91制片

Human connection at the core of preparing students to master the new basics in K-12 education

In his classic study on methods of group instruction and student tutoring, Benjamin Bloom demonstrated that building highly favorable conditions into the environments where children grow and learn will put many children on the path to realizing their fullest potential.

In his 1984 study, the educational psychologist found that through individual tutoring, students performing at the 50th percentile could improve by two standard deviations. But here鈥檚 the thing: The active ingredient generating the outcomes was not the content alone. It was the content and the connection, the nature of the relationship to the tutor.

In the decades since publication of 鈥淭he 2 Sigma Problem,鈥� Bloom鈥檚 research on the dynamic relationship between human connection and learning has been bolstered by numerous neurobiological findings: Li and Julian (2012), Cozolino (2013), Immordino-Yang and Gotlieb (2017) and Li and Gow (2020). Attunement, belief and belonging are not, the research shows, 鈥渘ice to haves.鈥� They are fire starters.

Brain Circuitry

In education, relationships often are referred to as the 鈥渟oft stuff.鈥� This is a big problem. Human connection is not just an interpersonal event. It is a biological event. This is because our brains are electrical structures, and the primary energy source for their development is human connection. Quite literally, connection sparks the electrical and chemical activity that builds new circuitry in the brain.

If we want to prepare students to learn the new basics, we have to understand where they are emotionally, cognitively and relationally. We need to know each of them. Knowing how to harness their energy, their agency, their curiosity and their drive to learn something new is what we should be aiming for. But our education system never has been designed to do this.

Instead, we designed a factory model that, in too many cases, bored kids, shamed them and rarely engaged them. This system left far too many children disinterested, demotivated and behind.

During the pandemic, many students found that life online could be more novel, interesting and instantly gratifying and less fraught than school. At the same time, the demands of the digital world 鈥� the ever-present nagging of the brain鈥檚 dopamine reward system 鈥� have left many young people feeling more alone than ever and bewildered as to why. They may think of themselves as more connected, but transaction is not connection.

And now we have artificial intelligence, a powerful tool competing for student attention 鈥� inserting itself in compelling ways into relationship and learning spaces. Who, some are asking, needs school? Well, when designed right, school can be exactly what they need for healing, learning and growth.

Personal Connections

Here is the biological truth. Humans are wired for healing, learning and growth. It is a dynamic process that often needs to be guided by a doctor, physical therapist, guidance counselor, teacher or coach. We need people to help us heal. We need people to help us learn. It can be hard work. Human connection gets the learning engine into gear.

This is how: The brain is an electrical organ with massive demands, using more than a quarter of the body鈥檚 energy. It cannot store oxygen or glucose. Both arrive only with steady blood flow. Humans can drive blood to their muscles by exercising, but to drive blood to the brain, we rely on the neurochemical cascade that connection to others sets in motion.

When we connect 鈥� through trust, touch or shared belief 鈥� our brains release chemicals that ignite growth. The hormones oxytocin and vasopressin quiet the stress system (the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis) and increase blood flow to the brain. The neurotransmitter dopamine fuels motivation and focus. The chemical serotonin stabilizes mood. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor and other growth factors drive neuroplasticity, the brain鈥檚 ability to rewire and learn.

In other words, human connection changes neural chemistry. Neural chemistry supplies energy. Energy drives neural growth and wiring, and wiring produces everything we are capable of being and doing. This is called Hebb鈥檚 law 鈥� neurons that fire together wire together 鈥� and as this happens, humans become able to acquire new and increasingly complex skills, whether it is reading, riding a bike, managing tasks, communicating effectively or building a robot.

The path from connection to possibility begins with the biological readiness to absorb something new. It鈥檚 a place where creativity can blossom because fear and embarrassment are absent. Feedback is welcome because there is trust. Human beings are drawn to it, like water when they are thirsty. Curiosity is a drive state. It鈥檚 a 鈥渘eed to know.鈥�

You can see this drive state at work every time a learner is motivated to practice because a teacher or coach believes in them and takes their questions and aspirations seriously. When that happens, they practice with greater discipline and effort. They gain fluency more quickly and then achieve mastery with the confidence to take on harder challenges.

This is the 20th-century Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky鈥檚 鈥渮one of proximal development鈥� in action. It鈥檚 that sweet spot where human interaction helps learners push up against what they thought they were capable of and break through to the next level.

Fueling Learning

When students are introduced to a subject that matters to them a lot by someone who matters to them a lot, there is no greater fuel for learning. It is the secret sauce of engagement, motivation and human development itself.

When it comes to teaching the new basics, the North Star is agency, curiosity and drive in each learner. Everything is designed with one thing in mind: to activate the biology of learning through human connection and then to amplify every student鈥檚 agency and energy to reveal what they are capable of.

Each adult in a student鈥檚 life carries the power to help that child surmount challenges and activate deep learning. In school settings, advisories, project-based learning and looping with teachers can help foster deep, trusting relationships and new ones. But the biology of learning doesn鈥檛 just happen in one-on-one interactions. It can happen in classrooms, communities, work settings 鈥� anywhere students feel they belong, are valued, known and cared about. There are learning environments where this is happening.

Take the Consortium, Internationals and Outward Bound schools in New York City. Its 51 schools and 4,000 classrooms are built around the student experience, inside and outside the classroom. More than 50 percent of their high school students have internships, experiences that students document and teachers assess for skills such as collaboration, communication and citizenship.

Students design relevant theme-based projects 鈥� say on the impacts of climate change 鈥� that help them build specific skills, such as critical thinking and data analysis.

As Alan Cheng, superintendent of the consortium schools, says: 鈥淐limate literacy is not only about science. It is also about argument, design, ethics and community voice. It can live in ELA through nonfiction and rhetoric. It can live in math through local data and modeling. It can live in social studies through policy scenarios and civic action.鈥�

In his organization鈥檚 classrooms, teachers are using technology to support human connection, not replace it. Crystal Yeung鈥檚 7th- and 8th-grade English language arts classes are one example. A Playtable AI app prompts her students to explain the reasoning behind their arguments. This gives Yeung more time to build one-on-one relationships and offer students the kinds of feedback that motivates them to improve their writing.

More Agency

In Anaheim, Calif., Michael Matsuda, superintendent of Anaheim Union High School District, introduced a vision for the district dubbed Unlimited You. It highlights offerings from gaming to athletics, STEM mentorship, performing arts, TED talks, college credit and career experiences. All opportunities are designed to develop skills, specifically collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creativity and compassion, along with technical skills and youth voice.

Grappling with absenteeism after the pandemic, the Anaheim district sought ways to engage students more effectively. As Matsuda told Getting Smart, 鈥淭hey need more agency in the system, more voice and more sense of belonging. We really work on teasing out youth voice, which leads to a purpose, leads to a major and leads to what they might want to do as a job.鈥�

The biology of learning begins with knowing students. Every year at Cold Springs Middle School in Reno, Nev., faculty conduct a teacher/student connection poster activity to determine which students are like pebbles lost in the torrent of school life. The goal is for teachers to ensure each stone gets turned over, seen and known for its own qualities.

At Center Cass School District 66 in Downers Grove, Ill., connection is seen by superintendent Andrew Wise and his leadership team, as he puts it, 鈥渁s a necessity for brain development.鈥� The district鈥檚 Advisory Culture and Environment program has students and faculty advisers touching base every Monday and Wednesday. Three times a year, student surveys surface whether each child has a trusted adult in the building. If not, staff members meet to find ways to connect with a child over a common interest, such as chess or video games.

Bloom and Vygotsky were both onto something well before fMRIs and other diagnostic tools uncovered the workings of the human brain to show us how learning happens. Bloom recognized the importance of the human relationship, and Vygotsky understood calibrated challenge. Today, we have biology and neuroscience to back them up, and it is telling us to put the learner engine, human connection, at the very center of human learning.

Pamela Cantor, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, is founder and CEO of The Human Potential L.A.B. in New York, N.Y.