"Think of a Bear..."- Mindfulness, Neuroscience, and Expectations

Dave Mochel is a renowned coach and practitioner of mindful practice. I have had the fortune of hearing and participating in his presentations multiple times over the past few months. His experience as an educator resonates when he coaches school leaders and faculty.

One of my favorite activities in his coaching is when he asks his audience to "Think of a bear...". So, I challenge you to do the same.

Think of a bear; what does your bear look like?

This:

Or this:

Or this:

How about this:

Or this:

Well, there are infinite possibilities of what image may pop into one's head when asked to imagine a bear. The images are as diverse as the participants in this exercise. As Dave points out, the term "bear" is a noun- a concrete object. Yet, there is no one, universally accepted representation of what a "bear" looks like. I have no idea what image another person may conjure up- and another person has no idea what image populates my mind's eye when I hear the term "bear".

If a concrete object like a bear creates such diverse thoughts, how about abstract ideas- like respect, kindness, or excellence?

Yet, schools utilize terms like these in mission statements or core values. Schools claim to deliver on these ideals, yet it is rare to find the school that defines these concepts. If a school uses the term "excellence" in its mission statement, does the school also have a statement of excellence with concrete examples of what this looks like in the institution?

Expectations, especially in the classroom and in areas of character development, tend to be described in the abstract. Asking a student to "be kind" or to "be respectful" without providing context for what kind or respectful looks like could potentially yield as many varied behavioral choices as images of a bear.

Neuroscience tells us that adolescent brains are hard wired to misread emotion as shifts are made to understand subjective concepts. This is because adolescents default to using their amygdala to process and reason through the subjective. As I wrote in a previous blog, this is normal. Adults utilize the prefrontal cortex in reasoning processes, however this part of the brain is in development through ones 20's while the adolescent amygdala is fully developed. We account for this discrepancy in adolescent reasoning in curricular best practices through techniques like integrating rubrics with clear actions toward completion of assignments. 

So how do we account for this gap in behavioral expectations in terms of classroom management or character development?

As Dave Mochel explains, part of behavioral shift is through practice. Cognitive shifts are made by the brain with repletion of a learned behavior. Being mindful and aware of desired behavior and intentional in the practice of new behaviors allows for this shift. Mindful practice could help to bridge the gap in how educators apply neuroscience to classroom management.

And, as the best coaches do, Dave ramps this idea up a notch.

He reminded me that, as educators work to define clear behavioral expectations, we must engage our students in the creation of these definitions. This level of investment allows students to effectively practice the expected behaviors, thus assisting adolescent brains in making this cognitive shift. 

Mindfulness may hold the missing link between effective classroom management and what we know about adolescent brains. More broadly, mindfulness may hold the key in syncing behavioral expectations with cognitive sciences.

Check out my YouTube channel: Chaka Cummings (The Dedicated Educator). Also, find me on LinkedIn and check out some of my published articles on education.