impossible to become positive about present and future responses. Even the lowest achieving student could be helped to experience success by deliberately observing and acknowledging his progress over time. Praising and reinforcing the slightest improvement in such a case would help the child a great deal to strive to do better next time.

In the face of failure, it is more constructive to recall past successes and use them as a frame of reference to move into a more optimistic future. Teachers should avoid labeling and liberate students from limiting terms such as “high or low performers.” Rather, it is healthier to help an individual student to become engrossed in developing himself by comparing qualitative differences in his own performances across subjects, tasks, and cognitive engagements.

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]To test out how difficult it is to engage in an act of listening, try sitting with someone and letting that individual talk for five minutes, without any interruption on any topic of his or her interest. Chances are, you will not even go beyond the one-minute mark without being tempted to interrupt, ask for clarification, suggest your own opinion, and in some instance, change the topic altogether because of disinterest.

I try demonstrating this to my students taking education and/or psychology to expose the challenges and importance of the art of listening to enhance human relationship. After doing the activity, students often admit that it is a difficult feat. However, they also add that once they start to genuinely listen to the other person, a greater sense of connectedness and appreciation is experienced, by both speaker and listener.

Why is it difficult?

It is easier to speak than to listen because from the time we were infants, we felt the pressure to use a “spoken” language to indicate normal development. Parents become anxious when their infants take too long to utter the first word. In retrospect, you would realize that major portions of your childhood were spent in trying to acquire more words to string them together to make phrases and sentences.

Although listening played a significant role in the development of our spoken language skill(s), it was directly aimed at acquiring the language. We didn’t listen so that we could understand someone else’s message(s). We listened solely because we wanted to imitate and use the words or phrases or sentences in our own speech. Hence, while we got a lot of training in correctly speaking a language, we were not necessarily taught how to listen with the intention to understand a speaker’s message(s).

Importance of listening

Inability to listen effectively causes individuals, groups, and institutions great losses. Subsequently, ineffective listening leads to relationship break down – between parents and their children, teachers and their students, administrators and their teachers. When people don’t listen to each other, their responses seem insensitive to the needs and aspiration of others. This is misunderstood for selfishness, leading to one or both parties feeling offended and becoming defensive. Naturally, a fight or flight response pattern is triggered in this situation and no decent conversation can transpire thereafter.

In the classroom setting, teachers who listen to students not only assure them of their attention, but also allow themselves opportunities to truly understand what students are experiencing. School administrators who listen to their teachers motivate the staff to be initiative, creative, and committed. In both cases, the ones who are listened to feel appreciated, valued, and become willing to perform better.

Listening skills

Teachers and school administrators who seek to forge a positive relationship with their constituencies must learn to listen. They should listen to understand, and not just to respond to what is being told. Listening to understand requires that teachers, first and foremost, do more listening than talking. Secondly, they need to decode the feelings contained in what is said, along with deciphering facts or ideas. Thirdly, a good listener would do his best to view the contents of the messages from a speaker’s frame of reference. For this to happen successfully, one must listen to the whole story without disrupting the speaker. Fourthly, listening to understand entails restating and clarifying what the other has said. This is not the same as asking questions or telling what the listener feels, believes, or wants. Last but not the least, a good listener responds to the speaker with acceptance and empathy, not with indifference, cold objectivity, or fake concern.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Every now and then, we all experience a “delay” in understanding something, usually a new concept. This delay is just a temporary blockage that inhibits a complete grasp of a new idea. The delay is invariably short-lived and we soon find ourselves experiencing a sudden surge of understanding about the same idea that just a few days ago, or a few weeks ago, we had little clue about.

The thinking chimpanzee

Psychologists call this the “aha!” phenomenon. It was experimentally discovered by a German-American psychologist named Wolfgang Kohler during the early 20th century. In his experiment with a chimpanzee called Sultan, Kohler observed and deduced that animals do not learn everything through mere trial-and-error processes, or stimulus-response associations, as suggested by behavioral psychologists. He argued that animals do solve problems by understanding.

When Sultan was placed in a cage outside of which lay a few bananas, he tried to reach out and grab the fruit. Since the experimenter deliberately placed the bananas out of Sultan’s reach, the chimp had a difficult time getting his meal. The experimenter had purposely placed a few tools in and around the cage; things that do not have obvious connection to each other. After trying a variety of failed stunts, Sultan suddenly picks up a little stick, goes to the bars outside of which lay a long stick; scratches the long stick with the little one until the long stick pushes the fruit closer toward the cage. Yes, Sultan was successful in obtaining his bananas because he solved the problem by understanding the complete nature of the situation.

Ever since, humans have discovered tons of other things that chimpanzees do that require understanding instead of mere random trial-and-error moves.

Decoding the “aha!” effect

Perhaps knowing the true nature of learning as the brain does it will help us gain a better picture of why the “aha!” experience is common in humans and great apes. First and foremost, we all know that the brain is a complex organ. It contains millions of neurons that extend themselves through dendrites and axon terminals that are constantly connecting or disconnecting from each other; growing or shrinking; and at all times, transmitting electrical signals in the form of neurotransmitters, making up the most fascinating signals-relay system in the entire universe.

However, the quality of memory, the speed of sensory and perceptual input-output processing, and the understanding that comes as a result of a host of super-fast-highly sophisticated-neural operations do not necessarily end in the production of an insight about a particular experience, recollection, or idea. Sometimes, the outcome of the whole process is but a partial, very insignificant understanding of something really huge and complex. When such an experiences is encountered, we naturally put it aside and go about our daily activities.

The coming together of the bits and pieces occur at a time and place, and under circumstances that we can never plan or pre-decide. It happens when it happens and we have no control whatsoever as to how it happens. The brain does it all by itself. The neurons, instead of putting aside the bits and pieces of information that we previously couldn’t make sense of, actually work steadily, linking them to the parts of the brain cells that logically connect (though earlier seem impossible to connect), and eventually build a foundation for understanding the idea. This is the “aha!” experience in concrete terms.

Implication for education

At school, students who do not understand a concept or idea the first time they learn it always stand a chance to completely get it in the near future. However, our education system rushes the brain to work unnaturally and causes it to break down, if not under-perform. True education is when students are allowed the privilege of harnessing the natural tendency of the brain to find connections and make sense of things around them.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]