FRESH YOUNG MINDS -Developing a “Yogic Brain”
(Life Long Learning & the importance of “Stretching the Brain”)
The old adage that “you are never being too old to learn” is well known and has rung true ever since educator’s and psychologists challenged the paradigm that “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
Many older employees and citizens desire a way to escape the predictable patterns of their lives as they enter the second half of their lives. They have grown tired of the routines of work, raising families, and desire to learn new skills and experience different cultures. Becoming a TEFL/TESOL trained English language teacher can be good not only for restarting one’s career and opportunities to travel, in fact, it can actually be good for one’s mental health and beneficial physiologically.
You may have enough memory left to recall the remake of the 1980’sTwighlight Zone Movie where in an aging elderly man (played by Scatman Cruther’s) has magical powers and is capable of making senior members young again if they promise to play (in this case a game of kick-the-can) and “wake up” with “fresh young minds,” in order to rediscover who they are and what they have learned, and place their life experience in a new context.
In modern educational theory, the concept of “never too old to learn” has rebranded and reinvented itself in terms of the catch phrase department away from that common euphemism. Most educators today strive to facilitate learning as a process rather than a product, and henceforth what in the parlance of our times has become known as “life-long” learning.
Life-long learning is founded upon the idea that inquiry based learning is indeed a process that should be cultivated during one’s youth, carried forth from the time young learners are capable of independent cognitive function to pursue critical thinking, all the way until our final demise. Additionally, it is now widely accepted that once we have developed this habit and sharpened it into a skill, as we age learning needs to continue and that the brain, like a working muscle must be exercised in order to keep our cognitive function toned and effectively sharpened to defer the so called "aging process."
Research has shown the as individuals get older, the importance of mental challenges and stimulation as well as learning about new topics may be key components toward combating the effects of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Recently, according to an article from the NY Times, “researchers have found even more positive news. The brain, as it traverses middle age, gets better at recognizing the central idea, the big picture. If kept in good shape, the brain can continue to build pathways that help its owner recognize patterns and, as a consequence, see significance and even solutions much faster than a young person can.”
The literature supports the idea of lifelong learning as viable for healthy adults and while the speed of learning may slow over time, the older learners make up for speed through their experience and knowledge base and are usually able to mentally process at a higher cognitive level with respect to such things as analysis, conceptualization, creativity, and judgment abilities. Overall, this means that the instructor needs to implement only slight and subtle modifications for an older learner in a course of study.
While most adult learners are not as fast at rote memorization and may not be interested in content driven courses that contain a lot of memorization, they appear to be very adept at contextually based relevant coursework that requires critical thinking. However it is more than just pumping new information into middle aged people’s minds. In fact the greatest impact for aging brains seems to be challenging their well-establish belief systems and old well trodden nuero-pathways of thinking.
Again according to an article from the education life section of the NY Times entitled; “How to Train the Aging Brain” educators say that, for adults, one way to nudge neurons in the right direction is to challenge the very assumptions they have worked so hard to accumulate while young. With a brain already full of well-connected pathways, adult learners should “jiggle their synapses a bit” by confronting thoughts that are contrary to their own, says Dr. Taylor, who is 66.
Teaching new facts should not be the focus of adult education, she says. Instead, continued brain development and a richer form of learning may require that you “bump up against people and ideas” that are different. In a history class, that might mean reading multiple viewpoints, and then prying open brain networks by reflecting on how what was learned has changed your view of the world.
“There’s a place for information,” Dr. Taylor says. “We need to know stuff. But we need to move beyond that and challenge our perception of the world. If you always hang around with those you agree with and read things that agree with what you already know, you’re not going to wrestle with your established brain connections.”
Such stretching is exactly what scientists say best keeps a brain in tune: get out of the comfort zone to push and nourish your brain. Do anything from learning a foreign language to taking a different route to work.
“As adults we have these well-trodden paths in our synapses,” Dr. Taylor says. “We have to crack the cognitive egg and scramble it up. And if you learn something this way, when you think of it again you’ll have an overlay of complexity you didn’t have before — and help your brain keep developing as well.”
Jack Mezirow, a professor emeritus at Columbia Teachers College, has proposed that adults learn best if presented with what he calls a “disorienting dilemma,” or something that “helps you critically reflect on the assumptions you’ve acquired.”
Dr. Mezirow developed this concept 30 years ago after he studied women who had gone back to school. The women took this bold step only after having many conversations that helped them “challenge their own ingrained perceptions of that time when women could not do what men could do.”
Such new discovery, Dr. Mezirow says, is the “essential thing in adult learning.”
“As adults we have all those brain pathways built up, and we need to look at our insights critically,” he says. “This is the best way for adults to learn. And if we do it, we can remain sharp.” Whatever methods or plans of action educator decides to take, in general, the more advanced certifications a TEFL or TESOL Teacher holds, the more opportunity they possess in terms of their marketability and increased number of employment options. For a limited time, Paradise TEFL Certification Program offers these advanced certifications such as TOEFL, IELTS, and TEYL at the SAME PRICE as the basic TEFL/TESOL certification!
The advanced course provides additional English Language teaching certifications and is offered in tandem with our site courses in and Chiang Mai Thailand, and Mexico as well as a special summer course in Portland, Oregon or as a complete series of online modules some with a virtual practice teaching option. In order to become a TEFL Trainer, you should have already completed a TEFL, TESOL or CELTA course first in order to be eligible and teaching experience is necessary. (Our Basic TEFL on-site program provides 2 to 3 weeks of hands on observed teaching practice to help our teachers to effectively develop their skills). All courses are fully accredited and you will receive a certificate of completion, which is internationally recognized and accepted when you graduate from the course. Many of those who already have experience as TEFL instructors are finding that becoming a certified TEFL trainer is another opportunity and feather in their cap in terms of meeting the demand of TEFL instructors (who are leaving their home countries and working abroad) by teaching others how to teach TEFL effectively.
Graduates with these additional certifications have the advantage of substantially increasing their marketability and employment status. Improve your chances of getting a good job with a higher level of pay by enrolling today!
