143: The Extended Mind with Annie Murphy Paul
We don\u2019t just think with our brains.\n\nWhat?!\n\nHow can that possibly be true?\n\nI struggled to understand it if myself for quite a while, until I read the fabulous English philosopher Andy Clark\u2019s description of what happens when someone writes, which essentially involves ideas flowing down the arm and hand, through the pen and ink, across the paper, up to your eyes, and back to your brain.\n\nThe ideas don\u2019t literally flow, of course, but the process of writing alters the process of thinking - which is why research has shown that processing traumatic memories through journaling about them is more useful just thinking about them - the act of writing about them changes our interpretation of them in a way that just thinking about them doesn\u2019t.\n\nThe challenge with school-based learning, of course, is that it\u2019s primarily concerned with the brain.\xa0 Our task is to remember facts and ideas so we can recount them when asked about them at a later time.\xa0 Children who fidget are told to sit still, when the research that Annie Murphy Paul cites in her new book The Extended Mind indicates that this instruction is entirely misplaced - fidgeting can be a way of managing excess energy, and movement can actually help us to remember things more effectively than we otherwise would.\n\nIn this episode we learn many of the different ways that we our brains interact with the outside world to learn in ways that we might never have considered up to now.\n\nI think of this kind of learning as Full-Bodied Learning, and long before I\u2019d read Annie\u2019s book I had actually developed an entire module of content for the Supporting Your Child\u2019s Learning Membership on exactly this topic.\xa0 In the module we extend the ideas in today\u2019s episode to support our children in using their full bodies to learn both in school and outside of school as well.\n\nYou do have to be a member to access that specific content, but you can get a taste for similar kinds of tools that you can use with your child in the free You Are Your Child\u2019s Best Teacher masterclass where you\u2019ll:\n\n \n
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- Learn how to use your child\u2019s interests as a jumping off point for deep, self-driven learning \n \t
- Show (to yourself and others!) that your child is engaged in complex, multi-faceted learning \n \t
- Reimagine what learning looks like (it can be exciting and fun, and not something you have to bribe your child to do!) \n \t
- Understand your values about learning so you can do activities that are aligned with those values \n \t
- Feel confident that you can effectively support your child\u2019s intrinsic love of learning - whether or not your child is in school. \n
\n\n\n \n\nSo whether you\u2019re homeschooling or not; whether you work outside the home or not, YOU really are the person who can best support your child\u2019s learning - mostly because you know them better than anyone else so you can help them much more effectively once you gain the skills to do that.\n\n\n\n\nIf you want to raise a child who has an intrinsic, life-long love of learning, \xa0sign up for the FREE You Are Your Child's Best Teacher masterclass. Get notified when doors reopen. Click the banner to learn more:\n\n\n \n\n\n\n \n\n \n\nLearning Membership enrollment just ended\n\nGet the resources, encouragement, and confidence you need to promote your child's innate love of learning while still having fun - whether they are already in school and you want to complement their education or if they are homeschooling. It's deeply aligned with your values as a parent, and you get to have fun while you're doing it! Get notified when doors reopen.\xa0Click the banner below to know more!\n\n \n\n<img class="alignnone wp-image-10558 size-full"...