THE SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNGSTERS
The need of people to find the direction and regain the clarity about their path while bringing more balance into their Life might be one of the reasons why students majoring in psychology will be needed. Let me ask you three questions: how many of you are using the cellphone’s alarm to wake up in the morning? And how many of you spend some time lying in bed catching up missed messages, notifications, emails, possibly news? And last question: are you aware of the state of mind that this habit leaves you with…?
Has it ever happened to you, that you read something which you could not recall reading a few hours later? Or did you experience taking your cell phone to pay some bill, noticing some missed email. You opened it and reading it led you to several other things. After 20 minutes you put your cell phone down, and just then you noticed that you have not accomplished your original intention of paying a bill. Are we aware of what impact has the technology on our minds, habits, relationships, lives? And if we are aware of it, what do we do about it?
I am a big fan of technology in education and I am gladly using it enriching the instructions which lead to deeper understanding. However, I keep in mind that technology in the school is as a fire in Life – it is a good servant, but extremely bad master. Naturally we should use technology, but we should NOT be abused by it.
I have been working, teaching and training in several countries and school systems. I worked with youngsters as well as with adults. A few examples from one school in the Middle East which went completely digital could help us to see what can happen when technology abuses us. Students in grade nine were all given only iPads, which were used to access their digital books, to take notes and to build up the knowledge. However, no one taught them how to use it properly. Thus, reality was quite surprising – students were misled in understanding what the iPads are for and how they should be used to learn. Some of them did not take notes but took pictures of the board with the solutions or presentations without consciously processing and interacting with the information presented to create solid knowledge. Even when they used it to take notes without a smart-pen, it took them a longer time than using a regular pen, and more importantly they did not set up any structure in saving those files. Looking for the correct picture or piece of information later have either taken forever, or they were not able to locate the file again. In addition, they often used iPad in Grade 9 to solve problems from grade 3, for example basic division.
While living in Dubai, in 2014 I have attended one internal conference of the chain of the schools I worked with. The main topic was “Preparing digital natives for the 21st century learning”. After a couple of presentations, I wondered: hmm, this is interesting, almost 15 years of the century have passed, yet we are discussing how to prepare people for it. I strongly disagreed with many ideas shared there, primarily because I have seen it failing on daily basis in the classroom due to the lack of support and inappropriate time frame for the implementation. We are trying to prepare youngster for something that we alone have no slightest clue about. We have no idea what technology we will be required to use in next twenty, and less so in forty years’ time. Who was preparing us for the usage of smart phones two or three decades ago? What we need is a will to keep learning and the strong ability to adjust. At this moment we can see how AI is replacing humans in many jobs and doing them even better, which creates the space for people to find the alternatives to the meaning of their existence, more fulfilling, more satisfying. Yet, as far as we can see, AI cannot alternate humans in caring professions – healthcare or education. It can support them, but their feelings, emotions and human-to-human contact can’t be replaced yet. Will they ever?
I ask you another question: if you have had a chance to learn anything, what would you like to learn?
I would like to learn more about learning and how to learn faster, deeper, more effectively. I believe we need to start teaching “learning”, because we often teach WHAT to learn; sometimes even HOW to learn, but rarely we meet teachers who also teach WHY to learn the subject they are teaching. What we need are strong and solid foundations of logic, critical thinking with a desire to learn new things systematically. We need to support curiosity, creativity and development of emotional intelligence. The will and ability to adapt to new conditions was, is and will be useful skill in the up-coming decades as a rapid change seems now to be much faster than ever before. But learning process remains constant; that is why I believe we need to LEARN HOW TO LEARN – in a similar manner as we start to think about our own thinking. Meta-cognition and Emotional intelligence might be the most useful ones in the coming years.
If we stick to only one type of technology which we then heavily depend on, we do not support imagination and creative thinking development. We are risking that many of us end up confused like some of my students in the Middle East. They were trained to use a specific type of a calculator Casio fx-82. One time a colleague asked me if a student of his could do his missed quiz in my office while I was preparing for my next workshop. I have said I certainly do not mind. The student came in, sat down and started to work. Not long after he asked me: “Sir do you have a calculator? I forgot mine at home.” “Surely, I have,” I replied passing him my Texas Instrument calculator. He put it on the table observing it closely with bewilderment. Then he asked me: Sir, I do not know how to use this. I asked him, what function he wants to use? Some differentiation, integration or graphing? He replied: No, I just need to multiply 7 x 6…
This is what can happen to the students, if they have a habit of relying only on technology. And I believe we underestimate the harmful impact that overusing technology might have on the way how we think and feel. Not only do we develop dependence on the technology itself with the signs of addiction, but we seem to overlook the importance of emotional needs and human interaction.
As Douglas Rushkoff observes in his book Team Human, „Technology makes us feel and act less human, and thereby makes us see and treat others as less human too.“
I am not saying to exclude the technology from teaching. On the contrary, I advocate making it part of the teaching, but only where it can serve the purpose, while not forgetting to prioritize the developing of human. We need the right balance. Create the space where youngsters can nurture and develop deeper human-connections. Let the students share their ideas and what they feel, train them to express their opinions and feelings, train them to observe their emotions and provide the chance for them to get to know themselves, so they can understand what they want and who they are… That can’t be done via memos, emails or pictures being posted on WeChat; you can do it only by spending time together in a meaningful face to face activities and two-ways conversations.
You can’t expect teachers to do this, if they are not given the proper time, and if the team leaders are not setting the example. The atmosphere of no fear is crucial to the success of developing and supporting curious and open mind of the people with whom you work. If that is created at the beginning, you can start to build the relationships; only when we are trying to understand each other we develop TRUST. Then our heart opens and mind as well. And when your mind opens, you are brave enough to step outside of your comfort zone – and this is where the growth happens. Surely, you may ask how this can be achieved on the large scale. Yes, it is challenging; yes, it is difficult, but believe me, it is also possible. I see it happening on daily basis – with my students as well as trainee teachers and their students. However, it does take time. And that time needs to be provided, because there are no quick solutions. But it surely can be achieved in any classroom – history, math, art, psychology, biology… You need only one, but extremely important and key element: A TEACHER.
(RB, 5.11. 2019; Guangzhou, China)
- Rushkoff, D. (2019). Team Human. W W Norton & Co Inc. Softky, W. (2019).
How Human Collaboration Can Beat Screen Addiction. [online] Fair Observer. Available at: https://www.fairobserver.com/region/north_america/team-human-douglas-rushkoff-screen-addiction-tech-technology-news-44908/ [Accessed 23 Sep. 2019].