After reading the introduction to this book, this concept of right brain thinking does not seem new to me. This is how I operate and most of the people I associate with do the same. Maybe someone in the cohort can give me examples of why this is a whole new way of thinking.
You know the old adage . . . the proof is in the pudding! Let's see some powerful examples of your R-directed thinking in this blog. I'll be watching!
ReplyDeleteRight brain is not a new way of thinking. What's new is institutional society assigning intrinsic value to right methods of tasking.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Wes; it's not that R-directed thinking is new, but that education needs to assign value to thinking creatively, conceptually, and holistically. Education needs to nurish, explore, encourage R-directed thinking and outcomes in all students. Students should be encouraged to explore many different talents and ways of thinking and showcasing their learning. This is hard for teachers to do because it takes more time and requires the teacher to have patience and trust in the students' self-directed learning. Why does history in high school always mean memorizing complex time lines of events and dates? It's because we are not thinking globally, contextually and conceptually. Who actualy remembers all those dates and events we memorized in high school? No one, or not many. What would have been valuable is an application of the themes that reoccur in all cultures throughout history. I don't know about you...but even my AP history classes didn't fully explore the "big picture" or challenged me to think globally and conceptually. That's what will be required in our future in the Conceptual Age. We need to encourage and develop conceptual, contextual, "big picture", puzzle-solving thinkers in our digital-age students. These are the skills that will be highly marketable in the future. Pink said that more and more MFA's are being sought in the business world instead of MBA's. That really says something.
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ReplyDeleteHere's a little bit of symphony : )
ReplyDeleteDaniel's feeling that right-braindedness is commonplace could be seen as a representation of the fact that he's a teacher (particularly an accomplished teacher staring a doctorate in the face). Pink's book really tends to focus on the commercial and health fields where I think it's safe to say L-directed thinking is highly commonplace and prized. Education is probably a field that tends to reward R-directed thinking more than in most. That's not to say that we don't need to change student focus to be more Right-Brained, but I think that successful teachers tend to be the type with a decent balance between Left and Right.
It's easy to feel like your world is the norm. I do it all the time. But I checked the Bureau of Labor Stats just for fun and only 11% of the workforce was employed in education, health, and government in September. Probably less then half of them would perceive Right-Brained thinking as being prized in their job. That leaves roughly 89% of people employed by fields that I think are much more focused on the Left Brain. I remember taking a class with some business students and their descriptions of the back-stabbing world of the private sector really left me feeling happy to be teaching. Their jobs sounded a lot like that Ford plant where the guy got fired for smiling.
We should feel happy to be working a field where we are at least a little bit ahead of the curve in terms of prizing Right-Brain skills. I think its safe to say we're in the minority.