Opinion - 'Charting the Course' Education Proposal

The 'Charting the Course' Education Proposal: Education and whole brain thinking
By Yasha Husain
March 13, 2013

I recently wrote an education proposal, 'Charting the Course,' for k through to the PhD level, that's intended to merge left- and right-brained thinking to create more whole brain thinking. The proposal triumphantly immerses the entire student population in a single classroom, in exception of only those multiply-handicapped students who have outstanding, albeit, hopefully, temporary, "disabilities," who also separately receive an advanced education under the new proposal.

A key ingredient of 'Charting the Course' is the “individualized special project,” that begins in fifth grade, and carries a student through to his or her mastery at the college level. The goal of the individualized special project is for students, when they enter college, to have in-depth knowledge and experience with conducting independent R&D.

The research they do, for the project, should be a result of their unique findings and interests. By way of self-discovery, that is, which is merely guided by the foresight and wisdom of their teachers, students consistently reach conclusions that are also, not ironically, greater than the total sum of the parts, since the projects are done holistically.

Students of all backgrounds, throughout the year, choose multiple, individualized special projects, they do one at a time, and that engage their personal learning needs. Largely by achieving this, the student population becomes immersed through mutual understanding of each student's unique growth potential.

Projects can be off the charts. For example, imagine that a high functioning “autistic,” or more right-brained, child comes to understand history through land masses, or earth science. Projects, then, may stretch back in geologic time as a result of the student's imagination, the student being responsible for picking the project in accordance with his or her unique story and special interests. Having found a foundation for understanding like this, that benefits student and teacher alike, next, in this example anyway, scientific understanding, with guidance, and, importantly, through extrapolated associations, which interest the student, logically and intuitively leads to cultural and historical understanding.

The personal projects by nature are linear, which is a left-brained function, so that they trace events, yet they are steeped in a student's own associative thinking process, which is more right-brained. They can be used to achieve a graduated level of whole brain thinking.

Living in a firstly linear world sometimes detracts from the human capacity to access the whole brain, with its gifts and insights from interhemispheric thinking. Most of us tend to be dominant left- or right-brained thinkers and the chiefly linear system we live in accordance with accentuates this, due to the sense of polarity that exists as a result of it.

Teaching, under the proposal, as the year progresses, moves then in whole, graduated stages, not primarily linearly.

Classes throughout the year, for fifth through to the PhD level, are all remarkably lab-like, while, as well, “labs” now ambitiously merge overlapping elements of different subject-matter, making each subject seem a part of the whole and easier to grasp in full.

Classes, preferentially, become more dynamic, whether discussion-based or akin to traditional labs. In both cases, they feature new combinations of 1) group dynamics, 2) inventive thought (which can be scientific, sociopolitical and artistic), 3) innovation that's hands-on and 4) guest lecturers. Classes, or "labs," on other words, may feature highly engaging and even Socratic lectures and logic combined with roundtable discussions, or when either scientific, or stemming from the humanities, may unfold more like the traditional lab, with experimentation, however now always using graduated, whole brain thinking.

The object is to constantly engage students in learning that is not merely rote.

A potential model of the lab-like coursework, that in each case may be designed individually by teachers, and in the particular case below would need to be tailored to different age groups, is Professor Madhu Thangavelu's University of Southern California's Space Exploration Studio, http://astronautics.usc.edu/student-projects/space-exploration-studio/.

In Professor Thangavelu's class, students do inter-related individual and group projects. At midterm time, they present their individual projects (still separate from what would be, in the 'Charting the Course' proposal, the individualized special project), and for the final, they present a group project that builds from their individual projects.

All assignments for the studio involve developing architectures for space habitation and development.
During Thangavelu's studio, guest lecturers who are experts from all fields that apply to space architecture, lecture for nearly every class. They may be from NASA, Lockheed Martin, or government, or, they could be private space entrepreneurs. After they've made their presentations, Thangavelu asks them to all return at midterm and final time, to hear, and even grade, the student presentations, so there is a social network built, on the one hand, and an ongoing and momentous conversation building, by way of institutional learning.

Ultimately, by way of having, in the lab (as diverse as labs might become), linear order (rational, sequenced and rhythmic), but also associative learning mechanisms (feeling, perceptive and big picture) that help drive the day, you have a thorough approach that logically leads to whole brain thinking, and that lends itself, too, to the creative “individualized special project.”

While the lab-like class creates a copacetic room for students who learn not only from the teacher, but each other, and guest lecturers, the purpose of the individualized special project is to help students achieve independent thinking.

The key components of the 'Charting the Course' proposal also include summer or school year reading that's a combined linear and associative learning experience. Reading would include relevant and inspiring books of biography that go far in helping to set the stage for subject-matter, plus nonfiction that is sweeping, “big picture” historical, vivid/synthetic, analytical and creative.

Summer reading is optional at the college level, though advisable, and is there to make the semester's courseload a lighter one on students who are maybe slow readers or, for example, fair better concentrating on one area of study at a time. With summer reading, students can also make preparatory notes, based on their own “big picture” analyses, to better prepare them, through the formation of well-understood “associations,” again, more right-brained thinking, for the school year and accumulated knowledge.

The lab-like hours will meanwhile draw on core reading that has saturated the imagination, as well as selective, additional reading assigned throughout the school year.

Assigned reading always supports labs and discussions. It's not exhaustive, so to put too high of demands on students, but may include selections from popular periodicals, scholarly journals, government documents, nonfiction, essays, fiction and poems. Enlightened films may also be used for teaching.

Professor Thangavelu, in another example, authored a text book I read and found fascinating, and that I thought was a complement to his course.

Labs are, in the end, drawn to form, in a learning way, assurances that interhemispheric thinking, linear/chronological understanding combined holistically with associative understanding, and grasping of the essence, which is the big picture, consistently and progressively follows.

Capping the education proposal, is a holistic teaching style that includes the writing of revolutionized, Individualized Education Programs, IEPs, by the teacher, with help from only the guidance counselor. These IEPs are for the whole classroom, describing each student's special projects gains, and lab attendance and participation, thereby elaborating on the inherent skill sets of students, and even in lieu of traditional, standardized tests. These new IEPs would hopefully be used as a means of college entrance. Students would then take their IEPs to college with them, and there again to be used to enhance the education experience.

College is seven years long and built as a direct path to the obtainment of a PhD, unless students opt for a two-year program, which may also be an apprenticeship complemented by a small grouping of required, staple, college-level classes.

In order for the new program to be underway, I would say it's possible to train teachers in holistic teaching in as short as two months over a summer, with night classes during the school year, using money partially allocated from special education funds for the following year, and minimal added stimulus dollars. Initially, universal curriculum would be designed to be used at the implementation of the new program, that would remain as a foundation.

As well, there would be some refocused subject-matter that would require additional training, and the evolvement of new teaching specialties, for instance, toward the teaching of holistic math, or theoretical physics at the high school level.

Still other new and reinvented ideas are contained within the 'Charting the Course' education proposal, while constructive feedback and criticism will hopefully still enhance its potential to become realized. To view the proposal's full contents, log onto the Holistic Solutions Think Tank website, www.closedholisticsystems.com.