Message from the Headmaster
‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be
Romans 12:2
transformed by the renewing of your mind’
Dear Parents and Carers,
What appears below is from the series of regular briefings to Heads of Independent Schools in Australia by the Association CEO. He has invited Heads to reproduce his material in school newsletters. I have not done so in the past, but the article which follows is too important not to be shared.
Why Learning is Embedded in Value(s)
Gerald Edelman (1929 – 2014) was a distinguished American biologist as well as an accomplished concert violinist.
While not a household name, Edelman won the Nobel Prize in 1972 for a discovery which grew out of the radical idea that the immune system works by selection. The essence of this insight led to Edelman’s (1987) Theory of Neuronal Group Selection (TNGS), also known as ‘Neural Darwinism’, an evolutionary theory of mind which explains how we see the world by interacting with it through our senses.
TNGS is based on facts about the human brain: namely that brains contain billions of neurons which form richly interconnected and complex neural systems. The cerebral cortex contains numerous cell bodies which are spidery in shape and elongated with appendages, known as dendrites and axons, which respectively send out and receive impulses from other cells. As the brain develops (neurogenesis) it lays down a huge number and diversity of firing patterns which represent a vast range of possible thoughts and actions, most of which will be of little or no use.
It follows that the human brain must have some way to ‘select’ only those patterns which produce ‘valued’ behaviour.
According to Edelman’s theory, the key to this selection process lies in brain cells located deep in the brain stem: these are believed to be the most ancient structures in the entire nervous system. These structures, which Edelman called a ‘value system’, consist of neurons which diffuse widely over the cerebral cortex. Edelman’s expression ‘value system’ conveys the idea that these systems have evolved to recognise certain events and occurrences in the environment that have adaptive ‘value’ for the organism.
These may be simple events such as sitting instead of standing, looking at an object or looking away, or grasping a rattle in preference to a toy animal, as any infant may do. Or these may be more complex ideas or questions which may – or may not – engage our attention and interest. In other words, these are events that our highly individualised ‘value system’ recognise, often unconsciously.
The key idea, of critical relevance to learning, is that these diffuse ascending systems, which travel all over the cerebral cortex, play a particularly important role in emotional responses, firing when something is resonant, salient or ‘valued’, including more highly developed moral, religious, spiritual and social values.
Every now and then a firing pattern will lead to a thought or an action which is recognised by the value system as being useful. The value system, or what Oliver Sacks called “experiential selection”, sends a chemical signal to the rest of the brain so that those connections which have just been used will be strengthened. Connections which have not been marshalled will atrophy or disappear so that “value gets imposed in the brain, by the brain” (BBC, 1994). Those firing patterns that are ‘valuable’ will become stronger and more frequent which is how selection works in the brain, and which elaborates Donald Hebb’s original idea of the Hebbian synapse (1949).
TNGS adds significantly to our understanding of how we learn complex skills without being pre-programmed. Edelman’s theory offered a new perspective on the mind, one quite unlike the model of the mind as a modular and computational machine. In Edelman’s theory, actions become suffused with value and the cycle of actions are directed towards the satisfaction of goals which have utility or benefit.
In relation to how learning in educational contexts should be understood, Edelman stresses that even the most abstract, high-level human thought is not just logical, but every aspect is imbued with feeling and emotion.
However, many cognitive scientists continue to believe that the brain is a biological computer (Fuchs, 2018). Edelman argued emphatically that a human brain is nothing like a computer, because brains constantly adapt to changes in the body and the environment. Brains, says Edelman, need accurate information about the world, a world which does not contain highly organised pieces of information with relationships that are represented in the head.
Instead, the world is ‘unlabelled’ and the brain has to impose its own boundaries and actively generate information and ideas. This cannot be achieved by applying a set of programmed rules because the problem of acquiring knowledge about the world depends upon how it is valued or what it ‘affords’ (Gibson, 1979) the organism. Edelman would say there is no stable, unambiguous description of the world other than what perceptual categorisation provides for the value-seeking human brain.
Edelman proposed a ‘selectionist’ theory of brain development based on studies of the immune system. He flatly rejected the modular model of the mind which has pervaded educational psychology and ‘computational’ theories of learning: theories which have ignored or sidestepped the necessary role of emotional and feeling in how we learn anything.
Dr Chris Duncan
CEO of Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA)
Schools and teachers within them are increasingly aware of developing neuroscience and its relevance to education. At Shore, we need to be functioning according to the best evidence-based research. Emerging brain research has debunked many previous theories and has wide implications for teaching and learning. As well as teachers being informed, it is helpful for parents to at least have a lay understanding of the main findings.
One of our key aims at Shore is to develop young men of character who think clearly and well. As a School based on Christian principles, we adopt the maxim of the Apostle Paul: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2).
Old Boys Union (OBU) Annual General Meeting
At this week’s OBU AGM, Mr Ian Macdonald (’79) was elected as President, after quite a number of years serving as Vice President. Thank you to the outgoing President, Mr Andrew Winslade and welcome to Ian as he takes the reigns. Ian is also a recent parent of Shore, his sons Max and Kian graduating in 2018 and 2023 respectively.
Regards
Dr John Collier
Headmaster