“what powers learning?”
Brains love a challenge. They thrive on it. Solving sudokus and crosswords and puzzles of all sorts activates the playful sense of discovery in us, releasing the neurotransmitter dopamine and energizing our brains with new neural connections as we observe patterns and develop insights, seeing for ourselves how disparate pieces fit together into a whole.
Both sides of our brains are charged in the process, engaged in an endorphin-driven pursuit of trial and error, our brains stretching and strengthening in response.
They also help us to relax psychologically in ways that are similar to meditation. It is perhaps no surprise then that puzzles have been immensely popular during this pandemic, so much so that retailers have struggled to meet the demand.
Can learning be more like puzzles?
These principles — challenge, discovery, ownership of learning — have an important place in our classrooms as well. While we often strive to simplify and break complex content down for our students, it is the puzzle-like aspects of the experience that often power their curiosity and motivation to learn more.
Finding connections between prior and new knowledge is not unlike fitting puzzle pieces together, with the accompanying boosts of dopamine. This mix of challenge and discovery also drives how our brains determine what is relevant for us to learn and, based on that internal assessment, what we should transfer from working to long-term memory.
Which is why we at TeachFX are so interested in creating opportunities for students to explore the relationships between what they know and what they are learning, on their own, through conversation.
The origins of the jigsaw
These are also reasons why “jigsawing” is a popular practice for reading comprehension. While most of us are familiar enough with it as a teaching tactic, not as many know the story behind the strategy.
“Just as in a jigsaw puzzle, each piece — each student’s part — is essential for the completion and full understanding of the final product. If each student’s part is essential, then each student is essential; and that is precisely what makes this strategy so effective.” — Eliot Aronson
The Jigsaw Classroom was developed in the 1970s by social psychologist Eliot Aronson in response to deep racial tensions in schools following desegregation. He wanted an instructional approach that would encourage students to learn from one another, rather than always from the teacher.
Lighting the way forward
“This Little Light of Mine” has served as an energizing source of hope and perseverance in the face of challenge for generations, rousing the spirits of those in our churches, carrying forward the work of the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements, a song sung across all genres of music from gospel to rock, rap and jazz.
The song has a fascinating and enigmatic evolution which I encourage you to explore for yourself here. If you are similarly inspired by a particular interpretation of this important American anthem, I would love for you to share that version with me — and I promise to send you, in return, a compilation of them all as a way for us to enjoy these “little lights” with each other.
With the nights growing long, many of us have been lighting candles with our loved ones, whether for a holiday celebration or just to fill our homes with the scents of the season.
As we at TeachFX reflect on our conversations with you and your teams over the course of this most challenging year, we are reminded what powerful and bright lights our educators have been in the lives of children and in our classrooms, wherever they are.
And we want to take a final moment in 2020 to celebrate you all with the uplifting words of Moshe Davis:
“A candle is a small thing. But one candle can light another. And see how its own light increases, as a candle gives its flame to the other. You are such a light.” — Moshe Davis
