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Socialization and the Brain. gcLi webinar By Ted Fish, Executive Director. Thought #1. The capacity to understand and collaborate effectively is not just an important skill Based on evolutionary evidence, this may be the fundamental attribute that makes us human and determines our success….
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Socialization and the Brain gcLi webinar By Ted Fish, Executive Director
Thought #1 • The capacity to understand and collaborate effectively is not just an important skill • Based on evolutionary evidence, this may be the fundamental attribute that makes us human and determines our success…
Homo sapiens are… • Weak • Small • Slow-moving • Awkward tree climber • Unable to fly • Clumsy in H2O • Poorly outfitted for Temp extremes
To answer: “because of our superior cerebral power” begs the question. What was the evolutionary driver?
What is required? • Understanding what another is thinking… • Understanding what they want… • Understanding how they might behave… • Understanding how they might react to what I am doing… …All this from physical cues, context, and their record of past behavior
Therefore… What we are calling Emotional or Social Intelligence and what many of us are injecting (fortunately) into our curricula— in some cases like a supplement, or secondary theme—is, in fact, the Original Human Intelligence. The First One. The Thing That Makes Us Most Human.
1st Question • What would happen if in teaching Math or any subject we thought not: how can I teach some leadership while I am teaching this subject? BUT • How can I teach my students to be better leaders and better humans while engaged in this discipline?
Thought #2 • No one thinks alone • From: Prof. Louis Cozolino: Society is the “social synapse” • We are all one big brain, and the individual connections we make with each other are like synapses between neurons • Thinking is a social process • Even the individual inventor gets his tools, research and awareness about a problem from others
So… • #1: How our brains got this way in the first place came from collaboration • #2: The way our brains continue to work is through constant, massive collaboration
Thought # 3 • The ability to be strategic and intentional about distributing the problems you care about across the right social networks may be the foundational skill of human success
Examples • Goleman (EI): The best managers at corporations weren’t the smartest; they possessed two things: really good networks and the ability to farm out problems to the right hands at the right times • You have a problem, say a need for a precise financial assessment, or to write a great ad, or to mollify an upset customer, who’s better off, the person who can do all these things well herself, or the one who knows experts and has cultivated the relationships, so the experts want to help? • How many tigers can you kill alone?
We are familiar with Distributive Leadership What happens if we talk about Distributive Thinking? (When I approach any problem, it is not just a problem for me; it is a problem that can be distributed across the networks, I have or can recruit…)
Implications for teaching • How good do students have to get at individual skills? How hard do we push them and to what end? • How can we help students get adept at identifying what others are really good at? • How can we help students get good at asking and recruiting the right people for assistance? • How can we help student build networks composed of diverse talents and perspectives?