Anneli Veispak, Associate Professor of Educational Technology at EBS
My dear friend Grete Arro once used a wonderful term: “mental blindness.” Mental blindness refers to people's inability to see what pertains to the psyche, both in themselves and others, primarily due to a lack of knowledge that would allow them to notice and understand. By “what pertains to the psyche,” I mean how we perceive, direct and sustain attention, think, remember things, manage emotions, deal with anxiety, and regulate ourselves. Mental blindness most painfully affects our ability to learn, become wiser and more skillful, and also our ability to guide and support others, both adults and children, in their development. And it makes no difference whether we are talking about learning at home, in school, university, or in the school of life.
Mental blindness allows us to believe that no one in our family is good at maths, that we are more “language people.” Mental blindness allows us to stay up all night to get more done, without realising that we are borrowing time and mental sharpness from the next day. We scold children for not understanding their tasks, not realising that scolding only increases their stress levels, which in turn shuts down the frontal lobe—the very part of the brain they need to comprehend things. Mental blindness leads us to think that the best strategy for preparing for exams is to read the materials a hundred times, doing it intensely the day before the exam. The inability to see what pertains to the psyche makes us say things like “think before you speak” and believe that children who cannot sit still are poorly raised. We assume that shouting loudly is discipline, and that humiliating colleagues will somehow make them smarter, more diligent, or hardworking.
In our personal lives, we can afford mental blindness as much as we can afford endless sitting, sleepless nights, addictions, or other bad habits. In education, however, we cannot afford mental blindness at all—not at any level.
How do we fight this blindness?
Professor Carol Dweck and her colleagues at Stanford University conducted a study in which they taught a test group of children that their brains are plastic and that they form new neural connections when they push themselves and solve complex maths problems. The study's results showed that knowledge of brain plasticity had a long-term positive effect on the test group’s motivation, resilience, and academic performance. These results seem intuitively correct and logical, just like knowing which exercises target which muscle groups, or the optimal heart rate range for building endurance. Knowledge of how the brain works helps us learn more effectively and train our bodies better.
So, find a way to learn about learning! Get to know what's happening in your head when you push yourself.
