AROUSAL AND THE OPTIMAL LEVEL OF STIMULUS IN THE CLASSROOM

Multiple Intelligences Project

As an inspiration for this project, I am proposing a modified use of presentation styles from two sets of documentary films: “La hora de los hornos” and the “Qatsi Trilogy.” “La hora de los hornos” (The Hour of the Furnaces) is a three part documentary film created in Argentina in the 1960s. It was a film developed with specific intentions to evoke discussion and debates. Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino were trying to create a new kind of non-narrative filmic style that used an interplay and juxtaposition of images with title cards, narration, soundlessness and motion overlapping to create or spark reflection and critical analysis – in essence, to help create a kind of democratic forum of teaching.

Similarly, the “Qatsi Trilogy” (Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, and Naqoyqatsi) by Godfrey Reggio combines visual-spatial stimulus with musical stimulus to evoke reflection and thoughtfulness. As they say on their website, “Not for the answers that might be given, but for the questions that can be raised…” was the project created.

I am proposing a project that uses media in a similar vein to the above examples to raise questions, teach principles from our text, and access such multiple intelligences as visual-spatial, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and linguistic. The subject of “arousal,” the ongoing need for either physical or cognitive stimulation, would be my intended focus. I would juxtaposition video footage from online and other sources, interspersing footage with pictures, and overlapping layers of music and dialogue with title overlays and different sections. The idea is to demonstrate different kinds of stimulus that our students receive in their home and personal lives and in their classrooms. I would seek to have three different multi-tasking videos at once on three different screens with three different projectors in a meshing of stimulus and arousal. The full purpose is to ask the questions: “What is the optimal level of arousal?” and “What activities are most likely to help keep students sufficiently aroused that they have little need to look elsewhere for stimulation?”

For further detail, see the following clips:

The Hour of the Furnaces:



The Qatsi Trilogy:

Multiple intelligence Test

Cool Brain Research

I chose to look at Diane Watanabe. I have to admit she was hard to research. Her name came up attached to many conferences I would love to go to. She was ‘associated’ with many Dana Foundation projects, but almost never specifically cited.

What?

Diane Y. Watanabe, EdD, former Co-Director, Institute of Learning, Teaching, and the Human Brain, Division of Curriculum and Instructional Services, Los Angeles County Office of Education; Consultant on the arts, cognition and the brain.

It seems her specialty (at least as related to her speaking work) is in applying brain research to classroom practice. She is part of LACOE (Los Angeles County Office of Education). She also has a connection to The Dana Foundation (http://www.dana.org/) and partners regularly with neurobiologist Dr. Terrence J. Sejnowski. She helped in the research and writing for Gordon Shaw’s Keeping Mozart in Mind. In 2006 I found where she had presented her research on understanding how the brain works in a GATE student.

She is speaking in the conference, "Learning & the Brain The attentive brain: Using brain research to enhance attention and motivation in students May 6-8, 2010 (http://www.edupr.com/index.html)

She previously spoke at the same conference where the focus was: The Creative Brain: using brain research on creativity and the arts to improve learning. (This conference I really wish I could have attended).

As prepared by lehigh valley arts council:

http://www.lvartscouncil.org/education/artlinks_winterspring07.pdf

Diane Watanabe focuses on "brain research concerning learning research-based strategies for raising student achievement in all subject areas

[She] emphasizes approaches for actively engaging students in reading and learning.

[Her] curriculum and instructional professional development specialist in modeling and analyzing interactive teaching/learning strategies that maximize classroom productivity for K-12th grade.

[She] centers on the importance of the arts in human brain development; impact of arts on habits of mind and lifelong learning; and research-based teaching strategies.”

So What?

Well, to state the obvious, Watanabe seems to meld/bridge the gap between using the arts and critical research to develop new approaches to teaching and retention. Her research is very practical. She works for LACOA and lectures on implementation. She is considered to be a consultant, which means she physically goes into a space and works with those involved to create something that wasn’t there before. She is a specialist in her field of applied brain study as related to arts and retention. If we can understand how the brain works and more specifically, how to enhance the brains natural patterns of learning, we could harness this huge force for change. We would educate not simply lecture. We could cater to our students in a way that we have yet to have touched. Meld the ideas of therapy and emotional health and cognition with increased learning ability and long term retention. We come begin to improve depression, hopefully create a ground-work of stability, so that kids can focus on the lesson at hand rather than the personal turmoil in their personal lives.

Now What?

I fully admit that unfortunately I couldn’t find transcripts from her speaking engagements. I did find write ups about her accomplishments and outlines for conferences and workshops. I have to base most of my assumptions from those sources.

As I mentioned before, if we understand the brain and how to use multiple techniques to create a solid environment for learning and development, we could improve as teachers. I would want to study her techniques, go to her lectures, put into practice her ideas and mold them to what the individual needs are to my current classroom. I would love to study the before and after (and hopefully the after really is forthcoming). Long term we could see if GPA’s improved, if personal behavior improved, what choices and schools did these kids choose after graduation, did they graduate … all questions one could ask after examining these ideas in years of study. Of course in the short term you could gage classroom attentiveness, retention, test scores, participation … all signs that the students want to learn and to grow rather than are forced to attend.

Off topic:

How does one become such a specialist to be asked to speak and teach in these forums, to actually be wanted to implement change? That would be fantastic (especially in my love for the field of the arts).

What? So What? Now What?

What?

We went through the 4 types of educational research. They were as follows:

Descriptive: It describes a situation. They allow us to draw conclusions about the way things are at the current moment. (You cannot change circumstance and environment).

Correlative: It looks at the relationships, or possible relationships, that exist between things. It specifically highlights the extent to which two things tend to be together or change together. Key works are “…emplies”. (You cannot change circumstance and environment).

Experimental: It is meant to be a study where the experimenter has a hand in the results of the study, manipulating at least one of the variables to see what happens, measuring the effects of those changes. This is the ONLY research method in which you can change the environment.

Action: Research conducted by either teacher or other faculty to address issues in their own schools.

So What?

For whatever reason I am struggling with these principles. Not in theory but in practicality. The first two are so subjective that you would think most people would dismiss the information gathered as impractical since it can only be applied to a very small subject matter. Experimental research, where are at least you control circumstances, requires that the outcome of your research be duplicated without ‘help’ from the researcher in the future. If what is studied and gathered in the controlled environment cannot happen naturally outside of the control space, then what is the point in being able to rely on experimental data? And then we have action research. Unlike the others, at least this is pertinent. But then I struggle with what happens to a classroom if they are a study group. Yet, this makes more sense to do research that the individual can use and benefit from and share with peers who teach in a similar environment.

As based on our scenarios, it seems that most research is presented as a scare tactic (as in the day care-aggression line of thought). I am sure there are children who do react violently after day care, but you then can argue nature vs. nurture or perhaps age cognition and genetics. It seems so open-ended. I have a hard time seeing how most of these methods can be used without bias. Scenario 4 seems the most likely and genuine IF the presenter stated that she recommended the use based on her experience alone and not on any other qualitative measures.

Now What?

This also causes confusion for me. Because of my fears when it comes to bias, I am hesitant to make any assumptions. I need to learn more about their practical application. Obviously they are used. Why? How? How can you go through the process, make assumptions, find connections and present a conclusion and feel confident that the answer reached has grounding in fact? This is what I want to learn. I am curious as to what studies I have ‘bought into’ without recognizing what methods and tactics were implicitly employed for the best possible reaction.

As a teacher and observer, I need to be aware of patterns. I would like to study action research and how best to implement such for learning and development without sacrificing the students of the class. I assume that we all need to learn and grow from ourselves and our co-workers. We are stronger when we can develop beyond our current state of being, and this is a continual maturity. To remain stagnant is to be a mediocre teacher.