The world is volatile and uncertain so how do we foster adaptive learning in children and adults? . What is the difference between child and adult learning? A conference key note from Mantle leaders in leadership and learning

1. Rebecca Robinson and Graham Hart

3. Overview
• Learning is largely a voluntary process
3. leadership culture supports business success
We each have a different hypothesis on how the
world is
• We are hardwired to cope with changing lives!”
• Our brain can work top down or bottom up
• The future needs adaptive and flexible learners

4. “The future needs adaptive and
flexible learners”

5. It’s a VUCA world
Volatile
Complex
Uncertain
Ambiguous

6. Parents and Caregivers have busy
and complicated lives
Many children's lives today
are characterised by
instability and change

7. The Average Worker is interrupted every 11
minutes
 Research by Gloria Mark (reported in The New York Times Magazine in October 2005:
“Meet the Life Hackers” by Clive Thompson),
It takes those
same workers about 25
minutes on average to
return to the original task

8. “The future needs adaptive and
flexible learners”
Open and
adaptable
Personality
One size
does not
fit all
Nourish and
encourage
thinking
Goals
and
agendas
Work with
what's
there

9. Perhaps the most critical foundation
to learning?
Imposed
Change
Self esteem

10. “Learning is largely a voluntary
process”

11. Building on previous knowledge
Child learning theory stresses that children learn best
when:
Involved in social interaction and play
Te Whãriki- empowered and holistic approach
Intrinsically motivated
Exactly the same with adults

12. To learn by thinking,
Adult learners also need opportunities to think, to
understand, and to apply.
To learn by understanding,.
To learn by applying
They choose where to focus their attention

13. Learning is a Voluntary Process
Novelty and
stimulation
Responsive
curriculum
Obtain
engagement
Forward
thinking
Appropriate
challenge
Assessment
Blended
approaches

14. “We each have a different
hypothesis on how the world is”

15. “More may have been learned about
the brain and the mind in the 1990s,
than during the entire previous history
of psychology and neuroscience.”
Antonio R. Damasio, 2005
Recent insights about the brain

16. Our miraculous brain creates meaning out
“Action Potentials”

17. And it is rather good at it

18. But it can be confused

20. hypothesis on how the world is”
Who
am I?
Experiences
Schema
Dispositions
Community
Culture
Family

21. Insights and Action
Adaptable, flexible, responsive and
INTERESTED teachers.
Listen to the child’s language and
questions
Clear identified priorities for children’s
learning
Meaningful connections to Te Whãriki
Mãori perspectives are considered

22. “We are hardwired to cope with
changing lives!”

23. Brain in brief

24. The brain hardwires everything it can
Decide, understand,
memorize, inhibit, recall
Hardwiring
Minimal effort,
massive capacity,
hard to distract
Versus
Working
memory

25. Perception is driven by hardwiring
Every brain sees the world differently,
based on it’s hardwiring.
We can override this hardwiring and
consciously influence our
perceptions.

27. Changing old wiring is very difficult
Its an attention economy in the brain.
The more focus we give any circuit, the more we
deepen that circuit in the brain.
You can’t change or get rid of wiring by looking for
why it exists.

28. Creating new wiring is easy
We are constantly creating new maps.
We reconcile dilemmas by creating new
maps.
This occurs as a moment of insight.

29. “We are hardwired to cope with
changing lives!”
• Learning through People, Places
and Things.
• Real purposes, real experiences, real
tasks, real audiences, repetition.
• Attachment
• The importance of developing true
partnership with whãnau/their
aspirations/their cultural and social
priorities.

30. “Our brain can work top down or
bottom up”

31. Our emotions play a critical role in our
learning

32. Impulse - control is a limited
resource

33. Insights and Action
• Children are all different
• Children react differently
• Look to foster coping skills and resilience
• Start working on emotional intelligence
• Provide choices/ teach children to use
language/promote and engage in play
• Provide consistency
• Encourage children’s I can do attitude.

35. In Conclusion
 “The wider the range of possibilities we offer children/
(adults) , the more intense will be their motivations
and the richer their experiences. We must widen the
range of topics and goals, the types of situations we
offer and their degree of structure, the kinds and
combinations of resources and materials, and the
possible interactions with things, peers, and adults
(others).”
 Loris Malaguzzi
 http://www.mantle.co.nz/

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