Teaching as a Performance Art
Following on the work that I did as a Public Fellow at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill with Dr. Wally Hannum of the UNC School of Education, this workshop is an examination of our developing understanding of the brain and how that dovetails with techniques performers, storytellers, and shaman have used for millennia to capture, focus, hold, and direct the attention of groups of people.
Knowing what the brain likes – what calls it out of a resting-inner state to alertness – can help guide the choices teachers and performers make in the order and manner in which new material is presented and later reinforced.
Understanding how the brain works, its evolutionary likes and dislikes, and knowing something of its neural development as we approach adulthood, brings us dramatic choices of how to proceed as learners, co-learners, and teachers. Strengths in one area, deficits in another, are normal for all learners. Awakening the brain to a state of engagement in the course of teaching is a significant aid in establishing relative balance between areas of strength and deficit. The plasticity of the brain throughout life runs in our favor; its revolving delight in newness favors continual learning.
We will examine the intersection of brand new information about the brain’s workings and the very ancient aspects of its evolution, human ritual, and storytelling with an eye to giving teachers and learners concrete and new perspectives on their work.