Subconscious Learning
Many are concerned, for good reason, that not enough young people are excited about pursuing careers in science or technology. This lack of excitement results from a variety of issues, including.
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Belief that obtaining an education in these areas is difficult and demands a commitment many young people don’t seem willing to make;
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A perception that the pursuit of science and technology is a “calling” heard only by those with a “talent” for this kind of learning;
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Our tendency to make early judgments as to which individuals are best suited for these courses of study.
Regardless,
the success of our society through the twenty-first century will depend on
our ability to attract youth to the intellectual pursuit of science and
technology. This need is critical for many reasons, not the least of which
is the increased complexity of the environment within which we live. We
cannot allow our sciences and technology to stagnate; we must continue to
advance or, with the exponential growth of knowledge taking place in all
disciplines, we will find ourselves a second-class nation in a world that
has passed us by.
The
question, of course, is what, if anything, can be done to increase
interest in the pursuit of these disciplines? The answer is, quite a bit.
But it can’t happen without an entirely new approach to the problem, one
counter to current ideas regarding the most effective way to teach
technical and scientific concepts.
Currently,
most individuals who come to these disciplines seem to “have a talent”
for them, don’t seem to be intimidated by the complexity. Often, these
“talented individuals” have trouble understanding why others seem to
be having such a problem. Why is this? Are they “hard-wired” for this
kind of learning? Did they receive some early teaching, maybe from a
talented father, mother, or other mentor, that prepared them for a
technical/scientific education? Or, was it a combination of things we
don’t fully understand and can’t replicate?
I
believe it is primarily an attitude of mind that embraces this kind of
learning. Probably the individual was “introduced” at an early age,
either accidentally, or through the efforts of another who knew,
intuitively, how to stimulate this interest. The solution is in knowing
how to encourage this “attitude of mind" in our youth, how to
install a thirst for this kind of knowledge.
It's
important to realize that any change in attitude, or thirst for learning
of any kind, comes from within. Something happens: an insight, a
realization, an inspiration, that tells the individual, “This is what I
was meant to do, what I want to spend the rest of my life pursuing. “
The only way we can encourage our youth to embrace this life goal, is to
create the potential for the inspiration, insight, or realization
supporting this decision to take place. We have to make it possible for
this process to happen naturally, to come from within the individual, not
forced from the outside.
It
is my contention that inspiration, insight, and realization all spring
from the subconscious. Elsewhere (One
Shovel Full, Published by F&F Publishing, 2002) I have described,
albeit simplistically, the relationship between the subconscious and the
conscious, a relationship I believe to be extremely codependent. I
describe how the subconscious is responsible for all we perceive, and the
basic mechanism by which the subconscious provides insight, realization,
and inspiration to the conscious mind.
The
process by which this takes place is an extremely complex one that is not
yet fully understood. For our purposes, it is good enough to know that the
subconscious mind retrieves all of the data supplied by our five senses
(and quite possibly data received from other sources presently unknown to
science) it then decides what action must take place, or what information
must be passed on to the conscious mind.
Watching
a highly trained athlete in action demonstrates clearly how effectively
the subconscious can work without any cues from the conscious at all. For
example, science has shown how it is physically impossible for a major
league batter to hit a fastball thrown by a major league pitcher; yet they
do it all the time. But they do it without thinking about it. The
subconscious picks up numerous cues as the pitcher goes into his windup
and then pitches the ball. The batter is not even consciously aware of
most of these subtle cues. However, the end result is that the bat ends up
in the exact right place, at the exact right time, to make the connection
needed to drive the ball into the outfield, or over the outfield fence.
All of this is controlled by the subconscious.
Likewise,
we can get into our car at work and drive home without thinking about it.
Almost all of us have had the experience of driving up into our driveway
and realizing we have no memory of the drive home; we call it being on
“auto-pilot.” In these instances, our subconscious saw no reason to
interrupt whatever it was we were thinking about. However, should the
sound of a siren enter into the picture, or the car in front of us apply
the brakes unexpectedly, you can be sure we would immediately become
conscious of where we were and what was happening. The subconscious is in
complete control of what we perceive.
In
addition, to determining what, if anything, we need to perceive concerning
what is currently going on around us, the subconscious is also storing and
cataloguing all of the data it is getting in order to determine certain
relationships critical to our success as individuals. This is how the
batter hits the ball, and this is how you are able to know when that car
on your right doesn’t see you and is about to enter your lane of
traffic. This process is also at the heart of creativity and problem
solving, from whence inspiration and insight spring; the source of
intuition.
However,
the process is hampered by (although I suspect it’s really a survival
characteristic) the codependent relationship between the conscious and the
subconscious. Essentially, the conscious has immense influence over what
data the subconscious uses to make these determinations. In other words,
the conscious can get in the way, stop the right things from happening.
“Quit thinking about it Luke, let the Force be with you,” Obe-Wan
advises.
The
conscious can tell the subconscious to ignore certain data, not to include
it in its “data mining” activities, and the subconscious obeys.
Usually, the conscious asks the subconscious to ignore data that is
inconsistent with its current belief system. Data ignored is not available
to the subconscious when it is determining what information to deliver to
us in the form of insight, inspiration, realization, and/or intuition. If
we are to have the data available for changing our perception of our self,
our subconscious must retrieve it in a way that bypasses the conscious and
its need to protect the status quo. This is why the methods of learning
currently used by our educational system, fail so dramatically in the area
of changing attitudes and beliefs; they depend heavily on feedback from
the conscious mind that it has received the information delivered, knows
its significance, and has a good idea what needs to be done with it.
In
order to create the potential for inspiration, insight, or realization to
take place, we must find a way to bypass the conscious and speak directly
to the subconscious. In my book, One
Shovel Full, I describe how stories can be very effective in
facilitating this process. However, in this instance, there are additional
techniques that can be used.
Remember,
the objective is to create within the child the realization that they are
comfortable with, or drawn to, a study of science and/or technology.
Create the potential for this realization, insight, to spring forth. One
of the best ways to do this is by providing youth with games and puzzles
that can only be solved by gaining an “intuitive” understanding of the
basic principles upon which science and technology are built. What’s
critical, and against current wisdom in the educational field, is that the
child must not become aware that they are gaining this understanding. As
far as the child is concerned, they are having a great time solving the
puzzle and/or winning the game; the game effectively becomes an allegory
that accurately represents/reflects the concept(s) being introduced.
It’s
also vital that the “teacher/mentor” takes it on faith that
understanding of the concept(s) was gained if the game was won. There will
be no direct way to measure the success of gaining the concept(s). Only
“intuitive” knowledge of the concept was necessary to win the game;
therefore the child will have no vocabulary with which to describe their
learning. This is not a problem. The goal was not to gain direct knowledge
of the concept(s), but to create the potential for insight, inspiration,
or realization to take place. “I like learning about this stuff,” is
what the child feels.
If
the games and puzzles are experienced by the child when they are young (4
to 9 years old), the realization that they are “good at this kind of
thing” will come to them when they are first introduced to these
concepts in the classroom, probably in junior high or high school. At this
time, they will experience a sense of “having come home to” this
knowledge, this course of study, rather than the confusion of experiencing
something totally new, extremely complex, and, quite possibly, beyond
their ability to understand. “I was never good at math,” is the
often-heard complaint.
None
of this will be easy, changing the attitude of the educational community
regarding how to prepare students for studies in science and technology,
is the first and hardest thing to accomplish. How can we convince teachers
they don’t need to know directly that a concept was learned and
understood? How can we stop them from asking the question, “What did you
learn from that exercise?” How can we have the patience to wait and see
if the process is encouraging students to take up these challenging
disciplines?
We
do have one advantage; we can provide these experiences without changing
anything else we are doing. In fact, we can create a situation where being
able to play the games is a reward for doing something right, for
exhibiting positive behaviors. In this way, the most powerful learning
experience of all becomes a sought after prize.
Finally, we must find those people who have the skills and knowledge necessary to create the experiences that will lead our young minds to the insights we are looking for. This, too, will not be easy; creating exciting, compelling puzzles and games that include allegories of basic scientific principles without making that new learning obvious, takes immense talent and a great understanding of the process. Unfortunately, most developers of “learning” software and games are committed to the current process and believe that learning does not take place without a direct verification of the knowledge gained.
Copyright 2002, Brad Fregger