A Narrative of Learning and Longevity

Prepared for the Hong Kong Institute of Education

Nancy Lloyd Pfahl, Ed. D.

February 20, 2009

AbstractThe historical search for longevity—a long and vibrant

life—has become an archetype across cultures. Recent brain imaging studies indicate that learning changes the brain; other studies identify the contribution of learning to lengthening lives. If this is the case, how does learning contribute to longevity? This seminar will explore learning as a lifelong narrative process of making connections. Story is a means for linking past experience, interpretations of the present, and future implications. Creating narratives to make meaning of experience becomes a form of learning with potential to enhance human wellbeing and lengthen the human lifespan.

Research QuestionsWhat is the longevity revolution?

How do the findings of current brain research relate learning and longevity?

How does learning influence longevity?

Theoretical Question

How can we describe commonalities of human learning regardless of chronological age and cultural context?

Practical Question

What are the implications of this research and theoretical interpretation of human learning for the Elder Learning Institute and other education programs for the elderly?

Learning and Development

Both learning and development contribute to creating human identity.

Learning processes constitute development, and development organizes and structures learning processes (Keller & Werchan, 2006).

Learning and Development

Both learning and development are shaped by

socio-cultural context, processes of rational and somatic

reflection on experience, and the role of community in learning

(Merriam & Clark, 2006)

Learning and DevelopmentEcological systems theory states

that development occurs as knowledge accumulates within a nested set of related environments (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).

System of Related Environments: Microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem

Learning in ContextHuman learning involves mental and

physical processes in context (Dewey, 1938).

Dialectical thinking to deal with the “mental demands of modern life” integrates contextual and psychological details (Kegan, 1994)

Learning in Context

Political and cultural influences shape learning in social contexts, and critical pedagogy helps us interpret meaning beneath surfaces and behind words (Kincheloe, 2008).

Learning in ContextEducation is not a neutral process,

but one that either brings about conformity or “becomes the ‘practice of freedom’, the means by which men and women deal critically with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world (Friere, 1970, p. 129).

Learning in Context

For these reasons, among others, Lave and Wenger (1991) value situated learning that takes place where the learning is applied.

How Significant Are Learning Differences by Age?Pedagogy

The art and science of being a teacher. Its etymological Greek meaning is “to lead the child” (through the science of educating).

Criticism of the concept: Learning is a human process, not a process that is done to people.

Andragogy The art and science of teaching adults by applying adult learning strategies.

Knowles’s emphases for adult education include self-concept and motivation to learn, experience, readiness to learn, and orientation toward learning. But don’t they apply to younger learners as well?

Why Consider Narrative for Learning?

Analytical Thought +

Narrative Thought =

Holistic Learning that Uses Both Halves of the Brain

Who Will Be Your Model for Aging?

Florintino Urbino

Joan Didion, The White Album, (1979)

We tell ourselves stories in order to live.

How have humans sought longevity?Religious thought

Conceptualization perpetuity of humanity

Attacking structural human weaknesses

Longevity RevolutionThe average human lifespan is

lengthening worldwide to 66+ years at present.

Both the absolute number of older citizens and the percent of the citizenry who are above 60 is increasing.

Longevity Revolution

Revolutionary changes in ideas and concepts, roles, capacities, and expectations at later stages of life

Longevity RevolutionOffers new

opportunities and challenges to adult educators, healthcare providers, city planners, and other who serve the common good

For adult educators realization of opportunities depends upon actions that are within our control

Longevity Revolution

What will be your “new distribution of the stages of life” (Boia, 2004, p. 177)?

Brain Research

Neuroflexibility or neuroplasticity characterizes the brain as a responsive, flexible structure that changes with environmental stimulation and learning (Dowling, 1998; Kotulak, 1997).

Implications for Learning

The concept of neuroplasticity “reinforces lifelong learning” (Hill, 2001, p. 79).

Brain Research

Brain imaging studies indicate that learning changes the brain itself (Taylor & Lamoreaux, 2008).

In fact …

Brain Research

Although we are born with most of the brain cells(neurons) we will have, and they are not replaced in the same manner as other cells, neurons “get changed by learning …[which changes] the way they connect with others (Damasio, 1999, p. 144).

Implications for Learning

“People’s experiences differ and so do their brains (Hill, 2001, p. 79).

Older adults retain the capacity to learn; sometimes their learning is characterized as “crystallized learning” that differs from the “fluid learning” of younger people.

Brain ResearchAlthough older people may not

form new brain connections as quickly as before, they compensate in making meaning of their experience because they have more experience to draw upon to make neural connections.

Implications for Learning

Learning involves the creation of meaning (Hill, 2001, p. 79), and older adults want to engage in meaningful activities that lead to what Erickson described as inspiration rather than despair.

Brain ResearchThe brain sorts information by content (rote

learning) and by context (Fishback, 1998/1999 and Jansen, 1996 in Hill, 2001).

Rote learning creates lasting neural patterns (Taylor & Lamaroux, 2008) but contextual learning requires more flexible patterns to make meaning of experience.

Implications for Learning

Information that is contextually embedded is easier to learn (Hill, 2001, p 79).

Contextual learning is narrative in nature; it draws upon our human capacity to think relationally (Bruner, 1986; Sarbin, 1986).

Brain Research

Emotions are an integral part of memory, thought, and learning; emotional states are the link between learning and memory (Hill, 2001, p. 79).

Implications for Learning

Employing multiple sensory experiences helps to activate learning by creating different pathways in the brain (Hill, 2001, p. 79).

Brain Research

The brain constructs the mind, a process of both “conscious and unconscious operations” (Demasio, 1999, p. 337).

Implications for Learning

Using narrative processes, both cognitive and behavioral, to advance learning and change is engages narrative thinking that draws upon the conscious mind as well as the subconscious (Pfahl, 2003; Polyani, 1967/1983)

Jarvis’s Model of Human Learning

Experience•Past & Present Reality•Consciousness

NarrativeReflection

Input

Imagination•Future Possibility•Subconscious

StorytellerInitiator (x)

Acting to Effect Change in Life-world for•Individuals•Groups•Organizations•Communities•Society

Revised Narrative Scripts that Prompt Learning & Action

InputInput

OutputCritical

ReflectionInput

NarrativeReflection

Input

ListenerRespondent (y)

Imagination•Future Possibility•Subconscious

Learning in a Narrative FieldInteraction Between a Storyteller and a Listener to Advance

Learning and Change

Output

Experience•Past & Present Reality•Consciousness

Critical Reflection

Input

Life-world Life-world

Narrative Field in the Life worlds of Learners

Narrative Field in the Life worlds of Learners

Listening to Learn in a Narrative Field Feedback Loop Between a Storyteller (x) and a Respondent (y)

x1=telling y2=listening + reflecting + reinterpreting

y3=retelling x4=listening + reflecting + reinterpreting

x5=retelling y6=listening + reflecting + reinterpreting

y7=retelling x8=listening + reflecting + reinterpreting

Modernity Postmodernity Time

Narrative: relational thought processes of induction and integration (thought + emotion + context + action) to interpret & understand

why and how things are happening as they are in a changing life world

Learning Processes

An Ecology of Learning Differentiating & Integrating Critical Reflection & Narrative Refraction

Critical Reflection Narrative Refraction

Life-world of a Learner

Modernity Postmodernity Time

Analytical: linear thought processes of deduction & separation from context to discern the truth

Telephoto Lens Wide Angle Lens

Modes of Thought

Analytical Thinking Narrative Thinking

Learning Processes

An Ecology of Learning Interaction Between Motivation to Act & Means to Learn

Motivation to Act

Means toLearn

1. Desire for Progress

2. Rationality

3. Inadequacy ofCurrent Solution to Solve Problem

4. QuestioningAssumptions

5. Desire to Understand Context

6. Restating Inadequate Solutions as New Problems

7.Examining New Problems in Context

8. Storying and Restorying Experience

Critical Reflection Narrative Refraction

Life-world of a Learner

Modernity Postmodernity Time

Implications for Elder Learning

Using narrative processes draws upon and integrates multiple elements that reinforce learning: context, emotion, thought, lived experience, and tacit knowledge of the subconscious.

Develop new education curricula around factors that influence longevity including benefits of learning, nutrition, exercise, healthcare and medical advances, and social engagement

ImImplications for Elder Learning

Implications for Elder Learning

Consider offering more intergenerational programs to re-emphasize cultural values that respect the elderly as a source of experience and wisdom

Implications for Elder Learning

What do you see as important?